Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting There & Away
Despite a railway line cutting through the town, Dinkelsbühl is not served by passenger
trains. Regional bus 501 to Nördlingen (50 minutes, six daily) stops at the derelict train
station. Reaching Rothenburg is a real test of patience without your own car. Change from
bus 805 to a train in Ansbach, then change trains in Steinach. The Europabus stops right
in the Altstadt at Schweinemarkt.
Nördlingen
09081 / POP 19,000
Charmingly medieval, Nördlingen sees fewer tourists than its better-known neighbours
and manages to retain an air of authenticity, which is a relief after some of the Romantic
Road's kitschy extremes. The town lies within the Ries Basin, a massive impact crater
gouged out by a meteorite more than 15 million years ago. The crater - some 25km in dia-
meter - is one of the best preserved on earth, and has been declared a special 'geopark'.
Nördlingen's 14th-century walls, all original, mimic the crater's rim and are almost per-
fectly circular.
Incidentally, if you've seen the 1970s film
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,
you've already looked down upon Nördlingen from a glass elevator.
Sights
You can circumnavigate the entire town in around an hour by taking the sentry walk (free)
on top of the walls all the way.
St Georgskirche
(tower adult/child €2.50/1.70; tower 9am-6pm Apr-Jun, Sep & Oct, to 7pm Jul & Aug,
to 5pm Nov-Mar)
Dominating the heart of town, the immense late-Gothic St Georgskirche
got its baroque mantle in the 18th century. To truly appreciate Nördlingen's circular shape
and the dished-out crater in which it lies, scramble up the 350 steps of the church's 90m-
tall
Daniel Tower
.
CHURCH
Bayerisches Eisenbahnmuseum
(
www.bayerisches-eisenbahnmuseum.de
;
Am Hohen Weg 6a; adult/child €6/3;
noon-4pm Tue-Sat, 10am-5pm Sun May-Sep, noon-4pm Sat, 10am-5pm Sun Oct-Mar)
MUSEUM
