Franconia. German Cycling Tour: Long road, sore saddles then wonderful Rothenberg

Our home in Rothenburg has been The Golden Griffin. Family run, authentic and a good price (75 euros inc breakfast)

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The day's trip started in Ansbach with a photo (below) of the excellent Swartzer Bock (Black Goat)  We set off to find some salad and cheese for lunch and finally found the cycle path for Rothenberg.

Outside Swartzer Bock

Lerburg was first stop on castle cycle route (Burgerstrasse). After a very long climb, (for anyone not on e-bikes), it was a little disappointing. A simple tower, a good landmark from a distance, but no earthworks at all.

On to Comberg  http://www.burg-colmberg.de/en/
much more interesting, an impressive castle, now a hotel, where one could picnic in delightful shady loggia or go round to the hotel entrance and terrace for drinks or lunch.

Comberg Castle

At this point we took the wrong cycle path and left the Burgerstrasse for a longer route, pleasant enough, but it made our trip 30 miles rather than the planned 20 miles. Our knees and feet were suffering by the time we arrived in Rothenberg ob der Tauber.

After making our way along the designated and separate cycle path through the inevitable main through roads, suburbs and traffic noise, we found ourselves at one of the gates to the old city, no traffic and calm-ish, but it was busy with people, Japanese and American mainly. (We were later told that this was nothing compared to what it would be June onwards!)

We headed for the centre and while Julian sat on the steps of the impressive Rathaus, I looked for the Golden Griffin which according to Booking.com promised a room for 75 euros. A bargain in this town.  Yes we got the last room and it had a bath, the only bath in the place. Bliss!

Rothenberg has a covered fortified walkway that almost entirely encircles the town, and we walked along all of it - 1.5 km.

Rothenberg is liberally sprinkled with turrets, mansion houses, merchant houses old fortifications.  All looking splendid.  If it were not for the bustle of ordinary people going about their business, one would feel you were in the middle of a film set or a fairy tale...

The following are photos that we took during our 2 day stay at the Golden Griffin.

The Golden Griffin with Julian in there somewhere.