Salzburg to Lake Constance

I almost had to force Caron to leave. The facilities and in particular the bathrooms were the best that we've seen on this trip, in fact, they're better than we have at home although only just. Traveling like this really takes one back to the basics of what makes one comfortable; good bathrooms, no noise, flat ground, not too cold and not too hot, good internet access. Unfortunately we have yet to find a campsite or any other accommodation come to mention it which has everything.

We took our leave of Salzburg at about 10:00 and crossed over into Germany almost immediately; I hadn't realised that Salzburg is right on the border so before we knew it we were in Germany proper. As opposed to Austria which is like an almost Germany. I think they might hate me for that!

We passed through Munchen (Munich) which reminds me; why on earth do the english have to rename everything. It's not as if Munchen is that difficult to pronounce; what could possibly be the reason that Wien has to be spelt Vienna in english.

My first impression of Germany was from a bathroom where the toilet paper holder had been so over-designed that I'm sure it would survive a nuclear attack. It's complexity had led to the arms being machined out of 15x15mm aluminium to ensure that it wouldn't break. I don't think that it would break even if a gorilla jumped on it. That pretty much set the tone for our first experiences of Germany; they have some very interesting toys like prepaid electricity meters at campgrounds. Yup! choose your socket, pop your money in and you have 1kwh for 0.50 EUR but, I must admit, it will be interesting to find out how much power we have actually been using.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful and we arrived at Lindau on the shores of Lake Constance at about 14:30 so we spent the rest of the day lazing about reading and relaxing. We're really enjoying this very relaxed mode of touring.

German driving reminds me a lot of South African driving; too fast and too close. It is the first time that we have seen drivers using headlights to try and get people to move out of the way and we have had several drivers come past so fast that the turbulence moves our car half a lane and we're not even on an autobahn where the maximum speed is unlimited.

The campsite is great and the, mostly german, tourists are turning out in their droves. We are very thankful that we are camping because getting a camper or caravan spot is just impossible and even the tent site is quite full of tents. There are loads of families or groups of friends who tour on bicycle or motorbike and it makes the campsite quite interesting.

I have got very absorbed in my book so I spent most the remaining day and the evening reading not that Caron was complaining. We half watched a childrens' concert in the one corner of the campsite put on by the children and campsite staff which had all the parents and non-participating siblings laughing and clapping. Quite festive and family orientated.