Germany - so far
Now we move into Germany, to Hemer, to meet a Angelika, a cousin of Ray my brother-in-law. When they learnt that the next place we were heading to was to try to get our rooflight cover replaced, Martin got on the phone. We had to stay to the next day to phone back a place nearby who thought they may be able to get one. Next day, yes we can get one, it' s coming from Nuremburg, be here in the morning - so we had two nights in their driveway. What a fabulous couple. We couldn't have got it fixed without Martin's engineering knowledge and of course the language. While here they took us to an IKEA store - have you ever been to an IKEA store????? We spent about 5 hours there - it is a-maz-ing!!!!!!!!!!! Might be just as well we don't have one in NZ.... I also checked out some of Angelika's cook books and have more things to try!! We were very sad to leave here.
After a day or two we arrived at our friends Walter and Karin about 40 minutes south of Cologne. We met Walter and Karin in Te Anau camping ground kitchen in 1987 and have kept in touch since. They have stayed with us since in Rangiora, they love New Zealand. We had only planned on staying a couple of days but they said they wanted us to stay for my birthday. I was hoping they had forgotten as usually they so spoil us and not allow us to pay for anything that it gets embarrassing. However they allowed us to this time so we were happy. They are a few years older than us and they both have had health issues in the past year so it was great to spend time with them. One day they took us to a French market where there was a little lavender and heaps of food stalls. We tried another new food - kartofelwafel (potato waffle) with applesauce (me) or salmon, (Ken and Karin) or quark and herbs (Walter). The daughter of friends of Walter and Karin, Steffi, came one afternoon with her partner Wolfi and their toddler, Paulina. Steffi and Melanie used to be penpals and Steffi has stayed wth us in the past. Steffi is a doctor, anaethetist and is now training to specialise in pain relief but doesn't know how to handle her two year old's tantrums! I told her to walk away when she has a paddy - wonder if she's tried it! Somehow I doubt it. One evening Walter took us to a restaurant with a view - and boy what a view! Food was good too. It was a vineyard and berry farm. For my birthday we went to a Roman Villa at Ahrweiler. It was found when they were digging to make a new piece of road. We have been to a few roman villas but this one was certainly the most impressive. Most of it is still there up to about four feet above ground. Lunch was at another vineyard in a building that looked as though it had been designed by Hunderwasser or Gaudi - it was so unusual. Got rained out of our first seat. When a storm hits it comes in a hurry! Poor waitress got soaked rescuing everything off the outside tables. Walter and Karin have a beautiful garden and I got my hands dirty pulling a few weeds and trimming the lavender bushes when I was allowed! In the evening when we sit out on the terrace Walter lights the candles that are around the garden and it is just like fairy land. When we left them it was very very sad, lots of tears from all of us. They are a very special couple and we probably won't see them again - not on this earth anyway.
We just wanted a couple of quiet days to lick our emotional wounds so headed to a camp at Limburg. Nice old town to wander around, lots of cafes, bars and eateries. Sat and had an icecream and orange drink.
Decided to 'do' the Romantische Strasse (the Romantic Road) starting with Wurzburg. On the way we stopped at a town near Frankfurt to meet more people we didn't know but had heard about for years that Jenny and Ray and my parents had met many years previously at Totaranui. Tina was helping with the organisation for her parents 50th wedding celebrations so I only got to speak to her but we met Ralf her husband as he works from home as a financial advisor. He showed me some of Tina's patchwork quilts - made me want to get home and get started on patchwork!! Ralf also has bees and he showed us some of what he is doing in the back yard - the rest of the hives are at his allotment. Stayed at a village winery aire in Randersacker from where we planned to get a bus into Wurzburg the next day. Checked out the bus timetable and a bus supposedly didn't go till nearly 1pm. So we'll walk around the village and move on. Except in the morning we saw buses labeled for Wurzburg!! Grrrr..... ah well.....
On to Rothenburg ob der Tauber - easy to find parking for a change and only a few minutes walk into the city. All these old cities were walled and some of them the walls are still pretty much in tact and can be walked around. You get much more interesting views from above! On the way back to the van we saw a motorbike and sidecar that Ken reckoned was military. Stopped and talked to the guy and no, it wasn't military, it was Russian, made to look like military. He had broken down and had a ways to go to get home. After we'd moved on we looked back and he had his hands spread in exasperation!! but he had gone by the time we were on our way so either he got it going or he pushed it to a nearby bike workshop! When we said where we were from he said, like most do, ah beautiful country, green.... nature.... and we said, as we usually do, yes but you have such wonderful history. He responded in a way that has never been said to us before and that we hadn't thought of - you too have history, it's just not so long! I thought, that is so true but never thought of it like that before!!
A couple of towns next day - Dinkelsbuhl, another town with an invisible (read, impossible to find) tourist info centre, then to Nordlingen where we came upon by accident, a really good stellplatz. On the way we stopped and parked in the shelter of a closed supermarket building while a VERY violent thunder and lightening and rain storm went overhead. The thunder and lightening were amazing! When we were about to leave Nordlingen the next day I noticed the people in front of us (with a GB plate) had a cat on a lead. I went and talked to them. Usually people have a dog - at least one - but I'd never seen a cat in a van before. Got chatting about places to go and see etc and we've now decided not to go to Prague because if we don't have the proper paper work we could face up to a Euro1000 fine (about NZD2000) plus accommodation costs until you can draw the funds you need and the cost of impounding the vehicle (this happened to friends of theirs). Apart from the fact it's an awfully long drive, same with going to Auchwitz - we're now going to Dachau. Also not going to Croatia to the Plitvice regional park, also a long drive just to see some lovely lakes!
We stopped at the stellplatz in Donauworth, walked into town and decided to move on - nothing much there. Off to Rain and another good stellplatz. This town has a Lutheran church with a Bible garden. We both had the best sleep either of us has had for ages. Walked into the town, finally found the tourist information in the lobby of the Rathaus, only to be told the Bible garden is permanently closed! Walked up one side and down the other and into the Dehrner garden centre which also had the most beautiful gardens (free) and a glockenspiel which at 12.15 played Beethoven's 9th symphony. We decided to stay in Rain another night. It's only the cost of the power and is very quiet. Later in the afternoon another campervan man came and said there was a bad storm coming from Stuttgart and we should move away from under the trees if it comes. A bit later it did - another fantastic thunder and lightening storm with rain but not as much as the other day. (yes we had moved) Have never seen lightening like it - sky to ground stuff and lighting up the whole sky stuff!! The man next door came to the window and asked if he could come in as he was getting eating by mozzies. A little later his wife also came to the window with two glasses and their bottle of wine. They were from Darmstadt just south of Frankfurt, both teachers. We had a most ingteresting evening making more new friends.
We moved on next day to Dachau and the concentration camp memorial. So much to take in. Even though we've seen so much on television and read so much it only really hits you when you are actually at the place where it all happened. And Dachau was one of the more lenient camps, if it could be put that way.
Drove to have a night in a stellplatz at a big Hymer agency (they're a big German mobile home outfit) but the picture in the book didn't match the reality. Ken went walkabout to see if we'd missed something and while he was away the man came to empty out the electricity money box so I asked him and it seems that the stellplatz has moved from the other side of the road. There are now less sites, the water, toilets and waste disposal places are still over the road at the old site - so not so convenient as it would have been. Went to hook up and a boy next door said 'kaputt' - we knew what that meant even without translation! So we thought ok, a night on the gas, but then Ken decided to go walkabout again and found another pozzie so we moved - just after I'd opened all the windows and was drinking my wine, which I put on the bench while I closed the windows and then he took off and so did my glass!! It's ok, it didn't break!
Continuing further down the Romantische Strasse we went through several more beautiful little villages. One had a little church on a hill called St Ursula's. Man made hill and it was closed! The same story of so many places not living up to expectations and advertising.
We came to Schwangau, home of Neuschwanstein and Hohenshcwangau castles. Snow White's castle at Disneyland is modeled on Neuschwanstein. Both were only built in the 1800's, by father and son. The plan was to see them and maybe take a cable car up the mountain - BUT - after asking the lady in the bank if we could park in their carpark overnight - 'no, please do not' - she gave us 2 suggestions of camps, as, unlike other Romantische Strasse towns there was no mobile home parking, we went to Burren a couple of kms away. We managed to wiggle into one of two remaining places. And then in the night the rain started...... As I write this in the evening it still hasn't stopped. We'll need a boat to get away from here at this rate! Talking of boats, we're on the shores of the 5th largest lake in Bavaria - the Forggensee Lake at 793m above sea level, and at times today the cloud was right down to the lake surface.
But I got a load of washing done - tricky when you can't read the intructions! Asked the cleaning girl who asked her boyfriend and then the maintenance man ame along and I asked him and he got me sorted even though he doesn't speak English! He pulled out a bit of washing to see what it was - ie acrylic/woolen... pointed to the work acrylik on the dial and I nodded, he turned the dial, pointed to put the coins in, but I had a E2 and a E1 and it only takes E1's. Took me out in the hall where there was a machine where he instructed me to put in my E3 and out popped a token which I had to put in the washing mchine instead of coins and she was away!! Phew......... Then the drier was another story!! No-one about so I put the dial where I thought it should be, 20 minutes, but knowing that when I used my daughter-in-law's drier it took 50 minutes I was a bit concerned. After the due time went back and of course the washing was still wet. asked a lady in the kitchen if she spoke English - no. So went to the office and one of the ladies came and showed me which number I should have dialled. told her I'd have to get more money but she went away and came back with a token - and a while later I had beautifully dry washing!! I now know which word I need to look for - can't remember it but I'm sure I'll recognise it when I see it!! Though probably not a lot of use as we'll be leaving Germany within the next few days!
So we got all laptops, batteries, mp3 .... charged, washing done, rested, so rain or not tomorrow we're going to see those blimin' castles!!
I must say, that as we were driving into this valley I said to Ken I feel like I'm in 'The Sound of Music' - the hills and trees and the log houses and little mountain huts - where's Heidi??
The last few weeks have been so very very hot, making sleep difficult as well as the walking around the towns, so although the rain is a nuisance it has cooled things down. There are so many fields of crops around though, ready to harvest, that I'm sure there are lots of annoyed farmers as well.
We've met such interesting people along the way, most of whom we will never meet again, some who we will keep in touch with. But for me, so far, it is the people who have really made the trip.
