Baja, Bugac and Budapest

Thursday 28^th August – We head off towards Baja, an old town on the Danube, passing through fields of sunflowers and the occasional isolated village.

Typical Hungarian countryside. Vast quantities of sunflowers are grown here.

Hungarian villages often stretch out for miles along the single road that passes through them. Why build unnecessary roads? Makes walking to the shop a bit of a hike for some though!

The river is wider here and the flow is slower. The Danube divides into channels and there a several islands which are accessible by bridge from Baja. There are plenty of grassy river banks so you can sit by and swim in the river. There’s even some newly developed cafes, walkways and beaches. It has been a popular place for people from Budapest to have weekend houses since before the Second World War.

The Big Wide Danube

Baja town centre

After a night in Baja we head to Bugac, which is on the edge of the Kiskunsagi National Park, where the landscape of the original Great Plains is preserved; sandy grasslands with juniper and black mulberry trees. The land is not completely flat and has alternating sand dunes and flat wind furrows where in the past wetlands formed. Only about a 10^th of this area is left in its natural state. Most is now used for forestry and arable farming. Unlike ‘national parks’ elsewhere, there is almost no access to it. The limited dirt tracks are usually private and there is virtually no parking – I suppose that’s the idea – It keeps it natural. Not very handy for a Heidi spot though!

Typical local road – not very Heidi friendly!

Within the National Park is the Bugacpuszta, which has a few traditional herder dwellings, sweep wells and a Herder Museum. In the past, the majority of the Plains were grazed by large herds of cattle and sheep ‘managed’ from horseback. The horsemanship skills of the herdsmen developed to an extraordinary level and they’re attempting to keep that alive in a show for us tourists. An impressive spectacle where they race one another bareback playing games; carrying (and not spilling) glasses of beer, knocking down skittles with their wips… and where one csikos(herder) gallops five horses at full speed while standing on the backs of the back two. There seemed surprisingly few visitors considering this is surely ‘high season’. It is miles from anywhere though.

‘sweep well’. Water is anything from 3 – 10m down. These are a common sight. Originally used to keep the Cattle watered.

 

Ever seen a horse do that? They can seemingly get a horse to do anything. Hungarian horsemanship is renowned the world over.

!!!!

After lunch under the trees (It’s mid 30’s here in the full sun) we follow the cycle route to the ruins of a 13^th Century monastery, finding wild grapes on the way.

Yum! Small, but what a taste hit

 

Apart from a few reconstructed foundations there’s not much to see, but we enjoyed exploring the countryside in the sunshine.

On Sunday 31st August we pay a brief visit to Kechskemet, before heading North along the Danube towards Budapest. By early evening we’re parked up next to the Danube on the outskirts of Szentendre 10 km North of Budapest. Monday it rained and rained all day so a part from brief trip to do the shopping we stayed indoors.

An impressive, but crumbling, City Hall of Kecskemet.

A welcome shaded park in Kecskemet. Fountains of course! Paving and fountains seem to be the first place any money goes. Will they ever have the resourses to restore the crumbling buildings?

Tuesday brought sunshine so we cycle along the Danube to the old centre of Szentendre, and visit our first Serbian Orthodox Cathedral and Museum (Here because they were escaping the invading Ottomans) complete with hundreds of icons. Lots to look at, but to our eyes, all very similar. Orthodox Christianity and Icons – another area of life we know virtually nothing about!

Szentendre. Very different from anything we’ve seen in Hungary so far. It almost had a Mediterranean feel to it – complete with the tourist tat shops.

We then try some local fare at a café. Peter being very brave chooses a cheese and mushroom toastie while Elaine has a Hortobagyi Palacsinta – a savoury pancake filled with mince meat and topped with a sour cream and paprika sauce. Hmm, She’s not rushing for seconds!

A rather dubious “Hortobagyi Palacsinta”. The homemade lemonade was good though.

Wednesday morning we drove along the river and into Budapest and surprisingly easily find Haller Camping, which is just a few kilometres from the city centre, so the perfect location to spend the next three days exploring the city. The price of the campsite included the use of their washing machines, so by early evening we had two loads of washing, washed and dried and had made full use of the unlimited hot showers! The campsite manager was very friendly, spoke excellent English and gave us lots of information on Budapest, making life much easier than anticipated.

Home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest

driving into Budapest

The sight to see – The Parliament Buildings

crossing the Danube

On Thursday we set off with our two-day Hop on, Hop Off, tourist bus tickets, and hop on the bus to go and visit the Castle Hill District of Buda, the west side of the Danube. The first stop is the neo-Gothic Matthias Church, where King Matthias was twice married and where the coronations of other Hungarian monarchs took place. The inside is extremely intricately painted on all surfaces and the roof is decorated with tiles from the Zsolnay porcelain factory in Pecs (the Zsolnays were the first to develop metallic finishes for porcelain and there work ordains many of the finest buildings in Hungary). There were great views from up here across the river and the rooftops of Pest.

Matthias Church with its fancy roof

inside – intricately painted on every surface

Considering the intricacies of everything else, this is oddly plain, and black! We wondered if this was the work of the Turks?? Apparently they finally conceded to the Habsburgs, reportedly following a vision of ‘Mary interceding to (their)Allah’??

There are other impressive roofs around. A smaller church nearby:

After a lunch on a terrace with views to the Buda Hills, we walk through the medieval streets to the former Royal Palace. The palace has been destroyed and rebuilt at least a half-dozen times in the last seven centuries; it now houses the Hungarian National Gallery and History Museum. Next, it’s back on the bus, via the Citadella, and then along the West bank of the Danube, before crossing the Margaret Bridge into Pest. We hop off the bus at Elizabeth Square and enjoy an ice cream whilst cooling our weary feet!

it’s what everybody is doing, so..

 

After a successful mission to find and purchase tram tickets, we get diverted to a ‘touristic market’ by following the sound of some fabulous guitar music. So we buy a beer (Dark Cherry Beer – yes, a bit odd!) and enjoy this musical interlude from our sightseeing. These guys were great! A bit on the rocky side of blues I suppose summed them up. Apparently there’s a bit of a blues history to the music here – suits us. And it’s free!

Some very impressive Guitar playing accompanied with some dubious beer.

We dragged ourselves away, to more sightseeing:

it’s not all in such great repair!

I never knew that under all those apparently massive stone blocks and fancy carvings ..was in fact bricks! It’s all just render! But this is a common site in Hungary

St. Stephen’s Basilica was in somewhat better shape:

St. Stephen’s Basilica

So what makes it a ‘Basilica’ rather than a church or cathedral? Elaine reckons there’s got to be a saint (or a bit of a saint!) buried there. They seem to have ‘the door on the side’ of the rectangular building (and in this case the altar too) rather than ‘at the end’ – any advances on our inadequate architectural knowledge?..

Having chickened out of trying an ‘authentic’ Hungarian café for dinner (maybe it was the waitress enthusing over the STARTER of “raspberry cream soup with caramel sauce” that put us off) we plump for an Italian and daringly try a pizza. Then it’s a mad rush to catch the boat for our free (included in the tourist bus price) evening cruise on the river including free glass of wine. The boat was departing as we arrive and amazingly! comes back for us. A relaxing end to a hectic day!

Day 2 of the ‘hop on hop off’ bus pass and we set off again to see all the things we missed on day one. We visit the Great Synagogue. It was Lonely Planet’s ‘top choice’ – not sure why! We paid an arm and a leg to get in, including a guided tour from someone descended from those persecuted there during the war. The majority were basically starved having been prevented from leaving the small Jewish Quarter around the Synagogue. No supplies were allowed in either. The numbers represented in the garden of remembrance were harrowing. There was also a Jewish museum, which unfortunately followed the style of other Hungarian ‘museums’ – plenty of stuff to look at but rather lacking in explanation.

The inscription is the hebrew for ‘God’ – I thought the Jews weren’t supposed to say or write it?

Showing their resilience, there is once again a big Jewish population here and they’re not entirely happy with how history is being represented here, as we had discovered the previous evening when we came across a sculpture..

 

The offending sculpture commemorating Hungary’s German occupation on 19th March 1944.

..with this reaction against it:

reaction against the unacceptable monument

Whilst we stood there looking confused one of the protesters offered us the following explanation (click the link below)

http://wp.me/p4yMnw-aY

It seems that Hungary’s people like much of Western Europe; have in recent years become more and more right wing in their choice of government. We were however somewhat surprised to find the BBC calling Viktor Orban’s tactics of high taxes on foreign owned companies in the country “aggressive”. Sounded perfectly reasonable to us.

This ‘drama’ sits right next to yet another cool Hungarian fountain. When you walk towards the ‘wall’ of water, it automatically stops, just for a moment, allowing you to ‘get inside’. Love it!

After another busy day, we turned down the opportunity of spending over 40euro each at one of the fancy spas that Budapest is famous for, head home to the campsite on the tram, and spend a pleasant evening at the campsite restaurant serving up traditional Hungarian fare (Goulash Soup, Pork Budapest Style..) and some more good live music. The friendly owners / staff? were perhaps a little more concerned with dancing and enjoying the music themselves than checking whether you needed another drink! but we enjoyed the night none the less.

We found the campsite restaurant much more to our taste than the busy city

 

Budapest day 3 – having decided that we couldn’t possibly do any more sightseeing (and discovered a much more reasonable thermal bath option) we head for ‘Rudas’ the oldest traditional geothermal spa in Budapest (built by the Turks in 1566) and spend hours relaxing and getting clean. They’re very popular with baths of all temperatures, saunas and steam rooms and of course ‘the cold! one’ And then it’s time to begin again..

Rudas Thermal Baths

There’s plenty more to see in Budapest including endless museums and galleries. We enjoyed the ‘vibe’ but really need a more relaxed pace and staying in the campsite was getting expensive. We’ve also missed the north-east of Hungary, a more mountainous, wine growing region, and ‘the danube bend’ where it cuts through these mountains, but as usual the weather is against us. It’s time to hit the road to Romania….
Don’t forgett you can keep right up to date via our google map, click the link below or use the tab on the top of the ‘Home’ page.

Maps of Heidi’s Travels

 

 

 

 

 

Heidi in Hungary

Sun 17^th Aug, we leave Heidi in ‘safe western Europe’ and head off into the unknown of Hungary on the bikes…

It feels like we’re sneaking in the back way. The route by car is a LONG way around!

We cycle through similar enough countryside covered with grape vines to Fertorakas and follow the road to Balf.  All is very quiet (its Sunday). The properties are much the same as just over the border, end on to the road and stretching back a long way. Deteriorating as they go back into barns and outbuildings, usually with a strip of immaculately kept ‘garden’ / driveway between, and with corn cobs hanging out in the sun to dry. Everything looks like it’s been a while since any funds were available for maintenance; there are a lot of well-kept but old cars about..

Corn cobs drying in the sun

It’s a beautiful, hot, sunny day as we cycle through the rolling hills and grapevines, pausing at a ‘fountain’ where everybody is collecting their drinking water. We top up our water bottles, only to find it sulphurous, with a distinctive eau de egg. I quite like it, especially cold from the spring, but Elaine is less sure.

We turn back towards Sopron and are more than pleasantly surprised. Sopron dates back to Roman times, with many ancient buildings much as they were in the past.  An advantage over many places that have had funds and inclination to restore and ‘upgrade’ over time. Also, the Ottomans never got this far.

Sopron was the site of the famous ‘Pan-European Picnic’  held on 19th August 1989; starting a chain of events which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall three months later and ultimately the tearing down of the ‘Iron Curtain’. ( Interesting article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/hungary/6408378/Sopron-Hungary-the-picnic-that-changed-the-world.html ) And it’s just 25 years ago.

I tentatively place my ‘plastic’ in ‘the hole in the wall’ and am presented with a great many thousands of completely unknown banknotes; all the better to enjoy the fete or whatever it is, that is going on in the main square. Local wine and beer and all manner of unrecognisable and unpronounceable food is ‘going on’. We wander around taking it all in, especially the elaborate, music accompanied, fountain.

Sopron main square

The ‘dancing’ musical fountain

..with some impressive engineering behind it!

Then with great trepidation managed to communicate enough to get food (some sort of sugary dough wrap thing called a kurtoskalacs) and drinks (an indecipherable fruit punch). For this we handed over thousands! of the ‘monopoly money’, and sat, waiting for the music to start and trying to pluck up courage to partake in the Sorhaz (beer house). I’m afraid to say I chickened out. Not only had one to choose between ‘light’ / ‘dark’ beer (‘vilagos’ / ‘barna’), you then had to decide on a size, with a specific name, and if that wasn’t enough, repeat what you couldn’t read properly in Hungarian – a completely unrecognisable language like nothing you have seen or heard before!

We loitered a bit trying to soak up the atmosphere and closely observing what was a ‘normal’ request from the completely unrecognisable food stalls, before deciding that, since we had no map, it was probably wise to try to escape this strange new world while there was still some daylight.

hehe – it’s all high tech here

Well, we made it out alive, and got back to Heidi before dark…
The next day, somewhat reluctantly, we leave an ideal parking spot, and head into Hungary with Heidi and more unknowns..
We follow the main road ‘84’ toward Lake Balaton, the largest fresh water lake in central Europe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Balaton  ,Surprisingly only having an average depth of 3.2m perhaps accounting for its ‘muddyness’. The roads are long and very straight and the countryside flat and agricultural (mainly corn and sunflowers)

We stop near Keszthely on the SW end in a ‘beach’ carpark and reluctantly stump up the 500flt (less than 2eu) each to ‘enter’ and swim. It’s packed! windy and not exactly warm. The water is grey and very opaque.

It looked nice in ‘the brochure’

…the reality was somewhat different!

We go with the flow; realising that after 6.30pm, entrance is free and our chosen spot is deserted and quiet J

Tue 19^th. We set out on the bikes to explore. Heading for Keszthely centre, we discover that although you can get close to and occasionally sit near the lake, swimming is extremely difficult unless you pay to enter one of the many artificial ‘beaches’ . The edges are all artificially reinforced with sharp rocks. Humph.

An impressive town square leads us to the palace and gardens ..owned by the Festetics family for generations. ‘Grof Festetics Gyorgy’ (Count Gyorgy Festetics) being the most influential, turning the palace into a cultural centre, expanding the Library and founding the ‘Geogikon’ a pioneering institute for Hungarian agriculture which became famous throughout Europe.

Keszthely main square

Keszthely Palace

 

Count ‘Georgy’

A wander through the market; they like their paprikas here!

Keszthely was a nice enough place, rather ruined by an inordinate amount of ‘museums’ (there must have been 20!) all hoping to fleece the tourists to look at one thing or another. I’m sure some of it, be it folklore, pottery, agricultural tools, puppets, erotica, antique stoves, lace… might have been interesting, but the choice and variety of complex pricing was bewildering.

The scary language still preventing much interaction, but we did manage a couple of drinks (ordered in German!) ..and then it was back on the bikes for further exploration.

There’s a dedicated bike path all around the lake (all 200km of it). Unfortunately much of it is set back from the edge and the views are obscured by reeds – the view was actually mainly of the railway line! We went as far as Balatongyorok; just one of a great many holiday places with artificial beaches charging for access to the water; this one with music and attractive NOT! Exercise classes to join in.

Maybe it was the weather or we didn’t give it enough chance, but Balaton really wasn’t doing it for us. Another cold, greyish, uninspiring evening encouraged us to leave and drive via Helviz and its busy thermal spa and on to the Kis-Balaton lakes and marshes just to the SW. What a difference! It’s soo much quieter. We stop at a nature reserve carpark for the night and take a stroll before dark.

Kis-Balaton nature reserve – look clear water!

We stayed for a couple of days, enjoying the peace and quiet and the sounds of the birds – but not the mosquitoes! Luckily only a problem around dusk; the noise they make has to be heard to be believed! Luckily we can retreat inside and close all of the fly screens!

Friday 22^nd we continue our journey. Travelling on small, far from even, and very straight roads through the countryside (again mainly corn and sunflowers) we pass through quiet villages stretched out along the road and looking very self-sufficient with their well-tended veg. gardens and selection of chickens and goats etc. Several places are apparently derelict and for sale. Some places appear to have a selection of Roma inhabitants, the kids waving at us as we go by. We are definitely ‘odd’ in these parts; everybody turns their heads as we go by.

We stop at Koposvar for some shopping and a stroll round the town. It’s a big place, much of it made up of very run down looking flats, luckily partly hidden between attractive tree-lined avenues. The buildings in the centre were obviously once grand, but have now been declining for several decades. The EU money is now reaching here too and much effort is going into paving the pedestrian centre, restoring / adding fountains (the Hungarians might even be MORE fond of fountains than the Germans – if that’s possible?) and statues,

Koposvar centre has seen some renovation

..most of it is rather drap though. A favoured colour seems to have been dull green

part of a series of many – obviously by the same artist / designer

..and of course one must install ‘european regulation’ kiddie springy things!

We continue on in the direction of Pecs (pronounced Paich – that’s Hungarian spelling for you!) We stop for a few days near Orfu in the Mecsek Hills, at a series of lakes with some perfect free camping spots..

complete with our own, almost private, swimming steps 🙂

The weather as usual is pretty mixed, but we loiter here for several days, relaxing, swimming in the lake, cycling round it and walking in the surrounding hills and countryside. Considering its August and one assumes high season? It’s very quiet here. There’s lots of holiday apartments, a big water fun park with slides etc. several bars and campsites, canoe hire etc, but all seem very underused. At least one campsite is completely empty and shut up and looks like it has been for a while. Wonder why?

where’s Heidi?

 

walking through the VERY quiet woodlands

typical countryside in much of Hungary – so far

covered wells are a common sight in the villages, but I suspect most have mains water these days

Hungarian water pumps are also a common sight – useful for filling Heidi’s tank.

Relaxing hard!

Plenty of fishing (or should that be baiting?) boats

Fishing is very popular here. We wondered at the locals’ technique – it seems that even if you have a boat here, you only use it for going out and ‘pre-baiting’, if that is the right terminology?, the area that you will later cast out to from the bank. We watched several people doing this – strange! Surely if you’ve got a boat, you fish from the boat?? The ultimate in ‘wierdness’ was one young lad, who, without a boat at his disposal, donned rubber ring and flippers and swam out with his bucket of bait to bait the area and then returned to the bank to cast out!
We spent a day in Pecs, visiting ‘the old bit’ with it’s many impressive building, attractive squares, and of course fountains and water features. The ‘big Wow’ here was definitely St. Peter’s Basilica with its 4 towers and huge statues depicting the apostles along the roofline. Recently restored in its entirety to celebrate the 1000^th anniversary of the foundation of the diocese of Pecs, the inside is literally jaw dropping; painted in unbelievable detail on every surface. It’s so unusual to see something of this age and size in equally good condition throughout! The crypt was no less impressively adorned. And the acoustics – Wow! We were lucky enough to be there just as a tour guide demonstrated by singing a Hungarian hymn. I looked around for the speakers providing the accompaniment. There weren’t any! And it wasn’t just her ability; another tour guide proceeded to make an equally astonishing demonstration after her.

St. Peter’s Basilica

 

Wow!

 

SO much more than expected!

Amazing detail! There are vast areas covered in the identical geometric pattern seemingly without fault – at a quick glance you’d think it was printed wallpaper!

..and it continues down in the crypt

..and in the side chapel – Look at that ceiling!

outside, most of the surrounding buildings were also impeccably restored. Quiet leafy squares and fountains (of course!) too

We also hoped to visit the ‘Mosque Church’ in the main (‘Szechenyi Ter’) square. It’s the largest building still standing in Hungary from the time of the Turkish occupation (1543 – about 1700). It was still undergoing restoration and was unfortunately completely surrounded by fencing and piles of building rubble – ready 2015 (not the first time we’ve been just that bit too early at one of these sights!) Oh well, the surrounding buildings and beautiful weather (for a change!) made up for it.

The ‘Mosque Church’ in the main square

 

just a small change on the outside it seems

Many other impressive buildings surround the square

The National Theatre of Pecs

and MORE fountains 🙂

Next we’re off to find the Danube again; it’s been a while since we saw it last, and onwards to ‘The Great Plains’..

Lingering in Linz

We crossed the border in to Austria on Saturday 9th August and were pleased that with the Sat Nav set to ‘no toll roads’ we could cross the country without the need of a Vignette. (needed for motorways and expressways) Taking the ‘slow roads’ gave us plenty of time to admire the Austrian towns and countryside.  As mentioned in our last post we reached the Mondsee by lunchtime; a beautiful place to swim and relax in the sun. Although we managed to find a small space to park for the night, places were very few and far between.  Over 90% of the lakeside is privately owned. There are ‘private lakeside gardens’ everywhere, plenty not even near a house.  Most parking places along the lake did not allow parking between 8pm and 8am and many said no motorhomes at all!  No camping or fires were allowed either!  However we were encouraged to see the Austrians happily ignoring the signs!

On Sunday after a morning swim, 2 paces from our front door! :), we followed the Sat Nav mystery tour through Austria, via the Altersee (with many more wonderful places to stop) and along the very quiet roads through an empty Wels (Sunday is very definitely a quiet, rest day in Austria!) to Mauthausen (just outside Linz) by the Danube for a lunch break.  The Danube has grown a lot bigger since we last saw it. We are now 2110km from the Danube Delta and 670km from its ‘source’ in Donaueschingen.

After a little siesta in the sun we drove the last 20km to Bauernhoff Ziermetzer near Tragwein to meet up with our friends Nick and Silvia, who were staying in a holiday let at the farm.  The farmer was happy for us to park for free and finally the weather behaved so we able to enjoy good food and good company outside well into the night.

The farm has a small dairy herd, chickens, and rabbits. The family makes apple juice and cider from their own apples as well as corn and pear schnapps.  The farm has been in the family for 250 years. The farmer gets up at 5.30am to milk the cows before going to work at a local timber yard where he works until 2pm and then it’s back to the farm!  The farmer and his wife were both friendly and hospitable. The farmer’s wife even took a picture of Heidi and asked for a tour – ‘kleine aber feine’ was her opinion of Heidi.

View across the field

Cows waiting to be milked – with a little Austrian moozic as they wait!

Boys will be boys!

Silvia, Nick, Me, Mrs Farmer, Lucas, Oliver

On Tuesday after a rainy Monday cycling along the Danube we headed to Linz with our local tour guides Nick and Silvia..

There’s a huge area of free parking overlooking the river at Linz – ideal for us!

view across the Danube to Linz from our parking spot

..and by night. Many of the art galleries are lit up with alternating colour lights ..and on warm summer evenings you can sit by the river and enjoy free music concerts (That’s when it’s not RAINING)

We wandered around Linz in the drizzly rain. This summer? really hasn’t been kind to us! Lots of impressive old buildings, most built around a ‘hof’ or courtyard in their centre. I wonder if this stems from the Ottoman’s traditional building style? although there doesn’t seem much need for shade here!

inside one of the more accessible ‘hofs’. Many are closed off / private and have been converted into flats

Linz is very ‘arty’. There are loads of galleries and craft shops. There’s also a major art college. After lunch in one of Silvia’s favourite student haunts, we opted for the ‘hoehenrausch’ http://www.hoehenrausch.at , a combination of various walkways, a tower high above the rooftops and various art installations. It was originally supposed to be a temporary thing, but has now been in place for several years. Unfortunately much of the walkway was closed off for repair – reopening 2015 – typical! We did get in cheaply though; courtesy of a friend of Silvia’s working on the desk – ‘student’ (of life) rate. Hehe! Great views over the rooftops (which would’ve looked much nicer in the sunshine!)

Elaine ‘experiencing the art’

this is ‘art’ too. “Giant Billiards”

The “no worries tower” towering above the rooftops. It’s supposed to be a replica of a lookout tower on the nearby Czech border ..sounds like an excuse to build a tower to me!

More ‘art’. The girl on the swing is only wearing a raincoat because it is actually raining! In the sunshine you can swing through this curtain of water and stay dry. It stops very briefly when the swing’s ropes are upright. Viewed from the left it looks like you’re swinging in the rain – clever!

and you can take part in the art too. When Elaine jumped up and headed the ball, she got her picture automatically taken and added to a revolving video along with all the other participants.

high above the rooftops of Linz

and look where the walkway used to go – through the church tower! This was the bit being repaired – shame

We said farewell to Nick, Silvia and the boys and lingered hoping for some sunshine and tried to plan a boat trip back up the Danube and a bike ride back …this never happened. Because of unuseful boat trip timetables, meaning we’d have to spend 2 nights away and the continuing rain and greyness not exactly inspiring us! We spent another day wandering around Linz in the drizzle, eating ice-creams and drinking coffee, trying to soak up the COLD summer vibe, before heading south and east in a desperate attempt to find some sunshine!

We travel through the flat, mainly agricultural, landscape, following the Danube, past Grein and through an attractive section where the valley narrows and becomes more wooded, as far as Ybbs a. d. Donau, where we cross the river above  huge locks. As soon as we are away from the busy east west corridor across the country (Innsbruck – Salzburg – Linz – Wien), it is  much quieter on the roads as we cross ‘lower Austria’ towards the Neusiedler See on the border with Hungary. We came down out of the hills and it was much drier and warmer with fields of sunflowers and grapevines. That’s better!

The Danube, just beyond Grein

 

quiet roads across ‘Lower Austria’

We spent several days just outside Morbisch am See enjoying the (mainly) sun, sun sun 🙂 . Unfortunately the lake is surrounded by reeds, miles deep in places, and the only access to the water is via artificial ‘beaches’ that are fenced off and demanding a fee to enter!  We took a boat trip  and then cycled all around the Austrian bit, which was most of it, ..and a whole lot further than anticipated at 80+ km! Tired legs and bums! Luckily it’s mainly flat and on dedicated tracks through the vines, the sunflowers and the corn fields. Almost back, we stopped for a drink in Rust. Rust is the centre of the wine industry around here and a real tourist draw. Every other place is a wine cellar / ‘hof’ offering a taste of their wares.

bikes loaded on the boat. It’s popular with bikers – there were often many more

cycling through the vines

The attractive old centre of Rust, busy with wine tasters

Silly birds! what a mess

Surprise surprise, the next day was a rest day. We spent much of the day ‘chillin” in the sunshine, reading and even doing some washing. There have not been many opportunities to hang washing out in the sun on this trip! We finished the day with a short bike into Morbisch, a nice little place, with plenty of cafe’s and more wine places, for an ice-cream. Well it was our Anniversary – 17 years! We even went and stuck our wheels (bike wheels) into Hungary – an adventure for tomorrow perhaps?…

looking out across the Neusiedler See and the reedbeds

 

The bike route to Hungary (the only way across the border at this point. It’s a long way round by car)

‘Alpenstrasse’ to Austria

On Saturday 2^nd August, we drove the 120km from Ulm to Fussen in the foothills of the Alps. Not exactly following the Danube? Well we fancied something a bit different (Peter wanted mountains!) …and to be fair, nearly all the rivers and lakes on this side of the Alps flow into the Danube. So we were just checking out more ‘sources’.

We managed our usual trick of finding a parking spot just outside of town and after lunch and a cuppa, cycled the 4km into Fussen old town centre. We then cycled along the River Llach (looking very full and fast! At this rate most of Hungary will be under water by the time we get there!).

We followed the signs to Schwangau, where, each on their own hilltops, two large Schlossen face each other. The first is the Schloss Neuschwanstein , built by king Ludwig II. The castle is world-famous as it is the model for Disney’s fairy-tale castle. Ludwig was obsessed with Wagner and medieval knights. It was designed with the help of a stage designer rather than an architect, making the palace like a giant stage on which he could recreate the world of German mythology and the operatic works of Wagner.

Schloss Neuschwanstein (not a PB original!)

The second castle is the Schloss Hohenschwangau where Ludwig grew up. They are amongst Germany’s top tourist attractions, so in high season you have to queue at 8 o’clock in the morning to be sure of getting a ticket to visit the castles. It was so busy we didn’t even attempt it!

The Original ‘Hohenschwangau’

So we headed back to Fussen where they were having a Jazz Festival, to enjoy some refreshments and music. Unfortunately the now ever so common cloud burst curtailed most of the music. We managed to find ourselves a table for hot chocolate and strudel just in time; just what was needed on this cold AUGUST summer festival! Once the rain eased we made our way back to Heidi, whereupon the sun came out just long enough to enjoy drinks on the ‘terrace’. Mad MAD weather!

Sunday was a total wash-out. I don’t think we even went outside! Rain, rain RAIN! Monday, after a Lidl shop, we headed off along the Alpenstrasse (The scenic route along this side of the Alps).

Our lunch stop was Oberammergau, which sits in a surrounded by the Ammergauer Alps. This village has plenty of traditional painted houses as well as’ Luftmalerei’, houses painted in an illusionist style with ornate pillars and window surrounds painted onto what is just a flat rendered wall. Very impressive work. Not sure Peter is up to being a ‘decorator’ around here. The village is most famous for its Passion Play that has been performed since the late 17^th century as a thanksgiving from the villagers for being spared from the plague. The Play is performed every ten years (next performance 2020). More than half the village takes part.

Little Red Riding Hood

Be Prepared time flies fast?

After a stroll round the village we continued along the stunning Alpenstrasse, passing through Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the foot of Germany’s highest Mountain Zugspitze (A very dramatic wall of rock rising above the town to 2962m). We continued along the River Isar to Fall, a little hamlet with allocated Motorhome parking a short walk from the Sylvensteinsee. It was a warm pleasant evening and so Peter went for a late swim in the surprisingly warm lake but was interrupted by ANOTHER thunderstorm that lasted much of the night!

River Isar

Sylvensteinsee

Tuesday morning we waited in vain for the sun to come out so we could enjoy a swim in the lake, but by late morning we gave up and continued our Alpine journey to the town of Tegernsee, which sits on the side of a lake of the same name. With the rain finally easing we took an early evening passeo along the lakeside (yes, umbrellas were needed!)

We spent the night in a quiet car park at the bottom of the Wallberg cable car a few miles away. Very quiet, apart from a loud ‘bump’ in the night. In the morning we discovered paw prints on the windscreen and that two out Heidi’s three windscreen washer hoses had been chewed through – what a cheek. The paw prints were quite big but we don’t know what creature they belong to (a polecat?)

Finally! we awoke to a beautiful sunny day and blue skies, ideal for going up a mountain. At just after 11o’clock we started the almost 1000m climb to the Panorama Restaurant, which is just below the peak of the Wallberg, and after we climbed above the tree line we were rewarded with fabulous views. We managed the assent in two and a half hours, although Peter would have been quicker if he hadn’t needed to wait for the slower members of the party! Of course the benefits of parking at the bottom of a cable car station is you can take the easy way down!

The ‘other’ quick route!

We tried again to find a spot to park by the lake for the night and although we could have parked in a side street we decided after a brief dip, to drive the couple of hours to Berchtesgaten. We stopped just short of our destination, waylaid by a lay-by with stunning views, and enjoyed pre-dinner drinks in our own Panorama Restaurant.

Thursdays 7^th August was another sunny morning so after enjoying our view over breakfast, we moved to the Koningsee, the highest lake in Germany with its beautifully clear, drinkable quality, waters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6nigssee

We took an electric boat tour along the lake, which is really the only way to see it. With the pristine mountain scenery of this stunning national park forming almost vertical sides, there are very few paths. Those that exist are more often than not marked as ‘climbing routes’.

The Obersee – so clear it makes your eyes go funny

We stopped at St. Bartholoma, a monastery on the western shore, on the return trip. It is a stunning and very isolated spot. From here, you cannot see the end of the narrow lake and the only way in, other than by boat, is a pretty serious undertaking on foot.

Friday, and a beautifully clear day encouraged us to visit Obersalzburg and take the rather hair-raising bus ride up to the ‘Eagles Nest’ or Mt. Kehlstein (Hitler’s mountain ‘tea house’), specially designed for his 50^th birthday. Although, after WW2, much of Obersalzburg was levelled by the Royal Air Force, and subsequently all traces of the fortified Nazi headquarters in the valley below removed, this has remained. It now houses a restaurant donating its profits to local charities. We learnt that Hitler only visited the place 14 times (he was apparently scared of heights and reluctant to near the edge of the panoramic terrace). His supposedly secret girlfriend, Eva Braun and eventual very short-term wife (40 hours before they committed suicide together) however, used to regularly walk up there regularly for the afternoon and entertain friends. It’s a hell of a hike!

Italian Marble Fireplace – when the Allied Forces captured the Eagles Nest, Soldiers chipped lumps off it as a souvenir

Highly Polished Brass Elevator – the lift shaft is 124m, Hitler didn’t like small spaces either!

Back down the bottom, we visited the ‘Documentation Obersalzburg’, the incredibly in-depth museum of Hitler and the Nazi movement.

http://www.obersalzberg.de/obersalzberg-home.html?&L=1

There was an excellent English audio guide, but unfortunately far too much information for the 2 hours we had allowed before closing time. It is built above the hugely elaborate tunnel complex that was never finished to house the Nazi Headquarters underground (basically mirroring what was above ground) when they began to realise things weren’t going their way and they needed to take up a more defensive position.

We’re still finding the whole thing hard to comprehend. One of the things the ‘Documentation’ illustrated well was how easy it would have been, to have been ‘taken in’ by all the propaganda and offers of a better life.

Must do some more history reading. As we travel and ask ‘Why?’ it is constantly apparent how little we really know.

An exhausting day! Must try to do less in our busy lives!

Saturday 9th August brought more Sunshine so after an early morning visit to the laundrette in Berchesgarten, Heidi did a hop, skip and a yodel over a mountain pass into Austria. By lunchtime we parked up by the beautiful Mondsee and went for swim followed by a lie in the sun and then another swim – Bliss!

Austria!

 

 

 

 

 

Sourcing the Source (of the Danube)

Sat 26^th July – we arrived in Donaueschingen, the ‘supposed’ source of the Danube River. It rained ALL day, but by evening had reduced to a mere drizzle, so we walked into town across the park looking for ‘the source’. Apparently it’s a spring in the grounds of the palace / castle / schloss.

And here it is

Well, that’s what it was supposed to look like. For us, it looked like this!! (Under renovation – ready summer 2015).

It then flows underground through the palace gardens to here

and then into the Breg River, already quite some size, especially after all this rain!

 

Well that was a bit of a disappointment. What about the little bubbling stream? I can’t help thinking it’s all a con organised by whichever bigwig lived in the palace at the time?

A bit of further investigation led us to discover that the Breg River had already been flowing for 49km originating in Furtwangen in the Black Forrest at 1078m above sea level.

Now THAT looks like a PROPER source!

The Breg then joins the smaller Brigach River, which originated in St. Georgen, again in the Black Forrest, 43km away. The ‘official’ (according to most sources) source of the Danube begins at these two rivers’ confluence just outside Donaueschingen,

can you spot the real photo?

no,! not a ‘real’ photo either – far too much sun! The Danube is recorded as anything from 2840 – 2845km long (but where do you start?)

I’m sure Donaueschingen would look better in the sunshine. It has some impressive old buildings and, of course, impressive fountains, a feature of almost everywhere in Germany

St. Johns Church

The ‘musician’s fountain’, Donaueschingen

 

Next stop Immendingen where we’d been told the river ‘disappeared’. So, it doesn’t know where it starts from, and now it disappears?! In most summers, you’d expect to see a dry riverbed at the ‘Donauversinkung’, one of several places along this stretch where it sinks into its limestone bed and flows underground to a spring at Auch 12km away. So, as before, this is what it’s supposed to look like:

 

But this is what it looked like to us:

 

walk on the ‘riverbed’ at your own risk!

…perhaps not

 

Here’s the technical bit:

 

showing how the Danube links to the spring at Auch ..which links to the Bodensee ..and the Rhine

 

More info. on the ‘disapearing Danube’ here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donauversinking

So is the source of the Rhine is actually the Danube; and is the source of the Danube actually the Breg??

It was actually a nice day for a change, so we thought we’d try out a stretch of the Danube Cycleway, which runs all the way to the Black Sea (the stretch across Austria and into Hungary to Budapest is one of the most popular in Europe).

 

The river continues into an attractive limestone gorge in the ‘Naturpark Obere Donau’. We stopped at Beuron dominated by a huge Benedictine Monastery with it’s richly decorated Baroque style church.

That night we had another big thunderstorm and more BIG RAIN. It continued virtually unstopped for the best part of 48hrs! We continued along the valley, just about seeing through the rain and cloud!

 

The Danube – a lot bigger and muddier than yesterday!

 

Stopping at Inzigkofen at another ancient monastery and what might have been an interesting Bavarian museum (not exactly aiming at passing visitors – open for 3 hrs alternate Sunday afternoons!), we continued through Sigmaringen, a modern, busy place with another huge schloss (revealing, yet again, the complicated history of various ‘dukedoms’ in these parts). We stopped for the night at Scheer, with it’s old (1700s) timber framed buidings, a very impressive Baroque church (St. Nicholas’) with an unbelievable amount of incredibly well done fake marble. It had me tapping and looking at the edges to check!

note the ‘fitted’ windows

not even convinced the main pillars are marble?

 

The river, of course, is very swollen

there was once a dry weir here, with most of the river flowing into the watermill channel on the far side!

MORE RAIN… we continued on via Munderkingen and Rottenacker attempting to educate ourselves about the differences between Baroque, Gothic, Catholic and Protestant architecture ….can you tell it’s been raining?!

We stopped at Blaubeuren, near Ulm, famous for yet another Benedictine Monastery (there’s a LOT round here) founded in 1085, and completed in 1510. St. Peter’s chapel was particularly impressive with much ornate wood and stone carving and a ‘world famous’ high altar. It is also the source of the River Blau where an enormous volume of blue water rises to the surface from an underground stream / cave system, falls over a dam and then continues as a remarkably blue coloured river. The blueness is a combination of minerals within the limestone rock and the fact that it rises to the surface here under pressure.

We followed the Blau to Blaustein where we stopped for a couple of days to visit Ulm, a short distance away by bike.

We enjoyed Ulm. We wandered around the streets in the Altstadt with its many timber-framed buildings dating from the 1500s (sadly now many are rendered over). We visited the excellent bread museum, privately run and giving donations and scholarships to research into improving the terrible statistics of world hunger. 1 in 7 of the world’s population is still categorised as malnourished or starving! They fund research into new crop strains, agricultural methods, animal husbandry etc. Very usefully, for us, they also provide an audio guide in English. We promenaded along the Danube, already wide and fast (if it continues at this rate!…).

The old streets of Ulm

 

The inside of the OLD building housing the Bread Museum. There are floors and floors like this!

a certain ‘Mr. Einstein’ originated from here too. As usual, commemorated in a fountain. Note the building behind, originally timber fame, now plastered over and elaborately painted to look like stone.

 

The Rathaus (townhall) was beautifully painted with historical scenes. The Rathaus restaurant serving ‘Flammkuchen’ (a local speciality similar to a pizza but with a base of crème fraiche and cheese rather than tomato) wasn’t bad either..

 

Stunning wall paintings, Ulm Rathaus

Yum..

 

Ulm cathedral has the highest church tower in the world at 161m / 528ft. If the 768 steps don’t put you off, you can climb up for stunning views. As usual it was rather a grey day so we didn’t bother. On a clear day you can see the Alps and Lake Constance / Bodensee in the distance.

More info. about Ulm and the ‘Minster’:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulm_Minster

 

it’s HUGE. A picture really can’t do it justice. Imagine a traveller happening upon this when it was first built ..it really would have seemed like the miraculous work of God!

 

the city from the top of the spire..sorry, cheated again

We liked the juxtaposition of the old and the new in Ulm. We could have happily spent many more days, wandering the streets, sitting in cafés soaking up the atmosphere and visiting more museums…

 

 

Heidelberg and Heidelbeeren

We left The Hague on Wednesday 16^th July, having spent a frustrating day, on the Tuesday trying to sort out our Garmin Sat Nav. To cut a long story short we ended up having to buy a new TomTom that had the whole of Europe already loaded. On the upside we got to spend an extra evening with Judith and also got to play in the park!

We crossed the border into Germany just before lunchtime and carried on until we reached the town Emmerich, which is built along the side on the Rhine; Big and wide, with a continual stream of huge barges, in both directions; some empty, some loaded to the gunnels. The town even had its own small container port.

There was a nice promenade along the river, with café and restaurants serving lunch. At the end of the promenade there was a park, in which we found a ‘knitted tree’, bringing back memories of the event at the end of March in Abergavenny

After buying some supplies at the local mid-week market (instantly forgetting any German we had so far tried to learn!), we headed back to the fast, smooth motorway, and were able to cover a good distance. The Germans certainly know how to build a road!

Our evening spot was near the village of Holzappel (SE Koblenz) at an official motorhome parking place next to a lake. Unfortunately they were charging 3 euros each to swim in it! So we abstained, tempting though it was in the heat!

We decided to take a more scenic route when we set off again the following afternoon. We followed the River Lahn along its picturesque valley until it reached the Rhine, and then turned south and followed the Rhine; busy with barges and a few pleasure boats. Rather them than us – pushing upstream against the current, which must have been several knots in the narrows judging by the wash against the buoys. How much control have you got going downstream, I wonder? There were many castles (Schlossen) on high vantage points along the river, many now in ruins, reminding you of this much fought over trade route.

We stopped in a riverside car park at Hattenheim, a pleasant enough spot, but there were a lot nicer places to stop further back, especially in the heat; probably upwards of 30C! Anyway we took our chairs, drinks and snacks to a shady spot by the river and watched the boats go by. The big barges have got quite extensive accommodation and often carry a couple of cars and maybe a boat for the owners’ / skipper’s use on the aft deck. I wonder when they get round to using them? The kids seemed to enjoy their fenced off playpens ‘atop the cargo; some complete with swings and slides!

On Friday morning we were on our way bright and early to cover the miles to Heidelberg in the relative cool. With the help of our database of suitable motorhome parking spots, we parked 4km from the centre, then cycled along the Neckar River until we reach the Altbrug (old bridge) which is the entrance into the Altstadt (old city). Having the bikes with us this trip has already made a huge difference; so much easier than struggling to find a parking spot nearer the centre of places we want to visit!

 

more knitting!

After a stop in a café for a cold ‘kleine bier und apfelsaftschole (Apple juice spritzer – Most important German for Elaine to learn!), we went to visit the Heiliggeistkirche – the Gothic Church of the Holy Ghost which was built from 1398 to 1441. There, in the cool of this impressive building we sat and listened to some ethereal organ music. Everyday at 12.30pm there is a 15 minute free organ recital.

Having been refreshed we headed out on to the streets of Heidelberg again, we enjoyed wandering through them, and admiring the old buildings. However the temperature was over 35C, so we decide against the 10min walk up the hill to the mainly ruined Scholss and headed back to Heidi.

Cycling back along the river there was enough of a breeze to make it bearable, but as soon as you stopped it was like an oven!

With the Heidi’s windows open to the max we headed down the motorway until Baden Baden and took the ‘Schwarzwalderhogestrasse into the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). It didn’t take long for a ‘waterfall and walks’ sign at the entrance of a shady car park persuaded us to stop!

A short walk along the stream to the waterfall and back via the ‘Gasthof Buthof, where we partook of a cold grosse bier und apfelsaftschole.

Saturday 19^th July promised to be another hot hot day, so set out early, to avoid the heat, on a 11km Rundsweg, along forest tracks and up to the view-point Kruisfelsen at 840m

The walk through the forest was cool and dark so it was really lovely having the sun break through gaps in the trees, giving sunny glades

We admired the many neat wood piles. They seem to build them anywhere in the forests where the tree happens to have been felled. Surely it would make more sense to take them to at least near to where they are going to be used first??

As the temperature rose to above 30C again there was only one thing to do – find a sunny spot to have a refreshing dip!

When we lost the sun from the pool, we made our back along the river to Heidi, past where the pebble people live.

Sunday, we were back to ‘Winter’! with the temperature managing a mere 15C! and the Black Forest was covered in a misty cloud. So we moved on to the town of Freundenstadt. Which has the largest Marktplatz in the country, lined with cafes and shops. We felt however the original splendour of the square had been rather spoilt because it is now dissected by two busy main roads! – which the guidebook conveniently forgets to mention.

Freudenstadt Marktplatz

Although most of the buildings in the centre have, I believe, now been plastered over, they are, as you might imagine around here, predominantly timber frame. The majority are still covered in thousands of tiny wooden shingles, now painted over, often in bright colours. From the looks of some that are a ‘work in progress’, this has only been done in relatively recent times. Many of the impressive old farmhouses further out still retain their original ‘woody’ look.

As the day grew grayer and rainier we retired to the van, and splashed out on some WiFi.

Monday 21 July and the weather was little improved, so having done some shopping and filled and emptied appropriately Heidi’s tanks, we headed for a car park near the village of Kneibis Dorf, from where several walks were signposted. By late afternoon we felt the rain had eased enough to take a walk through the forest to the viewpoint overlooking the Ellbachsee.

While out walking we met some of the local wood folk

and spotted some local wildlife

look closely!

and found plenty of heidelbeeren (bilberries)  – enough to turn your tongue purple!

We got back to Heidi just before the heavens opened again and it rained heavily most of the night. It was still raining heavily when we awoke the next morning! However not being put off, when the rain eased at about midday, we set off on a 17km round walk via the Sankenbach Wasserfalle and Sankenbachsee. Everything is very very green! and covered in thick moss, lichens and fungi. Unlike many forestry areas, they seem to ‘manage’ and clear just enough here to let the light through and allow the smaller trees and plants to flourish. It would be difficult to do anything other than stick to the paths, everything is so abundant! It all looks very natural. Oh and did we mention GREEN!

There were also plenty of wild raspberries and strawberries to add to the bilberries, much to Elaine’s delight!

We managed to complete the walk in the relative dry – until we were about 500m from home! When we were soaked through in moments by a sudden cloud burst. We could hardly see Heidi across the car park! We thought nothing ventured nothing gained – so stripped off out of wet our clothes and had a shower in the rain, soap and all! We then warmed ourselves up with Bratwurst and chips for dinner!

Sorry, no shower pictures! hehe

Wednesday 23rd July, the sun was back, and so we planned a 22km cycle route through the villages, meadows and forest between Glatten and Freudenstadt.

Our starting point was in a very pleasant, a quiet walkers car park at Flosser-Ring just outside Glatten. We found the instructions from the information centre very unclear, so we went on several unexpected detours! This meant that we literally had to cycle through the meadows and over root covered walking tracks – not the smooth paths and forest tracks as promised! So with getting lost and some big big hills, we took six hours to do the tour rather than the suggest two on the leaflet! To revive our tired legs we made use of the local outdoor footspa in the little hamlet of Unteres Lauterbad. We spotted several of these with accompanying notices telling of the health benefits. The whole area is very popular for expensive health spa resorts – note we opted for the free version.

The next day with sun still shinning and after two busy days we declared Thursday a day of rest!; more paddling in cold streams for that added ‘health spa experience’ and enjoying the wildlife..

Next, to Schiltach, an attractive ancient town full of the (almost) original timber-framed buildings. Even better, for us, they provide a free carpark and free water and free electrics! specially for campervans. We walked around the old town spotting dates on buildings going back as far as the 1500’s, stopped for coffee in the impressive Markplatz, visited the town museum and then another sawmill/logging/leather tanning museum on the river.

Schiltach has had a very long and interesting history. The majority of the town has burned to the ground a number of times over the centuries, but has always been rebuilt, with increasing regulations (spaces between buildings, tiled roofs etc). It has been, and still is, an amazingly industrious place. The Kinzig river, that it stands on, was a major logging trade route down to the Rhine. Logs were rafted from here as far as Holland for the Dutch ship building industry. It was also a major leather tanning centre manufacturing, amoungst other things, waterproof thigh length boots for the loggers who would spend all day standing in the water tying the rafts together. If that wasn’t enough, it is also the home of Hansgrohe (taps and plumbing), VEGA pressure gauges and measuring equipment, BBS motor-racing wheel rims, One of the oldest pioneering dispensing chemists, and Junghans watch and clock-makers. Duralit bathroom porcelain is also nearby. A quite astounding list! I wish we’d stayed for longer! Both Hansgrohe and the Apotheke (chemist) also have free museums to visit and there are walks and cycleways both ways along the river. A fascinating and beautiful place!

More info: www.schiltach.de www.flosserpfad.de  www.naturparkschwartzwald.de

And so to lunch..

on the banks of the ‘Kinzig’ opposite the original leather tanners’ houses

Our last stop in The Black Forest was Triberg, home of Germany’s highest waterfall and largest cuckoo clock (and cuckoos apparently). The area surrounding the waterfall is fenced off and they’re charging 4euro each to walk up the path next to it!! It was busy and was only a long series of little waterfalls anyway. We didn’t bother. The rest of the town was not nearly so attractive as guidebooks might lead you to believe and is completely overrun by cuckoo clock and ‘tat’ shops.

Not impressed! We moved on to Donaueschingen (the source of the River Danube)…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading for Holland

On the night of Tuesday 8th July we parked amongst the dunes alongside other motorhomes at Westende Bad just outside Nieuwpoort, on the Belgian coast. The next morning we awoke to gale force winds and driving sands so we ditched our planned tour of the Belgian and Dutch coast and headed inland to Brugge.

Having found a handy free parking spot next to the main canal, we donned warm trousers socks boots and waterproofs and cycled into the city centre. We enjoyed the Flemish architecture and cobbled streets.

We explored the stalls in the main market square,

and window shopped for Belgian Chocolates,

and some rusty old tools..

chocolate!

Yes, really!

before the rain forced us in to a restaurant for a lunch of moules et frites and glass or two of white wine!

By Thursday lunchtime we reached Kinderdijk in the Netherlands, and finally found some sunshine and blue(ish) skies. So back in our shorts and T-shirts and in Dutch style got on our bikes to see the windmills and polders.

We found a nice quiet parking spot next to some allotments on the outskirts of Albasserdam; and watched happy Dutch men and women arriving with empty bags and buckets and leaving with them over flowing with harvested goodies.

Next, on to The Hague to visit our friend Judith – but first we made a detour to Albert Hein (the local supermarket)..

‘say Kaas’

Essentials! for Heidi’s store cupboard – From left to right: Hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles to go on buttered bread), Chocoladepasta (choclate spread), Stroop wafels (biscuits), Stroop (the ‘syrup’ to go in the biscuits – or over pancakes!), Dropjes (liquorice), Fritessaus and Pindasaus (to make ‘Patat Flip’), Duvel (Belgian beer), etc.

Only available in Holland

We spent a few days catching up, reminiscing, buying Peter a new(ish) bike and cycling through the surrounding  polders

the locks and lifting bridges at Leidschendam

More cycling in the dunes and, of course, eating ‘Pannekoeken met spek (bacon) en stroop’

hills! in Holland!

Mmmm ‘Lekker’

Monday 14th July – we took a trip down memory lane. First stop, Voorschoten where Peter grew up

‘Het Warpen’ – Peter’s first local

House no. 1 – Prinses Margrietlaan

House no.2 – Palestrinalaan

And then time for food:

‘Saucijzen Broodje’ from ‘De Echte Bakker’ Mmmm

‘Patat Flip’ (chips with Pinda (satay) saus and Fritessaus (Dutch mayo – you have to taste it!))

And then on to Leiden via Leiderdorp (where Elaine lived and worked for three years)

 

Elaine’s Flat – first floor balcony in the middle

Elaine’s local

Leiden (Elaine’s favourite bit of Holland ..apart from a certain someone she met there!)

And then there’s the bikes..

One layer..

Two Layers!

4 kids, camping holiday on the bikes – No Problem!

or for something different – a ‘bakfiets’

Holland summed up; Bikes and flowers.

 

 

 

 

In Flanders’ Fields

On Monday morning (7th July), in fresh showery sunshine, we headed inland to the towns and fields of French Flanders.  As we drove out of Dunkerque we stopped at the main cemetery in the town, to visit the ‘British Memorial’, This commemorates the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Forces who fell in the campaign of 1939 to 1940.

Lining each side of the central avenue are columns bearing the names of the 4528 British Army and 6 Indian Army soldiers who rest in unmarked graves.  Next to this memorial are the graves of 810 soldiers from both World Wars, the majority of whom fell defending the perimeter of Dunkerque or during the evacuation operations in May-June 1940.

The town cemetery also contains the graves of both French and Belgian soldiers who fell in both World Wars.

After a brief lunch stop near the walled town of Bergues, we headed to the pretty town of Esquelbecq.

Just as you leave the town, you take a right down a small road between fields to ‘La Plaine au Bois’.

Here on 28th May 1940, over 90 British soldiers defending the strategic crossroads at the nearby town of Wormhout, were attacked and taken prisoner by German forces and were forced to stand shoulder to shoulder in a small barn.  A few hours later, in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention, members of the SS Adolf Hitler division (the Führer’s personal guard) threw hand grenades into the barn and then continued the massacre with machineguns! Only 12 survived and were later discovered by the local farmer’s daughters.

The site has become a place of remembrance and an exact replica of the barn was built along with planting 80 commemorative beech trees.

As we drove through the fields to our night stop in Hondschoote, we saw a variety crops being grown: – potatoes, corn, wheat, turnip and flax.  Unfortunately we were just too late to see the fields cover in blue flax flowers. Our wander through the fields also produced bounty for our dinner table; wild potatoes and a very tasty horse mushroom – Yum!

Flemish Architecture – Hondschoote Town Hall. Spot the ‘bottle arches’

Hondschoote

The next morning we crossed the border into Flemish Flanders, to find that our Garmin Sat Nav seemed to think Belgium didn’t exist! Fortunately we were able use our laptop and good old Autoroute to reach our destination; Diksmuide, Belgium.

The town of Diksmuide is dominated by the monstrous and oppressive looking 84m high IJzer Tower. Built by Flemish nationals it bears the letters AVV, VVK; “Alles voor Vlaanderen, Vlaanderen voor Kristus”.

The tower contains the Museum of the IJzer, it costs 8 euros each for adults, but was very informative and interesting, we spent four hours there! When you first enter the museum, you’re whisked up 22 floors in a lift for fabulous views of Diksmuide and the Flanders fields.

Then by taking the steps back down you’re taken through all aspects of the First World War;

Life in the trenches:

As the Germans surround the Allies, the Belgians stop their advance by opening the locks and floodgates at Nieuwpoort

 

“The mud, the horrible mud, the worst thing in the world, in which crawls an army…”

Life continues in the trenches for almost THREE YEARS of ‘stalemate’:

Comradery – All the trenches were inches deep in water. Clearing out the rats was a constant task.

There’s even time for art – working on the spent shell cases!

Life of civilians in both occupied and unoccupied Belgium:

Refugees from Holland and Belgium fleeing to unoccupied territory.

What would you take?

The ‘Propaganda Machine’:

Belgian Resistance paper ..perhaps they wished they had. Opening the floodgates was more efficient!

Cartoon in British paper.
The Vlaamshe Stem (Flemish Voice), a Flemish paper, was bought by the Germans, whereupon the whole staff resigned, as it no longer represented its title!

The current exhibition runs from 2014 to 2018, well worth a detour.

 

Just up the river from the tower are what were once called the Trenches of Death. Although very sanitized now, this 400m length gives you some sense of the scale and size these trenches which formed the 400km of the Western Front.

Destintation Dunkerque

 

First French Sunset – on Zuydcoote Beach

Well – the weather outside is gross so we thought we’d start our post with a nice sunset! It’s the afternoon on Sunday 6th July; we’re enjoying tea and Marmite toast as the rain runs off Heidi’s roof on the seafront at Dunkerque.

On Tuesday 1^st July after weeks of preparation, we filled and emptied Heidi’s tanks, before saying farewell to our spot at 7a and starting our journey East. Our evening destination was Stevenage to visit Steve; Peter’s friend from school, who we last saw at our wedding nearly seventeen years ago. On route we rested at Startopsend, near Tring, a set of stairway locks on the Grand Union Canal; and walked round the nearby Reservoirs built as a water supply to the canal.

Tring Reservoirs

The following morning after a very pleasant evening with Steve and Virginia we trundled on the motorway to Kent, spending the afternoon at Minnis Bay near Margate. Peter then spent a frustrating few hours trying sort out our new Toggle SIM so we can keep in touch throughout Europe.

Our last night stop in the UK was overlooking the Dover Straits near the of village St Margaret at Cliffe.  After a leisurely start to the day and a final English breakfast; on Thursday 3 July a little after 1pm we boarded the ferry to Calais. Auf Wierdersehen England!

That’s OUR Boat!

Coastal views from ‘The Lookout’ at St Margaret at Cliffe

 

 

 

 

 

 

We disembarked at 16:00 local time and were quickly out of the port and on our way to Dunkerque 45km away. Heading to a motorhome ‘official’ parking spot on the East end of the Avenue de la Mer. This spot we found to be full so we carried on a little further down the coast to Zuydcoote and parked just behind the dunes; a good spot just a few minutes walk from the beach.

Zuydcoote!

With this year being a 100 years and 75 years since the start of the First and Second World Wars respectively, we were keen to learn more and remember those who fought.

At sunset we walked along the beach at low tide to the wreck of the ‘Crested Eagle’.  A Thames Paddle Steamer used as minesweeper during the Second World War. She was bombed by German aircraft on 29th May 1940 during the evacuation of the British Army from the Dunkerque beaches. At the time the Crested Eagle was carrying 600 soldiers plus crew, she caught fire and ran aground at Zuydcoote with the loss of over 300 men.

It was one of many similar paddle steamers used. The restored ‘Princess Elizabeth’ now resides here in the harbour and interestingly for us Bristol Channel sailors, the ‘Waverley’ was also amongst them.

The ‘Princess Elizabeth’, one of many civilian ships used in the evacuation

The next morning we got on our bikes go exploring! The first place we stopped was the Zuydcoote Military Cemetary. There are casualties from both the First & Second World Wars buried here. Those from the First World War were fighting on the Nieuwpoort Sector of the Western Front in 1917 and died in the hospital here in Zuydcoote – mostly now empty and derelict. The soldiers from the Second World War were French who, ‘mort pour la France’, fighting in the Battle of Dunkerque 25 May to 4 June 1940.

Zuydcoote Military Hospital

English French and German; as well as Christian Muslim and Jewish..

WWI – German soldiers, Christian & Jew side by side

So Many…..So Young….

“ Flight Sub Lieutenant J T Bone died October 1915 aged 22”
“Unknown Soldier”
“ W J Golden of the Royal Irish Rifles dies June 1918 aged 17!”

It’s hard to understand how a gunshot in Serbia on 28th June 1914 could lead to all this!

In quiet reflection we leave the cemetery and cycle to seafront at Bray-Dunes before returning to Heidi via Carrefour!

Saturday morning it rained and rained and then rained some more. Finally at lunchtime the clouds cleared and we set off on our bikes again; along lovely flat roads in to Dunkerque.  Passing the Fort de Dunes, a military fortification built under the sands to protect the port of Dunkerque after the Franco-Prusian War of 1870.

Les Fort des Dunes

We finally made it to the Basin du Commerce, where they had kindly laid on some entertainment for us!

..back to Dunkirque with Heidi, ready to visit The Memorial du Souvenir (Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo Museum) in the morning.

Busy!

..the view’s not bad though

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back from the museum http://www.dynamo-dunkerque.com and feeling educated..

Operation Dynamo, carried out on the 26th May to the 4th June 1940, led to the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and thousands of northern French soldiers. It was the largest evacuation effort in military history, and an unimaginable success after the humiliating defeat of being surrounded and overcome by the German Nazis. A ‘miracle that allowed 338,226 allied soldiers, including 123,095 French and 16,816 Belgian soldiers to escape the hell of Dunkirk.

They were evacuated by a huge fleet of British military, but also hundreds of civilian ships and small private boats ‘the little ships’, who picked soldiers up from the harbour’s East Mole, where we are parked. They also made makeshift ‘jetties’, out of lines and lines of trucks put in place at low tide, further along the beaches so that the larger ships could come alongside – ingenious!

Of course, a great many didn’t make it. 4,534 who have no known graves are remembered in the nearby British Memorial.

 

Past Present and Future..

On 12 December 2012, we left the cold Cotswolds and headed south as fast as Heidi’s little wheels could take us

COLD!

and enjoyed a Spanish Christmas in sunny Sanlucar De Barrameda.

That’s better!

We then spent the next six months…

“Heidi Beach”

 

…exploring Spain’s Southern coast

 

 

 

Heidi’s feeling light-headed

 

 

with the occasional detour into the mountains..

 

 

 

 

 

before heading North again and landing back in the UK at the beginning of July 2013

Since then we’ve travelled the length and breadth of the country……

Acting as support vehicle as our niece cycled from John O Groats to Lands End.

Zoom..

Enjoying some of Britain’s best beaches and countryside.

Up high on Dartmoor

Beautiful Pembrokeshire

Working..

work horse Heidi

Visiting friends and family..

 

Now we’re getting ready for our next adventure….

organised chaos

During the 1st week of July we are planning to leave the UK, for the next 12 months…..

Our plan…. to find the source of the Danube in the German Black Forest. Once located we intend to ‘roughly’ follow the Danube’s course through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria before arriving at the Black Sea sometime in the Autumn; before heading South to enjoy the Winter in the Greek Peloponnese.