Roofs

In almost any city, I could stand at the top of a tower for hours on end, looking at all the roofs with their different patterns. Rothenburg is no different. Patches of new and old tiles, beams slowing bending under the weight of centuries of snow and sun. On a fine Sunday morning, I climbed the Rathaus (town hall) Tower, to enjoy the view. The stairs up turned into a glorified ladder by the end, and the platform was narrow, with no room to pass other viewseekers, but it was worth it all.

Later, I went to the Medieval Crime Museum, because so many people had said it was good (plus it was raining, so I needed something inside). It was... ok. The risk of telling a historian that a museum is really good, is that then you let a historian loose in that museum. It had some very interesting pieces, but the interpretation was poor, especially in the punishments section. A lot of stocks and bridles, and their word would suggest that each of them was in use constantly. I am not an expert on medieval punishments, but I would hesitate to believe that - some were elaborately decorated, and I wonder if they were either performance or deterrence pieces. Their display of a chastity belt directly contradicted the one in another of the town's museums, which had an entire display about the myths around the object's uses (with a truly excellent translation into English that included the word 'strumpet'). My final thought about it was that there was an irony in using a former monastery to house displays of torture and punishment. But it was an interesting enough way to spend the afternoon, and ended with me finally finding a cafe that understands that a museum cup of tea needs to be cheap and strong, to combat all the culture.