TdE - Day 19 Bad Mergentheim - Detwang

Route: Bad Mergentheim - Weikersheim - Tauber - Detwang
Distance: 50 km
Elevation: 353 m 
Duration: 2:50 h 
Weather: sunny and warm, 22 C 

Today not a lot if cycling but a lot of castles. 2 of them! And while the first one, Deutschorden Schloß Bad Mergentheim has a long and very important history the second one, Schloß Weikersheim is really outstanding. 

It’s a Renaissance castle of a not terribly important duque, who wanted to show of. A lot. So he got himself a newly built Renaissance castle PLUS an exquisite garden, full of mythological statues (him as Hercules at least 3 times, just in case you had a doubt who is in charge). But also with some small gnomes that represent common people working for the duque. 

My mother had highly recommend it to me, and right she was! 

The garden is also so well integrated into the wider landscape. 

I took a guided tour that departed about 10 minutes after I had arrived, and it was nice to get everything explained. Plus the guide told us that in the orchard we could taste some of the fruit and that the plums were now ripe, so I tried. Some were nice, others still not yet fully ripe. 

But there isn’t only the magnificent garden, but also the interior. Due to Covid we were allowed only into the Rittersaal, but that was a very unique room as well. Decorated with game in stucco, usefully arranged by importance. Starting with mountain goats and finishing with an Elephant and a Lion on the other side of the huge room, close to the throne of the duque. Unfortunately photography was not allowed inside. 

I also learned something. In baroque it was fashionable to fold napkins into very, but VERY, elaborate forms. This rhino was an example. This one is newly folded, but per our guide in baroque times decorations of this kind were very frequent. 

Actually also the village of Weikersheim was really nice:

I definitely took my time to visit, and this hadn’t been the first castle of the day. Actually even before getting on my bike I already visited a castle, the Deutschorden Schloß in Bad Mergentheim. 

Probably this staircase was the most artistic part of it:

The castle itself is okay, but nowadays it is mainly an exhibition about the Deutscher Ritterorden (Teutonic Order), which has an interesting story as a way how to insure a wealthy lifestyle to sons of the aristocracy. Matteo and I had been about 2 years ago to one in Poland, in Malbork:

What I hadn’t known is that this order accepted 3 religious denominations: Catholics, Protestants and Calvinists. As long as you were from a nobel family.

And then there were also the 50 km of cycling today which again went though nice landscapes and villages. 

As in the previous days the river bank was full of apple  orchards:

I hadn’t reserved any hotel as I was somewhat unsure if I would really make it all the way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, plus - crucially - I had seen on Booking.com that there were several options in Rothenburg from where to choose. Finally I asked in a simple restaurant/hotel just at the foothill of Rothenburg and got a simple (but complete) room for 55 Euro/ night. 

Today was also the 4 year anniversary of the start of my 2 month trip by brompton through Japan. 4 years ago I took a plane north to Wakkanai and started cycling. It feels as if I hadn’t stopped since. Although that’s obviously not true. But what a privilege to have the opportunity twice in 4 years to take some time off and discover the world around me. The trip in Japan did bring me to some very remote places, that I wouldn’t have visited otherwise.