Rothenburg is an outdoor museum first and an activity destination second. The bulk of what makes a visit memorable is simply being inside the walls — walking the ramparts, exploring the crooked lanes, standing in the Marktplatz where the Rathaus tower rises over a square that has looked much the same since the fifteenth century. But there is enough to fill a full day and most of a second.
The medieval walls circuit is the single most rewarding thing you can do here and takes about an hour at a comfortable pace. Inside the old town, St Jakob's Church holds Tilman Riemenschneider's Holy Blood Altar — one of the finest pieces of late-Gothic carving in Germany. The Rathaus tower (different from the church) gives the best panoramic view over the red-tiled roofscape and out across the Tauber valley. The Kriminalmuseum on Burggasse fills three floors with medieval torture devices, shame masks, and the legal history of punishment in Europe — genuinely fascinating and strange. The Night Watchman's Tour, departing from the Market Square every night at 8pm, is one of the best guided walking tours in Germany: the guide dresses in medieval costume and is both historically serious and very funny.