Between Altmühl, Wieseth and Mönchswald

From the station you can rent your bikes for this tour after a short walk. But please book your bikes well in advance.

From the station it is about 750 metres on foot via Bahnhofstraße. At the end of Bahnhofstraße turn left into Fichtenstraße and you will reach the bicycle rental.

Bicycles, e-bikes, children's bikes and some children's seats can be rented from Rudolf Krüger. Bicycles and e-bikes can also be repaired here.

Now we cycle to the first destination, which is still in Muhr am See.

Culture and nature come together at the AIZ in Muhr a.See. Since 2004, the Altmühlsee Festival has taken place every year from the end of June to the end of July on the open-air stage. The audience can look forward to family theatre, modern interpretations of classical texts and plays critical of the times.

In the environmental station of the Landesbund für Vogelschutz in Bayern e. V. (LBV), a permanent multimedia exhibition provides information about the special habitat of Lake Altmühlsee. Many bird species, some of them highly endangered, can be observed at the lake and the bird island. An overview of current sightings can be found on the internet. The LBV offers guided tours of the Vogelinsel nature reserve on Lake Altmühl. (Tel. 09831 4820)

Now you are probably curious to take a look at the Altmühlsee for yourself. To do so, cross the Altmühl and cycle between the river and the Nesselbach tributary to the western shore, which is also very close to the Vogelinsel nature reserve covering over 200 hectares. On this section you follow the "Tore-Türme-Schlösser" circular cycle path. It leads along the lakeshore and then along the Altmühlzuleiter, which you cross at the beer garden near Mörsach.

You cycle towards Arberg, where the cycle path approaches "die Heide", one of the largest contiguous forest areas in Franconia. From here you continue to Burgstallmühle, where you leave the Tore-Türme-Schlösser cycle path and cross the Wieseth to Voggendorf.

Now follows a ride through a quiet field, forest and meadow landscape, past a frog pond to Großenried and across the Altmühl to Kleinried.

You are now back on the Tore-Türme-Schlösser circular cycle route. Another kilometre along the edge of the forest and you will reach your second destination: the moated castle in a small village with the beautiful name Sommersdorf.

The moated castle in Sommersdorf looks back on a history of more than 600 years. It was built around 1400 for the lords of Sommersdorf. In the following centuries, extensions were added, such as the outworks, upper floors in half-timbered construction and a farmyard. The corner tower was given a hooded roof in 1722 and at the end of the 19th century the old drawbridge was replaced by a stone bridge.

In 1420, the humanist Albrecht von Eyb was born in the moated castle. 130 years later, in 1550, Wolf von Crailsheim zu Neuhaus acquired the castle. The von Crailsheims were one of the most important imperial knightly families in Franconia, and their descendants still live in and look after the moated castle today, which they converted into holiday flats in parts from the 1990s onwards.

From Sommersdorf you cycle along the Tore-Türme-Schlösser cycle path via Irrebach to Weidenbach. To do this, you cycle always in a westerly direction through open fields. In Triesdorf, the cycle path leads you to your third destination: the White Castle.

The Margraves of Ansbach adorned their summer residence in Weidenbach-Triesdorf with numerous magnificent Baroque and Rococo buildings, including the White Palace. It was built in 1682 by extending the old castle estate and was enlarged several times until 1776. The two-winged complex includes a simple main building with a hipped roof and a stepped tower, a front garden with a fountain, a main garden facing north and an ice cellar in the nearby state forest.

The White Castle served the Margraves of Ansbach as a hunting lodge for the numerous hunting parties in Triesdorf. Today it is all about home economics and nutrition, as the Bavarian State Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has housed parts of the State Technical Academy for Agriculture in the castle.

The next stage takes you on the cycle path Tore-Türme-Schlösser (Gates-Towers-Castles) towards the west and from Merkendorf towards the north.

After the Baroque and Rococo Weidenbach-Triesdorf, Wolframs-Eschenbach awaits you with its Gothic and Renaissance townscape. For more than 600 years, the Teutonic Order ruled over the small town, which was still called Obereschenbach at the time.

Around the time when the Counts of Wertheim handed the town over to the Roman Catholic Order, Eschenbach's most famous son died, and the town was renamed Wolframs-Eschenbach in his honour in 1917.

Wolfram von Eschenbach is the most important German-language poet of the High Middle Ages. He enriched Middle German literature with some of its most important lyrical poems and epic works. First and foremost is the main work Parzival, which is the first German-language work to take up the motif of the Holy Grail. Richard Wagner used it as a source for his opera Parsifal. The medieval poet also appears as a character in Wagner's opera Tannhäuser.

In his place of origin, a museum is dedicated to Wolfram von Eschenbach. Scenes and motifs from his great works "Parzival" and "Willehalm" as well as from his songs are illustrated in a visually stunning way. The result is an unusual documentation of the work, world of thought and person of a poet. The tour through this museum is designed as an enjoyable path through literature.

You leave the town in a southerly direction and cycle through the slightly hilly Mönchswald forest and along the Nesselbach stream until you reach your starting point in Muhr am See.

If you feel like stopping for a bite to eat, you have the opportunity for a special treat at the beginning and end of this last stage. The "Alte Vogtei" (Main Street 21, 91639 Wolframs-Eschenbach, Tel. 09875 968880) in the former official residence of the Teutonic Knights in Wolframs-Eschenbach serves world Franconian cuisine made from regional products with a variety of international influences.

In the traditional Franconian inn "Zum Hirschen" in Muhr am See you can expect Franconian specialities with seasonal products from the region around the Altmühlsee and from the Altmühltal, (Ansbacher Straße 4, 91735 Muhr am See, Tel. 09831 3940).