Wednesday 4th November – Pottenstein, Germany

 Before we left, I went to the Euringer butchers that is housed in the same building as the hotel. All of the pork is from their own farms and is very good quality. The shop was very busy even though it is a small village and it was obvious that people came from other villages to buy their meat. After queuing for a while, I bought some pork cutlets and home-made sausages.
Our route north took us up the A9 motorway, turning north-west above Nuremberg and then north-east on a less major road to Echental. From that point on, our Michelin map showed that it was a scenic route, although it was pretty from the moment that we left the motorway. Having said that, it wasn’t spectacular and it was the autumn colours that made it scenic. The green (scenic) routes on the Michelin maps are very varied, sometimes they turn out to be really pretty and other times we wonder why Michelin thought that they deserved green status.
We were now in Franconian Switzerland but we were wondering why is was called that – the scenery was pretty but not like Switzerland. We turned off towards Pottenstein and the Wiesent valley. The Michelin map shows most of this road along the valley in green and, in this case, it is entirely justified. The valley here is narrow with high cliffs on both sides. Fascinating rock formations appeared as we turned the bends. As we entered Pottenstein, a castle appeared on top of a rocky outcrop and here we turned off to climb a hill to a Stellplatz where we were the only motorhome and had our choice of pitches.
We walked down the road to the village. In retrospect, it would have been better to park in the car park at the bottom of the hill and then driven to the stellplatz after we had visited the village but the exercise was good for us!
Pottenstein is a very pretty village and I am sure that it is heaving in the tourist season but it was very quiet when we were there. We wandered through the main street, admiring the architecture and looking up at the castle buildings before having a coffee at the only open café.
Photos: Coffee stop on the way – the layby had five large tourist information boards including one map covering where climbing was allowed; One of the rock formations; Approaching Pottenstein with its castle; The main street of Pottenstein.