Bad Mergentheim 2

In true Bank Holiday Monday style it was raining today! (Thanks Chris and Anne for your Horsham weather report - sounds better than here.) It had rained most of the night so took our time getting up and decided to take things slowly, hoping it would stop before lunch-time. It did, so off came the bikes from the back of the van and we cycled the 2 miles into Bad Mergentheim. More beautiful buildings - palace, castle, towers, fountains etc. and as it started to rain again, an ancient half-timbered building that now houses an Italian restaurant!


Sun came out for a while after the pizzas, so a good time for finding 2 geos - one on a signpost by a fountain that was too high for even John to reach, so a photo will have to suffice and one very cleverly hidden behind the shield of a statue in the castle wall (hint was 'well protected').


Failed to find one in the Kurpark, but we wanted to go there anyway. Beautiful parkland and gardens around the spa hotel - there was a charge to go in, but Herr Campingplatz had given us tickets to show wherever we went in the town and it worked - we were welcomed in free! There were boutique shops, aconcert hall, very posh cafe and outdoor theatre with fountains (see photo). We arrived at the latter just after 3 and a notice said that the fountains would play to music at 15.15 each day, so we sat down and waited for the orchestra to appear (their music stands and microphones were already set up) but on the dot, there was a click and recorded Beethoven's 5th burst forth and the fountains 'danced' to the music. A beautiful 5 minutes! Then a walk through the rose garden and back to the Cafe Amadeus for gruner tee and cappuccino in palacial surroundings with soft classical music playing in the background.



Unfortunately there was no glass coach to whisk us back to our campsite - the rain was now really set in again, so we were pretty wet by the time we'd walked back to our bikes on the edge of town and even wetter still after the bike ride. The brollies and bikes are now drying off in one of the wood-store barns close to our pitch, while it continues to rain into the evening .....