Day 21: Aschaffenburg to Miltenberg, Germany

August 11, 2015

The guesthouse lady left it to her husband to attend to us with breakfast this morning. Language was a bit more of a problem, but we all did ok. However, it appeared at first that only buns and coffee were on the menu, although to be fair there were two (but just two) large pots of jam. There was also a bowl of those Germany only packaged meat paste products, like liverwurst, that we will never eat, plus some packaged cheese spreads. Oh well, we thought, at least we had a great supper last night.

We had consoled ourselves too soon, because the man soon appeared with two boiled eggs (and later analysis showed they were almost actually cooked). Then he came and asked us what we wanted for breakfast. This threw us a bit, based on our previous thinking. we settled on cheeses and salami, which produced a plate of sliced cheese and several types of "salami". since this was not a buffet, but rather came for us at our table, we felt fine about squirrelling away portions for lunch. I am typing this at a shady bench, having just finished my "breakfast" at 1 p.m.

Since we passed this way last year, we could not help looking to see what it was we saw and wrote about the last time. Predictably enough many of the topics are the same, and certain photos are actually identical. For us, passing over the same territory is fine, not only because we do notice and think new things, but also because we only dimly remember a lot of things too.

In the realm of thinking the same things, the topics of who and how many are the other cyclists, how much cycling support is there along the path, where are the nice fachwerk houses most dense, what is in the bakeries, and can we outrun a slow river barge, among others, seem perennial. Some photos too are the same, like exactly the same. Let's start with one of those - the view of the schloss at Aschaffenburg from the bridge leaving town.(coming, or hell, just check last year!)

The Schloss at Aschaffenburg - 2015 version

Another perennial observation is about the quality of the ordinary houses in the small towns. They are clearly built to last, from stone and brick and with tile roofs. I would bet on any of them to be still standing when our not cheap house on vancouver Island is reduced to wood chips. It was natural, in the Canadian wilderness, to make houses from trees, including the roof, but maybe it's about time to plan for houses to last, at least a century or two. We should put a stone house up the hill at Cobble Hill, where we live, and call it schloss Miller.

Wanting to bring home the housing from here is only a part of wanting to bring home the cars, vans, bike paths, rivers, and food. As I ranted about this as we pedalled along, Dodie sagely observed that (a) that is why we came here and (b) maybe I'm saying we should move here and (c) our families are not that far off in time from being from here so maybe we are still Europeans at heart.

Another observation about the quality of things in the region applies to restaurant premises. On several occasions lately we have stopped at an outdoor portion of a restaurant or bakery, which is giving a rather small or unimposing footprint. Later, when searching out the washroom, for example, we see that the place is much longer and/or wider than might be supposed. This certainly applied to the eis cafe where we failed to get any service a few days ago (the staff was spread out over acres of restaurant inside and on the other street), to the Asian restaurant last night, and even to the bakery where we stopped for an eis äppetiser" before finding this shady bench for lunch.

We are hanging out at this bench (about 14 km before Miltonberg) longer than normal, because we have arranged to meet Jurgen and Birgit and Joe and Karla in Rothenburg on Saturday. These are the parents of Christian and Marius, two young men who came to stay with us at the farm some seven(?) years ago, and who have been part of our lives since. Jurgen et al will drive down here from Leipzig, a distance of about 300-400 km. These other parents are all working still, so this will have to be a weekend excursion for them. It means we have to take care to be somewhere in reach specifically on the weekend. This of course could throw us off schedule, but we will look for a train somewhere somehow to put us back on time. Of course there is also the option of pedalling longer and harder, but that of course is a distant last resort.

So Dodie asked "Where are you now?" referring to writing the blog here on this bench, and I volunteered to read what I had so far. After one paragraph, she seemed half asleep, so I warning her that there could be a quiz, and carried on. I am only typing this bit now because she fell asleep with the reading, many paragraphs back. I seem to recall (on an earlier blog page) encouraging you other readers to stay awake, even if Dodie does not, and offering promises of exciting cycling to come. So here we are again - you stay awake, and I will wake up Dodie, then we all can head off for exciting Miltonberg!

A look at where we are today. Mitenberg is down at the bottom, where the Main turns from south going to east going.

Typical support poster for the Main Radweg - part of what makes this so great

Look kids, two excavators working on the road

The mailman makes a delivery from his very efficient bike

These twenty old timers must be part of some sort of cycling group

The rathaus in Worth - 2015 - identical photo to th eone we took in 2014!

Inside the cafe where we sat at some few unassuming tables outside

A couple of exciting things happened before we ever got to Miltenberg. First we found a good model for Schloss Miller, pictured just below (soon):

I think I will put the computer room in the round tower!

The next tower is actually a hoax, painted to look like something but actually an electrical utility room.

This tower is actually sort of a joke - it is a plain concrete electical room painted to look like this.

Finally there is the biber (beaver) story on a large billboard. All through Germany we find features about the beaver. They love them here. Of course, we are from the "official" land of the beaver, and we look with bemusement at all beaver pretenders!

Ths beaver is holding up his foot so you can see it better. Cute.

Things got really exciting, though, when we arrived in Miltenberg. There are (maybe quite a number of) towns that really are fachwerk central. That is, towns with narrow streets in the old town, where every building is a study in medieval charm. Miltenberg is one of these. It's long main street is just gorgeous end to end. Into this framework was inserted scads of tourists, most of them American, most off river cruise ships of the Viking line. English speaking guides bearing follow me type paddles were making presentations about the various sights in the town. A seemingly infinite number of eis cafes were serving up decadent looking creations or multi scoop cones. We walked our bikes into this, and immediately were absorbed into it all - the buildings, the eis, the guides, the Americans.

With the buildings, of course it was snap snap with the camera. One lovely hotel caught our attention, and though we knew exactly where the camping was, it was early, and we were in fine shape, we wistfully dreamed about how nice it would be to stay in such a unique place. We fought that off, and walked on.

We walked as far as the first eis cafe, that is. Since there had been a stop at the eis cafe pictured earlier, I went for a spare, conservative single scoop - Dodie too. I got tiramisu, she got cappucino. They were so good!

Now the guides. As we stood with our eis, one pointed out the twin towers of the town church. She told the story of how some years ago neo-nazis planned a rally in the square by the church. The mayor refused a permit, saying he would throw them out of town personally. But they went to court, and pursuant to freedom of speach got a permit and the rally went ahead. However the church priest was having none of it. He locked himself in the church and rang the bells continuously, drowning out the rally. The neo-nazis left town, and in a subsequent court action the priest was vindicated, having relied on a right or duty to ring the bells in the event of an emergency. He was later promoted to bishop.

Now the Americans (and some Canadians) - were super interested in our bikes and in what we were doing in this town. We enjoyed standing around finding out where they were from and how much they had paid for their cruise (Amsterdam to Budapest, 15 days, maybe 6000 dollars). It was quite some time before we finally made our way to more or less the end of the main street.

But there at the end of the street, almost like a plug in it, stood a building that was more decorated (if possible) and more cute than the rest. What is that - Disneyland? I said. But no, it was the Zum Riesen - the Giant. This is the oldest inn in Germany, having been mentioned in documents as early as 1158. Just about any article or reference to Miltenberg mentions it. We stood in the street beside it and gawked. "I wonder how much it would cost to stay there", said one of us. So I got sent in to the incredibly atmospheric little lobby, where a sign said there was nobody there and anyone interested should take the little elevator to the third floor. I exited with this information, and was not too keen on an expedition into the bowels of the building. So back I went, to the third floor, where an old old lady wrote the price on a piece of paper. It was a tough one - our absolute max - for when we are drenched, cold, beat is 80 euros. The paper said 90 euros. But then, does drenched, cold, beat stack up against the oldest, cutest inn in all of Germany. Of course not!

So here we are in our little room on the third floor. We are surrounded by stucco and wide wood beams. Out our window is a street of fachwerk houses, and down the hall, presumably the old woman is gearing up for a blockbuster breakfast in the antique dining room.

During our deliberations in the street, a lady came up to us to ask if we needed help. She said she thought that first place at the other end of the street was more expensive than this, but she also said the restaurant in this hotel was excellent. It took me (but not Dodie) a while to figure out that this woman was the mother of a young boy who was playing the pan pipes for donations nearby. She was watching out for his safety and well being.

As the lady told the story, the boy (who we had already given some coins to) had been in Frankfurt and there encountered the Andean groups who come to Germany to play music in the streets. He had decided that he would like to play the pipes. The parents play clarinet and trumpet (not sure in what capacity) but allowed the boy to follow his whim. It turned out that he has a talent for it, and plays only by ear. He has been asked to join some other musicians in a CD. So he needs to practice, which in part was what he was doing here. He is also in Boy Scouts and has set his heart on a certain knife, costing €187. The mother said go earn the money yourself, so that is also why he was out there. Time is short, because like us the family is heading to Venice on vacation!

We took the lady's advice and went to the hotel restaurant for supper. We chose a vacant inside table. A waitress came along and spoke to us in a flood of German. "langsam, langsam" (slower) we pleaded. Anyway, for some reason that table could not be used until 19:00 (echoes of France?), but when we moved over one table, all was well.

Dodie got schweinbraten and I stuck with good ole schnitzel. Both were super. So now we have waddled back to our third floor haunt, and are settling down to see what the old woman comes up with for fruhstuck.

Epilog: Speaking of haunts or haunting, somewhere around 1615 the proprietors of our inn were tried and executed as witches. Fortunately, a pamphlet we got notes, after 1630 witchhunting died out.

The hotel also proudly displays photos or painting of famous people who have stayed here. On our door is the picture of Prince Eugen von Savoyen - but we have not used the internet time enough to find out who he was, or what he was doing in our room!

On the bridge to Miltenbeerg. Many bridges have statues like this on them.

One of the preliminary streets of Miltenberg

The temperature dropped five degrees C as we passed wine cellars like this in Miltenberg. The cellars are set into a cliff.

A main square in Miltenberg. The red building is the first hotel, the one we resisted.

At the Miltenberg church, this Santiago de Compostella statue. Inside was a diagram of the pilgrimage routes in Europe. These routes, as far as I can see, are only sporadically marked out on the streets.

The church was plain to ugly inside, but it did have this whiz bang organ!

Inside the hotel, photos or paintings of famous patrons over the last 800 years. Grampies are not in there, yet.

The view from our window. This is as close to the middle ages as one can get (in a hotel room)

This old photo of unknown year shows that the building was not always as fancy as it now appears. The last major reno was in 1970.

Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 1,083 km (673 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0