Day 29: Heilsbronn to Rothenburg ob der Tauber

May 28, 2014

Although the Ortlieb factory outside of town is a big thing to us, it seems like Heilsbronn's main claim to fame is a major monastery complex in the centre of town. We walked around this a bit before setting off on our own main mission. A conference of teachers was just getting underway. It seemed to be about humour and fun in teaching. We are glad the monastery has its own dormitories, else we would not have found a place in the guest house.

We had no idea what we would find at the Ortlieb factory - whether a retail outlet, a showroom, or perhaps a factory with nothing there for us. We walked in and introduced ourselves as cyclists from Canada to the receptionist. She made a phone call, and we were quickly introduced to Andrea, a lovely person from the export department. Andrea greeted us very warmly, and brought us through to a show room. From the start we were made to feel not like an intrusion but like a welcome arrival. Ralf from marketing came out and took a photo of us with the bikes, and we were given a gift of two Ortlieb branded Buffs - which is a stretchy knit tube that can be worn on your head in various ways.

After three years of using our Ortlieb bags, we had developed some ideas on how they could be improved, and were tickled with the idea of being able to explain these to someone at the factory. Andrea listened to each of our things with great care, and we had a good discussion about them. We were also impressed with the forthright replies to questions about whether the bags could or would delaminate in hot moist climates, under what conditions the map case might yellow in the sun, and why Ortlieb had changed the mount for handlebar bags to a less convenient design.

The show room we were in was filled with the now mind boggling variety of Ortlieb bags and packs, many of which we had never seen before. Among these were ones in an all yellow refective material (great idea), and bags made from polyurethane (PU) rather than PVC. Andrea went into some detail about the reasons (or not) that one would want to use PU. Again, we were much impressed by the forthright and clear explanations.

The conversation turned to the boss and founder of the company - Hartmut Ortlieb, who in 1982 got fed up with having his gear soaked and produced the first bags from waterproof material. There is a framed advertising poster from a Nurnberg shop where Harmut marketed his first bags. The Hartmut photo in the poster shows him as a typically hairy youngster.

Another poster on a wall shows the older Hartmut. I am not sure what the thrust of the poster was exactly.

Andrea could not give us a factory tour, saying that the processes are closely guarded. However we did notice from the window of a conference room we were in some real work going on. It was explained to us that in the area we were looking in to, Ortlieb custom produces machine tools for functions that can not be done by standard commercially available machines.

Part of the monastery at Heilsbronn - the true focus of the town

Andrea and Ralf helped welcome us with a gift

The original sales poster, with a photo of Hartmut

Quirky poster on a wall - Hartmut is on the left

Andrea in a conference room with some of the hounours Ortlieb has received

When we left, we were waved off by several staff members. What a great visit. We were really glad that we had taken the time to divert to Heilsbronn.

From Heilsbronn, it fell to Dodie to navigate our way to Rothenburg, which for us will be the start of the Romantische Strasse "Book". We had downloaded some tracks for Radwegs going our way, and these did take us most of the way in. The most fun one was the Biberttal Radweg. This confused us at first. A biber is a beaver, and a tal is a valley. So this could have been about a valley of beavers. But then, what is a bibert? We learned that really this is about the valley of the Bibert river. Ok, but then at the entrance to Unterbibert, the town, was a biber statue. Maybe the town itself was having fun with the close spelling similarities?

About half way to Rothenburg we stopped at an Edeka supermarket to pick up a few things to supplement what we had garnered at breakfast. This is where we met three Aussies, following the Pan Europa, from Paris to Prague. We had passed hundreds, thousands, of cyclists in the past weeks, but few if any would stop. 99 percent were credit card tourists out for a couple of weeks, and would really not have much to share as far as adventure goes. There were a few clearly long distance serious travellers, but they generally had their heads down and would not stop either. So it was great to be able to chat with the Aussies. One thing they told us about was where they had stayed in Rothenburg. In fact, they were able to produce the address and a postcard showing the area where the guesthouse is located. This turned out to be a lifesaver, because as it happened, that guesthouse was one of the only ones with a vacancy in the entire town!

We found talking to the Aussies to be a great pick me up. It's hard to carry on, day after day, when you begin to feel you are the only one out there trying to do this kind of thing. Coincidentally, as we stood in front of the Edeka I fired up the tablet and found an email from Jeff Arnim. Jeff is one of our original inspirations, with his two blogs about crossing America. Jeff had some very kind words for us in his letter. This really meant a lot to us, coming from him.

This was the second day in a row in which we battled quite heavy headwinds. It made us think that perhaps we would not reach Rothenburg today at all. But, we plowed on. The way led from village to village to village, running up and down gentle folds in the land. The path was sometimes paved cycle way, but more often it was fine gravel, or with the cars but on very quiet roads. We were closing in quite nicely on Rothenberg, when we ran in to our second chance to talk to someone about long distance cycling. It was a fellow from Netherlands, about our age, heading for Turkey (and back). We had a great time thinking about routes to the east, and different routes back again, while we pedalled on a bit. When we had said goodbye to our new acquaintance we found that we had missed some turn in the radweg signs were were following, and we were in a blank spot as far as .gpx files we had downloaded went. So we used to the GPS to bushwack our way into Rothenberg. It worked out, but we had wasted some time and distance.

The Biberttal Radweg guided us for a lot of the way. The route is also concurrent with the Pan Europa

We went over hill and dale, and through forest

George and John, two of the Aussies on the Pan Europa

There must be something of biber (beaver) in the Biberttal

The typical countryside for us in the afternoon

These cyclists all had electrics. We passed their bikes at 3 p.m., all parked at a guesthouse. We think using electrics can be ok, but quitting at 3?

This is another super neat German firewood stacking method. We once saw it described in a magazine. There is a special name for it that we can not remember.

Gravel pathway is common. We are happy that we cam with our slightly wider (1.75 vs 1.35) tires.

We got to Rothenburg and passed reasonably quickly through the ring of modern ugly development that always surrounds old cities. Then we entered the old city, through a tower gate, or course. We were prepared for Rothenberg being the jewel of the Romantische Strasse, and we found that there is no exaggeration in that. The place is stunning, interesting as all getout. Since it was getting late, we wanted to find a place to stay asap. Best would be to find the place recommended by the Aussies. We showed the photo we had made of the postcard to some tourists, and they instantly recognized the spot. It turns out to be the most photographed spot in the town, and the shot that graces the city's main advertising pamphlet. This all allowed us to quickly find the subject guesthouse. It is just by a gate in the city wall, and is built hard by the wall. So when we look out out window we can easily see any invaders, planning to lay siege to the city.

As it turns out, a large convention of doctors of some sort has in fact besieged the city, and grabbed up all the guesthouse rooms. We were lucky to get the last one at the place recommended by the aussies. The general quality of the room is much lower than the ones we have lucked in to in past days, but even so it features those German standards: good plumbing and fluffy beds.

Looking at Rothenberg, we quickly decided it deserved more than our usual ride through. So we would stay an extra night. Only thing - medical convention - no room at the inns. We ended up agreeing to pay more than double the 50 euros we are paying tonight, in order to shift tomorrow to a hotel down the street. It does look a whole lot fancier, but this is all a lot of money. We think, though, it will be worth it. Have a look at some of our shots from this evening and see if you don't agree.

Rothenburg city scene - tomorrow we will see lots more

Our guesthouse at the right, just before a south gate to the city

The view from our room, out over the wall, which is ten feet away and across toward the central part of the city.

Right near our place is the place for the most famous tourist photo shot of Rothenburg

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 1,672 km (1,038 miles)

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