Saturday swiftly gave way to Sunday, which could only mean one thing. It was time to hit the road again. Our first stop was to be a little town called Schillingsfürst. According to my Tripadvisor research, the town was half way between Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which was to be the main stop of the day, so it seemed like a good place to break up the drive. There was also a castle which I thought might be worth a look. Unfortunately what Tripadvisor didn’t tell me was that the castle was closed in the winter season for refurbishment… doh! Luckily there was a nice cafe outside the closed castle that proved a perfect stopping place for our morning pastry break. At least I wasn’t completely out of luck.
As I ordered our drinks a couple of tasty treats caught my eye, the traditional Schneeballen (Snowballs) I had heard so much about. I was expecting something like a doughnut, dusted in icing sugar. What I found was nothing of the sort. It is a long strip of pastry (like a sweet filo) that is rolled up into a ball, fried and then dusted with icing sugar. It was very crispy and flaky. Not really my cup of tea, but always got to try everything once.
After wiping the plate clean (waste not, want not) it was time to head to Rothenburg ob der Tauber; the undisputed jewel in the Romantic Road’s crown. When we were planning the trip, which mainly consisted of sitting on Google and Instagram looking at all the pretty pictures, Rothenburg came up more times than anywhere else. After the first few hundred pictures I had seen, it soon became the one place I was obsessed with going to. It kind of became the centre of the trip and we built the rest around it. I am very glad to say that this lovely place didn’t disappoint.
Approaching the main gate, we crossed a small footbridge that was like something out of Harry Potter. It made me feel like whipping out my wand and shouting Expelliarmus! (and no that isn’t a euphemism…) We then came round the corner and saw Diagon Alley… no, wait. What I mean to say is… we came round the corner and saw Rothenburg in all it’s glory. Bright coloured buildings lining the streets, leading to a second colourful gatehouse in the centre. Definitely makes for more interesting viewing than the standard red brick construction I am used to.
Just like the other towns we had visited so far, there were walkways running around the walls that I couldn’t avoid wandering along. This time though it was more of a challenge climbing the foot tall stone steps leading up to the balcony. I managed them quite well but my little 5 foot fiancèe, with her tiny legs, had a tougher time. Mountainous stairs conquered, it was time to have a good wander, enjoy the view and take a few selfies (of course). As we climbed down at the other end of town we noticed the weather had turned. I can’t remember anywhere being so windy, except maybe the mountains and waterfalls in Iceland.
After surviving the miniature hurricane (maybe a slight exaggeration…) I needed some food. The weather didn’t really cause this to happen but it is always better to find an excuse, isn’t it? We spent the next half an hour wandering to all corners of the town to find the best spot to grab a sandwich, finally deciding on the first place that we had seen. Typical!
The Brothaus, from what I can tell, is a fairly large chain of bakeries in Germany and offers a wide selection of good food. When you compare it to the high street bakeries at home, like Greggs and Wright’s, it makes you wonder how we manage with such a pitiful display of baked delicacies. From the vast array of sweet and savoury delights, I opted for a ham and cheese sandwich and a Bötchen. By the way, we shared them between us… I didn’t just eat them all myself (even if I wanted to). A Bötchen is a thin wholemeal bread that is covered in onions and peppers, with cheese melted on top. Needless to say it was delicious! Not managing to satisfy my hunger, if that was even possible, we went for a final serving of apple turnover. On the (not so) rare occasion that I eat this much food it always reminds me of people telling me I have hollow legs. I suppose there has to be somewhere for all the food to go as a stomach can only be so big.
On our way out of the town, once all the sights had been seen and food had been eaten, we wanted to get a picture of the main street; which proved a lot more difficult than expected. As with most pictures on the internet of popular tourist attraction, the one thing they don’t show you is all the tourists vying for that once in a lifetime shot. In Iceland it was people with tripods standing inside the barriers to get the perfect time lapse of a waterfall and in Bavaria it was the couples that would stand in different spots, right in front of all the main attractions, taking hundreds of photos. Just when you thought they were leaving, so you could quickly get your own photo, they would suddenly decide they hadn’t spent enough time there and come back for a few more, to repeat the process again. Obviously, I couldn’t get too annoyed as we were waiting to do the same thing, but we only took a couple of minutes which I thought was a lot more reasonable. Even if we did have to change the camera angle to craftily hide a woman behind my fiancèe’s head who had decided to walk back into shot to take more photos. Another trick of the trade there for you. You are welcome…
And that is where I will leave it for today. Next time I will tell you all about the next stop on our journey; Würzburg. Stay tuned!
Ciao for now!
If you liked this don’t miss out on the rest of our German adventure:
Day 2 – Harburg Castle and Nördlingen
Day 3 – Schillingsfürst and Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Day 4 – Bad Mergentheim, Heilbronn and The Black Forest
Day 4 – Baden-Baden and a tasty trout dinner
