Romantic Road

On Monday, we were due to take in the sights along the Romantic Road, ending up in Heidelberg on Tuesday afternoon.  We hadn’t devoted much time to planning these two days, so I made an executive decision that we would check out Nordlingen and Dinkelsbuhl, before stopping for the night at Rothenberg ab der Tauber (pre-booked to stay at Hotel Eisenhut).  But first, I had to collect the rental car!

It was easy to find the main Hertz office near the Hauptbahnhof (main train station); I waited a few minutes while the Americans in front of me almost argued with the German staff member that their destination was in Austria when he was telling them it was actually in Germany!  Then I was informed I had to walk up the street a little to collect the car (and make sure I asked at the office there for the child seat for X).  As it was no more than 500m away, I set off in the morning sunshine quite happily.  I arrived at the location, asked for the child seat, got it (and thought it looked like X would barely fit, despite me being asked and telling them that Xavier was three years old).  Dragged car seat to the lift foyer to find a few people in front of me, that the lifts were made for miniature people and that no more than three people would fit in each.  As such, my trip to the sixth floor was somewhat delayed but eventually I got there and ascended the final stairs to the seventh (lift stopped at six for some reason).  Walked onto the roof of the parking station and found the car readily.  I wondered whether I’d been allocated a smaller car than I booked but quickly checked the class listed on my confirmation and the class on the keyring and found at least a nominal match (although I still query whether class G really is the same as class G6 as I was expecting something just a bit larger – anyway I digress).  Then I spent 10 minutes trying to work out how to fit the child seat.  It eventually became clear that the notion of service was different in Germany, as the car was also not very clean.  I eventually reconciled myself to the fact that that was just how it was and exited the car park very gingerly, noting that driving on the right hand side was equally unfamiliar and anxiety-inducing every time I did it and reflecting that the last time was 2013!

Made it back to the hotel, found a spot right outside, loaded up the car and away we went.  We found our route affected by a few diversions but we negotiated the autobahn and its absence of speed limits, as well as the roadwork-induced detours, reasonably well with the help of the in-car GPS and Google Maps. Our first stop was Nordlingen, where we parked outside the old walls, walked through the archway gate and briefly explored the main church before settling in for one of our many bakery/sandwich shop lunches.  We had about four or five very similar, traditional German bread shop/cafe options to choose from for lunch within a 20m radius of each other in this tiny town.  They certainly love their bread, cake and schinken (ham), kase (cheese) and tomaten (tomato) rolls for lunch!  We then walked for a bit around the walls that encircled the town before heading off to Dinkelsbuhl.

Inside the cathedral in Nordlingen

Walking around the Nordlingen town walls

X being silly!

This town was a genuine throwback to a previous age.  It was a bit like a fairy tale, with its cobbled streets, variously coloured traditional German buildings, large church in the middle of town, quiet side streets, etc.  We indulged in what proved to be a disappointing local delicacy – schneeballen (snowballs) – which were quite large balls of pastry, deep fried and coated variously in things like chocolate, icing sugar, icing (we got a banana version), as we inspected the church and a few shops and explored some streets running off the main thoroughfare.  We walked briefly through a small park to the car to make our way to Rothenburg.

In Dinkelsbuhl

Another view of Dinkelsbuhl

Square outside the cathedral in Dinkelsbuhl

Again, on arrival, we were confronted with a picturesque, ‘olde world’ place, the largest of the three we had visited this day, and wound our way through the streets with the help of our GPS resources, to our hotel.  Avoiding pedestrians and any unhappy wrong turns (doing a three point turn in any of the streets was an impossibility and one way streets abounded, so any mis-navigation could have led to a lengthy circling around the town), we made it and disembarked to check-in at about 3.30pm, before taking a preliminary look around the town.

One of the many imposing town gates in Rothenburg

X making friends in Rothenburg!

Hotel Eisenhut's second building (across from where we stayed)

Random street view in Rothenburg

View from town walls near Hotel Eisenhut

Across the road and next to our hotel was a renowned Christmas shop, selling all sorts of toy soldiers, tree decorations and other yuletide-related things.  We wandered through the Marktplatz (marketplace) square and looked in some other souvenir shops, looking out for attractive dinner options while doing so.  We eventually wound our way back to our hotel for a brief rest before we determined to go out for dinner.  The number one restaurant based on Trip Advisor was fully booked so we plumped for our back-up option, called Klosterstuble, set down a few steps on a side-street just off the road we were staying on.  Again quite busy, we were able this time to nab a table for one of our most enjoyable meals so far.  Schnitzel, fried chicken and maultaschen (big ravioli-type pasta parcels) all went down a treat.

The next morning, we went to seek out breakfast (not included in the hotel rate on this occasion) and again found ourselves at a German cafe/bakery, one of the very few places open at 8am, for X to enjoy a giant pretzel and the rest of us to consume a variety of pastry delights, including chocolate croissants, along with coffee to get us going.  We explored Rothenburg further on foot, walking along the town walls for a while, stumbling across a nifty playground where X burned some of his post-breakfast energy and finding a scenic look out point and gardens which overlooked the surrounding hills and valleys.  It was an aesthetically impressive place.  Took a quick peek in the main church then circled back to the hotel to get back into the car; destination Wurzburg, a larger town about an hour away.

It was here we encountered the slightly schizophrenic, self-hating, arrogantly bureaucratic attendant in the only place we were determined to visit in Wurzburg - the Residenz.

View of Residenz from attached gardens

The palace was commissioned by the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn and his brother Friedrich Carl von Schönborn in 1720, and completed in 1744. The Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, assisted by his son, Domenico, painted frescoes in the building.

Another vista from the garden

We parked right out the front, which was a huge boon in any European city, grabbed a bite to eat just across the road then headed back to purchase our tickets.  We wandered through the first room, which overlooked the perfectly manicured gardens, and the ceiling of was unbelievably decorated with images reminiscent of other buildings of this era.  Then up the grand staircase, again inspecting images painted on the entire ceiling of the two storey atrium, with each side apparently representing the four continents (could have fooled me that there were only four, but I guess the images were painted before people knew much about Australia and Antarctica and perhaps even South America) - (North) America, Africa, Asia and Europe were pictorialised.  Thereafter, we were able to walk through some of the rooms of the Residenz.  As we entered the first, X was becoming a bit restless, so was stamping his feet and complaining relatively loudly.  As it happened, one of us was also taking photos of some notable feature in the room.  Just as Linton threatened X that 'the man' would go mad at him if he didn't quieten down, the attendant shouted across the large space, for all intents and purposes, rendering Linton's ultimatum to Xavier a reality.  We looked at each other as if to say "How did that guy even know (or hear) that you were threatening his intervention?"  'The man' then popped his head into the next room before returning to the first, just as one of us took another photo.  As it turned out, the guy's first outburst had been to berate us for taking photos.  Seeing us doing it again put him into a quasi-rage, and he shouted at us, again in German.  At this stage, X was being an angel, so it was clear he was not playing along with us but was instead infuriated that we had apparently ignored his first command to not take photos.  Eventually, I said to him that we didn't speak German and he re-issued his instruction in English.

One of the offending photographs inside the Residenz

Example of ceiling frescoes inside Residenz

Thereafter, we were pretty much followed, at a few steps' distance, through all the rooms that were open for inspection.  At one point, I overhead him talking to one of his colleagues in German about the earlier incident (my very basic German was enough to get the gist) and I asked "Alles OK?" (Is everything OK?).  I followed up with "I heard you talking about me.  Is everything OK?"  At this, I think he must have though that my earlier claims to not speak German were manufactured and I suspect he was looking for any reason to exercise some overly officious discretion to exclude me/us from the place. He took particular interest in the child carrier backpack, asking me whether it was allowed.  I offered "You tell me" and he then got on his walkie talkie to enquire as to its permissibility.  He must have come up empty handed because apart from making some snide remark about the "mother-son duo" (by this time, Linton had moved ahead of Mum and I), we continued through the final few rooms without any overt interruptions, although the close personal surveillance continued (I wonder if this is what the Queen feels like, with people on her tail all the time?!).  It was a shame really, as the building was really grandiose and it would have been nice to enjoy some of its atmosphere without the implication that our taking photos represented some type of criminal intent, but we spent some time in the beautifully manicured gardens, reflecting on how much the guy clearly disliked his job and certainly could not be considered an ambassador for German historical attractions.

The drive to Heidelberg was scheduled for around two hours and it was largely unremarkable.  We got caught up in some late afternoon roadwork-peak hour traffic conflagrations but otherwise enjoyed the picturesque countryside - well as much of it was was visible driving at 120km/h along the truck-heavy autobahns.  Certainly, it was increasingly clear how Germany manages to generate such a high proportion of its electricity from renewable sources, as there were wind power turbines around every corner. 

We were expertly guided to our hotel (Hotel Eden am Fruh) by Google and Linton and arrived about 4pm, with a quick middle-of-the-street car decanting out the front, before I found a nearby spot to park.  The hotel had limited reception hours and a self-check in facility, whereby you entered all your details and then the little machine at the front door spat out the card-key to access the hotel common areas and the room.  As it happened, the reception was staffed at the time but the main door was closed and we didn't read the sign properly, so after spending ten minutes keying in all our details, one of the reception staff came to the door and told us we could have checked-in inside!  Oh well, we avoided that particular interaction quite effectively!

The car was due back to Hertz and we'd managed to arrive just in time to allow time to refill the petrol tank and get the car to the depot half an hour before they closed.  I returned to the city on the tram and then we determined to mix things up a bit and have Indian for dinner.