Bavarian Bike Tour - September 6th to 13th, 2025
We booked the Bavarian Beer Tour through a company called Radweg-Reisen (Cycling Holiday). The bike tour started and ended in Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Germany, with overnight stays in Erlangen, Bamberg, Neustadt, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and Wolframs-Eschenbach. We opted for two nights in Nuremberg at the beginning and another night in Nuremberg at the end, which gave us a full day to explore Nuremberg before we started the bike tour.
This is a rather long post, so we included links if you just want to jump to a particular section:
Cycling Day 1 - Nuremberg to Erlangen
Cycling Day 2 - Erlangen to Bamberg
Cycling Day 3 - Bamberg to Neustadt
Cycling Day 4 - Neustadt to Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Cycling Day 5 - Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Wolframs-Eschenbach
Nuremberg (Nürnberg)
Saturday was a travel day from Innsbruck in Austria to Nürnberg (Nuremberg) in Germany. Our train was not scheduled to leave until 10:44 am, so we took our time checking out of the hotel and walked over to the train station for breakfast. It was only a five minute walk to the train station, so we arrived before 9:30 am.
There was another Der Bäker Ruetz in the train station, the same chain of bakeries we had been eating our breakfast at for the past couple of days. The one in the train station was a little smaller and a little busier. We did manage to find two seats at a bar instead of a table. Keith had his usual croissant with butter and jam with a cappuccino. Ann tried Weinbeerweckerl and a Limettenstangerl with her green tea. The Weinbeerweckerl (wine berry rolls) was a yeast roll with raisins. The Limettenstangerl (lime sticks) was sweeter. It was a pastry dough with a white icing drizzle on top, perhaps with some form of lime in the middle. Ann likes tasting new things. Her favorite so far from Der Bäker Ruetz is still the Kaisergolatsche (Innsbruck, Austria - September 3rd to 5th, 2025).
While we were sitting in the train station, we noticed there were a lot of people dressed in Trachten (traditional clothing), such as lederhosen and dirndl. Was there something going on that weekend? A quick Google search indicated that there was a Almabtrieb (procession of sheep returning from mountain summer pastures) in the village of Axams just outside of Innsbruck. It happens every year on September 6th.
However, there was a large group of people wearing Trachten who got on our train. They stayed on until Rosenheim in Germany where they all got off. So we googled some more. The Rosenheimer Herbstfest (fall festival) was going on from August 30th to September 14th. Oh, that’s probably where those young people are going on a Saturday. When Ann went to the restaurant car on the train before Rosenheim to buy a couple of Cokes, there was a handful of young men in lederhosen, bellied up to the bar, starting their drinking and fun a little early. They were already having a good time.
We had seat reservations on our first train from Innsbruck to München (Munich), Germany. It was on a Railjet, Austrian’s high speed train system with ÖBB (Österreichisches Bundesbahnen). It was about an hour and 45 minute ride.
In München (Munich), Germany, we had to switch trains. According to the schedule, we had over half an hour to make our connection. However, the München Hauptbahnhof (main train station) is large. We had to go from platform 6 to platform 20. Platform 6 is not a full platform, so it was close to a ten minute walk to get from where we exited the first train to the end of the platforms where we could then traverse over to platform 20. Then, when we got there, our train had been moved to platform 22. So it was over 15 minutes to reach the platform. Then we had to figure out how far down the platform to go to find the coach that we had reservations for. We were off by a couple of train cars when it pulled into the station, so we hustled over to the right coach.
Again, we had a seat reservation, but this time it was on a DB (Deutsche Bahn - German Railway) ICE train (Intercity Express), part of Germany’s high speed rail system. So the trip from München to Nürnberg was only a few minutes over an hour. We arrived in Nürnberg around 2:30 pm. Every now and then, Keith would note how fast the train was going, as it was posted on the monitor inside the train. At one point, it was 264 kph (164 mph).
We were hungry, since we didn’t have lunch yet, so we had lunch at the Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof (main train station). Right in the train station is the Nürnberger Markthalle (market hall). There were all kinds of places to eat. Keith picked up a Fleischkäse sandwich. Fleischkäse, also known as Leberkäse, is very finely ground meat (usually beef and pork), baked in a loaf, then sliced and served cold.
Ann ate a Thai Curry with chicken. The dish was made to order. She was impressed with the quality of the food and the freshness of the ingredients. Her meal was something she would expect from a high end restaurant. Not bad for a food court in a train station.
From the train station, our hotel was about a 15 minute walk. Hotel Prinzregent is located in a quiet neighborhood, across the street from a wooded green space along the Pegnitz river. This was our first accommodation that was arranged for us by Radweg Reisen for our 8 night Bavarian Beer Cycling Tour. We added an optional extra night in Nürnberg at the start of our tour so we could have a day to explore Nürnberg, so we were staying two nights at Hotel Prinzregent. We’ll be spending one more night there at the end of our bike tour.
Our travel documents from Radweg Reisen were waiting for us at the hotel when we arrived. In addition, our rented e-bikes were also waiting for us in the bike storage room of the hotel. We took our travel documents to our room and spent the rest of the afternoon going through them.
The travel documents included a booklet with all of the details that we needed, including how to adjust the bikes, what to do if there is an issue with one of the bikes, and detailed descriptions of each day’s cycling route, along with maps. There were also vouchers for beer in Bamburg, a guided tour in Rothenburg, and entrance to the Fränkisches Freilandmuseum (open air museum). In addition, they provided three large paper maps by a company called Kompass, which showed all the bike routes in the areas we would be passing through.
Paper maps are fine and good, but we were hoping to have some GPS routes we could load on our phones. Nothing in the travel documents mentioned downloading routes. However, we poked around on the cycling-holiday.com website to see if we could find something. For some reason, Ann remembered something about routes in the Komoot phone app. At the bottom of the page which describes the tour that we booked, there was a link to download the routes into Komoot. Yay!
It is so much easier to follow a route on our phones than pulling out paper maps, or trying to read a paper map attached to the handlebars, to figure out our next turn. The only downside is that Komoot is not free, unless you only want a small, single region. There are several price options, but it is only $29.99 to purchase the World Pack, which is a one-time purchase, good forever.
For dinner, we walked over to the old town area to search for a restaurant. We entered the Hauptmarkt (main market) square, the same square that holds the Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt, Nürnberg’s famous Christmas market. The daily market was just closing up when we arrived.
Around the corner from the Hauptmarkt, we stumbled across Bratwurst Röslein. It looked interesting, so we got an outside table to sit down for a meal. We ordered the Reise durch die Bratwurstküche (the Trip through the Bratwurst kitchen), which required a minimum of two people. The meal included Nürnberger Rostbratwürste (Nürnberg roasted bratwurst), Blaue Zipfel (blue tips), Stadtwurst vom Grill (grilled city wurst), and geräucherte Nürnberger Bratwürste (smoked Nürnberg bratwurst). In addition, there was Fasskraut (sauerkraut), Kartoffelsalat (potato salad), Bauernbrot (farmer’s bread), and Meerrettich (horseradish). Nürnberg bratwurst is smaller than the bratwurst you might find in the States. The city wurst is a larger diameter similar to an American bratwurst, but it wasn’t as long. Keith said the city wurst reminded him of kielbasa. The smoked bratwurst was also spicy, as it looked like it contained spicy peppers. The blue tips were Nürnberger bratwurst boiled in vinegar with onions. It had a very interesting flavor. All of it tasted wonderful. It was more food than we needed to eat, but we managed to eat most of it.
To drink, Keith had a Rotbier (red beer) while Ann had a Johannisbeerschorle. A schorle is a fruit juice or wine mixed with carbonated water or lemonade. In this case, the fruit juice was currant (Johannisbeer) juice.
Sunday we explored Nürnberg. We sort of followed the walking tour outlined in Rick Steve’s Germany travel guide, but we wandered down additional streets when something interesting caught our eyes.
After a leisurely breakfast at our hotel’s nice buffet in the morning, we started our walk by making our way over to Königstor (King’s Gate), back near the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). We followed the town wall as best we could to get over there. At Königstor, there is a cute little area of medieval shops called Handwerkerhof Nürnberg.
From there, we followed Königstraße all the way to Museumsbrücke. Königstraße is a pedestrian street, as is many of the streets in the Altstadt (old town). After admiring the Heilig Geist Spital (Holy Ghost Hospital) that spans the Pegnitz River, we continued on Plobenhofstraße to the Hauptmarkt. Since it was a Sunday, none of the market booths were open.
We admired the Schöne Brunnen (the nice fountains), which stands in one corner of the market. Schöne Brunnen was originally built in 1396, but the one that stands in the market square today is a copy made in 1903. It survived the many bombings of Nürnberg during World War II by being encased in concrete and sand, while much of the rest of the Altstadt was turned into rubble.
From there we walked past the Rathaus (city hall) and up to the Kaiserburg Nürnberg (Imperial Castle). We didn’t go inside the museum, but just walked around the outside. Then we headed down to Tiergärtnertorplatz (zoo keeper gate square). It was getting close to time for the English tour of the Historischer Kunstbunker (historical art bunker) and we wanted to buy our tickets.
The Historischer Kunstbunker is a bunker that was used to safely store art during World War II so it wouldn’t be destroyed by air raids. The only way to see the Kunstbunker is to go on a guided tour. There were only two English tours per day. Even though we have a pretty good understanding of German, we wanted to make sure we understood everything, so we bought tickets for the 1:15 pm English tour.
Since it was only a little past noon, we decided to have lunch at the nearby Augustiner zur Schranke restaurant. Keith ordered one of the specials for the day, Röstkloß mit Ei und Beilagensalat (with egg and a side salad). Röstkloß is sliced up Knödel (large dumplings), which is then pan-fried, and, in this case, mixed with scrambled eggs. Ann got one of her favorite standby’s, Käsespätzle (small dumplings with cheese).
We finished lunch just in time for our tour. It turned out to be very interesting. We’re glad we took the English tour, as we got more out of the information our tour guide, Andreas, was telling us than what we were viewing inside the bunker. Most of the bunkers were built for beer storage back in the Middle Ages and one in particular was modified during World War II to house valuable art. Nürnberg was one of the handful of cities in Germany that was heavily bombed. By the end of the war, the bunker not only held German art, but also some art stolen from the countries that the Nazis conquered. At the end of the war, the United States identified the stolen art and returned it to the countries it was taken from. After the war, it took five years just to clear the rubble out of the Altstadt. There are manmade hills outside of town that were created from all of the removed rubble. Then it took 20 years to rebuild the Altstadt.
After our tour, we continued our wandering through the Altstadt for a little while, then headed back to our hotel. For dinner, we walked over to the Hummus Connection for something a little different.
It took us a little while to order, because the German words on the menu were mostly new to us, so we were looking up a lot of them. Keith ordered the Shawarma wrap with Eistee aus der Lebanon (iced tea from Lebanon). We believe the restaurant was vegetarian, as the wrap came with mushrooms instead of meat. The Eistee was made with schwartzer Karate (black carrots) and wilden Kräutern (wild herbs). Keith said it tasted pretty good. Ann tried the Fatteh, which contained Kichererbsen (chickpeas, a.k.a garbanzo beans), Tahini (sesame seed paste), Knoblauch (garlic), Sojajoghurt (soybean yogurt), Mandelsplitter (almond pieces), Granatapfelkerne (pomegranate seeds), Sumac, geröstetes arabisches Brot (toasted Arabic bread). It was a very interesting and tasty dish.
Cycling Day 1 - Nuremberg to Erlangen
Monday was our first day of riding on our Bavarian Beer Cycling Tour. There were two options in the Komoot tracks for the leg from Nürnberg to Erlangen. One was called the canal route and the other one the valley route. It didn’t look like there was much difference between the two, so we chose the slightly shorter one, the valley route, which was 27 kilometers (16.9 miles) with an elevation gain of only 84 meters (275 feet). An easy day for the first day.
We took our time getting ready in the morning. Our luggage needed to be at the reception by 9 am, so Radweg Reisen could transport it to our next location for us. We both carried our daypacks, with our rain gear, water bottles, and Ann’s laptop.
After breakfast, we retrieved our bikes from the bike storage room and got them ready. After adjusting our seats, we made sure to notice which hand brake went to the rear wheel, the right one, the same as our bikes back home. The bikes we rented in the Cotswolds in England (Moreton-in-Marsh, England - April 9th, and 14th, 2025) were the opposite of what we were used to, with the left brake controlling the rear wheel. So we didn’t want to brake hard with the wrong one and go flying over the handlebars.
Ann put her PeakDesign bike mount (paid link) on the handlebars. She removed the front storage bag and put it in the saddle bag. However, because of the other controls on the handlebars, she had to mount it so her phone would be taking portrait photos and video instead of landscape, like she prefers. At least she could see the Komoot navigation map on her phone from there.
We started out by riding right through the center of Nürnberg, somewhat along the Pegnitz River. When we passed through the Hauptmarkt, we made sure to get a picture of our bikes with the Schöne Brunnen fountain.
Once we were out of town, the paved trail followed some green space along the river. It was very peaceful. Twice we came across a water wheel, pulling water out of the water and into a trough. The first one looked like it might still be used for irrigation, but the second one just spilled the water back into the river. We’re guessing they just keep it working for historical reasons.
The first village we came to was Fürth. Unlike Nürnberg, it managed to escape damage from the war. So it had a lot of old half-timbered buildings along with others with slate tile sides. It was a charming little town. We deviated from the route so we could check out the place.
First, we went to a bike shop, Fahrradkiste Fürth. Our bike rentals did not come with bike helmets, so we bought a couple of them. They weren’t cheap, so we may try to get them in our luggage to fly them home with us.
Then we stopped for drinks and a bite to eat at Kaffee Bohne (coffee beans). To drink, Ann had a Spezi (cola mixed with orange soda or lemonade) while Keith had a cappuccino. Ann had to keep the drink coaster on top of her glass to keep the bees out of her drink. They were persistent little guys.
To eat, Ann ordered the Süßkartoffelnpommes (sweet potato fries) with guacamole while Keith had Apfelkuchen with a scoop of ice cream. Ann loves her sweet potato fries, so she couldn’t resist, even though they are not a German dish. The combination with guacamole was something new and they paired together nicely. Apfelkuchen is similar to Apfelstrudel, except that it is more like American pie without a top crust.
Along the bike route, we passed a couple of large flocks of storks. We were surprised how close we were riding by them and it didn’t seem to disturb them at all.
A section of the route was on a road, with more traffic than we would have liked. However, it felt pretty safe as the drivers were very considerate. We don’t know if the other route, the canal route, would have avoided being on roads or not.
According to Ann’s watch, we rode a total of 28.3 kilometers (17.6 miles), with an elevation gain of 56.4 meters (185 feet) which took us just over five hours to complete, with an actual riding time of only two hours and 22 minutes. Our average speed was somewhere between 11 kph (7 mph) and 14 kph (9 mph), depending on whether you believe Ann’s watch, which automatically detects when she is riding and when she is not, or the Komoot app, which Ann paused while we were exploring Fürth. Either way, it was a pretty slow pace.
Since there wasn’t much elevation gain, we had the power assist turned off most of the day on our e-bikes, only turning it on when we came across a short incline. So we both still had five bars, full capacity, on our bike batteries. Needless to say, we did not plug the batteries in to recharge.
When we reached Erlangen, we went straight to our hotel, Aldstadthotel Grauer Wolf (Old Town Hotel Gray Wolf). It was about 3 pm when we arrived. Our room was ready and our luggage was waiting for us. After taking showers and handwashing our clothes, we were ready to explore Erlangen.
The hotel receptionist gave us a map of a walking tour around town along with dinner recommendations. We spent a little over an hour making a big loop around the town, as well as going through the Schloßgarten (palace garden) and the Botanischergarten (botanical garden). The town was very walkable, as there were plenty of pedestrian streets. It was nice to see so many people enjoying the gardens and the squares around town. It was a very pleasant atmosphere.
For dinner, we ended up at Steinbach Bräu. The beer garden at the brewery was hopping. The food was self-service, but waiters came around the tables for drink orders.
To eat, we both got the Grillsteak mit Brötchen (pork steak on a bread roll) along with small salads. The steaks were grilled nicely and pretty tasty.
To drink, Keith ordered their Storchenbier (Stork beer) while Ann drank a Johannisbeerschorle (currant juice mixed with carbonated water). What we didn’t realize at the time was that there was a stork nest on top of their brewery. They even have a live camera on it (Storchencam https://steinbach-braeu.de/storchencam/).
During the night, Monday night, Keith had some leg cramps. So he added some electrolytes to his water bottle on Tuesday. That seemed to do the trick, as he didn’t have any leg cramps the rest of our bike tour.
Cycling Day 2 - Erlangen to Bamberg
Tuesday, our second day of riding, was a little longer than the first day. Again, there were two routes to choose from, a canal route and a valley route. This time the canal route was shorter, so we chose that one. The booklet suggested stopping at a couple of towns, Forchheim and Buttenheim, but we wanted to get to Bamberg early, since we had four beer vouchers per person to use in the breweries around Bamberg.
Breakfast at Aldstadthotel Grauer Wolf in the morning was a nice buffet. After filling our bellies, we got an early start on our ride. We were on trail by 8:45 am.
Most of the route to Bamberg was along the Main-Donau Kanal. It was a lovely trail, passing by several canal locks. Most of the route was smooth pavement, with some sections of small gravel. And the trail was straight, as the canal is pretty straight, so we could make pretty good time. Our average speed was higher than the first day. That beer must have been calling Keith, encouraging him to pick up the pace.
As the canal goes straight through Bamberg, the trail into town was pretty straight forward. Our hotel was just a block away from the canal, a Best Western. Yes, we normally try to stay away from chain hotels, especially American ones while we’re in Europe, but this one was not too bad. We didn’t arrange the hotels for our bike tour, Radweg Reisen did.
By the time we reached Bamberg, we had ridden 47.5 kilometers (29.5 miles) with an elevation gain of only 51 meters (168 feet), in an elapsed time of three and a half hours, with two hours and 50 minutes of actual riding time. So we reached Bamberg around 12:15 pm, just in time for lunch.
We stopped by the hotel, so we could drop off our bikes. Our room was not ready yet, but we were able to store our bikes in their bike garage, use their restrooms, and sit in the lobby to figure out which brewery we were going to first.
The winner was just around the block from the hotel, Brauerei Spezial. The beer vouchers that were included with our bike tour was The BierSchmecker Brewery Trail. The vouchers (Gutschein) were good for a half liter (“Seidla”) of a particular beer from a selection of eight different breweries. We each got four vouchers, but Ann doesn’t drink beer. That meant that Keith could have theoretically had eight beers that day, visiting all eight breweries, but he realistically was only expecting to drink four, which meant the other four vouchers would not be used.
The beer for Brauerei Spezial was their Rauchbier Lager, a smoke beer. Bamberg is known for its smoke beer and quite a few different breweries in town make it. Keith said it was pretty smoky for the first couple of sips, then the smokiness seems to subside as you drink more. Ann had a Cola-mix (Spezi) to drink, since she didn’t want beer. We asked, but they didn’t let us use the voucher for the soft drink.
To eat, Ann had the curry wurst with French fries, while Keith ordered the Fleischkäse (meat cheese) with potato salad. Curry wurst is normally served with the wurst sliced into pieces. At Brauerei Spezial, they scored the wurst before it was cooked, leaving it in one piece. The edges where it was scored became a little crispy when it was cooked, which was an interesting touch. The pickled onions were a nice addition as well. It was served with a ton of sauce (ketchup mixed with curry), but that just gave Ann something to dip her fries into. The Fleischkäse was not served on bread this time, just served on a plate, being nicely browned on both sides (similar to fried bologna).
When we finished eating, we decided to walk across the street to Brauerei Fässla to redeem another voucher. The beer this time was the Echoes Bamberger Zergla, a dark specialty beer. While Keith was drinking his beer, Ann ordered a Johannisbeerschorle (currant juice mixed with carbonated water). Keith said he preferred the Rauchbier Lager from Brauerei Spezial.
By the time we left Brauerei Fässla, our hotel room was ready, so we went back to our room to take showers. For some reason, we had a suite room. It was way more space than we needed, but we did enjoy having the separate living room. It was nice to relax on the sofa and watch videos together before going to bed.
As we were coming back to the hotel from the breweries, it started to rain. By the time we finished our showers, it was raining pretty hard. However, we just grabbed our umbrellas and rain jackets and went out anyway, despite the rain.
First, we crossed over the canal and meandered our way through the old town, past the Rathaus, and eventually to Café am Dom. We had another voucher which was good for Bamberg Smoke Beer Truffles. We picked up our little bags of truffles and moved on. After wandering around for a little while longer, we ended up at Brauerei Schlenkerla for dinner and another beer.
The beer at Schlenkerla was their Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, another smoke beer. Keith liked it, but he still liked the one from Brauerei Spezial better.
To eat, Ann had the Zwiebelkuchen while Keith had the chicken curry. Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake) is a dish made with onions, cream, eggs, bacon and caraway seeds baked in a pastry shell. It is similar to quiche, but with a much higher concentration of onions and less eggs. Ann ate her share of Zwiebelkuchen when we lived in Germany 35 years ago. We lived in Baden-Würtenburg, the Land (state) where Zwiebelkuchen originated. It tasted just like she remembered.
Our plan was to go to Klosterbräu so Keith could use his last beer voucher for their Bamberger Schwärzla (another dark beer). But Keith decided he had enough beer for one day. So another beer voucher went unused.
We also each had yet another voucher for a beer mug and wooden lid that could be picked up at the Tourist Information center. However, we decided to not use those vouchers either. Just a few years ago, we got rid of most of our over one hundred beer glasses, beer mugs, and beer steins that we brought back from Germany when we lived there 35 years ago. We didn’t need to start collecting more.
When we got back to the hotel, we ate our Bamberg Smoke Beer Truffles. There were only two per person, but that was plenty for one day. They were pretty tasty. Ann even liked them despite the smoky beer taste, as there was enough dark chocolate to offset it.
It was Ann’s turn to have a couple of leg cramps Tuesday evening before we went to bed. However, she didn’t have any during the night. So on Wednesday morning, she made sure to get some salt in her food at breakfast, like cold cuts, cheese, and bacon. That seemed to be enough for her, and she didn’t have any cramps the rest of our bike tour.
Cycling Day 3 - Bamberg to Neustadt
Wednesday, Day Three of our bike tour, we had our longest ride yet. The first ten miles retraced our route from the day before. There was an option to take a train from Bamberg to Hirschaid, but we decided not to take it. Our tender bottoms might have thanked us, but we didn’t want the hassle of getting to the train station with bikes, especially since we weren’t sure exactly how much we would be saving once you factored in getting to the train station in Bamberg and getting from the train station in Hirschaid back to the bike route.
After a nice buffet breakfast at the Best Western, we got an early start, leaving the hotel around 8:40 am. It was a cool, cloudy morning. We made pretty good time getting back to Altendorf, where we left our previous day’s route. It took us less than an hour to cover those ten miles.
Altendorf was where we left the Main-Donau Kanal. That meant that the trail was no longer straight and not as flat. The route meandered through the countryside, across farm fields, and through small, quiet villages. We spotted some storks in the fields. This time they were in pairs instead of the large flocks we saw the first day.
When we reached Höchstadt an der Aisch, we stopped for lunch. In the old town area is Adam Burger Haus. In addition to burgers, they also served pizza, döner kebab, and dürhüm. Ann opted for the döner kebab while Keith chose the dürhüm. We’ve noticed that many of the kebab places serve only poultry meat (geflügelfleisch) for their kebabs and dürhüms, including the My Dream’s that we like so much in Innsbruck Austria (Innsbruck, Austria - September 3rd to 5th, 2025). The poultry meat is cooked on a spit, just like the lamb, pork and/or beef meat is for a gyro in the States. The meat is sliced off thin, so it is nice and crispy.
The portions at Adam Burger Haus are huge. For some reason, Ann also ordered French fries. Keith couldn’t finish his meal, but somehow Ann managed to finish hers, including the fries. That mentality of finishing your food so it doesn’t go to waste has been hard for Ann to shake.
After lunch, we waddled up and down Hauptstraße (Main Street). It seemed like the town had been invaded by storks. There were stork nests on most of the rooftops. On one building, there were a dozen storks all sitting in a row along the roof peak.
As we started riding again, we both noticed that our tender bums had gone a little numb, at least for a little while. Then, during the last hour of our ride, it rained. We pulled out our rain jackets, pulling our hoods up over our bike helmets. However, we were too lazy to put on our rain pants. We were also concerned it was make us too hot.
Our total bike ride for the day was 65 kilometers (40.4 miles) with an elevation gain of 203 meters (666 feet), in six hours and 15 minutes. We were only on our bikes for four hours of that.
It was about 3 pm by the time we reached our hotel in Neustadt. Our accommodations were in the Kohlenmühle Gasthof and Brauerei. Kohlenmühle was a mill that dates back at least to the 1800’s and possibly as far back as the 1400’s. The mill was renovated and converted to an inn and brewery from 2002 to 2004 and started operating as such in 2005.
Since it was raining when we arrived, we didn’t feel like going out again in the rain to explore the town. Instead, we took showers, washed our clothes, and hung out in our room until dinner. We made dinner reservations for 6 pm in the Kohlenmühle restaurant.
Since it was so damp, we were concerned our clothes would not dry overnight. However, we were able to turn on the heated towel bar in the bathroom. Yay! It had been a while since we were in a place that had the towel bars active and it was cool enough that we didn’t mind the extra heat in the room.
Dinner in the restaurant was wonderful. The place was busy and they had to turn away some people, as there were no more tables available. We’re glad we made a reservation. If it had been nicer weather, their large beer garden would have been open and they would have been able to accommodate a lot more people.
Ann ordered the Schalanderpfännchen which was grilled pork loin with a mushroom cream sauce with spätzle (small egg noodle dumplings) along with the salad bar. Schalander is the break room in a brewery, while Pfännchen means pan. We haven’t seen salad bars very often in Europe. Keith had the Kohlenmühlerteller (Kohlenmühler plate), which was a pork cutlet with roasted potatoes and fried onions. The cutlet was huge. It must have been almost half a kilo (around two pounds). Needless to say, he couldn’t finish it all.
So, while Ann had dessert, Apfelstrudel, Keith had another beer. His first beer was their Helles (pale lager), so he tried their Dunkles (dark lager) the second time. He liked both of them. However, he said he could drink Helles every day, but would only drink a Dunkles every now and then for a change of pace.
Cycling Day 4 - Neustadt to Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Thursday, Day Four, our ride was from Neustadt to Rothenburg an der Tauber. Even though the ride was a little shorter than the day before, we still got an early start. We wanted to stop in Bad Windsheim to visit the Franconian Open Air Museum (Fränkisches Freilandmuseum). So right after a nice buffet breakfast at Kohlenmühle, we were back in the bike saddle by 8:30 am.
Our tender bottoms were still tender, but it seemed more tolerable. A little zinc oxide for the rough spots was helping as well. The morning started out cloudy, with a little bit of rain.
We reached Bad Windsheim around 10:45 am. Our vouchers from Radweg Reisen provided us admission into the open air museum. The museum was right on the edge of town, just a few minutes walk from the old town. It was much larger than we imagined it would be. We spent about an hour walking around the property, mostly looking at the buildings and equipment from the outside. We could have easily spent more time there, but we needed to move on.
Before we left town, we went over to Muhi & Beate Schnellimbiss for lunch. Ann had looked them up the day before and saw that they served Schaschlik. Then she had to look up what that was, as she had never heard of it before. It seemed like it was similar to shish kabob, so she was interested in trying it. However, they happened to be out of it that day. Instead, Ann ordered the pulled pork burger (pulled pork sandwich), which was served with coleslaw on top, plus a side of fries. Keith had the curry wurst with fries. It wasn’t the best food we’ve ever had, but it was satisfying.
While we were eating, we watched the Schlager für Alle music videos that were playing on the TV. Schlager is a style of European light pop music. It was popular back when we lived in Germany 35 years ago, and apparently is still popular.
The sun came out in the afternoon; however, so did the wind. And it was a strong head wind. Up to this point, we were thinking that this bike tour was flat enough that e-bikes really weren’t needed. But we were sure glad we had e-bikes in that brutal wind. As with the other e-bikes we had rented on our Europe trip, the e-bikes didn’t seem to have a lot of power. We had them cranked to the max and it was still a struggle pumping those pedals against the wind. But we were grateful for any help at that point. Just before we reached Rothenburg, we passed a boy on a bike, struggling against the wind. We felt a little guilty riding past him on our e-bikes.
Along the way, we passed quite a few apple and pear trees. The fruit trees were not in orchards, just a single tree every now and then or, at most, a handful of them clumped together. Perhaps they were leftover from former orchards. It didn’t look like people were using the fruit, as there was quite a lot of them on the ground.
At one point, the trail was closed due to some active construction. They wouldn’t let us cut through the field around them, so we had to backtrack. We figured out a route in Google Maps that would hopefully get us around the closed trail. As we deviated from our route, Komoot eventually rerouted us back, pretty much the same way we already worked out in Google Maps. That was nice. However, what we didn’t like was that Komoot no longer showed us the original route after rerouting us.
Our bike ride for the day was 57.8 kilometers (35.9 miles) with an elevation gain of 344 meters (1128 feet) which took us a total of six hours and forty minutes to complete, including all of our stops. We were only riding our bikes for three and a half hours of that.
Our hotel reservation for the night was in Hotel Rappen. They own three properties, Hotel Rappen, Gasthof Rappen, and Toppler Haus. Hotel Rappen was a four star hotel, while the other two were three stars. Our room was in Toppler Haus. Hotel Rappen was rather modern looking and Gasthof Rappen looked like it had some character, but the Toppler Haus was rather plain, tucked back behind the other buildings.
But the room was spacious and clean. We happened to have the handicap room. We know we’re getting old, but we don’t think we need a handicap room…yet.
After our showers, we went for a walk around town. Rothenburg is one of the well-known old medieval towns along the Romantic Road (Romantische Straße) and is quite touristy. We’ve been there a couple of times before over 35 years ago when we lived in Germany. Despite being touristy, it is well worth a visit. A town wall circles the medieval part of town. You can even walk along the top of the wall if you so desire. There are several stone town gates with clock towers.
The Market Square (Marktplatz) is where two main trade routes crossed in medieval times, one going north and south which is similar to what is referred to as the Romantische Straße today, while the other ran east and west, following a similar path as what is called the Burgenstraße (Castle Road) today.
A popular confection being sold at many of the bakeries and shops seemed to be the Schneeball (snow ball). From what we understand, it is similar to a funnel cake, but shaped into a ball. We didn’t try one.
For dinner, we stopped at the Ratsstube (Council Chamber), on the Marktplatz across from the Rathaus (City Hall). Ann had the Maultaschen while Keith ordered the Gulasch with spätzle (small egg noodle dumplings). Maultaschen is spinach filled ravioli, sliced, and pan fried with eggs. They served it with a Salatteller (salad plate) that consisted of a tossed salad, potato salad, and slaw. The menu was clear to point out that the Maultaschen was not a vegetarian dish. Our guess is that it was fried in pork fat. It was very tasty.
At 8 pm, we returned to the Marktplatz for the Night Watchman (der Nachtwächter) Tour, in English. We had a voucher from Radweg Reisen for the price of the tour. The tour is given in German at 9:30 pm, but we didn’t want to stay up that late and we would probably understand the English version better. The tour lasted about an hour, leading us around the old town. Our tour guide, Florian, was excellent. He was interesting, informative, and entertaining. It would have been worth it even if we had to pay 8 euros per person ourselves.
Cycling Day 5 - Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Wolframs-Eschenbach
Friday’s bike ride, Day Five, was from Rothenburg to Wolframs-Eschenbach. It was a typical length of ride, but a little more of elevation gain to tackle. Even with another early start, we managed to enjoy a nice breakfast at Hotel Rappen. Since the hotel was rather large (over 100 rooms), they were able to provide quite a large variety of items on their breakfast buffet.
There were two routes to choose from, the Northern Route which was more scenic, but it was longer and more elevation gain. The Southern Route was shorter and less elevation gain. The Northern Route was tempting, but our bodies told us to choose the Southern Route, so that’s what we did.
The routes from Radweg Reisen were broken up into three segments. The first segment brought us to Neusitz, not far from Rothenburg. Then you chose either the Northern Route or the Southern Route for the second segment, which both ended in Colmberg. Then the third and final segment went from Colmberg to Woframs-Eschenbach. It would have been a little nicer to just have two routes to choose from that went all the way from Rothenburg to Wolframs-Eschenbach, so you don’t have to go into Komoot and select the next segment when you finish the previous segment.
Our ride started out cool, with the trail wet from the rain overnight. It wasn’t long before we reached our first of three climbs for the day. Ann managed to downshift to first gear in time and cranked up the power to the max. Even so, she was pumping hard to get up the short, steep climb. To her, it seemed like the electric motor turned off due to the strain of the climb. Keith couldn’t get downshifted in time. You have to stop pedaling to get the gears to shift. On a steep uphill, that meant you might come to a complete stop. Then it was impossible to get started again, since these e-bikes did not have throttles to help you out. So Keith ended up walking his bike up the climb. We were disappointed for the fourth time now that the e-bikes we rented didn’t seem to have enough power to help us on the hills, which was the main purpose for us renting them. The first time was our hike and bike tour of the Cotswolds in England (Bourton-on-the-Water, England - April 12th to 13th, 2025). The second time was on the island of Inishmore in Ireland (Inishmore, Ireland - May 10th to 11th, 2025). And the third time was the Great Western Greenway bike ride also in Ireland (Westport, Ireland - May 12th to 15th, 2025). We’ll be glad to get back home to our own e-bikes that do much better than that.
Our first stop for the day was in Colmberg. It is a small town with a castle up on a hill. On the grounds of the castle is a deer reserve with fallow deer. The castle has a hotel and restaurant, but we’re not sure if the public is allowed on the grounds, so we didn’t venture all the way up to the castle.
On the way up the hill to the castle is Gutshof, a Gaststätte (restaurant), Biergarten, and Pension. As it was only 10:30 am, a little too early for lunch, we just had drinks. Ann had her usual Spezi while Keith had his usual cappuccino.
Our next stop was in Ansbach. It was a little larger of a town. We parked our bikes outside Schnaitberger Tor, one of the old city gates of the old town. Then we walked over to Bratwurst Glöckle for lunch. The menu was long, but it was mostly variations on how many bratwurst you wanted, how you wanted it cooked, and what side dish did you wanted with it. We both ordered the Zwei Original Ansbacher Bratwürste gebraten mit Kartoffelsalat (two original Ansbacher Bratwursts, pan-fried, with potato salad). The potato salad had bacon in it, just like Ann’s mom’s potato salad. The Ansbacher Bratwurst had a distinctive taste to it. We both thought we tasted cloves. A little research revealed that Ansbacher “Saueren Zipfel” are bratwursts boiled in a broth of wine, onions, and cloves. So perhaps Bratwurst Blöckle boils the brats before frying them.
After our delicious lunch, we walked around the old town for a little while before hopping back on our bikes. The old town had a wonderful feel to it.
Then we had two more hills to climb, between Lichtenau and Gotzendorf. We managed with downshifting better this time, so we were able to pedal the whole way. Plus, the grade didn’t seem quite as steep as the first uphill earlier in the day. At the top, we passed by some large, modern windmills before entering Wolframs-Eschenbach.
By the time we reached Wolframs-Eschenbach, we had covered 58.4 kilometers (36.3 miles) with an elevation gain of 440 meters (1445 feet) in a total time of six hours and 40 minutes, including all of our stops. We were only riding our bikes for three hours and twenty minutes.
Wolframs-Eschenbach is a small, walled town in a farming community. Our hotel was the Gasthof Alte Vogtei, right in the center of town. When we checked in, we noticed that one of the windows in our room had a screen on it. That was the first time we’ve seen a screened window in Europe. At first we opened both windows. We could tell we were in a farm community, as the air had a slight country aroma of animals. Then we thought, there must be a reason there is a screen. And then Keith spotted a mosquito. And that was the first mosquito we’ve seen in Europe. OK, let’s just keep the window with the screen open.
After taking showers, we went for a short walk around town. We walked through the town, then around the outside of the town wall, then finished off with some of the streets we missed inside the wall. It didn’t take long to cover most of the town. But it was very cute, with beautiful buildings, especially the decorative tiles on the church steeple.
When we checked in, we made dinner reservations in the hotel’s restaurant. We were glad we made reservations, as the place was pretty busy and there weren’t too many other options in town.
For dinner, Ann ordered the sauerbraten while Keith had the steak filet. Sauerbraten is beef marinated in wine or vinegar for days before cooking. The gravy is thickened with crushed gingerbread, lebkuchen, or gingersnaps. At Alte Vogtei, they use lebkuchen and served the sauerbraten with Klöße and Rotkohl (red cabbage). Klöße are large dumplings, usually made with potatoes and potato starch (also called Kartofelklöße). They are similar to Knödel, which are generally made with bread (Semmelknödel) or other ingredients. Keith’s filet was served with mushrooms and smoky mashed potatoes. All of the food was wonderfully prepared and very delicious.
For dessert, Keith had the crème brûlée while Ann ate the Zwei Engel (Two Angels). Zwei Engel was similar to the Heiße Liebe (Hot Love) she had in Kastelruth in the Dolomites (link to post). It was vanilla ice cream with warm raspberry sauce and whipped cream. Very tasty.
Cycling Day 6 - Wolframs-Eschenbach to Nuremberg
Saturday, our last day of riding, Day Six, was another long ride. Even though the elevation gain was just a little less than the day before, there was more elevation loss than gain. And the elevation gain was gradual. There were no significant climbs like the day before. However, we still opted to get an early start.
The breakfast buffet at Gasthof Alte Vogtei was nice. Some of the hotels we’ve been staying at have had scrambled eggs. However, most of the places overcook them and they are a little dry, so Ann normally opts for the soft-boiled eggs instead. However, the scrambled eggs at Alte Vogtei were nicely prepared and lovely.
The route started off through farmland and small villages, then spent quite a bit of time going through forests. Ann spotted a deer in a cornfield, and we saw a lot of different birds. However, it’s a little hard to photograph them from a moving bicycle. Usually by the time Ann would stop her bike and pull up her camera, the birds had already flown away.
Our first stop for the day was in Abenberg. We stopped at Rockerbäcks bakery and café for coffee and Kuchen (cake). Keith had a cappuccino with his Apfelkuchen (apple cake) while Ann chose the Red Berries tea to have with her Zwetschgekuchen (plum cake). It was a tasty break from riding and a welcomed restroom break.
The bakery sits just below the castle (Burg Abenberg) with a partial view from the outside tables. After our treats, we walked up the hill to get a better view. The castle contains a restaurant, hotel, and museum. We didn’t go inside. We were satisfied with just walking around the grounds.
Our next stop was Roth. Roth is a larger town than Abenberg. We stopped at Kastell Falafel & Döner, right across Hauptstraße from Schloss Ratibor. As what seems to be a typical combination of dishes at fast food places in Austria and Germany, this place served döner kebab, dürhüm, pizza, and burgers. However, this one also had shawarma. Ann ordered the Classic Shawarma while Keith had the Arabic Shawarma. He thought the picture of it looked like a small portion which came with fries and a dipping sauce. Of course, it turned out to be way too much to eat. Ann was not surprised, as the price of the Arabic Shawarma was almost twice the price of the Classic. The Classic was just a wrap with meat and pickles (Essiggurken - vinegar cucumbers). The Arabic was two wraps, cut in 2 inch pieces. It was a little different from a dürham, but not by much. Mainly, it was missing the vegetables that come with a dürham, like red cabbage, tomatoes, and onions.
After our filling lunch, we walked our bikes down Hauptstraße, past all of the pretty half-timbered buildings (Fachwerk), to the Marktplatz (Market Square). In the Marktplatz, they were setting up for their Fischerfest (Fishing Festival) that was taking place that day. We’re not exactly sure what a Fischerfest is, but there was a large aquarium on a trailer with quite a few fish swimming around inside it. There were a lot of tables and booths being set up, along with a stage, so we’re pretty sure the festival involved food, drinking, and music. We saw signs that the Altstadtfest (Old Town Festival) was scheduled for the following day. So it was probably a fun time for the whole weekend.
As we left Roth, there was another closed road due to construction. Again, we used Google Maps to determine which direction we should head to get around the construction and let Komoot eventually reroute us back to the path. We’re not sure how far we went off the original route, because, again, Komoot doesn’t show the original route after rerouting.
It wasn’t long before we joined up again with the Main-Donau-Kanal (Main-Danube Canal). We were along the canal before, on Days Two and Three. As we reached the canal, we followed the road underneath the canal before riding up alongside it. It was amazing to think the whole canal was above our heads as we passed under the bridge. A little later, we got to ride next to the canal as it passed over another road on an aqueduct.
As we approached Nürnberg, we left the canal and joined up with a smaller canal for a little while, lined with trees. It was a lovely, peaceful scene, with many pedestrians enjoying the area as well. We later found out it was the Ludwig-Donau-Main-Kanal, an old historical canal that is no longer used as a canal.
We made pretty good time that day. In addition to the downhill grade most of the day, the trail was also pretty straight with not many turns, not only when it was alongside the canal, but also as it went through the woods. It was pretty easy to maintain a fast cruising pace.
By the time we reached our hotel, Hotel Prinzregent, we had ridden 64 kilometers (40 miles) with an elevation gain of 256 meters (840 feet) in six hours and 15 minutes, including all of our stops. The actual time riding our bikes was only three and a half hours. Our average speed was between 18 to 19 kph (11 and 12 mph).
After checking into our hotel, taking showers, and washing clothes, we just hung out until dinner. We had already explored Nürnberg when we were there at the start of our bike tour. We felt more like relaxing.
We didn’t even walk into the old town for dinner. Instead, we walked over to the Wiesen Biergarten in Wöhrder Wiese, the park on the other side of the river from our hotel. The biergarten looked like a hang out for local families. It was a Saturday evening, with good weather, and everyone looked like they were having a good time.
Ann ordered two Nürnberger bratwurst with Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) while Keith had the Ein Paar Fränkische im Weckla (a pair of Franconian bratwurst on a bread roll) with fries. To drink, Ann had a Spezi (cola mixed with orange soda) while Keith had a Helles beer (light lager). He doesn’t know what brewery it was from.
Ann was still hungry, so she got an ice cream cone with a scoop of blueberry along with a scoop of chocolate. The biergarten consisted of a group of food booths surrounded by tables and picnic tables. There was one booth for ice cream, another for coffee and pastries, another for ordering items from the grill, another for picking up grill orders, another for drinks, and a final booth for returning dishes, silverware, mugs, and bottles. Some of the items you returned for a refund of the deposit you paid for them.
It was appropriate that we ended our Bavarian Beer Cycling Tour in a biergarten. But it wasn’t really about drinking beer. It was more about being immersed in the German culture. So we sat there, watching all of the people in the park, relaxing, and taking it all in. People were drinking, but no one was drunk or rowdy. They were sitting around in groups, having enjoyable conversations. Kids were running around playing. A small group of teenage girls were recording themselves dancing in front of their cell phone sitting on a tripod. A boy was passing a soccer ball back and forth with his dad. Someone was on their phone, waving down a person from across the park to come over and join them at a table. People were riding by on their bikes, enjoying the sunshine. We didn’t notice anyone that looked like a tourist. Hopefully, we blended in.
We don’t normally book tours, usually favoring setting our own itinerary. But it is a nice break to have a tour to handle the logistics for us, picking out the route, arranging the lodging, handling the luggage transfers, providing the needed equipment, and highlighting the sights to see along the way. And Radweg-Reisen put together a lovely tour package with their Bavarian Beer Tour. They provided all the information we could need, picked out wonderful places to stay, set us up with high quality e-bikes, while still allowing us to go at our own pace, decide which things to stop and see, and where to eat our meals. We would highly recommend this tour, even if you don’t like beer.
Check out our related video: Bavarian Bike Tour
(Ann)