Bad Windsheim: Upper Aisch circuit

From Bad Windsheim train station, head straight south and into the historic town centre, which was first mentioned in a document 1275 years ago. If you would like to hire a bike, walk the first few minutes. From the station square, head straight down Johanniterstrasse and Pastoriusstrasse to the tourist information centre on the market square.

A little tip: If you would prefer to ride an e-bike today, you can choose from 7-speed bikes with four individually adjustable support levels at the spa and congress centre. To do this, you need to head north from the railway station in the direction of the Franken-Therme, which makes Bad Windsheim the only spa in Middle Franconia. The tourist information centre there rents out five of these e-bikes. You can book the bikes directly via the online shop.

The tourist information centre on the market square provides information about Franconian nature and culture and the many leisure and sports activities on offer in and around Bad Windsheim. Here you also have the opportunity to hire one of six bicycles. They all have 7-speed gears and a coaster brake.

Continue south, cross the Aisch river once, and you have arrived at the Franconian Open-Air Museum.
A small note: Unfortunately, cycling is not possible on the museum grounds. However, there are covered bicycle parking spaces, lockers and charging stations for e-bikes.

On a tour of the Franconian Open-Air Museum, you can discover with all your senses how people used to live and work in rural Franconia. The museum offers a journey through seven centuries of everyday history.

Over a hundred buildings have been moved from their locations throughout Franconia to Bad Windsheim for this purpose. The farms, barns and stables, the craftsmen's houses, mills and sheep farms, the breweries, bakeries and drying houses, the office and school buildings, as well as the aristocratic castle - all of these historical buildings are presented in six groups, organised by region and theme. The "Medieval building group" is popular, for example, while the "Town building group" with the old building yard, the Church in Franconia Museum and the herbal pharmacy is the only one located north of the Aisch in the old town centre of Bad Windsheim.

The four restaurants serve regional specialities - in good weather in their beer gardens. Museum visitors can also purchase them in the museum and enjoy them on the large picnic area or at outdoor tables.

Your tour takes you further and further south. You cycle across open fields through a gently undulating landscape. Along the way, you cross or accompany the odd stream and ditch and pass through the quiet little village of Urfersheim and later Marktbergel at the foot of the Frankenhöhe, which rises to around 500 metres. Have you noticed the orchards? You will see them again and again in this region. Your next destination is the hedge maze in Burgbernheim further west.
Ready for some refreshments? The small town of Burgbernheim is one of the 100 award-winning places of enjoyment in Bavaria. At its centre you will find the historic "Zum Goldenen Hirschen" inn, which serves upscale Franconian cuisine with meat and sausage products from its own slaughterhouse.

Inn "Zum goldenen Hirschen"
Kornder family, Windsheimer Straße 2, 91593 Burgbernheim
Tel: 09843/936880
info@gasthofhirschen.de, www.gasthofhirschen.de

The "Im Gründlein" nature trail awaits curious visitors behind the caravan park at the outdoor pool. A highlight of the nature trail is the hedge maze, which was created in 2000. The 4,000 hornbeams, which are now a good two metres high, prevent even adults from getting a good view. Only from the viewing platform in the centre of the labyrinth is it possible to see where the entrances and exits are located.

Now continue northwards and westwards. You pass a picturesque little lake on the outskirts of the town, later a quarry and reach the highest point of your tour between Mörlbach and Bergtshofen at an altitude of almost 400 metres. From there, the route heads north-east via Pfaffenhofen and the picturesque wine village of Ergersheim at the southern foothills of the Steigerwald Nature Park back to Bad Windsheim. Here you have earned a quiet moment of enjoyment in the town's green oasis, the spa gardens, before your return journey.

The spa gardens in Bad Windsheim are over 110 years old. It was remodelled in the 1930s and extended again at the end of the 1960s. It is the largest listed spa park in Bavaria. Of the 36 hectares in total, 25.7 hectares have been placed under this special protection. A magnificent avenue of chestnut and lime trees, first laid out in 1730, runs through the park between green areas and flowerbeds.

The spa gardens can be reached from the railway station via a footbridge. The view immediately opens up to the centrepiece of the park with its floral bouquet in the foreground, the water lily fountain and the historic half-timbered façade of the Dr. Becker Kiliani Clinic in the background.

The variety of facilities in the green area includes the Kneipp island with a graduation tower and water treading pool, a herb garden, a rose garden and a maze, the animal enclosure and the Georg Wilhelm Steller nature adventure trail. There is also an exercise park with various sports equipment and a mini golf course.

The Kurpark is located directly at your starting and finishing point at Bad Windsheim railway station. But don't forget to return your hired bikes or e-bikes to the Tourist Information Centre.