Bamberg to Nuremberg: Canal Riding and an Imperial Palace
I have been unable to connect to wifi tonight on my iPad. Very frustrating! We have had a great day, but I am not up to posting the blog on my phone (it is like working in miniature) so will put it up tomorrow.
Aha! I crossed my fingers and tried one more time, and success! I may run out of time to load pictures tonight, but here is how the day went.
We had a great start to the day with another excellent breakfast. We were actually out the door and on the road by 9:15 AM, which, for us, is pretty good. We get down to breakfast in a timely fashion - that is where we get stuck. The temptation to linger over one more cup of coffee is great.
Keith wanted to pop into yesterday's bike shop first thing. The down side to being on the roll earlier is that the bike shop was closed. Off we went down the Regenitz Radweg, towards Nuremberg. My Main Radweg map is back in Keith's pannier, and we are without a large scale paper map for this route, so I was counting on Keith and his Bayern Radweg app.
It was a straightforward ride, with no real navigational issues. We followed the canal at some points, were in the countryside for others, and the last part into Nuremberg was so well signed it was amazing. The Radweg spat us out into the old town, and here we are.
Keith found us a wonderful hotel, the Hotel Garden. It is in the old town, cute and reasonable. We took one look at Nuremberg and decided to stay another day. We were astonished to find out the hotel is fully booked. There is a huge flea market tomorrow that brings hundreds of people to the city and that is the problem. Keith is checking different hotels as I write this, but it isn't looking good. We are not that concerned, as we can spend most of the day here if we like, and then spin down the road twenty or thirty km. to some little village that will be empty because everyone will be in Nuremberg for the flea market!
After checking in we went straight to the Imperial Castle. It was a history lesson to go through the museum. We enjoyed it very much. We then wandered around the old town until we saw Bratwursthausle...thanks again Mike! We did have dinner there - as you suggested we had all four German food groups, beer, sausages, potato salad and sauerkraut. It was delicious and the atmosphere was just terrific. The waiter had asked where we were from and we told him the Vancouver area. We were then treated to Schnapps by the owner who came over for a chat as his son lives in Vancouver. It was a fun encounter.
You would think we would have been full by then, but an Eis Cafe caught our eye and we shared an apple strudel with vanilla sauce, ice cream and whipped cream. No halfway measures for us. And now over to the chief navigator, because the app he has been using to get us around Bavaria is pretty amazing and anyone headed this way should know about it.
We have had 7 days of fairly straightforward riding following the Main Radweg from Frankfurt to Bamberg for the first 6 days and now the Regntiz Radweg to Nuremberg. This route is essentially flat and a great route for those that don't enjoy hills. We used the Kompass strip bike maps for the Main Radweg and found them to be excellent. There are a couple of iPhone apps that I also use. I would strongly recommend anyone riding in this area download the Bayernnetz fur Radler app (www.bayerinfo.de). You can pick up the Bayernnetz hard copy map which goes with this app and shows all the major bike routes for the Bavaria area. The app can be run offline and shows your location as you you follow the bike path with the ability to zoom in where the route might not be so straightforward. I did have a few problems with it today as it shut down a few times for whatever reason but was able to quickly open it up. The other app that I use is Galileo which records your track as you ride. I will be using it extensively once I am out of the Bayernnetz area. It is also an offline mapping system where you download the maps for the areas you will be traveling. Typically I download these maps using wifi.
Canal riding. I love these barges. We also saw more river cruise ships today, and even at 9:30 this morning the tour groups were already following the little paddles about town.
These plums were delicious and the price was right. We are pretty sure this was a public tree, so Keith picked as many as he could reach, which wasn't many, and I couldn't reach any at all. We weren't the first to pick!
Our lunch stop. We had wine with lunch, in our paper wine glasses. It was a nice addition to the meal and meant Keith had a little less weight to carry after lunch.
Children playing as we came into Nuremberg. I love seeing this, but I am glad I don't have to do any of the planning or supervision anymore. As I stood and watched I had all of the pleasure, none of the responsibility.
As Mike said in the guest book, the four German food groups are represented here...sausages, sauerkraut, potato salad and beer. Add to that a lot of fun, and great staff and a hands on owner.
Here is the Bayernnetz fur Radler low tech version. All those green lines are signed bike routes. The app provides a description of each route and Keith uses the offline map on the app on his phone to navigate. It is amazing. Keith marks our route each night, just for future considerations. We are both amazed there is any ink left in that Sharpie!!!!
