Rothenberg ob der Tauber

Horses!

Walking the ramparts!

an opening from which to shoot arrows from the ramparts.  these walls are preserved, but originally from the 13th century.

view from the ramparts

walking the ramparts.  you can walk around the entire border of the old town, but we only did  about 1/4 of it.

more views :)

tower at the entrance

front entrance

John.  waiting for lunch.  looking kinda pissy.  he was hungry.

St. Jacob's Cathedral

candles at the cathedral.  (prayers?  I'm not very religious.  I think if I were, this whole area of Bavaria would be vastly meaningful to me.  It has centuries of religious history, not to mention art.)

religious or not, this is still gorgeous.

tale has it that in this alter is a stone with 3 drops of Christ's blood.  we didn't pay the 2 euro to go in any further, so these are hyper zoomed shots.  yay for digital zoom!

Rathaus

more rathaus

walking a very busy street to the criminal museum

looking downhill

shame masks.  the one on the left was worn by oversexed men.  the one on the far right was worn by gossipy women.  the one in the middle was worn for acting like a pig

chastity belts.  Ick.  the one on the right looks grody.  These were used if a man didn't trust his wife, or if he was going away for a period of time, or if it was known that a woman was to travel through an area where rapes were known to happen.  I'm happy I live in modern times.

a shame flute!  this had to be worn in the town center for playing music badly!

bridal wear.  the one on the right was worn by proper, well behaved women.  the one on the left..the straw headress....notsomuch.  

a witch catcher!  ouch!

Iron Maiden.  Again.  ouch.

a chest to lock your riches away.  quite complicated.

a dunker as punishment for bakers who baked bread too light or too heavy.

We also did see examples of the rack, thumb screws, leg screws, neck violins (usually reserved for quarrelsome women), drunk tanks, and a mechanism with which you were hung by your arms which were tied behind your back, and stones attached to your legs.  Not a pleasant punishment...and was usually a slow way to die.
Ah, it's all fun and games in Rothenberg!  No, really, next time, I'm shopping.

Here is also a google image I found of schneeballen.  They are huge.  Share one!