Bernkaste-Kues Germany

Bernkastel-Kues - Germany : Wed 31st July :

It seems longer than a week ago since we were part of the huge crowd on the Champs Elysees watching the cyclists ride the ten laps to finish le Tour de France.

We have now travelled into Germany and are following the Saar and Moselle rivers with Kym and Debbie and are WAY behind in the blog. We have been a bit slack and we have been with out internet for some time. Stay tuned and we will update shortly.

 

 

Bastille Day

Bastille Day

Sun.14^th July :  Today was a top day.  Leaving Freiburg shortly after nine o’clock, we travelled about 20 kms to Waldkirch, our intended overnight stop but on arriving and taking a look at the camp, we decided that as it was still early, we’d push on up the road a bit further.  It was a gorgeous day and driving through the lush farm lands with their rolling green hills and the occasional picture postcard village to ooh and aah over was no effort at all.  Heading for Nordrach, our new intended stopover, we came to Zell am Harmersbach and would have driven on but when we noticed that the main street had been closed off and there were several fire engines there, we thought we should investigate, so did a u-turn to the car park we’d just passed, parked Boris and walked back.  The occasion was an exhibition to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the Fire Brigade (as far as we could make out) and as well as the fire engines, the police, rescue squads etc. were setting up their displays.  Of course we took photos and were delighted to hear a brass band start to play (we shall have music!) so followed the sound to a little square where the band was seated on a dais facing a series of trestle tables where a number of people were beginning to enjoy themselves with an early lunch, or maybe a late breakfast, with plenty of beer on tap. 

We sat and listened to the excellent band for a while before strolling around the little town which we’d have missed if the street hadn’t been closed off!

Continuing on, 6 kms up the road we came to Nordrach, another small village with seemingly little to see or do but we’d seen a sign for a puppet/toy museum, so, once we’d parked Boris, plugged into the power and had lunch, we wandered along the street to find the museum.  We were a little early but the kind lady in charge let us in and for quite a while, we had the place to ourselves.  Thinking it was not going to be terribly interesting, being in a small town, we were extremely surprised to find an enormous and stunning collection of puppets, dolls, dolls’ houses, toys, teasets, trains, farm animals etc. etc. etc.  Even more surprising is that we spent nearly two hours there and could quite easily have stayed longer.  Our granddaughter would have loved it and I think our grandsons would also have enjoyed wandering through. 

On the way back to Boris, we stopped at a café and enjoyed a cooling ale…a top day!

Gay Paree : Sun.21^st July

Fast forward a week and we’re in Paris…or rather, on the outskirts at a camping park in Villiers-sur-Orge about 20kms south, having arrived here at midday on Friday, 19^th.

But…I’m ahead of myself so I’ll rewind to Mon.15^th. Leaving Nordrach quite early, we drove to our designated overnight stop at Kehl, about 70kms away and almost on the German/France border.  From there we cycled the 2kms to the railway station, locked up the bikes only to find that the next train to Strasbourg in France was not for another hour and a half.  There was a bus terminal outside the station but on investigation, we found that there was a 40 minute wait for the next bus we could catch so decided to take a taxi ride the 9kms into the centre of Strasbourg, crossing the Rhine River into France.  It was our usual stroll around, plenty of people there but not too crowded to enjoy our walking tour, although it was a bit hotter than we’d have liked.  Strasbourg is lovely, lots of beautiful old buildings, lots of flowers as is the case in almost every village, town or city we’ve visited…in pots on balconies, hanging from lamp posts, on bridge railings, on median strips and roundabouts and just about anywhere else one could think of.

 There was a bit of a hassle getting tickets for the train back to Kehl…it took longer to buy them than the train ride took so we were glad to get back to camp and cool down with an ice cold beer.

Tues.16^th :  A very special day!  After leaving Germany again and crossing into France…again…our first stop was in Colmar…what a beautiful town it is!  We decided that ‘when’ we win Lotto, we will go back there, stay in the best hotel for a week or two and explore the town in detail.  It was busy, but like Strasbourg not too busy to be able to stroll around at leisure. 

 

If Colmar wasn’t enough, after driving through the vineyards of the Alsace we came to Kaysersberg,  only about 12kms away and our overnight stop.  A short walk revealed another small village with lovely old buildings and cobbled narrow streets with the usual flowers everywhere, providing glorious splashes of colour to brighten anyone’s day,

and is the birthplace of Albert Schweizer.  We had to have a cold beer in one of the cafes on the way back to camp for a quiet night.

Wed.17^th : We drove through a mountain pass this morning, stopping for a coffee at a café along the way and it was here that we were befriended by the son of the proprietors, a four year old named Nolann who sat with us and talked non stop, in French of course, but we somehow managed to understand each other.

Continuing our journey, we stopped at a caravan accessories shop and bought two new chairs…unfortunately, the ones we bought in England have broken, can be repaired but we haven’t the necessary tools at present and as it is too hot to sit inside, outdoor chairs were urgently needed.  On then to Giffaumont Champaubert where we camped for the night.  It was by a lake but with a high embankment so the water couldn’t be seen from the camp…

we went for a bike ride along the cycle path after dinner when the temperature had dropped a bit.

Thurs.18^th :  Through gorgeous patchwork farming country today to Bray sur Seine, had lunch in the park by the river and drove to nearby Jaulnes.  Here we found a small shady park alongside the Seine and we decided to stop there for the afternoon, and unless someone objected, the night as well.  We had a relaxing afternoon, watching the barges go through the lock a little way upriver and the family of swans which obviously resided there

and later, cycled to the lock for a closer look.  Nobody came to move us on so we stayed the night.  What could be better?  A night by the Seine in a lovely, cool park with nobody else around and it was Free!  Magic!!

Fri.19^th :  A 90km drive to our camp for Paris, Villiers-sur-Orge, unWeeventful and not terribly exciting as much of it was through industrial areas, which every city has and once we’d arrived here and settled in, we had a relaxing, but hot afternoon, chasing the shade in an effort to keep cool.

Sat.20^th :  We rode the bikes to the station, 700 metres away, chained and locked them to the bike rack and waited for the train to take us into Paris.  We had to change to the Metro system once we were in the city and went to les Puces, the flea market which is apparently the biggest in the world.  After about looking around for a while, we stopped for a lemonade and then caught the Metro to the Champs Elysee where we met Debbie and Kym, who’d arrived early this morning from Perth.  A couple of beers and a sandwich and a couple of hours of catching up and they were beginning to flag from their long journey.  We were also hot and tired by this time so we headed back ‘home’, managing to catch a train straight away and after 25 minutes were back at our station only to find that my bike was missing…some thieving b…...d had managed somehow to cut the chain and taken my bike, leaving Mike’s but as he said, one person can’t ride two bikes.   It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, as we like to think that most people are honest…obviously not.

Sun.21^st : Last day of le Tour de France and the reason we’re here.  It’s not finishing until about 9.45pm so we’re not going into Paris until 6ish.  We’ve spent the morning reading, relaxing in the shade, moving every so often to keep out of the sun…it’s 36 degrees inside so as little time as possible is spent there.  The heat wave is set to continue for quite a few days yet.

Bodensee/Lake Constance and the Black Forest

Fri.12th July
On Mon. (8th) we had an easy morning, not waking till about 8a.m. then after breakfast, showers etc., we took a leisurely bike ride into Bad Aibling and back before packing up and leaving at 11-ish. Our destination for the night was Schwangau where we camped with an early ‘assault’ on nearby Neuschwanstein Castle the next morning our objective. We arrived at Schwangau in the early afternoon, after a lovely drive through the countryside and in time to get a load of washing done and hung out in the sunshine. Our next door neighbours turned up as we were eating dinner…an Australian family of seven from Windsor in NSW who had collected their hired motor home in England only 5 days beforehand. They are travelling for five weeks, a lovely family with children ranging in age from 22 to 11…apparently they all get on well which is a good thing in the confined space of a motorhome. We can only hope that they are all still good friends after the five weeks!
We were up early on Tuesday 9th and left shortly after 9a.m. for the ten minute drive to the castle. Well…we were not the only ones who’d decided to get an early start. After parking Boris we joined the queue for tickets, which took about twenty minutes, then joined the queue for the bus to take us up the mountain, another twenty minute wait but it was preferable to the 40 minute walk uphill to the castle, then we had another hour and fifteen minutes wait before our 35 minute tour began. It was somewhere we had both wanted to visit and all the waiting was worth it…we’d have liked to be able to wander through at our leisure, to take in the magnificence of the castle but a tour is the only way of seeing it…there must be thousands of people visiting every day and I guess it’s the only way that it can be done. As with the ice cave last week, cameras are not permitted in the castle so we have no photos of the interior but we did take one or two from the outside.

At the end of the tour, we opted to walk back to the car park, quite a long walk down the mountain but an easy, comfortable stroll with trees on either side of the road providing shade and a soft breeze to keep us cool. When we reached the car park and saw the dozens of tour coaches and the hordes of people milling around and queuing for tickets, we were extremely glad that we’d arrived ‘early’, before the said hordes arrived.
Leaving Neuschwanstein at about 1p.m., it was another drive through lovely countryside to Isny, with a lunch stop at a parking place along the way where from our picnic table we could sit and admire the seemingly never ending gorgeous scenery. In Isny, we stayed near an old mill house,

A short walk away from the old walled town where we ambled around for a while in the afternoon sunshine. It’s not a tourist town, so not crowded though when we wandered in again the next morning for coffee and f.a. cream cakes at one of the many cafes in the town, it was quite busy but mostly with locals.

It was late morning on Wed.10th when we left Isny and headed for Lindau on the Bodensee, about an hour’s drive away. On the autobahn just before reaching Lindau, we crossed back very briefly into Austria and about two minutes later were back in Germany after taking the off ramp. We found the camp which was our intended overnight stop but the road in was so narrow, with cars parked on either side, there was a motorhome trying to back out of the camp, people on bikes and on foot trying hard to get run over, it was utter chaos and we could see that there was ‘no room at the inn’, so turned around, managing to not crash into anyone or anything, and left. It was a very stressful ten or fifteen minutes and we just drove on not knowing where we were going, so stopped for a drinks break as soon as it was possible and checked the map. As it happened, the motorhome we parked behind belonged to a couple from Coffs Harbour who had lived in Perth for a number of years and whose three sons still live there. We all chatted for a while, they had almost finished their sixth year of motorhoming in Europe and store their vehicle near Munich each winter…they recommended one of the stops which we had on our list of possibles so we decided to go there.
So, we are now in Stockach/Bodensee at the western end of the lake, though actually about 15km inland. We’ve been here for two nights and yesterday we caught a little train from Stockach to Radolfzell on the lake and from there, a ferry

 which took us to Konstanz via Iznang, Mannenbach on the Swiss side of the lake and then to Insel Reichenau back in Germany where we had a 25 minute changeover and ate our picnic lunch by the waterside while we waited for the next ferry. A couple more stops in Switzerland, though we didn’t actually touch land and then on to Konstanz. We strolled around Konstanz at seniors’ pace, wandering around the cobbled streets which were busy but not too crowded to enjoy, stopped for coffee and f.a. ice cream at a café by the church and caught the train back to Stockach with a change at Radofzell. A relaxing and stress free day.
This morning we’ve been tidying up, rearranging cupboards etc. while waiting for delivery of a new electric step, which we ordered on Wednesday from the Caramobil shop a couple of hundred metres away, to replace the original which, you may recall was severely damaged some weeks ago. When that has been fitted and in operation, we will continue our journey west towards Paris.

Sat.13th July : The step duly arrived yesterday morning and with the aid of some tools borrowed from his new ‘friend’ at the Caramobil shop, Mike was able to fix it in place and it is now operational. We left Stockach at 1pm for the drive to Freiburg, stopping at Donaueschingen for a half hour visit to the Furstenberg Brewery Shop to purchase a beer glass, a replacement for the one bought on our 2009 visit with good friends Rob and Larry, and which shattered about six months ago and a shirt to replace the 2009 one which is now worn out!

Onwards then through familiar Black Forest country, having stayed for a week in the area four years ago. It would be so easy to spend another week, at the very least, in the Black Forest, it is so lovely.
Once we’d arrived in Freiburg and settled in yesterday afternoon, we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and evening doing as little as possible.
This morning we cycled into town, parked the bikes and did a walk around. Freiburg is a lovely city, cobbled streets everywhere with trams, hundreds of bikes and

the biggest church we’ve seen so far, hundreds of cafes and even more people.
We decided to have a snack and Mike Had the biggest plate of chips ever. Four different types of Kartoffel and needless to say he couldn't finish it.

We were then attracted on our walk by the sounds of a brass band so sat and listened to them for a while,

then a little further on while visiting the huge church, a girls’ choir began singing just inside the entrance so we sat and listened to them too…fabulous sounds.

“We shall have music wherever we go!”
Back to camp now for another night in Freiburg…there is a big rock concert on in town tonight, the camp place is full and we’re expecting a bit of noise…the joint’ll be jumping!
In English the band is called “Dead Trousers” Sounds like something Paul would like!

Munich

Sun.7^th July :  We left Pfarrwerfen late on Friday (5^th) morning and headed up the autobahn in the drizzling rain to Hallein, home of the Hofbrau Kaltenhausen – exquisite “Speciality Beer Manufactory” and the oldest wheat beer brewery in Austria. This was on our list of ‘places to see’, Mike having ‘discovered’ it on the internet many months ago but on our arrival there we found that although they still brew their own beer, it is now mainly a restaurant and no longer have tours of the brewery.  As we only wanted to try out the beer, we continued on, disappointed.  Shortly after, we crossed the border into Germany and almost immediately came to a snail crawl of a journey lasting about an hour.  The cause of the traffic jam turned out to be an overturned truck which was lying in a roadside ditch, causing closure of first one and then two lanes of traffic.  Once we got through that it was plain sailing until we came to the off ramp we were supposed to take to our chosen overnight stop…it was closed which meant we had to continue on the autobahn until the next off ramp which didn’t take us to where we wanted to be, so it was a bit of backtracking, a change of destination and we came to Prien am Chiemsee where we camped overnight.  It was a lovely spot beside the lake, we were amongst the trees, there was a large grassed area, a bar and café, hire boats and it was almost free!

  We cycled into the lakeside town just a kilometre or two away, took a little train ride into the main town and back again, simply because the train was there when we arrived and about to leave so we hopped on. 

On our return the rain came down with a vengeance, so we dashed into the nearest café for refreshments and waited till it cleared then strolled around the promenade for a while before cycling back to camp to cook our evening meal.  The evening’s entertainment was provided by a group consisting of about two dozen young women and one young man engaging in a zumba class on the lawn in front of  us.  This lasted for two hours and we were exhausted by the time they’d finished…don’t know how they kept it up for so long, though a few of them looked a bit worn out!

After a quiet night, we left early on Sat.6^th for our next destination Bad Aibling, chosen because the railway line which runs through it goes to Munich.  From past experience we knew that trying to drive and park Boris in a big city is a no-no so decided to stay outside the city and visit via a train ride…which is what we did.  We were at our camp spot shortly after 8am, parked Boris and walked the short distance to the railway station.  It cost us 28 euro for two return tickets, we changed trains at Holzkirchen, a twenty minute changeover and then into Munich.  The whole journey, including the changeover, took about an hour.  Munich is a big, big city with beautiful old buildings,

 thousands of tourists, lots of noise and we enjoyed a few hours of strolling around the streets before returning, exhausted, to the railway



Lunch in Munich (with a Weissbier of course)

 station for our trip ‘home’.

Today (Sun.7^th), we have cycled into the lovely town of Bad Aibling to visit the Flea Markets, ridden through the beautiful park, had coffee and cake at a family café in town and are now having a relaxing afternoon.  After the last few days of climbing ice cave steps, walking up mountains and gorges, as well as walking around Salzburg and Munich, we agreed to give ourselves a day off and do very little, so that’s what we’re doing…tomorrow is another day!

Pfarrwerfen and Salzburg

Thurs.4^th July :  We stayed a second night at the Millstatter Lake camp site, enjoying a leisurely day on Mon.1^st  exploring the area on the bikes, reading, relaxing, taking it easy…a day off from travelling, and on Tuesday, 2^nd we packed and departed at around 11.30 after doing a load of washing, a bit of cleaning etc. and headed north to Pfarrwerfen, taking a side trip to a lovely little ski town at Filzmoos, simply because there was a sign on the autostrada mentioning the name!  The reason for the stop at Pfarrwerfen is because it is close to the starting point at nearby Werfen for the Eisriesenwelt (http://www.eisriesenwelt.at/) the world’s largest ice cave which we had read about on the internet last year and put on our ‘things to do’ list. 

On Wed.3^rd…leaving the camp, we drove to the bus station at Werfen, caught the bus up the mountain, walked 20 mins up to the cable car

which took us to the next level…another 20 min walk up to the entrance of the cave, followed by a 70 min. tour of the cave, including 700 steps going up and 700 steps going down.  It was extremely hard work but well worth the effort…it’s totally awesome!  We were given hand held davy lamps to light our way as there is no electric lighting and unfortunately we have no photos…cameras in the cave are verboten/taboo/not allowed so we had to resort to buying a couple of postcards instead.  We did take one or two photos of our climb up the mountain and of the surrounding scenery.  And then…as if we hadn’t punished our old legs and bodies enough, we back tracked about 12kms to St Johann im Pongau to visit Liechtenstein-Klamm, a gorge carved through the mountain by water melted from snow, gushing through over hundreds of years...it was spectacular and though a bit of a hike after the morning’s effort, a sight worth seeing.

Today, instead of resting our weary muscles like sensible people would, we cycled to the Pfarrwerfen station just a couple of kms away, parked the bikes and took a 1 hour train ride into Salzburg.  I must say that it was a very pleasant journey, relaxing in a comfortable seat enjoying the gorgeous mountain scenery roll by.  On arrival in Salzburg, we bought tickets for the hop on hop off bus in order to give our legs a bit of a rest, but this turned out to be not a wonderful idea as the traffic was so bad that we barely moved in the first half hour.  It was stiflingly hot on the bus, no air-conditioning and windows which didn’t seem to open…there was a retractable roof but this was closed…we couldn’t wait to get off and stopped at the Hellbrunn Palace where we ate our picnic lunch, wandered around the gardens and checked out the gazebo/pavilion, featured in ‘The Sound of Music’.  Sadly it was locked and we weren’t able to venture inside and imagine that we were ‘sixteen going on seventeen’!  Back to the bus stop then, the same bus and driver came along, this time with the top half open which was much more pleasant and back into the city where we ‘hopped’ off again to walk across the Mozart bridge to explore the Dom du Salzburg and the shopping streets.  We walked around at a very leisurely pace for a couple of hours, enjoying Salzburg, which was crowded with tourists from all over the world. After getting lost trying to find the railway station we finally caught the train, then cycled back to camp absolutely exhausted. 

This is our third night here at Camping Vierthaler at Pfarrwerfen (www.camping-vierthaler.at) and we’ll be sorry to leave …the people who run it are lovely, very helpful and friendly and we would recommend it to anyone.

ps Having trouble with adding photos. Stay tuned

From italy into Austria

Fri.28^th June :  Our German neighbours whom we met in Menaggio turned up early yesterday afternoon and became our neighbours again for one night.  Evi and Jochen live near Wurzburg and have invited us to call on them when in the vicinity and have offered to show us around that city, an offer we’re keen to accept.  We had a relaxing afternoon, went walking around the town in the late afternoon/evening before dinner and before the storm forced all the campers indoors…thunder, lightning and heavy rain for most of the night but this morning, sunshine!  Weak, but sunshine nevertheless.  Leaving Lasize, we drove along the shores of Lago di Garda, stopping for coffee at a café at the end of the lake where we were surprised to see a souvenir Australian car number plate on the wall.  The young man running the café had visited Australia 10 years ago and has fond memories of his time there so was happy to talk to us…hoping to go back someday, maybe when his young children are older.  After a pleasant half hour sitting in the sunshine admiring the spectacular view of the lake,

we continued on through very scenic countryside to our overnight free stop at Rovereto.  This was another surprise!  Expecting to find little to see or do here, we were told by our next door neighbours from Stuttgart who ‘adopted’ us, that there is a walled city within the town…they hopped on their bikes and led us there and we spent a happy couple of hours in their company, somehow managing to hold conversations in our limited German, their broken English and sign language. 

 When we returned to Boris, there was activity at the stadium next door in the form of an athletics meet…dozens of young athletes warming up on the soccer pitch before competing in their chosen fields on the stadium track. 

 We all watched for a couple of hours, marvelling at the high level of competition displayed and admiring the athleticism and dedication of all the young people participating.

Sat.29^th June :  We said farewell to our new friends and headed north, took a wrong turn and couldn’t 

turn around, turned right after emerging from a 2 km tunnel and were confronted by half a dozen motorbikes with their riders waving frantically at us to pull over.

Luckily, there was a pull off place handy and it was then we saw the peloton…there must have been a couple of hundred cyclists whizzing past…a gap, then another hundred or so…and still they came!! 

 We waited until all but a few stragglers had gone through, bought some fresh fruit and vegies from the stall on the roadside, and drove on.  Back on the correct road, we continued north along the autostrada till a little way past Bressanone, then turned right, stopping at a service station for a coffee break.  Here, though still 30 or 40 kms from the Austrian border, we were surprised by the counter staff and most of the customers speaking German and had to consult our maps to make sure we were still in Italy!  We were, but from then on, all signs were mainly in German and the houses all had a distinctive Austrian/German look about them.  Travelling on through the Dolomites, we came to the little town of San Lorenzo, near Brunico…we stopped there to check out the cable car which was marked on the map and were delighted to find that it was working, we had a car to ourselves and it went up, and up, and up, till we reached the top at 2275 metres.  It was cold up there with some snow still lying around and plenty of snow on the surrounding mountains.  There are several ski lifts there on different sides of the mountain, no doubt very popular in the winter.  So…we were back into jumpers and jeans after a few weeks in shorts and t-shirts but it was spectacular. 

 

The après-ski café was open so we went in for a warming coffee…a couple of elderly men in the café were playing a guitar and an accordion and singing, accompanied by the bar flies there…all were having a jolly time, we enjoyed the entertainment for a while then it was back down the mountain to complete our travelling for the day at Versciaco, 200 metres from the Italy/Austria border.  Our last night in Italy!

Sun.30^th June :  We crossed the border this morning…twice…once on foot and then with Boris and headed east to Lienz. 

 

From there we were planning to head north through the Felbertauerntunnel, on our way to Salzburg but…signs in Lienz told us that the tunnel was closed!  On asking a service station attendant when it would re-open, she told us it would be in 6 or 7 weeks…so, another map consultation, another change of plan and we continued east to Dobriach am Millstatter See, where we are staying tonight and possibly tomorrow night (Mon.1^st July).  It has been a very easy day’s travelling, through some gorgeous scenery, the sun is shining, the birds are singing…what more could one want?