Romantic Road medieval town and another one in a meteorite crater!

Finally Jackie finds a German cat that wants strokes!

Dinkelsbuhl was our next stop, we’d selected the ‘new’ stellplatz. (location: 49°04'28.7"N 10°19'21.1"E). So new that in September, when the last review was left on Search4sites, it had electricity but no water. We’d done a service just in case, but now there was water, and the parking was free. The book describes Dinkelsbuhl as the Romantic Road’s quaintest and most authentic medieval stop. It was lovely, with a walk through the town, though really you just needed to ramble and a walk outside the walls too. There was a small local market on Saturday, but a much bigger ‘martini’ market on Sunday (no, means nothing to us either). We decided to stay although we are getting slightly blasé about medieval towns, they are still lovely. So glad we did, on the cat stakes Dinkelsbuhl is winning hands down, two to wave at and four to stroke. Two of them twice! About time too.

Lovely old Dinkelsbuhl. Yes, it does look like others, but they are all special in their way

Some of the old bits. This used to be a water mill

The Martini market was a huge draw, the whole of the motorhome parking was taken up with cars by the time we got back. We’d had our second feuerwurst, spicy sausage in a bun, but no gluwein. Finally found one in a cafe, but most surprised there was no stall, we’ll have to wait till the end of the month for the Christmas markets to start for that I guess.

A Dinkelsbuhl landmark on part of the old town wall. Who lives in that house?

Cat number 2 in Dinkelsbuhl motorhome park

Our plan to visit Lidl and a garage for LPG was thwarted as on Monday morning Dinkelsbuhl joined the rest of Germany in roadworks. It was easier just to leave. It’s one of those weird things when you’ve just filled up with LPG it’s everywhere, but when you are looking..... fortunately it’s not vital yet, but so glad we swapped one of our small bottles for a bigger one in the summer. It has certainly made things easier.

While in Dinkelsbuhl we visited the German equivalent of B&Q and they sold some Christmas lights. Here they are in Big Ted. We are calling them mood lighting, they are bright enough to sit with a glass of wine at night in the warmth while listening to some music

Nordlingen - another medieval town, but this ones in a meteorite crater

Nordlingen has been our last couple of days, another medieval town, this one with walls you can walk all the way around. However its real claim to fame is that the walls are meant to be the same shape as the Ries Basin, the meteorite impact crater in which it sits. The 25km diameter crater is one of the best preserved on earth, only happening 15 million years ago after all! This was the reason for a 2 day stay, the museum was shut on Monday! Stellplatz location: 48°51'19.5"N 10°29'03.1"E

Jackie doing her exercises while on the old town wall that encircles Nordlingen

St. Georgs-Kirche church with Daniel Tower in Nordlingen

We did have to pop back into the tourist information yesterday to ask about pigs, there are little pigs everywhere round the town. It turns out that in 1440 a woman out buying a jug of beer for her husband noticed a little lost pig. It rubbed its hindquarters against one of the towns wooden gates revealing that the gate wasn’t locked properly. She called “So, G’sell, so!” Which is untranslatable, but apparently important, there is a musical going on in town at the moment with this as its title! Apparently the guards had been bribed by Count Hans of Oettingen to leave the gate open for an attack!

Looking down from the top of Daniel tower at the Rathaus (Town Hall), one of the oldest in Germany

The cat at the top of the tower

It was an interesting museum, though most of it in German, with only a small leaflet to help us on our way. We were 2/3 of the way around when it shut for lunch, though they were very happy for us to go back after which we did. In the interim however we went up ‘Daniel’ the name of the cathedral tower which does give a stunning view over the city and to the edge of the crater in all directions, just as well we waited till today as not sure we’d have seen that far yesterday! 350 steps to the top, all made worthwhile by not only the view, but the cat who spends her days at the top of the tower, though apparently not her nights. How they persuade her that 350 steps up and down every day is a good idea I’m not sure! She was however lovely and gave me lots of fuss while we talked to the ticket man who’d spent 6 months working in the Forest of Dean in 2000...

The hills in the distance are the meteorite crater rim. We'd never have known, but cleverer people than us have done a scientific study of rock samples and proved that a 1000m diameter meteor hit the ground here at 20km/sec producing a hole 4.5km deep that collapsed to produce a 25km diameter crater. Rocks and debris were scattered up to 400km away

And in this photo Big Ted is visible, dead centre, partially hidden by trees

This is a drawing showing the meteor crater. If you click on it and zoom in Nordlingen is bottom left of the inner circle. The outer circle is the crater rim

This is an actual meteorite that was observed falling to earth in 2002. The people who saw it went and retrieved it from some woods

A meteorite you can touch

A meteorite cut in half showing it is mainly comprised of iron

And this is an actual piece of moon rock, brought back from the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Because of the uniqueness of the Reis meteor crater here the Apollo 16 astronauts visited  the site to learn of the type of rocks they would likely come across, as they were to visit the site of a meteor strike on the moon

This is the reverse side of the rock showing lots of tiny holes created by particles of dust striking it from outer space. This wouldn't occur on earth due to our protective atmosphere. The rock is contained in a sealed in a glass chamber to stop earths atmosphere from degrading it

The display of the rock in its protective cabinet in the museum in front of a photo of the Apollo 16 mission 

A NASA experiment of a meteor impact simulation to show how ground layers are disturbed and give a better understanding

And this is a display showing a cross section through the ground at Nordlingen and is a result of their extensive work. The two red lines are two of many drill cores that have been taken. These two cores are on display in the museum and the range of rock layers it shows is amazing.