|
A significant anniversary deserves a sound “Happy Birthday”, and
nowhere will it be heard more resolutely this year than at the
“Choral Festival of the Romantic Road”. On 4 July 2010, choirs
from all 28 towns and villages along Germany most renowned
scenic travel route will present choral music in Feuchtwangen, a
member town and home of the German Singers’ Museum. How much
better can it get to fête Germany’s most popular scenic route’s
60th birthday?
Six decades ago, a group of merchants and journalists sat around
the ‘regulars’ table’ in a local Augsburg pub, and over a beer
or two, they came up with what proved to be a highly successful
way to entice tourists back to Germany now that the war was
over. That night, Germany’s Romantic Road was born, and with it
the concept of marketing and promoting scenic holiday routes in
general. Today, the 28 Romantic Road communities log five
million overnights per year, adding some 23 million day visitors
to the tally - a sound business success for the locals and a
treat for the travellers.
The 350 km route from the river Main to the Lower Alps, starts
in the city of Würzburg and its Baroque Residenz castle
(complete with ceiling frescoes by Tiepolo), passes through
romantic, medieval Rothenburg-ob-der Tauber (spared by Allied
bombers) and ends in Upper Bavaria at King Ludwig II’s
Neuschwanstein castle (the model for Disney’s Cinderella
version). Sixty years after the Romantic Road’s inauguration,
Germany boasts more than 150 such holiday routes, all
sign-posted and well mapped, many with special bicycle paths and
slightly extended routings. (The Romantic Road bike route adding
74 kilometres to the original one.)
In 2010, not only does the Romantic Road celebrate its 60th
anniversary, but so too do the Europabus coaches. The founding
fathers were quick to recognize the need to provide transport
connections in the area, particularly for international
visitors. The former railway authorities in Augsburg introduced
the Romantic Road long-distance bus route in the spring of 1950,
and still today, the coaches provide a link to the international
airports in Frankfurt and Munich.
Coaches leave Frankfurt and Füssen at 8 am and Munich at 11 am
daily from 30 April to 24 October. Travellers can break the
journey whenever they wish, staying overnight in one of the
regular stops along the route and continue on a later day.
Cyclists and hikers may use the coach to transfer their luggage.
(Tickets can be booked and paid online at
www.romanticroadcoach.de
or on the bus.)
A good reason to interrupt the trip is to take in one of the
many festivals along the way every summer, a favourite historic
one being the Master Draught in Rothenburg-ob-der- Tauber. Its
reenactment recalls the time in 1631, when a heroic mayor named
Nusch downed more than three litres of wine in one go, offering
his liver if not his life to save his Lutheran town from
destruction by the Emperor’s Roman Catholic troops under the
command of Count Tilly - a colourful event of many to speak to
the successful route’s popular appeal.
For more information on Germany’s Romantic Road and on Germany
in general, please visit
www.romantischestrasse.de and
www.germany.travel
|
|
