I was the last of my group to catch the flight to Stuttgart, and so I had the least amount of time to do justice to the extensive spread at Restaurant Trollinger at the Mövenpick Hotel just outside Stuttgart Airport, let alone shower and change. But it was a taste of what lay ahead. Patience, I said to myself, as we got ready to take on the Deutsche Fachwerkestrasse.
The historic German Timber-Frame Road runs 3,000km north to south through medieval towns with cobbled streets and half-timbered houses. This includes heritage walks by guides in period costume and Swabian cuisine dished out at cellars, weinstube (wine restaurants) and biergartens (beer gardens). We were covering the 772-km-long southern Red Route, set in a dramatic landscape where both history and geography had been shaped by the course of rivers and the receding glaciers of the last Ice Age.
It was a short drive from Stuttgart to the charming little town of Bietigheim-Bissingen (actually two, for the price one). In 1975, Bietigheim and Bissingen, 3km apart, became twin towns prompting locals to fondly call them Bi-Bi! Anette Hochmuth from the German Framework Road greeted us and led us through the Unteres Tor (Lower Gate), the last surviving original gate.
Quirky art was typical of Bietigheim with sculptures like Kuhriousum (a cow on a milk can), and Die Schwätzer (The Gossipers), and the outré Villa Visconti or House of Heads sporting a façade with heads of celebrities. We walked to the Marktplatz, the medieval town centre lined with spectacular buildings like the Rathaus (Town Hall). It was built in 1507 in the Black Forest region, dismantled, transported on rafts down the Enz River, and reassembled here. Near the Old Latin School, Hornmoldhaus was one of the best-preserved Renaissance buildings in south Germany with exquisite woodwork and painted interiors. It housed the Stadtmuseum (City Museum) and a miniature model of the town.
The reason they were called half-timbered houses was because of the wood-saving skeleton with self-supporting timber and curtain walls that had a filling of clay, mud, hay or brick. The method was both ecological and aesthetic. Stone was the privilege of the elite, which gave rise to the German expression steinreich or ‘stone rich’.
We continued to the wine village of Besigheim, surrounded by the Neckar and Enz rivers. Dominating the market square was the Town Hall built in 1359, and the charming Dreigabelhaus or three-gabled house. Swabia, a historic region in present-day Baden-Württemberg, boasts its own distinct culture and cuisine, and the traditional Restaurant Ratsstüble is a great place to try Swabian delicacies. Our visit coincided with Spargelzeit or ‘Asparagus Season’, and the local favourite, white asparagus, was on the menu. Also on offer was Maultaschen, a pasta stuffed with minced meat, spinach, onions and breadcrumbs. And thereby hangs a tale.
During Lent, ‘good’ Christians usually refrained from meat, but the cheeky Cistercian monks of Maulbronn Abbey were unwilling to do so. They hid the meat inside the pasta so God would not be able to see it! Since it looked like a tasche (bag) and came from Maulbronn, it was called Maultaschen. Nicknamed ‘Swindlers of the Almighty’, the coarser Swabian dialect was less charitable—the tongue twister Herrgottsbescheisserle means ‘God’s little bullshitters’!
Next up was Schorndorf, a 12th-century town famous as the birthplace of Gottlieb Daimler, born here in 1834. His house displays his drawings, memorabilia and photos, tracing his transformation from a baker’s son to the inventor of the first small, high-speed petrol engine. The Galleries for Art & Technology housed several of his inventions, automobiles and the first motorised bike. Daimler was working on an electric engine long before there was running water and electricity.
In 1350, when Schorndorf’s fortifications were expanded to encircle the burgeoning town with new walls, people appropriated the old city walls to save money. One such specimen was a crooked house on Rommelgasse, simply known as The House on the Wall. The houses were so close together that one wonders if they could have just built a common wall and reduced costs. But a small alleyway separated the houses, to prevent fires from spreading rapidly.
Rather more poignant were the cobblestone-sized memorials that we literally stumbled upon. A project started in 1996 by Gunter Demnig, these Stolpersteine or stumbling stones commemorate victims of the Holocaust, installed outside the houses where they were last seen before being deported to concentration camps. Apart from Schorndorf, nearly 50,000 Stolpersteine can be seen across 18 countries in Europe, making it the world’s largest memorial.
In under an hour, we reached Esslingen, an old town boasting of some 1,200 years of architecture, criss-crossed by cobbled alleys. The town’s Burg (castle) lorded over the town, with vineyards draping its slopes like a royal cloak. One had to climb 300 steps to its summit for a view of Esslingen. For now, the only fortification we were interested in was of the liquid kind as we ambled into Sektkellerei Kessler—Germany’s oldest producer of sparkling wine. After learning the secret of champagne in France, Georg Christian Kessler returned to set up his own company in 1826. Within the 1,000-year-old walls of the keller (cellar) they now produced about 1.5 million bottles annually.
Our eloquent guide Mr. Roe took us on a tour of the inner city. “German history is too complicated with kings and kaisers fighting for power. After a glass of sekt you forget everything in any case,” he announced. And, thus, we set off to see the most important of the 800 monuments in the Altstadt (Old Town). Schelztor, the square gate tower, had a quirky installation of a man balancing on a pole. The Skywalker, designed by artist Van der Goetze in 1994, symbolised the medieval maxim that if you could support yourself for a year and a day, you would become a free citizen.
Esslingen was probably the most important European town in the 13th century, superseding even Rome. It lay on the Route 66 of the Middle Ages, connecting Antwerp in the north to Venice in the south, crossing the Neckar River. Esslingen am Neckar prospered due to the two bridges that levied a high toll tax offering safe passage to merchants, thus developing into a hub of trade. It was the oldest, longest and widest stone bridge in Germany. Esslingen also had the oldest continuous timber-frame front with nearly 200 half-timbered houses.
The Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), with large doors for easy passage of wine barrels, was the best example of Swabian Allemanic architecture. The Rathaus served as a covered market where the baker, candlestick maker and other craftsmen exhibited their goods. Occasionally, a death sentence would be carried out in the top window. The new Town Hall built in 1422 was an architectural marvel with nine bells that played over 200 melodies. Each day was represented by a different statue of the ruling planet, thanks to a handy rotary device.
After an early dinner at the cosy Weinkeller Einhorn with its recurrent unicorn motif, we continued to scenic Blaubeuren, tucked amidst wooded slopes and rocky outcrops in the valley of the Danube. Being springtime, there was enough daylight to squeeze in a Segway tour to Blautopf (Blue Pool), source of the Blau, Germany’s most beautiful karst spring. Coursing through a 12-km-long network of limestone caves and caverns, it emerges from the base of the Swabian Jura (Alps) ending in a 22-m-deep funnel-shaped pool. The spire of the Benedictine monastery and the water mill mirrored in its blue waters is heartachingly beautiful.
Blaubeuren’s historic town centre was one of the best preserved in Germany with lovely lanes to stroll around dotted with shops, cafés and inns. We stopped by at Urgeschichtliches (Prehistoric Museum) to see its most prized object. It looked like a dressed chicken, but the 6-cm sculpture was a remnant of the Ice Age—a 40,000-year-old figurine of Venus carved from mammoth ivory. Excavated from the Hohle Fels cavern, 4km southwest of Blaubeuren, it is counted among the world’s oldest sculptures and is the oldest representation of a female figure.
At Biberach, another interesting female figure waited. Dressed in a medieval-style gown with her hair covered in a scarf (in the 16th century, if you let your hair loose, you were a loose woman), the ‘wife of the master weaver’ welcomed us to the year 1533. “Watch out for the horseman,” she cautioned, as a motorcar passed close by. It was an entertaining city walk to Weberberg, the medieval craftsmen’s settlement.
In the 16th century, around 400 looms were located along the lane, and a quarter of the population lived off the weaving trade. Fustian, a cloth made of flax and cotton, was a big hit in the Middle Ages and the source of Biberach’s wealth. Since the flax had to be kept damp, the weavers worked in the dank environment of the cellar, and as a result often developed chronic coughs. We continued our walk to the stunning Marktplatz (market square) dominated by the Stadtpfarrkirche or St Martin’s Church.
Dinner was at Weinstube Goldener Rebstock where we had been granted the use of the community table. Usually anyone walking into the restaurant could occupy a free seat there and successive people bought the next round. For this, the table came with a bell with the word ‘stammtisch’, which we were told not to ring unless we wanted to buy the whole restaurant a round of beer. We were happy with our steamed potatoes with cheese platter and seele (literally, ‘soul’) German footlong with ham.
The next day, we came to Pfullendorf, between the Danube and Lake Constance, where a ‘robber from the 1820s’ took us on a tour. Starting from the northernmost and highest point, Obertor (Upper Gate), the robber decoded secret signs marked on wealthy houses and how money was hidden on wooden beams. The Altes Haus (Old House), built in 1317, was one of the oldest townhouses in southern Germany, with a museum tracing the town’s history. We ended the tour at the subterranean restaurant Felsenkeller with a meal of mashed potatoes and ham baked inside a whole loaf of bread.
Any more food and we would have rolled down the steep vineyard slopes all the way to Meersburg. It was located on the northern shore of Bodensee or Lake Constance, the largest lake in Germany. Our guide Jutta said the lake freezes once every century (the last time was 1963), an event celebrated with a procession of St John’s statue. Literally, the Castle on the Lake, Meersburg’s Baroque skyline was shaped by wealthy princely bishops who employed the famous Baroque architect Balthasar Neumann. The Alte Burg (Old Castle) is said to be Germany’s oldest inhabited castle.
We explored the chapel in the Baroque palace Neues Schloss (New Castle), the Rathaus (Town Hall) and the oldest medieval inn Zum Baren (The Bear) dating back to 1250. Staatsweingut Meersburg is the best place to learn about the region’s wine. Descending sharply to the lakeshore, the vineyards have a southern exposure and limestone rich soil originating in the Ice Age, unique to German viticulture. With lovely views of boats and yachts on the lake, lined by pretty hotels and restaurants, Meersburg was the loveliest wine village in Germany. Ironically, the best view of the vineyards does not belong to Meersburg, but to Constance.
Legend has it that on the manor Haltnau Wendelgard, all the vineyards belonged to a not-so-pretty lady, her face disfigured by a harelip. She longed for love and wrote a letter to the Mayor of Meersburg that if he or a member of his town council took her out for dinner every Sunday, and gave her a long kiss, all her vineyards would become a part of Meersburg. She must have been rather unsightly as the proposal was unanimously rejected. She then wrote the same letter to the Mayor of Constance. The men of Constance jumped at the deal, and the vineyards have belonged to Constance ever since. It was time to swig one for the road.
The information
Getting there: Air India, Gulf Air and Emirates run daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Frankfurt for about Rs 28,000. From there, take a connecting flight to Stuttgart, which is the capital of the Baden-Württemberg region.
Getting around: From the airport, depart by private coach on the Red Route, starting with Bietigheim-Bissingen, 25km north of Stuttgart, and Besigheim, a further 8km north of the twin towns. Ludwigsburg, 15km south of Besigheim, has more hotels and is a good overnight stop. Bypass Stuttgart town and drive 35km to Schorndorf and another 35km to Esslingen. Continue 76km southwest to Blaubeuren for an overnight stop. Cover Biberach, 41km south of Blaubeuren, and Pfullendorf (53km further away) en route to Meersburg, 37km on the northern bank of Lake Constance. Meersburg to Stuttgart is 186km.
Where to stay: At Bietigheim, stay at the Romantik Hotel Friedrich von Schiller (doubles from €128). At Ludwigsburg, try out Hotel Blauzeit (doubles from €108). At Blaubeuren, stay at Hotel Ochsen (from €79). At Meersburg, stay at Flair Hotel zum Schiff (from €100).
The route: The German Timber-Frame Road is a 3,000-km-trail that begins at the fishing town of Stade at the mouth of the Elbe River in north Germany and ends at Meersburg on Lake Constance in the south. Divided into six colour-coded regional lines, the route connects nearly 100 towns with half-timbered houses, historical sites and diverse geographic zones: Elbe River to Harz Mountains in Lower Saxony (Blue Route), Harz to Thuringian Forest (Orange Route), Weser Hills via North Hesse to Vogelsberg and Spessart Uplands (Brown Route), Lahn Valley and Rheingau (Yellow Route), the confluence of Rhine and Main into Odenwald (Purple Route) and Neckar Valley, and finally the Black Forest and Lake Constance region (Red Route).