Well one day in this campsite is enough. We have now driven back a few miles to Kitzinger. A German we met at an earlier aire said we would like Kitzinger, a lovely town with an excellent aire right beside the Main - and he is right - it is indeed a lovely town with an excellent aire. €9, and I've found a free wifi connection too.
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| Kitzinger |
Soon after we arrived, we were assailed by a tremendous row - very loud, live country music - at 11 am! We found about 40 oldish people line dancing, on the road into the aire. The aire is quite busy, with vans coming and going, so there was periodic scuttling out of the road. I say "dancing", but it was all rather desultory and unenthusiastic - but as I've never done line dancing, that might be the way it is done.
Rain:( During a break in the rain we walked along the very pleasant path beside the Main, and into town. The path goes past an imaginative, and empty, childrens' playground with some small trampolines. Well I couldn't resist...
Late afternoon, a nearby wine merchant arranged a wine tasting session on the aire, under the road bridge. We must have looked like a bunch of winos! The organiser's daughter in law comes from Nottingham, and he had some good English, and another chap joined in, pleased to have someone to talk in English. Unlike a normal wine tasting, a fair amount of wine got drunk, and I bought 2 litres of a medium dry white.
I'd say Kitzinger is one of the most pleasant places we have visited - definitely worth a return visit
Tues 3rd Oct
More rain:( Nice as Kitzinger is, it's time to move on. First we went to Wurzburg but failed to find the aire, and there was so much traffic we couldn't stop to look at a map. Instead, we have moved on to Marktheidenfeld. For a short while we were on the "Romantic Road", which we have followed in the past, and takes you through some spectacular mediaeval towns.
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| Marktheidenfeld |
Today is a public holiday - Reunification Day - celebrating the unification of East and West Germany in 1992(?), although we have met some from both East and West who are not sure that was a Good Thing. Marktheidenfeld this morning was like a ghost town, hardly anyone about and just one or 2 cafes open. Compare this with the UK where, Rye for instance, being a similar sort of town, would be stuffed to the gun'ls with tourists on a public holiday. But Marktheidenfeld is indeed a gorgeous town.
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| public garden |
Later - in the afternoon the sun came out - and quite a few tourists did indeed emerge to savour the delights of Marktheidenfeld. We had the best ice cream we've had in Germany. By the way he said "prego" instead of "bitte", I'd guess he was Italian - which explains the excellence of the ice cream. NO ONE makes ice cream like the Italians!
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| bike stand after rain |
We are in a large aire, not many vans, and electricity, at only €5 per night, and right beside the Main.
N49.8488 E9.6001 height 614 feet
Wed 4th Oct
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| Marktheidenfeld |
Walk back into town, to see it with the shops open. We found a department store selling shower duckboards, hugely reduced, that are just what we were looking for for our new van, We also saw a beautiful carved and polished wine rack, only €99 (! but it was very nice!). However the shop it was displayed in was only open 3 afternoons a week, and although today was one of the days, there was an extra notice saying it was closed today (or so Google Translate told me), so it looks like our wine will remain a big heap in the garage.
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| so near, yet so far! Thwarted love... |
Next, a half hour drive along the Main to Lohr am Main, where there is another aire. These Main towns just get better and better. Lohr is lovely - bigger than we are used to and stuffed with 16th century houses.
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| Lohr am Main |
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| Lohr am Main - the main drag |
We came across numerous images and souvenirs of Snow White and the 7 dwarves, and eventually a fairy tale castle with a Snow White silhouette. The Tourist Information office was close by, and we asked within. It seems the Brothers Grimm fairy tale is based on a real story, around Baroness Maria Sophia Margaretha Catherina Frei-fraulein von Erthal (no wonder they called her Snow White!)
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| Snow White's castle. The dwarves were miners in the surrounding forest. |
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| One of these is Snow White... |
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| This mirror is a replica of the "Mirror, mirror, on the wall...."mirror. The original is the castle (seen reflected) |
Autumn has arrived! Strong winds, leaves blowing horizontally, River Main decidely choppy. We have moved on again, cutting across a loop in the Main, to Klingenberg, going through a nature reserve of old broad leaved trees, We are parked on a privately run aire, rather like a small campsite but without the login hassle, called Sonja's Wohnmobil Hafen. €9.50 inc electricity. We have a prime spot just 6 inches from the Main (but several feet higher) near lock gates, so we have good views of barges as they come very close. For the first time ever I have had to use every inch of 2 electricity cables to reach the outlet. The weather is now so foul - heavy rain - that the solar panel stands no chance.
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| Sonje's Wohnmobil Hafen, Klingenburg. That's Tilly, closest to the camera |
We walked into town, before the rain began, and looked down on barges going through the lock. A tight fit - there can't be more than 6 inches gap either side of the standard barge, not much leeway when the barge is 300 foot long.
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| tight fit |
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| Klingenburg |
N 49.7843 E9.1775 height 499 feet - about the same height as home. Talking of which - we are due home in 5 days. Previously when we have arrived home in October the house has been cold right through. Even worse, the bed and mattress takes at least 3 days to warm up. Back in August we had a new boiler fitted, and it came with Internet access - you can control it via an app on your phone. The big test - I have just turned it on, and set the programme and desired room temperature. The app gives me feedback on the boiler state (on/standby), hot water state, and room temperature. Actually, the real test comes next week when we get home ....is the house warm and aired through
Fri 6th Oct
We had planned to move just a few miles to Aschaffenburg, but when we got there it seemed big and busy, and hassle, so we carried on 100 miles or so to the Moselle where, it seems, every village has an aire. We are at Reil, close to the Moselle, and there are many more barges going past than on the Main. Cost €9 including electricity, and there is a rather slow wifi connection too. The plan is to spend 2 days here before storming into France around Lille. Sally says it is a 4 hour drive, so probably 5 hours for us.
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| Add caption |
The BBC has reported that the gales we had yesterday caused some devastation across Germany, with a number of fatal casualties.
N51.2028 E7.1148, height 520 feet
Sat 7th Oct
We have agreed that whilst the Moselle is a prettier river, and more interesting, the Moselle towns and villages cannot compete with those along the Main. On the other hand, the Moselle is a lot closer to the UK. There is a good local shop here, and good walking too, with trains and a ferry so you could catch a boat along the river and walk back.
Sun 8th Oct
A long drive West today, to the Paschendaele Memorial Museum. We started off with the fuel tank 1/3 full, and the fuel warning light was on, and we were well into Belgium, before we found somewhere to refuel. 150 miles of motorway with no fuel stations. Of course, if it got desperate we could always come off the motorway and let Sally find one for us.
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| the Paschendaele battlefield, the British overview. There are similar maps showing the Anzac overview and the Canadian overview |
We wanted to visit Paschendaele now because it is almost exactly 100 years since Rosemary's great-uncle died there, in the closing hours of the battle. The Memorial Museum has not long been opened, and is very well done. Nearly half a million men died here, that is 5 bodies per square metre of battlefield - just enough space to bury them all upright if they were squashed together. Strident nationalism appears to be on the rise again - Trump, Brexit, AfD, Catalonia, Scotland, Russia, .....The proponents of nationalism should come here to see what it leads to.
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| Display of shells |
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| A "creation" by an Australian artist (the Anzacs were here too), in memory of those thousands who just sank into the mud and disappeared - like Rosemary's uncle |
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| Memorial placed in the dugout by a visitor, in memory of a relative, a tunnel builder, who was buried alive whilst building a tunnel |
We are spending the night a few miles from the museum at Langmarke-Poelkappelle, beside a sports complex. It is quite pricey - €12, but that does include electricity, and I have found a wifi connection.
N50.9103 E2.9176 height 157 feet
Mon 9th Oct
We have toured the battlefield area, attempting to find the likely ridge where Uncle Edward went missing, but it is very difficult to match the old battlefield maps with either current maps or the lie of the land. It is mindnumbing to think that every building, every tree, is less than 100 years old. Everything was levelled in the battle. At one point, the British army alone fired over 1 million high explosive shells in 2 weeks - and after that - the German strongholds were still intact, the only things still standing.
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| Tyne Cot cemetery |
Tyne Cot cemetery, in the middle of the battlefield, is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world. It is beautifully maintained - you have never seen such perfect grass. We came several years ago, and we had the place to ourselves. Now coming up to the centenary, there were coach loads of mainly Brits, although Australian and New Zealand accents were heard too. The staff, and a TV company, were busy setting up for a big New Zealand commemoration - the Kiwis suffered their greatest ever loss of lives at Passchendaele.
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| Great uncle Edward, died Nov 10th 1917, the last hours of the battle |
Now for our end of trip shop at the huge Auchan at Lille - except that this time we were unable to get in to the car park at all, and had to park outside. All the entrances have height barriers, and previously we have been able to press a button, talk to an operator, and the barrier would be slid out of the way. Not this time. He would not open the barrier. Neither my French nor his English were good enough to find out why. Looks like we shall have to find an alternative hypermarket for 2018.
This year we have book a Channel Tunnel Shuttle crossing, as there was a possibility of heavy seas being forecast. (But as of this evening, the sea is like a millpond). The Shuttle costs a fair bit more, and is not as flexible as the ferries, and not a great deal quicker, either, by the time check in and waiting times are accounted for. We are spending the night at an aire at Wissant, close to Cap Gris Nez, a few miles south of Calais. We need to check in by 0905 tomorrow, for a shuttle at 0950, which arrives in Folkestone at 0925 - the magic of time travel!
2105 miles
Tues 10th Oct
Left the site with plenty of time to spare to make sure we didn't miss the shuttle, and arrived early enough to catch the train an hour earlier - although that was half an hour late leaving. Security is TIGHT. We were even swept for explosives, and initial check in is done by soldiers armed with automatic weapons. The whole operation is much slicker than last time we used the tunnel, and may encourage us to use it again. Certainly disembarkation is lot easier and quicker.
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| The last leg |
And surprisingly there were no hold ups on the M25 or the A303 around Stonehenge. We were home at 1300 French time, 1200 BST, Total distance 2288 miles
Thoroughly enjoyed your trip and it looked very interesting especially some of the old German towns.
ReplyDeleteWhere are you off to next??
JOHN UPSHALL