Dinkelsbühl is the one that makes people stop talking mid-sentence when they ride through the gate. A complete medieval wall rings the old town, with towers, a moat of lawns and a maze of lanes of gabled houses painted in butter and rose, and the whole thing came through the Second World War largely untouched. It lies on the Wörnitz in western Bavaria, a town of about twelve thousand people on the Romantic Road, which makes it a natural place to start or end a day on that famous route.
The Romantic Road is a marketing name from the 1950s, devised to lure visitors to the old towns between Würzburg and Füssen, and it is more a string of lovely places than a thrilling ride. Between towns the roads are gentle and wide, with long, easy curves through rolling Franconian farmland, hop fields and orchards. Traffic is steady, and speed limits are meant. The pleasure here is in the pace and the stops, not the corners. Go early on a weekday in May or September, and you will have the lanes nearly to yourself.
The minster of St George, a late Gothic hall church, rises above the market square with a single tall tower, and its interior is wonderfully light, with slender pillars holding up a net vault. Dinkelsbühl's great annual event is the Kinderzeche in July, a children's festival that recalls a legend from the Thirty Years' War, when the town's children are said to have persuaded a Swedish commander to spare the place. The story is probably more charming than true, but the pageant, with costumes, music and a lot of beer, is one of the best of its kind in Germany.
Eating is easy. Local inns serve Franconian classics, such as roast pork, dumplings and sauerkraut, and a good deal of the local beer. A walk along the walls at dusk, when the lamps come on and the swifts circle the towers, costs nothing and repays the effort. Fuel is available at the edge of town, and the larger towns of Ansbach and Crailsheim lie on either side. Park outside the walls, as the centre is partly pedestrianised and the cobbles are unkind to a loaded bike.