The start of the Romantic Way we reach Bad Mergentheim: Unaccustomed hills

August 14, 2014

Coming over the beautiful old bridge from Wurzburg the Marienberg Fortress with its vineyards spilling down the hill is a magnificent sight. There is only one thing that spoils it you know too well that you have to climb and climb well above it. Surely the 9 days of conditioning we have done on the flat will have toughened us up a bit. This actually turned out to be the case. The first 10km were straight up with no let up then a couple of very steep downs so that once more we could try our legs at climbing. We were in what seemed very remote country, the small towns had no services. At the top there appeared to me what looked like a small ditch. I wished it was a little stream running down to the Tauber and I was right. Despite the head wind cycling was now easy with a gentle head wind. Along the path we came to a little chapel set in the forest it was the Chapel of Maria of the Seven Wounds. We noticed people going around the back, they were collecting plastic bottles of water. This is holywater believed to have miraculous healing properties. One lovely friendly lady set off on the path before us with several large containers of water strapped to the back of her bike.

This is a tiny 2 cylinder tractor with no three point linkage which indicates it is early. It is a Man Ken has never seen one before

The Chapel of Maria of the Seven Wounds. I wanted to call it St Peters in the Forest

Over the bridge we went and we had now joined the Tauber. The first beautiful little town was Tauberbischofshein. This was a really busy place with many people in its Aldstadt. There was some discussion as to whether we should stop here or go on an extra 20km to Bad Mergentheim. This gem is said to be one of the favourite places on the Romantic Road. We have spent time looking at the Schloss, walking through its gardens and swanning through the Kurpark (spa park). Now we just need to go into the Marketplace and find somewhere to eat. We need to avoid what happened last night when we ended eating at a place that was called a Havanna Club. Knowing what to expect when you order a meal at a regular place in Germany is tricky but ordering something in a place specialising in Cuban food is something else again

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 651 km (404 miles)

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