Can you believe it’s been over six years since Jim and I cycled along the Rhine from Mainz to Cologne? Why, we were practically children.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-39fUDz.jpeg)
On that occasion it was the sheer number and variety of castles that stick in my mind.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-IKHPFt.jpeg)
And on the cycling holiday before that, it is the vast, resinous pine forests of the Spreewald that I particularly remember.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-rUa7Ql.jpeg)
But from last July – when we cycled 220 miles from Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Füssen along Bavaria’s Romantic Road – it is the wildflowers that stand out.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-DbVVMt.jpeg)
A rich vibrancy of color and form;
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-dl3Kkc.jpeg)
whether cornflowers in silken barley;
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-0_o6yd.jpeg)
wheat fields speckled with summer poppies;
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-CWyYf_.jpeg)
or dew drenched alpine meadows with orchids.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-gtIMl5.jpeg)
The flowers that lined our route were astonishing in their beauty and diversity.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-X1A24c.jpeg)
The call of cuckoos and the drone of insects was a near constant too
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-yB9BGg.jpeg)
– as was regularly swallowing or inhaling a fly or two as we hurtled along.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-kS3PVk.jpeg)
We were in Germany for almost a month last summer, traveling about by train and visiting a list of German towns as long as your arm… and mine: Berlin, Leipzig, Ochsenfurt, Munich, Nuremberg, Potsdam. And, in addition, we stayed in a further eight towns on the Romantic Road cycle route – battling both to reach them by push bike and then pronounce them: #deepbreath Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl, Nördlingen, Donauwörth, Augsburg, Landsberg am Lech, Schongau and Füssen.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-C_N7Um.jpeg)
As always on these holidays, we followed a fantastically well-signposted route,
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-uL6gtb.jpeg)
using a supplied-with-our-bikes route guide
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-1mqq4t.jpeg)
on solid reliable bikes. In eight days of cycling we didn’t get a puncture nor a breakdown and apart from an absolute soaking on arrival in the town of Augsburg, we had almost non-stop sunshine too.
So, that was nice.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-8ApxSc.jpeg)
We took our time, sometimes getting lost, mostly not,
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-Hiid_m.jpeg)
stopping for food if we were hungry, stopping for food if we weren’t,
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-zVg1rw.jpeg)
or just stopping to, well,
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-V8oDsg.jpeg)
gaze about
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-oDu6Mu.jpeg)
or simply wonder at those crazy Germans.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-poBA8E.jpeg)
If it’s Monday it must be Rothenburg ob der Tauber and the start of our cycle trip.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-0SDbry.jpeg)
And if it’s Friday it’ll, obviously, be Donauworth;
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-Az9uX7.jpeg)
and my only meeting – so far – with the mighty Danube. (Did you know that the Danube flows through ten countries – including Ukraine – and not one of them calls it the Danube. Fairly interesting? No? Oh well, suit yourself).
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-bG4yzv.jpeg)
I had never visited Bavaria before and was charmed by the architecture:
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-IwXkv_.jpeg)
the imposing show-off,
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-YwSwFu.jpeg)
the quirky,
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-NdjrQN.jpeg)
the medieval Bavarian,
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-lSiGWz.jpeg)
and the not at all to my taste ever so billy bonkers.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-iWPuvz.jpeg)
We saw plenty of wildlife including fox cubs, a beaver, countless deer and, of course, storks.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-hh8KsP.jpeg)
A stork on a nest was a common sight on our travels – and it’s nice to know that they might even become a common sight in the UK again.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-mFvVwf.jpeg)
Here’s another common sight from my holiday.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-lVeTxL.jpeg)
See? On a whim, I grew a beard for my Bavarian adventure but I was puzzled that it turned out to be gray and white. So, what’s that about? I’m sure last time I grew one it was dark brown.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-AagX5C.jpeg)
In the final few days of our week’s cycling we drew close to the Bavarian Alps.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-VzLtoT.jpeg)
Approaching the mountains by cycle rather than by train, plane or auto mobile, felt like a real old fella achievement.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-CBTqV_.jpeg)
Though I did have to stop occasionally just to check with Jim that we hadn’t crossed the fine line between challenging fun and bloody knackering hard work. (We hardly ever did, in case you wondered).
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-5oOZ03.jpeg)
I can’t recommend Germany for cycling.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-dWfdOr.jpeg)
Oops. I mean, I can’t recommend Germany for cycling enough. They just make it so much easier, so much more straightforward and safer than we do.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-mApEAm.jpeg)
This was the hilliest of our German bike holidays and easily the toughest – both in distance and climbs. We did have the option of hiring e-bikes but chose not to, figuring there’s plenty of time for assisted cycling in the years to come.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-ugf0Sh.jpeg)
And using pushbikes to arrive at the the BIG mountains of southern Germany only added to our smug – and frankly unattractive – gloating self-satisfaction.
Sound requiredAnd do you know? Even though we weren’t in Austria, the hills were actually alive with the sound of music. Straight up.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-67JVdh.jpeg)
We booked this tour through a German agency, Radweg-Reisen.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-OTTGCb.jpeg)
They booked all of our (excellent) accommodation and supplied the bikes, panniers and tour maps.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-WUxT0z.jpeg)
They also transferred our luggage from one hotel to the next after we, post-Frühstück, had cycled off for the day.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-ihzxcD.jpeg)
As always when we reached the end of one of these holidays, it was a wrench to surrender our bikes and give up the open roads, fields, forests, small towns and villages.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-C39KUf.jpeg)
Never mind.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-I8BwRf.jpeg)
One day I should like to go back.
![The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria The Romantic Road: Cycling Across Bavaria](https://m5.paperblog.com/i/730/7305608/the-romantic-road-cycling-across-bavaria-L-kE7bGE.jpeg)
Which, given that my big brother now lives in Bavaria, is just as well!