I was sad to say
goodbye to Phil and Jenny, not only loosing their company but it
meant taking the plunge and moving to the next country – Germany.
The road signs are so scary – the words look as if something bad is
imminent.
Our first stop was
Impflingen – Stuart’s wisecrack was it is the same as dwarf
throwing only with imps. Impflingen was surrounded by vineyards,
wheat fields and orchards. Apricots were being harvested as we cycled
by on the lovely little concrete roads that separated the fields. We
couldn’t figure out if they were public roads, they seemed to be
used as cycleways and tractor-roads. When no one was looking I stole
across to pluck a couple of those lucious looking fruit, but when
they were within my grasp it was obvious those golden fruits were as
hard as rock, so they remained on the tree.
We are flying blind
in Germany, we have an enormous book map of France but only a fold out
map for Germany which is low on detail. No Lonely Planet, no Rough
Guide and we don’t have a lot of internet data to play with. We
are using our book of camping aires as a guide to where there might
be interesting places to stay.
We settled on going
to a Bad place. Bad – means (thermal) bath and there were a lot of
Bad places to choose from. The one we picked had an aire for
wohnmobiles, set under leafy trees beside an expensive spa with a big
open air pool. Even with the 10% discount we were offered, the spa
seemed pricey. What amazed me was that the pool was only separated
from the general public by upright slabs of stone that had
people-sized gaps between them. This would not do in NZ.
Stuart has stopped at the fruit stall for raspberries |
It has now got very
hot – 30 degrees by 10 o’clock in the morning. We pressed on to a
mountain area thinking (wrongly) that it would be cooler. We are now
in the middle of the Black Forest area.
The Black Forest
isn’t black – looks to me more blue/green. The villages are
punctuated with needle like steeples. Steep pitched red tiled houses
are huddled together around the church, and the Gasthofs (guest
houses) are usually a floral bonanza to behold.
We curse the satnav
at times and watched with amusement as a Swedish couple obviously
following their satnav zig-zagged around town, even ending up behind
the aire at the cemetary, before parking next to us. That particular
aire didn’t score very highly on my scale of aire-points, all it
offered was a chance to empty the toilet. However satnav was very
well behaved and spot-on as she navigated us around the larger cities
directing us to motorways and roundabouts, as well as through the
main shopping thoroughfare if she could. We would really be blind in
these situations – impossible to follow a detailed map if you had
one, read the unfamiliar signs and keep up with the traffic. In one
place in Germany there was no speed limit and traffic was hurtling
past us.
Big cuckoo clock, Triberg |
Our arrival in
Germany is a big bread revelation for Stuart, he loves his bread and
thought he couldn’t live without fresh French baguette for
breakfast and lunch. On our first morning he chose a variety of seedy
and grainy rolls at the bakery. Two hours later we visited a
supermarket and he loaded long life bread into the trolley (in case
of a bread emergency). In addition to the above mentioned rolls he
bought some dark looking stuff for toast. Then he found the bread
dispensing machine. This called for decisions – something he is
finding harder as he gets older. There were 12 different kinds of
bread. There was a pic of each type of bread with the price – push
the button and it comes out. He stopped at just 2 choices which were
warm and eaten straight away in the truck.
We spent a couple of
nights at an aire that scored high points, (I should compile a
matrix) cowbells, churchbells, large chalets and alpine meadows
surrounded us. There was a free open-air ‘natural’ swimming pool
a short distance away and as I had endured several days in the 30s I
dragged Stuart along for a swim. Not quite what I expected – it was
very big with all the usual pool trappings but the water was a murky
brown colour and the bottom was gravel – still I was very hot. The
water was very cold and I took ages to achieve neck-high immersion.
It was incredibly popular though and I took great care not to ingest
any of the turbid liquid. Luckily the wacky French requirement for
men to wear speedos in swimming pools didn’t seem to apply.
The next day we had
some reprieve from the heat with temperature dropping to mid 20s.
Moving right along,
but not very far, we set up camp at an aire close to a lake, ie putting the handbrake on and faffing with levelling ramps if the gas hotwater won't work. We are very
close to the Swiss border but won’t be crossing into Switzerland as
we are restricted by export terms to stay in EU countries.
As in the other
parts of Germany we visited, the cycle paths are excellent and we did
a 20km circuit of the lake. Pine trees on the surrounding hills
almost touched the lake’s edge. We watched some kids on a couple of
sailboats, shades of Swallows and Amazons, their sails reflected
beautifully in the dark waters of the lake, voices carrying across
the water.
Next step is to get
out the map, consult the bible and plan our next night’s possible
spot, we might need to factor in a camping ground if we don’t find
a waschsalon (laundromat).
Great post Jane, Love the top pic! Yours or Stu's. Watch out for the ausfahrts! They spring up quickly on the autobahn! We are in verdun, enjoying the cooler weather, thunderstorms every night, thank goodness.Only 3 more nights left! Xx
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