Day 45 Raustetten to Nördlingen - 21 km. Total km: 759

What a difference a day makes, or, more likely, a good night's sleep makes. Unlike yesterday, we thoroughly enjoyed our walk today. 

Our night's stay in the Land-hotel was so good. The owner told us that his grandparents had the farm and it has been passed down and he and his wife and their son have developed the accommodation part of it.

Last night's dinner was excellent. All in-house made with local ingredients. I started with Spargelcremesuppe and Jeff had Gemüsebrühe mit Knödel - cream of white asparagus soup and vegetable broth with dumpling, then we both had Waldeck Pfännle (Waldeck being their family name). It was pork fillets, speck (bacon), mushrooms and green peas with in-house made Spätzle plus a mixed salad. Spätzle is similar to, but not the same, as pasta. 

Breakfast was included in our night's stay, which they allowed us to have before their usual time as we didn't want to be too late leaving. It rained while we were having breakfast but had stopped when we set off. 

Looking back to Raustetten, a beautiful small community:

God - preserve wildlife + forest.

We walked through several beautiful small villages today. It still surprises us that houses with large farm outbuildings and tractors are right in the heart of these villages.

We saw so many wee chapel today, but they were all locked. 

The sky looked threatening all morning and when we saw this heading our way it was a mad scramble to get our rain gear on - our ponchos and rainpants, both very lightweight, flapped madly in the wind making them hard to control! 

We had just managed to get them on before big fat raindrops fell. Luckily it didn't rain for long.

There are so many hares in Germany. We must have seen hundreds since we've been here, and many of them are massive. This one feasting on the grass edge allowed us to get fairly close before it raced off. 

Just as we were approaching the village of Minderoffingen a man biked towards us and stopped for a chat. 

He couldn't speak any English and I explained to him that we didn't speak German but that didn't worry him, he just continued to chat away as if we did. 

He spoke about why the area is shaped as it is. He explained that a meteorite hit the area 15 million years ago the impact caused a massive crater. He wasn't sure exactly how to tell us in German but I was able to let him know that we knew something of this. I managed to ask him if the low hills we were seeing all around us on the horizon were part of the crater rim. He understood me and said 'Ja, genau' - yes, exactly. 

He also told us that the area was great for Jäger - hunters, who rode around on Fahrräder - bikes, and hunted Hasen und Schweine - hares and pigs. I couldn't understand the next part he was saying so he acted out firing a gun. He then wished us a good walk and carried on his way into Minderoffingen. 

On our way through the village we saw the Katholische Pfarrkirche St Laurentius and went in for a visit. 

It had stopped raining when we entered the church but the sky was still dark but looked very different when we came out.

We had hoped to find a bakery or café but no such luck so we carried on our way. 

We're very impressed with the number of fruit trees that line the roadsides - apple, plums, cherry and pear, but the majority are apple trees. When we set off from Stade they were full of blossom but now the fruit is quite developed. The cherries look ready to eat!

There was a small chapel set back from the road as we approached the village of Marktoffingen. The sky had darkened again making the scene look quite dramatic.

This stunning rose caught my eye as we walked into Marktoffingen so I stopped to take a photo - only to my embarrassment, I realised that a man was sitting in.his courtyard and I had taken his photo too. I called out my apologies and he came over to talk to me. 

He didn't speak English either but I understood that his rose was 5 years old and that he was training it over the archway. He was justifiably proud of the stunning show it made. He then signalled to me to give him my phone so he could take a photo of me framed by the rose.

I then asked if I could take his photo. 

By this time Jeff, who was a bit ahead of me, came back to see what was holding me up and the man insisted on a photo of us together under his rose.

We looked for an eating place in Marktoffingen, but no, there wasn't anything there either, so on we went. 

The road sign says 8 km to Nördlingen but that is direct by road, our walking route was quite a bit more, and by this time I was very hungry and thirsty. 

And then it started to rain again. 

We sheltered under a tree and Jeff suggested we take a selfie - a very rare thing for us. I might look reasonably happy but I was tiring quickly as I was so hungry.

We checked our map app and saw that the next village, Wallerstein, had a bakery so we set off at a great pace ...only to get there just as it closed!

We finally found a picnic table at Ehringen so we stopped to eat from our supplies - days old buns, which had been squashed in our packs, plus cheese and salami. Never had dry old buns tasted so good!

Me looking ever so elegant ...hungry. 

While we were sitting there eating our very late lunch and woman with a backpack approached us and asked if we were walking the Jakobsweg. She was German and spoke good English. She said that she was walking the Jakobsweg from her home in NorthEast Germany and was meeting friends in the Pyrenees before possibly walking in to Santiago. 

We had one last push to Nördlingen. At least I wasn't hungry any more.

Nördlingen is another walled city, the old city a complete circle within the wall. 

We walked into Nördlingen through Baldinger Tor. 

Just as we entered the city though, it started to rain, so I didn't take any more photos. We're having a rest day tomorrow so we'll get out and explore then.

One reason for the rest day is to give my foot a rest even though it has greatly improved. The other reason is because tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday and the next day, Whit Monday, is a public holiday in Germany. The double Sunday/public holiday makes it very difficult to buy food when walking. 

Our first task after checking in at our accommodation this afternoon was to go to a supermarket to buy supplies for tonight's dinner, plus tomorrow's food and for Monday's breakfast and lunch. I've already checked at where we're staying on Monday night and they said that we can eat with them. 

The nearest full supermarket was nearly a kilometre away from where we're staying and as it was raining heavily we got quite wet. 

Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately 115 km (71 mi) east of Stuttgart, and 145 km (99 mi) northwest of Munich. It was built in an impact crater 15 million years old and 25 km in diameter - the Nördlinger Ries - of a meteorite which hit with an estimated speed of 70,000 km/h, and left the area riddled with an estimated 72,000 tons of micro-diamonds. 

Source: Wikipedia