Romantic Germany and Naturism

Today we took a bus into Dresden. Our first impression was that it’s a very modern city, quite different to any other European cities we’ve seen. It turned out that there is also a large old centre as well. Unfortunately it was targeted and very badly bombed towards the end of WWII.

There are some obvious repairs to some buildings; like a modern dome on an old stone church, as well as gaps along the waterfront which have been replaced by modern architecture.

It’s been really well done so that Dresden now has a really nice feel to it, the modern and the old living congenially alongside each other. The modern parts have also probably grown since the fall of communism; as Dresden was part of East Germany. It’s also not as busy as most cities we’ve been to, so much easier to get around.

There are lots of beautiful old fountains and new ones too. Among the many statues, my favourite was this one of a woman with a cherub trying to hide in her skirts, must have been modelled on a real child I think.

Today we’ve fetched up at a lake near Plauen, called Talsperre Pohl. Actually I suspect from the number of Talsperres on the map, it must be German for lake - no that is 'See', oh well something similar. We found a good ‘park’ – we’ve found a few of these on our travels – you pay 10 Euro and get power and a place to park. No facilities, but it’s still a good deal for us, much cheaper than camping grounds; which are 20-30 Euros. The lake’s got a wall at one end, presumably has been a hydro dam but not sure if it’s still used. The dam wall is also a bridge and is decidedly slumped on one side – a bit of a worry, hope the whole thing isn’t about to go! We also found it surprising that the swimming is so popular, there are hundreds of people on the grassy slopes and in the water but there’s no beach as such – looks like a bit of a grassy/muddy bank, probably wouldn’t be so popular in NZ. We’re obviously a bit spoilt.

We decided to go for a bike ride around the lake, it’s not huge and we figured the ride would be 2-3 hours. The weather’s being very kind to us so we thought we’d go for a swim afterwards. We got to the far end of the lake without incident and, looking back at the camp, figured we were about half way. That’s when it got interesting, we passed a man at a table taking money from cars, who just waved us through, and found ourselves in the middle of a nudist beach. At first they were just bodies on the beach and we could cope with that, but then as the track went on there were people wandering all around us, lining up for ice creams from a van, just going for walks, thankfully not playing volleyball although we did see a net! It was all a bit much for a couple of shy kiwis like ourselves, and we’re not talking lithe young bodies here but real people, mostly a good 10-20 years older than us, women with wide hips and men with large guts – although I do have to confess that most had a very even tan – none of those unsightly strap marks to worry about. A couple of times when men were walking towards me along the track, I took an inordinate interest in the workings of my front wheel!(There's no photos for this part, for obvious reasons...) After we eventually passed that beach – (it took a good 10 minutes of very determined pedalling), it was a long beach and a lot of people – we got onto a very dodgy track through the forest. It was obviously not designed for bikes, even Gus couldn’t ride anymore and we had to get off and push the bikes, it was quite steep in places too. We realised the cycle track had probably turned before the beach. Anyway we eventually came across it again, we weren’t going back! The second ‘half’ was also a lot further than the first due to the many arms of the lake we had to go around. We ended up crawling back into camp about four hours after we set out – by which time I was completely stuffed – maybe we can go swimming tomorrow – tonight it’s just cooking, reading and sleeping on the agenda.

We are now officially on the ‘Romantic Road’. It runs from Würzburg to Füssen, the River Main to the Alps, and is Germany’s most popular tourist route. Lots of medieval towns, great scenery and a fairy-tale castle or two are promised so watch this space. We will end up back down at the Austrian border but this trip was never about going in a straight line... We started today by exploring Würzburg; this is a really nice small city with, once more, great architecture and loads of character. We were able to get around easily on our bikes and walking, lots of cycle tracks and pedestrian-only streets. This is another city where the trams dominate, and you have to watch out for them because they’re so quiet – much nicer than rowdy trains or buses though.

The highlight was the former Prince Bishop’s Residence – a palace that was built from 1720-1744. A Prince Bishop is apparently a Bishop that pleased the king so much he was crowned as a prince – the bishops then had political as well as religious power and ruled this area for hundreds of years. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/t/tiepolo/gianbatt/5wurzbur/index.html The palace suffered severe damage in World War 2 – seems such a terrible waste that so many beautiful and historically important buildings all over Europe were destroyed or damaged so wantonly and so quickly after having survived so much for hundreds of years. What remains is still spectacular though, and you wouldn’t know from the outside now that any damage was done. One room that remains in original condition is decorated by a sculptor and a painter working together. Apparently they didn’t get on (can’t remember names) but they worked so brilliantly together that a lot of paintings around the ceiling seem to come out from the surface – a foot or an arm was sculpted to blend so perfectly with the painting that you can’t see where one ends and the other begins. Unfortunately this was another palace that photos weren’t permitted inside. The gardens were also lovely, and had loads of statues. I was quite intrigued by this one of a child (or nymph?) fighting with a child/goat character – not sure what’s going on there.

We also visited Tauberbischofsheim (try saying that after a beer or before one for that matter) today. It’s a unique little village that made us feel a little like we’d stepped into a Hansel & Gretel story.

We stayed the night at Rottingen, this village’s main claim to fame (apart from the usual medieval village thing) is its sundials. We were quite amazed at the variety of them. We saw about 10 but I think there are about 25 all together. Unfortunately it also had a very loud village clock – took me a while to work out the system as it rang so much but eventually I did – I got plenty of time before I could get to sleep! It rang once on the ¼ hour, twice on the ½ hour, thrice on the ¾ hour then four times on the full hour; then in a different tone rang out the hour. So at midnight it rang 16 times!

Quite an effective alarm clock, especially with the help of the heat which has come back (not as bad as Italy but close), and the large tractors going past until about midnight, then starting again at 5am. Lucky this park only cost 5 Euros. It’s full-on harvest time here; Gus has been quite fascinated to see that they cart all the grain with tractors and trailers on the roads (including autobahns) to local grain-dryers. In NZ we use trucks and trailers, much faster and more efficient we would have thought. There is an amazing amount of cropping in this area, very few animals - I did see some cows in a barn today. They also have a lot of big areas of solar panels, acres and acres of them, and a lot on houses as well; lots of wind turbines too.

During the day we visited Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This was a lovely town; we were fortunate enough to get to the square just as the clock struck the hour – not quite Prague’s performance but cute nonetheless. Two windows open, a figure appears at each one and raises a beer as the clock strikes. Gus pointed out that at least we could tell the time on this one too.

The town also had a fabulous Christmas shop; we felt like kids in there and it’s not even Christmas, makes Kirkcaldie & Stains display in Wellington seem a little lacking.

It also had beautiful medieval houses and a lovely original wall; the flagstones were so worn it’s easy to imagine the number of watchmen who must have walked those walls, and what they must have felt when they spotted enemies approaching!

We stayed that night at Nördlingen; a village that was built in the crater of a huge meteor. It’s therefore very round! The wall is still complete right around so we walked most of it. Not in as original condition as Rothenburg’s wall, obviously been re-stored in a lot of parts. Apparently it was the town that you saw from the glass elevator in the 1970’s version of ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’; so fans may recognise it... They also had a loud clock which was joined from 10pm-12midnight, every half hour, by a bloke who goes round yelling “So, G’sell, so!” (All’s well, fellows, all’s well). It shows how tired we were that I only heard him once; and Gus not at all. We were also close to a busy road so the white noise helped drown him out... The park here was free so things going in the right direction in that way. We stopped today at Rottenbuch; not the most exciting of villages, but quite cute and had the most ornate church interior we’ve seen yet, and that is really saying something. We are staying tonight at Schwangau, near the end of the Romantic Road and right next to a lovely lake and mountains. There are also not one but two castles in the town so I’ll drag Gus along to those tomorrow. Unfortunately, just as we have reached this lovely lake, the weather has cooled, even a bit of rain, so we’re not swimming – some hardy souls are – but will certainly make for easier sleeping. We’re in a 5 star camping ground so back up to 25 Euros but nice and quiet – no traffic, or loud clocks, or town criers for that matter.