Blog 2.3 The Romantic Road and Towards the Black Forest

Tuesday 11th April 2023

A rainy, blowy old stay for our second night on the Donauwörth Stellplatz, but at least the worst unpleasantness had skipped past as we headed off southwards over the river.

Our initial foray today would take us back off the Straße to the small town of Wertingen, which, according to the interweb has a FIAT dealership.

Nope. Nein. Nicht.

Turns out that it once had one, but no more. Bugger.

I should have gone with my first thought and gone straight to Auto Reichhardt near Augsburg, and saved a detour. Oh well.

Thankfully, although I have enough basic German to convey problems around warning messages and steering system, they had a couple of excellent English-speaking staff - one a mechanic - who made the process so much easier.

We were told that they wouldn't be able to hook the van up until 1pm, so we had an hour or so to browse the local Lidl and grab a bite of lunch (no cakes this time though) at the nearby Bäckerei Rager.

Boo to Autogalerie Langer FIAT.

Hooray to Auto Rheichhardt FIAT Professional.

What lovely people.

All done under the guarantee too, so no charge, although I'd anticipated possibly having to pay and claim it back in the UK. All good.

On. Southwards again.

Tuesday and Wednesday Nights

Landsberg am Lech

After the detour and frustrations, and ultimately satisfaction of the day, we plonked ourselves on a very big and nondescript, near-empty lumpy-bumpy car park on the edge of a large green area, and just a ten minute walk into the very pretty town centre. And it's free. Perfick.

Unlike the weather, as usual.

Actually,  Tuesday wasn't too bad and we were able to wander extensively without having to dodge showers for a change.

Landsberg, like so many other towns on the Straße, is incredibly photogenic, and is another reason to be grateful for digital photography. Clickety-click.

The main square, however, while incredibly beautiful, is slightly

marred by the fact that it has a fairly busy road running through it. It begs being pedestrianized, but I guess the local topography doesn't allow this easily. Shame.

However, there are roads running off it which afford opportunities for safe jaywalking, so all is good.

Just like the cakes and heiss schockolade!

On returning to basecamp, part of a very large virtually empty car park, remember, what should be parked right next to us but a huge MAN Kat 1 military overlander kitted out for full time living, complete with a family of four.

Fine. But right next to us, with the huge tailpipe pointing straight at our window? When there are several thousand empty square feet available?

Why oh why do they do it?

The river Lech runs right past the town centre perhaps a quarter of a mile away, and makes for some very pleasant walks along the banks, and criss-crossing via road and foot bridges, of which there are many.

The Lech Wehr too, is an awesome sight - and sound - being where the river cascades in steps totalling some, I don't know, 30ft? Heck of a roar.

What really surprised, though, right below the weir on our early evening stroll on the second day, we encountered a Eurasian Beaver going about his business collecting floating sticks and making off home. Dam, I thought; I really wasn't expecting that!

For all its pleasant visage, though, Landsberg tells an odd and not terribly savoury tale, acted out a century ago. Its prison once held a certain A. Shickelgruber, who was arrested and incarcerated here following the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, and it was here he wrote his best-seller - Mein Kampf.

Struggle indeed. Pah.

Landsberg Nick

It also held high-ranking Nazis following the war as they awaited trial for their revolting crimes.

It still serves its original purpose as a gaol too. Quite chilling.

We moved. Just to the corner of the car park, to a much nicer spot which had been vacated, and away from the possibility of being choked by cold diesel smoke should the old MAN be fired up. It made for a quieter night too without the sound of its diesel heater roaring away.

Diesel heaters are fine as they go, and I thought long and hard about installing one in the van. I even bought a 5kw Chinese one, but changed my mind and put it in the carport instead, firing through into the hallway.

It made a big difference to the temperature of the house, to be sure, but I think I made the right decision not installing it in the van. Noisy, and potentially smelly, if cheap to run. Gas will do.

Thursday: To the end of the Romantic Road

The Straße peters out when it reaches Füssen, hard against the Alps and the Austrian border, and it was here we settled into a paid wohnmobile stellplatz for possibly our last night in Germany for a little while.

The jury's still out though. We will probably cross into Austria in the morning and look for a parkup in the Alps (although these appear scarce and the paid Stellplatz variants quite spiteful, price-wise), but from there we're not sure. We might turn left and head towards Czechia on Austrian roads, or possibly cross back into Germany, skirt Munich, and hit Czechia slightly further north.

We'll see how the feeling takes us tomorrow.

Just before reaching Füssen, passing through Schwangau, if one glances to the left and to the foot of the Alps, one is certain to catch a glimpse of King Ludwig's castle Neuschwanstein castle, and the nearby Hohenschwangau castle.

I'm sure the former would be on the itinerary of many, most, tourists into this area. Indeed, it's probably the main reason many venture this way - the Disney castle nonsense I suppose, but for me, it's a meh. Good to look at, but that's it. Take it or leave it: I left it.

Meanwhile shortly after arriving at our berth, we walked into Füssen town (the Stellplatz is about 1.6 miles out) and took in the views, took lunch in a café and took another walk across the River Lech (yes it runs through Füssen before heading north to Landsberg) and up to the Lech Falls. It's more of a weir again really, but quite spectacular. Pictures don't do it justice - particularly with regard to the wall of sound it produces.

Our walk ended up being about six miles in total by the time we got back to the van - complete with coffee and cakes from Lidl. Yes, of course!

Friday

We rose to a vista of snow. Well, a vista for as far as we could see anyway.

Before

And After

The Alps, which we could see quite clearly from the van yesterday afternoon had shied away behind a veil of thick low cloud.

It wasn't too cold though; mild enough that the white stuff was melting away fairly rapidly by 9am.

However, the conditions had sort of forced our hand a little, and after a council of war we decided on a complete change of plan. Instead of pushing into Austria, risking worsening conditions on the high ground, we decided to strike west and north, on a course for the Black Forest.

Once we'd dipped very slightly into Austria just to say we'd been there - the border is probably 3km from where we spent the night - we quickly changed direction for the Schwarzwald, finding delightfully surfaced and twisting grey ribbons of asphalt once again.

Our target this time was Horb am Neckar. A much younger river here than the voluminous flow which conjoins the Rhine just downstream from our previous stay on its banks, but still pretty enough.

We stopped just shy of Horb itself, choosing a free park-up right on the riverside, eschewing the offer of the local campsite at something like 75 Euros a night, plus services. Gulp.

Our home for the night turned out to be perfect.

Very, very peaceful apart from the rushing of the adjacent weir and the very occasional slow train on the opposite side; neither of which I find remotely intrusive, and I slept like a log.

Saturday

We packed the van (not that that takes long) after a quick cereal breakfast, and drove a couple or three kilometres to the outskirts of Horb where we parked and then ambled along the river for about 15 minutes into town.

It's not a bad spot, although not a patch, sights-wise, on some of the places we'd been treated to on the Romantische Straße,  but pleasant enough for an explore, followed by the now expected coffees and cakes, and a visit to Aldi to top up on a few essentials.

Making our way back to the van we decided that, instead of another night at the same spot, we'd hop a few kms further up the Neckar to another free  park-up in Sulz am Neckar.

It's just another car park, with some dedicated moho spaces, and paid-for filling and emptying and electric services should you need them, and is very handy for the town centre.

We had a quick turn round the town before coming back for dinner. It's a bit disappointing to be honest. A little down-at-heel. Maybe we've been too spoiled with all the fancy towns and villages we've viewed of late?

The weather is not looking to be particularly grand again in the morning, so there's another stay/move decision to be made.

Oh for a settled period with a fine, warm outlook!

And, oh, 11.39pm and... it's raining again. Could be a title for a song.

Sunday

"Oh no, it's raining again" (Supertramp, if you're not keeping up/old enough).

Depressing bleddy weather.

We sat here in the van for most of the day, generally fed up, and after yet another look at the BBC Weather app, to see the slightly brighter weather retreating further into the future yet again... we took a momentous decision, and made yet another complete change of plan.

Tomorrow, we're off to France.

Impetuous? Maybe; but it's been on my mind for a few days.

As much as we both love Germany, and wanted to do a little bit of Switzerland, Italy, and Austria (at least) we have to be realistic. This is no fun, and when I look at the Med coast going into NE Spain and see nowt but sun symbols on the forecast - well, it sways the jaded mind.

So, it's a case of up early in the morning, dump the gash, take on water, and head south-west.

We've earmarked a Camping-Car Park aire about halfway to Perpignan for tomorrow night, and then it's a repeat on Tuesday morning and finish on the Med coast somewhere near Perpignan. We'll flesh out the details on the latter at some point tomorrow.

Bring on a bit of sun.

We'll have options from there on, possibly including the Barcelona area, but we'll see how it feels.

Hopefully (hah!) After a couple of weeks, and getting into May, the weather should be more settled, so we can perhaps look at a drift north-eastwards to spend a few days in Italy and Switzerland.

And from there? I'm going to stop making predictions now.

Until I start making them again.

Total miles so far: 1094