Frankische Schweiz.

We drove to Burg Rabenstein. Really impressive hilltop fortress, with over 800 years history. It forms one link of a chain of fortresses that spread from East to West Germany, including Coberg. Took a guidedd tour which unfortunately was in German, although he did his best to summarise the main points for us. He obviously knew his stuff, and was quite entertaining in the way he recounted the stories. The castle at present is a hotel and wedding venue, which means only a few rooms are open, but this seems to be the case more and more. These buildings have to pay their way.

We walked from here to Sophie Höhle, a set of caves, again with a guided tour. Fantastic stalagmites and calcium formations, some appearing to resemble organ pipes, another is called the iceberg. There is also the skeleton of a bear over 25,000 years old, discovered in the exploration of the cave system.

After a short drive we got to to Tüchersfeld, a village we particularly wanted to see:  although the houses are of the typical Bavarian architecture, the way they are scattered among the massive rocky outcrops make it a very unusual sight indeed.

Next morning, near  Goldkronach we visited a natural rock labyrinth. We spent the best part of two hours climbing over, under, and squeezing between huge boulders the size of houses. It´s almost as if a bucket of boulders had been tipped onto the hilltop thousands of years ago, and just left there. How this extraordinary feature was formed is beyond comprehension. If it wasn´t for a waymarked path (blue arrows out, red arrows back) we would still be there now, having become hopelessly lost within minutes.

In toreential rain we drove to Kulmbach where Plassenburg castle is to be found. This has the biggest diorama of tin figures in the world: 150 dioramas, and 300,000 tin figures over three floors. Scenes depict everything from Hannibal and the elephants crossing the Alps,  Zulu and Napoleonic wars, but also domestic scenes of rural life.

We also walked round the town of Kulmbach, and were interested to see a clock face with the words Wachet, betet, which means watch, pray, instead of numbers. There was also a Woolworths ! We have actually seen several in this part of Germany. They are just like Woolworths has always been.

'We drove onto our next aire, again having to negotiate roadworks and diversions. They really are everywhere. Unlike English roadworks, where one carriageway will be shut, here a  whole  road will be completely closed between one town and the next, with a barrier saying"Road Closed" or perhaps "Umleitung" (diversion). You are then more-or-less left to your own devices to find another road.