Well if you thought night trains were bad, you should steer well away from the night buses! At least they are safer and generally nicer, but for comfort they rank at the bottom of the pile. Thankfully the three of us managed to snatch the whole back seat so we were able to stretch out a little bit. James’ foot was starting to turn a nice shade of blue/black and we were probably going to have to find him a doctor at some point. (What did you expect, coming to drink with me in Prague for my 30th Birthday and dancing on tables… you are collateral damage James my boy!)
At least Hannah managed to grab some Z’s because she was the one driving the next day. We picked up a hire car in Munich, crammed my bike an all our luggage in the back somehow, and headed towards Augsburg , in the heart of Bavaria. The plan was to travel up north towards Rothenburg ob der Tauber, swinging past a few medieval towns along the way. The Romantic Road is named such by the Germans, being an official tourist trail that runs about 450km from Wurzburg in the north, to Fussen in the south, at the Austrian border. Along the way are dozens of old medieval town centres, UNESCO heritage sites and loads of awesome schloss’ (castles).
In Augsburg, the first item of business was to acquire a set of crutches for James. Once we had these, his pace picked up about three-fold, and so did his mood. We would find out later once he got back to London and visited a doctor, that he had actually broken his foot in three places. Meanwhile a constant supply of alcohol and tobacco seemed to relieve the pain.
We drove from town to town, each one a bit different from the last, and each one also getting better in our opinion. There were amazing medieval buildings, some centuries old, nearly a thousand years in some cases. A couple of towns had fantastic examples of city walls complete with gateways and towers, still in excellent condition. Rothenburg was easily the highlight of the first day, and we stayed in a hotel (Gasthaus) that was very charming and delightfully centrally located to the old town square. Rothenburg featured something like 40 water fountains, a church built over a laneway, and apparently the largest Christmas shop/market that is open all year round.
On day two, we headed south to check out Schloss Neuschwanstein, the famous castle near Fussen on the Austrian border. Apparently this is the castle that was the inspiration for the Walt Disney castle that you see in all their logos and at the beginning of each film, and also in Disneyland. IT truly was amazing to walk through it. We splashed out for the guided tour, turns out that King Luwig II started building it back in the late 1800’s but the castle was never finished. He died at a young age – around 30 I think – and upon his death, all construction work ceased because nobody was getting paid to finish the job. Fortunately the outside was completed, but inside there are many rooms still in the condition they were left in (although turned into souvenir shops these days). The rooms that were completed were very ornate, and the castle was well worth the visit.
We bunked down in a hostel for the night, and it turned out the crowd was heading out to a ‘party’. Germany was in the world cup playoffs today, and they won the game, so the whole town was in party mode. Cars were beeping their horns as they drove down the road, there were people all over the place having a drink and displaying german flags and decorating their cars. It wasn’t quite the fever I felt in The Netherlands, but it was still there, and we found that as we headed out for the night, every young person in town was also heading in the same direction as us.
It could only be described as a mini ‘Oktoberfest’. There was a smaller version of a beer tent, with a live rock band up one end on stage. They were serving Paulaner beer on tap, and there were a few tents out the front selling some awesome pork steaks. Mind you the pasta wasn’t too good, especially the one Hannah bought, when in her inebriation she coated it in what she thought was parmasen cheese, but it turned out to be salt. Well I ate it for her anyway.
The party rocked on. I ran into a bunch of Germans who were drinking out of a huge gold cup – it had 20 litres of sangria in it, and about 30 straws sticking out the top. Turned out the cup was the trophy for winning some kind of Fussen Olympiad sports day, which had been held that day. So the team was celebrating and also very happy to invite anybody and everybody in for a suck of sangria.
Needless to say, we had a good night. The band, in traditional European style, ended up pumping out endless AC/DC numbers mixed with a whole bunch of other 80’s rock and a mix of German pop songs, many of which I recognised from Oktoberfest over the past two years. It was a bit of nostalgia for me, and an eye opener for both James and Hannah who have never had the privilege of going to the ‘fest. I think, and hope, they will go one day for sure. It really is the happiest place on earth for 3 weeks 😉
And so end my birthday celebrations. Hannah and James will drop me off in Austria or Liechtenstein tomorrow where I will continue on my cycling trip. In fact it’s about bloody time I jumped back on the bike, it’s been a good couple of weeks now since I’ve done any decent distances by bike! Another bonus – Hannah bought out my new laptop which I ordered from Amazon UK and had delivered to her house in London. Now that she’s delivered it, I finally have USB ports and enough storage space for all my video blogs and photos. So Facebook and everything are now up-to-date as much as I’ve been able to write!
Hope you’re enjoying the reading. I’m off for a feed and a beer. Obviously, because that’s pretty much all I ever do these days besides cycle and take photos. It’s a tough life on the road in Europe!
Cheers!
One thought on “The Romantic Road”
Comments are closed.
……..”hope you’re enjoying the reading. I’m off for a feed and a beer. Obviously, because that’s pretty much all I ever do these days besides cycle and take photos. It’s a tough life on the road in Europe!”…….hmmm – Matt, as the self appointed Captain of the Cronulla Teams (you & I) assault on the ‘Open Esky’ at Rescue 2010, I’d like to remind you that I have been in contact with Matt Ratoldus, your club Captain in the UK at the famous Putney Town Rowing Club. He advised me that whilst there you had become a lean and mean male specimen with a body that most men would die for. I don’t really know what he means by that?? So it’s a good thing that you are training more seriously now for our attack on the title! Take care :o)