Ronneburg

Ronneburg Castle dating back to the 1300s was our destination today. We invited Mark and Liz Rencher to join us. Before Covid, they had a Medieval Festival around the castle and a Falconry exhibit. 

Dang Covid!

After paying a small entrance fee, we were able to do a self-tour and see how life might have been so many years ago. 

When this toilet cabinet was completely closed, it might have had a lace covering on top with a vase of flowers to disguise it as a simple chest. It could be found in the living room or bedroom. This provided a person to take care of personal business without a lot of effort. 

One of the highlights was the 96-meters (315 feet) deep well. It was fascinating to observe how long it took for a bucket-full of water to get to the bottom. We paid 50 cents to turn on spot lights so we could watch our bucketful of water splash in the deep, deep well. "Do it again," was the phrase of the day. 

We felt like little kids filling a few more bucket before the lights went out.

The white dot in the middle of the photo is the water at the bottom of the well.

A video on YouTube will have to do since we can't upload our video. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oBvwJVEZoY

The bucket in the well could be lowered and retrieved by a person walking on this wheel next to the well. 

Door within a door, which is called a "manhole".

Liz and Joanne climbed to the top of the tower for some amazing views of the countryside.

The small deer that are found in Germany are Roe Deer and their small horns have been collected and mounted for centuries.

Rothenburg 3.0

Dave spoiled me as this was our first hotel stay since last October. This was a delightful hotel with old world charm.  On this adventure we were joined by Steve and Anita Hicken.

The sitting area just outside our room felt so grand and welcoming.

There are numerous kinds of bratwurst in Germany and we found a different kind today. 

We ended up giving one away and Joanne and I shared one.... they were HUGE!

We took in another night watchman tour of the city that was a lot of fun.

These stork nests have been empty in prior visits but today we lucked out and saw a mama stork with her baby. Photo credit: John Richards

This iconic junction is famous and featured throughout this city on souvenirs and art.  

We had to get our picture taken there one more time.

We walked along portions of the wall that protected this city for centuries.

The Hickens serve in the Germany Frankfurt mission and stayed in Germany with us after the evacuation of most other senior missionaries back in March of 2020.

We went to a museum devoted to "Justice" which was really an exhibition of how many ways people could be shamed, humiliated, and tortured back in the Middle Ages.  Joanne loves to pose in the stocks whenever we come upon one and I stood by her for moral support.

This one was called the "Iron Maiden", a form of solitary confinement.

Thumb screws of different designs and mouthpieces to make it hard for people to scream while being tortured. Sick and wrong!!

This "neck violin" designed to humiliate and cause pain for the wearer.  

The top hole is for the neck and the other two holes are for a person's hands.

There is little to add when it comes to these "Shame Masks."

It is sad and shocking that people in authority thought these punishments would bring about social change.

This heavy stone was carried around by the unlucky "criminal" who might only guilty of missing church or not performing their duties properly.  The stone was attached around the neck of the offender.

We reached our fill of Middle Ages punishment methods pretty quickly and needed to recoup with some good ice cream.

Wertheim

 This week we decided to check out Wertheim Village, which has upscale outlet stores. 

From the highway, you see this upside down house, which is really a café. 

Once we got to the outlet mall, the first thing we noticed was the busy parking lot and the chairs and tables were ready for customers. The restrictions had lifted, but we had to get a Covid test before we could eat in the restaurant. The stores didn't ask for it, which was quite a surprise.

Our first sit-down meal "inside" a restaurant in over nine months. It was such a treat.

It may seem like just an ordinary shot of people eating, BUT it was a BIG deal that 

people were able to sit down and eat their meal at a table.  Then took off to investigate a nearby castle.

We enjoyed watching some folks in period costume taking a break as we enjoyed our apple strudel. 

   

Shauna and John are fun traveling companions.