On Friday afternoon we continued south to a stellplatz in the delightfully named town of Dinkelsbühl. A very short walk into the old town took us past a sign that proves Germans do have a sense of humour! We stopped at a restaurant where we had some excellent local Bavarian dishes. Mine included a gigantic portion of ham with potato dumplings………
The old town is again surrounded by walls and towers. Inside are mainly 17th century buildings seemly built to the same design but painted in different colours. Outside the walls are parks with lakes reflecting the buildings. It was all so photogenic I didn’t know where to point the camera!
After Weikersheim we continued south and stopped at a Stellplatz in Rothenburg for the night. This walled town is set high above the River Tauber and at first sight is almost too quaint to be true – imagine if Walt Disney had built a german town! The place is full of cobbled streets and surrounded by many tall towers protecting the town walls.
The food on display was very interesting – from butcher’s windows full of every variation of german sausage to the local delicacy of Schneeballen – strips of pastry squashed into a ball and then deep fried. I tried but I’m not sure I’d go back for more!
On Thursday morning we headed south along the Romantic Road, a route running from Würzburg to Füssen near the southern border of Germany designed to include some of the most attractive towns (often medieval) in the country.
Our first stop on the route was Weikersheim to visit it’s spendid renaissance palace which is surrounded by magnificent gardens often compared to Versailles. The Knight’s Hall in the palace was particularly impressive with its painted ceiling, decorated walls and fireplace.
We left Burgen Tuesday morning driving down the banks of the Rhine from Koblenz to Mainz. The river was even broader than the Moselle and we spotted plenty of castles perched high up on the sides of the valley or occasionally in the middle of the river itself!
Würzburg is a city in Germany’s Bavaria region. It’s known for lavish baroque and rococo architecture and is commonly regarded as being the start of the ‘Romantic Road’ the most popular tourist route in Germany. We plan to follow that route south so more on that later.
We stayed for 2 nights at the city’s Stellplatz – basically a car park offering some facilities for motorhomes but allowing overnight stays for up to 2 or 3 days. They are cheaper than ‘proper’ campsites and usually much closer to the centre of the town. You can see from the picture below that there was not a lot of space but the view from our front window shows that we were looking straight on to the River Main – we could sit on our chairs in front of the van watching the cargo boats and passenger cruisers sail by.
On our first night we walked down the the Alte Mainbrucke, a bridge dating back to the 15th century. We encountered a delightful local custom – a huge crowd of people standing all over the bridge enjoying their evening glass of wine, bought from a kiosk at one end of the crossing – it seemed rude not to join in! At the same time we could watch a Viking cruise boat, probably heading from Budapest to Amsterdam, squeeze through the lock under the bridge.
The most spectacular building in the city is the ‘Residenz’, a UNESCO World Cultural Hertitage Site. Built in the 18th century for the local duke it is a huge work of baroque architecture full of amazing stucco ornamentation and Europe’s biggest ceiling painting. The palace was bombed by the RAF in 1945 and only the central core of the original work survived. A huge reconstruction project has been going on since the 1950’s and now the building has been restored to it’s former glory. Unfortunately no photos can be taken inside – so we can only show you the outside – for a look inside have a look at their website.
Here’s a glimpse of some of the other impressive buildings we found – all in the city centre:
Town HallFalkenhausSt Killian CathedralCeiling at St Killian CathedralNeumunsterCeiling Fresco at NeumunsterAltar at Marienkapelle
We left Ghent in the morning on a three hour drive heading east. The route skirted Antwerp and Cologne passing through the southern tip of The Netherlands – so I make that five countries in three days! We stopped for lunch using some of our favourite brand of sliced bread:
We have decided to have 2 nights relaxing at a campsite – Camping Burgen – right on the Moselle river near to Koblenz. The view is very scenic with the prerequisite castle – Bischofstein Castle, wildlife including swans and unusual egyptian ducks (they must have got lost!) and even the occasional huge cargo boat.
