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Biking along the Romantic Road

Posted by on

Hi, I am planning a trip to bicycle along a portion of the Romantic Road, and I am starting to think I have made things too complicated.

First, I have a lifelong desire to stay in Fussen and see Newschwanstein Castle. I know, it's probably touristy and over-blown. I just want to, okay? ;)
Next, we were hoping to find a way to rent bikes in little Nordlingen and cycle north to Wurzburg. But Nordlingen seems to lack the infrastructure for a lengthy, one-way bike rental. So then we thought we could rent bikes in Wurzburg and have them shuttled to Nordlingen, but the cost was exorbitant.
THEN we thought we could rent a car to drive from Fussen to Wurzburg, pick up the bikes ourselves, and drive them to Nordlingen.
THEN things started to feel ridiculously complicated. Especially since it seems that taking a rental car from Fussen to Nordlingen is impossible. (No, "impossible" would be France. In Germany, perhaps, "verboten"?)

(Very briefly, our logistical reasons for making the trip in this direction are: We start in Italy, spend time in the Dolomites, and then travel to Fussen from there. We ultimately fly home to the USA from Frankfort.)

So, the crux of my question is this: How can I get from Fussen to Nordlingen (via Wurzburg) without having to change busses a million times and waste an entire day travelling? If I could rent a car, at least I would only waste half a day. But where to return a car near enough to Nordlingen?

Or is my plan utterly absurd and should I just scrap the whole thing and start over? XD

Posted by
321 posts

Hi Erynn- I think you will be disappointed riding a bike along the "Romantic Road". If you do so, be sure your accident and life insurance is paid up before you go. I'm not even sure there are bike lanes along the "Romantic Road". I remember driving about 120 Km/hour the last time I took this route (over 10 years ago) and I don't remember seeing a single bicycle. Bike paths are more prevalent along certain portions of the Rhine and Mosel rivers.

Anyway, if your heart is dead set on tempting fate, catch a bus or train from Fussun to Nordlingen. Rent bikes and proceed to Wurzburg, Stay in Wurzburg until you are ready to go to Frankfurt. Rent a car in Wurzburg that is big enough to carry the bikes. Drive to Nordlingen and drop of bikes .. Then drive from Nordlingen to Frankfurt for the ride home. Or, instead of renting a car when you leave Wurzburg, you can probably find a local train to Norlingen that will allow you to carry bikes on the train. (I believe some busses also allow you to carry bikes.)Then catch the train or bus from Nordlingen to Frankfurt .

I wish you a SAFE trip!!!

Posted by
2593 posts

There is a bike path ( radweg ) along the Romantic Road. Look at www.crazyguyonabike.com for some journals of peoples’ trips along it. You might want to check if you can rent bikes at one train station and return to another.

Posted by
3050 posts

One thing to keep in mind is that the "Romantic road" isn't a dedicated road linking specific towns, but rather a designated route using a number of existing roadways to do so. So there are always OTHER more secondary (and safer) roads you can use to cycle. I'd try using Google translate to search on German websites for more information about cycling paths - Germans are enthusiastic cyclists so I'm sure the information about good biking paths and rentals are out there - in German! "radweg" is a bicycle path, "romantischestrasse" is "romantic road" and so forth. Tourist Information websites for the towns and the region will often sell dedicated maps for cyclists (and hikers, and so forth) that might be a huge help.

Another way around your predicament is to base in a particular village in the romantic road and use your bikes to explore other towns and the countryside returning to your base town in the evening. While it sounds appealing to use the bikes to continue your journey in a particular direction, in reality nothing is more than a couple hours' drive in the area you're talking about, so it might just be easier to enjoy cycling without using it to get from one destination to another.

(Also don't apologize for wanting to do the Fuessen castles - the settings are beautiful and I think they're well worth a visit!)

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