Wednesday, October 10th - Driving to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
Bob: Consoling ourselves with the thought that we could always come back to the Harz region whenever we visit Hamburg, we prepared to leave. After breakfast we reluctantly repacked our bags, jumped in the car and drove south by southwest on the A 7 Autobahn. Although overcast during the morning hours, we didn't have any rain and were able to make reasonably good time out of the Harz mountains and across a rolling plain. Curiously, we did run into heavy fog lying in the river valleys even though there was clear visibility with no fog at all on the ridgetops. That was odd and apparently dangerous since they had prepared special markings for the roads to slow us down just where we ran into the fog bank. Our Peugot 307 was equipped with fog lights and I was rather busy turning them on and off during our drive down to Rothenburg. We continued to enjoy the fall colors of the tracts of deciduous forest that we passed along the way. Much of the rolling plains had, understandably enough, been converted to cropland and was being intensively farmed or, less frequently, grazed by cattle or sheep. I even got caught behind a farm tractor pulling a large container of some type, and since it was a 2-lane road with a lot of oncoming traffic I just never had an opportunity to pass. The tractor built up quite a "Schlange" (literally: snake), the German word for a line of backed up cars, and when he finally turned off and we all quickly resumed a normal speed. The last stretch of interstate into Rothenburg was indicated by our Michelin map (# 718) to be particularly scenic, and it really was. Wooded hills stretched out in the distance while the valleys were typically cultivated with neatly arranged farms. The towns were small, picturesque, and usually nestled in the very bottom of each valley. It was probably the prototype of what folks think of when they think about the "old" or pre-industrial Germany. Monika was driving at that point and she coped with various construction zones while I enjoyed the scenery. We switched drivers and I turned off to see if we could find a placed to stay in Markbreit, a small town southeast of Wuerzberg that was nestled right on the Main River. Monika didn't like the look of the town that much; it was quite small and clearly not much would be going on there, so we backtracked to the interstate and continued south to Rothenburg on the Tauber River. We decided to try the Bayerische Hof, a bed and breakfast given a good rating by Frommer's guide, and signed up for a room there for the next few days. |
Monika: After a last breakfast in the Harz we packed up and headed first west to the town of Goettingen where we caught the interstate and then south for about 200 kilometers. The first part through the western reaches of the Harz was beautiful. The mountains were coverd with deciduous trees, and the fall foliage was quite pretty, although I missed the reds of the maples back home. Here the colors were mainly yellows and brown, but still nice. We passed one large lake before coming out into the flatter areas west of the Harz. Driving even the Bundesstrassen (like our major highways) was still somewhat slow, since it was hard to pass trucks and once we even had a farm tractor in front of us. But we did reach the Autobahn, 3 lanes in each direction: far right for the trucks, middle for trucks passing trucks and slower cars and left for the maniacs in Mercedes and BMWs. But Bob handled the traffic just fine. After an hour on the Autobahn, we stopped at a rest area with restaurant. I went to the bathroom. In these rest areas, bathrooms cost 50 cents. That is, before you can go through the turnstile to get in, you have to deposit 50 cents . But in exchange you get a coupon for 50 cents that you can redeem at the restaurant. I am collecting them, hoping to have enough for a cup of coffee sooner or later. The bathrooms themselves are superclean. The toilet seat is made out of a soft plastic. When you flush, it rotates through a cleaning apparatus, that leaves it slightly wet but quite clean for the next customer. Flushing is automatic, but not motion sensitive, you have to hold your hand next to a pad and voila, it flushes and cleans. After the stop, I got to drive a bit. I was quite legal, since we could add my name to the legal drivers for our car without additional fees. Shifting was a breeze, but the brakes were quite sensitive and the first couple brakes I sent Bob into his seatbelt. I adjusted the seat with Bob's pillow in back and after half an hour my back told me it didn't like the pillow. So next time I will take it out. Of course, I got into some street construction and had to be careful in the narrow lanes (EXACTLY 2 meters wide, or 7.5 feet) not to scrape or be scraped. But this way Bob also got to see some of the beautiful scenery that we were driving through. |
Bob: After settling into our room, which turned out to be a real, honest-to-god, non-smoking room, we took a walk to find a place for lunch and to see the old town. Lunch was a quick bite to eat at an Imbiss just outside the old city wall. Imbisses are usually cheap places to eat, but with limited seating. In this case the seating was all outdoor picnic tables, but since it had turned into a sunny and relatively warm afternoon, we were quite content to sit outside and munch our meals before heading in through an old city gate into the historic section of town. The historic section of Rothenberg lived up to our expectations. Many of the buildings were of the old half-timber construction, and others were of solid masonary and stucco, but they all were well-preserved and quite pretty examples of Medieval architecture. In the post WWII era the town became a famous tourist attraction, and it appeared to be economically prosperous when we visited. Indeed, we saw not a single vacant storefront as we crisscrossed the old town area, but we encountered a surprising variety of shops ranging from something akin to a "dollar store" in the U.S. to the usual types of tourist shops to the really nice art galleries, jewelry stores, and assorted boutiques. Once we crossed the historic area we went back out of the old city wall to see the river Tauber in the valley below, but the hillside was so choked with trees that neither of us could spot it despite knowing it was down there someplace. Still, it was a very pretty view out over the valley. We took a different route back through the historic area, stopping to pick up a German doll for Monika's collection and a Schnecke (pastry "snail") for dessert. Once we were outside the walls in the new section of the town we went shopping at a mini-mall near the train station and then curled back to our pension for the evening. |
Monika: After a little over an hour, we switched back and I enjoyed the scenery. Traffic started thinning after first the Autobahn to Frankfurt and then the Autobahn to Munich turned off. I had thought we might stay at the little village of Marktbreit 40 km north of Rothenburg since they had a regular Volksmarch event there and a year round. But when we took a turn through the city, we both did not care for it very much and decided to forge on to Rothenburg. Frommer's had recommended a small Gasthof just outside the walls of the city. Since Frommer's had steered us pretty well in Spain, we decided to take the advice. We found the hotel on the main street coming in from the Autobahn and it even had parking in the back. After a little checking, the landlady thought she had a free room for 4 nights and led us up to a cozy attic room. It looked comfy and at 70 Euros a night more than we had paid in the Harz, but on the other hand we were just outside one of the main tourist attractions of Germany. We brought our carry-ons upstairs and decided to look for lunch, an Internet Cafe, and the city in that order. Lunch turned out to be a small Imbiss, that had Salmon rolls - smoked Salmon cut up put on a bun with a pickle and onions on top. Bob decided that two of those would just about satisfy his hunger. I stayed with the traditional Bratwurst and rather tasty potato salad. Thus fortified, we continued into the walled city, taking pictures, stopping at stores, but looking in vain for an Internet Cafe. Since we were going to do the official Volksmarch of the city tomorrow, we decided to come back home. We stopped at a supermarket for some low fat meat, cheese, and yoghurt and at a bakery for Broetchen (hard rolls), before heading back to our hotel, without ever having seen an Internet Cafe. |
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