Via Romea Germanica Day 34: Wipfeld - Kürnach

Folge immer deinem Herzen. Aber nimm Wein mit.

(Always follow your heart. But take wine with you!)

- written on a wine bottle in the Biergarten in Wipfeld 

I took this advice literally today, carrying a bottle of wine with me for the entire second half of the day's stage! OK, a small bottle of wine... but heavy, nonetheless!

The first ten kilometres were uneventful. I walked through the centre of Wipfeld and then out into the fields, along the edge of the road. 

Another ride-sharing bench. Excellent idea!

I walked through the community of Schwanfeld without stopping, except to peek into the church. I continued back out into the fields, where I met my first loose, barking dog - on my 34th day walking in Germany! A big dog, it came racing over, barking. But it didn't look like a mean dog, and in fact when it was close to me it stopped, wagged its tail, and walked in a circle around me. Then its owner came out and called it in. 

A few more fields and I was in Bergtheim. On the way out of the town, I stopped at a pilgrim-friendly winery. Weingut Schmitt appears in the list of pilgrim accomodations for the Via Romea Germanica, so I sent them an email asking whether they hosted pilgrims. Anja Schmitt replied that the winery can only host pilgrims with tents - they have a small campground and RV parking area adjacent to the winery. But, said Anja, we offer a small bottle of wine to pilgrims who drop by the winery, and any assistance they may require. Right, I said to myself, I'm going there! And I marked it on my map.

Only a very brief detour is necessary to reach Weingut Schmitt, and it's definitely worth it! Anja is super-friendly, speaks English (as I discovered as soon as the conversation got beyond the limits of my very basic German), and offered me a wine-tasting (Silvaner and Scheurebe), a free 250 ml bottle of Silvaner, a bag of chips which she wouldn't let me pay for, a place to charge my phone and use the washroom, and advice as to where I could get a new power bank in Würzburg... she even made three phone calls to find me a place to stay tomorrow night! As we chatted, we discovered that Anja has a friend who began his career in wine working with her, and now lives only ten kilometres away from my house and makes Brunello di Montalcino. Which just goes to show, if you talk to anyone long enough, you'll find a connection! 

The wines of Franconia

Silvaner and Müller-Thurgau are the primary grapes grown in this region, though a wide variety of grapes are cultivated, as in many wine regions in Germany. Riesling, Bacchus, Pinot noir, Domina, and Dornfelder are the most important grapes besides Silvaner and Müller-Thurgau. Silvaner is said to achieve its maximum expression in this area. Franconian wines typically have a very high mineral content, as a result of the area's particular type of soil and the mild climate along the Main river.

The best-known vineyard site is the Würzburger Stein, a hill north of central Würzburg - which is, unfortunately,  not on my route! Franconian wines have their own special bottle: the rounded, flattened Bocksbeutal.

I would happily have spent all day at the winery, but eventually it was time to tuck my miniature bottle of Silvaner into my backpack and go on my way. If I'd taken a closer look at the map I might have realised that there was a more direct route from the winery to Kürnach, along a cycling path... but as it is, I went back to the Via Romea and headed out across vast fields planted with sugar beet, wheat, carrots,onions, and other unidentifiable vegetables. 

The Via Romea touched upon the village of Oberpleichfeld and then turned away, without really going into the town, which makes me wonder why it couldn't have taken the more direct route. The same applied to its sister village of Unterpleichfeld. The way followed narrow paved roads through the fields, on which a van packed with migrant farm workers occasionally raced by. I passed blocks of prefabricated buildings evidently used to house these workers.

Finally Kürnach came into view, under a threatening sky. Rain was forecast for the afternoon, and I was ready to sit down, but I couldn't check into my hotel for a couple of hours yet. What to do? I looked for a café or restaurant, but they were all closed, either because of the time of day or the day of the week. (Luckily one can now look on Google Maps for this information instead of trudging around the town.) Next door to one of the closed restaurants was a hairdresser's, and my hair had been driving me nuts for a while, so I went in and got a haircut!

Then I found a sheltered place to eat my sandwich and apple; it was just beginning to rain. I walked the final kilometre or so and used the door code I had received by email to get into my motel room. Nothing much to look at one the outside, the WÜ Hotel is perfectly comfortable on the inside, with a kettle, a few dishes, and a full-sized refrigerator in which to chill my miniature bottle of Silvaner! There are two giant supermarkets right next door, so I was able to get some healthy food for my dinner: a salad of baby spinach, carrots and tomato with a spring onion from the onion field I passed earlier in the day, potato salad and smoked salmon! With cinnamon rice pudding for dessert. 😋

Wipfeld - Kürnach 21.5 km