Netherlands to Germany's "Romantische Strasse"

The castle in Wurzburg, beginning of the "Romantische Strasse"
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Sunday, 2nd November

Now we truly feel we are on our way – left our very good and kind friends in Den Haag (Netherlands) who had looked after us on arrival ex Aus beginning Oct and now once again as we leave for our trip, AT LONG LONG LAST!

We met Arnold Schwartzeneger!

Monday, 3rd November

An autumn scene in Schotten
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Set off from the Haag stopping at Rees (Westfalen just over the border from Netherlands) for 1 night then the next at Scotten (Hessen, ENE of Frankfurt). The autumn colours were absolutely fantastic, haven’t seen the like of it since living in Eastern Canada! Chilly but warm in our motorhome. Scotten was a very small town in the Vogelsberg region which lies south east of Dusseldorf and north east of Frankfurt. Our first real taste of small town Germany. Beautifully kept buildings

Felt pretty proud of ourselves having mastered the emptying of the effluent, emptying of waste water and the lighting of the gas heater in the van! Just got to figure out why one or two lights aren’t working properly! Also hoistered the massive “Privacy Room” onto the top of the motorhome, it was pretty high up there and somewhat chilly!!! It takes up far too much room inside the van.

The town of Schotten
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Managed to camp for free at Schotten, parked up between other desolate motorhomes wandered around what appeared a full camp site but all the vans were locked up! Bathrooms were open so had long hot showers. REALLY wanted to pay but had to leave next morning having not seen a soul!

Not wanting to hurry as we head for the “Romantic Road” of Germany, or as they say Romantische Strasse. Cant believe, with all our travelling over the years neither of us have been to this part of the world. Decided that we’ll only drive 200-300kms a day, we’ve got all the time in the world!

Rothenburg - a Romantic Road German town
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Tuesday & Weds 4th & 5th November

First stop was Wurzburg where we found a site at Estenfeld and set up for 2 nights.

Wurzburg is on the River Maine is watched over by its Baroque masterpiece landmark Marienburg Fortress. The town is surrounded by vineyards and is a busy town with a central marketplace and many lovely buildings.

Thurs 6th November

Dinkelsbuhl - what a Christmassy spot!
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Back to our travels…..carried on down the Romantische Strasse stopping firstly at Rothenburg ob der tauber. In 1275 King Rudoph of Hapsburg made this city an Imperial Free City and between 1400-1525 experienced huge prosperity. However, this declined for the next 100 years. From 1800 onwards Franconian Rothenburg was annexed to Bavaria.

We adored this place having the most complete walled city we had ever seen – see pics.

We continue to be over impressed with the way Germany has kept its old cities intact keeping supermarkets and light industry on its’ perimeters. Everywhere is so clean! Being November the shops were loaded with festive fare and some windows were so beautiful we had to take lots of pics

A splendid row of houses in Dinkelsbuhl
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Same day onto Dinkelsbuhl, former Free Imperial Town and located in the middle of the Romantic Road. Should be a funny squiggle over the u but cant find one! Anyway once again loved the place. Tourist Office gave us a special FREE parking permit and parked right in the middle of town! Place had class! The magnificent old down has 16 towers, fortifications and old patrician buildings all under a preservation order.

Last stop for the day was Donauworth where we parked up in a Stellplatz, (Germany has areas for motorhomes mostly free and in large car parks where you can pay for power and water if required). First Stellplatz for us and there were about 6 vans parked so we felt quite safe. Donauworth has a small old centre, originally a fishing community which because it is located between 2 rivers is really an “island” in the Wornitz River.

Old southern gate to the city of Dinkelsbuhl
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Friday 7th Nov

Arrived at the fairy tale Castle featured on chocolate boxes and films - Neuschwanstein – the one with the turrets perched atop a massive rocky outcrop. The other - Hohenschwangau - is opposite and lower and squarer. Both were commissioned by King Ludwig 2nd in the 1800’s. built on the remains of very old buildings.

After the shock of having to pay 7 Euros to park the next shock of having to pay 9 Euros to see ONE of the castles wasn’t so bad! We walked all the way to the top firstly to save the money and secondly we needed the exercise only to find that we didn’t really have to pay at all if we only wanted to see the outside! However, it was pleasant to be shown around the castle by the Gov of California! I will be back!!! It was amazingly palatial inside with paintings featuring Wagners Operas as he build the castle in his honour, something we didn’t know before, so Arnold did his job well telling us this. The castle also featured Ludwigs private “man made cave” – (why?) room upon room with massive copper chandeliers adorned with loads of candles! In order to view the castle we had to climb floor upon floor of enclosed spiral concrete staircases……Mike was not happy! The fact that this castle was built where it was is a testament to the designer (cant remember his name but he was German of course!).

Neuschwanstein Castle where "Arnie" showed us around!
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As it was late we found a magnificent campsite on the Forggensee Lake just outside Schwangau. Expensive but full of Germans even tho it was winter, they were due to close for 6 weeks the next day!