Just like the famous Willie Nelson song of the same title, it was time to be on the road again and head east. We had a last continental breakfast, settled up our account with Stefan, packed the bike, and headed out on this year's adventure around 11:30am. It felt good to be on the road again. I have my GPS set to avoid interstate highways, so it routes us down really scenic country roads, all of which are paved. Just south of Heidelberg we encountered our first blocked road with no detour signage so I used my sense of direction and motored on and eventually made it over the range of hills. This opened up miles and miles of riding through farm country, forests, little villages, bigger villages and more. At another little town we encountered a blocked road with no detour signs so I figured out a detour and rode to end of a dead end. So we rode back to town and at the blockage, we gestured to a worker how to get around the blocked road. He gestured back with a big sweeping arc to ride around the hill behind him. So we did and it took us on some more wonderful paved and twisty but very narrow farm roads. At one point I saw a large raptor right alongside the road and it was impressive. Around 2:30pm we arrived in Rothenburg and were first amazed by this mid evil fort like structure. Across the street was a Greek restaurant where we enjoyed a very nice late lunch. My Gyro dish was a heaping serving of sliced meat & sliced onions and a salad and ricebut no Pita Bread. It was filling enough that no dinner was needed!
While waiting for our meal we used the town's free WIFI to investigate what this town was all about and we learned that we had stumbled upon what is probably Germany's best preserved medieval town. There was nearby camping, so we headed to the nearby village of Detwang and the TauberRomantik Campground. The name comes from being located along the Tauber River and the Romantic road of Roman times. A tent space with electricity was only 18.90€ per night or about $21US. Another older couple arrived after us on bicycles and pitched their tent in the same area as ours.
After we pitched our tent, we walked to town along a paved and inclined path to the old city. Our goal was to take the night watchman's tour in English at 8pm. So we walked around the town square and eventually a young Singaporean couple asked me to take their picture. We enjoyed some pleasant conversation with them and learned that they would be on the same tour with us. We walked around a bit more before assembling in front of the Rathouse or city hall. Our guide showed up in period costume including a wicked looking axe, a lantern, and a slightly disheveled appearance. He gave us an introduction to the tour and what it meant to be a night watchmen. Watchmen were the 3rd lowest members of society falling just ahead of grave diggers and executioners with the latter being the lowest on the social scale. We ( a crowd of some 300 people who each paid 8€ or $10US - do the math and see how lucrative his little 1 hour job is worth: I'll do it for you, it is $3,000 per night, he does it every day!) followed him around the city and he would recite various bits about life and history of the town. He had an engaging and honed delivery style. Payment at the end of the tour was on the honor system into his trifold hat. A CD of the tour was 15€. This was probably the best walking tour we've ever taken, I would highly recommend it! FYI, another really good walking tour is Louisa's Walk in Hobart, Tasmania.
We then walked back to camp (noting at least two other men doing similar night watchman tours) including a stroll along a section of the town's defensive wall. It was much easier walking down the hill than it was walking up it!
And so ended our first day on the road. Would we stay another night? Stay tuned.
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