Be sure to wear a sunflower in your hair.

As we packed up to leave Camping Zugspitz the weather closed in. The surrounding mountains were wreathed by low cloud. We abandoned our planned route via Garmish Partenkirken since the views promised by the green lines on the road in the map atlas would be hidden in mist. Instead we headed back to Fussen to restock at Aldi and empty the waste water at the next door  stelplatz.  By this time the drizzle had become a steady downpour. Half an hour later in the petrol station on the autobahn, the rain was now so heavy that people were sprinting from pumps to cash desk like Usain Bolt.

Gill switched on data roaming on her phone so we could see a weather forecast. It did not look promising. Our planned destination, the ancient university city of Ulm, was forecast for heavy rain but west of Stuttgart looked more promising,

We drove towards Tubingen. It was bigger than we thought and the outskirts quite industrialised, though we knew the centre itself was ancient and hosts one of the most renowned universities in the country whose alumni included Goethe. You would have thought somewhere like this would be cosmopolitan, but as we drove through the sight of a British motorhome turned quite a few heads and drivers gave us a nod and a wave. The fact that Gill was sitting on the left but not driving a lady bus passenger found utterly hilarious. She laughed and waved and generally made silly gestures to mime 'where's your steering wheel?'

We decided to drive on and stayed in a stelplatz a few miles south at Rottenburg am Neckar. At only 5 euros per night it was a real bargain. We soon parked up, unhitched our bikes and rode the mile or so into town.

The centre is old with many bright painted ancient buildings and nice squares. It's not a prettified tourist trap like its more famous namesake on the Tauber.  This Rottenburg was a vibrant lively place. It had lots of modern sculpture dotted around, I was not certain if they were permanent features or part of a summer exhibition.

We stopped for a coffee at an Italian cafe hoping we 'd get a cappucino that would pass the Gill test. It did, she recorded the fact for posterity.

The waitress was quite chatty and proud to show off her excellent English 'Why are lots of women wearing sunflowers in their hair and dressed up like hippies?' Gill enquired. The girl explained that a local composer was holding an open air concert tonight and sunflowers were on the town's heraldic shield, so had asked all the women to dress up like this. We cycled over to see the stage. This was not some amateur affair, but a black fully rigged outdoor stage the size of one of the smaller ones you see at Glastonbury. The town was buzzing with anticipation. We left them to their sunflower moment and returned to the van. It was great to see a town using its streets like that and everybody joining in so enthusiastically.