Feuchtwangen - 13 May 2019

13.05.19 - Peaceful night, no other mohos, people or cars - no overhead lighting - great! Woke to the sound of birds, was only 4° outside - but sunny.

Bikes out, took shorts in case we were too hot - ha, Tintin even had his coat on too! Must be the fast pace!

Credit where credit is due - the Germans are very good at their cycle paths! We rode to Creglingen (next on route). Rode around for a while trying to find the tourist information - was over the bridge and near all the big shops - but was still in the Romantic Road - strange! Town itself similar to others, half timber framed houses, big churches. It’s like the law of diminishing returns, they seem quite common place to us already! Also didn’t fancy seeing the Thimble or Jewish museums!

2km outside of Creglingen is The Herrgottkirche which houses Tilman Riemenschneider’s masterpiece - the retable  of Virgin Mary. Entrance fee was €5 for both - to be honest as we couldn’t take photos to share with everyone, we didn’t bother! It seems quite common that if you pay an admission, you can’t take photos. (We did see and photograph some of his other work in the Franciscan church in Rothenburg later on).

We rode another 3km to Münsterseen, a leisure and relaxation park - basically a lake with greenery around. We ate the delicious apple pastries we’d bought in the town. Only €2.80 for two, and the best yet! Our ride was 21 miles today. Kay’s top tip, don’t wash your hair and then put your cycle helmet on and expect great things!

Back at Dave, packed up then drove the short distance to the service place. Water was €1 for 2 minutes - however - water pressure must have been very low, as we’re not full. Also to empty the grey water (shower and sinks) there was no drive over drain, which means connecting another hose. Not difficult, but some places make it so much easier!

Tintin felt the need to drive today! Drove to a free park at Rothenburg ob der Tauber, about 30 minutes away. (Red Fort in the River Tauber).

We knew it was a big, popular place as there were lots of tourists of varying nationalities!

It has a completely preserved medieval town wall (14th century) with numerous towers and gates. The battlements can be traversed for a length of approx. 2.5 km. We only walked around some of it, trying to find our way to the main market square. Picked up a map from the tourist information and asked about the Rothenburg speciality - Schneebälle which are snowball shaped treats, a bit like shortbread. They are covered with sugar, cinnamon, chocolate, coconut or almonds. He told us to break a little off, then crush them in the bag you buy them in. We saw people getting into a mess by just biting into them! They had a taster for the original one, neither of us thought yum, but felt obliged to buy, so bought just one cinnamon one for later on.

There was a lot to see! One shop is a year round shop and museum just relating to Christmas. The shop was absolutely huge, and went downstairs, and had lots of rooms off the main walkway, displays, decorations, linens, wooden toys - a bit overwhelming!

Also went into the Steiff shop, drawn in by the lovely big bear in the doorway!

Again, to visit the St Jakob’s Lutheran Church, we would’ve had to pay - just too many other good things to see for free!

There were fantastic views from the castle gardens of the old town and the Tauber Valley (top picture).

The shop windows were all about enticing people in. You could buy almost anything you could think of, including cuckoo clocks, and big beer steins. What about the aprons - improvement maybe?!

Anyway, at least another 12,000 steps later, back to Dave - and Tintin drove for another 30 minutes to Feuchtwangen. 7 free places, and we nabbed the last space - relieved!

All in all a busy day - weather has been good, sunny, but chilly. We already know that we won’t remember some of the places we’ve visited - we can’t even pronounce them now!

Rum and coke is going down very well! Last night I made a chickpea, carrot and red pepper chilli, so have enough for tonight too - which makes it easy!