Need a base to explore Romantic Rd and Neckar Valley
 

We are still in the planning stage for our holiday April/May 2009, I posted some time ago for suggestions and received some great advice.

We will now be traveling with another couple for some of the time and have decided to hire a car. We will arrive at Frankfurt then make our way to the Mosel area for 3 days. We were going to stay 2 nights at Bad Wimpfen then 2 in Rothenburg however the price of the Neckarblick Hotel is more than we want to pay, we are trying to stick to around €60 which is AUD$100.

I am now thinking of staying in one place for 4 or 5 days and doing day trips, we can find accommodation around Rothenburg that fits into our budget. These are just two that I have found: Gasthaus Zum Rappen, 15 mins from the town and Haus Karin, 5 mins walk. Pro's Zum Rappen appears to be nice countryside, quiet and peaceful, con's a bit too far for meals etc and if we wish to have a drink.

My questions: would we miss out on anything by not staying inside the wall, if not which would be the wisest choice? It appears from my research that we do what we can before 9am and after 5pm to avoid the crowds. Of course there are also many places inside the wall but I gather this amount of time wouldn't be the best idea. Does anyone have any different ideas for a base?

Our wish list includes of course Bad Wimpfen and surrounding areas of the Neckar, Schwäbisch Hall, Heidelberg is a maybe, Dinkelsbühl, Nördlingen, Würzburg and Bamberg.

From there we will be moving onto Regensburg for 3 nights.

Many thanks in advance.
Maudie

Hi M,

>Haus Karin,

We stayed there on our last visit.

I highly recommend it.

From my trip report:

"Mrs. Karin Weiss is a very peppy, older woman who takes care of her guests with great joy. There is beer (she prefers Oettinger), juice and water in the fridge whenever you want some. Her breakfasts are substantial, and she is willing to prepare (within reason) extras for the guests.

We were given a mini-suite on the first floor. Queen bed, sitting area with couch and two arm chairs, a table that could accommodate 4 and a separate, private bath – 46E/nite dbl w/bkfst.

We very highly recommend staying with her. Before you leave, do be sure to return the guide book to RodT that she gives you.

House Karin is about an 8 min walk into the heart of the old town. Upon her recommendation, we walked over to the Altfränkische Weinstube for dinner. A pleasant place, with acceptable food, but nothing notable. Wandered about for a while in the pleasant evening (it had finally cooled down) before returning to Haus Karin, and so to bed".

((I))

Ira,

Your post fit the description of our visit to Rothenburg and Haus Karin perfectly. We surely had the same main floor rooms.

Maudie,

We were traveling with our two adult children. At Haus Karin you are staying in a private home and our kids felt a little uncomfortable with that, though not my wife and I. Karin is an overt, willing to mix German and English as you wish. It is a different experience than staying in an impersonal hotel.

Rothenburg is small. Staying at Haus Karin or will put you within easy walking range of whole town.

We liked the Gasthaus Goldener Greifen and the Gerberhaus for supper. We agree with Ira that the Altfränkische Weinstube was okay but not great.

Regards, Gary

If you decide to split up your stay, you could try the next town over from Bad Wimpfen: Bad Rappenau. A very pleasant, if quiet, place with inexpensive, friendly hotels with rooms in your price range. The back road from Bad Rappenau to Bad Wimpfen along Wimpfenerstrass (just a couple of miles) is a very pretty little country drive. There's also a train station, you could hop on the train from BR to BW--it's just a five minute ride. We spent several days there last summer (my husband has family in BR and BW) and stayed at the Hotel Adler, paying 70 euros per night for a huge apartment with two balconies, kichen, dining/living room, bedroom, bath, etc. Doubles are around 45 euros per night...it's a comfortable, relaxed hotel, but no elevator. And while the breakfast was very good, we weren't that happy with the dinner there, too salty. But we LOVED the restaurant Tan Do up the road, fabulous food, amazingly cheap, lovely setting.
http://www.badrappenau.info/portal/s...54&first=j

Hi ira and Gary,
Thanks for the positive views on Haus Karin - I probably got the name from reading your reports! Do you think it would be an ok base for 5 days then?
We unfortunately do not speak any German, though I am trying to learn the basics, it doesn't come easy to me.
I would love to stay the Gerberhaus, it looks so nice but not in our price range though a meal sounds like the perfect choice.

Maudie

Hello BTilke,
We must have been posting at the same time.
I have just checked out the Hotel Adler but as I have found many times there is no English version although it looks perfect. I will look into Bad Rappenau further, thank you for the suggestion.
Would I be right in assuming that if there is no English version then there would be no one to help us communicate? Last year we traveled around Europe for 8 weeks and never had a problem but I am finding it quite different in my research for Germany. I do not mean this in a rude or offensive manner just an observation.

You can write to them in English, they will get back to you. The owners don't speak much English, but they have friends and staff who do (I must admit, we were lazy and had my husband's German father do all the emailing for us, schade!!) Still, you should be fine there with English anyway or very basic German--they also speak French, as I recall. The other BR hotels looked fine, too, I don't think there's that much difference between them.
Note, a popular bicycle route goes through BR; from May through October, many of the BR hotels' guests are cycling around the region.

Great, that's good news, I will give that a try then if we decide to stay there. Bad Rappenau might just be the answer we are looking for. Thank you so much.

I've found that English is usually widely and well spoken at least in tourist related areas in Germany. You will find the younger generations will be more likely to speak English than the older ones. However, I would think that anyone in the tourist industry would likely have someone on their staff who could communicate in English, otherwise they are missing out on a big market.

I can speak German, but there were times on my travels where the Swiss or Germans have spoken English to me as their English is better than my German. When booking train tickets in Zurich, the agent actually got quite narky with me trying to speak German to him. He boldly stated "I can speak English".

I wouldn't be worried about it. We also made it around France for 7 days (including 3 days driving) and I don't speak French.

I suggest that you stay in R od T and take your day trips from there. Heidelberg and the farther reaches of the Neckar are a bit of a drive, so perhaps 2 days in BW and 2 in R od T.

The experience of R odT at night and in the early morning should not be missed. Do everything you can to find a place within the walls - find something cheaper in BW, for example and splurge for R od T.

Good luck with your trip planning! FYI, were we to do it over again, we might opt for the Pfalzer Hof in BR rather than the Adler. It seemed to have a livelier restaurant and beer garden (however, none of the places in BR are what you'd call rowdy, this is a pretty low-key town). It's closer to the train station, makes it easy if you opt to catch the train to BW instead of drive (as I said above, BW is only a 5 minute ride from BR, it's the next stop). Plus you could walk to Tan Do from there (figure a 15 minute walk--at most--along a quiet town road, the scenery changes from the edge of town to fields and some woods, very relaxing).

http://www.pfaelzer-hof-bad-rappenau.de/

(Even if you don't speak or read German, click on the various parts of the the Pfalzer Hof's web site, each page has a different photo from Bad Rappenau so you can see what it's like)

Hi Maudie,
I believe I recommended the Zum Rappen a while ago. We found it to be a wonderful place to stay. Beautiful country setting, rooms were very nice (it looked new, in fact), breakfast was excellent and some English was spoken. It was about a 15 minute drive to Rothenburg. They do have a restaurant in the house, yet we went to Rothenburg for dinner. We didn't mind the short drive. Parking was free in Rothenburg in the lot at the south end of town.

Paul

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your suggestions, I think I might try emailing a couple of places that I have had my eye on and see if I can get responses in English.

Inside the wall, outside the wall I guess I will just have to toss a coin!

Yes, Paul I think it was your post I read about Zum Rappen, I really like the look of it. Oh just too many choices there.

BTilke, thanks for your kind wishes and I will check out the other hotel. Tan Do sounds good, what type of food do they serve? It sounds Thai?

Hi M,

>Do you think [Haus Karin} would be an ok base for 5 days then?

Yes

>We unfortunately do not speak any German, though I am trying to learn the basics, it doesn't come easy to me.

Mrs Weiss speaks English very well.

((I))

Thanks,ira, as usual you have been most helpful.

Hi Maudie; Staying inside the walls of Rothenburg is very special. Try this hotel that I think is within your budget. kreuzerhof-rothenburg.de ENJOY Iris

You are welcome, M.

PS, Walking into town from Haus Karin is easy and pleasant, unless the temps are in the thirties C.

Don't forget to visit the Käthe Wohlfahrt Xmas store.

((I))

Hello Iris, great minds think alike! I have that place on my shortlist and it is also non-smoking which is a bonus.

We have found some cheaper accommodation on the Mosel so we can now put a little more into Rothenburg, our friends are now keen on the Hotel Hornburg which is also just outside the walls. There are many conflicting views so it is hard to make up our minds. Thank you for your idea though, it is appreciated.

Maudie,

The attached post has an extensive list of accomodations in Rothenburg and when I had them their star listing and prices. http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35116668

Thanks Aisleseat, that will keep me busy for hours - what a great resource .