Day 7

Once we leave the hotel in Friedburg we return to the Romantic Road.  Phil wants to stop in Nördlingen where there is a town inside a massive meteor crater.  I have scheduled a 30 minute stop there. It's only 50 miles into the day.

The next stop is in Dinkelsbühl. Only another 20 miles up the road. Both these towns are two of the only three fully walled towns in Germany. The other is Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and we stop off there on the way to the rally.

In fact after Dinkelsbühl we arrive at the A6 and tuen westwards.  On the way from Rothenburg ob der Tauber on Day 2 we come to the same junction and go eastwards.  By the end of the trip we will have created a huge figure 8!

From there we have about 200+ miles to Luxembourg mostly motorways. we pass by the Sinsheim Technical Museum and so I have added it back in.  We can decided whether to go on when we get there! There's fuel and a McDonalds outside! lunch?

  

Infinity and Beyond!

"To boldly go" etc.

So yesterday's post about Linz to Friedberg had a very short shelf life. 

Once I started to look for hotels in Linz and seeing that either they have very few rooms released to booking.com, or there is genuinely an over abundance of tourists when we are going to be in the area!

I then started to look at the route and the distances involved.  In MyRouteApp I started to toy with different distances.  I had set an arbitrary destination of Linz before checking hotels and even the distances involved. Perhaps I should have done some more research before blogging?  "Bugrit"!

So today as I sat watching the greyhounds at my volunteer job eating and then running around the field I started to look for hotels.  One eye on the screen, one eye on the dogs!

The "previous current" Day 5 (Sunday) route took us from Vernířovice, via Brno with a 90 minute planned stop to see my former teaching colleagues and get a drink, then S52 into Austria.  The route calculated taking us to Linz. Most of it on the A1 Autobahn. We'd need the vignette. As I said before, I personally want the sticker to put on the bike as a "been there, done that" display rather than the e-vignette.

MyRouteApp calculates that as about 310 miles and 6h40m. This includes the 90 mins in Brno but no other stops, like lunch or petrol.

Phil will have his new R1250RT and that I guess will be frugal and get decent mileage. Giles has a Katana and I have no idea at the moment what mpg he gets. Vera currently doing about 50mpg over a variety or local and motorway riding.  

So that doesn't seem too bad. This brings us back to Day 6 Monday.  We have the Eagles Nest and Neuwanstein Castle on the visit list. Although a day ending in Füssen, the nearest town to Neuwanstein might seem sensible. It would leave about 560 miles to cover the be at the channel ports by mid-afternoon on Wednesday. Not too bad over two days, with overnight stops Monday and Tuesday.

But there is a hotel problem. Perhaps Neuwanstein is the mecca for tourists as there a few hotels in the more budget range.  Personally my wallet isn't in the £100+ a night bracket!

So I have from Neuwanstein I add the edited Romantic Road route from TomTom and saw that id starts in Füssen (!) and ends in Würzburg.

So Day 5 Sunday. In the end Linz was too short and Salzburg too long a day. Using booking coms map I worked my way from Salzburg towards Linz checking al the hotels that popped up. Looking at price and the number of rooms available.  You would be surprised how many hotels and gasthofs have one room left for May 29th 2022.

In the end I got as far as 40 miles from Salzburg at Lenzing. Not that far off the A1 and 60or so miles west of Linz. Linz not actually on the A1.

The Austria Traveller Hotel has plenty of rooms available and Lenzing is only 3kms off he A1. It does bump up the day's mileage to around 340. But quite a lot will be on dual-carriageway and motorway.

Day 5 - Sunday

That means that Day 6 (Monday) will be almost as planned with the stops and then part way up the Romantic Road to near Augsburg.

This is also brings into question a stop in Rothenburg ob der Tauber on the way to the rally on Day 2.  It's on the Romantic Road!  But that's a change for another day!

The stop tonight will be at Gasthof Kreisi in Friedberg as per the original plan of only yesterday!

Day 6 - Monday

Hotels on the way to Vernířovice

Just confirming the hotels on the way over to the rally hotel in Vernířovice. 

It is two longish days on the road to Fachbach/Koblenz and Plzeň, but I have tried to build in some "sights" and scenic roads on the way, rather than squaring the tyres on the A3!

Between Fachbach/Koblenz and Plzeň I have built-in a trip into the Christmas Town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Who could resist the charm of the place?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothenburg_ob_der_Tauber

Photo by Berthold Werner/Rothenburg

Anyway hotels.

Hotel Stadt Coblenz - Check-in Wednesday, 25 May 2022 - https://www.booking.com/hotel/de/stadt-coblenz-fachbach.en-gb.html

Hotel Plzen - Check in Thursday 26 May 2022 - https://www.booking.com/hotel/cz/plzen-r.en-gb.html

I booked myself a single room where possible, or double when not possible. Not because I am a miserable bugger but with a few personal problems mean I sleep fitfully and disturb others.

Routes - Day 2 - Bad Ems to Plzeň - Tinkering!

Tinkering yet again.  Maybe I have too much time on my hands.  

Now that I have moved the end of Day 1 hotel to Hotel Stadt Coblenz I have started too look at Day 2.

My first routes have two parts based on a stop in Würzburg hat would have been about lunchtime. But to get off the motorways a little a enjoy some "green roads", I picked up a Michelin National map of Germany. It's the 2021 edition so should be pretty much up to date.  It's map number 718 if anyone wants to buy one. Well worth the £5.50 it cost.

I saw on the Michelin maps that they show scenic routes e.g. scenic roads marked with a green strip alongside! 

I had forgotten all about that since I became a digital map user and stuck to Google! With a paper map there is so much extra to see but you can't zoom in!  

What I also hadn't noticed is that MyRouteApp also has the option of Michelin as well as Google and other mapping systems!

With the two I have made a change to Day 2.  Removed Würzburg, and replaced that stop over with a couple of scenic rides. Slower than the A3 autobahn but better for me!

The first will take me back from Fachbach/Bad Ems to the Rhine south of Koblenz and then down the eastern bank almost as far as Wiesbaden, then onto the A3 and the A6 to the border and Plzeň.

The first part will be very scenic and I have done it before, but in the opposite direction, going south to north. I have once again added another stop near the Käthe Wohlfahrt shop in Rothenburg ob der Tauber for a gift or trinket for Mrs D.

The days mileage is about 360 with a lot of it on the motorways and about 6 hours on the road before we factor in stops for fuel and food!

Should be in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in time to get some lunch and then it is all motorway to Plzeň and the hotel.