Dinkelsbuhl, Nordlingen, Donauworth – Romantic Road

Dinkelsbuhl

Our next stop along the Romantic Road was the very beautiful walled town of Dinkelsbuehl which is about 30 miles south from Rothenburg.  Again what makes it special is its wonderful fairy-tale visions of the numerous colourful and historic half-timbered buildings and massive churches.  The town was not damaged by the two world wars, so the medieval buildings remain.

 

Unlike Rothenburg, Dinkelsbuhl was a lot quieter without the hoards of tourists.  It is definitely a little gem and worth a visit to this Bavarian town which dates back over 400 years. Worth visiting here is the Minster of Saint George which is a beautiful church built in the middle of the 15^th century.  The inside architecture is really amazing.

We parked up at a Stellplatz just across the road from the town’s entrance, which made it really easy to go in and visit.  The weather was a bit chilly with heavy cloud but it was still pleasant to walk around admiring the pretty buildings and churches and enjoying a cup of coffee and piece of cake at a local café.  I bought a pair of shoes in one of the shops too although the next day I saw them 15 euros cheaper in another town, so wasn’t so happy.

Camping Details:

Stellplatz:  N49˚4’41”  E10˚19’45”

Nordlingen

Another attractive town we visited in the central part of the Romantic Road was Nordlingen.  Again a walled medieval town and even less crowded than Rothenburg and Dinkelsbuhl.  The town is located in the crater of a meteorite impact and its impressive tower is built of the rock formed from the impact.  The town has a Railway Museum which houses steam, diesel and electric locomotives (not that it interested us enough to see).  You can climb the steps to the top of St George tower for a stunning view of the town and miles and miles beyond.

Pigs must have some significance to the town as there were models of them outside many of the shops, each one was painted to reflect the business of the shop.

We didn’t stay too long in this town just spent half a day looking around before heading to the next town.

Great name for a hairdresser – “Hairkiller”

Camping Details:
Stellplatz sat nav co-ordinates: N48˚51’19” E10˚29’1”

Donauworth

On the same day we visited Nordlingen we travelled a bit further down the road to Donauworth.  It was early afternoon so thought we would park up in a Stellplatz near the town.  It wasn’t until we had locked up and started to walk away from our motorhome that we noticed the types of units parked in the stellplatz part of the car park.  Amongst the motorhomes were caravans and vans and the owners were cleaning their vans.  It didn’t take us long to work out that there were more gipsies parked up there than motorhomers like ourselves.

We decided to carry on into the town but I didn’t feel at all comfortable and worried the whole time we were walking around. So much so that we just took a few photos and came straight back not even stopping for our normal coffee and leisurely people watching.  All was well when we got back to the motorhome but instead of staying the night we got the books out again and found a Stellplatz at Augsburg which was our next planned town.

Donauworth is small but impressive with colourful houses and flower pots. It’s a nice little town but perhaps the least beautiful of the villages and towns we have seen so far on the Romantic Road. Two rivers Danube and Vernits flow together to meet here.  The centre of Donauworth is reached through one of what was originally four massive town entrances – the Rieder Tor.  The town centre is filled with historic buildings.

We arrived at the Stellplatz in Augsburg to lovely sunshine so enjoyed sitting outside taking in the sun and chatting to an Australian family that pulled on just after us.  It was interesting talking to them especially as they were taking a year to tour Europe with their 2 young children whom they were homeschooling. We swopped blog addresses and have enjoyed reading about their travels.  So brave to be doing something like this with children but in a way I wish we could have done it when ours were young – what a great way to learn.

Although the Stellplatz was by a lovely river we were parked up a little way from it behind a bush and trees the other side of which was a busy main road.  The traffic was quite noisy so it wasn’t the ideal overnight stop.

The following morning we cycled in the direction of Augsburg along the river.  We got a little lost and didn’t find the part of Augsburg that everyone talks about.  By this time we were feeling we didn’t really want to visit any more big towns, it was cloudy, misty and damp so we turned back to go on to the next place.  Perhaps if we ever pass through the Romantic Road in the future we may go back to see what we missed.