Millions, if not billions of people visit Rothenburg every year. And rightfully so, it’s a beautiful town.

But most tourists don’t take the time to venture a little bit outside of the impressive city walls. In fact, most visitors don’t take any time at all, running around for a few rushed hours, before they move on to Paris or Venice. I don’t know why Americans and Japanese are always in such a rush, as if we were living in the grimmest period of the Industrial Revolution and people only had two weeks of holiday per year.

That’s a shame, because in close proximity to Rothenburg, there are some wonderful walks. Especially along the river Tauber. For example, just a few minutes away (yes, I am one of the “it’s just a few minutes” guys when walking/hiking/giving directions), there is Wildbad Rothenburg.

It started as a spa/bathhouse, but I don’t want to get into its history since the 15th century. That would just leave American and Japanese tourists even more envious, because their countries weren’t even discovered by then. It got its current shape around 1900, when it was expanded into a sanatorium for damaged knee joints.

And that’s pretty much how it looks like today. Except that it is now hidden from plain sight, because all the trees have grown up.

It looks like a lost place, but in reality there is a hotel, restaurant and so on now.

Too bad that it’s no longer a sanatorium. I wouldn’t mind hitting my toe against the table and applying for two weeks of rehabilitation.