On the Romantic Road

Tuesday 31 May

Picked up our motor home this afternoon at around 3pm. It was brand new which is great, but while the build of the vehicle itself is excellent, the provisions and extras were lacking compared to our recent experience in NZ. No TV or Microwave for example. All the local TV is in German anyway, so unless we buy a Satellite System, we may be without TV for a while.

Departed Frankfurt and headed to our first Camping Platz - Camping Main-Spessart-Park near Marktheidenfeld, about 100 km to the west, crossing over into the State of Bavaria. Lucky not to arrive between 1pm-3pm when the gates are closed at most campingplatz, it's rest period for reception staff and “quiet time” for park residents. 

Compared to the NZ parks, this first one has no common room, so no communal cooking facilities or TV lounge. It does have a laundry so Sylv can satisfy her need to wash. There is also a restaurant and small grocery store where you can order fresh bread for collection the next morning at 8am (tried a baguette, yum). Some heavy rain overnight with much Chinese water torture and not much sleep.

Wednesday 01 June

Suddenly the weather has turned bloody freezing, like thermal under clothes freezing, and with drizzling rain. We took it slow and spent the morning unpacking our bags and getting the motor home into order. Thankfully it cleared up a little in the afternoon so we could walk down to the local village and explore. Lots of gorgeous houses with cottage gardens (everyone seems to love red roses). We were able to shop at the Edeka Supermarket, which was very good, as we had to stock up for tomorrow – a public holiday here in Germany. Bill is very happy with the low prices for beer and wine over here.

Thursday 02 June (public holiday)

Awoke to a lovely day, thank goodness. Went for a small hike to explore the next village along the river, Marktheidenfeld, about 5km away, and luckily found a few cafes open. Lunch by the river watching the barges carry their cargo (including the driver's car and private boat).

 Later we watched in fascination a few large vessels navigating the lock on the river just down from our camping ground, including 3 guys in canoes who had to operate their own control gates. 

Lots of locals out on push bikes today enjoying the much warmer weather and the public holiday. Almost everyone arriving at the camping ground has bicycles on racks.

We ate dinner outside, getting sun tans at 8pm as the sun only just starts going down at 8:30pm. Imagine when we head north.

Friday 03 June

On the way to our next stop at Ochsenfurt, about 20km outside Wurzburg, we stopped at IKEA to stock up on missing items. IKEAs around the world are the same – once in you're trapped and there's only one exit. At our second park of the trip we were befriended by some chatty young German's set up across the way from us, and also an Aussie couple travelling a similar route to us.

Wurzburg is at one end of the Romantic Road. This roughly follows a road taken by the Romans in earlier times from Wurzburg to the Alps, and it's the basis for our first travels in Germany.

Saturday 04 June

Caught the regional bus into Wurzburg, about 30 minutes away, and visited the magnificent Residence and Court Gardens. No photos permitted inside so here's a link. 

This Versailles inspired building was so filled with mind blowing frescos, tapestries, parquetry, amazing marble and furniture we could have spent the day starring in awe. 

But we had other attractions to visit namely the Dom St Kilian, a 12^th century Romanesque cathedral (spectacular), and the Alte Mainbrucke (bridge) with life size statues of saints on the way to a steep climb to the Fortress Marienberg, a huge castle/fortress overlooking Wurzburg.  

Sunday 05 June

Decided to depart a day early and proceed down the Romantic Road to see Rothenburg. Bill decided to avoid the main highway and look at the country side, so asked the faithful TomTom GPS to pick an alternative route using secondary roads. Thankfully no one was coming the other way, and we did not encounter any low village gates, as this really was a drive down narrow country lanes.

Arrived at our Camp Idyll at Detwang and headed off for the 30 minute walk into town for lunch.  Rothenburg is one of the main tourist attractions on the Romantic Road, as it is one of the few towns to have remained largely intact and original surviving many wars since the middle ages. The entire town wall and all major buildings are original. On one occasion in 1631, the Catholic General Tilly threatened to plunder and destroy the town, but on a whim, promised to spare the town if any councillor managed to empty an enormous tankard containing 3 ¼ litres of wine in one draught. The Mayor Nusch took up the challenge, succeeded, and saved the town. They still celebrate this every year and the actual tankard is on display in the Town Hall.  So Bill was forced to have a beer in his honour too.

After walking around the town and a visit to the 4 floors of the amazing Christmas shop, as a complete change of pace we then checked out the Medieval Crime Museum, which had a display of lots of torture implements, like the witches chair opposite.  If the chair didn't hurt, then you were not a witch!

We thought this was probably the best camping-platz of the trip so far, until the church bells 100m away, keep ringing out the Hour and quarter Hour. Usually these operate during the day, and stop around 8pm. This one just kept going, and to our dismay, actually keep ringing right through the night. Can't understand why, but it made for a very bad sleep. The challenges of camping.

Monday 06 June

News in today that our apartment has been rented out successfully, so that's good. Taking it easy this morning after a bad nights sleep. Will head back into Rothenburg this afternoon to walk around the top of the town wall.

Well that was our first week on the road. Pretty good really as we had a few challenges to over come, and everything was new. Hopefully we will continue to settle in as we go, and will not stay too close to 24hr church towers again.

A special thought today for our friend Kris whose birthday it would have been, and she would have gone mad in the Christmas shop. 

There are more photos here.

Coming up next week:

• Augsburg
• King Ludwig's Castles
• Munich
• then onto Austria

Auf Wiedersan