Weissenburg was a Roman settlement and boasts a fort, baths and a Roman Museum within a few minutes walk of the town centre. We started at the fort, once again partially reconstructed and totally open. While we were there, work was was in full swing reconstructing further parts of the fort walls. A five minute walk then took us to the Roman Baths just as they opened. Discovered in 1977 when a row of semi-detached housed were demolished, they were completely excavated in 6 months (!) and revealed the largest Roman bath complex in Southern Germany. The remains are in a very good state of preservation with walls in some places reaching 2.5m. Walkways provided access over the whole site and information boards and a large model helped to show how the baths were arranged and changed over time.
The museum held many Roman and earlier finds and provided information on The Limes in English, which certainly helped us to understand how the forts, roads and villas fitted in with the boarder defences.
We managed to time our departure South to coincide with the one hour per day opening of the Mockenlohe Roman Villa (see photo). This was the life's work for the man who discovered the villa – he excavated it and then reconstructed it, presented it to the public and stocked it with reproduction Roman artefacts (farming implements, carts, carriages etc) and stocked it with typical animals domesticated in Roman times. It was very interesting and would have been even more impressive at the annual Roman Day when Roman life was enacted in period costume.
We are now getting hooked on Camperstop Europe sites, so it was on to another one in Neuburg am Donau. Here the site is on the Danube (Donau) just over the bridge from a very picturesque schloss and the town centre. We didn't need water this time, so the night was totally free. The evening was spent walking around the town and along the Danube to the English Garden. For the first time since we left England, we saw another Hobby motorhome – it parked next to us.
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