A romantic road on bicycles

We really like to travel by car in Europe. But this time we decided to spend our vacation actively cycling along Germany's Romantic Road - from Neuschwanstein to Würzburg. It should be noted that my bike was an ordinary city bike with only three speeds, so it was still interesting (and a little scary) to some extent whether it was possible to travel with this option.

Our journey began on April 30. We planned to get to Neuschwanstein by train, and also return to Berlin by train from Würzburg.

But our adventures began already 30 minutes before the start of the journey itself. First, DB informed us that a smaller train would be arriving instead of expected, so all the reserved seats were gone and we have to worry about them in our own. Then it turned out that he was late (only 15 minutes, thank you) due to some technical reasons. And a minute before the arrival of the train, it was reported that there was no carriage for bicycles at all. DB never gets tired of surprising.

But despite everything, we arrived. We stayed in a small, cozy town of Füssen

On the first day, a trip around Lake Forggensee is planned. Just imagine a lake of an unusual milky blue color, surrounded by mountains and green meadows. I dreamed of traveling around the district when we first came to Neuschwanstein 5 years ago and I saw this lake from a height (spoiler - it was actually Lake Alpsee).

Unfortunately, the lake was only partially filled with water. Either not all the snow has come down yet, or there was not enough snow this year. But as it is. The water, of course, is cold.

I planned that we would ride quite relaxed, because the lake is located in the lowlands, but in some places we even had to sweat. This is not a flat Berlin for you, there are ups and downs. It was here that I finally realized what a pleasure it is to descend when the wind is whistling in your ears!

There was one climb when I even had to walk, because with only three speeds on my horse it was difficult to get up that hill.

An asphalt bike path is laid around the lake, which is quite comfortable to ride. Many cyclists on electric bikes are probably already experienced not for the first time in these places.

The next day we decided to take a walk around the Alpsee lake. In principle, it would be possible to get to Hohenschwangau on a good cycle path and start a circular route around the lake from there, but we are not looking for easy ways.

We admired the azure lake surrounded by green mountains and views of Neuschwanstein Castle.

There is a beach on the lake and you can take catamarans, but everything works only in season.

And we found the beginning of our route. Actually, this is the end of the Romantic Road, but as we decided to go in the opposite direction - this is officially the beginning of this story for us.

Our next stop is the town of Schongau with a small and cozy old town. The city center is surrounded by fortress walls.

On Saturday, there were many people walking in local national clothes, girls running in Bavarian dresses and boys in shorts, it was quite unusual to see teenagers with tattoos and piercings dressed in national clothes.

We also went to see the local church of Mary.

Along the way, we stopped at several interesting places. We visited the pilgrimage Roman Catholic church Wieskirche in Rococo style, which is included in UNESCO. You can read more on Wikipedia

Wieskirche, Steingaden

We were also lucky enough to witness a wedding in the town of Rottenbuch in the church of the Augustinian monastery in the late Gothic style with a high tower, outside - a building of strict forms and amazing proportions, but inside - a luxurious Rococo.

Pfarrkirche Maria Geburt

Those present at the wedding were not photographed, somehow it was inconvenient. Everyone was dressed in national clothes. The men are dressed in leather shorts, a shirt, suspenders, gray stockings, and a hat. Something like this https://www.pinterest.com/pin/68891069296677487/

The women were dressed in the traditional women's Dirndl outfit of a white blouse and sundress, sewn from a wide skirt and a corset. Even the bride was in a dress. Something like this https://www.pinterest.de/pin/437482551302196903/

Next on our list was the town of Landsberger am Lech. I liked the city because there are not only old houses and a beautiful church. It feels like the center is adapted for people's recreation: many interesting places, parks, paths, footbridges to contemplate the beauty, etc. And I am generally silent about the river itself and the canals - they are the highlight of the city. An interesting decision - they made a water park on the way of the river, a stream passes through its territory and then flows back again.

The city of Augsburg left us with rather strange feelings.

I have not seen such wide avenues in any Bavarian town. Even in the old city, it sometimes seemed to me that we were walking along Constitution Square in Kharkiv, and the houses around were also very similar to those along Sumska street. But the streets of Augsburg are even wider!

Despite the fact that we stayed one more day in the city, we unfortunately did not have enough time to appreciate Augsburg in all its beauty and discover it completely.

The most beautiful street in the town of Donauworth, and the only touristic one, is Reichstrasse (Rich Street). Once this street was part of the road of the Holy Roman Empire and connected Nuremberg and Augsburg. Only very rich and noble people had the right to settle on such an important street. It is clear that everyone tried to build a house more elegant and richer than the neighbor's, which turned out quite well.

The rather unusual city wall of the Donauworth. Adjacent houses seem to be "embedded" in this wall - cut-out windows, hung shutters, raised slopes of tiled roofs, built-up attics. Why waste walls? Even the kindergarten is partially integrated into the city wall, there are real knight's towers!

Harburg is an incredibly cute town with many historical buildings. There are information points at the most interesting objects, and you can listen to stories about them in online format. On top of the rock there is a castle - one of the oldest castles in Southern Germany, which is also the best preserved. This castle (according to information from the Internet) was repeatedly tried to buy by Michael Jackson, but failed. It still belongs to Prince Wallerstein, or rather to his foundation.

On the way to the castle, a fairy tale path was created, it will be very interesting for children to climb the mountain. Even I was curious.

In Harburg, we unexpectedly got to the Father's Day celebration. In the touristic town with hotels and restaurants, everything was just closed. We couldn't find a place to have dinner, and the shops are known to be closed in the morning. Finally they saw a crowd of people. It seems that the whole town has gathered in one place to celebrate together. So we ate sausage salad to the sound of the orchestra, sitting among the locals, who were busy chatting, singing and, of course, drinking beer.

Although we didn't want to leave charming Harburg, the town of Nördlingen did not disappoint and turned out to be absolutely worth a visit.

The old city is surrounded by a wall decorated with five fortress towers. Some of them have entrance gates. It was through such a gate that we entered and immediately felt that we were in a medieval city. A large number of half-timbered houses is dizzying. We went around the old center along the tourist route, the signs kept reminding us where to turn. At the end of the walk, we climbed the fortress wall and walked about half of the circumference, looking at the town from above.

And then the Romantic Road prepared a test for us. An incredible number of ascents and descents, we even led our horses in our hands on two ascents. But the worst thing was the heat, which is even more tiring than the steep climbs.

We reached the hotel only around 9 pm, tired and hungry. Fortunately, the little guesthouse was very welcoming and prepared a delicious dinner for us, despite the lateness.

But our reward was the magical Dinkesbuhl the next morning.

We visited Rothenburg ob der Tauber, beloved by tourists. Whether it's a fairy-tale town or a museum under the sky. If it weren't for the parked cars on the roadsides, you'd think we were in the past.

After Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen, things are not so bright. We are probably already tired of Bavarian beauties, half-timbered houses, towers and fortresses, so we just took a leisurely walk around the town, climbed the highest tower in the town hall. It was nice to walk in the heat in the shadow of the fortress wall. There are a lot of plaques with the names of people and companies that invested in its restoration.

The road that day was surprisingly pleasant, we drove over the river almost all the time, admiring its curves and small dams.

But in order not to get used to the good, the Romantic Road prepared a new test for us. I had a flat rear tire. The pumping of the camera was enough for about a kilometer, so we decided to install a new camera. Cyclists offered help, stopped and made small talk.

But the new camera was not enough for long. So, 5 kilometers to the destination, I had a flat rear tire again, it was enough to drive for a minute and the camera would go down again.. We even asked for help from a kind boy from the farm. He was happy to inflate the tires for us, but unfortunately the rear tire deflated just as quickly.

I had to walk for about an hour and the road turned out to be truly romantic - through fields and meadows. In some places, it was necessary to walk not even on the ground, but on a mown field. But we managed to reach our destination almost on time.

We visited the town of Weikersheim (Weikersheim) for the palace of the same name.

For more than a thousand years, the residence of the counts, later the princes von Hohenlohe, was located here. We walked in the park, looked at the sculptures, it was quite interesting.

The workers of the palace are actively preparing for the beginning of the season, breaking flowerbeds, placing trees.

In the city of Bad Mergentheim, they decided to drive into the pool. It was undoubtedly the right decision, it should have been done earlier.

In a couple of hours we had a very good rest. Salt hydromassage pools provided the perfect massage for tired muscles, there was also a magnesium pool for muscle relaxation and a lithium pool for stress relief. In addition to all this, there is also a steam bath, with rubbing with salt and oils.

The last city on our trip, Würzburg, took us out of the fairytale world of Bavarian small towns and brought us back to Berlin. There are many young people in the city, which is not surprising considering the local university. They sit on the Main River embankment, eat pizza, chat and bask in the sun. A little further, the rather beautiful pedestrian bridge Alte Mainbrücke is completely filled with people with glasses of wine, but already older. They also huddle and communicate. There is a beautiful view of the Marienberg fortress.

Walking through the city, we felt this Berlin vibe, which cannot be simply conveyed in words and can only be felt when walking through the evening streets of Kreuzberg.

But at the same time, I felt in this city like I was at home in Kharkiv, as if now I am a student and I can freely walk around the city, because it is open to me and protects me.

This was our journey along the Romantic Road through magical landscapes and romantic towns.

In 2 weeks we drove 500 km through Upper Bavaria, Swabia, Baden Württemberg and Franconia.

Despite the fact that the route is generally not difficult, you should be prepared to travel over rough terrain and on different roads. But in most cases the road was good and we repeatedly admired the cycle track. Of course, it is better to take a bike with more than 3 speeds, but even under such conditions, I drove this route normally. But we specifically planned a trip in the opposite direction, so that it would be easier to roll down the mountains.

The Romantic Road is marked with special signs, so it will be difficult to get lost, but we additionally used various applications to lay out the route.

Also, a special bus runs along this route, which, if necessary, can take a tourist's bicycle along with it.

But the most important asset - our children survived without us, became more mature and independent, learned (hopefully) to negotiate.

It was our first vacation together without kids in 20 years and we loved it!