Germany 2025 - Glorious Salzberg and Beautiful Rothenburg

Friday 3rd October - Salzburg

A rather strange night with our feet quite a bit lower than our heads!  

8 of us and 4 dogs took the bus into Salzburg though 4 (+3 dogs) got off at the wrong stop!  Kevin and Liz were still with us and we got off the bus very near to the old town and walked into a square for coffee and cake. 

From there we walked to the bottom of the funicular which goes up to the fort but they wouldn’t let us up with Rio as he didn’t have a muzzle on. Kevin and Liz went up and we wandered around the old town and I had to pay a visit to a Christmas shop. 

We met up with Kevin and Liz again and went on the hop on hop off bus. It was a bit disappointing as it was a single decker and not an open top one. It took us out into the countryside where we saw some of the Sound of Music locations. 

By the time we got back from the bus ride, we were shattered and returned to the camp site but not before we had quite a long uphill walk from the bus stop.  We had an early meal in the site eatery before retiring for the evening. 

Saturday 4th October - Rothenburg

We were away from the site by 9.45am, one of our earliest starts and I had had a shower and washed my hair.  

We had more fun with the Go-Box trying to take it back. Kevin had found a Shell station on the motorway which dealt with the lovely boxes, but it was on the other side of the motorway. I found an address where I can send it back to but it does have to be done in the EU because of customs costs. I now need to find somewhere where I can find some paper or similar. 

Our next stop was Dachau Concentration Camp. The sun was shining and it was quite hot. All I will say at this point is that I found it rather frightening and very thought provoking. I am going to do a separate post on Dachau, it can’t go in here. 

We were heading for an aire for tonight when someone said it was full!  Two of the group got in there before they put the full sign up, three have gone to another Aire, one to another one and Kev, Liz, John, Jen and us are going to tomorrow night’s site.   One of the group said that it was like Race Across the World except it was Germany!  I made a whistle stop visit to an Aldi, rushing  round the store, then running across the car park, throwing the shopping into the van and running to return the trolley - I didn’t want to lose our place in the race 😂🤣😂🤣.  

We had real stormy rain as we drove which, fortunately didn’t last too long. We arrived at the site and were put in an overflow area for the night.  It was just three vans from the group and we had electricity which all that mattered!  

We went off to see if we could find somewhere to eat and found a hotel called Schwartz Lamm.  It was very old, and served excellent food and wines.  Richard and I had lamb in a cream sauce with Duchesse potatoes, it was really good.  

246 miles

Sunday 5th October - Rothenburg

We had a leisurely morning as we were already on the site for tonight, so had no driving to do.  I had washing to do, so I had plenty of time to do it.  We moved to our proper pitch, which was very nice with electricity, water and a grey water pipe.  It keep raining on and off all morning, and when it rained it was quite hard.  The group gradually arrived and, I think, were all on site but about 12.30pm.  

The rain stopped about 1pm, so we booked a taxi with Liz (Kevin wasn’t feeling 100%) which took us up to Rothenburg, one of the towns on the Romantic Road.  In the 1950’s the German tourist office devised a 257 mile tourist route running from Würzburg to Füssen.  Rothenburg is thought to be the loveliest town on the Romantic Road and is gorgeous with lovely old houses and shops.  We went into a cafe to have a Schneeball, which is a deep-fried ball made from shortcrust pastry.  They are very popular in the Rothenburg area.  I had a champagne one and Liz had an apple one.  I was rather disappointed but maybe they would be better with custard!  

We wandered around, along with many tourists, mainly from the far east.  The buildings are beautiful with their medieval architecture and timber-frames.  There is a lovely clock tower in the market place along with a magnificent renaissance style Town Hall.  Liz and I found a huge Christmas shop.  It was a one way system and seemed to go for miles!  We both bought a couple of bits - well it would have been rude not to!  

We got a taxi back to the site before having an early dinner at the same place as last night.  All 14 of us were there and it was an excellent evening.

In March 1945 German soldiers were stationed in Rothenburg to defend it. On March 31st, bombs were dropped over Rothenburg by 16 planes, killing 37 people and destroying around 275 houses (around 32% of all houses), six public buildings and damaging nine watchtowers and over 2,000 feet of the wall. Because incendiary bombs were used most outer walls still stood after the attack and were used to rebuild the newer eastern part of the old town. Around 265 houses were rebuilt.

A few more photos of Rothenburg