Bicycle
touring the River Inn & Bavaria
Part 3 - Germany - Nürnberg to Würzburg
We caught the train from Passau to Nürnberg. The city was
severely bombed during World War II and most of the buildings in the centre are
relatively new and lacking in character and interest. In spite of this, the city
has a certain charm and it was a pleasant place to wander. We stayed at the
campground which adjoined the Nazi parade ground. This was where the famous Nazi
torchlight parades took place. The expanse of concrete - not unlike a huge
aircraft runway - is now used by cyclists and roller skaters as a shortcut
towards the city centre. A large area near the convention centre is given over
to a car park. At the other end, a large gypsy camp and a Christian Revivalist
organisation jostled for space. We couldn't help but wonder what Hitler and the
Nazis would have made of this.
Getting out of Nürnberg was a bit of a disaster. There were
lots of bike
paths heading in our direction but they all seemed to last only a short distance
and then disappear. We spent a long time searching unsuccessfully for the path
that we had been told went towards Fürth on the outskirts of the city where we
hoped to find the cycle path along the Main-Donau canal. A little north of
Fürth we found the canal path. By this time it was one o'clock in the
afternoon and we had managed to cover about 15 kilometres in four hours. The
path along the canal was straight and boring. The Main-Donau canal is a new
canal and it bypasses nearly all the towns and villages. There was no shelter
from the headwind which blew stronger as the day wore on. Nevertheless, we had a
relatively fast ride to the pretty campsite at Bug on the outskirts of Bamberg.
The next day we rode into Bamberg and spent a delightful day
wandering
around the old buildings and quaint narrow cobbled streets. This was one of the
nicest cities that we had visited on our trip and we would have liked to have
had the time to stay longer. On the way back to the campground we bought a large
punnet of freshly picked and very luscious strawberries. We sat on the banks of
the Main River and watched the canoeists paddling quietly by as we ate our
strawberries.
Cyclists crossing the River Main in Bamberg
We
headed south from Bug through the forest to Erlach where we turned onto the
Steigerwald Weg, a signposted route that would lead us to Schwarzach. It was
pleasant cycling as we slowly climbed up the valley. The sun shone brightly and
the temperature was a very pleasant 24 degrees - perfect cycling conditions. The
only problem was the route signposting. There were three signposted cycle routes
following the same roads and at each intersection there were signs for each
route but with different destinations. Just after we stopped for lunch near Schirmsdorf, the signposting at a T intersection was almost impossible to
follow. As well as signs for the other cycle routes, there were three signs for
the Steigerwald Weg all pointing in different directions. While it was pleasant
to ride on the quiet roads that made up the route, it did meander back and forth
across the valley a lot. There wasn't a lot of traffic on the main road and
after Geiselwind we
followed it to Scwarzach and to the campground at Schwarzenau on the banks of
the Main.
Map 7 -
Nürnberg to Schwarzach
Our
special cycling map showed a bike path running the length of the road from
Scwarzach to Volkach. As had happened often since we had started riding in
Germany, the bike path disappeared in the middle of a field. The bike path signs
were there but there was no path. We rode along the edge of the fields for
several hundred metres until we got close enough to the road to be able to
clamber through the drainage ditch. Volkach is the centre of an important wine
producing district and is a very attractive town. There are many interesting old
buildings and it was well worth the ride. We then headed to the pretty wine town
of Eschendorf and a quiet ride along the Main River before a very steep climb on
the way back to Schwarzenau.
Touring cyclists outside the Rathaus in Volkach
The next morning we had a fast ride along the river to the
pretty town of Dettelbach. Here we started following signs for the cycle route
into
Würzburg. We should have known that we would have problems but we assumed that
a route to a major city would be better signposted than a cross country cycling
route. Our map showed only one tiny road crossing the wide expanse of fields,
but after a short distance, we reached an intersection. There were no signs and
the map showed the road as continuing straight, so we headed straight on. After
a kilometre, the road ended in the middle of nowhere. We rode along the badly
rutted edge of a field until we reached the autobahn. The route
used a tunnel to go under the autobahn but where was it? Eventually we found it
and the signposted cycle route. When we reached the outskirts of Würzburg the
route zigzagged all over the place trying to avoid busy roads. It seemed to take
forever to reach the city centre.
Map 8 -
Schwarzach to Wurzburg
We didn't have very pleasant experiences trying to follow the
German cycling routes. Maybe it is just a problem in Bavaria as friends who have
cycled in other areas of Germany have had very few problems.
