Day 10: Donauworth Day 3:

---

We decided today to visit Nordlingen, one of few German towns with a more or less complete medieval wall, and maybe stop to visit the Harburg Castle on the way back. We had the same basic assortment of food for breakfast, including various meats, cheeses, cereal with fruit, rolls with jam or cream cheese, and of course coffee or cappuccino. After breakfast, we headed out in our car, hoping we'd have a good parking spot when we returned. The trip to Nordlingen was about 30 kms, on the typically small two-lane roads, which were kept in excellent condition. We'd noted very few bad spots so far on any of the roads, and numerous occasions where they were fixing what few bad spots there were. Although almost always only two lanes, on some of the major stretches the add a third lane for a kilometer or two so cars can pass the slower trucks. Before we left Donauworth, we put 50 Euros worth of gas in our rental car, since the tank was showing a bit less than 1/4 of a tank.

When we arrived in Nordlingen, after a missed turn and correction by the GPS, we spotted the "P" signs for parking, and after passing a few that were only for 1 or 2 hours, we found a large lot outside the Deininger Tor (or Gate) that was free and unlimited. We parked the car and after Manoli took a quick WC break, we easily found and walked into the old part of town through the Deininger Tor gate. Pretty much every building inside the walls is original or renovated medieval style. We walked towards the marktplatz or market place/square, passing a very cute fountain called the Marktbrunnen, with animals on each corner such as a pig, cow, chickens, etc. A block later we found our first church, St. Georg's Church, right off the marktzplatz. It was quite an imposing structure, with a very tall tower called the Daniel, which you can climb for 3.50 Euros. I was tempted, but decided against it. The money was okay, I just wasn't sure if the effort to climb several hundred steps was going to be worth the view. Right across the square from the church, we found the Rathaus and the Tourist Information Center. Outside the Rathaus there was a very cool miniature of the whole town within the walls (see photo). After getting a good walking tour map of the town, we headed out to follow it.

There were a couple of other neat buildings around the markzplatz, and what was originally a monastery, that became a granary, that is now a hotel with half of it in the original building and the other half in a modern looking building attached to it. That was one of very few newer buildings inside the walls. Next, we reached the little Eiger River which ran through the town, and saw an old water mill on one side of the path and Unterer Wassturm (or Water Tower) on the other. Next we passed an old hospital church with a cool tower, both of which were under heavy repair. Right near that was our next gate, the Baldinger Tor. This gate is nothing special, mostly just a couple of arches cut through the city wall. Following the tourist map, we passed by the Hallgebaude, a large building used to store salt, wine and grains; then another less fancy church called the St. Salvator Church, an then finally reached the wall again.

We exited the town through the Feilturm and strolled along a pretty park for a while outside the wall. When we reached the Reimlinger Tor, we climbed up onto the wall's covered walkway. Pretty cool, with some great views of the town. We were supposed to stay on the wall almost half the way around, but ran into some workmen repairing a section of the wall and had to climb down and walk a ways to the Deininger Tor. Here we detoured to a nearby cafe for a couple of cappuccinos before walking back to the Deininger Tor and climbing back up again. The wall's walkway was like a wooden balcony on one side with the wall itself and many "firing holes" on the other side. Some of the holes were small windows, others were shaped like crosses (I assume so an archer or musketeer could aim left, right, up, or down), and still others were filled in. After climbing back down from the wall at the Lopsinger Tor, we went looking for someplace to eat lunch. We didn't see much interesting, so we walked back to the marktplatz and checked with the Tourist Information Center. The guy there recommended two places, one behind the church and one just outside the Baldinger Tor. The one behind the church was a bit pricey, and after a longish walk out the Baldinger Tor, we found the other recommended restaurant was even pricier. I guess the guy thought we were rich tourist looking for fancy places to eat. By this point we were almost hungry enough to stop at the McDonald's right across the street from the last fancy place.

Instead, we walked back along the wall to the Deininger Tor, the up that street again, looking for something interesting. When we reached first market square, we spotted the Bayrish Pub (I assume its a play on the words Bayern (Bavarian) and Irish), checked out their menu and decided to eat there. Luckily it was only 1:45pm, since they closed the kitchen at 2pm! With a menu in English, I decided on a Maultaschen plate with potato salad and small side salad included. Maultaschen is basically a dumpling filled with meat. The dumpling is more like a lasagna noodle, but still quite delicious. Manoli had the dumpling soup, basically the same as my plate, but with broth and less dumplings. With a coke I think it came to 17 Euros.

After lunch, we walked back to the car and headed back to Donauworth, figuring we'd stop and check out the Harburg Castle along the way. Unfortunately , we never found the road up to the castle and ended up just getting back on the highway to continue on to Donauworth. We reached the hostel by 4:30 or so. After a short rest, we walked down to the Edeka supermarket to pick up some stuff for a light dinner. We ended up getting a liverwurst tube, a tin of cream cheese, a package of interesting looking bread, and another package of those delicious waffles to eat with my can of pears from the other day. Manoli also picked up a couple more bags of wild and wacky looking Haribo gummi thingeys.

This evening we gave up trying to find a holiday apartment for the next four days and reevaluated our plans. We ended up deciding on spending only two more days in Germany, in Fussen, at the youth hostel there. When we saw the price for a private room, we decided to stay in dorm beds instead. Further planning after Germany ended up being the same, staying in hostels with dorm beds. We'll spend two nights in Innsbruck Austria, then one night in Liechtenstein, and finally two nights in Zurich Switzerland. We wanted to stay in a nicer place in Zurich, but even a dorm bed was over 50 bucks a night! Tomorrow is our last day in Donauworth and we plan on driving down to Wildsteig to see the famous Weiskirche.

---

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Bavaria
Love this river going through the town. Beautiful.