A day of heavy rain, short distances, and my most expensive accomm of the trip: a guesthouse in the Old Town of half-timbered honeypot Rothenburg ob der Tauber. But it was worth it to have the place to myself in the evening after the tourist buses had gone, to have somewhere to dry my sodden camping stuff, and to have a nearby petrol station supermarket with marked-down food items.
I spent a couple of hours exploring Dinkelsbühl in the morning: places that merited close investigation, such as the intact medieval city walls, shops selling the traditional Tracht (all those Dirndls and Lederhosen), and the bakery’s pastry counters.
I’m very much getting the hang of morning Kaffee und Kuchen to set me up for the day’s ride.
Well, the ride to the next cafe, anyway.
Around ten o’clock I left the town and headed along quiet lanes towards Rothenburg, all misty gentle farmland, open-feeling thanks to the lack of hedgerows. Uneventful, but not unpleasant.
Getting my five a day is proving no problem, and I don’t mean beer: there are pear and apple trees all over the place, shedding ripe tasty fruit by the roadside with the merest jog of a branch.
I followed a gravelly railtrail, and opted for the odd shortcut to the official D9 route. The mist turned to drizzle, and the drizzle turned to rain, and the rain turned to a downpour about half an hour outside Rothenburg. I sheltered in one village’s defibrillator kiosk for quarter of an hour but it just kept getting heavier, so I accepted I’d get soaked and carried on.
Rothenburg was hectic with umbrella-toting tourists. All of them were trying to take the classic shot in the centre, but being thwarted, because of all the visitors trying to take the classic shot in the centre. As did I, of course.
Thanks to the short distance it was still lunchtime, but I was ready to stop and dry off. I checked into my guesthouse and strewed the room with dripping camp stuff.
I spent an hour walking the now unrained ancient walls, rugged and galleried, and admiring the colourful, wood-beamed old houses. Then I admired the petrol-station Rewe round the corner, which provided a beer or two and some cut-price food.
Miles today: 34
Miles from Füssen: 192