Europe 18 Jun 14 Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Day 13 - Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Early start and a very pretty drive through Munich and down towards the Alps, arriving at the stellplatz at about 1030hrs knowing that this would be a popular spot and the parking would fill up quickly. The stellplatz is just under the rather unfortunately named Wank mountain and the Wankbahn cable car is on site, so we took a trip up the mountain (5,840ft), admired the view, watched a helicopter delivering concrete to a precarious building site, came down, had lunch and walked into Garmisch,  had a lovely typical Bavarian meal, and then walked back through Partenkirchen to the Stellplatz.

Note the mountain boots

 

 

Europe 17 Jun 14 Erding

Day 12.  A morning wandering around Erding thinking that the town must be full of hypochondriacs as every second shop is a chemist. Bread and croissants were cheap, but not a supermarket to be found and, as the incredibly hot weather has turned our waste tank into a smell generator, we need to find some soda to give it a good flush through. The afternoon and evening were spent in Europe's largest thermal spa. We emerged totally relaxed, thoroughly scrubbed and steamed and a little bit pink from the combination of heated spa and the open air swim-up bar - excellent!

 

 

Europe 16 Jun 14 Munich

Day 11 - Munich. An early start and a walk to the train station at Altenerding to get a cheap day family ticket into Munich, a city we know very well and like very much indeed. On this occasion, however, it would appear that the primary aim was to test out all the wonderful shoe shops that Munich offers. Despite walking around all day she found no shoes that she liked. Still, we had beer and Schweinhaxe in the ever brilliant Hofbrauhaus, had more beer in the Chinese tower Biergarten in the Englisher garden, and wandered around all the sights of this great city.  We eventually arrived home shattered, especially as the train was delayed due to an incident on the line at Markt Swabing. Must be a football fan celebrating Germany's win over Portugal in the World Cup.

 

Marienplatz

Hofbrauhaus

Inner city surfing on the Eisbach

Englischer Garten

Ready for the football

Odeonsplatz

Viktualienmarkt

 

 

 

Europe 15 Jun 14 Fussen to Erding

Day 10 - Fussen to Erding.  A gentle Sunday morning drive north east from Fussen in lovely weather saw us arrive at Erding at lunchtime. Erding has some happy memories of a number of excellent work visits to the RAF field office at the Fliegerhorst and it was nice to be back. We set up in the Stellplatz at Therme Erding, cooked dinner and dossed around in the sunshine.

 

 

Typical Bavarian Maibaum (Maypole) in Altenerding

 

Europe 14 Jun 14 Fussen and Neuschwanstein

Day 9 - Neuschwanstein and Fussen. After the deluge of the night before the day dawned bright and warm and I took an early stroll along to the beautiful Forgensee whilst she slept off the beer and jaegerschnitzel of the night before.  Later, we unloaded the bikes and cycled towards Schwangau to find Mad King Ludwig's fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein, used in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and  plastered on thousands of pieces of Bavarian tourist tat. We got lost (of course) on some badly marked trails, but found some lovely villages and a display of old fire engines, so getting lost is no bad thing. Eventually we arrived and joined the hordes of tourists on the relentless climb to the castle - and it was hard going. We then bimbled along to the Marienbrücke bridge (the suspension footbridge behind the castle) - another arduous climb. This bridge (which is older than the castle) is named after Ludwig's mother and spans the gap over a waterfall nearly 100 metres below. We took the less tourist-packed off-piste route back to the small town and a well-deserved beer and currywurst in the Biergarten. Once again, we got lost going back to Fussen and ended up climbing yet another mountain, but we did go past some very attractive lakes and ended up 500m from Austria. Still, we arrived home safely, did some shopping and cycled back into town for a swift half before heading home again for dinner.

Forgensee

Lost?

Hohenschwangau Castle

Neuschwanstein

Lech Falls

Hohes Schloss (High Castle)