Greetings, all!

We returned to Dresden on Friday night after our trip to Prague. On Saturday morning, there was a lot of housekeeping and preparation for the next stop. We just didn’t have time for was grocery shopping and we were really dangerously low in groceries this time. By the time we were ready to leave, the grocery stores were closed for the weekend. We learned one thing about Germany when we visited in 2002 and that is that almost everything closes at about 3 p.m. on Saturday and stays closed until Monday. Gas stations stay open, as well as restaurants and cafes, but stores are closed.

We had wanted to visit Nurnberg, but there didn’t seem to be a campground nearby. There is so much to see no matter where you go, that we simply abandoned Nurnberg and decided instead to drive along the road that the German tourist industry has labeled "Der Romantiche Strasse". It is not really a street – and I’m not sure it’s romantic – but it does include some absolutely beautiful medieval towns with very old buildings, churches, castles and palaces. We found a campground just outside a town named Bamberg, and settled in while heavy rain came down.

Next morning (Sunday) we drove into the town. We could see that it was beautiful, so we wanted to look around. We made a valiant effort to park the RV. In fact, we found a "Park & Ride" with an area set aside for motorhomes. We parked but could not ride. Apparently it was a "Never on Sunday" type of operation. We bought two tickets from the machine, and waited in the rain a long time for the bus to appear. Then we noticed the posted bus schedule. There was no indication of bus service on Sunday.

Ron in particular finds that the precise scheduling of all German public transit is amazing. You can almost set your watch on the bus, tram and train schedules. We have waited for many busses and trams and, so far, not one has been more than a minute and a half later than their scheduled time. At some stops there is a sign with lighted printing that keeps changing, reporting how many minutes until each bus or tram or subway will appear at the stop. And the vehicle inevitably comes in that many minutes! In this case we waited five minutes past Saturday’s posted time. Foolish. Two minutes would have been enough.

Regretfully, we left Bamberg without seeing much, and began to drive further west to other cities on the so-called romantic highway. First stop, Wurzburg.

We pulled off the highway into a pretty empty parking lot. In front of us was a beautiful, enormous building. Having read the guidebook, we were pretty sure that this was the Residenz – a palace that is Wurzburg’s pride and joy (This is a view of a part of the Residenz, a palace in Wurzburg)

We walked around the town, viewing some very pretty buildings and lots and lots of closed shops (it being Sunday). We had lunch in one of the few open cafes. After we ordered, Ron asked the waiter if he could sell us four raw eggs so that we could make them for dinner. The young man became one of our favorite people – he got us the four eggs. Much later that evening, we had a delicious dinner with his four eggs and the few things we had left in the refrigerator.

We did walk through the residence. The Italian artist Tiepolo had done a great deal of work here, including two large frescos. The larger one was at the top of a huge stairway (supposed to be the largest Baroque staircase in Europe). Unfortunately, they are repairing the staircase, and we couldn’t see that fresco. His smaller work was an absolutely gorgeous ceiling in a large room and that was there for all to see. In addition to the frescos another large room contained many Tiepolo paintings and engravings. The palace was – well, very "palace-like". Huge rooms, gorgeous ceilings, lots of gold and way too ornate for modern taste. The garden on the other hand was green, orderly, full of flowers and beautiful. After having coffee and a pastry to revive ourselves, we continued on our way south.

Our guidebook listed several campgrounds in the walled town of Rothenberg. One was a city campground that was only a parking lot, but with a "WC" in the Park & Ride building. The description said "only for motor caravans", which is what they call motorhomes in Europe. We got the last free spot about 3 pm. We decided to go there because the book said it was a five-minute walk into the city. And it was!

That parking lot is worth a few words of description. We have never seen anything like it. Ron actually counted the motorhomes that were parked there. Would you believe there were 78 motorhomes (Just a few of the motorhomes parked in the Park & Ride at Rothenberg). And three caravans (trailers) that were not supposed to use the place. They were not just parked. They were full of people who stayed the night as we did. Many were German but the next largest group were Italians. The Romantic Road is not far from Italy. The fee for parking here is 6 Euros and one buys the ticket from a machine. But two people in an RV near us told us that the machine was "kaput"—out of order. Everyone stayed free that night. The parking area was divided into two sections and one of the sections (not ours) had electric outlets which you could plug into. Electricity flowed after you dropped coins in a slot. Another coin-operated device supplied fresh water and included an in-ground du! mp for motorcaravan waste. However, this, too, was inoperative. The town lost a lot of money that night. But most of the people in those RV’s went through the town, bought stuff, and ate in the restaurants. So the merchants did OK.

The best thing about the place, though, was that it really was only a five-minute walk to town. And what a town! We loved it. More than any other place we have seen this trip, it is really a medieval town (Looking down the main street of the medieval town of Rothenberg) with an intact protective wall. It was a joy to walk around, even though there was intermittently heavy rain. Most of the shops were closed, of course. The restaurants were open and very inexpensive, but we had our eggs to eat so we passed. We looked in the windows of the shops, saw most of the town – including the ramparts, the church, etc. – and finally made our way "home" just in time for the rain to come teeming down. But we were nice and dry and we even had four eggs to eat for dinner.

In the morning we left the campground and began our journey anew. First stop – a supermarket to replenish our supplies. Then it was off to look at two more towns on The Romantic Road. First town on our list was Dinkelsbuhl. We got into town but could not find a place we could park. We talked it over, and decided that we could do without seeing so many towns, and drove off to see Nordlingen im Ries.

As we got off the highway, we did see a parking lot, but there were lots of signs for other parking, so we followed them – through a medieval arched gate and through the town. It should be noted that we know how high our rig is in meters so we knew we would fit through that arch. None of the parking places were good for us, so we turned and entered that original parking lot. We found a spot that we could use. We stuck out a little over the white line, but there was room enough for other cars to maneuver, so we left the RV there and went into town. No one bothered about it.

It sounds silly to keep saying it was a beautiful town, but it was true. You can still walk all around the city walls; the towers and gates are all there (A view down the street in Norlingen showing buildings that have been renovated), and the buildings are beautiful. Many have been renovated – but there are still some that show their age and are in need of TLC (One of the not-yet renovated buildings in Nordlingen). The new buildings are painted in more vibrant colors, but most are pastel colors, the style is 16th century. We walked around as much as we could, bought some things, and then left. We wanted to see other towns.

Next projected stop was Danauworth. Not that there was so much to see in that town, but we could not pass up the opportunity to see the Danube River which runs through it. We drove through town – again through a medieval gate – but again there was nowhere easily available for parking. So we turned around and retraced our steps to the highway. There were lovely old buildings, and we were able to see them as we drove by. We headed for a town named Augsburg after its founder, the Roman Emperor Augustus. We were on the same two-lane road we had been traveling. Unfortunately, that road disappeared and a construction detour made connecting to the highway a bit difficult, but we did find our way, and spent the night at a campground in Augsberg. We got there early enough to go into the city, but this was a difficult place for touring v ehicles. The huge "platz" for transients was in the third field, after two huge fields of "statics" – and it is a 500 meter walk to the reception a! rea. That’s not good for two old geezers like us. We simply stayed at the campground and abandoned all thoughts of seeing Augsberg.

We are getting close to Italy – but the next day we drove on to Munich.

More later.

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