Dinkelsbühl, Off the Beaten Track

Trip Start Jun 30, 2008
1
11
24
Trip End Aug 04, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Germany  , Bavaria,
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

We picked a location from the guide book today that would require some travel off the normal train routes and tourist busses. A place guarenteed to be less crowded with the usual camera snapping bunch.  Fantastic stuff.  We took the train as far as we could then piled into a local bus with a dozen or so school kids on their way home for the day.  The drive was as confusing as it was beautiful, narrow, winding roads through farm fields and forests and small towns punctuated with huge wind turbines slowly spinning away in the sun.  It was a perfect day to travel.

We finnally arrived at our destination and walked the half kilometer or so into the town.  Dinkelsbühl is an old walled town, fourteen towers stand around it, each one a bit different from the last.  The LP guide says you can walk the walls to see the town but we failed to find any access to the top of the walls that was not either locked or obviously not intended for casual access. The town is part of the Romantic Road and is probably the jewel in the crown of these places.  All of the houses within the walls are beautiful, tall, colourful houses Access into the Town
Access into the Town
 .  The shops and restaurants are the same and but for a handful of other tourists and backpackers, and a couple of cyclists, we had the place to ourselves.  We stopped at a local place and had more delicious food and a couple tall cold glasses of tasty beverage -- cola light and not! 

After the siteseeing we piled back on the bus, back into the closest rail stop and back onto a train to go to Poelling to see Uwe and Simone who offered us lodgings for a couple of days.

Things of note:
Germany has the solar power/wind power thing figured out.  Many of the houses we see on our travels have solar arrays covering the roofs.  Lots of commercial buildings have the same.  Everywhere we go we see giant wind turbines, ones and twos, off in the distance slowing spinning away. 
All of the windows, or most, have roll away blinds that provide both protection and privacy.  They're easy to use and help keep sun out in the day and the light out when you want to sleep in complete darkness.  Very smart construction.
I have to mention again about the value of the eurorail pass.  We've been able to use it on the highspeed trains (ICE), the regional trains, the U and S Bahn trains, the trams, and busses.  With only a couple of exceptions we have paid no extras for any of our transportation on any of the legs of our trip. 
Slideshow Print this entry Dinkelsbühl hotels

Comments

dawntes
dawntes on Jul 19, 2008 at 02:57PM

We've been there, too!
We're really enjoying reading about your trip! We visited the little town of Dinklesbuhl last summer! It's a beautiful little place to stop--not touristy at all; everybody just going about their business. We knew our tour guide had made a great stop when we saw several elementary-aged school groups walking through the town---on a field trip!! We were very lucky that when we arrived in the main square, the organist was tuning in the church, so we went inside to listen to him play--what a treat! We also drove down the Romantic Road, and stopped at Gaor for a nice lunch along the river.

dadandmom
dadandmom on Jul 24, 2008 at 06:10AM

pictures
These are great pictures. The buildings look like they came out of a fairy tale.

Add Comment