Mon 24 Sep - On Sunday night we suffered a terrific storm which blasted the van and the rain came down in torrents. It was certainly scary! In the morning we wandered around the huge Hymer World showroom and picked up 2 free bus tickets into Wertheim am Main, twinned with Huntingdon and Godmanchester. Wertheim is a very pleasant town and, with the good weather, we enjoyed a picnic by the Rathous then took the bus back to our van. There is an outlet village (same as Bicester Village) next door. It was crap - overpriced designer tosh at not much of a discount, so we went to the chocolate shop, which was much more our style. Finally, just as the dealership was closing, we decided that a new water container, which fits perfectly by the handbrake (something we've been looking for for a while), was needed.
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| You should see the size of the sausage! |
Tuesday 25th. Another early start as the baker's van arrived a quarter of an hour before she was due. In Germany, the baker's vans do not like to arrive quietly. As usual, muggins had to go and queue for the bread because she was still in bed. We drove down the Romantic Route (when we eventually found it in really thick fog), then stopped at a few towns en-route, before ending up at Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Rothenberg is a very pretty and well-preserved town with the stellplatz just outside the city walls. The place was packed with tourists, but we enjoyed wandering around in the sunshine, albeit it was pretty cold. There are mainly tat shops with a couple of branches of Käthe Wohlfahrt selling overpriced cheesy Christmas decorations and cuckoo clocks. They even have the cheek to charge to go into their "Christmas Museum". Errr - no thanks. A lot of the shops were selling pastries called snowballs. We thought that they may be nice. We were wrong. They are bloody awful. We wandered around the city walls. OK if you are a Japanese scrum half, but not user friendly when you are a 6'3" hunk! Anyway, beers were calling, and we needed to restock at the supermarket, so we left the sightseeing (including the church that they wanted to charge to get into) to the hordes of tourists. We did go back after dark though to see the place well lit up (but it was still busy). In all, a very pretty place, worth a visit but packed full of tourists and associated tat shops.
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| Another of those lovely fountains |
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| Rothenburg |
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| As featured in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang |
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| Rothenburg City Walls |
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| The city walls - built for Nibelung |
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| Many jigsaws have this picture |
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| Rothenburg at Night |
Wednesday and on to Dinkelsbühl, another very pretty town and, in some ways, we preferred it to Rothenburg as a appears to be a working town rather than a pure tourist town. It is another medieval walled fortress town with a plethora of towers trying to outdo each other in prettiness. Again, we wandered around, including the many backstreets (which were equally pretty) before enjoying an excellent ice cream (the Germans love their ice creams) and a well-deserved pint in the beer garden at 2.60 euro a pint!
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| Dinkelsbühl |
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| Dinkelsbühl |
Thurs 27. On to a campsite in Augsburg stopping at Donauworth which was boring so we didn't stay long. The campsite was a bit basic (rather like the site in Montpellier where we stayed in January 17) and we couldn't check in until 1500hrs, but it was a nice warm sunny day so we sat in the sunshine. Finally we managed to check in and, having paid for a couple of nights, we got the bikes out and cycled the 5 miles or so into Augsburg, which was an adventure in itself. It may have been the bike ride but we weren't overly impressed with Augsburg. A big city with lots of down and outs sitting around drinking, fairly modern buildings (I think most of the city was destroyed during WWII) and not much to write home about. If you want shopping without much prettiness then it's fine.
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| Donauworth |
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Augsburg
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Fri 28. Up early, we caught the bus into Augsburg to catch a train using our Bavaria one day pass at €31 for the pair of us, heading for Munich and the Oktoberfest. The train was packed! Full of lederhosen and dirndl clad partygoers heading for Oktoberfest and already drinking beer. The risk of electric shock from static produced by the nylon dirndls was a real issue! Arriving at the Hauptbahnhof in Munich, we decided we ought to have something in our stomachs before the big day started, so we had bratties and fries, although she was so excited at the prospect of the day ahead she threw most of hers over the pavement. The Oktoberfest is brilliant. It doesn't cost to go in, there's loads of beer halls, funfairs, food stalls and a great atmosphere. We spent some time in the Augustiner hall before wandering around the event in the warm sunshine. This is a place that all beer drinkers should go to on pilgrimage at least once. It is fantastic. Being a Friday, by afternoon the ground had started to really fill up and we decided to leave to catch our last bus back home, but on the way we had to stop at the Hofbrauhaus for one last beer, which we probably didn't need. Eventually we got on the train, got on the bus, and walked home in the dark, collapsing into bed.
Sat 29. A very gentle day as we were knackered after the Munich escapades. We left Augsburg and went to Landsburg, originally hoping to stop at a couple more towns on the Romantic Route, but there was a major diversion. A very pretty town with the River Lech running through. We had a nice lunch sitting outside in the warm sunshine and a very pleasant, gentle stroll around this picturesque town.
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| Landsburg |
Dong, dong, dong - Oh, it must be Sunday at silly o'clock. All the bells in town to wake us up for an early start and a run down to the very busy stellplatz at Fussen. It was a glorious day - we quickly parked up and took to the bikes and headed to the castles. Being a sunny Sunday it was crowded, but we took the steep, knackering, path up above Neuschwanstein heading for the Marienbrucke and the glorious views of the castle. There were big queues for the bridge, and some arrogant Italian bastards pushing in. I hope that when he shows his video when they get home somebody can understand the English commentary in the background, describing the party, their arrogance, ignorance, personal hygiene, parentage and lack of manners. I should imagine it would be quite amusing. Nothing I wouldn't say to their faces - and I did! Anyway, back down the mountain and a cycle along through the pretty meadows to a beautiful alpine biergarden for a couple of pints.
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| Fussen |
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| Neuschwanstein |
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| Alpine meadows |
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| Like a red rag to a bull |
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