Today we made our way to Heidelberg via Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Schwabische Hall, part of the Romantic and Castle Roads.
It was very cold – only about 5 degrees but colder with the wind chill – but luckily no rain.
It took us about an hour to get to Rothenburg mainly because of roadworks along the autobahn where at one stage we were down to only one lane.
When the autobahn slows down, the inside slow lane is wall to wall trucks and the outside lane all cars. Adrienne thinks there are more trucks in Germany than were in the USA – one thing for sure is there are lots and lots!
The quaint buildings and
streets of Rotenburg
At Rothenburg we parked the car outside the city walls and strolled in through one of the gates and roamed the cobblestone streets. We visited one of the churches, St Jacobs, which has a famous wood carving of the “Last Supper”. The carving is so intricate.
We bought some Schneeballen which is basically just a huge ball of cake dough – bigger than a cricket ball. Adrienne and Liam were suitably impressed and it did not stay large for very long.
On the river at Schwabische Hall
After about 2 hours we headed back to the car and set off for Schwabische Hall, about an hour away. This is a similar quaint village, although not walled. It has a river running along one side with old stone or wooden bridges crossing it into the town.
We had lunch here and Liam’s choice was currywurst again !
The town was again lots of cobblestoned streets and old odd shaped buildings – some you wondered what was keeping them from falling over !
Our final stop and where we are staying is Heidelberg. After checking into our hotel we headed into the old town streets along the main street – the Haupt Strasse and found our way to the train station that would take us up the hill to the ruined castle that overlooks the city.
After trying to buy our train tickets from the pay machine for the parking lot, we eventually found the correct train ticket machine and boarded the train for our 2 minute ride to the Schloss (castle).
Part of the ruined castle at Heidelberg
We strolled around the castle – although ruined there are some sections that have been restored however as it was late we did not go in.
The grounds are huge and we strolled these looking at the external ruins. As it is high on the hill overlooking the town, the views back down over the town and river are stunning.
After heading back down on the train we strolled the streets and stalls then headed down to the river and onto one of the bridges to get a view back up to the castle from a different angle.
Looking at the castle from the river
We then headed back to our hotel. Dinner was at the restaurant in the hotel and we almost had the place to ourselves. The food was excellent though and very reasonably priced.
Now for a good nights sleep and onward to Freiberg tomorrow.