Forget the Alps and Ardennes for five minutes....

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.... and shift your carcasses to the Altmuehltal

Dial up the square roughly:

Rothenburg ob der Tauber... Nurnberg.... Buglengenfeld

Dinkelsbuhl... Gunzenhausen... Truechtlingen... Ingolstadt... Regensburg

Then head off in just about any direction.

In a word, excellent.

Google: Altmuehltal motorrad and go from there, you'll get the idea.
 
Rothenburg ob der Tauber i believe thats on The romantic strasse that goes from Fussen in the South, to Würzburg in the North, did the south end this year on the way back from Poland, and the North half a couple of years back, the North end is far better imho. and indeed it is on the route.
 

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Just bought an excellent little Romantische Strasse guide book today. Found it in the Neuschwanstein Castle gift shop. Gives a good insight into all the places to stay or visit.

One of our favourite areas and we will drop in next week some time.

Matt

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk
 
Rothenburg ob der Tauber i believe thats on The romantic strasse that goes from Fussen in the South, to Würzburg in the North, did the south end this year on the way back from Poland, and the North half a couple of years back, the North end is far better imho. and indeed it is on the route.

Was in Friedburg last Wednesday on way back up from Slovenia. Lovely area and nice roads.
It then pissed it down on us, all the way up to Rotterdam. We eventualy reverted to the using the motorways.:blast
But will definitely be back to that area and the nice roads. Oh and nice beer.:beerjug:
 
Rothenburg ob Tauber is one of those towns that is just great to wander around. Worth a day in its own right. Particularly enjoyed the historic old jail which showcased the range of medieval punishments - weighted barrel for drunks, scolds branks for talkatative mischief makers (someone should fit a brank to Katie Hopkins), etc.

Make sure you try the local cake delicacy - Sneebollen

Diskelsbuhl is also a very picturesque medieval walled town.
 
Rothenburg's old town, hit heavily by the Americans and then rebuilt, was - before the war - held up as a shining light and example of the Nazi party's belief in what 'The most German of German' towns should be like. In a sense, the idea lives on in the 'Romantic road' stretching from Wurzberg in the north, southwards to Fussen and the start of the Alps; 'Romantic' in this sense meaning 'ideal' or 'perfect'. We English do it too, with the Cotswolds.

What the area does offer are lots of very nice towns and villages, largely rural and open but with excellent (largely empty) roads with enough crests and folds to make them interesting.... A great place to bring a motorcycle, sports car or - if anyone is so inclined - to just bimble along. It's an area of Germany which, along with the northern Baltic coastline, I've mistakenly ignored. Close enough for anyone coming from Calais or the Dutch / Belgium ports to enjoy without hitting every motorway to get there. We went, via St Omer on Saturday morning, down the reasonably direct non-motorway route, to Clervaux in the Luxembourg Ardennes. Then, again on the better main roads (with a bit of motorway to skirt some on the bigger cities) to Colmberg, staying here for three nights before retracing our steps to be home on Thursday night. Six days away, temperatures hovering at about the 18 to 20 C mark, the threatened rain having failed to materialise.... And to think we moan about our weather forecasters. The biggest hazard so far has been the oceans of mud on the French country roads through St Pol and Cambrai, brought about by last week's heavy rain that also hit SE England. Hey-ho, that's rural biking for you.
 
I stopped in Fussen for a couple of nights in June, but as I'd already ridden the rather dull lower part of the B17 several times, I took the B16 this year and it's a much better riding road. It meets the B17 again at Nordlingen where the interesting towns start again :thumb2 Dinkelsbuhl was also very pretty, but Rothenburg is stunning :bow
 
I tried to complete the Romantic route a couple of years ago after watching Henry Coles Worlds Best motorcycling roads on sky.

Unfortunately my plans were scuppered by the weather I went in October, dropped into Germany from France went to Heidelberg then Heilbronn and on to Rothenberg O T.
Overnight the temperature plummeted next day it was -6 and about a foot of snow covered Germany the fountain in one of the squares was frozen solid and I was concerned.

I managed to carefully get out of Rothenberg on the snowy roads fortunately for me the autobahns were clear (never worked out why) so I made an escape to Switzerland in sub zero temperatures I didn't see another motorcyclist the whole way, bloody freezing. only had summer gloves thank god for heated grips could never have made it without them. At some stages I had to push my fingertips onto the grips to get some feeling back.

One bum clenching moment coming out of a tunnel at 120K to be greeted with sheet ice for about 100 mtrs decided not to touch the braked or decelerate just hoped for the best fortunately I got across without incident.

So gutted the country looks stunning. I did go to Fussen last year coming back from the Italian lakes it was beautiful.

If you plan to go make sure its before October
 
ROUTES

Heres a couple of track files I used in planning a trip last year.View attachment DeutscheAlp-bbr.gdbView attachment Romantic road.gdb

Had a superb ride through CZ and Austria to join the Deuch Alpenstrasse at Bertesgaden, left this road after garmisch and joined the romantic road, after Wurzburg head for Aschaffenberg as there are loads of great roads around there.:thumb
 
If you are going to try this route try and plan for a half day at Nordlingen, most beautiful and unspoilt walled city/town.
No TV antennas or satellite dishes nor solar panels in sight.

You can take a walk around the historic covered walkway which encircles the entire town 2.5k, climb the central tower for a fantastic view over the comet crater landscape, visit a steam railway museum and enjoy good food and drink in the town centre.
 

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I first did the Romantische Strasse in September 1984, one of the wettest Septembers they have had there, I was riding a 1978 Honda CB750F2 that was often running on less than four cylinders for the three weeks I was away. We stopped in Rothenburg Ob de Tauber by pure chance and stumbled upon a medaevel festival were many of the townsfolk were dressed up in period costumes and there was a torchlight walk around the town and down to the valley below. I seem to remember the Town mayor or some such dignatry dressed up on the Rathaus steps drinking from a large tankard and everyone cheering, even some of the local cops were dressed as soldiers of the period but wearing 'police' tabards.
This place is a tourist honey spot but worth a visit.
 
Ritchie Blackmore likes Rothburg o.d. Tauber that much he's had the town on two album covers
 

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Rothenburg ob der Tauber medieval festival takes place over the first weekend in Sept. The locals all dress up and drink local ales and stuff themselves with sausages....and you should too. A great weekend.
We stayed in the Hotel Spitzweg, secure bike parking around the back.
Didn't see Richie though.

Oh, a German guy will give you a tour of the town in the evening if you cross his palm with a few €'s..... Good fun though.
 
Zer English speakers

Last time we were in Rothenburg we went to the town's oldest restaurant for dinner. We didn't have a reservation and the Lass who greeted us seemed frustrated so when she said "Oh, you can sit on the english speaking table" we felt we were being treated like second class citizens.

It turned out that a group of elderly locals who had been held in England as POWs meet once in a while to practise English conversation. One old boy who had been held in Lincolnshire was stoked by the fact we were from Norfolk and let us ply him with drink all night. He showed us his photo collection (he'd obviously done this before) and told us fascinating stories of the other people around the table and their experiences as POWs in England.

All in all we had an utterly superb evening and enjoyed a truly unique and (mostly) memorable experience :beer: :beer:

PS, I didn't think much of the romantike strasse route other than the places it visits.
 


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