The Romantic Road

(Sorry for the delay - this area has poor wifi service. I will do two posts at once and there may be a delay again later)

I woke up early this morning to walk the streets of Rothenburg one more time, without so many other people and autos filling the streets. It was wonderful. The top photo is the classic Rothenburg photo you can find all over. Of course, I will like this one more because I took it.

As a boost for tourism, Germany designated a path from near Würzburg to Füssen as the “Romantic Road”, connecting particularly cute towns along it’s path. Rothenburg is the centerpiece. The name is deceptive, though, because it implies there is something special about the road, itself. There isn’t. It’s just a two-lane rural road like any other, except with more tourists than usual. We saw several of those highlighted towns & villages, but to save time, we used the faster motorway when possible.

Not every town is a winner. On the way to Rothenburg the other day, we stopped in Creglingen and it was a dud. Not only was there not much to see, but on a Saturday afternoon, the town was almost empty and the shops were closed. But today, we hit the towns south of Rothenburg, on our way to the foothills of the Alps in Füssen.

Our first stop was Dinkelsbühl and it was so cute it was almost too cute. Like a cake with too much frosting, it left me wondering if there was any “there” there. In other words, it looked like a town that existed to be seen as cute, not to house a community.

Our next stop was Nördlingen, a walled town with the wall still entirely in tact. Here the frosting was much thinner. It looked more like a town where people stilled lived. We climbed the central church tower, saw the bells and a great panoramic view of the city. It was amusing to note all the neighboring villages visable from the tower (since they dot the countryside every couple of miles). I counted 15 visable from the tower.

Our third stop was the village of Donauwörth, the smallest of the three, and most ordinary. It was attractive, but paled next to the others.

We made it to Füssen by 4PM to get our bearings and check into our cottage rental (which is actually in neighboring and quieter Schwangau). We chose this location because it faced the famous Neuschwanstein castle. We can see it from our balcony. When I was in college, I had a poster of that fanciful castle in my apartment. Tomorrow we get to see it and we’ll take lots of photos…