Thursday, 29 September 2011

Monday 26th September – Zell am Wiesental, Germany


Our route today was to take us over Kandel at 1242 metres with panoramic views over the area, recommended by the Michelin Guide. Jane did some 'out of the box' thinking yesterday and suggested we drove up to the viewpoint after we got up today and had breakfast there. I immediately agreed but was amazed that Jane suggested doing anything before breakfast – this is an extremely rare event! Unfortunately in our later conversation with our neighbours from Kent, we discovered that there is a 2.1 metre width restriction on that road and Henrietta is 2.3 metres wide. So we told the sat nav that it couldn't go on that road and headed for St. Peter, famous for its church, formerly that of an 18th century Benedictine abbey. The church is Rococo style, only slightly less over-the-top than Baroque but was worth the visit and I was particularly impressed by the organ that incorporated a clock, something that I have not seen before.
A cross-country route took us over more high points before we arrived at the Todtnau waterfall. Although probably more impressive in the Spring when there would be more water, they were still very good and the walk around the falls was very pleasant. We were happy to trade the lack of volume of water for the very warm weather – it reached 26°C this afternoon.
We weren't keen on the Schonau stellplatz as it was next to a busy road so we continued to Zell in Wiesental where we stopped at the stellplatz alongside the textile museum.
Zell in Wiesental is a pleasant village that has associations with Mozart. Mozart's wife Constanze was born here, a fact that the local tourist board has taken to their heart. The short Constanze Mozart trail leads you around the centre past a series of plaques built into the pavement. A happy 30 minutes was spent following the trail and attempting to translate the plaques. The tourist information office provided a leaflet in English that told us a little about Constanze and this helped with the translation.
Photos: The organ of St. Peter's Rococo church; Two photographs of the Todtnau Falls – the main falls and the upper falls.



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