The Romantic Road II

Tuesday 07 June


Left lovely Rothenburg, and headed to our campsite on the River Lech, outside Augsburg. This is a great campsite, and we explored the neighboring village Mühlhausen that afternoon.


Wednesday 08 June


Up early to catch the bus for the 10 minute ride into the centre of Augsburg.  Another picture book city on the Romantic Road. 


Augsburg is a great mix of the old and the new - all the brand names in the new shops, alongside (sometimes within) very old buildings.  It is Bavaria's 3rd largest city after Munich and Nürnberg, and dates to 15 years BC.

Visited the local Catholic Cathedral, Dom St Maria, which was built in the 9th Century.  The Cathedral, like many houses throughout our travels in Germany so far, had an inscription in chalk above the entrance door of "20*C+M+B+11".  Thinking this may be to ward off E.coli, we goggled it to find the real meaning - you should too! 

Not to be out done, the Protestants built a Basilica down the road to honour Sts Ulrich and Afra.  St Afra was martyred in AD304 defending the city.  Bishop Ulrich helped stop the Hungarian Army at the city gates in the 10th century in the battle of the Lech River. 

The city also honors the Fugger Family, who built housing for destitute Catholics charging the equivalent of only 1 euro per year.  You had to fall on hard times by no fault of your own, and pray to the family every day in order to qualify!  The entrance to the original Fuggerei House is shown here.




Visited the local fresh produce markets for lunch. Like all towns so far, there was heaps of fresh fruit and veges, meats, seafood and flowers, and the prices are all very reasonable. 


Tried coffee and hot Chocolate at Pow Wow, Augsburg take on Starbucks... the result was the same.

Found the secluded entrance to the Perlachturm, a tower near the Rathaus, and climbed the 250 steps to the bell tower, for a magnificent view of the city, and just in time for the 3pm tolling of the bells.  Luckily the attendant warned us to literally put our fingers in our ears or risk bursting our ear drums!  


That was it for Augsburg, caught the bus back to our camp, for a yummy Turkey Steak dinner, a la Sylv.  It seems Turkey is the Chicken of Germany.




Thursday 09 June

Today we drove to Hopfen am See, a small village on the Hopfensee Lake, near Fussen, in the shadow of the Bavarian Alps.  This is by far the flashest park so far.  Wonderful 5 star facilities - heated indoor pool, Turkish bath house, Beauty Spa, heated tiles in the showers, lovely restaurant and deli.  The weather however was overcast and very cold, so we headed off to buy a heater for the campervan.   Then did the 7km walk around the lake anyway to warm up.


Friday 10 June


Today we are off to see the Disney Castle.  Waiting for the bus to the next village, we broke every parents rule, and accepted a lift from a stranger!  Some nice local man saw us waiting, and offered to take us to Fussen.  We saved a bus fare, and survived, but like most German drivers, this guy thought he was Michael Schumacher.  Then caught the bus to the Castles, where we signed up for the Kings Tour - both Castles.


The first is mum & dads castle - Hohenschwangau Castle - where little Prince Ludwig grew up with his younger brother Otto.  This is where Prussian blood was introduced to the German Royal family, with bad results at the end of the day.  Both boys were troubled with mental issues, Otto locked away to draw crazy castles, Ludwig let loose to build them.


The tours were managed with great German efficiency with electronic queuing and precision entry to both castles.  But you have to be fit to walk between them, or you can take a horse drawn carriage or a bus.


Ludwig was the Michael Jackson of his day, and dreamed of a "Neverland" of his own.  Once he became King, he planned to build 6 fantastical castles, but only built 3, only 1 completely (Linderhof Palace).  Today we got to see Neuschwanstein, so fantastic that it inspired Walt Disney!

This castle was so surreal that aspects were used to prove his insanity, as cause for his removal as king by the parliament in 1886, and mysterious drowning the very next day.  Ludwig did not like official business, preferring a solidarity life, were he could live out his fantasies. For example, he built a room to resemble a cave, with secret doors, which we walked through.  The dining room was built for one.  But he had vision too.  An automatic flushing toilet! Unfortunately only 16 rooms were completed before he died, which were open to the public soon after.  But he did not seem to have an ego.  There are no images of or references to the King in the Castle, but numerous images and sculptures of his favorite animal, the Swan.  Neuschwanstein roughly means New Swan Stone.


As a change of pace, we came upon a German Bucks party on the way out, where the groom to be was being mercilessly striped of his body hairs in public view.  


Back on the bus to Fussen, for an afternoon of walking around this nice town, before we really tested our legs, for a 5km walk back home.


Saturday 11 June


Cold and wet today.  Wearing thermals and multiple jumpers/coats in the middle of summer. The good news is the Sprouts did it!  We can eat tomato and cucumber without further guilt.


But now news reaches us that IKEA stores are being attacked.  Is nothing safe?


More Photos     Here.


Next...

• Munich
• Salzburg
• Vienna

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