We spent 5 days in Germany during our Trabant road trip. Before the trip we were hesitating to go until Berlin, but we have friends in Bayern and Baden-Württemberg, who we really wanted to visit. That's why we decided to keep following the Danube, instead of organizing a Trabant meets Berlin classy trip.
On the road
On the road
We drove across the city centre of Passau, which was a fun experience. We could hardy believe, that we made it until there!
By lunch time we arrived to a cute historical city: Wörth an der Donau.
 |
| Wörth an der Donau, view from the chapel The castle and the town centre |
 |
| Snacking some berries on the way |
 |
| Our typical low budget menu on the road |
Both of us have already been to Regensburg, but the city is always worth a visit. In our opinion it's one of the most artistic towns in Bavaria.
 |
| We can only recommend a visit to Regensburg. It was rainy, so unfortunately we cannot present great photos here. |
Instead we found a romantic region, which we hadn't known at all! From Kelheim we drove next to the Rhine-Main-Danube canal, then next to the Altmühl. Two famous touristic roads, the Altmühl bicycle way and the Limes go there. There's a lovely, hidden village, Essing, that made us stop, without planning it at all. The canal's water is almost indigo blue, the whole village is one single street, that is mainly accessible through a wooden bridge and an old tower.
Under the tower a small elderly lady was sitting. She stopped us, because she found our dog cute. It turned out that she had the same breed dog, so we let them meet and play a little bit, we had nowhere to rush!
Essing was our last stop for our 4th Day. Not so far from there, we found a farm with a camping. Don't ask us where it was...in the middle of nowhere! We didn't even have phone network, and we were the only ones setting a tent here (there were of course others with caravans). We always looked for campings on the road, on the very same day. Normally there's always a place for two with a tent. Our friend the Google Maps and the reviews helped us make the decision between the camp sites.
 |
| The dog that loves camping, the tent was not even set yet! |
One the 5th day, we were enthusiastic to follow the Romantische Straße (Romantic Road). Well, this road is 350 km long between Würzburg and Füssen. On our way we stopped in Donauwörth and Nördlingen, both cities are very traditional looking.
 |
| Donauwörth |
 |
| Nördlingen: the city in a meteor crater |
Then we were amazed by the less known Ur-Donautal. This landscape is not famous, even though it could be very well, for its beauty. This is a road that follows the ancient Danube valley. The water is gone, but the landscape was clearly organised by the river! There are forests, rocks and castle ruins all the way long, and most importantly for the Trabi-trip, the road is flat and there's no traffic here.
 |
| Map from the old Danube, Wikipedia |
In the middle of the afternoon we drove to Speyer city centre, made a tiny show again, took a few epic Trabant photos and left to meet friends for Kaffee und Kuchen (afternoon tea) in Spraitbach. Our main destination was Zweiflingen, by some other friends, who hosted us for four nights.
 |
| Speyer |
 |
| Fun in Zweiflingen |
 |
| Apple orchards in Zweiflingen |
Trabant trouble
These above mentioned landscapes belong to the lovely-hilly Baden Württemberg. However the nature is stunning, it's not so suitable for a 31 years old, two stroke engine car. Probably we worried more than necessary, because we drove across all the hills without any technical problems. Rémi improved a lot his Trabant driving skills as well. In Zweiflingen he had some time to fix a few things on the car, such as clean the spark plugs properly and change the breather tube, that goes to the top of the petrol tank. We didn't notice a serious problem here, but the pipe is made of elastic, so it ages rapidly. It's useful to maintain it.
On the day of our restart the Trabant went better than ever. Now we had problems with the temperature, that was above 30 degrees. The last three days were demanding on us in this weather circumstances without an AC.
So close to France!
We felt the success coming. Back in Hungary we told ourselves, 'If we make it until Zweiflingen we are good!'. There we were, last day in Germany, just a few kilometers from France.
We visited Heidelberg in a very happy mood. The city is rare among German cities, one of the few, that wasn't destroyed during the II World War. Its architecture is really beautiful, not to mention the river Neckar and the surrounding mountains. The Neckar valley is an amazing hidden gem as well. It's full of historical cities and old castles, even wine yards! Even though we knew Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg very well, these lands had so many surprises for us.
 |
| View from the road in the Neckar valley |
 |
| Lunch break in Neckargemünd |
 |
| Heidelberg and the river Neckar |
Our last surprise in Germany was an average looking forest with a Biergarten in the middle. It turned out that we were in a forest graveyard, Waldfriedhof Bienwaldruhe by Kandel. Biodegradable urns are placed below the tree trunks. Seems alternative, but nature lovers like us, probably stop here for a moment to consider the idea...
 |
| Graveyard: all the trees have a number |
Encounters
Passau: people really stared at us. Someone greeted us in Hungarian, while we were driving in the center.
Bavarian camping in the middle of nowhere:
Owner: 'Ein großes Auto!' (a big car...funny, ironical). She was both surprised and happy to meet us.
Curious questions about the car and our trip from the staff and guests too.
Donau Wörth: we bought lunch in a bakery and ate it on the main square, next to where our Trabi was parked. People couldn't know that we were the lucky owners. It was incredible: they stopped, peeked inside the car, took photos, posed with it. We should have spied on our car more often on the way!
Spraitbach: the friends actually had a Trabant, back in time in the DDR. We made a short showcase, and exchanged some Trabi stories.
Zweiflingen: all the friends were curious, they had Wartburg in the past.
Drive around the village - the kids couldn't believe that our speed is soooo slow when going uphills!
Comments
Post a Comment