In January we haven taken a short break and decided to go to the historical town Rothenburg ob den Tauber, situated in Germany, about 80 km under Wurzburg.
We did several walks in the neighborhood. For that you need the "Wanderkarte Rothenburg" which one can buy at the Tourist office.
It contains about 13 walks with different lengths. It is definitely worth it to buy this map as it will also show you Rothenburg from outside it walls. A part most tourists visiting Rothenburg o.d. Tauber do not see, unfortunately, cause the views towards Rothenburg are just amazing.
To get a map of the region with this specific track highlighted please click on
Google Maps: Rothenburg o.b. Tauber
This walk is numbered W7 (to Leuzenbronn and back), but we also did a part of walk W8. And ofcourse......not without taking Elgar the Hiking Moose with us.
Oh...some pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them. Don't forget to click!
We did not start this walk in Rothenburg itself as we had our overnight stay at a lovely old mill outside of Rothenburg, which can be very crowded during high season.
Pension Fuchsmuehle, here you can see the B&B on the right handside (blue colored house), is ideally situated: it is quiet and peaceful and Rothenburg is at walking distance (15 minutes). From the windows you look up to the walls & towers of Rothenburg o.b. Tauber.
The rooms are clean and spacious and the owners are very friendly. We can truly recommend this Pension (B&B). Information about their pension can be found at:
Pension Fuchsmuehle.
Press the Read More tab if you want to see more of this walk.
Just opposite of Pension Fuchsmuehle you will find the "Topplerschlosschen" (build in 1388). It was the holiday residence of a former mayor of Rothenburg. It can be visited in the weekends and is really worth it. The house is strangely build as underneath picture shows you quiet well. Inside it is nevertheless rather spacious for that time and it gives you an idea about people lived in those years.
Across the street there is a path going up on a hill. It is pathway 6A and brings you to the top of the hill (and finally to walk W7). Don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them.
At the top of that hill you will be rewarded with a splendid view towards Rothenburg. You can see almost all the churches, the towers, the walls, old buildings. And......a friendly moose
. Really a very nice viewpoint where you can have a short break before going further along walkingtrack W7.
Walking through some woods you finally end up on a track in an open field. Many buzzards or other bird species can be seen here. Even some deers crossed our paths here.
The right picture shows a beautiful Yellowhammer which can be seen eating in huge flocks.
The panoramic views up here are amazing. Looking back now and then you can see the contours of Rothenburg. And when looking the other way, you will see endless fields.
Finally you will reach a small village called Leuzenbronn. And you won't believe it but there is a very good and cheap local restaurant in this village,
Gasthaus Zur Krone. You can also stay the night at this guesthouse. We have taken a small lunch here. If you want to avoid the crowdiness of Rothenburg this is the ideal place to stay the night.
As the days are relatively short it was already getting a little bit darker and hence we were unable to take some more shots of the panoramic views, also towards Rothenburg but than seen from another angle.
The small detour with walkingtrack W8a, brings you along some cliffs, some panoramic views, and finally at the end to the "Himmelsleiter", a lot of steps bringing you back to the bottom of the valley. People who started the trip from Rothenburg now have to climb up again to get back to their startingpoint. We are more lucky, we just have to follow the Tauber to reach our Guesthouse again.
This is a very nice and rewarding walk. Definitely worth an extra day in Rothenburg o.d. Tauber.
...hide more
It was the first sunny and warm day of this year so time to put on our walking shoes and to go for a walk. Since a few days we are in the possession of a GPS and Topo maps so this was also an opportunity to see how the GPS works. We downloaded a GPS-track from the Dutch site GPSWalking and transferred it to our GPS. Most pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.
