Wednesday 20th July - Bad Mergentheim to Seelze
We left Bad Mergentheim and headed for Bad Bruckenau. Quite a few towns in Germany start with Bad; apparently it means they were once a Government approved health spa town.
Those days have probably long passed, but we will remember Bad Bruckenau as bad for tourism. As the temperature was climbing into the mid 30s again and we had a long drive today to get back to Hannover we decided to stop for a snack break. Small towns don’t do parking so we headed to the far side of town where we chanced upon a car park that had just enough room for us, however a few people might need us to move before they can get out, and we might need the fire brigade and the plant watering people to leave before we can get out.
After strolling into town in the heat we found that every café only does ice cream desserts or bread. We settled for that being our only option and presumably struck the sister of the lady from the Black Forest Cake shop in Triberg. She was not at all interested in us as soon as we spoke English; in fact she even insisted we go dine at a restaurant. Not knowing that there was such an option just around the corner we ordered and when our food eventually arrived it was plopped in front of us, no niceties, all served on a plastic doily. Considering these towns are surrounded by fresh colourful flowers I’m not sure why she had plastic flowers on the table and on the wall. The food did take a while to prepare, we can only assume because her husband had to go and wash one of the only plates they owned to put the cold croissant and sachets of jam and butter on it. The coffee was weak and room temperature, I believe, however the ice cream was nice although meagre. The price for the small orange juice could have bought me an entire feed at McDonalds.
Once we got our food Mrs Bad spent the whole time on the phone possibly complaining to the council about their lack of town promotions because she was having trouble getting decent customers. We therefore had to wait a while before we could pay and escape the Bad experience. So all up Bad Bruckenau had bad dining choices, bad service, bad food, bad parking, bad prices, and bad décor, only to be followed by us having to give up our tour of small towns to join the big bad motorway with the bad drivers, in the bad heat. We got off the big motorway which saved us some time and started back on the small roads dining and resting in Hannoversch Munden for lunch. They have the old market square and walled town thing going on, with plenty of tourist shops and cafes with real food. Unfortunately you can’t dine outside in the cool breeze, if you can get one, without the smoking Germans tainting your lunch, or lycra clad cycling tourists parking their sweaty bodies next to you or dog obsessed people bringing their over pampered pooches into the café to share their plate.
The middle of Germany or anywhere remotely Bavaria, seems to be the cycling tourists destination and of course our friends from Japan, who will take home lots of photos of their friends in front of totally meaningless structures with Roger walking in the foreground. Having survived the 34 degree heat in town we hopped back into the van which was saying 42 degrees and headed close to Hannover so we could return the van the next morning. Our camp tonight is at a port on a river, with a bar and major train tracks well within ear-shot!
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Parked up at Seelze marina
Seelze Marina
Interesting boat - Plumbercraft
Hannoversch Munden