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Walker's Travels in Scandinavia 2017 and others
87km, 16-34deg, (still pleasant though) fine and sunny. Awoke to bright sunshine streaming into our motel window; a cycle tourer's dream. After another lovely Holiday Inn brekkie we headed out into an already warm day. It took 13km to clear the city traffic and noise, and what a relief that was! If there's any such thing as a perfect touring day this goes close. Apart from a dodgy downhill gravel section (which was a mistaken shortcut) it was smooth cycle paths or back roads all day. There were a few "lumps" in the journey which got the heart going but in the main the hills were kind and gentle. The ride was predominantly through farming country, mostly grain, sugar beet and canola, with some nice sections of forests and quaint villages. Our morning tea stop at Dietenhofen appeared precisely on time and had a great little bakery with nice coffee. That was fairly lucky as there wasn't much else all day. We arrived at Rothenberg on de Tauber just after 3pm and after some confusion (didn't expect to be entering via what looked like a castle entry) we made our way to the hotel through narrow cobbled streets. Yep castles are normally built on top of hills so it was a bit of a climb, but not too onerous. Today it's hats off to Yvonne who only yesterday was limping badly due to a sore knee, but today rode like a true Trojan; very brave. We are hoping it gets better overnight with some rest and TLC. The normal post-ride ritual of shower, wash, wander and ice cream then followed. What a gem Rothenberg o.b.T is. A well preserved medieval town which oozes 10-13th century architecture at every turn of it's cobbled streets. The town/market square is nothing short of spectacular with the Town Hall towering over everything. To top it all off, as if on cue, there was a parade of about 20 horse-drawn covered wagons, a band and military escort with everyone dressed in the appropriate medieval costume, just as we were walking back to our room. The wagons were real solid and the horses had to work ******* the hills and cobbles to avoid slipping. Don't know what it was all about, something to do with the history of Rothenberg we suspect. We had dinner at a very stylish Italian Restaurant where the food and drink was excellent. We'll all sleep well tonight.
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