Aug 8, 9, 10 Diefurt to Forchheim

I see Johanna has been posting willy-nilly out of order.  I didn't get to complete the Altmuhl trip so here it is.  Leaving Diefurt We got on the Main-Donau-Kanal.  The Kanal, completed in 1992, is 171k long, 55meters wide at the water level, and 4 meters deep.  At the high point it is 406 meters above sea level, the highest sea going waterway in the world.  There are 16 locks with up to 25 meters of lift.  Of these 13 are designed to use water from nearby storage tanks so very little riverwater is used to lift a boat, kind of a closed system.  Whats amazing is we were riding along and come to valley and the Kanal is goes over the valley on a bridge.  One place was 1000 feet long and 100 feet off the valley floor.

The max size ship is 190 meters in length.  This one is 90meter Ship pushing another 90 meter barge.  To get thru the locks they have to disconnect and go one at a time, then reconnect at the other end of the lock.

We get off the kanal trail to visit the village of Berching.  It is an 1100 yr. old village with an intact wall surrounding it.  It's like Rothenburg am Tauber without the people.

One of several intact city gates

Some of the wall with one of the watch towers.

On the walkway around the wall.

On the walkway along the wall.  Johanna took a long walk around the wall while I sat at a sidewalk café and had a water for a change.  It was before noon and I never drink before noon much anymore.

After leaving Berching we rode up the Kanal for another 30+k and then started looking for a town to stay in.  Unfortunately the Kanal doesn't goes thru any villages here so we had to get off the trail to find something.  We chose Hilpolstein, but took the wrong turnoff and so we rode around lost for a while till I asked a farmer directions.  Hilpolstein turned out to be a nice town with the usual ruined castle and a partial wall from the old days.  This one used the existing rock for a starter.  The back of our hotel was part of the old wall and when we ate on the terrace the old wall was holding up the terrace.

Hilpolstein had some beautiful fachwerk buildings

The next morning we left Hilpolstein and got back on the Kanal.   It was raining when we left but we rode to see the nearby lake Rothsee.  Not much was happening so back on the trail.  The trail is mostly compacted chips so the water runs thru easily and the trail is rideable  even in the rain.  After passing Nurmburg and Furth we got to a point of wanting a room.  The wasn't much prospect of finding something in the next 20k so we saw a sign for a gestehaus in Burgfarrnbach.  We had a hard time finding this one too.  When we did find it it looked like it was closed.  After ringing a while somebody showed up and let us have a room for the night.  It was a Greek place and the food turned out to be good.  After dinner we walked to the local schloss which was close to the hotel.  It wasn't that good of a schloss.  The original had been bought by 2 brothers and they spent most of their fortune to tear down the old one and build this one in the late 1880's.  This pic is of the Baren Hotel where we stayed.  The bad focus is from rain.   So the next morning we rode to Forchheim and caught a train back to Bad Kissingen for a few days rest.