Romantische Straße and the Mittelrhein
| Category |
Type |
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Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Würzburg to Tauberbischofsheim
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Today: 43km; Total: 305km |
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$0.00 |
43.00 |
43.00 |
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A couple days ago we had the "Great Detour". Today we had the "Lesser Detour and Relentless Wind". I wanted to get all the way to the campingplatz outside of Bad Mergentheim today, but it was not to be. Leaving Wurzburg, we made a mistake and missed a turn, climbing up and up into the town of Waldbüttelbrunn. In correcting our mistake, we over-corrected and climbed up into Hochberg before finally making our way onto the proper Radweg.
So, how are we making all these mistakes, you ask? Well, I've been thinking about that. Along the route, sometimes they don't have a detailed route sign. They use generic white signs with a green bicycle on them as supplemental signs to point the way along the route. The problem is that they also use the same generic white signs with a green bicycle on them to mark other routes. So, when we make a mistake, we still end up finding green bicycles to follow and by the time we realize we've made the mistake, we're pretty committed into the mistake.
When we started out this morning, we had some rather brisk wind. Add the "lesser detour", and it took us almost two hours to advance 5km down the official route. Yikes. As we rode today, the wind was howling most of the time, and we had a wicked 16% grade climb after Hochhausen. I called an early stop because I was just too done to go all the way to our daily destination. Instead, we stopped at Tauberbischofsheim and checked into a Pension because the town doesn't have a campingplatz.
Tauberbischofsheim is a great little town and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring it at the end of the day. I was super grateful to not push another 20km through the howling headwind. 20km doesn't normally sound like much, but considering we actually only did 40km today with the hills and wind, another 20 would have been too much for me. |
| Category |
Type |
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Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Tauberbischofsheim to Detwang
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Today: 70km; Total: 375km |
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$0.00 |
70.00 |
113.00 |
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Shortly after leaving Tauberbischofsheim, we were riding through a field. Brent looked over and pointed out a boar-shaped rock. As Laura and I looked over at the rock, it started to move, and then two other shapes near it moved as well. The mama boar and her two boar-lets moved off into the long bushes. I’ve never seen a wild boar before, and never expected to see one. It was awesome. |
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We stopped for a relatively long look at Bad Mergentheim, which was a fantastic place, although somewhat overcrowded and touristy. The gem of the day for us was Weikersheim, which was just really unique compared to the other German towns we’ve visited. The Platz and Schloss were particularly fantastic. |
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Today was a day of climbing. For most of the day we hardly noticed, as it was a steady slight grade. After Creglingen, we started some more serious climbing, including a LOT of up and down. We had chosen the Campingplatz at Detwang as our destination for the day, and we were glad we did because tomorrow is going to bring a shed-load of climbing up to Rothenburg and then to Schillingsfurst. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Detwang to Schillingsfurst
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Today: 20km; Total: 395km |
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$0.00 |
20.00 |
133.00 |
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At the Detwang Campingplatz, Brent got a brochure for Rothenburg. It sounded like a great place to stop and spend some time. We’re all feeling a little fatigued, and the first 20km after Detwang is all uphill… some of it steep. So, we decided to climb the first five km up to Rothenburg and spend a good part of the day there, and then stay at the Campingplatz just beyond Schillingsfurst, riding only 20km for the day. |
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Rothenburg was a beautiful spot, but quite crowded with tourists. We used Brent’s brochure to give ourselves a walking tour of the town, and then made a visit to the “Crime Museum”, which should have been named the “Unspeakable Torture Museum”. There was some horrific stuff there. But some interesting stuff as well. Who knew that the punishment was so severe for a baker who made a loaf of bread slightly too small?? Laura and I also enjoyed the “Shame Flute”, which was a public shaming device used to punish bad musicians. |
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Leaving Rothenburg we followed the do-able 3% grade most of the way to Schillingsfurst. The 8% grade at the end was a bit of a grunt, though. The Campingplatz was right out of town and we’re in the great little segregated Zeltplatz surrounded by a fence of trees and (so far) with no neighbors at all. There’s a little shelter with a picnic table and clothes lines, and two power outlets. We’re making ourselves quite comfortable. |
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After settling in to the Zeltplatz, I went over to the WC. On my way, I cut through an empty camp site and said hello to the people camped beside it. They said hello back, but I thought they sounded quite disapproving, and I wondered if they didn’t appreciate me cutting through the empty lot beside them. On my way back, I was going to cut through the same way again and found that they were busily constructing a fence blocking off the route across the empty lot. Ummmmm… yep, I guess they didn’t like me cutting across. I had to confess to Laura and Brent that I’d committed some kind of heinous social faux-pas within moments of arriving at the place. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Schillingsfurst to Nordlingen
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Today: 71km; Total: 466km |
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$0.00 |
71.00 |
204.00 |
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We had sort of chosen Dinkelsbuhl as our destination for tonight. It was only 40km down the road, but also the only place before Donauworth with a Campingplatz. Thanks to Brent and the Bikeline book, though, we were able to shave off more than 10km by taking a shortcut route. When we pulled into Feuchtwangen for “first coffee”, we noticed two signs for Dinkelsbuhl – one was 26km and one was 14km. Laura and I looked at the Kompass map and decided that the shorter route was on a highway, which we weren’t interested in doing, even though the official route took us WAY out of our way for no points of interest. Thankfully Brent looked at the Bikeline book and found the actual shortcut which was NOT on the highway at all – it was on pathways and side roads. We followed the shortcut and made it to Dinkelsbuhl in only about 30km.
After Dinkelsbuhl, we dreaded a section outside of Ruhlingstetten, which the authors of “The Romantic Road” said they “found it to be the roughest bit of track on the whole Romantic Road route”. Rather than ride that bit, Laura sketched us out a detour taking us through Unterbronnen. In Unterbronnen we stopped to re-consult our maps and had a wonderful chat with four young local ladies eager to try out their English on the “Canadians”. They were very helpful and pointed us in the direction we wanted to go. The remainder of the detour took us up a steep steep hill, at the top of which we made another friend who stopped to give us directions and then introduce us to her dad and nephew at the farm on the hill.
Our next thought for where we might stop for the night was Wallerstein. It was just shy of Nordlingen and had a Penzion listed in Brent’s reference brochure. That didn’t pan out, so we started calling Penzions in Nordlingen. On the first call, Brent got a person who spoke English, but the Penzion was booked up for the night. On the second call, we got a person who didn’t speak English, so since apparently I have the most German of the three of us, I took over the call and managed to procure us a couple of rooms at Hotel Garni Kirchenwirt am Daniel in Nordlingen, which is right on the main Platz (across from the enormous church). It was quite the lucky find.
After we settled in to our Penzion, we went in search of dinner and randomly chose a German restaurant… with Croatian items on the menu. The proprietor is a transplant from the former Yugoslavia, so Laura and I enjoyed some Croatian food (Brent stuck with schnitzel)… and I mean we ENJOYED some Croatian food. It was amazing AND enormous.
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While we were riding the Main, I didn’t miss the Bikeline guide at all. I’d given it away before we’d even left the airport and we made out just fine with only the Kompass Map.
On the Romantische Str, we have the Kompass Map, the Bikeline Map/Book, AND “The Romantic Road from Wurzburg to Fussen” guide. We are finding all three to be absolutely essential reference materials, and we’ve also added the “Places to Stay” brochure that Brent picked up as an essential material. We also have my projected route/schedule, which we’ve been referring to constantly, and the info about the towns of interest along the way. The Kompass Map is great for a contiguous view of the route and for the cumulative kilometer markers. The Bikeline map is better for the elevation profile, alternate routes (i.e., shortcuts) and hill indicators. The “Romantic Road from Wurzburg to Fussen” is excellent for commentary and detailed instructions. The Bikeline book probably has that as well, but it’s all in German. It’s nice to have it in English.
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| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Nordlingen to Donauworth
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Today: 44km; Total: 510km |
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$0.00 |
44.00 |
248.00 |
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We considered going further than Donauworth today if we had the ambition, but the heat of the day drained that right out of us. We did, however, decide to not bother taking a rest day. None of us feel a need, yet, for a rest day, which is pretty awesome. We have taken a couple of short days, but no actual rest days so far.
I sketched out a plan to get to us to Fussen, advancing a relatively small distance each day (between 30 and 60km), hopping Campingplatz to Campingplatz. We should reach Fussen by Friday, which is several days ahead of my original projection. That should give us time to do some “bonus riding” perhaps out of Fussen… perhaps along the Rhine… who knows? We’ll see.
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Breakfast at our Penzion wasn’t until 8AM, so we went out early to do a little walking tour of Nordlingen. It is a very lovely place. |
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Being in Donauworth is interesting because we were also here in 2015 when we rode the Donau. Last time, it was raining so we’d taken accommodation at a Penzion and eschewed the Campingplatz, even though Laura and Gabi had waited there for us for a time (after Laura’s bike spoke repair). It’s beautiful this time… in fact, a little too beautiful. It’s scorching hot. After setting up at the Campingplatz we went into town for ice cream, beer and dinner. |
| Category |
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Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Donauworth to Eggelstetten
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Today: 45km; Total: 555km |
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$0.00 |
45.00 |
293.00 |
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We sketched out a plan which takes us from Campingplatz to Campingplatz all the way to Fussen. The Campingplatzes are few and far between on the Romantische Str, so this was no easy feat. We’re ahead of schedule, so not in a rush, and decided to aim for the Campingplatz at Eggelstetten, only 30km from Donauworth, but a ways off the main Romantische Str route.
We ended up taking a wrong turn at Rain and did a great little “diversion” involving seeing some of the gardens at Rain, and riding through a hay field… directly through some felled hay. When we discovered that we were on the wrong road, we were several kilometres already in the wrong direction and on the wrong side of the river, so we had to backtrack all the way back to Rain (and the bridge to the other side of the river). On the way back, Brent and I took the opportunity to take a “roll in the hay”.
After correcting our mistake, we easily made it to Oberndorf (the town on the route closest to the Campingplatz) and had lunch in the wonderful Greek restaurant in town, then doubled back to the turnoff for Eggelstetten (and the Campingplatz) for a total of 45km (15 “bonus” kms).
The Campingplatz at Eggelstetten is a real gem. It’s a shame that it’s so far off the official route – Fahrrad Wanderen would love it here. They have an AWESOME Zeltplatz, an excellent common room with WiFi and vending machines, showers, AND washers and dryers. All beside a lovely little pond with kids frolicking in it. I’m so pleased we came here.
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Yesterday, Brent discovered that my rear tire is worn just about completely out. He thought he would put his spare tire on it, but it’s very wide and he’d brought the wrong size of tube for it, so even though we have a spare tire, and spare tubes, we don’t have a spare tire and a spare tube that will work with each other. I don’t really want his spare tire anyway as it’s very wide.
Since it was Sunday, there was no point in trying to get to a bike store, but Donauworth has a couple of bike stores so we’d go before leaving town today. Oops. The bike store was open yesterday, so we could have taken care of business yesterday, but it is closed on Mondays so I have to ride to the next bike store. None on our route today, so it’ll hopefully be tomorrow that I find something (before I blow out my tire completely). The bike store did have one of those tub vending machines, though, so at least we were able to pick up a tube that would fit Brent’s spare tire in case worse comes to worst and we NEED to put his spare tire on my bike.
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| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Eggelstetten to Gersthofen
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Today: 48km; Total: 603km |
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$0.00 |
48.00 |
341.00 |
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We had an easy ride to Gersthofen today, and found me a new tire there. We chose a Campingplatz near Auguburg (outside of Gersthofen) which is actually right at an Autobahn exit, but it’s surprisingly nice. We’ll stay here two nights and take our first actual “rest day” in Augsburg tomorrow. At the Campingplatz, we did some bike maintenance – Brent put on my new tire and Laura’s new French lock, and I lubed up everyone’s chain with my fancy wax lube. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Augsburg and Back from Campingplatz
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Today: 18km; Total: 621km |
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$0.00 |
18.00 |
359.00 |
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We took our “rest day” in Augsburg today (18km round trip from the Campingplatz). The Fuggerei and the Golden Room were the absolute highlights. Spending a relaxing evening at the Campingplatz, and re-doing the unsuccessful laundry from the other night. Oh, the other night, our washing machine died on us so we had to rinse as best we could and then hang stuff to dry. It was not successful. |
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Having been caught off-guard a couple of times, we've learned to pay good attention to when the national holidays are. European countries take their national holidays very seriously, and when they say things are closed on holidays, they mean THINGS are CLOSED on national holidays. Tomorrow is Corpus Christi, which is a national holiday in Germany, so we've visited the Lidl to grocery up for tomorrow's breakfast, tomorrow's lunch, Friday's morning and Friday's lunch (as a contingency in case we can't find dinner tomorrow). |
| Category |
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To Date |
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| Activity |
Cycle |
Gerstofen to Landsberg am Lech
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Today: 60km; Total: 681km |
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$0.00 |
60.00 |
419.00 |
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Today started off with a boatload of uncertainty. Laura was not feeling well. She hurled a couple of times after she got up and I wasn’t sure she’d want to ride… I know I wouldn’t have. But, after the second hurl she said she was starting to stabilize, and we managed to get a bun into her (and she managed to keep it down), so off we went. As the day progressed, she did slowly start to feel better and was able to do our whole distance. That was the other aspect of uncertainty. From studying my various maps, I couldn’t figure out exactly how long our ride would be today. I kept coming up with wildly different answers, ranging from 45km to 110km. I thought that 70km was most likely, and when we arrived at our Campingplatz, we ended up being spot-on about 60km. |
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We rode through a town called Scheuring today. There wasn’t much to see there, but I was interested to see it anyway. Our “tour guide” (Jürgen) told me he thought “Scheuring” meant that a place where you keep feed for animals (perhaps a grainery?). That made sense to me because I’ve been told that Scheurer means “owner of a grainery”. So, the Scheuring is the grainery, and the Scheurer is the guy who owns it? Maybe? |
Just past Scheuring, we were stopped at a junction consulting our maps when a man introduced himself to us to help us get oriented. He lives in Kaufering and was just on his way home, so he offered to show us the way to Landsberg. His name was Jürgen and we got to know him as he guided us all the way to Landsberg where he showed us some sights and we bought him a beer.
We then continued to the Campingplatz (escorted by his friend who owns a bike store in Landsberg). At 6:30, Jürgen is going to come back and pick us up and take us into Landsberg where we’ll meet his wife and daughter for dinner. How exciting! His wife is French, from Nantes (a place along the Loire that Brent and I have visited previously).
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| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Landsberg am Lech to Rottenbuch
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Today: 51km; Total: 732km |
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$0.00 |
51.00 |
470.00 |
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We had a fantastic German dinner with Jürgen and his wife, Nathalie, and their daughter, Victoria. Nathalie is from Nantes (France) and has excellent English. Victoria has been learning English in school for two years but is very shy about using her English. After dinner, they invited us back to our place where they fed us some white wine, Greek olives, dark chocolate and candy-coated black licorice. They had two adorable bunnies in a hutch and a beautiful back yard. They were amazingly friendly and enjoyable. As we were finishing up, it started to rain. Jürgen and Nathalie offered to let us stay at their place, but we declined – we like to camp in the rain.
As we arrived back at the Campingplatz, the rain and wind had picked up some, and we walked down the hill to our tents in some running streams (aka the road). In the night, the wind blew my side of the fly in (the ground had been impossible to peg in properly), but then eventually it cleared up and I just completely opened up my part of the fly and had my side of the tent pretty much open the rest of the night, which was awesome. There was less carnage in the morning to clean up than I expected… just the usual damp tent fly.
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According to our elevation profile, the next two days should have us in the foothills of the Alps, and arriving in Fussen tomorrow. How exciting, but at the same time it means a LOT of climbing (those foothills) on our way. We had a very very long 13% downhill followed by a couple of short 12% uphills. The 13% downhill is described in “The Romantic Road” as “Turn right to reach Reichling where unfortunately you drop off the edge of the world”. Laura and I had ourselves pretty psyched out about that, but it turned out to be not that bad. What WAS bad, however, was an unexpected 18% downhill leaving Schongau on a street (the regular pathway was damaged), and an unexpected 20% uphill that those crazy British people (The authors of “The Romantic Road”) neglected to tell us about. |
Being that we’re now in the foothills, the scenery is stunning. We’ve heard that Bavarians consider themselves Bavarians first and Germans second, and have a bit of a “superiority complex”. It’s easy to see why. Their countryside is stunning, and they’re astonishingly friendly, helpful, and disproportionately excited to see Canadian visitors.
We met Jürgen and Nathalie yesterday. Today was also filled with fabulous Bavarians.
First there was Hans who we met in Altenstadt. He passed us in his car, then pulled over to wait for us and talk. His son-in-law is a hockey player from the Edmonton area who moved to Germany several years ago. He wanted to talk and take pictures of us. Ironically, as we were entering Schongau, we ran into him again as we were consulting our maps for our route into town and he told us how to get up the hill to the Altstadt. Once up at Altstadt, we met him again (on purpose this time) by the fountain and had more of a visit and more pictures.
After we finally said farewell to Hans, we tied up our bikes and were about to go check out the local church when we were accosted by Felix who was sitting having a coffee. He spoke excellent English and wanted us to join him for coffee while he waited for his fiancé to finish with a doctor’s appointment. Felix had the best “how we met” story ever. He told us about being on a boat and being seasick. He’d prepared some fish for himself (hobbyist cook). He went to the front of the boat where he encountered Barbara, who was sitting there, also feeling seasick. He asked if he could sit with her, and she accepted. He put his arm around her (something he wouldn’t normally do), and she put his head on her shoulder, and together they ate the fish he’d prepared. Awwwwww. So sweet.
Later on, as we were cycling through Peiting, Brent waited outside while Laura and I went into a grocery store. When we came out, Brent was deep in conversation with Johannes, who has two uncles in Canada. Johannes kept us for a while to chat, and was apparently very impressed with us for hauling all of our gear for camping.
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A super-special treat for us tonight. The local brass band is out at the Campingplatz playing some Bavarian music. I think the whole town is out, including the Burgermeister (mayor). A bunch of the older men are out in their Lederhosen and Tyrolean hats. Amazing. |
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