Well, this is the end. We've been in Paris since Monday morning. We dropped the car back to Peugeot, after dropping our bags at the Hotel, then heading up the Champs Elysees and going 1 and a half times around the Arc d'Triomphe. It was a blast! (Anne here – David did an awesome job of driving into and through Paris – no lane markings, 5 lanes of traffic when there should only be 3 – roundabouts the size of the Stadium.....and motorbikes and cyclists everywhere! Thanks David!)
We spent Monday afternoon on the Avenue de la Grand Armee, which is on the other side of the Arc D'Triomphe and where all the local motorbike shops are situated.
We are in a very nice hotel a block away from the Seine, in the Chatelet and Les Halles area, a 15 minute walk from the Louvre.
Tuesday was Bastille day here in France and we spent the day watching the airforce flyover, then heading over to the Latin Quarter for a long lunch. We've enjoyed watching parts of the Tour de France on Television in the afternoons. There was a big fireworks display at the Eiffel Tower, which we got to watch from one of the bridges near the hotel.
Wednesday, we went for dinner with Mary (Trish's sister) and Simon at their lovely apartment in the Les Invalides district.
And today we've just been for a walk around Saint Germain and the Louvre, before having another long lunch and a pleasant final dinner.
Tomorrow, we are up early to head to the airport and the long trip home. We leave at 12:30 in the afternoon, arrive in Singapore at 7am local time, where we spend a day in the Crown Plaza at the airport. Awe arrive in Auckland at 11am and then get back to Wellington at about 3 in the afternoon, in time for work at 9am on Monday morning.
Yehaaa....Great holiday, had a ball. We've got some great ideas for our next couple, so looking forward to more great travelling.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday 12th July – Week 4 – Best meal of the holiday
We are now in Chalons en Champagne for a night in a hotel before heading back to Paris on Monday to drop off the car and spend the final 4 days in the French capital, including Bastille Day on Tuesday.
Jane took us on an interesting drive to our little hotel called Les Clos Des Mutigny in a tiny town called Chaussee Sur Marne, which is about 20kms from Chalons-en-Champagne. Chaussee was on the way to Chalons, so we stopped their on the way to check out the hotel. The town is indeed tiny, the hotel very nice, but when we arrived was in full swing with a wedding after party, so we headed to Chalons for some sightseeing.
On our arrival into Chalons, we were hit by a rain shower, and as this is Sunday, absolutely nothing except the church and a few restaurants were open, so we wandered round abit until we found a restaurant where we had what is our best meal of the holiday. Salad, Steak for me, pork casserole for Anne, then a crème Brulee to die for followed by coffee.
Despite our best efforts at reducing the amount of luggage we take, Anne is just folding up the little bags that Singapore Airlines gave us with a pair of socks, toothpaste and toothbrushes. We won't keep the socks, but apparently the rest of it may come in handy some time, so we'll keep that, including the unfashionably brown nylon bags. Note to self – check to see if those little toothpaste things end up in her handbag back at home at any stage. Our luggage including the bag, but excluding the camping gear weighed 14kgs when we left New Zealand, so we have done very well with travelling light. The camping gear added an extra 17kgs, but next time we'd buy a lot of that when we get here.
We are now having a quiet night in the hotel having taken everything out of the car and for the first time in 4 weeks packed it all back into just two bags. No more using the boot of the car as a wardrobe and no more camping. We've really enjoyed that aspect of our holiday and now have a drive into Paris to look forward to, followed by a drive up the Champs Elysee, round the Arc De Triomphe and then 5ks to the Peugeot dealership. By the time you read this, I will know whether the short 100m round the Arc D' Triomphe ended in tears, or whether I survived one of the craziest roundabouts in the world – I look forward to the challenge.
Jane took us on an interesting drive to our little hotel called Les Clos Des Mutigny in a tiny town called Chaussee Sur Marne, which is about 20kms from Chalons-en-Champagne. Chaussee was on the way to Chalons, so we stopped their on the way to check out the hotel. The town is indeed tiny, the hotel very nice, but when we arrived was in full swing with a wedding after party, so we headed to Chalons for some sightseeing.
On our arrival into Chalons, we were hit by a rain shower, and as this is Sunday, absolutely nothing except the church and a few restaurants were open, so we wandered round abit until we found a restaurant where we had what is our best meal of the holiday. Salad, Steak for me, pork casserole for Anne, then a crème Brulee to die for followed by coffee.
Despite our best efforts at reducing the amount of luggage we take, Anne is just folding up the little bags that Singapore Airlines gave us with a pair of socks, toothpaste and toothbrushes. We won't keep the socks, but apparently the rest of it may come in handy some time, so we'll keep that, including the unfashionably brown nylon bags. Note to self – check to see if those little toothpaste things end up in her handbag back at home at any stage. Our luggage including the bag, but excluding the camping gear weighed 14kgs when we left New Zealand, so we have done very well with travelling light. The camping gear added an extra 17kgs, but next time we'd buy a lot of that when we get here.
We are now having a quiet night in the hotel having taken everything out of the car and for the first time in 4 weeks packed it all back into just two bags. No more using the boot of the car as a wardrobe and no more camping. We've really enjoyed that aspect of our holiday and now have a drive into Paris to look forward to, followed by a drive up the Champs Elysee, round the Arc De Triomphe and then 5ks to the Peugeot dealership. By the time you read this, I will know whether the short 100m round the Arc D' Triomphe ended in tears, or whether I survived one of the craziest roundabouts in the world – I look forward to the challenge.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Saturday 11th July – Week 4 – weird or dead today
Today being Saturday, we decided to go for a drive around some of the small local villages. Heading away, as is custom before breakfast, we headed for our first stop of Bar Sur Seine – about 40kms away.
Having parked the car in Bar Sur Seine, we rounded the corner onto the main street of town, to be met by this loud music coming, we thought, from a 4WD that had just parked on the footpath where we were about to walk. “A bit rude” we thought. Firstly parking on the footpath right in front of us, then having really loud music. As we walked past the 4WD (on the road, cos it was on the footpath), we realised that the loud music wasn't coming from the 4WD, but from a speaker mounted high on the wall of a nearby building. As we walked up the street, the music stayed at the same volume because every building seemed to have a speaker on it. After 100m of that street we rounded the corner to get the same thing on the next street. I have no idea what the music was for, or why it was being played, but the speakers all looked reasonably permanent, so it must be a local custom. Our objective was to get a coffee and some croissants for breakfast, preferably away from the noise. Having walked the length and breath of the town without being able to escape the music, we decided to stop at the only local cafe that had anybody in it. Everybody was inside scatching their Loto tickets, so we ordered our coffees and went and sat outside at the unoccuppied of the two tables that were out on the sidewalk.
We then realised that these tables were for smokers at that sidewalk dining was not really part of this town. Next two guys came out and asked if they could share our table. “of course” we said, and so they started to pour their beers at 10:30 in the morning. Shaking wildly, this was obviously the hair of the dog, and this was the weirdest town we had visited anywhere we had travelled. The music gave it a bit of “The Prisoner” feel, from the 60's tv series. Anyway, after that, we gulped down our coffee and headed out of town – it was the weird bit of the day.
From there, dead was the order of the day as we travelled through a series of towns, all of which were part of the L'Aube champagne route, and without exception they were all complete deserted. First off was Chaourse, which makes a cheese that is famous throughout the area. Having tried it, it is neither particularly tasty, particularly creamy or particularly textureful, but it is the local cheese and they are obviously very proud of it, so we have tried it and can now move on. From Chaourse we then visited Les Riceys and Essoyes. All these towns are on the Route Des Champagnes, but the volume of grapes was nothing like we had seen in the Alsace, or the Mosele. There were plenty of Champagne houses to visit along the way, but it's not really our thing, so sorry we didn't. Because all the towns were so quiet, we headed back to Troyes for a long lunch in the square, before returning to the campground and our last night camping.
After nearly 20 years of service, actually, make that 15 weeks of service over nearly 20 years, we have decided to leave our tent in the campground at Troyes, as it's quite heavy, is past is prime, doesn't enable us to stand up and would we'd probably have to get it cleaned by NZ Border Control. We left the tent, our two camp chairs and some other stuff at the camp restaurant. The campground owner was very happy to receive them and said that people were always showing up who had forgotten their tent, or had some mishap that would make them very happy to have our tent.
Having parked the car in Bar Sur Seine, we rounded the corner onto the main street of town, to be met by this loud music coming, we thought, from a 4WD that had just parked on the footpath where we were about to walk. “A bit rude” we thought. Firstly parking on the footpath right in front of us, then having really loud music. As we walked past the 4WD (on the road, cos it was on the footpath), we realised that the loud music wasn't coming from the 4WD, but from a speaker mounted high on the wall of a nearby building. As we walked up the street, the music stayed at the same volume because every building seemed to have a speaker on it. After 100m of that street we rounded the corner to get the same thing on the next street. I have no idea what the music was for, or why it was being played, but the speakers all looked reasonably permanent, so it must be a local custom. Our objective was to get a coffee and some croissants for breakfast, preferably away from the noise. Having walked the length and breath of the town without being able to escape the music, we decided to stop at the only local cafe that had anybody in it. Everybody was inside scatching their Loto tickets, so we ordered our coffees and went and sat outside at the unoccuppied of the two tables that were out on the sidewalk.
We then realised that these tables were for smokers at that sidewalk dining was not really part of this town. Next two guys came out and asked if they could share our table. “of course” we said, and so they started to pour their beers at 10:30 in the morning. Shaking wildly, this was obviously the hair of the dog, and this was the weirdest town we had visited anywhere we had travelled. The music gave it a bit of “The Prisoner” feel, from the 60's tv series. Anyway, after that, we gulped down our coffee and headed out of town – it was the weird bit of the day.
From there, dead was the order of the day as we travelled through a series of towns, all of which were part of the L'Aube champagne route, and without exception they were all complete deserted. First off was Chaourse, which makes a cheese that is famous throughout the area. Having tried it, it is neither particularly tasty, particularly creamy or particularly textureful, but it is the local cheese and they are obviously very proud of it, so we have tried it and can now move on. From Chaourse we then visited Les Riceys and Essoyes. All these towns are on the Route Des Champagnes, but the volume of grapes was nothing like we had seen in the Alsace, or the Mosele. There were plenty of Champagne houses to visit along the way, but it's not really our thing, so sorry we didn't. Because all the towns were so quiet, we headed back to Troyes for a long lunch in the square, before returning to the campground and our last night camping.
After nearly 20 years of service, actually, make that 15 weeks of service over nearly 20 years, we have decided to leave our tent in the campground at Troyes, as it's quite heavy, is past is prime, doesn't enable us to stand up and would we'd probably have to get it cleaned by NZ Border Control. We left the tent, our two camp chairs and some other stuff at the camp restaurant. The campground owner was very happy to receive them and said that people were always showing up who had forgotten their tent, or had some mishap that would make them very happy to have our tent.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday 10th July – Week 4 – Drive to Troyes
After two educational days in Verdun, we are off to Troyes and the heart of Champagne country today. The start of the trip continues the WWI theme, with the drive from Verdun to Bar Le Duc being on the famous Voie Sacre – the sacred road. This is the road is WWI that was used to ship a constant stream of men and supplies to the front line. 8 quarries had to be developed along the 60km course of the road to create enough gravel to keep the road maintained. In order to maintain morale, men were constantly cycled in and out of Verdun. Any unit that lost 1/3 of its capability through death or injury we reassigned to a different location in the war. It is for this reason that 80% of French soldiers in WWI served in Verdun at one time or another. The Voie Sacre, today, is marked with kilometre markers, topped with a soldiers helmet.
Jane took us on a myriad of back roads, some of which amazed us as to her knowledge of the minutiae of the French countryside. The fist stop of the morning was at Bar Le Duc for a coffee au lait, pain au chocolat and a pain au raisin. From there is was on to Briemme Le Chateau, the cabbage capital of France. Approaching the town, the Chateau sits on top of a hill at the end of the main road into the town. It is not open to the public and learning the Briemme was the cabbage capital of France, we decided to move on. Briemme supplies 25% of the entire French cabbage requirements, although I suspect that in reality, 25% of the French cabbage tonnage, is a very similar figure to 25% of the Alsatian cabbage tonnage – bloody sauerkraut.
Arriving at Troyes, we headed first to the town centre for a look around and lunch. The town itself is very nice, with large squares and a nice mixture of modern, old and very old buildings. Some of the 15th century buildings are on an incredible lean and it would have been great to see what they were like on the inside. I can't belive that the floors are on the crazy angles of the outer beams, but as they aren't open to the public, who would know. After lunch, we headed excitedly for the campground for our last two nights of camping on the holiday. That evening, we headed into the town for a dinner of Andouilette de Troyes, a chitterling sausage made of stomach, tripe and other unmentionable bits, topped with fried shallots and a green salad. Despite the sound of it, it was actually very nice.
Jane took us on a myriad of back roads, some of which amazed us as to her knowledge of the minutiae of the French countryside. The fist stop of the morning was at Bar Le Duc for a coffee au lait, pain au chocolat and a pain au raisin. From there is was on to Briemme Le Chateau, the cabbage capital of France. Approaching the town, the Chateau sits on top of a hill at the end of the main road into the town. It is not open to the public and learning the Briemme was the cabbage capital of France, we decided to move on. Briemme supplies 25% of the entire French cabbage requirements, although I suspect that in reality, 25% of the French cabbage tonnage, is a very similar figure to 25% of the Alsatian cabbage tonnage – bloody sauerkraut.
Arriving at Troyes, we headed first to the town centre for a look around and lunch. The town itself is very nice, with large squares and a nice mixture of modern, old and very old buildings. Some of the 15th century buildings are on an incredible lean and it would have been great to see what they were like on the inside. I can't belive that the floors are on the crazy angles of the outer beams, but as they aren't open to the public, who would know. After lunch, we headed excitedly for the campground for our last two nights of camping on the holiday. That evening, we headed into the town for a dinner of Andouilette de Troyes, a chitterling sausage made of stomach, tripe and other unmentionable bits, topped with fried shallots and a green salad. Despite the sound of it, it was actually very nice.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Thursday 9th July – Week 4 – Verdun
Today is World War I day. Verdun was the centre of one of the major conflicts of WWI. While the French leadership were concentrating all their efforts on preparing for the Somme, the Germans were building up capability and infrastructure to attack Verdun. The Germans were desparate for a morale boosting win because the population were becoming despondent with the lack of progress that was being made in the war.
On the morning of February 21 1916, they began their attack and in the first 10 hours unleashed 2 million shells on the towns around Verdun. The fighting which went on for 300 days and while the Germans originally made good progress towards Verdun, they were constantly thwarted by the French and at the end of the 300 day war, they were back to where they started and around half a million people were dead.
Verdun is a very historic town and our day started with a walk around the old town. Verdun is on the Meuse River, which flows through the centre of the town, making an attractive centre piece and the site of many of the cities restaurants and bars. We visited, town gates, the town hall, the cathedral, the head quarters for the World Capital for Peace and the Carrefour Des Marechaux, the siting of 16 statues of generals of the 1870 Franco Prussian war and WWI.
The cathedral had beautiful stained glass windows and an intriguing entry door system. When you approached, there was a door that said 'pull', which when you did you were immediately confronted with a door that said 'push'. I'm not sure what the intention of these back to back doors were, but if it was to keep the noise out, it railed because I fell into the church laughing at it. Maybe it's designed to keep the birds out.
The Carrefour was the furthest point from the centre of town on our walk and the point at which todays shower took place, which had us sheltering under an archway for half an hour waiting for it to slow down a bit.
After a lunch of Carpaccio of Beef and Pizza (a fairly standard lunch), we head out of town to the war memorials. We visited the Monument de Lion, the museum, the Ossuaire of Douaumont, the destroyed town of Douaumont and the Fort de Douaumont.
Over the course of the battle, their was 60m shells fired and some of these were pretty big. This had a devastating effect on both the local towns and the local countryside. By the end of the war, 9 villages that housed around 3,000 people had been completely destroyed and because of the risk of unexploded shells, they have never been rebuilt. All the towns now have memorials on the site where they existed, and to this day each town has an elected mayor, so that these 'lost towns' are able to carry on in some small way.
The Monument of the Lion marks the point at which the Germans were stopped and rather than the usual proud rampant lion statue, the lion is very much an ailing lion, lying on its side (see photo). Just down the road was the museum, where we spent a couple of hours. Our knowledge of the two World Wars in not as extensive as it could be and it was interesting to read that while the match that ignited world war I was the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Prussia by a serb, the Germans and French had both been angling for a fight. The Germans wanted to share in the spoils of colonialism that was serving the British, Portugese and French so well, while the French were still smarting at having lost Alsace and parts of Lorraine in the 1870 Franco Prussian war. Both sides entered the war expecting an easy march to victory in Paris or Berlin, but 4 years later at the cost of millions of lives, little had been gained by either side (except the French got back their captured lands).
WWI saw the rapid development of artillery shelling, hand grenades and chemical warfare (mustard gas). In addition, the bright red trousers traditionally worn by French soldiers, were replaced with a much paler trouser, designed to help the soldier blend in with the landscape. Both sides went into the battle expecting wounds to come mainly from bayonets and bullets, whereas most wounds were the result of shrapnel for the shells or the grenades. On the upside, WWI saw the rapid advancement of plastic surgery, x-rays and telecommunications. It was the latter that enabled the war to be co-ordinated over such a large front and the Germans laid 8 – 9 million kilometres of telecommunications cables along the front over the course of the war.. Anyway, that's what I learnt from the museum and it was really interesting.
Next stop was the Ossuaire de Douaumont. This is the permenant memorial to the fallen French soldiers. The remains of some 130,000 are encased in the lower vaults and there is a massive cemetery with all the crosses lined up in neat formation. The Ossuaire has a huge tower, which we climbed to the top of to get aerial views of the cemetery, the surrounding countryside and the museum.
We then visited the destroyed village of Douaumont and it's fort, which at the time of the German invasion was manned only by a few elderly (probably my age) reservists.
Although it is now nearly 100 years since the war, the countryside all around the area still shows all the signs of all the shelling that went on and although it is now a forest, all the ground is still crater
ridden and there are many trenches still in existence, with their barbed wire.
On the morning of February 21 1916, they began their attack and in the first 10 hours unleashed 2 million shells on the towns around Verdun. The fighting which went on for 300 days and while the Germans originally made good progress towards Verdun, they were constantly thwarted by the French and at the end of the 300 day war, they were back to where they started and around half a million people were dead.
Verdun is a very historic town and our day started with a walk around the old town. Verdun is on the Meuse River, which flows through the centre of the town, making an attractive centre piece and the site of many of the cities restaurants and bars. We visited, town gates, the town hall, the cathedral, the head quarters for the World Capital for Peace and the Carrefour Des Marechaux, the siting of 16 statues of generals of the 1870 Franco Prussian war and WWI.
The cathedral had beautiful stained glass windows and an intriguing entry door system. When you approached, there was a door that said 'pull', which when you did you were immediately confronted with a door that said 'push'. I'm not sure what the intention of these back to back doors were, but if it was to keep the noise out, it railed because I fell into the church laughing at it. Maybe it's designed to keep the birds out.
The Carrefour was the furthest point from the centre of town on our walk and the point at which todays shower took place, which had us sheltering under an archway for half an hour waiting for it to slow down a bit.
After a lunch of Carpaccio of Beef and Pizza (a fairly standard lunch), we head out of town to the war memorials. We visited the Monument de Lion, the museum, the Ossuaire of Douaumont, the destroyed town of Douaumont and the Fort de Douaumont.
Over the course of the battle, their was 60m shells fired and some of these were pretty big. This had a devastating effect on both the local towns and the local countryside. By the end of the war, 9 villages that housed around 3,000 people had been completely destroyed and because of the risk of unexploded shells, they have never been rebuilt. All the towns now have memorials on the site where they existed, and to this day each town has an elected mayor, so that these 'lost towns' are able to carry on in some small way.
The Monument of the Lion marks the point at which the Germans were stopped and rather than the usual proud rampant lion statue, the lion is very much an ailing lion, lying on its side (see photo). Just down the road was the museum, where we spent a couple of hours. Our knowledge of the two World Wars in not as extensive as it could be and it was interesting to read that while the match that ignited world war I was the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Prussia by a serb, the Germans and French had both been angling for a fight. The Germans wanted to share in the spoils of colonialism that was serving the British, Portugese and French so well, while the French were still smarting at having lost Alsace and parts of Lorraine in the 1870 Franco Prussian war. Both sides entered the war expecting an easy march to victory in Paris or Berlin, but 4 years later at the cost of millions of lives, little had been gained by either side (except the French got back their captured lands).
WWI saw the rapid development of artillery shelling, hand grenades and chemical warfare (mustard gas). In addition, the bright red trousers traditionally worn by French soldiers, were replaced with a much paler trouser, designed to help the soldier blend in with the landscape. Both sides went into the battle expecting wounds to come mainly from bayonets and bullets, whereas most wounds were the result of shrapnel for the shells or the grenades. On the upside, WWI saw the rapid advancement of plastic surgery, x-rays and telecommunications. It was the latter that enabled the war to be co-ordinated over such a large front and the Germans laid 8 – 9 million kilometres of telecommunications cables along the front over the course of the war.. Anyway, that's what I learnt from the museum and it was really interesting.
Next stop was the Ossuaire de Douaumont. This is the permenant memorial to the fallen French soldiers. The remains of some 130,000 are encased in the lower vaults and there is a massive cemetery with all the crosses lined up in neat formation. The Ossuaire has a huge tower, which we climbed to the top of to get aerial views of the cemetery, the surrounding countryside and the museum.
We then visited the destroyed village of Douaumont and it's fort, which at the time of the German invasion was manned only by a few elderly (probably my age) reservists.
Although it is now nearly 100 years since the war, the countryside all around the area still shows all the signs of all the shelling that went on and although it is now a forest, all the ground is still crater
ridden and there are many trenches still in existence, with their barbed wire.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Wednesday 8th July – Week 4 – Moselle to Verdun
CNN reports storms over Europe this morning and although the worst of it is more Northeast than we are, we are still in this rain, shine, rain, shine, heavens open, overcast type of weather pattern. It is supposed to be gone by the weekend and the only real impact it is having is that we're staying in hotels, rather than camping. As far as the sightseeing goes, we usually just have to shelter under a shop awning until the current shower passes.
We're changing our itinerary on the fly at the moment – and it's really great to have the flexibility to do that. We had originally planned to spend 5 days in the Rhine / Moselle region, but are now going to spend time in the champagne region at Verdun (site of a major World War I battle), Troyes and Epernay.
After a latish breakfast, we left our hotel and headed down the Moselle. The vineyards climb their way up the sides of the valley, the steepest ones being at an angle of 65 degrees. We stopped and took photos along the route and did a walk in some of the small towns. Bratwurst has become my favourite food of the moment, so I had a couple for lunch (Anne just had one of course). The scenery is very beautiful, with the river, the villages and the vineyards, but there is only so many photos that you can take that involve a church steeple, some houses, a bit of river, a boat and a vineyard. That's my view anyway, although there are some people who say you can never have too many handbags, shoes or motorbike jackets, so maybe I'm wrong there.
After the Moselle, it was back onto the motorways and the hour and a half drive to Verdun to find a hotel for the night. Tonight was washing night and as luck would have it, we spotted a laundromat in the centre of town, so after checking into the hotel, we headed to the laundromat and more importantly a nearby bar to wait for our clothes to do their thing. Dinner was at the same bar and was a Carpaccio and a small dessert between us, so I guess we were still burning off the numerous Bratwursts we had eaten over the past few days.
We're changing our itinerary on the fly at the moment – and it's really great to have the flexibility to do that. We had originally planned to spend 5 days in the Rhine / Moselle region, but are now going to spend time in the champagne region at Verdun (site of a major World War I battle), Troyes and Epernay.
After a latish breakfast, we left our hotel and headed down the Moselle. The vineyards climb their way up the sides of the valley, the steepest ones being at an angle of 65 degrees. We stopped and took photos along the route and did a walk in some of the small towns. Bratwurst has become my favourite food of the moment, so I had a couple for lunch (Anne just had one of course). The scenery is very beautiful, with the river, the villages and the vineyards, but there is only so many photos that you can take that involve a church steeple, some houses, a bit of river, a boat and a vineyard. That's my view anyway, although there are some people who say you can never have too many handbags, shoes or motorbike jackets, so maybe I'm wrong there.
After the Moselle, it was back onto the motorways and the hour and a half drive to Verdun to find a hotel for the night. Tonight was washing night and as luck would have it, we spotted a laundromat in the centre of town, so after checking into the hotel, we headed to the laundromat and more importantly a nearby bar to wait for our clothes to do their thing. Dinner was at the same bar and was a Carpaccio and a small dessert between us, so I guess we were still burning off the numerous Bratwursts we had eaten over the past few days.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Tuesday 7th July – Week 4 – Rhine and Moselle
Right, so here's some things I need to understand about Germany. What's with the cash? This is one of the most advanced societies on the planet, producing some of the best engineered products and I can't pay for a restaurant meal with a credit card. I knew it was like that in the 90's, but really expected that it would have changed in the ensuing 15 years. What made it worse, was that neither of the banks in Bacharach would accept our ATM cards, so we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get any cash. On second thoughts, Bacharach is like some tiny kiwi town, so if you rock into town with your fancy pants bank card, don't be surprised if all they've got is PSIS and the local credit union. We resolved the cash shortage problem today at the next town, but going into the bank was like going into a bank 20 years ago. There was an ATM, another machine that appeared to enable people to make specific payments – like for the electricity and then in the main part of the bank, 3 woman working on computers who looked like they were typing up the ledgers. Despite the neon lights out front, it all seemed very backwards.
After breakfast and a brief walk around Bacharach (it was raining), we headed down the Rhine to the town of St Goar – where we found the bank. St Goar is another tourist town, with a pretty main street full of shops selling a range of tourist tat – cuckoo clocks, beer steins, plastic knights and soldiers, knives etc. The stuff that we'd never wanted before we still didn't want and the stuff that we did like, we'd already got, so after a look around we headed on to Boppard.
There is a cycle track (about 8 feet wide and asphalt) all the way along the Rhine and the Moselle that we have traveled on so far, and although the weather has been decidedly marginal, there is a constant stream of cyclists (mostly of retirement age) riding up and down the river. They are usually accompanied by a bus or some sort of support vehicle and they cruise from town to town stopping at the local cafe's and restaurants. The track is generally slightly downhill, as it follows the course of the river and this is the way that you find most of the riders riding. Helmets aren't compulsory in France and Germany and most people don't wear them, which surprises me as an experienced crasher. Cycling is the latest form of transport to be added to the river's repertoire, and accompanies the barges, cruise boats, cars, trucks and trains that were already storming up and down on or beside the river.
Boppard was a bigger town, which we really liked. It's about 20ks from Koblenz, which is the convergence point of the Rhine, Moselle and the Lahn rivers, so would be a good base for exploring the Rhine. We had however decided to get back into camping, and had chosen another campground on the other side of the Rhine in a town called Lahnstein, so we headed off there to check it out. We got there at 2pm, but the office was closed until 3pm. The campground was set on the top of a hill beside a castle overlooking the town. It was a superb site, but not wanting to hang around for an hour, we headed down into the town and then decided to head down the river on the opposite side to that which we'd come up. As we headed into town, we decided that the town wasn't very nice – it was a bit industrial, then as we headed down the road and got stuck by yet another lot of road works, we decided that the Rhine itself was pretty industrial with all those barges constantly going up and down the river and trains along beside the river. We also decided the Rhine was full of daytrippers and tourist tat – great to have seen it but no need to stay any longer.
It was at this point, that the rain started and we decided that firstly, camping was out for the night and secondly, that it was time that we headed to the quieter waters and the Moselle sounded like a better option than the very busy Rhine. We were on the wrong side of the river for the Moselle, but there are ferries that cross he river at many points so we caught one of these small car ferries for the 3 minute trip (3 minutes, $EUR4.50) and yes, Anne did pay the ferryman before we got to the other side. Jane then took us on one of her back road direct trips, that had us winding our way through the forest and the hill country between the Rhine and the Moselle. Most of the road was single lane, two-way, so it was good that there was a couple of cars ahead of us to lead the way.
The Moselle was lovely and much less busy and also less industrially oriented. For a start, there were no trains and no barges and the towns were much smaller. There was a similar number of vines stretching up the sides of the valley on either side of the river. Many of the vineyards have cog type railways (think of a wellington cable car and your pretty much there), which wind there way up the sides of the valley. The Moselle also had lots of campgrounds right beside the river, but the German style seems to be to just have a fairly open paddock, where all the campers and caravans just park up for the night. The several that we saw did not have a single tent in them, so that, there general appearance and the regular showers were enough to have us heading for a hotel for the night.
Cochem is one of the main towns on the river and we chose a hotel there to spend the night, with Carpaccio and Pizza making a welcome return to the menu. Cochem is spread over both sides of the river and the restaurant we chose was on the other side from our hotel and had a great view of the village and the castle on the hill.
After breakfast and a brief walk around Bacharach (it was raining), we headed down the Rhine to the town of St Goar – where we found the bank. St Goar is another tourist town, with a pretty main street full of shops selling a range of tourist tat – cuckoo clocks, beer steins, plastic knights and soldiers, knives etc. The stuff that we'd never wanted before we still didn't want and the stuff that we did like, we'd already got, so after a look around we headed on to Boppard.
There is a cycle track (about 8 feet wide and asphalt) all the way along the Rhine and the Moselle that we have traveled on so far, and although the weather has been decidedly marginal, there is a constant stream of cyclists (mostly of retirement age) riding up and down the river. They are usually accompanied by a bus or some sort of support vehicle and they cruise from town to town stopping at the local cafe's and restaurants. The track is generally slightly downhill, as it follows the course of the river and this is the way that you find most of the riders riding. Helmets aren't compulsory in France and Germany and most people don't wear them, which surprises me as an experienced crasher. Cycling is the latest form of transport to be added to the river's repertoire, and accompanies the barges, cruise boats, cars, trucks and trains that were already storming up and down on or beside the river.
Boppard was a bigger town, which we really liked. It's about 20ks from Koblenz, which is the convergence point of the Rhine, Moselle and the Lahn rivers, so would be a good base for exploring the Rhine. We had however decided to get back into camping, and had chosen another campground on the other side of the Rhine in a town called Lahnstein, so we headed off there to check it out. We got there at 2pm, but the office was closed until 3pm. The campground was set on the top of a hill beside a castle overlooking the town. It was a superb site, but not wanting to hang around for an hour, we headed down into the town and then decided to head down the river on the opposite side to that which we'd come up. As we headed into town, we decided that the town wasn't very nice – it was a bit industrial, then as we headed down the road and got stuck by yet another lot of road works, we decided that the Rhine itself was pretty industrial with all those barges constantly going up and down the river and trains along beside the river. We also decided the Rhine was full of daytrippers and tourist tat – great to have seen it but no need to stay any longer.
It was at this point, that the rain started and we decided that firstly, camping was out for the night and secondly, that it was time that we headed to the quieter waters and the Moselle sounded like a better option than the very busy Rhine. We were on the wrong side of the river for the Moselle, but there are ferries that cross he river at many points so we caught one of these small car ferries for the 3 minute trip (3 minutes, $EUR4.50) and yes, Anne did pay the ferryman before we got to the other side. Jane then took us on one of her back road direct trips, that had us winding our way through the forest and the hill country between the Rhine and the Moselle. Most of the road was single lane, two-way, so it was good that there was a couple of cars ahead of us to lead the way.
The Moselle was lovely and much less busy and also less industrially oriented. For a start, there were no trains and no barges and the towns were much smaller. There was a similar number of vines stretching up the sides of the valley on either side of the river. Many of the vineyards have cog type railways (think of a wellington cable car and your pretty much there), which wind there way up the sides of the valley. The Moselle also had lots of campgrounds right beside the river, but the German style seems to be to just have a fairly open paddock, where all the campers and caravans just park up for the night. The several that we saw did not have a single tent in them, so that, there general appearance and the regular showers were enough to have us heading for a hotel for the night.
Cochem is one of the main towns on the river and we chose a hotel there to spend the night, with Carpaccio and Pizza making a welcome return to the menu. Cochem is spread over both sides of the river and the restaurant we chose was on the other side from our hotel and had a great view of the village and the castle on the hill.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Monday 6th July – Week 4 – Bacharach
Single beds, single bed duvets and small bath towels – we must be in Germany. Indeed we are, a hop, skip and a jump from Germany's former territory and we were into Deutschland, visiting the Rhine and the Moselle rivers.
Before leaving Strasbourg this morning, we did a bit of a walk around the central city, grabbing a coffee and then getting on the motorway. Leaving France on their 130 kph motorway, we hit Germany and switched immediately to a 90kph rough single lane road for 6ks, which was quite a surprise. As soon as the road increased to dual carriageway, the Germans were off and roared passed me. As the speed limit increased to 130kph, the speeds got even faster and I got blasted past by a range of BMW, Audis, VWs and of course even the “man in the white van” made a brief appearance as he shot past me in one hell of a hurry. Also on the road were more trucks than I knew existed.
The roads in Germany are free and although they allow unlimited speed in some places, they are also the home to millions of trucks, traffic jams and contra-flows. All of which makes for a mixed result, as some of the locals we have spoken to complain of the number of road works, where the lanes are coned off, traffic is at a crawl and there is no apparent work being done.
The weather has now changed from tropical to unsettled and rather than a cloud burst in the afternoons, we are now getting regular deluges at any time of the day or night, the skies are generally overcast and camping has been put on the back burner until the situation rights itself, or the holiday ends, whichever comes first.
Our first deluge of the day came on the motorways and it was one of the scariest experiences I've ever had in a car. Just as I pulled out to pass a truck, the heavens opened and the conditions turned into a white out. All I could see was the silhouette of the truck ahead of me and the white line to the side of me. Everything else was just spray and the road almost immediately was covered in surface water – all this while travelling at 130kph, although the speed reduced rapidly until the conditions improved a couple of minutes later. The brief trip to Bacharach (the small town on the Rhine where we are staying) involved 3 single lane contraflows and one tailback that went on for a couple of kilometres. This is more traffic trouble in one hour on German roads than we've in 3 weeks on French ones, so from our perspective, the French pay as you go system seems to yield a better result.
Bacharach is a pretty little town at the side of the Rhine. We have booked a hotel there for one night. We didn't arrive until mid afternoon, so after checking in and having a bite to eat, we went for a walk around the town before retiring to our room to watch the latest stage of the Tour de France.
We were walking around the town in the evening looking for somewhere for dinner, when this elderly woman came out of one of the restaurants, looked up to the skies and then said to us, “it's certainly chilly out tonight, it was 30 degrees yesterday. Are you looking for something to eat?”. We were both somewhat surprised at both the perfect English and the direct but very friendly apporach, so we both said yes, and with that were taken into one of the smallest restaurants we've ever been in. It was like stepping back in time. The restaurant was a small room the size of a living room, with only 7 tables, one of which was taken up by the Lord of the Manor, who appeared to be in his 80's, but was nonetheless doing the books on his laptop.
The room itself was wood panelling to waist height, with 3 layers of red tiles above that. Animals heads and skins adorned the wall, along with badges from various police and fire departments and there were a couple of stuffed animals on the shelves around the room. The table cloths were green plastic, leadlight lampshades hung from the ceiling and the curtains were red string. The owners obviously had something to do with horses, because there were also several photos of them with horses in their younger days. All the tables and wood panelling in the place was dark, so it really did have a rather old fashioned but comfortable feel to the place. Half of the tables had customers, so Anne settled in for what turned out to be one of the most enjoyable meals of the holiday. After all the French fare, it was nice to have some simpler food, so the Bratwurst and French fries, and the Weinerschnitzel was absolutely perfect. The lady of the house of course convinced us to have some of her home made apple struddle, which was to die for, so we left the restaurant well satisfied and all for the extremely reasonable price of only 30 Euros including a beer and a pitcher of wine (the food and wine were suggested by the lady of the house! She ordered and we enjoyed)
It is difficult to know how the GFC is affecting Europe (as translating the odd news we see is beyond our language skills) but certainly things seem quiet especially as this is peak season! The restaurants are not full and neither are the hotels, nor the campgrounds – certainly a surprise at this time of year! We have been told that a lot of Europeans are holidaying at home (be that in France or Germany!). The exception of course is the Netherlands, where 1 in 5 of them have got a caravan, so they are all out traveling the highways and biways of Europe – as we are.
Before leaving Strasbourg this morning, we did a bit of a walk around the central city, grabbing a coffee and then getting on the motorway. Leaving France on their 130 kph motorway, we hit Germany and switched immediately to a 90kph rough single lane road for 6ks, which was quite a surprise. As soon as the road increased to dual carriageway, the Germans were off and roared passed me. As the speed limit increased to 130kph, the speeds got even faster and I got blasted past by a range of BMW, Audis, VWs and of course even the “man in the white van” made a brief appearance as he shot past me in one hell of a hurry. Also on the road were more trucks than I knew existed.
The roads in Germany are free and although they allow unlimited speed in some places, they are also the home to millions of trucks, traffic jams and contra-flows. All of which makes for a mixed result, as some of the locals we have spoken to complain of the number of road works, where the lanes are coned off, traffic is at a crawl and there is no apparent work being done.
The weather has now changed from tropical to unsettled and rather than a cloud burst in the afternoons, we are now getting regular deluges at any time of the day or night, the skies are generally overcast and camping has been put on the back burner until the situation rights itself, or the holiday ends, whichever comes first.
Our first deluge of the day came on the motorways and it was one of the scariest experiences I've ever had in a car. Just as I pulled out to pass a truck, the heavens opened and the conditions turned into a white out. All I could see was the silhouette of the truck ahead of me and the white line to the side of me. Everything else was just spray and the road almost immediately was covered in surface water – all this while travelling at 130kph, although the speed reduced rapidly until the conditions improved a couple of minutes later. The brief trip to Bacharach (the small town on the Rhine where we are staying) involved 3 single lane contraflows and one tailback that went on for a couple of kilometres. This is more traffic trouble in one hour on German roads than we've in 3 weeks on French ones, so from our perspective, the French pay as you go system seems to yield a better result.
Bacharach is a pretty little town at the side of the Rhine. We have booked a hotel there for one night. We didn't arrive until mid afternoon, so after checking in and having a bite to eat, we went for a walk around the town before retiring to our room to watch the latest stage of the Tour de France.
We were walking around the town in the evening looking for somewhere for dinner, when this elderly woman came out of one of the restaurants, looked up to the skies and then said to us, “it's certainly chilly out tonight, it was 30 degrees yesterday. Are you looking for something to eat?”. We were both somewhat surprised at both the perfect English and the direct but very friendly apporach, so we both said yes, and with that were taken into one of the smallest restaurants we've ever been in. It was like stepping back in time. The restaurant was a small room the size of a living room, with only 7 tables, one of which was taken up by the Lord of the Manor, who appeared to be in his 80's, but was nonetheless doing the books on his laptop.
The room itself was wood panelling to waist height, with 3 layers of red tiles above that. Animals heads and skins adorned the wall, along with badges from various police and fire departments and there were a couple of stuffed animals on the shelves around the room. The table cloths were green plastic, leadlight lampshades hung from the ceiling and the curtains were red string. The owners obviously had something to do with horses, because there were also several photos of them with horses in their younger days. All the tables and wood panelling in the place was dark, so it really did have a rather old fashioned but comfortable feel to the place. Half of the tables had customers, so Anne settled in for what turned out to be one of the most enjoyable meals of the holiday. After all the French fare, it was nice to have some simpler food, so the Bratwurst and French fries, and the Weinerschnitzel was absolutely perfect. The lady of the house of course convinced us to have some of her home made apple struddle, which was to die for, so we left the restaurant well satisfied and all for the extremely reasonable price of only 30 Euros including a beer and a pitcher of wine (the food and wine were suggested by the lady of the house! She ordered and we enjoyed)
It is difficult to know how the GFC is affecting Europe (as translating the odd news we see is beyond our language skills) but certainly things seem quiet especially as this is peak season! The restaurants are not full and neither are the hotels, nor the campgrounds – certainly a surprise at this time of year! We have been told that a lot of Europeans are holidaying at home (be that in France or Germany!). The exception of course is the Netherlands, where 1 in 5 of them have got a caravan, so they are all out traveling the highways and biways of Europe – as we are.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Sunday 5th July – Week 3 – Route Des Vins / Strasbourg
We were up at 8am and had the tent cleaned and packed by 8:30 and were then on the road along the Route Des Vins to Strasbourg. The campground at Ribeauville had been really great, but after two heavy showers, the area around our tent was now very muddy and its original appeal of being well shaded meant that in the dry spells it hadn't dried out at all.
Being a Sunday night tonight, we have decided that this and Monday night will be hotel nights. Tonight will be in Strasbourg, where we have booked the Hotel Gutenburg, right in the centre of town and then Monday night we will be on the Rhine in a tiny little town call Bacharach.
Our route to Strasbourg was on the Route Des Vins, the tourist road that runs from one end of the Alsace to the other. It's actually the road we've been driving up and down for the last couple of days, but I just haven't got around to mentioning it. After all the rain, the day was amazingly crystal clear and we took some great photos of the vineyards and the small towns as we went along. There really is a town every couple of kilometres and in some of the photos, you can see two or three them spanned out towards the horizon. We stopped at the town of Itterswiller, because it in particular caught our eye, with all the houses and hotels having brilliantly colourful window boxes full of geraniums and petunias (Anne told me that).
Our first scheduled stop on the way to Stasbourg, was at the town of Obernai. Parking on the outskirts of town, we did a walking tour of the town and it's very impressive cathedral. There were a myriad of bus tours in town – old people and American school kids, so the place was pretty busy. Being a Sunday of course, there were also a hundred motorbikes in town, with their owners all wading around in their extravagantly hot protective gear. I enjoyed looking at the motorbikes, but couldn't do the 30 odd degree heat with all the gear.
Leaving Obernai, it was on the motorway to Strasbourg. Jane did an excellent job of navigating us straight to the hotel door, or the parking building 50 metres away. Heading out to find some lunch, there was a Romanian Food Festival on in Gutenburg Square, which is right beside the hotel, so we stopped there to see what they could do with minced meat and potato and also to pick up some information about tourism in Romania. The Potato salad and the spiced mince sausages were very nice, as was the Apple Struddle, which had a filling that was almost like cream cheese.
After lunch, we headed to the Strasbourg Cathedral, which is magnificent – both the external facade and the stained glass windows inside. People were climbing up inside the church towers, but given the heat and the recent lunch, we decided that we'd go and check into our hotel and watch the Tour de France (which isn't nearly as good when you've only got French, German or Italian (we did have all three) commentators.
We went for a long walk in the evening, down to Petite France, the canal area of Strasbourg and then along the riverbank of the River Ill doing a big circuit all the way back to the cathedral, before heading back down to Petite France to one of the restaurants we had seen beside the canals. It had the intriguing name of La Corde A Ligne – The Clothes Line and all the menu items were named after things to do with washing, or washing machines. It sounds odd, when translated to English, but the menu itself was pretty cool and we had a meal of Spatzle and meatballs in a mustard sauce (me), and Spatzle and half a chicken (Anne), which we shared.
Being a Sunday night tonight, we have decided that this and Monday night will be hotel nights. Tonight will be in Strasbourg, where we have booked the Hotel Gutenburg, right in the centre of town and then Monday night we will be on the Rhine in a tiny little town call Bacharach.
Our route to Strasbourg was on the Route Des Vins, the tourist road that runs from one end of the Alsace to the other. It's actually the road we've been driving up and down for the last couple of days, but I just haven't got around to mentioning it. After all the rain, the day was amazingly crystal clear and we took some great photos of the vineyards and the small towns as we went along. There really is a town every couple of kilometres and in some of the photos, you can see two or three them spanned out towards the horizon. We stopped at the town of Itterswiller, because it in particular caught our eye, with all the houses and hotels having brilliantly colourful window boxes full of geraniums and petunias (Anne told me that).
Our first scheduled stop on the way to Stasbourg, was at the town of Obernai. Parking on the outskirts of town, we did a walking tour of the town and it's very impressive cathedral. There were a myriad of bus tours in town – old people and American school kids, so the place was pretty busy. Being a Sunday of course, there were also a hundred motorbikes in town, with their owners all wading around in their extravagantly hot protective gear. I enjoyed looking at the motorbikes, but couldn't do the 30 odd degree heat with all the gear.
Leaving Obernai, it was on the motorway to Strasbourg. Jane did an excellent job of navigating us straight to the hotel door, or the parking building 50 metres away. Heading out to find some lunch, there was a Romanian Food Festival on in Gutenburg Square, which is right beside the hotel, so we stopped there to see what they could do with minced meat and potato and also to pick up some information about tourism in Romania. The Potato salad and the spiced mince sausages were very nice, as was the Apple Struddle, which had a filling that was almost like cream cheese.
After lunch, we headed to the Strasbourg Cathedral, which is magnificent – both the external facade and the stained glass windows inside. People were climbing up inside the church towers, but given the heat and the recent lunch, we decided that we'd go and check into our hotel and watch the Tour de France (which isn't nearly as good when you've only got French, German or Italian (we did have all three) commentators.
We went for a long walk in the evening, down to Petite France, the canal area of Strasbourg and then along the riverbank of the River Ill doing a big circuit all the way back to the cathedral, before heading back down to Petite France to one of the restaurants we had seen beside the canals. It had the intriguing name of La Corde A Ligne – The Clothes Line and all the menu items were named after things to do with washing, or washing machines. It sounds odd, when translated to English, but the menu itself was pretty cool and we had a meal of Spatzle and meatballs in a mustard sauce (me), and Spatzle and half a chicken (Anne), which we shared.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Saturday 4th July – Week 3 – Koenigsbourg
Off through the back roads of the Alsace today to visit the hill top castle - Haut Koenigsbourg. The castle had been a ruin, but was fully restored at the start of the 20th Century. It had been first built in the 12th Century and is located on top of a 700m hill, that had views of the Alsace plains, was a perfect defensive stronghold, that is until the Swedes destroyed it in the 17th Century. In 1870, The Alsace and part of the Lorraine became part of Germany as a result of the Franco-Prussian war. It remained in German hands until 1918 and it was during this period that Kaiser William II had it restored to its former glory.
We spent a couple of hours in the interior of the castle, which was very much a defensive fortress whose primary purpose was for the defense of the lands surrounding them. The views over the Alsace, were surprisingly still quite hazy, but it did show that for as far as the eye could see, all there was was vineyards.
After leaving the castle, we stopped in a couple of small villages, but not finding anywhere that grabbed our fancy for lunch, we headed back to Ribeauville, but then had to sit in the car for 20 minutes to wait while the heavens once again opened, in yet another attempt to a.) clear the air of humidity and b.) provide a job creation scheme for the campers who were still mopping up after yesterday's deluge. We decided that once again, a pup tent was no place for anybody over the age of 5 during a torrential down pour and that as we had survived the previous days down pour, we would be OK to survive the latest.
We got a hell of a a fright at one stage, while driving around. A bolt of lightning hit the ground very close by which made an almighty bang. Just as we were hitting our heads on the ceiling of the car, it's accompanying thunderclap went off as well. That's the second time in Europe that we've got very close to lightning bolts and both were pretty spectacular.
We spent an enjoyable couple of hours walking round Ribeauville and having a late lunch / dinner of Beef Bourgonogne. When we returned to the campground, everything was OK, but the door of the tent was half open, but nothing had been taken. A couple of minutes thought about why somebody would look into the smallest tent in the campground brought us to the conclusion that it must be kids, just as one went by with an obvious look of guilt on his face.
There was a local outdoor disco on at a park up the road, so we went up to that for an hour or so, enjoying the 70's and 80's music and the dancing girls on the stage. The DJ with his curly dark hair, mustache and sequined, sleeveless top was also a sight to behold. The disco finished at 11pm and then the drums started, so we walked back to the campground and were soothed off to sleep by their rhythmic beat.
We spent a couple of hours in the interior of the castle, which was very much a defensive fortress whose primary purpose was for the defense of the lands surrounding them. The views over the Alsace, were surprisingly still quite hazy, but it did show that for as far as the eye could see, all there was was vineyards.
After leaving the castle, we stopped in a couple of small villages, but not finding anywhere that grabbed our fancy for lunch, we headed back to Ribeauville, but then had to sit in the car for 20 minutes to wait while the heavens once again opened, in yet another attempt to a.) clear the air of humidity and b.) provide a job creation scheme for the campers who were still mopping up after yesterday's deluge. We decided that once again, a pup tent was no place for anybody over the age of 5 during a torrential down pour and that as we had survived the previous days down pour, we would be OK to survive the latest.
We got a hell of a a fright at one stage, while driving around. A bolt of lightning hit the ground very close by which made an almighty bang. Just as we were hitting our heads on the ceiling of the car, it's accompanying thunderclap went off as well. That's the second time in Europe that we've got very close to lightning bolts and both were pretty spectacular.
We spent an enjoyable couple of hours walking round Ribeauville and having a late lunch / dinner of Beef Bourgonogne. When we returned to the campground, everything was OK, but the door of the tent was half open, but nothing had been taken. A couple of minutes thought about why somebody would look into the smallest tent in the campground brought us to the conclusion that it must be kids, just as one went by with an obvious look of guilt on his face.
There was a local outdoor disco on at a park up the road, so we went up to that for an hour or so, enjoying the 70's and 80's music and the dancing girls on the stage. The DJ with his curly dark hair, mustache and sequined, sleeveless top was also a sight to behold. The disco finished at 11pm and then the drums started, so we walked back to the campground and were soothed off to sleep by their rhythmic beat.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Friday 3rd July – Week 3 – Eguisheim and Colmar
The heat and humidity continue. It's getting really muggy now something has got to give and I feel it might be me. Mid morning sightseeing runs in the mid 30's and the humidity is through the roof. Anne's fear of thunder and lightning has been forever cured, because it's as regular as breathing at the moment. It's all happening a fair distance away, but so far there's been no cloud burst to bring the temperature, or the humidity, down.
We headed off to Eguisheim, after a breakfast of Pain au Raisin and Pain au Chocolat. This campground has the luxury of a shop that stocks fresh pasties every morning, so we're making the most of that while it lasts. Eguisheim is a small town about 15kms away from Ribeauville. All the towns in the area are located very close to one another and this would appear to be because the locals live in the town and work on the vineyard, so had to live reasonably close to their own vineyard.
The town is once again picture postcard, but as we walked around it, the skies darkened and we were soon walking in the midst of a constant shower. We stopped by the main town's square for a coffee, along with all the septuagenarian cyclists that had decided that this riding lark wasn't nearly as good when it rained. After the coffee, we visited the local church which was the most elaborate affair we've come across so far, and once again, very in keeping with German rather than French taste (or at least what I've observed of French taste in church interiors, which is very austere. I took a quite neat photo of the interior of the church, which required a 4 second exposure time, because the church was so dark. The result was rather good, if I say so myself, and revealed an array of colours and patterns that are not visible to the naked eye.
Next stop after Eguisheim was the town of Colmar, a biggish town with a population of around 100,000 people. We spent about 3 hours walking round the town, photographing the small squares and the streets and visiting their little Venice, although the name is a bit of a stretch because 1 small canal does not make ones city the next Venice. Returning from a brief visit to an electronics shop, we were greeted with black skies and the rain had started. We decided to head back to Ribeauville amidst a moderate rain shower. Stopping at a Decathlon shop on the outskirts of Colmar, we heard the heavens open above us onto the roof of the mega store. Leaving the store, we stopped to check out how next year's tent, an example of which had been pitched outside the store, would handle a Noah-esque torrential down pour. Heading back to Ribeauville, the rain was unbelievably heavy, so we stopped for an extended visit to the supermarket, hoping to see the storm pass. The storm seemed a bit more than the locals are used to, as every aisle at the supermarket had a bucket in it, and when we ventured outside, the local fire department had been called to pump out the basement, which had obviously flooded.
Wondering how the tent had survived and keen to see the devastation, we returned to the campground to find that our tent was only slightly damp inside, but very muddy on the outside. Others had not faired so well and some of the tent sites were in a hollow, so we watched with interest as one diligent wife removed 3 10 litre pales of water for inside their tent (while her husband had a cigar outside :-( ). All around the campsite, people were busying themselves with sponges, mops and brooms (where does all this stuff come from) to mop up from the deluge. We did a quick assessment, had a brief chat with the neighbours, decided that things were looking ok and headed into town for dinner. We were pleased that we'd put our sleeping bags in the waterproof bag we carry all our camping gear in, as despite the massive down pour, they were still totally dry. The neighbours told us that when they were sitting in the tent during the down pour, they could feel some big creeks start to develop under their tent. We decided that we had been best to stay away and that our ignorance is bliss policy had worked well for this camping dilemma.
We returned after dinner to a mostly dry tent and turning over the air bed to conceal the wet patch that had caught the slight leak, we settled in for a quiet nights sleep.
We headed off to Eguisheim, after a breakfast of Pain au Raisin and Pain au Chocolat. This campground has the luxury of a shop that stocks fresh pasties every morning, so we're making the most of that while it lasts. Eguisheim is a small town about 15kms away from Ribeauville. All the towns in the area are located very close to one another and this would appear to be because the locals live in the town and work on the vineyard, so had to live reasonably close to their own vineyard.
The town is once again picture postcard, but as we walked around it, the skies darkened and we were soon walking in the midst of a constant shower. We stopped by the main town's square for a coffee, along with all the septuagenarian cyclists that had decided that this riding lark wasn't nearly as good when it rained. After the coffee, we visited the local church which was the most elaborate affair we've come across so far, and once again, very in keeping with German rather than French taste (or at least what I've observed of French taste in church interiors, which is very austere. I took a quite neat photo of the interior of the church, which required a 4 second exposure time, because the church was so dark. The result was rather good, if I say so myself, and revealed an array of colours and patterns that are not visible to the naked eye.
Next stop after Eguisheim was the town of Colmar, a biggish town with a population of around 100,000 people. We spent about 3 hours walking round the town, photographing the small squares and the streets and visiting their little Venice, although the name is a bit of a stretch because 1 small canal does not make ones city the next Venice. Returning from a brief visit to an electronics shop, we were greeted with black skies and the rain had started. We decided to head back to Ribeauville amidst a moderate rain shower. Stopping at a Decathlon shop on the outskirts of Colmar, we heard the heavens open above us onto the roof of the mega store. Leaving the store, we stopped to check out how next year's tent, an example of which had been pitched outside the store, would handle a Noah-esque torrential down pour. Heading back to Ribeauville, the rain was unbelievably heavy, so we stopped for an extended visit to the supermarket, hoping to see the storm pass. The storm seemed a bit more than the locals are used to, as every aisle at the supermarket had a bucket in it, and when we ventured outside, the local fire department had been called to pump out the basement, which had obviously flooded.
Wondering how the tent had survived and keen to see the devastation, we returned to the campground to find that our tent was only slightly damp inside, but very muddy on the outside. Others had not faired so well and some of the tent sites were in a hollow, so we watched with interest as one diligent wife removed 3 10 litre pales of water for inside their tent (while her husband had a cigar outside :-( ). All around the campsite, people were busying themselves with sponges, mops and brooms (where does all this stuff come from) to mop up from the deluge. We did a quick assessment, had a brief chat with the neighbours, decided that things were looking ok and headed into town for dinner. We were pleased that we'd put our sleeping bags in the waterproof bag we carry all our camping gear in, as despite the massive down pour, they were still totally dry. The neighbours told us that when they were sitting in the tent during the down pour, they could feel some big creeks start to develop under their tent. We decided that we had been best to stay away and that our ignorance is bliss policy had worked well for this camping dilemma.
We returned after dinner to a mostly dry tent and turning over the air bed to conceal the wet patch that had caught the slight leak, we settled in for a quiet nights sleep.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Thursday 2nd July – Week 3 – Ribeauville / Riquewihr / Kaysersberg
Have I mentioned that it is hot – man is it hot today. It got so hot that we eventually had to put the roof up on the car – 36 degrees is too hot to be driving round in the sun. We started off in Ribeauville, as we'd only gone half way up the main street on our walk the previous night. From there, we headed off through the vine covered countryside to Riquewihr. Riquewihr is a small town set on a steep hillside. You enter through the main gate, which is the archway in the middle to the town hall. The walk through the town isn't quite on hands and knees, but it is a fairly steep hill. We were there about midday, so the sun was high in the sky and there was no protection from the sweltering sun. Although it sounds like a fairly quiet day so far, the couple of hours walking in the heat had taken it's toll on our energy, so we retired to the shade of the campground and had a well earned siesta until some of the heat had gone from the sun.
5pm was a good time to be back out sightseeing and we visited a couple more small towns – Kaysersberg, which I'm sure we visited in the early 90's – it had a very familiar feel to it.
The big talking point of the day was, however, the dinner. Remember, the when in Rome comment. So tonight Anne and I tried the local delicacies. I had the Sauerkraut, with 5 different meats and potatoes, while Anne had the meat tourte (pie in other words). The previous night, these dishes had looked pretty good, so with great anticipation, we rocked up to a restaurant in Riquewihr (it doesn't matter what restaurant in what town – they all service it) and duly ordered our choice of dinners. The Sauerkraut is is in fact sour – it's made with white wine, but it tastes more like vinegar. I hadn't know this, until I tried it. The meats are slabs of fatty bacon, ham, and one very white sausage. The potatoes are simply boiled newish potatoes. I can now confidently report that the potatoes were the highlight. Make no mistake, this isn't something that is put on for the tourists – everybody eats it, and now I have too. But that's it, never again. Given the quality of food in the rest of France, this really is bland fare. I'm not sure what we are in for in the next week, when we head into the Rhine and Moselle, but just right now, I'm not feeling confident. Anne's meal consisted of a meat pie and many different grated vegetables – swede being among them. This is called a Tourte and once again – once is enough. The highlight of the meal was dessert!
We returned to the campground and were met with the familiar site of the people that had been sitting outside their caravans when we left at 10 O'clock in the morning, who had been there, outside there caravans, when we returned at 4, were still sitting outside their caravans when we returned to the campground at 10pm. This seems to be a feature of campground life, where some people just rock up to a campground and then revolve their entire life around and caravan and an awning for the week or so that they are there.
5pm was a good time to be back out sightseeing and we visited a couple more small towns – Kaysersberg, which I'm sure we visited in the early 90's – it had a very familiar feel to it.
The big talking point of the day was, however, the dinner. Remember, the when in Rome comment. So tonight Anne and I tried the local delicacies. I had the Sauerkraut, with 5 different meats and potatoes, while Anne had the meat tourte (pie in other words). The previous night, these dishes had looked pretty good, so with great anticipation, we rocked up to a restaurant in Riquewihr (it doesn't matter what restaurant in what town – they all service it) and duly ordered our choice of dinners. The Sauerkraut is is in fact sour – it's made with white wine, but it tastes more like vinegar. I hadn't know this, until I tried it. The meats are slabs of fatty bacon, ham, and one very white sausage. The potatoes are simply boiled newish potatoes. I can now confidently report that the potatoes were the highlight. Make no mistake, this isn't something that is put on for the tourists – everybody eats it, and now I have too. But that's it, never again. Given the quality of food in the rest of France, this really is bland fare. I'm not sure what we are in for in the next week, when we head into the Rhine and Moselle, but just right now, I'm not feeling confident. Anne's meal consisted of a meat pie and many different grated vegetables – swede being among them. This is called a Tourte and once again – once is enough. The highlight of the meal was dessert!
We returned to the campground and were met with the familiar site of the people that had been sitting outside their caravans when we left at 10 O'clock in the morning, who had been there, outside there caravans, when we returned at 4, were still sitting outside their caravans when we returned to the campground at 10pm. This seems to be a feature of campground life, where some people just rock up to a campground and then revolve their entire life around and caravan and an awning for the week or so that they are there.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Wednesday 1st July – Week 3 – Dijon / Alsace
Boy was I grumpy this morning. It all started the previous night, when I slammed my finger in a door, trying to manouver my way into the washing cubicle in the Beaune campground. The problem is that, any cubicle you have to shut a door on, you have to get through the door and then wedge yourself between the toilet or wash basin in order to be able to shut the door. I don't know who designed the facilities in the Beaune campground, but they don't bear any resemblance to any dimensions that I possess.
Beaune is a stop off point halfway between Calais and the south coast of France. Everybody in the campground is there for just one night, and I think the design of the facilities reflects this. After the finger crushing incident last night, the shower cubicle doesn't have a lock, the hooks are on upside down and all the toilets were full for an age when I arrived at my usual time, which in other campgrounds has seen me have the full facility to myself.
Anne came back and said that all the women had commented that these were the worst facilities they'd come across. It amused me that the women discussed this and the shared suffering helped them all get over it. There was not a word spoken in the men's facilities and I suspect everyone of us was seething. OK, got that off my chest. So after one very hot and muggy night (that didn't help my mood either) we packed up the tent and headed off on the road to Dijon
Dijon is the capital of burgundy and as such is a largish city of quarter of a million people. In the past, it has been incredibly wealthy and this is reflected in the magnificent historic buildings in the centre of the town.
The traffic was pretty busy getting into town, so we found a car park within close walking distance of the city centre and headed off on foot to explore the town centre. As we walked along the street, we noticed some big brass placards in the footpath with an owl logo on them. There owl is a little carving housed in the Notre Dame Cathedral, that is supposed to give good luck if you rub it with your left hand. The symbol is also used on little brass arrows all around the city, to lead you on a walking tour.
We, however, had the Michelin guide tour, which we followed. The first stop was the Eglise Notre Dame, which had a fairly gruesome facade with three tiers of gargoyles all leaping out of the front of the church. The church wasn't open, so we headed off to the Place de La Liberation. This is a large semi-circular place, with the town hall on the flat edge of the semi-circle. The centre of the Place has a series of water fountains coming straight out of the paving stones, so you are able to walk right over them, which a number of very wet small children obviously had done. The outside of the Place contained a bunch of restaurants. At mid morning, the place was still quite quiet, so we headed off down some side streets and found some local markets and a busy shopping area. Although it's a big city, Dijon had a really good feel to it with a really lively street scene. Sorry to report, but in our short visit we did not see anybody selling mustard.
After Dijon, it was a much longer drive via motorways full of trucks in scorching heat to the Alsace. The Alsace is a series of very small villages and we've chosen one called Ribeauville to camp in for 4 days. The Alsace, home of the Alsatian dog, is very close the the German border and the german influences are very evident. The towns, which some people have described as chocolate box, are much more elaborately decorated than your average French town, but this is reasonably typical of German towns. The local cuisine consists of such favourites as Sauerkrautt, Spleitzly, pork sausages and potatoes.
The campground is of a really good quality and we have a very nice pitch with plenty of shade. The facilities are top notch, the staff are really friendly and it's the sort of place that people come to for a week, so it has more of a “permanent” feel about it.
After pitching our tent, we headed into town centre, which is about a 15 minute walk away. If we thought at Burgundy was full on wine production, it is nothing compared to the Alsace, where they have been growing grapes since about the 3rd century. Today, the whole region is devoted exclusively to growing wine and it is just staggering how much grape production there is. It seems that there are only two things that are important here – grapes and god. Every town is built around a church and everybody lives in the town, so that the productivity of the hillsides are maximised for growing grapes.
Ribeauville is a lovely medium sized village, which means that the main street is a kilometre or so long and has shops, bars, restaurants and wine caves all the way up it. The town can't be much more than three blocks from one side to the other – kinda like Dannevirke, but interesting, so not like Dannevirke at all.Once you've walked up the main street and down a couple of side streets you've pretty much seen the entire town and it is beautiful . You'll see some photos of the town and some of the others that you're about to read about and they are pretty stunning. The locals obviously take a huge amount of time to ensure that the towns look at their absolute best during the summer months.
Our dinner was in one of the restaurants, which served a mixture of more traditional French cuisine as well as the local food. We opted for the more traditional option, but vowed after watching the other diners that we'd be eating cabbage, sausages and potatoes at the next opportunity – when in Rome and all that.
Beaune is a stop off point halfway between Calais and the south coast of France. Everybody in the campground is there for just one night, and I think the design of the facilities reflects this. After the finger crushing incident last night, the shower cubicle doesn't have a lock, the hooks are on upside down and all the toilets were full for an age when I arrived at my usual time, which in other campgrounds has seen me have the full facility to myself.
Anne came back and said that all the women had commented that these were the worst facilities they'd come across. It amused me that the women discussed this and the shared suffering helped them all get over it. There was not a word spoken in the men's facilities and I suspect everyone of us was seething. OK, got that off my chest. So after one very hot and muggy night (that didn't help my mood either) we packed up the tent and headed off on the road to Dijon
Dijon is the capital of burgundy and as such is a largish city of quarter of a million people. In the past, it has been incredibly wealthy and this is reflected in the magnificent historic buildings in the centre of the town.
The traffic was pretty busy getting into town, so we found a car park within close walking distance of the city centre and headed off on foot to explore the town centre. As we walked along the street, we noticed some big brass placards in the footpath with an owl logo on them. There owl is a little carving housed in the Notre Dame Cathedral, that is supposed to give good luck if you rub it with your left hand. The symbol is also used on little brass arrows all around the city, to lead you on a walking tour.
We, however, had the Michelin guide tour, which we followed. The first stop was the Eglise Notre Dame, which had a fairly gruesome facade with three tiers of gargoyles all leaping out of the front of the church. The church wasn't open, so we headed off to the Place de La Liberation. This is a large semi-circular place, with the town hall on the flat edge of the semi-circle. The centre of the Place has a series of water fountains coming straight out of the paving stones, so you are able to walk right over them, which a number of very wet small children obviously had done. The outside of the Place contained a bunch of restaurants. At mid morning, the place was still quite quiet, so we headed off down some side streets and found some local markets and a busy shopping area. Although it's a big city, Dijon had a really good feel to it with a really lively street scene. Sorry to report, but in our short visit we did not see anybody selling mustard.
After Dijon, it was a much longer drive via motorways full of trucks in scorching heat to the Alsace. The Alsace is a series of very small villages and we've chosen one called Ribeauville to camp in for 4 days. The Alsace, home of the Alsatian dog, is very close the the German border and the german influences are very evident. The towns, which some people have described as chocolate box, are much more elaborately decorated than your average French town, but this is reasonably typical of German towns. The local cuisine consists of such favourites as Sauerkrautt, Spleitzly, pork sausages and potatoes.
The campground is of a really good quality and we have a very nice pitch with plenty of shade. The facilities are top notch, the staff are really friendly and it's the sort of place that people come to for a week, so it has more of a “permanent” feel about it.
After pitching our tent, we headed into town centre, which is about a 15 minute walk away. If we thought at Burgundy was full on wine production, it is nothing compared to the Alsace, where they have been growing grapes since about the 3rd century. Today, the whole region is devoted exclusively to growing wine and it is just staggering how much grape production there is. It seems that there are only two things that are important here – grapes and god. Every town is built around a church and everybody lives in the town, so that the productivity of the hillsides are maximised for growing grapes.
Ribeauville is a lovely medium sized village, which means that the main street is a kilometre or so long and has shops, bars, restaurants and wine caves all the way up it. The town can't be much more than three blocks from one side to the other – kinda like Dannevirke, but interesting, so not like Dannevirke at all.Once you've walked up the main street and down a couple of side streets you've pretty much seen the entire town and it is beautiful . You'll see some photos of the town and some of the others that you're about to read about and they are pretty stunning. The locals obviously take a huge amount of time to ensure that the towns look at their absolute best during the summer months.
Our dinner was in one of the restaurants, which served a mixture of more traditional French cuisine as well as the local food. We opted for the more traditional option, but vowed after watching the other diners that we'd be eating cabbage, sausages and potatoes at the next opportunity – when in Rome and all that.
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