Nördlingen: Things to know before you go
View Gallery (5 images)
Nördlingen, a town of about 20,000, is on the Romantische Strasse (Romantic Road), the oldest and most popular of Germany’s tourist roads.
The road meanders through Bavaria between Würzburg in the north and Füssen in the south, close to the Austrian border. It is about 200 miles long, and like a chain of pearls includes some of Germany’s most attractive old towns. Among them are Rothenburg, Dinkelsbühl and Augsburg, with their many famous castles, churches and monasteries.
Not as famous as those but full of hidden mysteries, Nördlingen marks the middle of the Romantic Road. Located between Dinkelsbühl and Donauwöhrt at the Danube, Nördlingen is easy to explore by foot. A relaxed stroll on the fortified ring-wall (leave your car outside the gates in one of the many free parking lots) will take only an hour if you do the whole circle.
It is up to you to choose when to interrupt your hike, climb down at one of the five tower- gates and enjoy refreshments and food at one of the town’s many restaurants, cafés or taverns. For instance, the Restaurant Braunes Ross at Market Square offers fine, traditional German food for as little as 8 euros for a pork roast or a schnitzel with all the trimmings. And a delicious dark Bock beer for just 2.40 euros for a half-liter.
Nördlingen has plenty of rooms in 13 hotels, guest houses and private quarters. Prices range from 35 euros for a double in a vacation apartment to 142 euros in the Hotel Klösterle Nördlingen. Most hotels and guest houses offer double rooms between 50 and 70 euros.
For information and brochures, visit the Verkehrsamt at Marktplatz 2, call (+49) (0) 9081-84-116 or (+49) (0) 9081-84-216, or fax (+49) (0) 9081-84 -113. Its e-mail is: verkehrsamt@noerdlingen.de and its Web site is www.noerdlingen.de.
Last but not least, Nördlingen houses a special attraction connected to Americans and NASA, the Riescrater Museum. American specialists discovered in 1960 that the Ries, the huge depression surrounding the town, was not created by a volcano or glacier but by an enormous meteorite about 15 millions years ago.
This huge stone was almost a mile wide and hit the earth, creating the energy of 250,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs and leaving a crater 8 miles wide and half a mile deep. Scientists found material similar to that in craters on the moon, a new stone called Suevit that can be created only by such great pressure not found in volcanoes.
American astronauts on Apollo 14 and 17 held their field training in the Ries.
