Rothenburg and the Romantic Road

From clattering battlements to hushed lanes, 80 km west of Nuremberg lies Rothenburg ob der Tauber, whose street grid survived the Thirty Years’ War and was carefully restored in the 19th century. The Plönlein isn’t a square at all but a photogenic kink between Siebersturm and Kobolzeller Tor; the covered ramparts can be walked in segments, each tower labeled, many beams bearing post‑1950 donor plaques. On Marktplatz, the Ratstrinkstube clock reenacts the Meistertrunk legend at 11:00, noon, 1, 2 and 3 pm.

Your day starts with hotel pick‑up in Nuremberg by a Mercedes and a dedicated driver; the car is at your disposal, the timing flexible, side roads available when it makes sense. We stop to taste and to see: Schneeballen at Diller, the Röderturm lookout, then back via Dinkelsbühl (35 km southwest) or across Franconian vineyards around Iphofen and Dettelbach for a silvaner on a terrace. While you tour, he waits; when you sample wine, he drives. Much of the route shadows the Romantic Road, mapped in 1950 to string together art towns from Würzburg to Füssen.