Bad Hersfeld - Melsungen: We get lost - From Bavaria to the Baltic Sea and Back 2011

May 24, 2011

Bad Hersfeld - Melsungen: We get lost

Bad Hersfeld's Abbey, a romantic ruin that is now used for summer open air concerts, was our first stop before leaving town.

Hersfeld Abbey, a Benedictine imperial abbey

While we were wandering through the park and having a closer look at the statue of Konrad Zuse, creator of the world's first computer, we had an interesting conversation with a woman who knew the inventor in the days when he was building the computer in his parents' kitchen. That was sometime in the 1930's. In 1938 Zuse conjectured that the world chess champion would be beaten by a computer in 50 years time. Exactly that happened just two years after the inventor's death. In 1997, the IBM supercomputer known as "Big Blue" defeated Garry Kasparov in a six-game match.

Dr. Konrad Zuse, inventor of the world's first computer

After an enjoyable morning in Bad Hersfeld, we left town in search of the bike path. We opted for the "scenic route", not the lane next to the highway, but when we finally found it, it looked like it was going to be quite a detour, so much so that we were convinced it wasn't our route at all and doubled back. Then we decided it must be the right way and turned around again. In other words, we got lost. Fortunately, this didn't happen too often on our trip as it was very frustrating and the kilometers we rode not knowing if we were going in the right direction seemed much longer than when we knew we were on course.

Things got better, we again had lovely countryside, and in Rotenburg an der Fulda (not to be confused with the better known Rothenburg an der Tauber) we took a break to look at the town.

We stopped here for a bite to eat. This pig would prefer it if you would order asparagus (Spargelgerichte) and not pork roast.

After Rotenburg the bike path stayed close to the river, we even had an adventurous river crossing, well for me it was an adventure. A special metal cage had been constructed for the benefit of cyclists and hikers. It was suspended on a cable and there was a mechanical crank that its passengers had to operate to move from one river bank to the other. I'm sure this construction was perfectly safe, but it didn't feel safe as we wobbled and swayed across the Fulda.

River crossing for pedestrians and cyclists: Now, do you think that ring is enough to save Janos, me and our bikes?

Again in Melsungen the half timbered houses were quite beyond belief.

MelsungenI hope you're not getting tired of pictures of half-timbered houses - but they were very impressive.

It was a steep climb up the side of the hill to reach Melsungen's simple but pleasant youth hostel, 40 € including breakfast. For dinner we found a good Balkan restaurant near by and didn't have to return to town.

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 557 km (346 miles)

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Scott AndersonThat cage ferry is terrific. I’d love to do that. I’m sorry this wasn’t posted earlier. I’d never heard of the Fulda, but it looks like a wonderful route. We might have come that way if we’d known.
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3 years ago