Patti World

Day 6: Brugmans, on a pilgrimage

We didn’t know until today that we are actually on a pilgrimage through Germany.

Today was the Church of St. James in Rothenberg, a popular pilgrim stop. There is a relic in the cross in the altar behind the organ. It took us two trips to find it. Yesterday, we started our pilgrimage by touring the Theatine Church in Munich, known for ages as a popular stop for pilgrims. So there you go. We are officially pilgrims on a pilgrimage.

Church of St. James (St. Jacobs Kirche)
Tilman Riemenschneider, the Michelangelo of German woodcarvers, carved this from 1499 to 1504 to hold a precious rock-crystal capsule

At St. Jacobs Kirche—a pilgrimage site— there is a relic in the altar of the holy blood, behind the pipe organ at the back of the church. It took us two tries to find it high in the cross like a cabochon stone. Then we read about the massacre of Jews here in Medieval times by one man because of a minor incident, and no one stopped him. There are memory stones in the palace walkway and a small Jewish cemetery inside one of the city’s six gates. We placed stones on the graves we saw.

These few plaques are monuments to those killed.
We climbed all the way to the top of the plaza tower. Even this photo makes me a little dizzy, but you can see a long, long way!

Rothenburg is such a fairy tale kingdom!
Here is a particularly pretty part of the wall.
This is another part of the city wall where we saw a Riesenrad/ferris wheel, which makes me laugh because Riesenrad was one of my early useless German words. Not so useless after all.
There are about 10 rooms like this. It just goes on and on and on…to the terror of some!

We did a thorough tour of the most famous Christmas store in all of Europe, the Kathe Wohlfahrt shop. Oh my goodness, it was a rabbit warren of hallways, bulging with handmade items, leading deeper down until you get to a room with a giant Christmas tree! One poor man stopped a worker and asked, “I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but how do you get out of here?” I thought that was so funny, stuck in Christmas! And the only way out was to keep going through the warren until you found the cash register. It’s such a big attraction that sometimes they charge admission— but not for us today.

Next stop was for ice cream and a short break, a gorgeous dinner of Sauerbraten and consommé, then to the big show— the Nightwatchman’s Tour. This is one of the last tours given by Hans Georg Baumgartner, the original night watchman of Rothenberg, of modern times. (This is his 35th and last year.)

We waited on the city steps, and there he came in a long black cloak and black cap, carrying a halberd. One of the first things he told us was what he could do with each part of the Halberd. (I think now, we’ll skip the Crime and Torture Museum) This man was funny in his very droll German way. Here is his spiel, notes taken on the fly:

(Said, in a very droll tone) The Nightwatchman was the third-lowest profession in medieval times. The lowest profession was hangman; the second lowest profession was gravedigger— they probably drank together after, you know what…

Ha ha. And after this nighttime tour, the bells rang. The only thing left to do was pray, after which we slept very well. Thank you!