The Romantic Road

6 May 2018

This was the part of our adventure that I had suggested, having found it in the wonderful “Journeys of the World” book given to us by Lizzie.  It is a route stretching down from Wurzburg to Fussen in Germany, incorporating various Bavarian medieval towns and castles.  Having left Ellwangen later than planned (something I suspect I will be writing regularly!) and on discovering that part of the route is closed and a large Umleitung was in place, we decided to pick up the route halfway down at Dinkelsbuhl, simply chosen as our starting point because I liked the name so much!  We agreed that we would mostly be driving without stopping, apart from a pit stop in Nordlingen for lunch.  Nordlingen is built on a meteor crater and the tower there is made from the rock from the meteor, which we sat next to as we waited for our lunch to be served.  And waited, and waited, and waited.  In fact, it was nearly an hour and a half from ordering to arriving.  I had a mixed salad, and I kid you not, it was literally a bag of mixed leaves with one cherry tomato (ONE!!!) and some, apparently homemade, dressing.  I was livid, but complaining in German was just one step too far for me.  I huffed and grunted a bit, and pointed at my watch, and then didn’t leave a tip.  How terribly British.  We are hoping that we have learned from the experience, that if we are waiting for more than about half an hour, we simply let them know that we will be leaving in five minutes, and only paying for our drinks. Raaaar.  So there!  Anyway, the whole painful experience cost us €45.  We cheered ourselves up with chocolate ice cream and coffees in a cafe around the corner, whilst gently burning our shoulders in the afternoon sunshine.

We were now so far behind with our original plan, that we decided to find a campsite near the final part of the route and cycle to Neuschwanstein Castle the next day – more of that tomorrow – and we were delighted to find that our newest campsite, in Lechbruck am See, had a fabulous pitch for us, right on the edge of the lake.  The scenery so far has been lovely, but this… well, this was extraordinary.  The Alps in the background, a massive lake, nineteen goslings and their various parents waddling around us.  But for the mosquitoes, this was absolutely perfect.