An autumn weekend in Franconia - on a trip home with the motorhome!
At the end of October, autumn should once again show its best side: sunshine, pleasant temperatures and bright colours lured us behind the wheel of our Sunliving S 70 SP again this weekend.
As we all know, you don't always have to go far away, the good things are often so close by and so this time we went on a short trip through Franconia and Bavarian Swabia.
Coming from near Nuremberg, we reached the small town of Wolframs-Eschenbach in less than an hour's drive on Friday evening. The town is located in the district of Ansbach, not far from the Franconian Lake District and is part of the Nuremberg metropolitan region. It is named after the eponymous Parzival poet Wolfram Eschenbach.
A really exceptionally beautiful motorhome site on the edge of the village offers exactly what motorhome travellers always want: a green, quiet location on the edge of the village, very well-kept, individually separated pitches with electricity connection, supply and disposal facilities, extremely clean shower and toilet facilities, washing machine and dryer on site and great walking opportunities with the dogs directly from the pitch. And great details such as a coin-operated change machine have also been thought of here. The price of 8 euros for 24 hours is more than fair, so we would absolutely recommend the pitch and would come back again at any time.
I can also warmly recommend a cosy and very tasty evening meal in the "Alte Vogtei" restaurant.
On Saturday morning, we travelled on to Dinkelsbühl, just a 40-minute drive away. Dinkelsbühl has been named "Germany's most beautiful old town" on several occasions, and rightly so. The town is located on the "Romantic Road" and welcomes many (international) visitors all year round. No wonder, because the winding alleyways, cobbled squares, countless beautiful half-timbered houses and the impressive cathedral offer many highlights during a stroll through the town. Along the almost completely preserved wall, where towers and gates follow each other at short intervals, along the moats or on the banks of the Wörnitz, you almost feel like you've been transported back to a fairytale world or even the Middle Ages.
In terms of pitches, Dinkelsbühl offers two options close to the town centre, both of which are always busy and often fully booked. It is therefore advisable to arrive early. As we didn't want to spend the night in Dinkelsbühl, we opted for the P2a car park on Mönchsrother Strasse. You can also park there by the hour, which is ideal for a stroll through the town.
So on Saturday evening we travelled on to Nördlingen, about 30 km further along the Romantic Road. Nördlingen offers a centrally located but somewhat sparse motorhome site on the edge of the town wall. Electricity and public toilets are available, but the pitch is not really "nice". On the other hand, Nördlingen really has a lot to offer. For example, you can walk along the entire city wall around Nördlingen. It is the only city wall in Germany that has a fully preserved, accessible and covered battlements. It surrounds the entire medieval old town and can be walked along for almost 3 kilometres. The city wall also includes five gates with four gate towers, eleven further towers and two bastions.
A stroll through the alleyways of the charming old town, a visit to St. George's Church and the 90 metre high church tower, which the locals call "Daniel", is also worthwhile. From the church tower, you have a great view over the rooftops of Nördlingen and the Geopark Ries. You can also easily recognise the circular shape of the old town from this height.
To round off our weekend tour, we headed to the Ries Geopark on Sunday to do some hiking. A brief background: around 14.6 million years ago, a meteorite struck Donau-Ries, leaving behind an almost circular crater with a diameter of around 22 kilometres. Today, this is one of the best-preserved craters of its size in the world and is known as the Ries Geopark.
We opted for the Bockberg circular route from Harburg Castle. There is an extra car park section for motorhomes right next to the castle. The circular trail is about 11 kilometres long and leads through varied terrain, offering a great view, as from the Bockberg you can see far into the Ries, over the Wörnitz valley and to Donauwörth. The Bockberg is located on the south-eastern edge of the Ries crater and, at 562 metres, is one of the highest elevations in northern Swabia.
Autumn also showed its best side during the hike and we were able to make the exceptionally short journey home relaxed and happy.
For more adventures and reports about camping with dogs at Sunliving SP70, follow me on Instagram @julia_and_12_paws