Weather:☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Lunch: 🥪🥪🥪🥪 (4 out 5, good lunch at the Brothaus in Rothenburg ob der Tauber)
Track: 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 (4 out of 5, nice trail along the river, through fields and villages.
Milestone: We heard our first cowbells this hike. Home is far away…
Campsite: ⛺⛺⛺ (3 out of 5, flat spot in the forest)
Name of followed trail: Main Donau weg, Hauptwanderweg HW4
After a cool night, we wake up to a bright blue sky. It will be a warm day today! We start with a walk along the Tauber and hear the sound of cowbells. This reminds me of our hike to Kandersteg, where we were constantly surrounded by this sound. To us it’s another sign that we’ve already hiked a long way…😁
We pass through a village where time stood still, and pick the trail up again. There are so many trails in this area, that it was hard to find the right one digitally. Now we’re back on track. The trail continues to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Rothenburg is famous for its walled medival inner-city. We’ve been here with my parents a few years ago, and now revisit it on trail. We enjoy the beautiful old buildings and, of course, a good lunch. Or better said, 2nd breakfast, because it’s still early. We bring some goodies for along the way.
We walk out of Rothenburg, into the forest along a lovely trail, across a covered, wooden bridge. We soon find a challenge when another bridge is closed with fences, but there is no other way to cross. We climb around the fences and continue our way along the Tauber, into the fields. We pass through some villages and when we’re in Hausen am Bach we have a break at a fountain. A man sees us and kindly asks if we need anything. He offers us to go to the toilet and to refill our water. Just what we need!
From here, it’s another 5 km to where we make our camp. Pepijn, who’s had a hard time keeping up the first few days, is speeding through the day today, especially the last bit. Good to see the progress in this newby hiker. We’re still debating weather this means he needs to bathe in the river more, or if it’s the strawberry pies at the Brothaus that helped him keep a good place 😅.
We have a good meal together, with a surprise salami that Rein bought. When we are preparing our meal, it starts to rain. We squeeze into Reins tent, and continue cooking there.
After a cozy meal, it’s time to get some sleep 😴😴😴