On the Romantic Road from Creglingen to Hochhausen
Thursday June 21, 2018
The day starts well. Each breakfast is served at the table, it seems with loving care, no breakfast buffet with pre-packed butter and jam here. The dining room also shows the same attention to detail. Each to his own taste, of course, but someone has gone to great lengths to decorate every available surface with bric-a-brac, trinkets or tchotchokes, call it what you will.
Breakfast at Gasthof Herrgottstal
Traditional wine jugs
Hand painted "Bocksbeutel", Franconian wine bottles
Some more decoration outside
And we are on our way.
We again have strong headwinds all day but it's warm. The morning is sunny, later in the day dark clouds build up - and the day darkens in more ways than one. However, as in the past three days, the clouds that look so grim never bring rain.
The Taubertal Bike Path is perhaps one of Germany's finest bicycle routes - and we had it mostly all to ourselves. I imagine July and August might see more cyclists, especially on weekends.
Idyllic countryside
Occasionally we encounter another cyclist.
Weikersheim, Bad Mergentheim, Tauberbischofsheim - all lovely towns that are on today's itinerary. I am having a hard time keeping them apart. Bad Mergentheim probably made the strongest impression. But first comes Weikersheim.
Here we are on the outskirts of Weikersheim.
Market Square of Weikersheim - In the background you can see the entry and part of the facade of the Renaissance Weikersheim Palace.
Today the palace is home to the Jeunesses Musicales Germany during the summer and the Weikersheim Think Tank. It is also used for large gatherings and weddings.
Unfortunately, only a small portion of the gardens is accessible without taking a guided tour. Too bad we didn't have more time.
Another 14 km on the lovely bike path and we are in Bad Mergentheim. The wind is picking up, the clouds are getting darker.
Fields, flowers, clouds and bicycle
I don't have many pictures from our stop in Bad Mergentheim, yet Bad Mergentheim is memorable in many ways.
My husband passed through here in 1997 when he walked the Camino de Santiago, starting in his home town Kassel, Germany. He remembers stopping here and making a sketch before he continued on his path with his heavy backpack. At that time he had no idea that he would return someday by bike with me, his wife. We hadn’t even met yet. We met some weeks later in Le Puy on the Camino de Santiago, or Chemin de St. Jacques as it is called in France. Now that is a romantic story for the Romantic Road.
My husband passed through here in 1997 when he walked the Camino de Santiago, starting in his home town Kassel, Germany. He remembers stopping here and making a sketch before he continued on his path with his heavy backpack. At that time he had no idea that he would return someday by bike with me, his wife. We hadn’t even met yet. We met some weeks later in Le Puy on the Camino de Santiago, or Chemin de St. Jacques as it is called in France. Now that is a romantic story for the Romantic Road.
This is the scene that Janos made a sketch of 21 years ago, without bicycles and himself of course.
Janos's sketch from March 1997
Bad Mergentheim is also memorable because shortly after leaving I crash with my bike. It all went so fast it’s hard to know what really happened, or why. After seeing our fill of Bad Mergentheim, we left along an easy, paved downhill, no traffic. I think an insect flew into my face near my mouth. I must have jerked my head and while breaking, turned the handlebars. The bike fell over and I flew. I got quite a scare and a very bloody knee. We hadn't gone far, so we cycled back looking for a pharmacy. What luck, within not even 500 meters there was a doctor’s practice and a pharmacy side by side. I went in to the doctor’s – in my daze I thought it was the pharmacy. I showed them my skinned knee and asked if they could help. The doctor dressed my knee professionally and in the pharmacy next door I could purchase material to dress the wound in the following days.
I am okay, but shaken by the thought that something like that can happen so unexpectedly - no cars to blame, no pothole in the road, just an involuntary response to an insect. And I am lucky: no fractures, no concussion, all teeth intact, just the scary memory of that split second when I see I am crashing and wonder how it's going to end. We are able to continue.
For the time being I don't feel like taking any more pictures of my bike, the sky and the fields on the way to Tauberbischofsheim. But Tauberbischofsheim is another attractive town and I get out my camera again for at least one shot.
I am okay, but shaken by the thought that something like that can happen so unexpectedly - no cars to blame, no pothole in the road, just an involuntary response to an insect. And I am lucky: no fractures, no concussion, all teeth intact, just the scary memory of that split second when I see I am crashing and wonder how it's going to end. We are able to continue.
For the time being I don't feel like taking any more pictures of my bike, the sky and the fields on the way to Tauberbischofsheim. But Tauberbischofsheim is another attractive town and I get out my camera again for at least one shot.
In Tauberbischofsheim, not far from our destination for the day
Again the hotel I have found for us is in a small town, but there are restaurants there, two as a matter of fact. Landhotel am Mühlenwörth is new and very comfortable. We can use a bit of comfort today. The bites are itching and I'm still a little shaken from my fall, and Janos, too. We had no real climbs today, but the headwinds have gotten to my knees and I think I will have to shift down and go slower.
Five kilometers after Tauberbischofsheim, Hochhausen comes into view, where we will spend the night.