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.
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."
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.
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