June 22nd, 2010

Weikershiem/Laudenbach – Schwabenmuhle – ASCI-2010-611, contd

Tuesday, and the weather seems to be on the mend. The forecast is for steadily improving temperatures as the week progresses, and no rain.

We decide to delay leaving for the Rhine area and stay here for another day, to carry out one of our possible plans from yesterday and cycle to Creglingen.

We have the benifit of a map now, so we can assess the distance and how hilly it may be.

We have already cycled about half of the route, the day we cycled to Rottingen.

As we pass Rottingen today, we note there are only two campervans at the stellplatz there, perhaps the moral of the story is that stellplatz are busier at weekends?

We set off, bright and early for us, at about 10:15, in the event, it is an easy 13.5 miles, almost all of it on dedicated traffic free cycle track.

We arrive before the heat of the day has built up at shortly before lunch time.

Time for a beer.

There are only two other people in the bar/cafe when we settle ourselves down, but by the time we have finished our beer (small beers, I may add), the place is full, and most people have ordered what look like very nice meals.

We resist, and set off for some gentle sightseeing.

It is what we have come to expect of the region, lots of quaint half timbered buildings, with beautifully preserved and kept surroundings.

Our resolve does not last for long, since the 13 miles of pedalling have build up a healthy appetite, for once, even Kathleen is wanting to eat!.

We return to the bar/cafe, and order lunch. Kathleen has a pork snitzl, and I have bratwurst with chips (I am determined to sample as many types of German sausages as possible), plus we have two large beers this time.

Although we had not been expecting it, Kathleen also gets a small salad, to start, with her meal. It has salad dressing on, which she will not eat, so I "have" to eat it. It includes what I suppose must be saurkraut. If it was, it tastes pretty good, anyway, I polished it off.

Eventually, it is time to leave.

We find it even easier comming back. We accomplish the 27 mile round trip with ease.  I am not sure if it is because it seemed to be predominantly gently downhill (on the return), or because of the effect of the (almost) litre of strong beer we have consumed. 

Another fun day. This has been an excellent choice of site, since not only are the facilities excellent, but it is so well located for exploring, being located right on the long distance "Hohenloher Residenzenweg", a cycle track to you and me. If you are passing this way and do not want to use a site, the stellplatz at Rottingen seems like an excellent choice, again it is right on the cycle route, and is only a few minutes walk into Rottingen.

June 20th 2010 - 21st June 2010

Weikershiem/Laudenbach – Schwabenmuhle – ASCI-2010-611, contd

Sunday, the sun is shining when we get up.

Mass is 9:00, so Kathleen has to be up and ready unusually early (for her), the church is only five minutes walk away.

We (I), blunder with the buying of bread, the bread shop in the village does not open on Sundays and we have not ordered bread from Reception, so I have to cycle to Weikersheim (5 miles there and back), to buy bread, whilst Kathleen is at church.

After mass, a cycle ride to Niederstetten, only 5 miles away, but very up and down, a very hard 10 miles round trip!

It is Fathers day today, I get the "Happy Fathers Day" messages from Gary, Dana, Claire, Phillippa and Tanya.

Kathleen, goes out of her way to look after me and fuss over me, as you can see.








We decide that tomorrow, we will have another little adventure.

In this region, you are allowed to take bicycles on the train, free of charge.

A couple of days ago, I was talking to a fellow brit (well a Scot), caravanner, who was staying on the site, and he told me they had used the train (not with bicycles), to travel to Wurzburg, and, that the station (Bahnhof) is only a short distance away.

We walk to the railway station, it turns out to be only about 500metres away, check out the time and frequency of the trains, and also how to work the ticket machine.

I should explain, the train does not routinely stop at Laudenbach, if you want the train to stop for you, you have to be on the platform and signal it to stop!

Similarly, if you are on the train, and you want it to stop at Laudenbach, so you can get off, you have to go to the front of the train and tell the driver.

Monday morning, we set off at 9:45, on our bicycles, to catch the 10:00 train to Bad Mergentheim.

We arrive, just in time to see our Dutch neighbours boarding the train going in the opposite direction, complete with bicycles.

We negotiate the complexities of the ticket machine, and manage to buy ourselves two single tickets to Bad Mergentheim, at 2.20Euro each.

We are just completing the transaction when a helpful German chap asks us if we need any help. Although we do not realise it, he addresses us in Dutch, but when he realises we are English he immediately switches to English.

His is interesting and informative to talk to, and chats to us as we wait for the train, which arrives at about 10:10. We are not sure if this is because the legendary German efficiency has slipped, or if my reading of the timetable was faulty.

Our new German friend, it turns out, was born here in Laudenbach, 70 years ago, and spent his childhood here, but has since lived in the UK, USA and Holland, where he now lives with his American wife.

He explains to us, that when the railways were built, in this part of Germany, (just over a hundred years ago), the region was divided into several little kingdoms. Each had its own railway, which served the towns within the kingdom, but had poor or none existent connections with neighbouring kingdoms. Hence whilst it is simple to travel between (now obscure) places, which were formally in the same kingdom, it is sometimes torturous to travel to significant towns which were formally in a different kingdom.

Our conversation then ranges over the trials of the Euro, and how the German people are happy with the economic stability and low inflation it has brought, but they are unhappy with having to bail out Greece, and possibly other Southern European countries, since they feel the Southern Europeans (and in particular the Greeks), have deliberately misled the rest of Europe as to their parlous economic condition.

He is very easy to talk to, and despite the usual Basil Fawlty advice, when talking to Germans, of "don't mention the war", I even risk a question (which has puzzled me), ie how did all of these villages and towns with their building from the middle ages, escape damage in the war. His answer, seems sensible, since there is virtually no industry in the area, except wine making, the area escaped bombing by ourselves and the Americans (it is even too far from major industrial centres for American legendary target (in)accuracy to have done any damage).

He really has, had an interesting life, after university, he trained to be an English teacher in Germany. This entailed spending a minimum of one year living in the UK. He actually opted to spend two years there, living and working for one year in Glasgow, and a second year in Southampton. He was even able (after all these years) to detect from our accent that we came from the North of England, and to do a passable imitation of a Scots person talking. After his teaching time, he became an Academic and worked at Universities in the USA and Holland.

Although, he is now 70 and retired, he now helps "old" people, on a volantary basis. 

Eventually our train arrives. There is a designated place in each carriage to put bicycles, naturally, this is German organisation. Since there are three steps up from the platform to the cycle bay, this is no easy task, and I have to load both bicycles, but the driver is patient and waits for us.

The train stops at several small villages along the way, and more people with bicycles get on. Also what seems like a class full of school children aged about 10/11, it would appear supervised by only one adult. They were remarkably well behaved, but all wished to sit in the "front" carriage where the driver was.

We arrive at Bad Mergentheim, and unload the bicycles. Our German friend is getting off here too, and we say our goodbyes and head off to explore.

In truth, whilst it is a very pleasant place, it is perhaps not quite as nice as some of the other villages and towns we have visited. There is a very poignant memorial to local Jews who were killed during the Hitler era. So sad to see a list of several hundred names, all with differing dates of birth, but the same year of death.

On a brighter note, it has been an interesting and informative train journey to get here, now we must find our way back!

As we cycle back toward Weikersheim, we pass the Bad Mergentheim Stellplatz, which is shown in the Stellplatz book.

I pause to take a photograph, as you can see.

It is a reasonable spot, as stellplatz go, and has Electric hookup, waste disposal facilities etc.

I catch up with Kathleen, who, typically, has not waited for me, and we cycle on, mostly along the River Tauber. It is easy going, and to be honest, I think it is as quick to cycle as to take the train!

We pass through the several villages where the train had stopped on our way here, ie Igersheim, Markelsheim, Elpersheim (seen here), and then Weikersheim and Laudenbach, to make 12.5 miles in total.  

We detour at Weikersheim to buy fruit and vegetables, plus, I buy some German sausage to have for my lunch. Kathleen, predictably, sticks to Edam.

The German sausage evokes memories of childhood.

As a child, did you ever have "Polony" (if you remember it was a sort of large sausage with bright red skin, which you could not eat).

The German sausage tastes a bit like that, but slightly more pleasant. Definately more pleasant that the Weiswurst of a previous lunch time!.

It is decided that since we have a heap of washing, we need to use the washing machine. Having deciphered a German railway ticket machine, operating a washing machine with all of the controls in German is only a minor challenge for Kathleen.

The washing emerges clean, and the same size as it went in.

What more can you ask?

Here you have what is probably, that should be definately, the only photograph this trip, of Kathleen preparing vegetables for our evening meal.

Just to re-inforce the point, you can even see some of the washing hanging out to dry, she has been a busy little bee.

June 18th 2010 – June 19th 2010

Dinkelsbuhl – Stellplatz Contd

Overnight, it rains none stop. It stops briefly at about 9:30 on Friday morning, which allows me to cycle to the campsite to pay our 10Euro, and get our token to get through the barrier. By the time we leave, it has started to rain again.

I had hoped to take a photograph of the Stellplatz, but it was raining too hard!

Our destination is a site at Geslau (ASCI2010-475), which we think will be in cycling distance of Rothenburg.

When we arrive, it is pouring with rain, which never helps with first impressions of a place, plus it is very remote (it is not actually in Geslau, but at a hamlet called Lauterbach) and we have neglected to buy bread (or rice which we need), note the use of “we”, you know the score, no names, no pack drill.

After some discussion, we drive into town (Rothenburg) to buy supplies, the good news is, the supplies includes an Apple Strudel.

The rain continues, if anything it is worse. We decide, if we return to Geslau/Lauterbach, all we will be able to do is sit in the van and watch the rain. We study the Stellplatz map, and the ASCI map, and decide to head for Weikershiem/Laudenbach (ASCI-611).

This does mean we are missing out Rothenburg, but given that we have now done three medieval towns, we cannot summon much enthusiasm to walk around another one in the pouring rain.

Getting out of Rothenburg turns out to be something of a nightmare.

The Tomtom directs us down a road which is closed. Not sure why it is closed, all the signs are (understandably) in German. Our only options are ahead, which has a height limit too low for us, or a left turn into a car park. Fortunately the car pack has room to allow us to turn around.

We try following the signposts, for a diversion, but we run out of signs and end up at the bottom of a very steep hill, in a very small road, in a village, at yet another road closed sign. We are accompanied by a large German lorry, towing an equally large trailer. I manage to keep out of his way, while he attempts to turn around, which he does manage to do, but not before flattening a road sign, with the trailer. He does not seem too worried about this, as he smiles to us, and shrugs his shoulders French style.

At a junction at the top of the hill again, the German lorry stops, and waits until another passing lorry gives him directions, we opt to follow him, given that he is bigger than us, and if he can get past, so can we, until eventually the Tomtom begins giving us sensible directions again.

Weikershiem/Laudenbach – Schwabenmuhle – ASCI-2010-611

I hesitate to say this, but the rain has stopped. For the first time in I think four days, the sun is shining and we can actually see some blue sky!

This site is also in the Stellplatz book, and there is an area just outside of the site, which looks like you could park there. But inside the site everything is brand new, most of it looks as if it has never been used before, it is excellent. The owner and his daughter, do not really speak English, but they try hard, and with a bit of English, a bit of German and a bit of arm waving, we manage to communicate.

We cannot help but notice, the Germans have World Cup fever. People have flags in their windows, flags on their cars etc etc. I know they have thrashed Australia 4-0, and today when we arrive at this site, the owner is too engrossed in the football on TV, to check us in, Kathleen tells him she will come back when the match has finished.

We find the church in the village, the sun is shining, so Kathleen is happy. Added to this, one of the chaps watching the football, apparently plays the Organ at the church, and he is called Albert, so she has a date with him (at church) on Sunday.

Saturday, I hardly dare say this, it is not raining!

It is hairdressing day, so it is decided we will do the cycling in the morning, before the hair washing etc.

There is a cycle track to the next village, Weikersheim, and it is reasonably flat. On our way we spot a Lidl and an Aldi, both within 3km of the campsite, just on the outskirts of Weikersheim.

There is nothing Kathleen likes better than to have a Lidl within cycling distance.

As you can see, there is a wedding in progress, they must have started early, it is only 10:15 and they are at the photographs stage.

Sorry, we still have the sideways photograph problem!

Weikersheim is another village full of buildings from the middle ages, and has a large square with cafes/bars around it, and lots of tables to sit having a drink and/or food.

This suggests, they usually have fine weather and warm sunshine here, although, some of the cafes do have blankets provided to wrap around you, while you sit enjoying your drink (I am not joking!).

Just at the end of the square, behind where the couple are having their wedding photographs taken, there is a Schloss or castle / stately home.

As you can see, it is a very grand affair, and dates back to 1400 and something, if my memeory is working.

This shot is of the courtyard in front of the main building.

It also has gardens, some of which are the "usual" formal rose garden type etc, but, the part I liked the best, was a "Witches and Spells Garden".

Here, in addition to all kinds of "magic" props, like animal bones, hideous masks etc, they have figures of witches sitting on broomsticks, with their pet Raven in attendance, perched high above the footpath where you walk.

There were other amusing little touches to do with superstitions, for example, as you walk along the path, you are forced to walk under a ladder, propped against the wall, because there is nowhere else to walk.

Plus there is this chap, a figure of a wizard or goblin, I am not sure which, sitting on the branch of a tree, watching you as you walk through the garden.

We cycle on towards Creglingen (this is about 19km away, I do not expect to get that far).

As we went along, we pass a Stellplatz at Rottingen (it is in the book). I linger to check it out, for Bryan and Joan.

Kathleen pedals on regardless, see later.

There are about 20 vans there (all German as far as I can see, not that it really matters).

It is opposite the fire station and alongside the river.

The green portacabin type buildings are showers and toilets, at the time we are passing, there is even a cleaner there, doing the necessary.

There is also the usual fresh water and waste empting point, plus Electric hook ups.

Once I have finished taking the photographs, I pedal on after Kathleen.

We have been following a well signposted cycle track, along the river. I continued following the track, through Rottingen, and on toward Creglingen.

I usually pedal quite a bit faster than Kathleen, so when I have not caught up with her after about two miles beyond Rottingen, I conclude, she is not in front of me, but must have taken a detour.

Fortunately, we have our mobile phones with us.

Needless to say, I get no answer when I call.

Shortly after, I receive a text, to say she is in the church at Rottingen. I turn around and peddle back, to Rottingen (seen here).

It is verbotten to comment on who's fault this little mix up was.

We set out, together this time, still heading toward Creglingen.

We make it as far at a place called Klinger, before it is decided we have gone far enough and we turn around and head back.

As you can see, the cycle track is excellent, making its way gently through lovely quiet countryside, and is more or less flat.

Although it looks deserted, except for Kathleen pedalling on ahead, there are actually quite a lot of people cycling along, or having a picnic at tables provided along the way.

We return to Weikersheim, and pause in the square for a beer, before pedalling back to the campsite, to complete a 23 mile ride.

After lunch, Kathleen disappears for the rest of the afternoon to do the hairwashing / drying / straightening.