14th
July 2016
Weinsberg
to Kirchberg an der Jagt
Sector 74 miles
Total 5096 miles
Continuing,
more or less along the Burgenstrasse into Bavaria (which I discovered today is
about 1200km long) through Waldenburg and Swabisch Hall to end up in a small
parking area below the old town of Kirchberg an der Jagt and its extensive eighteenth century baroque palace
of the Hohenloe’s perched on the hillside above. Oddly, the palace seemed to be
filled with Arabic refugees occupying many of the empty rooms in the residence.
I guess if Frau Merkle invites a million Syrians to Germany they have to stay some
where!
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| Kirchenberg - Town Ditch and Walls |
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Kirchenberg - Old Town and Palace
|
15th
July 2016
Kirchberg
an der Jagt to Ansbach
Sector 36 miles
Total 5132 miles
On through
more rolling and often wooded countryside with wide open fields (few walls or
fences giving a very open aspect) passing through the walled medieval town of Rothenburg ob de Tauber to end up at a aire on the edge of
the town of Ansbach.
The main attraction here is the former palace of the Margraves of Bradenburg-Ansbach.
Unfortunately, the tour was in German as was most of the information! However,
a series of rooms in the rococo style included an impressive banqueting hall
with painted ceiling and a tiled room with 2800 tiles from the local porcelain
factory. Porcelain manufacture became important in Bavaria
from the mid-eighteenth century and there are still a large number of factories
operating and even a Porzellainstrasse in north-eastern Bavaria. Also encountered
a large Orangery, now a concert hall, in
the park next to the palace. An ice-cream van visited the aire in the late
afternoon and providing welcome refreshment.
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| Ansbach - Orangery and immaculate borders |
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| Ansbach - Margrave's Palace |
16th
July 2016
Ansbach to
Windsbach
Sector 15 miles
Total 5147 miles
A short hop
further east on the Burgenstrasse, after pottering around Ansbach in the
morning, to a quite aire adjacent to fields an a brook at the edge of the village of Windsbach with the obligatory town gates.
Everywhere seems to be totally closed in Germany from about lunchtime
Saturday when all the small local shops close. Sort of like parts of the UK forty years
ago, I remember that being the case in Stroud. The German’s are not into seven
day retail for sure. Most supermarkets are shut on a Sunday.
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| Windsbach - Lower Town Gate |
17th
July 2016
Windsbach
to Abenburg
Sector 9 miles
Total 5156 miles
A short hop
to Abenburg, stopping at an aire next to a ‘swimming pond’ and convenient
bakery, on the outskirts of the small town. The castle forms a distinctive
hill-top silhouette. Showers and other facilities available to all and of
course free to use at the pond. Some biking in the late morning, lazing by the
pond in the afternoon and forestry walking in the evening.
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| Abenburg - Kloister and Wooded Hills for evening stroll |
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Abenburg - Hilltop Castle
|
18th
July 2016
Abenburg to
Heiligenstadt
Sector 100 miles
Total 5256 miles
Wanting to
avoid Nurnberg (which is about the size of Edinburgh) and the relatively large
towns adjacent resulted in a confusing drive on various autobahns including
going totally the wrong way on at least two occasions. When there are road
works and single lane working just a two normal sized speed restriction sign
are required to ensure that all the traffic slows to 80kph or whatever the
posted limit is - none of the nonsense of endless signage and average speed
cameras etc that we are encumbered with in the UK. Also, temporary lanes are
demarcated by thick yellow lines - which makes things much clearer than the
white lines used in the UK.
After the autobahn, through what is known as Franconian-Switzerland - a network
of deep limestone valleys and gorges with hidden villages and small hillside
castles, to end up at Heiligenstadt for the night. Very hot the last few days 34C in the afternoons so try
and chill out in some shade. Evening walk through forestry at the edge of the
town to the virtually hidden Greifenstein
Castle. Germany is
filled with so many well way-marked walking and cycling routes.
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| Heiligenstadt |
19th
to 20th July 2016
Heiligenstadt
to Baunach
Sector 25 miles
Total 5281 miles
A short hop
along the Burgenstrasse to Baunach to stop at an aire next to the sports field
on the edge of the village. In the late afternoon a bike ride down to the town
of Bamberg on the River Main, about 15 km south of Baunach, with
its Imperial Palace, Town Hall (on a bridge), Dom and Bishop’s Residence built
around seven small hills. The next day a couple of 10km, or so, forestry walks
in the morning and early evening – trying to avoid the worst of the heat. It is
amazing how carefully the Germans undertake their forestry often with mixed
planting which some how manages to produce twenty plus metre oaks and beeches
with perfectly straight main trunks some ten or fifteen metres high. Also none
of the mass cutting down of plantation forests that is so common in Scotland
resulting in hectares of desolate forestry waste and no re-planting. Trees seem
to be taken out selectively leaving the bulk of the forest intact and
sustainable.
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| Bamburg - Town Hall |
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| Bamburg - The Old Town |
21st
July 2016
Baunach to Ebern
Sector 9 miles
Total 5290 miles
Driving
along I saw a sign to an aire that I had not planned to stop at so headed for
the walled medieval town of Ebern
with typical Bavarian style domed church and town wall towers. Dozing the
afternoon I was woken by the Aire warden demanding payment of six euros for the
privilege of staying. I was well p****d, it was the first time I have had to
pay to stop anywhere this trip – and explains why it wasn’t planned as a
stop-off for the night! Lazy day just
pottering around the town walls in the cool of the evening.
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| Ebern - Catholic Bavaria - St Hubert I think |
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| Ebern - Town Gate and Wall Tower |
22nd
July 2016
Ebern to
Heldberg
Sector 16 miles
Total 5306 miles
Back along
the Burgenstrasse to my originally intended destination of the previous day,
the free aire Heldburg. Actually, in Germany these mobile-home stop-offs
are not called aires ,which is the French word but Stellplatz. Again next to
playing fields on the edge of another walled town full of large half-timbered
three and four storey houses. This place looked as if it hadn’t changed much since
the nineteenth century.
The
highlight here was the ‘Franconian Beacon’ castle perched on a prominent hill
top about two kilometres above the village. Climbed up to in the cool of the
evening, at which time it had closed. In the afternoon I had cycled round the
area and cam across some information boards about the old East German border
that wound its way through these parts. On one there was a very poignant photograph of a group of East
Germans in their Sunday best standing at the nine metre razor wire fence and
the ten metre wide mine field looking down the road to the Federal Republic
village of Westhausen, just about 200m
down the cut-off road. All that remains today is the East German concrete
border patrol road. Hard to believe that that was only twenty-seven years ago.
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| Helderg - From the Aire |
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| Heldburg - The Franconian Beacon - Veste Heldberg from the Aire |
23rd
to 24th July 2016
Heldberg to
Rodental
Sector 29 miles
Total 5335 miles
A short
late morning’s drive through more hilly forestry and open farm land to Coburg, where the town aire had been taken over by a fair,
to finally end up some 6km away at an aire on the edge of a park on the
outskirts of the small town of Rodental.
Cycling the afternoon I came across the small Rosenau
Castle in parkland grounds, that
included a Museum
of Modern Glass. This
area was the realm of the Dukes of Saxe Coburg (source of Prince
Albert husband of Queen Victoria)
and according to my guide book this was her favourite residence when visiting
the in-laws. There are another three Saxe Coburg residences in the area – the
Veste Coburg (the original fortified seat high above the town), a town palace
and a summer palace. Goodness knows where all the money came from to maintain
them in such a life style! The duchy was far from extensive – the residents
must have been taxed to death to pay for it all. Most of the next day was spent
at the Veste Coburg with endless rooms of arms (cross bows, countless firearms,
pikes), armour (including a couple of
complete sets of horse armour and what appeared to be an arsenal of seventeenth
century body armour and helmets), porcelain, glass and goodness knows what
else. Also there were some rooms where Martyn Luther spent a few months on his
way to the Convention of Augsburg with the then Pope. Again and abiout the
fourth time in Germany found myself walking along yet another branch of the Way
of St James.
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| Schloss Rosneau - Queen Victoria's favourite residence in Coburg |
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| Coburg - Veste Coburg |
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| Coburg - Veste Coburg |
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| Coburg - Town Palace |
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| Coburg - Statue of Prince Albert in the Main Square |
25th
July 2016
Rodental to
Kirkenlamitz
Sector 96 miles
Total 5431 miles
I had intended
stopping off in Bayreuth
to take in some of the Wagner experience. Had an image of a small town
encircled by mystical forested hills. But, I was disappointed to encounter some
thing approaching a minor metropolis with a university and ring roads. So Bayreuth took a miss and I headed on passing the through the
gold mining town of Goldbach
to a parking area in Kirkenlamitz. The secular architecture seems to have
changed as Bohemia
is approached – few half- timber framed houses they are now usually rendered masonry
or half-timbered with vertical weather boarding on the upper storeys.
Encountered a strange labyrinth constructed out of massive blocks of granite
constructed above the town in 2009 as a reminder of the now defunct quarrying
of granite which was used worldwide.
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| Kirkenlamitz - The Granite Labyrinth |
26th
July 2016
Kirkenlamitz
to Arzberg
Sector 16 miles
Total 5447 miles
Essentially
completed the German section of the Burgenstrasse and decided to have a few
days wandering around the German-Czech border. This town is actually on the Porzellainstrasse.
Pleasant stop over at the edge of town next to the Town Hall, with a small
park, woods, stream together with free electric hook-up and free internet.
Useful for getting up-to-date with emails and the blog.
