Tuesday, April 17, 2012

driving the romantic road

We will be driving from Salzburg and ending in Wurzburg. We have 3 teenage sons that want to add a little adventure to the trip rather than just driving and seeing sights. We would really like to see some of the best old cities and castles anywhere on that drive. What are the most interesting places along the romantic road or not on the romantic road that might interest them. They love really old looking towns and picturesque towns. Also, if someone knows of some interesting places to stay the night I would love to know hear about them. I will tell you that we are planning on seeing the Neuschwanstein castle and Rothenburg. We could really use some help.




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The whole family might like to have a private tour in English of the old iron mine (Besucherbergwerk) near Aalen and operated by the city. Your family of five qualifies. They supply all the necessary protective clothing and boots as in parts you will have to wade through water. I%26#39;m sure that this would add a little adventure. There are also shorter standard tours. The website for Aalen should be www.aalen.de and there are several places on it discussing the tour, some in German and others in English. If you can%26#39;t find it, I can dig up references elsewhere.





It is possible some places in the Alps to paraglide with an experienced pilot in a tandem rig. It%26#39;s expensive, but soaring like an eagle is well worth the cost.





The walled medieval Comburg monastery near Schwaebisch Hall should interest all, and it won%26#39;t be packed by tourists such as at Rothenburg. Schwaebisch Hall is also very nice. Not too far east of there is Vellberg which is another good place to visit. Although these places are excellent to visit, you will see few German tourists and a handful of foreign ones at most.





Neresheim Monastery (nice Baroque) has rooms and would be an interesting place to stay. Thurn und Taxis Palace at Dischingen also has rooms. There is also the English Forest there. You might also like to visit Katzenstein Castle in Katzenstein by Dischingen which also has a restaurant. I%26#39;m sure that a stay in either place would give you an interesting experience. You should be able to find websites by googling.





You might also consider staying in a small brewery which offers food and lodging. www.braugasthoefe,com The one in my wife%26#39;s home village of Ummendorf has both excellent food and beer.





Outside of Neuschwanstein Palace, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and the Residence in Wuerzburg, which really have no equals, you can see as good or better things away from the Romantic Road and have %26quot;real%26quot; Germany experiences with out loads of American and Japanese tourists. There are tens of thousands of excellent places to visit in Germany many excellent ones never making it into guide books so there is no lack of things to see or do. I recommend getting maps in Die Shell Regional Karte series (available at Shell gas stations) at very large scale (about 1%26quot; = 4 miles) which show all the rural roads, and interesting places to visit including palaces, castles, monasteries, churches, caves, etc. Often, all it takes to have an enjoyable day is just drive along visiting the places shown on the map along your route. I always think it is more fun to %26quot;discover%26quot; interesting places than to just go to the same tourist destinations as everyone else.




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That should have been: www.braugasthoefe.com





Some enjoyable and fun things to do by Salzburg if your visit is particularly in the summer: the bishop%26#39;s water gardens where he liked to play tricks with water on unsuspecting guests; the ice caves at Werfen; the castle at Werfen; a visit to the underground salt mine from either the Austrian or German side; a boat ride on the Bodensee.




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Thank you for all of the information. That gives me a lot of new options. I love the new ideas of things to do with the boys, and we will be there in the summer. We will see some of the most see sights, but I really like the idea of seeing the real Germany off the beaten path. Thanks for your help.




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Marcopolko, I have been looking into some of these castles to stay the night at and I am having trouble finding the site for them that you would use to get info on a room. The ones I am looking for are: Nereheeim Monastery and Thurn and Taxis Palace. Do you know where those sites are? Thanks for any help.




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My wife once had stayed at the Thurn and Taxis palace, but I could find no mention of rooms there on the internet so we called my wife%26#39;s sister who lives in Dischingen and she says that they have now closed the palace to visitors and no longer rent rooms. For Neresheim Abbey you should contact them directly by e-mail: verwaltung@abtei-neresheim.de . Their website mentions a guesthouse, and monasteries should accept guests. There is also small railroad that operates at Neresheim for tourists if that would interest you.




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Thank you so much for the time you spent looking for this information. I really appreciate it. I will take a look at that website. And the Thurn and Taxi castle seems worth a visit. Thanks.




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Throughout much of Southern Germany you will find Sommerrodeln that might be fun. Esentially, concrete halfpipes that you ride down in a wheeled sled like a one or two man toboggan. There are even a few south of the Neuschwanstein castle areas in Austria, I believe, near Reutte.





Also, there is, near Rothenburg at the town of Bad Windsheim, a %26quot;Frieland%26quot; museum. Essentially, about a 100 Acre open air museum of numerous old farmhouses, shops, mills, barns, hop processing fqacilities etc that have been relocated there from throughout Bavaria when they were in danger of being torn down.





In Rothenburg, the Imperial City Museum (Reichsstadtmuseum) has a very good collection of armor, pikes, swords and early wheellocks, matchlocks and flintlocks. The vaults (and dungeons) below city hall are of interest and the Medieval Crime Museum may be interesting-- if a little intense-- depends on the age of the boys. Finally-- do not miss the nightwatchman tour with George.




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The Thurn and Taxis palace is not visitable but is a nice place to drive by. This family became very rich by operating the postal system for much of Europe which they invented in 1495. They have (had?) a museum dealing with the history of postal services by the palace. The Katzenstein castle is definitely worth visiting. We would drive by it repeatedly while visiting my sister-in-law and I always wanted to see its interior because it has a truly medieval appearance. Recently it has been opened for visits by the public but we%26#39;ve haven%26#39;t had a chance to visit yet. While trying to find more information on these places I came across a nice website of castles of the Schwaebische Alb by viewing images of Katzenstein on Yahoo. Unfortunately, I don%26#39;t remember the website name, but they also have a number of other castles listed with pictures that are on the eastern part of the Alb (this area).




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I%26#39;ve done some more delving into the Dischingen area on the internet. www.dischingen.de/site.php Burg Katzenstein ( Info@burgkatzenstein.de , www.burgkatzenstein.de ) besides having a restaurant also has guest rooms, 12 singles (from 50 euros) and 4 doubles (from 80 euros). If I remember correctly, the restaurant is closed on Monday.





There is also a four bed private room at:





Hofreitstall



Schloss Taxis



Familie Maas



89561 Dischingen



Germany





This is the court riding stables for the Taxis palace where it is possible to have a riding vacation and lessons. You will have to mail them to find further information and the price.





What I had called a postal museum is a museum containing carriages, ornate carriages and carts. I haven%26#39;t tried to look into it in detail.





I now see that I have some interesting places to visit that I haven%26#39;t yet seen while visiting my sister-in-law.




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Thank you for all of your information. It all sounds very interesting. I can%26#39;t wait to see it all!!

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