Day 26 - 25th May - Augsburg to Heidelberg

Had a very slow start today. Let Stu sleep in til about 8:30 heh :) Breakfast was one of the biggest so far. And lots of yummy bacon yayyy :) So we stocked up on breakfast so we could skip lunch.

So didn't get out the door til 11am. Whoops.

Ha! We *did* go over this bridge earlier in the trip. Crossing the Lech
near Augsburg.

Reichsstrasse, Donauwörth

Schloss Harburg

Our first stop was Nördlingen. We found a parking lot just outside the city wall with free parking (and unlimited cause it was Sunday) so stopped there and walked in through the gate. Where we found a staircase up to the city wall, which you can walk around! Very cool. Walked along to the next tower and found a museum. In the tower. It was all in German, but Stu loved all the stuff on the Thirty Years War. So next we headed to the church right in the centre of town (the town is an almost perfect circle and only about a kilometre diameter).

Deininger Tor, Nördlingen

Stairway up to the wall

Wall around Nördlingen

Löpsinger Tor from the wall

30 years war battlefield in Löpsinger Tor

View towards Saint Georg's Church and the steeple "Daniel" from
Löpsinger Tor

View back to Deininger Tor from Löpsinger Tor

Beautiful wood carvings in a store

Saint Georg's Church in the centre of town

Nördlingen Tanzhaus

Another church, another tower to climb :) (The tower is called "Daniel"). Stu didn't want to get all hot and sweaty, so I went up by myself. The view was fantastic, in fact the same view as filmed in the 70s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory heh :) Have to watch that when I get home too :) It was two euro for adults to go up, but you pay when you get to the top! *and* there are toilets at the top of the tower!! Weirdest thing ever :) (and there were free toilets *in* the city wall at various locations :) )

Bell in Daniel

Nördlingen from Daniel. That streetscape features in the movie
"Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" at the end of the movie
where they fly over a town

Storks in their nest as seen from Daniel. See their webcam.

While up the tower I got a map of the town, so when I got back down we decided to follow the historic walking tour around. Saw tonnes of really cute old buildings. We really really liked Nördlingen (I think it might be pronounced Nerdlingen? :) ). It just had such a nice easy-going atmosphere. And it wasn't completely touristy. We loved it.

Saint Georg's Church and "Daniel"

Klösterle

Stu on a bridge over the Eger stream

Another view of the Eger stream

Crazy-crooked Gerberviertel

Cute little car

There were a few buildings that hadn't been maintained. They had
no photographs signs on them heh.

Reimlinger Tor

So our next stop was Dinkelsbühl (or as Stu dubbed it, Dingle-Dongleberg ;) ). We had more trouble finding parking here due to roadworks and road closures due to festivals etc. So that wasn't a great start. Ended up parking at the Krankenhaus (hospital - love that word heh). Walked into town via the lake outside which was very pretty, and then down into the main square of town. The buildings here have all been done up medieval-style and do look very cute, but this place was much much more touristy which came as a bit of a rude shock after the peacefulness of Nördlingen. We looked in the church and had an early dinner and then just left.

Dinkelsbühl

Dr. Martin-Luther-Straße

Saint George€™s church

Interior of Saint George€™s church

Roof of Saint George€™s church

Stu in Saint George€™s church

Beers in Dinkelsbühl

Supposedly famous medieval building in Weinmarkt

We were going to go to Rothenburg but it was just getting too late, so just went straight to Heidelberg. Checked into our hotel, the went for a little walk around the old town, had some ice cream, and walked across the old bridge to the other side. As is tradition on this trip, stuff is covered in scaffolding. A third of the bridge and a quarter of the schloss :(:( All a bit sad-making. Sat by the river for a while as it got darker before wandering back to the hotel.