This is a longer post than usual as the Romantic Straße (or Romantic Road in English) was one of the first destinations we decided on in the planning stages for our 6 month trip and we have loved it! It runs 350km through about 28 towns in the southern German provinces of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. We originally intended to do the whole route but plans can change when you have a motorhome. After visiting Lake Constance we didn‘t want to travel any further south so we headed east and joined the route half way up at Landsberg am Lech, the first of eight towns we visited. It’s certainly a beautiful part of the country, the architecture is lovely and very colourful, the cathedrals are stunning and the people are friendly. We love the German weiss beer (wheat beer) and a crate load is now in“the cellar” in the motorhome🍻😀
Of the eight towns we visited en route, Rothenburg is also well worth a mention, which is just stunning and if you love Christmas, you’ll love it there🎅 It’s full of gorgeous if expensive Christmas shops, with most decorations being hand made. Just to make it even better, we turned up in the middle of the food and wine festival! 🍷
While we were in Rothenburg we visited the medieval crime museum, it makes you feel very relieved to have been born in today’s world instead! Women and children did not escape punishment either... the neck violin was used for misbehaving women, head through the biggest hole and arms through the other two! School punishments included head knuckling, ear twisting, kneeling on cherry stones or pieces of wood and wearing a board around your neck with a painted ass on it. Bet some modern day teachers rue the day times changed!!
We don't often do touristy stuff but an evening tour of the town with the “night watchman” came highly recommended, he’s a great character and keep us well entertained for an hour.
Another high on the Romantic Straße was cycling from our base in Bad Mergentheim through the Tauber valley. The standard of the cycle paths is first class and the scenery was beautiful... we were inspired to cover 28 miles in a day and when we heard a German band echoing down the valley, we followed it to the source and gate crashed amother wedding! (see earlier post “Au revoir la France” )...this is becoming a habit!
We ended our travels on the Romantic Straße in Wurzberg, which is the most northerly town on the road and again well worth a visit. Great architecture, beautiful churches and in the evenings one of the main bridges into the town also acts as a outside bar with the illuminated castle on the hill above looking like it is suspended in mid-air.
As it was peak season while we were in Germany we used stellplatz (German equivalent of aires) most of the time rather than trying to book into over-full campsites. The stellplatz are excellent, usually close to the centre of towns and good value. We saw few other Brits using them, but if you have a motorhome, they are well worth trying especially when the campsites are crowded.
There will be one more post from Germany, then we are off to the Netherlands 🇳🇱