Once we arrived, we checked into our cozy hotel.....what a view we had!
We took a tour of the German Christmas Museum. We learned a lot about the history of Christmas. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures, but we saw a lot of Christmas artifacts! Here are a few of the interesting facts we learned:
- Christmas trees had gold apples as decorations to symbolize the tree of life with Adam and Eve. They later were reduced to the simple form of a ball (ornament).
- Mini trees made of wire with green paper or feathers dyed green were sent to German soldiers on the front line of the First World War.
- The appearance of Father Christmas was decisively influenced by Moritz von Schwind's drawing of "Mr. Winter" from the "Marriage of Figaro" cycle in 1825.
At dusk, we took the Night Watchman Tour. A costumed man shared the history of Rothenburg with us while walking us around the city. We learned that some of the descendants of people who lived in the city several hundred years ago still live in the same houses they lived in!
The next day we went to the Crime Museum. We learned all about life in medieval times, including crimes and punishment. People were punished for all types of crime: theft, adultery, witchcraft.....even baking bad bread. That's right, because bread was such an important food back then, the baker would be tortured for making the bread too small by being repeatedly dunked in the river!
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| Shame Flute: Worn around the neck by musicians who played bad music |
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| Shame Mask: Worn by gossipers who had big ears and big mouths |
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| Medieval Drunk Tank: Worn by the local drunks after a night of partying |
Beautiful!
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