This morning we had one stop to make on our way out of Rothenburg – the Crime and Punishment Museum. Ricky (Steves of course!) gave it two triangles (of three) so we knew it was worth the time. After a lovely breakfast at Gastehaus Rothenburg, we moved the car (yep, parking bans are here too!) and made our way back to the center of town. We did a little shopping as we waited for the museum to open, then descended on medieval justice. 

     The museum is well done and super interesting. We learned that torture wasn’t necessarily punishment – it was primarily initial justice after an accusation to elicit a confession. Wow! We saw lots of devices, masks, and learned a ton about how crazy these peeps were back in the day!

Then we got back on the road to Bacharach, a little town on the Rhine River. What a fabulous place! The town itself is reminiscent of Rothenburg in that it’s very medieval but it has its own life. First of all, we are now in wine country – Geneva on the Lake, eat your heart out! We took the Rick Steves walking tour like always and got to see a big chunk of the tiny town, complete with a hike up into the hilly vineyards for a fabulous view of the town. What a beautiful place! There are slate cliffs, vineyards creeping down the slopes, churches both in service and ruined…all beautiful and unique to the region.

       We are still somewhat off of German food so we went for pizza and pasta in town. Shane and I split gnocchi pesto and a pizza; Emily and Chris had spaghetti bolognese. The nightly quest for ice cream was almost foiled when all of the shops were closed before 7:00pm, but we found a restaurant willing to give us dessert to go so all was well!

We rounded out our time in the town at one of the local wineries before we headed back to our balcony for some relaxation. Tomorrow is a big day on the Rhine!