On Monday 31st May we left the site near Berlin and headed south, roughly. It is quite a distance, so we decided to take two days, selecting a site near Nurnberg for a nights stop over, that was the start of our troubles.
We arrived at the site where the welcome was less than friendly. We were directed to a pitch on grass, alarm bells should have rung and Keith should have checked the ground state, we got stuck. It took us an hour to extricate the van and trailer, much to the entertainment of others, none of whom offered any assistance. We promptly left the site.
At the earliest opportunity we pulled off the road to consider our options. We had our evening meal and decided to go to a stellplatz which was about 40 k away, having rejected the option of a service area, upwards and onwards. We then encountered a road closure which involved a long and tortuous diversion. Arrived at the stellplatz only to be directed to a pitch which was to far away to connect to the electric or make use of other facilities, we payed €8 for that.
The rest of the journey was not to bad, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. We had a stop go at the Switz border, guard one waved us through, guard two signalled us to stop, guard one, by now agitated waived us on while his mate stood in the road. Words were exchanged between them and on we drove.
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We are currently on a site at Freienbrink, south east of Berlin, close to the E55 motorway. The countryside reminds us of the UK in the early sixties, pre farming on an industrial scale. Water meadows grazed by cattle, unimproved grassland, clean rivers and open countryside, woodlands that are free to walk through.
We have discovered an Osprey’s nest on top of an electricity pylon, on a platform kindly constructed by some nice person. A red squirrel in the woods that did not appear at all bothered by our presence sitting on the ground and in the tree to have a good look at us, nice. Wild mink on the river, not so good.
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Sanssouci park and palaces are on the outskirts of Potsdam. We entered four of the palaces, they are very grand and luxurious and we were palaced out, giving up on the others. Wish we had simply walked around the grounds and visited Potsdam itself. Never mind it was enjoyable.
Two interesting dates in modern history that were a recurring theme. 1945, lots of things ” went missing”. 1988, the start of restoration, ones assume that ,that had connections to the end of the cold war?
We are not history buffs but could not help noticing the British/Germanic connection. Queen Victoria married a German. Their daughter married a Prussian king. Small world.
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Berlin, as capital cities go, is not to crowded. We took the tour bus to start with, a journey time of two hours fifteen minutes, most of that was stationary at traffic lights etc. Thought it might give us an oversight of particular locations that we wanted to explore in more detail. We had purchased a ticket that permitted us to unlimited use of the bus until 14 00 the following day on an hop on hop off basis. The plan was that we would stay on the bus for the first circuit and then the second time around would hop off, take some pictures and hop on the next bus, seemed like a good plan. Two things influenced our decision not to proceed with the plan, one, it was too tortuous, we abandoned the bus about two thirds of the way around, two, it was quicker, and more convenient to walk. That is what we did and enjoyed it. see the pictures.
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Try putting that in the spell checker. It is a railway network in the Hertz region of Germany that still extensively uses steam locomotion. One of its routes is to Brocken, a hill with extensive 360 ° views of the surrounding area, used until 1988 by the East Germans to monitor its neighbours. We decided to ride it on Sunday the 23rd of May, bad decision, it was a bank holiday weekend in Germany and it was heaving, had to stand most of the way. The six P’s apply, Poor Planning Promotes Piss Poor Performance.
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Not us, the Hebrides. Those of you who have followed our travels from the early days will know that we visited the outer Hebrides, they are beautiful.
We have become aware, through a variety of sources that, in 2009, the numbers of motor homes visiting these islands increased dramatically, estimates suggest 114%. This lead to extensive debates about the value of tourism and its effect on the locality. It transpires that local councils on these islands have closed off areas used by motor homers and are imposing a limit on the number of motor homes visiting some islands whilst they discuss longer term solutions.
We understand the issue and are glad that we visited in 2009.
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Yes its a bird, don’t groan. As it’s name suggest it is a type of finch, a little bigger than a sparrow, about the size of a green finch. The male is a very handsome feller with a golden crown and an awesome beak. That beak, apparently, is capable of exerting a pressure equal to fifty kilos, the weight of two bags of cement. I know how heavy a bag of cement is, if you don’t believe me ask Mark.
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Felt we should explain for the benefit of those of you that are not aware of how we access the Internet. Mounted on the van is a satellite dish, this allows us to watch television, listen to the radio or go on the net. However, not all at the same time.
Using the Internet is relatively expensive, (sometimes cheaper than site Wi Fi). What we tend to do is go on line two or three times a week to upload pictures, write blogs and deal with any personal business. The uploading of photos takes, on average, about thirty to forty minutes. Two hours soon disappear by the time blogs have been written, some research for forward destination, etc.
We would like to apologise to any of you if we rarely send personal e mails. We are not ignoring you, or not thinking of you, it is purely time constraints.
Keep viewing and sending in yours comments, good or bad.
Jan and Keith
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We have been having some foul weather which has discouraged us from getting about to much, the last two days have been good. The previous two days it rained heavily for most of the time, to the extent that, on Thursday morning, we awoke to ankle deep water surrounding the van.
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This part of Germany is rich in towns with beautiful old buildings and, you wont find them on the tourist map.
Wernigerode is one of these towns, lots of historic, functioning buildings. Walking amongst them is a pleasant experience with lots to explore. Photographs can only give you a taster of the intricate details, some are works of art.
Two weddings took place in the town hall whilst we were there, rarely do you see one wedding leave by one set of steps while another enters via a parallel set.
The group of girls dressed in green and white are part of a group that greeted the second wedding party on its exit. The bride and groom were required to cut through a log with a double handed cross cut hand saw. Wish we new the significance. I am sure you can come up with lots of theories, all clean.
We took the horse drawn bus up to the castle, or schloss.
Whilst we were there we visited the railway station to obtain details of the steam train that runs up into the mountains. We plan to ride it, you have been warned.
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