The last day of a road trip can be a sad affair. You know that your adventure will be finally over and you try to pack in as many great activities and sights-to-see as possible. This day would be no different. It was moody, rainy and cold, but we vowed to make the best of it and not let meteorological events affect our dispositions. We traveled throughout northern Bavaria, from the great town of Regensburg which was once a Celtic village (Radisbona), later a Roman outpost (Ratisbon) and still later the seat of government for the Holy Roman Empire, to the famed city of Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber, a city still surrounded by intact medieval walls and towers and quite possibly guarding the best "Crime and Punishment" type museum in all of Europe (ie, not cheesy like many torture museums elsewhere!). Both cities are UNESCO World Heritage sites and are worth the visit if you're anywhere between Frankfurt and München (Munich).

Regensburg is not the kind of German city that gets a lot of foreign visitors, so if you want to see a typical German town with untouristy Roman, Gothic and Celtic (yes... Celts! They weren't just in the British Isles, you know?) history mixed in, then this is a great place to start.

Germany lost over 200,000 Jews to the Nazi regime which lasted for 12 years between 1933 and 1945. Many fled before the carnage began but many also remained hoping the bad times would "pass over".

The bad times didn't go away.

Synagogues were burned, Jews were deported or sent to concentration camps to starve, work to death or be executed. The Nazis spread the Holocaust to neighboring countries when Germany started WWII in 1939, invading Poland. When all was said and done it is believed 10 million Jews and those deemed "undesirable", including homosexuals, mentally disabled, and others, perished.

Above marks where a synagogue was burned down by the Nazis on Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht means, literally, "Night of Crystal" but figuratively it suggests the sound of shattered crystal objects and thousands of windows that the Nazi thugs broke on that November evening in 1938. Memorials to these events and victims are not uncommon but are often overlooked as German memorials tend to be very understated and somberly marked with dark stone.

Regensburg had a strong Jewish community since the 10th century and starting in 1945 many survivors of the Holocaust returned and vowed to rebuild. Recent excavations in the heart of Regensburg reveal where an old Gothic-era synagogue was located, thus adding to the excitment of this newly thriving community.

Castle Thurns-and-Taxis has been the home of one of the wealthiest families in Germany (and Europe for that matter) since 1738. The Thurn-and-Taxis family are famous throughout Europe for building castles, breweries and their almost monopolistic control of the postal systems in the 16th century. One of their members, Ruggiano de Tassis (Italian for Taxis) founded the Italian postal service. The Italians have the Medicis and my guess is the Thurn-and-Taxis family is the German equivelant.

A snippet from Wikipedia: The mail monopoly of Thurn and Taxis was central to the plot of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, which deals with a secret rival mail system W. A. S. T. E., developed by the fictional Trystero family.

Leaving the rain and drizzle of Regensburg behind, we drove several hours on the Autobahn to get to Rothenburg at a reasonable time.

Rothenburg-over-the-Tauber (-ob-der-Tauber as the Germans say) is, in some way, similar yet opposite of what Regensburg is. While both are UNESCO World Heritage sites, Regensburg is very un-touristy while Rothenburg revels in its mythos and quintessential Bavarian and German attractions that bring tourists by the hundreds of thousands every year. Summer is crazy from what I hear, with tourists from all over the world packing the Town Hall Square to sign up for walking tours of the walled city and hear about how the city was saved in 1631, during the Thirty Years War, when Burgermeister Nusch (City Mayor Nusch, representing then-Protestant Rothenburg) proved to the Imperial Count Tilly (representing the Catholic Holy Roman Empire) who was preparing to sack and burn the city, that he could drink a full tankard of wine in one gulp. Apparently it worked, because Rothenburg is still here today preserved in all of its glory. It sits above the Tauber River, along the Romantic Road, the old highway that led to Rome.

When I visited in early May, Rothenburg was very quiet, with only a view tour groups. My guess is that this is the best time to visit if you want to avoid the madness of Summer.

The town is completely surrounded by walls. If you wanted to, you could walk around the entire center of the city atop these 20 feet high walls. I walked around about half of the town in about an hour and a half.

Also, a little less known until you get there is that the town is mostly pedestrians only. So, except for a few areas along and near the walls, and the occasional horse-drawn carriage and official city vehicle, there are virtually no car noises anywhere, which adds to the feeling of what this town might have been like 1000 to 500 years ago.

As Rothenburg is famous for its walled-city, the area around Rothenburg is famous for its natural beauty.

Below the city is the river Tauber, and the village of Detwang established in 960.

While the city of Rothenburg and its environs were spared bombings during WWII, the only Romanesque building to survive the ages is the Peter and Paul Church, built in 968, in Detwang.

After these final shots, my mom and I packed it in and headed back home to Hannover. Whirlwind roadtrips aren't always the best way to really get to know a city. You don't learn where all of the great places to eat or people watch are. You can't take in a people's culture or a city's way of life. However, the roadtrip is a great way to scout out where you want to go again.

Problem is, I want to revisit all of the them!

I hope you've enjoyed my six days in Germany and the Czech Republic, and it is my desire that these tabblos and photos help motivate the viewer to go on his or her own roadtrip, whether it be to explore their own neighboring towns and regions, or embark on an adventure in some foreign land.

I wish you many safe travels!

-Jeff