8-4-2013 Rothenburg to Muhr am See

Now we start the Altmuhl radweg which goes from Rothenburg to Kelheim on the Danube, about 250k.  It follows the Altmuhl river so is very mellow.   Since we've been on the Danube we will only go to Dietfurt and then ride the Main-Donau Kanal radweg back to Forchheim and then the train to Bad Kissingen.   The Burgenstrasse radweg goes from Mannheim to Prague thru Rothenburg.  We considered doing part of that ride until I got the book on it and saw it's very hilly.  It goes by some of the great castles of Germany and they seem to be built on hill.  We still may do a section before we leave.

It's not much but it's home.  This is Burg Colmberg by the village Colmberg.  When we rode thru town the was a detour around another fest that was happening.  It was too early to stop for a beer so we rode on.

When got to Leutershausen it was time for a beer.   There were 2 sidewalk cafes here across from one another.  The other one was packed with bike riders from the trail and there weren't any seats left.  But the we sat at served our purposes.

So here is our beer at a sidewalk café.  Notice the flower on beer.  We had the beer then got on the bikes and rode about 100 meters and stopped at a bakery and got some plum cake.



This is Johanna wobbling out of Leutershausen after a beer.

We came upon this guy feeding in a field.  They seem not to mind people that much as he was only 150 feet away.

Now we are getting into an area where the church towers changed to this conical tower with the roofing tiles set in design.  It seem most of the churches after this for a way were in this format. 

Here's Johanna going thru the Storchenturm(stork tower) in Herrieden

Altmuhl river at Herrieden.  It's not much of a river.

After Herrieden it started raining so we set our sights on the village of Ornbau.  When we got there the 2 gestehauses were closed.  It looked like a nice village as it was partially walled.  But we had to press on and ended up in the village of Muhr Am See on the Altmuhlsee.  This pic is looking across the lake to the kloster at Gunzenhausen.  By the time we got here the sun had come out again and it was warm and muggy.   At the upper end of the lake is Vogelinsel reserve, about 300 acres for bird breeding.  After we got our room we rode out to the reserve and walked to the island via a bridge.  They have an elevated viewing area for birdwatchers and there were several.  The lake was formed in 1986 and is the upper end of the Franconian lake district.