Early Summer Vacation? Where to go?

We have toured France and Spain a few times on the motorcycle, car and motorhome. 

I prefer Spain and Claire likes France.  She is pretty decent at speaking French whereas I last learned at school.  That was 51 years ago!

So my thoughts have turned to further east, and Germany.  It's another country we have been to good number of times, but apart from wine festivals mostly driving through. 

In the late 80's before the Wall came down I did a few trips to the Suzuki Owners Club Czech Centre "Invader Rally" on the bike and that meant either the A3 route to Nuremburg  or the A4 route via Dresden, both going via Prague. 

In the car the route was been one of the two.

 In 1992 we went in the Fiat Panda to Brno in February.  I had just finished a course in London to qualify to teach English as a Foreign Language to Adults (CTEFLA) but was struggling to get a job.  Language schools were wanting recent graduates who they assumed would work for peanuts rather than a 36yo!  Who actually did work for peanuts.  

We "did" the Eiffel Mountains and then the A3 route.

In 2011 we went in the car, a Peugeot 207CC, to visit my former colleagues from the Gymnazium in Zastavka u Brna. This time we went the A4 route, with a stop over at the youth hostel in Colditz Castle for a couple of nights to visit the museum. On the way back through Austria and into Bavaria we did part of the Romantic Route.

The last time was in 2022 when we (not Claire!) once again went on a "boys trip" on the bikes to the SOC's "Invader Rally".  We did the Romantic Route on the way back from Fussen, and the Schwangau castles, to Rothenburg o.d. Tauber. We didn't get up to Neuschwanstein Castle as all the tickets had been sold and there were loads of coach parties!


So where to this time?  Germany is on the cards. But the Castles Road or "die Burgenstraße".  It's nigh on 500 miles from Mannheim to Bayreuth. I have downloaded the GPX files from the official site but need to find something to import them with, as MyRouteApp claims there are no waypoints!  I have the map (in English) and the "old timer guide (in German) to work my way through.

In fact I received two packages, one from Germany and the other posted in Salzburg.


The route does pass through Rothenburg o.d. Tauber and so that might be a good point to split off and have another look at the Romantic Route. Claire hasn't been to the Neuschwanstein Castles and that might be a fitting end to the outward journey. Although there's Austria nearby..... and Italy..... 

Once we have worked out where we are going to go, I can work out a rough idea of stops.  I can then start to get each day into MyRouteApp and then from there into the TomTom Camper Max...

But of course, we might go somewhere completely different!!

There's plenty of time...