We started with a push up the hill from the gasthaus near the Kobolzell Gate to the centre of town, through town on the bumpy cobbled streets, then out through a northern gate for a long coast back down to the Radweg beside the Tauber.
A pleasant, uneventful Sunday ride along the Liebliches Taubertal Radweg. It took me a while to realize that the logo for this Radweg is a bicycle followed by a wineglass. It's quite a round wineglass and at first I thought it was a baby carriage, but that made no sense. Perhaps the shape of the glass is typical of this region, like the flask-shaped wine bottles that my generation of Canadians associates with Mateus--not a German wine from the Tauber.
As we rode through Bad Mergentheim in the afternoon, we came across some sort of festival in the centre of town. There were food stalls, beer gardens, wine tents, activities for the kids, and a very loud band. The band looked like a marching or military band, confined to a stage. There were a lot of drums and brass and flag wavers at each side. The music sounded very German, but not at all oompah like Oktoberfest. Escaping with our eardrums intact, we continued on to Tauberbischofsheim, our goal for the day. At some point we returned to Baden-Württemberg from Bayern.
Riding through another pretty village. Weikersheim, perhaps.
Marktplatz, Weikersheim, with Schloß Weikersheim in the background. The schloß houses a music academy, in addition to the usual museum. We saw many students leaving around noon.
I agree with the girl with her fingers in her ears. They were good, but way too loud. The fellow on the left had a sort of baton, the type I associate with the leader of a marching band. It's not very visible in the picture because it blends in with the reddish colour of the building in the background.
Being Sunday, there wasn't much open and we didn't see a bakery so we had coffee and cake at the Schloss Cafe. We decided that we both prefer pastry to cake.
Kaffee und kuchen, Tauberbischofsheim. Our pension was just around the corner. (It's hard to get a photo of Al when he's neither chewing nor blinking. I didn't even have a flash!)
We got one of the last rooms available at Pension Stein, 60€. A German couple arrived at the same time and translated for us with the proprietress. Later, they arrived at the same restaurant as us for dinner and joined us at our table. It was pleasant having Wolfgang and Gisele to talk to; they are a bit older than us and remain very active. They had also cycled from Rothenburg and it was from them that we learned that there is a German night watchman tour after the English one. We also learned that Wolfgang is a retired land surveyor. Al's a BC Land Surveyor (a regulated profession in Canada, like engineering), but not retired--yet. Al gave him his card since they were thinking of visiting Vancouver next year.
As for the accommodation, this was the first time we encountered a sign over the breakfast buffet that indicated that, while you could eat as much as you wanted, taking food away was strictly verboten. This is in contrast to the Weinstube Pöbel in Rothenburg, where Herr Pöbel brought out a roll of plastic bags for us to pack up our takeaway.
