Summer 2016 - Third Post - Germany

14^th 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!

Kirchenberg - Town Ditch and Walls

 

Kirchenberg - Old Town and Palace

15^th 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.

Ansbach - Orangery and immaculate borders

 

Ansbach - Margrave's Palace

16^th 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.

 

Windsbach - Lower Town Gate

17^th 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.

Abenburg - Kloister and Wooded Hills for evening stroll

 

Abenburg - Hilltop Castle

18^th 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.

 

Heiligenstadt

19^th to 20^th 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.

Bamburg - Town Hall

Bamburg - The Old Town

21^st 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.

 

Ebern - Catholic Bavaria - St Hubert I think

Ebern - Town Gate and Wall Tower

22^nd 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.

 

Helderg - From the Aire

Heldburg - The Franconian Beacon - Veste Heldberg from the Aire

23^rd to 24^th 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.

 

Schloss Rosneau - Queen Victoria's favourite residence in Coburg

Coburg - Veste Coburg

Coburg - Veste Coburg

Coburg - Town Palace

Coburg - Statue of Prince Albert in the Main Square

25^th 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.

Kirkenlamitz - The Granite Labyrinth

26^th 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.

Summer 2016 - Second Post - Germay

3rd July 2016
Edinburgh to Tankerton
Sector 446 miles
Total 4386 miles

Finally, having sorted things out with the NHS, escaped from Scotland early Sunday morning and undertook the usual long tedious trek down the A1/A14/M11/A2/M2/A229 down to Whitstable to over night at my sister's place in Tankerton. 

4th July 2016
Tankerton to Malo-les-Bains
Sector 118 miles
Total 4504 miles

After an easy crossing from Dover to Calais, noticed that the illegals 'camp' at Calais looks like it has been rebuilt after having been pulled down by the French Authorities in April. Police cars all over the place. Anyway passed without incident and then pottered around a bit to end up at the free Aire at Malo-les-Bains. Essentially, the eastern extension of Dunkerque.

5th July 2016

Malo-les-Bains to Tournai (Belgium)

Sector 72 miles

Total 4576 miles

The motorways in north-eastern France and Belgium are free to use so I took the fast route after a damp morning walk along the promenade,to get some bread, to Tornai. Parked up there at a free Aire on the edge of a huge car park just outside the centre of the old town. Originally developed as a roman settlement (bits exposed in the north aisle of the cathedral) then later and important textile manufacturing town in Flanders in the early medieval period. with it's associated guilds. Weather brightened a little in the afternoon and had a wander around the Grand Place, Cathedral (mainly closed for restoration) and down to the River Scheldt - to see a huge barge pass beneath a vertical lift bridge in the town centre.

Tournai - Pont des Trous

Tournai - Grand Place
Banners represent the old trade guilds

Tournai - Bloody great barge passing through the middle of town

6th July 2016

Tournai - St Hubert (Belgium)

Sector 126 miles

Total 4702 miles

Initially motorway and then back roads through the province of Belgian Luxembourg (essentially part of the Ardennes) into wooded hills and ridges. to stop off at a free Aire, next to a park, in the cathedral town of St Hubert. 

St Hubert - Main Street through town

St Hubert - Cathedral Church and I think the visitors lodgings on the left

7th July 2016

St Hubert to Forneau St Michel (Belgium)

Sector 8 miles

Total 4170 miles

A few miles down the road to stay and a very quite aire surrounded by pine, birch and beech forest situated between an extensive museum of rural life, with numerous relocated buildings from schoolroom and church to barns and water mills, and an iron works museum. I discovered after I had been wandering around for about two hours that I should have paid an admission fee - reduced to 5euro for seniors! Another 5 euro saved. Later a long evenings walk through the forestry along a more or less blazoned trail.

Forneau St Michel -  Museum of Rural Life

8th July 2016

Forneau St Michel to Redagne (Luxembourg)

Sector 54 miles

Total 4764 miles

On through mainly wooded hills and ridges via Bastogne, of Battle of the Bulge fame in December 1944 where the 101st US Airborne were encircled with the well known response of 'Nuts' when requested to surrender. Stopped of at a free Aire on the edge of town next to a park with a huge supermarket (Cactus) just five minutes walk away mainly surrounded by arable fields.

Bastogne - Sherman Tank in the Grand Place

Redagne - Village Church

9th July 2016

Redagne to Echternach (Luxembourg)

Sector 32 miles

Total 4796 miles

Woods and rolling arable fields to end up near the German border late in the day at a free Aire at Echternach located on a huge landscaped parking area above a large lake and park a kilometre or so out from the town centre. Spent a couple of nights here and did a long walk on the second day along yet another branch of the Way of St James (last partially trodden by me in the Tarn valley last summer). Bloody hot on the Sunday afternoon at around 33C. Convenient supermarket at the edge of the car park and diesel only 0.923c per litre - the price seemed to be fixed in Luxembourg as far as I could work out from the free newspaper, in French, from the supermarket. Also of note was that, Luxembourg's immigrant population has increased by 12.5% since 2005 and now totals 47% of the population as a whole! Oddly the most populous group were Portuguese.

Echtnerbach - town and huge Kloister Church

Echtnerbach - Lake and Hills next to the Aire - There was a Roman Villa as well.

11th July 2016

Echtnerbach to Herrstein (Germany)

Sector 56 miles

Total 4852 miles

Into Germany through more wooded hills with huge conifers in the Hunsruch National Park to end up in a small aire at the edge of a typical German village with half-timbered houses, castle and a couple of churches (town church and castle church). Pleasant morning's walk a long a medieval themed trail before breakfast the next morning.

Herrstein - One of many elaborately carved  wooden doors

Herrstein - Square and Castle

Herrstein - Typically German

12 July 2016

Herrstein to Neckerbischofheim

Sector 115 miles

Total 4967 miles

Onwards and eastwards across the Moselle and Rhine to get on to the Burgenstrasse (a tourist route that eventually ends up at Prague) which I hope to follow for the next few days.

Small town with an aire next to the open air swimming pool - entrance fee 2.50euro - Edinburgh City Council about £6!  A really friendly German guy that has come to the aire to clean out his wohnmobile, after a trip to Italy, was kind enough to give me two guides to aires in Germany. It's really great when you met such helpful people - why can't it be like that all the time?

Neckerbischofheim - First 'burg' on the Burgenstrasse Route

13th July 2016

Neckerbischofheim to Weinsburg

Sector 56 miles

Total 5021 miles

Careful planning for a twenty five mile trip via a couple of castles became nearly sixty miles as I kept loosing the Burgenstrasse route from the signage - so much for Germanic efficiency! Any way ended up at Weinsburg, in a free aire near the centre of town, which is crowned by a circular hill surrounded by steeply sloping riesling vineyards and topped off by a late medieval castle.

Weinsburgh - Castle and Riesling - a few apples too.