We left Mitterfels and drove to the other side of Germany. The journey was almost entirely on major motorways so that we would cover plenty of ground. We stopped in a little town of Erbach for a light pizza lunch where John, much to his surprise, saw the Google Street View camera car. No idea what it would be doing in this tiny town. Probably the operator had just stopped for lunch like us.
Later in the day we got off the motorway to take a more winding route along the river Danube as we were more likely to find accommodation in a scenic area. We settled on the tiny town of Sigmaringen.
Sigmaringen
In Sigmaringen we walked around town and saw the magnificent castle which is the town's focal point. At the tourist office we enquired about accommodation in the countryside, but the only available one was full so we settled into the Hotel Traube, in the town centre, on the pedestrian strip.
We had dinner in the open air at the Hotel, the 'formula menu' of huge choice from the salad bar plus spag bol or schnitzel was really good value. Jan was fading fast, could not make much headway with her venison stew and headed off to bed. She was worried that the hotel's position might make it noisy, but although there were no problems with traffic or people in the bar, we all had a disturbed night for the local church, immediately opposite, rang its bells every 15 minutes all night long! At 6.30 in the morning a sadistic bell ringer rang the big bell about 50 times to make sure everyone got up!
On our departure I mentioned to the hotel manager that we had enjoyed our stay but the bells were a problem, and he said OK, OK, OK, and waved his hand at me in such a manner that indicated that he had heard the complaint many times before. So although we would not recommend the hotel for anyone else, we had a marvelous morning visiting the castle.
It was superb, fully furnished and decorated, with a history dating back 1000 years, and visited by Napoleon. There is a huge collection of military small-arms from the last 500 years. More recently it was briefly (late 1944) used as the headquarters of the French Vichy government as a secret safe-house. The owning family were ousted and put into the nearby castle of von Stauffenberg who had been executed for his attempt to kill Hitler.
Bueron
The next day we continued along the river, stopping at Bueron where there is a Benedictine monastery much visited by pilgrims. We sat in for the brief service and enjoyed the organ music even more than the recital we heard the other day. Very decorative chapel within the church.
Beuron pilgrim
Finally reached France and headed for Colmar.
In Colmar we again enquired at the tourist office for rural accommodation but instead found ourselves booked into a hotel in the nearby town of Riquewhir. This defeated the purpose a bit, but it was cheaper to stay outside Colmar itself. Riquewhir is an old walled town filled with lopsided half timbered buildings, painted in pastel colours. The town specialises in food and wine of the region so there were massive numbers of restaurants to choose from. More in next blog.
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