27. Germany: Nurburgring & Cologne

Leaving the tranquility of Bavaria, our next stop was the Nurburgring.

Our intention in coming here was for Paul to drive a car around the the 21 km Nurburgring street circuit. Anyone can drive their own vehicle on the track for 25 euros per circuit. This would have been the easy option but as our car is a lease vehicle, the consequences of a mishap could have been extremely messy.  

There are many ring taxis (in photo) where you are driven around the circuit for about 150 euros for the first lap and subsequent laps for about 90 euros each.  Understandably, this option didn't appeal. 

The third option is to hire a car for a specific period (about 3 or 4 hours) from one of the many companies in that business.  To hire a "hot hatch" works out at about 150 euros per lap for every lap you do. The problem with this option is your financial exposure in case of a mishap - about 12,000 euros in insurance excess. You can halve this excess by paying an extra 100 euros insurance up front (prior to your drive) but the coverage is still only for the vehicle and you could still be up for 6,000 euros for the car. Additional costs will include towing and track repairs, not to mention medical 'repairs'.  

In his wisdom, Paul decided to forgo this driving experience and content himself with watching the hundreds of vehicles pouring onto the circuit for the two hour afternoon session.

It wasn't possible to get photos of the cars actually on the track because the entry/exit area, where we were, is separated visually from the road itself by trees and fences.  This is so they can ensure all vehicles 'passing Go!' are charged for every lap.  

The array of cars was amazing - there were current and vintage Porsches, Mercedes, BMWs, Audis, VW Golf GTiRs, Jaguars, plus hundreds of 'normal' road cars and motor cycles.  There was even a VW Multivan complete with mum, dad, all the kids plus their luggage and camping gear.

Paul titled the photo above: 'Waiting for the Nordschleif to open the track to the rev-heads'.

But it was not all disappointment. The following day was 'The Old Timers Grand Prix" - 'old-timers' referring to the cars as well as the patrons.

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Paul's general entry pass allowed him to go everywhere, including the pits. He estimated the total value of these 1960s favourites at about $20 million AUD.

This is a 1962 Ferrari 250GTO - one sold for about $70 million AUD last year.

The Older Timers Grand Prix is run on the main Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit, not the 21 km street circuit described above.  Anyone interested in the 1,000 plus photos not included here?  Just let us know.

From Nurburgring we were headed for Amsterdam but needed a half-way stop, so Cologne and its cathedral was the choice.

Cologne was heavily bomber during World War II, losing most of its railway infrastructure.  This is the new railway bridge across the Rhine.

Unfortunately, the padlock craze is alive and well here, too although this structure is stronger than the Pont des Arts in Paris which had to have the padlocked sides removed as the weight was threatening the bridge.

Not sure who Thierry Jaspart is, but someone doesn't like him!

The Rhine was busy with barge traffic - these two are both carrying fuel.

Wiki: "Cologne Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day."

"Construction of the cathedral began in 1248 but was halted in 1473, unfinished. Work did not restart until the 1840s and the edifice was completed to its original Medieval plan in 1880. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires. The towers for its two huge spires give the cathedral the largest façade of any church in the world."

"Cologne's medieval builders had planned a grand structure to house the reliquary of the Three Kings and fit its role as a place of worship for the Holy Roman Emperor. Despite having been left incomplete during the medieval period, the cathedral eventually became unified as "a masterpiece of exceptional intrinsic value" and "a powerful testimony to the strength and persistence of Christian belief in medieval and modern Europe"."

"The cathedral suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during World War II. Badly damaged, it nevertheless remained standing in an otherwise completely flattened city. The twin spires were an easily recognisable navigational landmark for Allied aircraft bombing.

Repairs of the war damage were completed in 1956. Repair and maintenance work is constantly being carried out in one or another section of the building, which is rarely completely free of scaffolding, as wind, rain, and pollution slowly eat away at the stones. "

The floors were magnificent.

Our next stop was Amsterdam, 270 km northwest.  

Almost every major highway fuel stop in Holland had one of these super-duper solar powered electric vehicle charging stations.  Paul is checking out the adaptor fittings on the car charger - all types of EVs catered for.

26. Germany: The Romantic Road - Fussen to Wurzburg

Leaving Fussen at the southern end of the Romantische Strasse we drove north through the most beautiful countryside of Bavaria - lushly green, studded with quaint villages and hamlets where the houses and a few commerces (cafe, bakery, etc) are grouped around a church with a tall spire.
A village house includes the animal shed  - so it is a compound of house, machinery shed, feed barn and animal shed all surrounding a paved courtyard filled with flowers.
Never have we seen so many rooftop solar panels. The animal sheds are huge, especially those in the fields (rather than those in the village homes), and they are covered with panels. We were so goggle-eyed we forgot to take photos.

We passed through the lovely villages and hamlets of Halblech, Wieskirch, Steingaden, Wildsteig, Rottenbuch, Peiting, Schongau and Hohenfurch fighting with the GPS all the way; it kept wanting to take us "the fastest way" even though I had it set on "the picturesque route".

We stopped at the large medieval town of Landsberg am Lech to have a good look around.

Landsberg is on the Lech river and from earliest times, the river has been diverted into canals to drive industry in the town.  Tanneries, mills, dyers and of course households operated along the canals.

Many of the old houses are still in place, albeit with renovations and different purposes.

And many of the old establishments have given way to more modern residences.

This row of small houses backs onto a canal. It is rather like an English mews.  Originally these would have been small business and shops that traded from this side - the front door, and moved their goods via the canal at their back door.

Our second two-night stop on the Romantic Road was at Augsburg.
Wikipedia says - 'Augsburg is one of Germany’s oldest cities. The varied architecture in its center includes medieval guild houses, the 11th-century St. Mary's cathedral and the onion-domed Sankt Ulrich und Afra abbey. The key Renaissance building is the Augsburger Town Hall with its Golden Hall. The Fuggerhaüser is the seat of a wealthy banking dynasty and the Fuggerei is a 16th-century social housing complex'.

But I liked the buses best.

And the trams. With a population of just under 300,000 the city centre is almost silent with few cars or motorcycles but lots of pedestrians and bicycles to which the trams even give way.

Augsburg's system of canals and water management system has UNESCO World Heritage status (art works not included).

Moving north again, our morning coffee stop was at a supermarket with coffee, petrol and toilets all in the one place - important as the weather had cooled and it was now raining.  Here we had our first look at the excellent container deposit scheme in action. These guys have obviously made a large collection of glass and plastic containers and are cashing them in.

Most people were bring shopping bags and boxes full (rather than plastic bags full). The circular aperture in the top accepts and classifies each individual item and produces a credit voucher which can be used at the supermarket. The square aperture below processes crates of bottles, one dozen at a time.

The supermarket sells bulk water, beer and soft drinks in crates.  Buy them full and return them empty - crate and all.

It was also possible to buy local milk from local producers (not sure if it was raw milk or pasteurised).  Purchase your first glass bottle and then bring it back to refill - over and over. It was very popular.

Again, once you buy your first bottle (albeit plastic) you bring it back again and again for fresh orange juice.

Leaving Augsburg, we continued north through Rain, Donauworth and Harburg to our next two night stop in Nordlingen. We couldn't have chosen better. The sun was shining again and we were in Hansel and Gretel country.

In 1215, Nördlingen was granted city rights by Emperor Frederick II and became an imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. In that year, the first city wall was built.

It is claimed that Nordlingen is the model of a classic medieval town with the distinguishing characteristics of a town wall and fortifications, churches and monasteries, a town hall and infirmary, administrative buildings, a grain store, inns and taverns, merchants' and craftsmen' houses, market squares and an almost circular layout.

In 1327 Emperor Louis IV, also known as Louis the Bavarian, ordered that the town of Nordlingen and its outskirts extending outside the 'old' town wall should be encircled by a new wall.

The town was ordered to levy a beverage tax to finance this work. The towns citizens were also conscripted to carry out the excavation work and build the structure. It took them 73 years - the wall was completed around 1400. It increased the size of the city fourfold.

Nordlingen's town wall still has five gates, eleven towers and a bastion. This is the Reimlinger Tor, the oldest of the five town gates.  It was built in 1360, modified in 1480 and the upper tower was rebuilt in 1603.

North of Nordlingen we found Wallerstien, Dinkhelsbuhl, Fuechwangen, Schillinsfurst and then Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  Like Nordlingen, Rothenburg also had intact town walls so we took the opportunity to walk the entire perimeter of the old town on the walls.

"On 31 March 1945, Rothenburg was bombed by Allied aircraft as were Wurzburg and Dresden.  All were historical and cultural cities without any military or industrial importance. These air raids were intended to break the enemy's morale, but they show a certain blindness that comes into war systems at times of gaining control or during long periods of superiority. This danger of running out of control is quite common in the history of warfare."

About one third of the ancient town was either lost or damaged.

Much rebuilding was required, including parts of the walls.

One of the towers has a small museum and wonderful views.

We had been advised not to stay in Rothenburg, the most popular of the towns on the Romantic Road because of the crowds.  But this was 5 August, high summer and the crowds were sparse.  The weather had turned yet again and we were back to jackets and umbrellas.

North through Creglingen, Rottingen, Weikersheim, Bad Mergemtheim, Lauda-Konigshofen and Tauberbischofsheim we drove in the rain, leaving behind the gentle, lush pastures of southern Bavaria for our last stop, Wurzburg.

Located on the Main river, Wurzburg has a population of 130,000.

Wurzburg is known for lavish baroque and rococo architecture, particularly the 18th-century Residenz palace, with ornate rooms, a huge fresco by Venetian artist Tiepolo and an elaborate staircase.

Home to numerous wine bars, cellars and wineries, Würzburg is the center of the Franconian wine country, with its distinctive bocksbeutel (bottles with flattened round shapes - remember Mateus Rose).

In the same restaurant as the photo above - this was a function room.

On the Main river.

The 18th century Residenz Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

But we weren't in the mood for a museum so we chose a stroll through the gardens and a tram ride back to our little apartment which was a converted office, entered through a garage.

Thirty villages, towns and small cities over six days, driving 360 kms was heavy going. But Bavaria is beautiful and well worth the effort.

Next - Nurburgring.

25. Germany: Bavaria and the Romantic Road

Southern Germany’s Romantic Road (Romantische Straße) is a picturesque 350km route through the forests and mountains of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Its northern endpoint is Würzburg, a wine-region city known for the Residenz, an 18th-century baroque palace. In the south it ends at Füssen, in the foothills of the Alps, near King Ludwig II’s iconic Neuschwanstein Castle.

We drove the road from south to north, beginning in Fussen (above) and ending in Würzburg, passing through 30 villages and towns over six days.

Fussen is in the Schwangau area of Bavaria, very close to the Austrian border. We went up the chairlift, through the clouds, to the local highest peak, the Zugspitze.

On the way we passed Neuschwanstein Castle, the 19th-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill above the town.  The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and in honour of Richard Wagner.

At the top there were a number of people jumping off the top of the mountain into the cloud.

Coming down through the cloud to the only mid-way cable support. It was very steep.

We had a good view of the sled course on the way down.

The sleds get towed up to the top of the course - then it's up to gravity.

The sleds have a brake and the red triangular signs tell you when to slow down.

Paul loved it and would have kept going (again and again) if it hadn't been closing time.

Our home in Fussen for two nights - very traditional.