Journey: None
Distance: 0 km
Campsite for the night: Camping Tauberromantik
YouTube link: Days 22 & 23

Today we cycled up to the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber and had a look around. It was far more impressive than either of us could have imagined. The walls surrounding the town are still very intact, with lots of towers and town gates. Immediately upon locking our bikes up and entering through a gate, we climbed the steps to walk along the wall, and kept walking until we reached a bigger gate that looked like a main entry. We then just started wandering with no real plan except to enjoy the medieval architecture and find lunch.

One thing we saw a lot of were these large balls of something in bakery windows, called schneeball (snowballs). A quick google explained they were balls of pastry covered in icing sugar or other coatings.

After lunch at a sushi place, we checked Happy Cow for a bakery that did a vegan version so we could try it. We went for cinnamon sugar and it was tasty enough but not that exciting. I think someone must have made it by accident originally by squashing a lot of pastry scraps together.

It then took us ages to actually leave the town because it was a lot bigger than we thought and we weren’t entirely sure where we’d left our bikes, only knowing the road we’d cycled in on. One thing that did distract us momentarily was a huge christmas shop with a museum. It was quite surreal and a little freaky seeing so much christmas in one place… in May.

Eventually we were reunited with our bikes and cycled to an off licence on the edge of town. It was huge with a great beer selection. We carefully selected four German beers (our criteria being ones with bottle tops reminiscence of the ones worn by Bros fans in the 80s) and went to pay. They were very cheap at just over a euro each — quite a contrast to what we’d pay at home for similar German beers.

Emma has embraced being in Germany with her cooking. Last night we had schnitzel with potatoes, salad and curry sauce, and tonight we had currywurst with potatoes, asparagus and curry sauce. Es ist sehr gut!

On the campsite, we saw the most exciting van we’ve seen so far on this trip — one with Finnish plates — that van has come an impressively long way from home. Usually our neighbours are German or Dutch, as they seem to be the most adventurous Europeans by far and we’ve had one Brit when we were in Lake Bled.