Two Towns

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Tale of Two Towns

November 15, 2001

Dear Family and Friends,

Overall, the Romantic Road was, as promised, a series of picture-perfect towns and villages strung out along wonderful hills and valleys. The analogy of the Romantic Road as a "string" is reasonably accurate for parts of it were very twisty and narrow. In our travels we have learned that when the painted centerline disappears, the road really is narrow and sections of the Romantic Road were without that middle paint. Going through some of the villages, it seemed like we were using the local farmers paths between house and barn. If only it had been sunny and warm enough to have the top down. Next time.

Nordlingen

Our first overnight stop was actually half way up the Road in Nordlingen. Though we arrived just as it was getting dark, we could see this was a magic place. We even managed to find a parking place near our guidebook-recommended hotel right away so there must have been sorcery of some sort. The bad news was that the hotel was on vacation. Ouch, off-season travel strikes again.

No problem though, we simply walk to the book's second choice. It's a bit expensive but it's a large, modern establishment so we check in, get our key and go back to pick up the car. Just then, we notice our friendly checkpoint, the Tourist Information center. We make the obligatory stop and get advice on what to see, where to eat and, as an afterthought, where to stay.

For the last point, where to stay, the TI has a number of recommendations, all of them more "local" than our choice. We think about it and decide to check out one or two places. The first is full but another, a very local "gasthaus", has plenty of space at half our committed price. It even has a single parking place in back. We take both the room and the parking place and now have two rooms for the night, one too many. No problem though, we simply go back to the expensive hotel and say "no thank you" and hand back the key. I'm not sure I recommend this technique but it worked for us and no one seemed upset.

By now we were hungry so we started working on the TI's three restaurant recommendations. The "off-season" curse struck again when the first two turned out to be closed but the third served us good Bavarian gasthaus food. I had a trout-like fish from the local river that was delicious and Marianne had yet another snitzel or wurst. This, along with the required potatoes, bread, beer, etc. filled us up yet again. We are running the risk of outgrowing our car.

We had all of the next morning to look around Nordlingen. We started by walking along a small neighborhood street and out through one of the dozen or so gates in the medieval wall that encircles the old town. Outside the wall, we pass one more example of he fall color that has been with us for almost seven weeks. This may be our last example though.

We walk the next gate and climb up to the rampart that runs for whole three kilometers of the encircling wall. Up here one can imagine defending medieval Nordlingen against outside marauders but inside it's a regular small town with the mailman making his rounds, the stores opening up and a dozen cars making the morning traffic rush.

Of course we make our visit to the town cathedral, St. George's. It stands high above the other buildings in Nordlingen and the spire, named "Daniel" seems to be the axle of a giant wheel and the wall is the rim. St. George's is almost 500 years old and when built was one of the largest churches in southern Germany. Inside, the ceiling towers above an ornate pulpit.

Nordlingen has one very unique attraction, the Rieskrater (Meteor crater) Museum. Nordlingen is on the floor of an ancient crater created by the impact of a meteor 15 million years ago. The museum does a good job of explaining how that meteor changed the geology for 30 kilometers around in a matter of minutes. St George and many of the old buildings were built from the unique rock created by the shock of the meteor impact.

Now our free morning was up. We had to hit the road. Our next overnight destination was Rothenburg ob der Tauber, less than two hours away. Along the way, we experiment with visits to a town or two along the Road but some "can't miss" castles are closed and, I have to admit, medieval walls with towers are beginning to all seem the same.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Our Fodor's guidebook calls Rothenburg o. d. Tauber the town to stop in if a traveler has time for only a single town on the Romantic Road. Of course it's surrounded by a wall. (Picture #8) Of course it's filled with old buildings. Of course it has a market plaza in the center, along with an inspiring cathedral and an imposing town hall. In one sense, many of the towns on the Romantic Road have these elements but Rothenburg seems to have bigger and better examples of everything. It's setting above ("ob der") the Tauber River is also uniquely charming.

Not surprisingly, the town industry is tourism. It is filled with hotels, gasthauses, restaurants, bakeries, gift shops and museums. Our single-day stay was not enough but we did manage to sleep in a pleasant small hotel in a 500-year old building and eat in a very small restaurant in a building twice that age. That was the oldest building in town and it has reportedly been a restaurant for most of its thousand years.

Our morning walk through the town center and out to "the king's garden" had us agreeing with the guidebook -- see Rothenburg if you can see just one town on the Romantic road. Better yet, take the time to see them all!

After the morning walk, it was back to reality. We had to drive to Aschaffenburg, outside of Frankfurt. We had car repairs to arrange, friends to visit and flights home to catch. But that's another story.

Take care and find a way to take more time to see the things you want to see.

John and Marianne

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Created November 24, 2001

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