The Romantic Road

Week 10 – 6th to 12th August

Rothenburg

Travelling down the west side of Bavaria towards the Austrian border we decided to use the Romantic Road; this is said to be the most popular of Germanys holiday routes so we were pleasantly surprised that it was relatively quiet. We joined the road at Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber, which is a really beautiful, well preserved little medieval town, full of cobbled streets and pastel coloured buildings and surrounded by intact city walls.

There was a sticky moment when I dropped the camera and it fell right onto the open lense and bent it in; there was a gasp of horror from a nearby Japanese guy! Thinking the camera which has been with me for about 12 years had seen it lasts days, once home Andrew was able to force the lense back into place – you have to hand it to Sony; they make their products strong!

Dinkelsbuhl

After an overnight stay at a nice little camp outside of Rothenburg we continued down the road and stopped for an hour at Dinkelsbuhl, which is another incredibly well preserved medieval town that was spared from any war damage.










The trail does take you through pleasant countryside but far from spectacular and, whilst we had every intention of making more stops along the route, having seen the best of the medieval towns did not feel the urge to see more and, to be honest nothing else caught our eye so before we knew it we had arrived in Fussen, last stop on the road!


Fussen

Fussen is home to Germanys biggest tourist attractions so this place was busy and we had our first trouble finding a campsite with space; it was our own fault since we didn’t arrive until 7pm but after a long hot day we were getting a little fraught! In the end we found a quick stop on a campsite, which literally meant we were staying in a car park next to where motor homes dump their wastewater, but hey ho, once in our little van we could be anywhere! And with views like these just a short walk away who can complain…







The next morning we rolled up to a site early and got lucky with a pitch right in front of a lake, with mountain views behind us so all was well again.

Schloss Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

These are King Ludwig II’s fantasy castles. Neuschwanstein is the most famous castles and the model for Disney

(Not a great photo) but to show where the castle is situated.



Ludwig was a romantic, a lover of Germanic mythology and the opera, namely the works of Richard Wagner, and this is what he wanted to recreate in his castle and actually planned the castle with a stage designer rather than an architect! You can only see the interior of the castles on a tour and are not allowed to take photographs, but needless to say, it is very elaborate and ostentatious. Sadly, very few of the rooms were actually finished.

Hohenschwangau was Ludwig’s fathers (Maximilian II) castle and was rebuilt by him in a neo gothic style from 12th century ruins. After his father died, Ludwig made some alterations into his own style.