"weekend in Nördlingen" Nördlingen by brendareed

It was a rainy Sunday in April when we stopped in Nördlingen on our way home from Munich. We took the scenic route up the Romantic Road in Bavaria into the Reis Basin – that massive meteor crater in which the people of Nördlingen live – and into this old medieval town with an almost completely intact city wall. Not too many people were in town so we enjoyed a wonderfully peaceful day in Nördlingen.

The first thing we did was find the St. George Church because of Daniel – its large west tower that you can climb and get a spectacular view of the town and surrounding area. Okay, it was a rainy day so the view of the town was great but the surrounding area…not so much.

TOWN TRIVIA: Nördlingen is town that Willy Wonka’s glass elevator flies over in the final scene of the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (the Gene Wilder version, not the recent Johnny Depp film). To see this scene and Nördlingen from the sky, check out this YouTube video.

We then followed the town’s historic walk that took us through some of the quaintest parts of the town. The signs were very clear so we knew exactly where we were going without a map. We passed the wall (which we’d go back to and walk completely around later), the water wheel, an old church (now a hotel) with its interesting fountain outside, a rose garden, the St. Saviour’s Church and some very old buildings and homes. Finding some locals along the way, we enjoyed watching a little boy play in the water as his grandparents watched him smiling.

For lunch, we had hoped to eat at a brewery that is located in one of the towers on the walls – Hubby enjoys trying out the various beers of Germany. But the restaurant was closed for the season so we set off to find another place. And what we found was so nice – Café Viola – it was cold and wet outside, but we sat inside by the window, drank hot tea (oh, that was mine – Hubby had beer, of course), and enjoyed a peaceful meal as the only people in the restaurant.

We then worked off our lunch by walking around the wall – which took about 30 minutes to do. Thoroughly wet but content, we got back in the car and headed for home. Nördlingen is on the Romantic Road, that very much visited route between Würzburg and Fussen, but somehow I think this little town gets neglected as the buses leave Rothenburg o.d. Tauber and zoom past on their way to the south. It is worth a stop – even if only for lunch and a walk around the walls.