Wow, was I totally flabbergasted when I heard that there are some 280 Kirchweihfeste (Parish Fairs) a year in and around the town of Eggolsheim. With only 365 days in a year, that sure is a whole lot of partying going on. Wait, maybe they somehow manage to get them all in between May and October?
How the heck anyone manages to get any work done is totally beyond me. Maybe everyone works doubly hard between November and April? Oh, forget the questions — we’ve got some sightseeing and partying to do…
Eggolsheim lies on the western edge of the great Franconian Switzerland — right between Nuremberg and Bamberg. So this means you’ll find lots of hiking and biking trails through the natural landscape.
One of the longest trails is some 45km long (known as the Roter Ring, or Red Ring), while others are much more manageable with average lengths of 7-12km (known as Gelbringwege or Yellow Ring Trails).
Don’t want to follow a trail? It’s all right, you can pick and choose if you want to head to the village of Kauernhofen (population 500) to see its Bergkapelle — a beautiful reward for hiking the steep incline. And Weigelshofen, a village of around 300 people, has the pretty St. George Church. Nothing compares to the St. Martin Church whose Gothic tower (1305) steals the show.
Yet, nothing is as old as the 1200 B.C. graves that were found back in the 1980s. If you head to the Archaeology Museum of Upper Franconia (in Forchheim) you can see some of the artifacts that were found.
Wait, that’s not entirely true, is it? I mean the landscape is older — and you can become intimately acquainted with the countryside if you give rock climbing a shot.
You go on ahead, I’m rather partial to making a spectacle of myself at the Medieval Market every May. I’d like to think that I’d at least be a little more reserved at Eggolsheim’s Christmas Market, Advent Market, and at the Summer Concerts.
I was duly impressed with the Kunst im Rathaus, which is art in the Town Hall. Maybe it was the oversized beer barrel… ;-)
One last stop before moving on, Die Schleuse 94. Die what? This is the 94th lock (out of 100) found along the Ludwig-Donau-Main Canal. If you’re following along the Regnitz Radweg, you’ll come right past it.
But, with all the Fairs going on, how you’ll manage to get it all in is totally beyond me. ;-)
