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.