Germany
Landkreis Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen

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    • December 12 - Last day in Nuremberg

      December 12, 2022 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ -3 °C

      We were in the 8:00 a.m. time slot for breakfast. No cookies or champagne for brekkie today. We detected some decidedly mid-Western American accents at a table across the room.

      We set out about 9:30 a.m. We took a tram ride for about 15 minutes to the Documentation Center and Nazi Party Rally Grounds. Nuremberg tries to present itself as the “City of Human Rights”, but its reputation as Hitler’s favourite place for rallies is hard to shake. The museum began an extensive remodelling project in 2021 so a lot of what used to be accessible is closed off, but there is a very well-done interim exhibit which focuses on the space and content of the Rally Grounds. The exhibit helps to trace the evolution of the National Socialist Movement which simultaneously energized and terrorized the German people. We were all very struck by how propaganda and staging and lighting were used during the rallies to promote Hitler and his ideologies. Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda classic “Triumph of the Will” was filled at this location. The Nuremberg Trials were held at another location across town. Those trials – the first international war-crimes tribunal -brought about a new concept of international law, which continues today in The Hague, Netherlands.

      We came back to the hotel and, of course, it was time to eat again. Some of the serious shoppers in the group had found a great store (Karstadt) on Saturday (closed yesterday) with a good café on its lower level. The store is like a cross between The Bay, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Michael’s and a giant grocery store. The café was very busy – it appears to be where wives stash their husbands while they shop. We got a couple of seats at the counter and ate in shifts. We discovered that they only serve steak. They have beef from all over the world, but alas, not from Canada. The steaks are cooked on a giant grill right before your eyes. The frantic pace kept up by the staff made my head spin. They act as order takers, bartenders, cooks, table clearers and cashiers. Most of us don’t usually have steak and baked potato and salad for lunch, but hey, we were there and up for the entertainment, so we dove in headfirst like the troopers that we are and polished off very tasty steaks.

      We split up after lunch – Sue off to take photos, Mary Ann and I to check out fabrics, and the others to shop and drink tea. We are Christmas Marketed out.

      Karstadt has a knitting wool and fabric department. There were some nice fabrics, but the prices weren’t very attractive. And the organization of the fabrics made it hard to browse – cottons were lumped in with polyesters and the wools and drapery materials. Mary Ann and I could have whipped that place into shape in a week.

      We went to another fabric store that we had spied near the Spanish restaurant last night. We found the same thing – no separation of fabrics by material content or colour or theme. And the lighting was so dim I couldn’t tell blacks from blues from dark greens. Another place in need of a makeover.

      One last stop – the food section of Karstadt. There is more chocolate there than any nation needs. I had one last €20 note so I spent it. No, not all of that chocolate is going to make it home!

      We had dinner at an Indian restaurant around the corner called LeBar. They played music from Dirty Dancing and had an extensive liquor collection. Not your typical Indian Restaurant. As always, we had good food and lots of laughs.

      We are off to Frankfurt tomorrow morning in preparation for our morning flight the next day. This adventure is coming to an end soon.
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    • Day 2–3

      Zwöiti Etappe

      August 12 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

      Hüt isch chli müehsam gsi zum fahre. Grad 4(!) Strassesperrige hets gha... u irgendeinisch het äuä nid mau me ds Navi gwüsst wo düre 😅
      Irgendeinisch bini aber de gliich ir nechi vo Nürnberg glandet u ha ä idyllische chline Campingplatz gfunde 😊Read more

    • Day 1

      Viiiiiel zu kalt 🥶

      February 25, 2023 in Germany

      Gestern hatten wir San Daniele verlassen (siehe unsere letzte Reise) und sind bis nach Siegsdorf in Deutschland gefahren.

      Durch Österreich war es ein sehr schönes und sonniges Wetter und in Deutschland dann eher bewölkt.

      Die Autobahn war gestern in Österreich auch sehr angenehm leer zum fahren und dahin cruisen.

      Allerdings sind wir heute morgen aus allen Wolken gefallen, als wir aus dem Fenster geschaut haben: gut 15cm Schnee 😳

      Neeeeee, jetzt nicht wirklich, oder? 🤬

      Gut, dass weder die GoPro noch die Mikrophone an waren. Wir waren selbst überrascht, über unseren Wortschatz zum schimpfen 😂

      Nach dem ersten Schock und dem ersten Kaffee, haben wir Willi freigeschaufelt und haben uns auf den Weg zu unserem Lager gemacht.

      Außer ein bisschen zähflüssigen Verkehr auf der A99 ging es bis kurz vor Nürnberg sehr entspannt auf der A9 zu.

      Hier im Lager soll nun einiges, was wir in den letzten 5 Monaten nicht gebraucht haben, aus Willi geräumt werden.

      Jetzt sind wir müde und es ist uns viel zu kalt hier.

      Im Großraum Nürnberg werden wir gut eine Woche bleiben um einiges zu erledigen.

      Bis morgen zum ausladen.
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    • Day 1–3

      Camping Fischer Michel

      August 3 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      Nach einer kurzen Mittagspause im Burgerking Winterthur ging es ziemlich direkt nach Gunzenhausen auf den Campingplatz Fischermichel. Nachher sind per Rad nach Gunzenhausen gefahren. Apero und Nachtessen gab es im Cafe am Wehrgang. Zurück auf Campingplatz sind wir über die andere SeeseiteRead more

    • Day 2–5

      Velotour rund um Gunzenhausen

      August 4 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

      Nach Frühstück mit frischen Brötchen sind wir mit Rad Richtung Brombachersee los. Untwerwegs haben Schwäne mit Ihren Jungen gesehen, danach ging es weiter über den Damm nach Spalt hoch. Von dort fuhren weiter auf Waldstrassen bis nach Muhr und dann zurück zum ZeltplatzRead more

    • Day 2

      Badehalbinsel Absberg/Brombachsee

      October 6, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      Die halbe Strecke bis zum Ziel „Berge“ haben wir hinter uns gebracht.
      Hier am Brombachsee ist es immer wieder schön 😍. Es ist einer unserer Lieblingsplätze😍
      besonders in Zeiten, in denen nicht viel los ist. Schade, dass es so weit weg vom Heimatort ist.

      Die erste Leberkässemmel gabs auch schon, der Kühlschrank ist voll mit „regionalem“, Werners bayrisches Herz ist zufrieden!
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    • Day 3

      Nürnberg

      September 3, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      Das ist so ein komisches Gefühl zwischen Nach Hause in sein altes Leben zurück kommen und das alles das erste Mal (nach vielen Jahren) zu sehen.
      Mein Fazit: Nürnberg ist eine tolle, wunderschöne Stadt mit vielen schönen Seiten. Aber doch echt groß. 🙈Read more

    • December 11 - Exploring Nuremberg

      December 11, 2022 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ -2 °C

      We gathered for breakfast at 8:30 a.m. This hotel asks you to choose one of three breakfast time slots to control the crowd in the breakfast room. It’s a lovely room, but not very big. We were given champagne and our choice of delicate homemade cookies to begin our morning. Such decadence! Our big excitement was watching some hunky paramedics head on foot down into the subway – perhaps one of last night’s soccer revellers wasn’t faring so well this morning. (France beat England 2-1.)

      We have our walking tour at 11:30 a.m. The meeting place is down at one corner of the main Christmas Market. After some false starts (it’s cold today so more layers, hats and scarves were required), we got down to the market and did some last-minute buying. Our tour guide was Tom, a native of Nuremberg. Rather than give us a chronological history of the city, he told us tales and stories, often using humour to soften some rather bleak moments in Nuremberg’s past. Nuremberg was known in the Middle Ages as a centre of innovation and trade. The first globe and the first pocket watch were invented here. Nuremberg is located almost exactly in the centre of Europe which put it on the many trade routes – the smart Nurembergers demanded to be paid taxes on the goods transported through their centre of commerce.

      We started at the “Beautiful Fountain” and heard the sad lost love tale of the wrought iron trainee who put a perfect circle of iron on the fence around the fountain. I dutifully turned the ring three times while making a wish for the Seven Sisters group (hint – my wish involved traveling and safe returns).

      We heard about the underground cellars that were built originally to store beer (a much safer drink than water in the Middle Ages) and how those cellars sheltered people and artwork during the bombing raids of Nuremberg in January of 1945.

      We heard about Albrecht Durer, an artist, who changed the course of art in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Art until then had been dominated by religious themes. Durer began to paint and draw just ordinary life. This was a major shift in the world of art.

      We also heard about the continuing rebuilding efforts in the city. Thousands of artisans have banded together and gathered donations to rebuild the buildings destroyed during the war in the style they were before the bombing. It’s incredible to believe that this effort continues more than 75 years after the war.

      We visited the Imperial Castle (Kaiserburg). In the Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Emperors stayed here when they were in town (with their entourage of about a thousand attendants). The views from the castle wall were fabulous.

      Tom finished off with a spiel about the town executioner and his tribulations finding a wife. Who wanted to be married to the executioner?? All in all, it was a good tour.

      By that time, we were all pretty cold. Angela had spied a good café and had reserved a table for us. It turned out to be a room just for us, which given the loud and crazy name of the trip was a good thing. We had warm drinks, delicious tomato soup and seven desserts. Fabulous.

      Then we split up. Some went to the German National Museum; some went to the Albrecht Durer Museum, and I headed off by myself. I wandered around the children’s market with its merry-go-round, Ferris wheel and kid-friendly arts and crafts booths. Then I watched a street performer play a didgeridoo, an Australian instrument that requires excellent breath control to play. I popped into St. Klara’s Church, just to see the architecture. There were people seated who seemed to be waiting for something to start. Lo and behold, just 10 minutes later, a fabulous choral concert began, presented by an excellent choir in a setting with pristine acoustics. The program was all Advent music, covering the 1500s to the 1900s. There, I finally got music on this tour!

      Back at the hotel, we had pre-dinner drinks and snacks before our dinner reservation at a Spanish restaurant. We had dinner - some things were good; others were okay. The conversation was good. We talked about what we miss the most about home, other than our partners. My answer - big, fat pillows and fleece sheets. Just because we hadn’t had enough to eat, we went to one of the market stalls and got warm churros (long, skinny doughnut things) with sugar and cinnamon with a side dish of dark chocolate.

      We have an 8:00 a.m. breakfast time slot.
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    • Day 339

      Treuchtlingen

      May 9, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

      Today had a nice lazy start, breakfasting with Philip before heading off through central NBG for a spot of sight-seeing. We made our way through what felt like 100 red traffic lights before making a stop at the Parteigelaende where the Nuremberg rallies took place. After a quick clothing change (the flecks of blue sky visible from the appartment were just an illusion!) and a "quick" check through all 5 bags for my gloves..(painstakingly taking out every item of clothing from a compression sack, including all my underwear, in front of a group of german school kids in Hitler's congress hall (Kongresshalle) )..which I didn't find until a few hours later, realising they were in fact in the bar bag...oops 😀

      Once we got out of the cycle path myriad of the city we were quickly back into the small village life of rural Bavaria. Rolling hills, punctuated with little vilages full of timber-framed buildings and roofs that arch steeply above the many tiny shutter-covered windows. Each village identical in style but with a different charm somehow.

      Today's riding was kind to us, we hit upon our first long flats!! The Main-Donau Canal (averaging 21kmh for about an hour was awesome!) followed by a nice disused railway cycle track that took us to Heideck.

      Germany really is amazing for cycling, such a comprehensive network of cycle paths in all cities and equally well-connected routes around even the smallest of towns. Signage is pretty clear and following the cycle paths very rarely takes you onto sharing a road with cars. Country lanes are often very very quiet so cycling side-by-side is never normally a problem. The absence of hedges flanking fields also means you can see anying incumbent vehicles in plenty of time to move over. A road biker paradise for sure.

      The only issue I have is the "rechts vor links" principle of right before left, even when you think you are on the main road. This means you can be cycling along a fairly sizable road but you have to look (sometimes stop) into roads joining from the right, who have priority. As Germany typically sees a faor amount of wonter snowfall, roads and priorities are signed on posts as opposed to marked on the ground as in England. I'm slowing getting used to it despite a brief panic mode moment today where a car came and from the right, i forgot all of the "vorfahrt" rules and bolted to the left pavement out of comfort and habit. Haha.

      2 people asked where we were going today, a drunk cyclist in Nuremberg and a guy with a dog who had a good look at our set up before deciding to venture a question or two. Now we are 4 days in, it doesn't feel so abstract to tell them our plans. 😀

      We arrived in a nice little town called Trautlingen in the early evening after passing through our original minimum day's target destination of Weißburg. Trautlingen has a warm vibe (despite the baltic chill that's still not going!!) 2 minutes into the search for a B & B we stopped outside one for a matter of 30 seconds before being greeted by the owner. We were super happy to bring the bikes into a secluded courtyard before the owner ushered us to the locked garage just behind. What more could you ask for as a biker!

      Dare I say it, today for the first time I was almost slightly sad to be ending the day's cycling. After 4 days I think I can safely say that we've found our cycling legs (and bums).

      Today's bike hack is regarding kit: to keep pack weight down and to try and straddle the spring /summer conditions Peter is travelling in sandals with click-pedal fixtures, when its rainy he can put on neoprene socks to insulate and keep out any water. When its not rainy but windy as per today, some black insulation tape was the perfect solution to turn the sandals into wind proof but breathable shoes. I'm cycling in trainers but its a stinky feet recipe risk if the shoes get wet and you only have one pair of closed shoes with you....

      A light-weight gilet is also an essential bit of kit for anyone thinking of cycle touring. A cycle-sepcific fabric one with a waterproof/windproof front and vented back adds next to no weight (you can scrunch it so small it fits into your palm) but is amazing in insulating the body core on cold windy days where you are exercising hard amd don't want the extra arm warmth from a full extra top. It is also great in summer for speedy and breezy descents or cycling into a cooling headwind. If you've been sweating on an uphill climb the body temp can drop very quickly in damp clothes into any kind of wind once you stop exerting yourself. Peter bought one in Sportscheck yesterday by Vaude for circa €50, I bought a soft-shell style thicker one for around €35. It made a world of difference today so money well spent!!
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Landkreis Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen, Landkreis Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen

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