Romantic Road Stops

Five years ago I did the trip in the opposite direction, Wieskirche to Rothenburg and on to Würzburg via Bad Mergentheim, all using public transportation. I did not start in Füssen since I had already been there three times. I spent four full days and two half days, a few hours of travel per day and most of my time visiting towns on the way. I think Rothenburg and Füssen are the most interesting towns on the Road. By far my favorite town in between was Nördlingen, because of the nearly intact wall with a walkable Wehrgang. Next favorite, maybe, was Landsberg am Lech. If you like castles, Harburg would be an interesting stop.

get the colored Romantic road map from the RR organization. It has brief comments about each of the towns/villages with a decription or mention of the local sights. Follow up on those that ineterset you. Dinkelsbuhl and Nordlingen were among those that inetesrted me- but you must decide what sounds good to you. Also- definitely get off the main road. driving through the villages and farm yards (now largely by-passed0 is what I found interesting). Also- if you are going all the way to fussen- Wies church (the immediate surroundings have become very touristy, but the church is stll interesting) and the foothills of the alps are worth lingering

You can get information about the RR from their website, www.romantischestrasse.de. Click on the British flag for English. There is a pull down menu on the right for information about all the towns.

Rothenburg was our favorite, so don't be in too much of a hurry to leave there. We even skipped other cities to go back there on our way back to Rome. There used to be a Night Watchman's Tour there at night, which was great since I had a 4 year old with me at the time.

I find driving the Romantic Road itself to be a vastly overrated experience, as the views that you see from the road are no better than the average rural secondary route in Germany (excluding the southern portion when the Alps come into view). The original intent of designating a "Romantic Road", which is one of about a 100 officially designated tourist routes in Germany, was to link together towns or sites that share a certain theme, not that the road itself offers anything particularly special. My point? If you're headed in that general direction, pick the towns that interest you and choose the quickest route to get to them. Don't think you're missing out on much if you don't follow the actual designated route of the Romantic Road for the entire trip. The one town I would not miss, simply because I have yet to find another town in Germany that looks anything like it, is Dinkelsbühl.