Off Again, On Again Romance: Day 70 - Dillingen to Dinklesbuhl
So it was back to the Romantic Road once again this morning. As much as I wanted to see the Porsche factory, the price tag involved was just too much to swallow. Plus, we had really enjoyed the cycling over the last few days and everything we read (fairly limited!) suggested that the Romantic Road route would be more of the same, so it was really not a difficult choice we made.
Cutting to the chase, it was without a doubt the right choice.
Our day once again started out quite cool. It was bright and clear at the hotel which was about 2 km from the Danube. We decided to retrace a bit of our trail by riding along the Danube for the first 5 km or so, and when we got close to the river a bit of fog started to appear. Not as much as our first time through on September 4, but enough to give the morning that mysterious and peaceful feel.
After a few km's along the Danube we veered north towards the Romantic Road. At first, it seemed like we were just back in basic farm country again. But then the countryside started to roll, the sun was out, the air was cool and we started to feel the romance. The pictures of the day really don't do justice to the landscape. It was tremendous cycling on mostly rural roads with a few tractors for company.
We formally reached the Romantic Road route at Nordlingen where we grabbed a bite of lunch. Both were great! Neither K or I knew anything about Nordinglen, and still don't other than it's a beautiful medieval walled town. We had lunch at a very good café staffed almost entirely by DS folks. Food and service was great and they even roast their own coffee!
After lunch the ride just got better. As we were approaching Dinklebuhl, making all the appropriate juvenile jokes about that name, we kept saying to each other how we couldn't believe how beautiful this ride was. It was the same feeling we had when we left Bad Hof Gastein. The scenery and countryside was much different, but both places had the ability to captivate you and surprise you at every turn.
Our last surprise came as we entered Dinklesbuhl. Straight out of a fairy tale or a Christmas card. An amazingly beautiful and well preserved walled village that looked Disneyesque ... except this was the real thing.
Our hotel was just a few hundred meters inside the walls and it was a wonderful place (crap internet but I'm finally seeing that as a blessing). We got cleaned up and strolled into town for a look around and our post ride bevy.
This still being Bavaria, our post ride bevies are very very local. Sometimes it's the town brewer, sometimes it's the actual Gasthaus that we're at. In all cases the brews are first rate. Tonight was a Dinklesbuhl Weisse!
Then on to dinner. Since we weren't dropping a bundle on overpriced hotels in Stuttgart we thought we'd celebrate that fact. Turns out Dinklesbuhl was a couple of M. Michelin recommended restaurants so we gave one a whirl (Altdeutsches Restaurant). M. Michelin is batting 100%. A fabulous meal with equally great (and friendly) service.
We like this romance and hope it continues. We'll be riding the Romance trail for at least one more day and then we'll strike our west along the Main Radweg (the bike trail along the Main river) that will lead us to Frankfurt and Mainz ... the end of our trip.
After our Stuttgart experience last night, we started looking into hotels at Frankfurt and at Mainz. The Frankfurt airport is in between these two places, and the hotels in Mainz are about half the price. So Mainz it is for our end point in four days time!
Riding along the Romantic Road route today, as I was going through a tunnel under a highway this (great) song popped into my head ... perfect for the day ...
Heading north from the Danube towards the Romantic Road route
Our romance has started ... we rode into this little vale on the road near the top of the picture, did a 180 around the farm on the right and continued on down hill with another 180 just off the bottom left ... I need a wider angle lens to capture it all ... or use pano an my IPhone... Stupendous riding
Lots of cobwebs along the trail. We were riding through them continually!We saw several signs posted along the way with incredibly long multi-word German word mashups that we found out basically said to be aware of spiders along the trail as they could pose a health risk for allergic reactions ... We're not itching yet!
Here we are bringing down the property values again! Lovely room with a couch to sit on ... you start to miss these things after a few months on the road!
.. the amuse bouche ... a roasted cauliflower puree, perfectly cooked salmon, pickled radish, baby sage and a few sesame seeds ... it was and incredible opening to another great meal with very local wine!
