Sunday 18th October – Weissenburg, Germany

Our first port of call today was the Roman baths. One of three known Roman baths in Weissenburg, this one is very large and served the nearby fort. It was enlarged over the years and must have been a very important social meeting place for the troops as well as being a place for washing and exercise.
We walked for five minutes to the site of the fort. The layout of known buildings was marked in stone on the ground and there was an impressive reconstruction of one of the gates to the fort. Unfortunately, after they had built the gate in the late 1990s, they discovered that the gatehouse would have had another storey and the walls would have been higher – most annoying having made all that effort.
We walked on into the old town and admired the beautiful buildings. There are many pretty towns and villages in Bavaria but we were both particularly taken by the architecture and preservation of Weissenburg.
Photos: The caldarium (hot room) of the fort baths; The reconstructed gate of the fort; Many of the towers on the town walls (built around 1376) were converted into houses and are still occupied – here are two sections, one of which still has the walkway; A hotel & restaurant in the old town; The market square and old town hall; Two breweries, the second one of which had a plaque saying that the family run brewery is one of only(!) two breweries left in the town; A rather elaborate cat flap, presumably, for an old, arthritic (or pampered?) cat.