Page 497 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

route, which tacks along country
roads via Schillingsfürst, another ROTHENBURG’S SNOWBALLS
quaint halt.
Where is it possible to get your hands on a snowball
in July? Why, in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, of course!
TRIP HIGHLIGHT The town’s speciality are Schneeballen (snowballs),
5 Dinkelsbühl ribbons of dough loosely shaped into balls, deep-
Immaculately preserved fried then coated in icing sugar, chocolate and other
Dinkelsbühl is argu- dentist’s foes. Some 24 types are produced at Diller’s
ably the Romantic Road’s Schneeballen (Hofbronnengasse 16; h10am-6pm); a
quaintest and most more limited range can be enjoyed all over town.
authentically medieval
halt. Just like Rothenburg
it is ringed by medieval and has been declared the railway station is
walls, which boast 18 tow- a special ‘geopark’. a retirement home for
ers and four gates. The joy Nördlingen’s 14th-century locos that have puffed
of Dinkelsbühl is aimless walls, all original, mimic their last. The museum GERMANY 35 THE ROMANTIc ROAD
wandering through the the crater’s rim and are runs steam trains up to
crooked lanes, but for a almost perfectly circular. Dinkelsbühl, Feuchtwan-
lowdown on the town’s The Rieskrater Museum gen and Gunzenhausen
history visit the Haus der (Eugene-Shoemaker-Platz 1; several times a year; see
Geschichte (Altrathausplatz adult/concession €4.50/2.50, the website for details.
14; adult/child €4/2; h9am- ticket also valid for Stadtmuse- 54 p503
6pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat & um; h10am-4.30pm Tue-Sun,
Sun May-Oct, 10am-5pm daily closed noon-1.30pm Nov-Apr) The Drive » The 19km drive
Nov-Apr), in the same build- tells the story. Next door from Nördlingen to Harburg
is a simple affair along the
ing as the tourist office. is the Stadtmuseum
(Vordere Gerbergasse 1; adult/ arrow-straight B25 all the way.
54 p502 concession €4.50/2.50, ticket The road crosses the flatlands
also valid for Rieskrater Museum; created by the Ries meteorite,
The Drive » Just 32km now fertile agricultural land.
separate Dinkelsbühl from h1.30-4.30pm Tue-Sun Mar-
Nördlingen along the B25; early Nov), which gives an
drivers are accompanied by interesting rundown of 7 Harburg
the Wörnitz River for the first Nördlingen’s story so far.
part of the journey. Just a few On a completely differ- Looming over the Wör-
kilometres short of Nördlingen is ent note, the Bayerisches nitz River, the medieval
Wallerstein, a small market town Eisenbahnmuseum (www. covered parapets, towers,
with the beautiful parish church turrets, keep and red-tiled
of St Alban, also a Romantic bayerisches-eisenbahn roofs of the 12th-century
Road stop. museum.de; Am Hohen Weg 6a; Schloss Harburg (www.
adult/child €6/3; hnoon- burg-harburg.de; adult/child
4pm Tue-Sat, 10am-5pm €5/3; h10am-5pm Tue-Sun
6 Nördlingen Sun May-Sep, noon-4pm Sat, mid-Mar–Oct) are so perfectly
Charmingly medieval, 10am-5pm Sun Oct-Mar) near
Nördlingen lies within
the Ries Basin, a massive
impact crater gouged out WILLY WONKA’S NÖRDLINGEN
by a meteorite more than If you’ve seen the 1970s movie Willy Wonka & the
15 million years ago. The
crater – some 25km in Chocolate Factory, you’ve already looked down upon
Nördlingen, from a glass elevator – aerial shots of the
diameter – is one of the
best preserved on earth, town were used in the final sequences of the film.

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