Amsterdam

It's raining again so it took us a while to pluck up our courage to venture outside. I really love the sound of the rain on the tent from inside of the tent; from outside the tent I don't find it anywhere near as pleasant. Not knowing what the weather is doing is a bit of a pain so we tend to just ignore it and get on with whatever we need to; this usually works out fine as it did today.

After buying our metro tickets 11.50EUR for 48hours each we took the metro in to Amsterdam central going past some pretty non-descript, depressing housing estates on the way. First stop for us was the Rijksmuseum which is being renovated so there were only a couple of hundred exhibits being shown but it turned out quite well being only shown the cream of the crop as it were. Both Caron and I have been amazed at the Rembrandt's as well as the Vermeer's; they are really quite exceptional. The museum doesn't only contain art but other exhibits and it we enjoyed getting a bit of background on Dutch history which we can now, sort of, fit together with the rest of the European history.

Feeling a bit peckish we had a small bite to eat at the Bulldog pub which Caron visited the first time she was here more than 20 years ago. It's actually more than just a pub because it also houses a dope smoking den and the smell of dope wafts up to where we were eating every now and then. A couple sat down in front of us and lit up joints because it isn't illegal to use drugs here. It's not entirely a free-for-all because one can only buy a limited amount and one can't just smoke anywhere and there is an age limit so there seems to be a nice balance between freedom and rules - at least as far as drugs are concerned. Walking back towards the station we came across the store below.

I think that one of the cigar and whisky evenings we have on a monthly basis we should change the format slightly and have a cannabis and champagne evening!

My father's comment regarding Dutch architecture came to mind when looking around at the canals around Heernegracht street; what architecture?

And to add insult to injury, there has been some decidedly dodgy foundation laying. If something strikes you as odd in the following photographs, it's not your eyes playing tricks on you; the buildings really are skew.


It's amazing that they are still standing.

Going further towards the station we wandered up and down the red-light district which was very different and not entirely what I had expected. In amongst all the sex shops, live shows and prostitutes there are plain ordinary shops like a corner cafe or a classical music school. The prostitutes rent little rooms like a cupboard and then parade in them waiting for customers to ring their bell. Right in the middle of the red-light district is a church called oude-kerk and there are prostitutes not 5m away from it's walls; a bit ironic I would say. We caught up with mellman having a peek into one of the windows; note the reflection!

Like drugs, there seem to be a fair number of rules about the sex trade so while it is legal it isn't welcome anywhere other than in the red-light district. Seems pretty sensible to me.

On a lighter note, walking along the canals there was a long line of small dinghys tied up with this in what would have been a dinghy parking bay.


Last visit of the day was to the 'sex museum' which was a bit of an eye-opener to put it mildly - not for the faint of heart but it elicited loads of nervous giggles from most of the people, both men and women, who visited it. Unfortunately, Caron, who normally has a photographic memory, swears that she can't remember anything! Damn!

From there it was back on the metro and we spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing and reading again; I could really get used to this!

The long drive to Amsterdam

Well, what do you know; it was raining cats and dogs again! That means that it must be travel day. Neither of us slept really well last night, I don't know why but we just don't sleep well in hotels, so we were a little frazzled around the edges when we left. We didn't have coffee or breakfast at the hotel mainly because their coffee was so awful that I refuse to knowingly punish my body by subjecting it to that stuff; I can't even call it coffee.

The first hour was marked by the swish of the wiper blades and the occasional snore from my comatose passenger. The second hour, the rain abated so all I had to listen to was the occasional snore. Just before we went over the French/Belgian border we stopped at a onestop which didn't looks so great but we ordered the coffee and some croissants which were awesome; really fresh croissants with good coffee. I think that sometimes one's future expectations of an event have a lot to do with the remembered experience of that same event in an inverse sort of way.

Driving straight through Belgium our subjective experience was that Belgium really needs to get it's act together; it's roads are worse than South Africa's and everything is grimy. Some of the signboards along the motorways are so covered with industrial grime that one can hardly read them at all so moving over the border and into Holland was a welcome change. The trip, on the whole, was quite uneventful and we arrived at a very nice campsite called Gaasperplaas which looks like below.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent reading, drinking wine and chilling because I didn't feel like actually doing any sightseeing after driving the 500km from Rheims to Amsterdam.

We did however find what happened to one of the mosquitoes that had been bugging Caron while she was reading in the black forest ...

... killed by Anathem!

The Champagne region

My general opinion of Champagne to date has been formed, mostly, by the 'sparkling wine' we get in South Africa and I am very happy to have found that real 'champagne' is nothing like what I've had before; it was delicious and I'm thankful that we're flying back and have a weight allowance because otherwise Caron would have bankrupted us.

The morning didn't start so well because some miserable revellers decided to have motorbike races or something at 01:00 so it was a very broken and restless night for both of us. The first order of the day was to get some real coffee down our throats, the French may be experts in all sorts of food but coffee is not one of them. Generally the standard of the coffee in France is about that of Starbucks, that is to say; atrocious.

We drove to the start of the Champagne route and then found a very pleasant park where we made ourselves some coffee and had some breakfast. The scenery in Champagne is much like other wine growing regions except that one comes across names that one actually has heard of:

and

but other than that it looks like this.

We had a very pleasant amble through the small villages which make up the region before ending up in Epernay which seems to be like the spiritual home of Champagne. We walked up and down Avenue de Champagne admiring the houses of the great estates before we went to a Champagne bar. I wasn't expecting much and was really surprised at how good it actually tasted. There really is a difference between 'sparkling wine' and 'Champagne' and we ended up buying 3 bottles of the stuff which I am sure that we'll enjoy with someone although I can't quite see how our weight allowance is going to stretch to taking it home with us.

We had a bit of an afternoon brunch when we got back to Reims before retreating into the hotel for the remainder of the afternoon and the evening. When we walked into the restaurant the one elderly couple gave us such a look of contempt like we were cockroaches escaping from the kitchen. I'm not sure why, I think that they were just jealous that they were so wrinkly and we're not; at least by comparison. One of the nice things about hotels is that they normally come with good internet access so I'm actually completely up to date; until tomorrow that is!

Beaune to Rheims

Something I forgot to mention about Nuit St. Georges was that many vineyards are owned by collectives, in one particular case a vineyard of 50 hectares is owned jointly by 83 individuals so each individual may own only a couple of rows of vines. Apparently, this is a result of inheritance laws and death duties.

We had an unusual day in that it didn't pour with rain while we drove but we are both getting to the end of drives feeling quite exhausted so I think that either the sheer amount of driving is finally getting to us or, more likely, the suspension of the ice-cream van is really poor and that is making us more tired than we ought to be. Either way, it isn't that far to go now and we'll be back in decent motorcars with real suspension and comfortable seats.

The rest areas on the side of the motorways are something that the french have really got right. There is a picnic area with toilets on a regular basis and, in addition to this, petrol stops which also have a picnic area attached. It was in one of these picnic areas that we stopped and had a lunch of fresh vegetables on boule-pain which was delicious.

The countryside is intensively farmed and it is just kilo after kilo of fields but, unlike South Africa, there is a wide variety of vegetables farmed. One just doesn't get the same crop for mile after mile like one does in the Free State.

Our last stop in France is Rheims which is in the Champagne region and doesn't have a campsite as far as we can tell from the rough guide, DK, AA camping guide and the GPS camping guide so we checked into a hotel for a couple of nights. We've been camping for about 2 weeks constantly so we're due a couple of nights to remind us why we don't like hotels.

The one we're at was built in 1920 at the same time as the whole of Reims was built after it was destroyed during the first world war, the French are still a little bit bitter and twisted about it, and has a very nice courtyard. The rooms are small but reasonable, the bathrooms good but for some reason Caron and I just don't feel comfortable in hotels.


We went for a walk down what I think is the main drag in the town which has been pedestrianised and there were loads of stag and hen parties going on. It has bars and restaurants all the way down and Caron and I engaged in a game of 'what do you want to eat? - I don't mind, what do you want to eat?' which seems to be our default when we get tired and don't want to actually make any decisions.

One of the unfortunates having to fish rubber ducks out of the fountain with a goldfish net which was way too small.

We eventually decided on a restaurant and Caron had a salmon taglietelle and I had a vegetarian hamburger. Yes, they actually had vegetarian on the menu, in France I must add. The world is changing!

The Burgundy wine route

The real reason for coming to Beaune was that it is a major centre within the Burgundy wine region as well as that it is very close to Dijon which is interesting in it's own right.

Starting out in Dijon, we parked and walked into the centre of town past the notre dame.

Legend has it that if you touch the owls foot on the Notre Dame it will bring you luck so I just had to do it. The owl is actually one of the gargoyles and the locals seem to take the legend seriously; we saw other people who were clearly not tourists walk past and have a quick touch.

We happened to arrive on market day and had a great time wandering around buying the odd bag of cherries or some pate,roquefort but mostly just watching the life of the town. Looking at the vegetables on sale it isn't just tomatoes and beans, there are are 6 different varieties of tomato and 10 different varieties of beans not to mention untold types of exotic vegetables; Laurel would be in her element her. We stopped and had coffee and watched the passersby while we listened to some very good guitarists play at the restaurant next door. We even had a display of lewd behaviour from a drunk black guy; sometimes it is better to not know what people are saying. We later saw him sitting next to an ensemble of two violins and a cello who were exceptionally good; even I enjoyed them. The market day is like a mixture of a flea market and a fresh produce market and I spotted Caron taking an interest in a particular table; she just can't keep away from the shiny stuff!

Walking past a shop we had to stop and buy some ginger bread since Dijon is where ginger bread originated from; or so they claim. In the shop I spotted this which is, can you believe it, all mustard.

This photo illustrates a big difference between Europe and South Africa; whereas in South Africa one would find maybe 10 different mustards, here there is a choice of several hundred and it is a combination of having a market that is big enough to support hundreds of varieties as well as customers that have the sophistication to want the variety.

Although there weren't many tourists it wasn't as if there were none and we spotted a worrying sight; just imagine if it became a general trend that tour groups went around on these ...

Can you imagine this in Italy with hordes of Japanese trying to manage these at the same time as their cameras, what a menace!

On the way back to Beaune we took the old road which winds throught the vineyards of the region and stopped in the town of Nuit St. Georges and went to Dufouleur Pere & Fils for some wine tasting. It wasn't very busy so we had the proprietor to ourselves which was great because it was more like a converstation rather than a lecture. The grapes that they grow here are only Pinot Noir and Chardonnay although some blends are Pinot Noir mostly with some Pinot Blanc and Gamay (Beaujolais) thrown in for good measure. The red wines are light and fruity in comparison to the Cabernet wines of Bordeaux but I'm not sure that I prefer one or the other; I think I'll have to drink a lot more to decide.

Now, this is what a cellar should look like!


Back at the shack we spent the remainder of the afternoon reading, drinking wine and eating cheese or pate snacks; how very civilised! What a great day, it more or less made up for yesterday.

The road to Beaune

I tried to get Caron to write up todays blog but she refuses to put here literary skills on show so this will be a short day; nothing of interest happened!

We hopped on the highway and 300km later we hopped off the highway, set up camp and then went into town. I was feeling out of sorts and just wanted to sit quietly and read a book but instead we went to the wine museum (in the duc de Burgundy House) which was interesting even though it was all in french. We did a bit of shopping (bought a loaf of bread called a 'pain boule' - it looks like small rolls stuck together) before retiring to the campsite where I retreated to my corner of the campsite and demolished copious amounts of cheese and wine.

I felt better after a couple of hours but by then it was supper time so that was it, the end of another day.

Caron has reminded me that I missed out the part about going through the valley of Doubs and crossing the river of Doubs as well as passing the town of Dole. We looked hard for the fields of marijuana in the val de Doub but was unable to spot any, nor were we able to spot any inhabitants of Dole smoking the stuff since they haven't got anything else to do. Caron also reminded me, again, that I was a misery to live with today.

Crossing from Germany into France is quite a contrast, Germany feels very well to do and the houses and buildings and roads are all clean and in good repair; not so France. France is more like an artists study in elegant decay but not in the same way that Italy is; in Italy it really is just decay!

Stuffin' about in Staufen

Rest day, well at least for Caron. Seeing as we don't have too much time pressure we decided to stay an extra day in Staufen. The campsite is pretty good, there is good internet access for a very reasonable 2EUR and the weather seems to be reasonable. Added to this I thought I would like to have a ride in the black forest and along the Rhine so Caron kindly bought a 1:50 000 map for me and I traced a route into the forest, around and down to the Rhine and then back to Staufen.

Starting off riding up the valley the first problem was to get onto one of the cycle paths which wasn't as easy as I thought it would be but after a couple of false starts following cycle-path signs and ending up going the wrong way I eventually found it. They have an annoying habit of disappearing or turning left or right with only the faintest, sometimes hidden, sign and you only know that you're not on it anymore when you haven't seen any signs for a few kilometres. I rode past several houses with wood piles like this; they don't bugger about with small stacks of wood for the winter here and this is before they really start laying it on before the onset of winter in August.

After about and hour of an hour and a half of continuous climbing the 800m high 15km long hill I found melmann lurking in the black forest. Jason, I can highly recommend the black forest for training.

Of course going down the hill on the other side was great fun but I was a little worried a couple of times that my tires were going to roll off the rims.

I stopped for a rest in the town just before the river called Neuenburg am Rhein where I had a cup of coffee, some cold tea and of course, a very tasty pastry. To keep my energy levels up; or so I told myself.

Continuing down to the Rhine itself, the path is flat, flat, flat and all just a little downhill and I could just see the Rhine itself through the trees every now and then.

I eventually came to a ford on the Rhine; hard to believe but there it was and this, ladies and gentlemen is the Rhine!

I promise you that I'm not lying, it genuinely is the Rhine. Of course most of the water that should be there is in the canal about 500m to the west but technically, that really is the Rhine. Up on the river bank was a whole lot of police cars next to a police caravan doing what police do best; having a lunch time braai! I thought that they may have been apprehending illegal immigrant frenchies but, no, that wasn't the case. Some things just don't change do they!

The ford was paved using cobblestones but the water has worn the cobbles and the grouting quite badly so it was quite tricky to ride on. I hope the photograph gives some idea what it was like.


It took me a while and I missed the path several times before I finally made it back, pretty knackered, to the campsite 5 hours after starting. I went past several cyclists who had decided that the cherries on the trees next to the cycle paths looked too good and had just stopped and were picking and eating away.

We had a quick lunch of tuna mayonnaise with lettuce, olives, cheese, green peppers and carrots. It was fantastic; we've both realised that we are really missing fresh fruit and vegetables. Just to make my mom feel better, the green pepper was about R8 for one.

The rest of the day we did pretty much nothing except relax and read. Caron has set a record by finishing Neil Stephensons' Anathema within a day. That is just short of 1000 pages in 24 hours less sleeping and eating of course. We had a quiet supper and went to bed quite early at about 21:00 listening to the faint sounds of an oompah band clattering away and the not so faint sounds of the trains going by about 3m from our tent. What is it with campgrounds and railway lines? They seem to put them next to each other far too often for it to be a co-incidence but fortunately the trains stop running at about 20:00 so it hasn't actually been a problem.

Titisee

Although it sounds like a porn convention, it is not! Titisee is glacial lake in the middle of the black forest which is on the south western edge of Germany next to the border with France.

The lake is very picturesque but well on the beaten track for hordes of old age tour groups which really took some of the joy out of it.

Getting away from the tour groups we did an hours walk around in the black forest beside the lake before escaping but not before buying some really delicious chips from a fast food stall.

The black forest is a bit of a misnomer because it really isn't black; it's the same colour as most other forests and it also isn't a continuous forest. There are fields and towns everywhere with bits of forest separating them but the combination of fields, forest, hills and towns does make for a very pretty countryside.

The ice-cream vans list of ailments has grown by one. In addition to a VERY ANNOYING high pitched squeal when it is cold or wet and a very uncomfortable jerking motion when the gas isn't on hard; we now have the shakes every time we brake. We hope it doesn't deteriorate any more until we get back to England.

We had read about the biggest cuckoo clock in the world and decided to go and have a look even though it really is something that was created purely and simply to attract visitors. A relic! Having steeled myself for kitsch I got more than even I bargained for. The clock, below, is genuinely huge and built with wooden gears but the merchandising section through which one had to walk to get to the exit was much, much bigger and filled with the kitschest souvenirs that only the desperate would buy.

This wasn't the only annoying thing about the clock, there was an audio presentation which we paid but 1/4 of the way through a huge group of Dutch tourists filed in and the proprietor stopped ours and started one in Nederlands which had both of our noses instantly out of joint. She said that she would restart ours but never reappeared to do so and we eventually thought, fag it. That was when we had to walk through the merchandising section.

Driving back to Stauffen, this is what we saw.

Yup, our own little thunderstorm above our campsite. It just made Caron's day!

Going a little bit back, to Titisee; this is what happens when people have way too much time on their hands during the winter months, not to mention chainsaws.

How is this for a sign to a restaurant, need I say more!


I wonder if there is some kind of link between the severity of weather and innovation. Where the weather is really bleak there is little innovation because everyone is trying so hard just to stay alive; where the weather is uncomfortable but not quite so harsh people actually have time and motivation to try and think up ways to be more comfortable. Where the weather is benign, why innovate when one can live quite comfortably without any of this thinking and development. Just a thought.

Farewell Switzerland, hello Germany!

Unfortunately it was time to bid our farewells to Switzerland today, we have really enjoyed our stay here despite the exhorbitant prices.

Instead of heading directly north up and out of Switzerland we decided to head south, almost into Italy in fact before going west and then finally north and into Germany. This was because I, note not Caron, wanted to go over a real Swiss pass and the Furka pass looked like it would fit the bill. Caron, without much enthusiasm, agreed and was more than a little tense especially as we started to climb and climb and climb. This was the view looking eastwards and we weren't even close to the top of the pass.

As we drove higher and higher there was more and more snow on the sides of the roads and every now and then the road was reduced to a single lane due to snow or rocks falling on the road. The snow in the picture below is about 6-9m deep and one gets the feeling that as one drives past it is going to slip and push the car over the edge. It didn't happen of course but one's imagination is a funny thing.

Dropping over the first pass and looking back up what we had come down, it was so steep that it isn't possible to build a switchback on the actual mountain so the Swiss improvised with a flyover perched halfway up a hillside. One can just see the truck to give some sense of the scale.

When I was a little boy my father always used to reprimand me for throwing stones over cliffs because we 'never know what damage they may do'. One little boy obviously didn't listen and I can hear his father saying "If anyone asks, you didn't throw the stone. Ok?"

This would constitute a conversation killer at any dinner party in my book!

Arriving at the town at the bottom we discovered that the glacier just above the town is the Rhone glacier so now we have seen the source and the mouth of the Rhone river at Arles. We stopped for a some coffee and a bite to eat and met a New Zealand couple who had just cycled over the pass and were about to go over another one as the weather started to close. Freezing sleet made even our ice-cream van seem like luxury.

Turning north we stumbled across Interlaken which is where the Eiger and Jungfrau are. We had lunch at something 'Grande'. Note to self, never eat or stay in anything that has 'Grande' in it as well as those that have 'Royal' in it. Very expensive, very disappointing. 40F or about R300 for a VERY light lunch that was average at best.


The drive after this was long and tiring, crossing into Germany was a non-event and we finally arrive at Staufen, pronounced by us as 'Stuffin' at about 16:30. We left at 09:00 so that is a long days drive. As is usual, it was raining as we arrived and Caron had a little bit of a wobbly with the rain. Although we are reasonably well set up for rain it is just so much more pleasant if it is sunny. This is meant to be the European summer and it is overcast and rainy most of the time; I dread to think what it is like in the winter. Today is the first time when we've thought of how nice it is going to be to get home with all the luxury and people to which we are so accustomed.

Made supper, read our books and watched some cyclists arrive in the rain. We at least have a car as a last resort they have, well, nothing! But then they are only doing it for a few weeks I suppose.

Out and about around Vierwaldstattsee

There aren't a whole bunch of tourist attractions around the Vierwaldstattsee so i decided to take a ride. They're quite organised here and Caron found me a map of mountain bike routes and I chose one that 'should' take 2:30 and was of 'medium' difficulty. I am always a little conservative when grades are awarded because 'medium' sometimes means it will be easy and other times that it will be quite tough. Todays ride falls into the quite tough category.

The cycle map which, although quite nice for planning, is a bit difficult to actually use because it doesn't show actual roads; only cyclepaths and these are sometimes roads, sometimes next to roads and sometimes nowhere near the road so it is quite easy to lose one's way. This is what I did several times although I never had to backtrack fortunately. Jason would have loved this ride because it came with the requisite amount of pain; that is to say loads of it. The route profile climbs from the word go until it goes over a pass after 1200m of climbing and then descends all the way back home. It took me 4:30 although at least an hour of that was spent taking photographs and visiting a coffee shop to put something back into my depleted body.

When the climb started in earnest I happened to be behind a group of 5 cyclists but quite quickly overtook them; mainly because they stopped to have a rest. I also stopped but just not for quite as long and they were the only cyclists that I saw going up the hill. Once I had crested the hill I saw plenty of riders pounding their way up the other side of the hill as I was descending and it was nice to be able to give them a broad smile as I whizzed past. "Not long to go now!" was what I said; what I thought was "Only about another hour of pain, he he!"

At least the scenery was spectacular and I even had the experience of being charged by a cow. I didn't know that cows charge, the cow was on the other side of the paddock when she saw me and came charging down, udders out of control and cow bell ringing dementedly. There was only a single strand electrified fence between me and her and I remember thinking that this will really be a test of how well electrified fences work. I am happy to say that they are quite effective and with only 3m to go the cow took a left turn along the fence and then turned around and followed me up the hill waiting for any possibility to pounce. Lucky it wasn't an eland because then I would have been finished. An eland, for those that don't know, is about the same size as a cow but can jump over a 6' fence from a standing start - or so I have been told!

Arriving back it took me a while to sort myself out; doing these long rides on just water and no energy bars or drink really takes it out of one. We decided to go out for lunch but couldn't find anywhere that took our fancy so we ended up back at camp for tuna mayonnaise which went down a real treat. We did however find a really nice place to have supper (Rigiblick am See; I kid not) so after relaxing, reading, catching up on the blog that is where we went for supper. The weather is still playing silly buggers and can't make up it's mind whether it wants to be raining, sunny or windy or all three at the same time so eventually we just crawled into the bell of the tent and sat there.

The dinner was awesome and at 106Fr it should have been! We didn't order a starter but one arrive anyway, compliments of the chef, consisting of a a single grilled prawn with sweet 'n sour sauce and a gooseberry; this has to be tried to understand just how tasty it was. I followed this up with salmon taglietelle in an orange sauce while Caron had pan fried perch with almonds and potatoes and creamed spinach. It was awesome especially looking out over Vierwaldstattsee at the storm as it retreated across the waters.

On the way back we took a photograph of this:

we're not exactly sure what this is but there are loads of them all over town and seem to be the names of the children which live in the flats; why anyone would want to do this is beyond me. But then again, there are an awful lot of garden gnomes around here.

Update for yesterday.

Actually we did take one photograph yesterday, this is the storm just before it rained cats and dogs on us.

Interesting hey!

Lindau to Lucerne

So now we know! We used 0.12Kwh to charge our two phones and run the laptop for a few hours so baulking at paying 5EUR at some campsites really was over the top. Internet connectivity at Lindau came in at 8EUR per hour; that kind of money would definitely have IS drooling!

We really seem to be timing it well; another absolutely atrocious day to be driving. Loads and loads of rain and poor visibility and the ice-cream van doesn't like cold wet weather and squeals a lot which is very annoying.

Packing up the gear ahead of the approaching weather we left just as it started to pour with rain and we crossed the border into Austria before we knew it. I really like these border crossings especially coming from Africa where crossing the border can take absolutely ages, in fact I normally allocate half a day and make sure that we're at the border post first thing and try to avoid weekends and definitely public holidays.
It wasn't very long before we passed into Switzerland where we had to buy yet another vignette but this time it cost a whopping 30EUR but there's no choice, one has to buy a full year. There is no option to buy 10days or a months vignette, a full year is the only option.

As we went through the border post we were told that we could buy the vignette a little along and to the right which I took to mean drive 20m and turn right but that isn't at all what I should have done and we ended up halfway down an on-ramp. Caron, not so politely, let me know that I'd made a wrong turn which put me in a bad mood for a few hours. Sometimes it's not what one says but how one says it.

Moving on we drove through Vaduz which is the capital of Liechenstein which really looked like a provincial dorp and especially in the pouring rain. We needed to get some fuel and some money and it took a while to sort these things out so that we were able to do some shopping because fuel wasn't the only thing we were running out of.

Arriving in Lucerne the campsite was located next to what looked like a cement factory so we decided, wisely, to go to another one and found a fantastic one. On top of that, the weather cleared a bit as did my mood. The weather here is wierd, one moment it is bright sunshine and then there are 50 drops of rain, just enough to make one take cover, before the sunshine returns. Very annoying!

We tried to go for a walk but didn't take our umbrellas along because it looked like the weather had cleared and we ended up running back in the middle of quite a heavy downpour which stopped as we got home.

Supper was scrambled eggs and bread which went down really well after the obligatory wine and cheese snacks. Our apologies about the lack of photo's but there was a distinct lack of subject matter today; hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Schloss Nueschwanstein

We had one of those magical days which just hits the spot; we wanted to see Schloss Neuschwanstein which is unlike any other castle thus far and probably in the world. It is more of a tribute to Wagner than a castle and wasn't even designed by an architect but a stage set designer. Obviously he had some help from engineers because it hasn't yet fallen down.

On our way there mabel (the GPS) took us on one of her routes and we ended up driving down very small country roads that we would never normally have tried to go down so we've coined a term for this: 'mabelism' meaning to veer off the beaten path but nevertheless to arrive at one's destination.

Dodging the oncoming traffic on such a narrow road was interesting and I was certain that a couple of times we were going to get a glancing blow the oncoming car. When we stopped to take the photograph above I watched a fiat uno coming and he seemed to be going awfully fast, this was confirmed as his tires squealed and scrabbled for traction as he hurtled past.

Our first view of the schloss was the one below from the restaurant at which we had lunch. I had 'Spatzle nudlen' with cheese and fried onion which sounded, and was, pretty good. Caron had a sweet omelette which was more like a thick pancake cut up into blocks and was really what we would class as a dessert although it was on the main menu. We ended up sharing my main course as the savoury and Caron's main course as the dessert which worked out pretty well.

The only way to get into the castle is to take a guided tour but at 9EUR it was pretty cheap by most guided tour standards. Ludwig II, who built the place, was obviously a bit touched and more than a little taken with Wagner. What else would explain having one of the rooms leading from his bedroom decorated like a cave complete with stalactites and stalagmites. Each room had some Wagnerian or religious connection in the frescoes and decoration and the overall design together made it look and feel like some fairy tale enchanted castle. How is this for a view to wake up to in the morning!

Once we had finished the tour we walked up and around the back to a bridge which spanned the stream that flows below the castle but Caron refused to go onto the bridge citing vertigo and I must admit that having some of the planking flexing under one's weight wasn't the most reassuring.

Walking back down the hill it was really steep, so much so that one had to be a little careful that one didn't lose one's footing and land on one's backside. Coming the other way, up the hill, were a small but steady stream of mountain bikers so I just had to try this hill to see how bad it really was. It's bad! It didn't take long to climb (about 10-15 minutes) but some sections were really, really steep and near the end I could feel my spatzle's coming up to say hello but fortunately I ran out of hill before it could get all the way up and out. Going down the hill was a blast but a couple of corners had me skidding both wheels to slow down enough to take the corner.

The drive home to Lindau was just magnificent; this part of Germany is really and I mean really beautiful. There are cycling paths all over the place and it was wonderful to see whole families out riding. Sometimes, when there isn't space, the cycle path is on the side of the road but there are concrete bollards which the bicycles can get around but which cars can't to protect their space from encroaching cars. This is something that could definitely be done in South Africa and it shouldn't even be that expensive to implement. There was also a noticeable lack of fences and where there were cattle the farmers use a single or double strand of electrified fencing which they move from field to field as the cows move. The lack of fencing does wonders to the landscape.

We noticed several houses that are taking solar power seriously and have all but covered their roofs with photovoltaic cells as well as solar water heating.

This happened to be a shop but interestingly, there were snow arrestors installed over the photovoltaic cells to stop the snow falling off which would also stop the cells working. Strange!

Arriving back home we had a light supper as we watched family after family arrive on their bicycles and set up camp for the night. There is a pair of girls near us in a tent which looks too small for one person let alone both of them and that is in good weather! It is what Rob and I used to call a -5 tent; only when it is absolutely freezing can the people actually fit into it. It's like magic that at -5 an extra person can actually fit into a tent.

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.

Salzburg

Salzburg is known as the birth place of Mozart and besides that it is known for, well, nothing at all but it sounded like a cool place to go to so here we are. It was also conveniently located between Vienna and Lake Constance so although we are here, we don't really have anything we 'have to do' so we caught the bus into town early in the morning and wandered around the old town which is very beautiful.

The sound of music, which I didn't enjoy when I watched it, was filmed here and one of the scenes is set in a cemetery which we stumbled on and Caron had to go in. There were also catacombs which sounds way too grand for the holes in the rock that they turned out to be. Caron managed to bang her head hard on a lintel which was very low and of course it was my fault. Not sure of the logic here but having been married over 10 years I just accept these things.

We also climbed up to the fortress overlooking the old town and wandered along admiring the views into the distance before we had a cup of coffee at a coffee shop. When we descended we happened on a 'saturday market' where we bought some fresh fruit, something we are really missing. We paid R60.00 for four measly bananas so everyone back in South Africa, enjoy your cheap, plentiful, good quality fruit because not everyone has the opportunity to do so.
While we were at the market I spotted what must the be king of biltong cutters masquerading as a cheese slicer.

Keeping in the culinary way we happened on the following.

On our way back to the bus station we went through schloss mirabell which was built for archbishop wolf dietrich's jewish mistress, salome alt,in 1606 but the gardens that surround the schloss are magnificent.

Heading back to the campsite we were both a bit under the weather, I'm not sure if it a touch of homesickness or a bit of depression knowing that we are going home in not too distant future. I've been reading a book on mathematical theorems which has been tough going but now that I've finished it and had a couple of glasses of wine; I'm feeling much better. I'm not sure how much actually went in and will be retained but I enjoyed the parts I understood which wasn't the entire book; if you really want to know.

While we were eating supper a family arrived on their bicycles, all five of them along with all their camping kit. Two parents and three boys and quickly set up camp and made supper so, siblings, what are you waiting for?

Vienna to Salzburg

330km of very difficult driving, I was exhausted by the time we arrived. The weather has turned so it is probably just as well that we are leaving Vienna.

We packed up early and headed for cafe epicure which is the local internet cafe where we bought some coffee and sat down to some posting for me and some email sorting out for Caron. From there we went to a camping shop something like Outdoor Warehouse in South Africa to get some more fuel for the stove and while we were there I bought a windshield for the stove. I have a flexible one in South Africa and it was a real mistake to not have brought it, there have been so many times that a windshield would have helped immensely with the cooking. I was sorely tempted to buy something expensive just for the hell of it, I haven't bought myself a toy or souvenir yet and I can feel the pressure mounting which means that I'm probably going to spend a lot of money on something frivolous in the near future. I can't believe that I am really missing shopping; of all things it is one I would not have said that I would miss.

Leaving the outdoor shop behind mabel had a moment and took us through what felt like the worst possible route. I don't know how many peep shows, erotic toy shops, adult venues, adult movie complexes we went past but I think it gives a different view of the squeaky clean picture Austrians like to convey. The adult movie complex was complimentary for women and couples, I tried to get Caron to go with me but she steadfastly refused; much to my amusement!

The drive was head-on into heavy wind and some serious downpours. Maybe not quite as bad as I've had in South Africa i.e. one could still see 100m ahead but they were pretty intense none-the-less. So by the time we arrived at the campsite, I had really had enough. As if to greet us the sun came out as we arrived so we could see the storms over the valley looking across the top of Salzburg.

I settled down to some cheese and wine while I recovered and admired the views which are spectacular from this campsite.

Our tent has been threatening for some time but today it finally had a wardrobe malfunction ala Janet Jackson. The zip, eish! she is broken! This is a real problem so we have closed it carefully and tied the bottom together and hope that it will hold for the rest of the holiday. This makes getting into and out of the tent a bit awkward but we'll have to see how it goes.

The Semmering Railway.

A new month, it is hard to believe that our mid-life crisis is almost over. It's just a few weeks until we meet up with William and Nita and from there the time will fly very quickly and we'll find ourselves back in Johannesburg taking up the yoke of employment once more to pay for the time we are having now.

Today we drove out to Semmering which is the town in the middle of a section of railway that is particularly picturesque. Going by guide books and hearsay one is never sure just what one is going to experience but today, as opposed to Lake Balaton, was good. Very beautiful countryside which seems to have skiing in winter and even now, one can see the remaining snow up on the northern faces of some of the mountains.

We caught the train to Payerbach and back and tried to take photographs from the moving train on the way there but it just doesn't work. There is often trees obscuring the view so by the time one realises that there is a picture, frames and focus's and presses the shutter a tree has come into view so I have a glorious array of photo's depicting fuzzy trees! Getting to Payerback, we gave up on the photo thing for the return trip and just concentrated on enjoying the scenery which was an altogether much better experience.

Once back at the car we ignored mabel for a while and explored looking for somewhere to have a coffee and a bite to eat but everything is closed; we thought at the time that this was because the ski season is over but it turns out that today is a public holiday.

This looks like a good place to hole up in Semmering during the winter months!

We eventually gave up finding somewhere to eat and headed back into the city to find a camping shop because we are running low on fuel for the stove and I don't feel like repeating the exercise I did in france trying to work out what works and what doesn't. We gave mabel the address and she guided us there, there was a shop there but it wasn't the correct shop. We entered the co-ordinates of the shop and mabel guided us 5km down the same road to the correct shop. Unbelievably there are two shops with the same number in the same road and no, the road did not change names so it must be an Austrian plot to confuse foreigners. When we got there it was also closed which was when we knew that it must be a public holiday of some sort.

Back at the camp I spent some time drinking my daily tipple before we went out for supper and to the internet cafe which was closed by the time we got there. A very simple day. When the sun is shining here, it is absolutely fantastic but there are far too many hours when the sun doesn't shine.

The showers at the campsite are unusual because they use proxity sensors to turn the water on and off, this works reasonably well when one is showering but has some unfortunate consequences when soaping or drying oneself. Sometimes the water turns on at unexpected moments; sometimes good technology is definitely used in the wrong places!