Nights 11 & 12: Ansbach and Rothenburg

From Oberau I traveled north back to Munich and on to Nürnberg and Ansbach. There isn't anything too terribly interesting about Ansbach - it's got a nice old town center with a baroque castle and gardens, a big US military base, and a sweet mystery about a boy named Kaspar Hauser who randomly appeared in the mid 1830s with a limited vocabulary claiming that he'd grown up in a jail cell without human contact. Lots of mysterious things happened to him and he ended up being murdered (possibly by himself) in the castle gardens. There's also suspicion that he may have been of royal blood. Wikipedia him if you're in need of some procrastination!


I didn't know any of these neat facts before my arrival in Ansbach, but was still very excited for this visit in particular because my hosts there and I happen to share the exact same lastname. I was thrilled to see it listed in the Servas host list and made sure to contact them. Luckily it worked out. It was so weird to see my name on the mailbox and wireless network and hear other people use it casually when they picked up the phone. Weird, but AWESOME!

That evening, Annette made homemade Spaetzle baked with cheese, Wolfgang's favorite dish. (Spaetzle, Jesse!) It was wonderful. I am still full. We talked a fair bit that evening and I learned about their love for Egypt, where they've visited pretty much every year for over ten years now. They're home was filled with cool Egyptian things.

By the way, I was glad to see that this Wolfgang also had interesting hair, though better kept than the other Wolfgang's I'd met. He was pretty quiet at first, but soon warmed up to me. Annette warned me that she had the potential of speaking too quickly and that I should tell her to slow down if I needed. She had a huge, wonderful giggle that shook her whole body. I could tell that they both loved each other immensely and that they were very happy together.


After lots of laughing and getting-to-know-you time, I went to bed on a cot in the long, skinny office that had both a PC and laptop. It reminded me very much of Dad's office in Maine, though better organized. : )

They both had to work early the next morning, but loaned me a house key and city map so I could go exploring on my own. I was surprised to see when I woke up that Annette had spread out a lovely breakfast buffet on the table for me. 'Twas sweet. There was a bus that went from right outside their apartment to downtown, but it came infrequently and the sun was shining, so I decided to walk.


There was yet again new architecture that I hadn't seen before, which was neat. They also had a shiny J.S. Bach square, though I don't know if he really had anything to do with the town except for have his name be part of it. The only thing the internets taught me on the matter was that Ansbach has a Bach celebration week every year.


I wandered around the Altstadt for a while and picnicked in the castle's baroque gardens as snow spit down on me from the gray sky. The castle itself was under repair, much like every other cool old building I've tried to visit. Unlike Kaspar Hauser, I was happy not to be stabbed mysteriously as I wandered these gardens.

I wandered back to the apartment in the early afternoon to warm up a bit before Annette and Wolfgang got home, as we had big exciting plans to explore the really medieval city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber that afternoon. I was planning on taking the bus over there that day, but my charming hosts had volunteered to show me around it themselves, for which I was very grateful. Thus when they got home, we all hopped into the car and drove through 30km of lovely, sunny countryside until reaching our destination. I was excited to see it, as one of my guidebooks had raved about it and said it was the best-preserved of Germany's fairytale villages. Wikipedia told me upon later research that Hitler had proclaimed Rothenburg "the most German of all German towns" and that the Nazis had organized day trips for people all over the country to visit it. The residents appreciated the compliment and were very open to the tourism. Sadly, this also meant that the town became a target for the Allied Forces. There was some damage from the bombing, a good chunk of the city wall, for example, but most everything was able to be restored.


It was indeed very pretty, particularly in the late afternoon light. We wandered around for a while and they showed me their favorite places. This wine store has grapes made out of bottles!


In good medieval fashion, there were lots of towers, fachwerk architecture, and tiny little alleyways. It's also one of the last towns that still has the city wall completely encircling it.

Look how cute they are!

I was surprised to notice the baked good being sold in pretty much every store - Schneeball (snowball). They're strips of dough that are fried and rolled into balls. They're filled with and then dipped in all sorts of yummy things. I'd first seen them at a Xmas market with Sarah late one night in Hamburg. Annette asked me if I'd like to try one, and I treated us all to them instead. I always try to treat my hosts to little things like this, or to give them something small in return. It's the least I could do!

Imagine my excitement when I learned we could walk around inside the medieval city wall surrounding the city! I loved peeking over all the pointy red rooftops that helped give the town its name. Apparently it's against the town rules to have a satellite dish on your roof because it would ruin the town aesthetic. Wolfgang and Annette and I had a fun time finding where all the residents had hidden their dishes to avoid finger pointing.

We headed home when we got too cold and enjoyed our various flavors of Schneeball (I had pistachio marzipan and it tasted much fresher than Sarah's from the Xmas market) with Egyptian tea and talked about Germanness. They, too, had strong regional sentiments, but spoke most about feeling more European than anything else. Later we ate a hot chili-like Egyptian bean dish (Wolfgang's second favorite meal) with Turkish bread and local wine. Then they had to finish packing their things and we said goodbye, as they were leaving at the crack o' dawn the next morning to visit friends in Bonn. It was another sad goodbye, for both of us. They were too sweet and told me they'd loved having me and hoped that I would have time to visit again. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we were actually related, because the family loveliness was definitely there.