Europe 13 Jun 14 Füssen

Day 8 -  1 week in and we crossed Southern Germany through the Black Forest towards Bavaria. We stopped at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance/ Bodensee, but, although the lake is pretty, the area was jam packed as it was the German school holidays, so we decided to move on to Füssen in Bavaria. Parking at the stellplatz, we walked into town just as the heavens opened in an almighty thunderstorm that went on for ages. Clad in only T shirts and shorts we, along with many other people, waited patiently in a shop doorway for the deluge to stop. Eventually we ran for a bierkeller and had Jägerschnitzel, schweinhaxe - and superb Bavarian beer - yum!

Lake Constance

Black Forest Gateau in the Black Forest?
 

 

Europe 12 Jun 14 Equisheim and Freiburg

Day 7 - Equisheim and Freiburg.  Another hot and sunny day, with lovely fresh warm bread to make bacon sarnies for breakfast. We stopped at the Leclerc hypermarket in Colmar to pick up a few supplies before heading off for a quick look around Equisheim. This really has to be the prettiest town in Alsace and we had a great time looking around and trying to take photos of the storks nesting on the roofs. We bought a kugelhopf and then set out for Freiburg and Germany. It was then that the Sat Nav decided to throw a another wobbly and tried to take us miles out of our way before it decided that there was no route to Freiburg! It really doesn't like crossing borders. 

Ignoring the silly SatNav, we crossed the mighty Rhine into Deutschland, finding the stellplatz in Freiburg without too many problems.  We then had a wander around and walked up the mountain overlooking the town and the Black Forest, then climbed the very shaky tower at the top. Great fun, although it was 38 degrees and the heat was pretty insufferable.

 

 

 

Europe 11 Jun 14 Riquewihr and Colmar

Day 6 - The Alsace wine route, Riquewihr and Colmar. An early start and a short 30km drive down the Alsace wine route (only getting lost once) for brunch (tarte oignon - delicious) in Riquewihr, getting there just before the hordes of tourists descended. This is a real chocolate-box village and it was a delight to wander around, plus we took a ride on the little tourist train. We then moved on again to Colmar which is a much bigger place. We looked at the aire, but it was very noisy and not very pleasant so we pitched up at the campsite, had a bit of a sort out, then took the bus into town. It was another incredibly hot day, so we found a cafe by the cathedral with a lovely breeze blowing to cool us down and we sat and people watched for a while before taking the bus back to the site for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

Europe 10 Jun 14 Strasbourg

Day 5 Strasbourg. We walked into Obernai and figured out how to get the train into Strasbourg. Our first impressions from the train window were "yuk", but once we wandered around a bit and found the cathedral area and Petite France we found it to be stunning. Following a tarte flambé (Munster cheese - lovely) in a delightful restaurant overlooking the river and the obligatory bottle of cremant, we had a good nosy around the city, didn't hit any of the wasters riding the gravy train of the European Parliament, and then got the train back to Oberrnai just in time for the thunderstorm to hit. At least it cooled the place down a bit!

 

 

Europe - 9 Jun 14 Obernai

Day 4 Alsace. It's a bank holiday and there was no bread to be found anywhere in Luxembourg!  Oh well, a handful of biscuits and then off towards Alsace in blazing heat once again. We made the mistake of following the sat nav rather than the map so the journey was a fairly long one, venturing into Germany and dropping down back into France at Strasbourg. Still, the scenery was lovely and we arrived slightly early for the camp site to open (the French and their long lunch hours) so we sat outside, had a cold beer and waited for reception to open. We had a nice, shady pitch, so quickly set up  and walked into Oberrnai to have a couple of ice-cold beers in the shade, We wandered around this very pretty town, had an ice cream, tasted some local Cremant and headed back for dinner and a bottle of local wine at the bus. Boy, was it hot!

Europe - 8 Jun 14. Luxembourg

Day 3 Luxembourg. The day started with a tremendous thunderstorm and the rain lashed it down, but half an hour later the sun was out and we set off for the 75 mile drive to our next stop in Luxembourg. That is, we set out to empty the waste water and found that the incredibly bad Belgian roads had worked the waste pipe connection loose, so it was a matter of putting the rear nearside of the bus on the ramps and clambering underneath to reattach and secure the pipe. Bloody Belgian roads!  We completed the rest of the journey uneventfully through some lovely scenery and, getting low on fuel, we were pleased to see the first garage in Luxembourg.  There were long queues and we soon found out why; 95p per litre! We filled up to the brim - what a bargain.  We soon found the delightful campsite camping Bon Accueil  and paid an incredibly good value 14 euros for a pitch the size of our back garden, electricity, lovely loos and showers and all in a very pretty location. The UK is such a rip-off. We had a lazy lunch and then unhitched the bikes and rode the 6 miles into Luxembourg City down a delightful and stunningly beautiful cycle track which followed the river into the city. Once there, we parked up and had a wander around this very interesting place, including a festival in the main square, but it was roasting hot and we felt claggy, so instead of staying for dinner we cycled back, showered and had a nice steak outside the bus on our very own country estate. We would like to go back to Luxembourg as there is a lot on offer here.