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Eguisheim, Des Trois Chateaux, (ACSI2011-1274)
An uneventful journey, except that Jane (the Sat-Nav lady) gave up the ghost completely. Not surprising really the amount of abuse she has had to put up with. Now when you switch on the Tom-Tom, it just keeps on asking you which voice you want to use, then, no matter which voice you choose, it restarts itself. This happens over and over again.
We have been to Eguisheim before (on our way to Croatia about three years ago). It is a beautifully preserved medieval village. Touristy of course, but not unbearably so. This part of France was once part of Germany and it looks very German, most of the place names sound German, even although according to the information boards it has been French since the 1600’s.
The site is one of those which is “natural” ie not all of the grass is neatly trimmed etc.
The pitches are set among trees. As ever the Dutch are here in large numbers, but there is a greater mix than we have had so far with French, Belgians, Germans, Danish, and even three other British vans, plus us of course.
As we sit eating our lunch, we are visited by a number of sparrows, who hop about eating the crumbs from our baguette.
Tomorrow is the weekend, so that means we have to find a church for Kathleen. We also need to find a shop, to buy mushrooms. We get the bicycles out and set off, we find the church relatively quickly, but no luck with a shop, so our plans for our evening meal are revised from Spaghetti Bolagnaise to Chilli Con-Carne. The exploring takes us 7 miles of cycling.
The weather is superb, even at 20:00 in the evening, it is 22Centigrade, as we stroll through the narrow streets of the village.
The site is called “Des Trois Chateaux” because there are three ruined Chateaux on the hill behind the site, reception have a map of a walk through the vineyards to the “Trois Chateaux”.
We decide, given how hot it is, that we will do the walk on Saturday morning, before the heat builds up.
You can see the three ruined chateaux on the hilltop (on the right) in the photograph.
We set off quite early (10:00), but already it is so hot we are pleased when we make to the forested area on the hill, to get some shade.
Kathleen as usual forges on ahead, and has a near miss with a small snake sunning itself of the path. I am no expert, but it is only a grass snake I think.
By 11:30, we have reached the top, Kathleen looks as fresh as a daisy not bad for a 64 year old who has just walked 3.5 miles up a steep hill!
Maybe Dr Thornley-Walker needs to reduce her tablets again!
The view is quite stunning, although the three chateaux are now in ruins.
As always I marvel at how on earth they transported all of this stone up here, and then build these enormous structures, all before any form of mechanisation?
The return journey is shorter only 2.5 miles, because we can take the steeper but shorter path downhill through the forest, so we have walked 6 miles in total.
In the evening, I wait in a nice little bar, whilst Kathleen attends church, then we find a pleasant little restaurant for our evening meal.
On Sunday morning, we cycle to Colmar, a ten mile round trip. We have a map from reception, but fail to follow it correctly on the way there, so although we are on a cycle track, it is alongside a fairly major road for most of the way.
There is some form of ceremony going on in Colmar today, a version of Rememberance Day I would guess, since there is much laying of wreaths by dignitaries, and marching of soldiers.
Soon however we are in our favourite position, ie in a pavement bar watching the world go by.
Colmar is quite a beautiful place with some fine buildings and an area of canals, called predictably enough “Little Venice”, where you can wander along the water side,
with the odd horse drawn tourist trip going by.
There are plenty of places to sit and enjoy a rest, or a picnic lunch, It is one of my most enjoyable pastimes when in France, to sit munching my way through a good French baguette.
When you are an OAP, you have to be uptodate on how to find the vital services, since you may find you need to visit them more than in your youth!
Particulalry when you have been visiting too many pavement bars.
But OAP or not, doesn’t she look a picture, outshining the flowers!
We manage to cycle back to the campsite via the correct route, which is just about all away from the main roads, and passes through quiet fields.
In the evening, there is much excitement on the site.
A stork lands in the middle of the site, and wanders around quite unperturbed, whilst everyone rushes to take photographs of it.
It is not unusual to see them circling in the sky, or perched on chimney pots, but I have not seen one this close up before. They are big birds, and it is not at all clear how it is going to manage to get airborne again from among the many trees.
I took this photograph, Kathleen says, is art, I think it just shows that “somebody” is not quite as tidy as they would like to think they are, and that the same “somebody” has too many pairs of shoes with them!
Monday we pack up, and set off for Freiberg. The Tom-Tom is broken, so we are now on Kat-nav (Kathleen-Navigating). We find our way no problem to Freiberg, but finding the site is another matter, and Freiberg is quite a big place. But, not bad, after only one false start (ie turning up at the wrong campsite), we find our way eventually, and we are still speaking to each other (only because I am so easy going).
Freiberg, Camping Hirzberg (ACSI2011-520)
The site is typically German, ir spotlessly clean and very well organised. The chap who books us in is just a little over the top, he not only gives a lengthy explanation of all there is to see and do in Freiberg, but also directs you to your pitch and has you manouvre (my spelling!) until you are neatly lined up with all of the other vans. All very nice however.
This is the area where you put your rubbish, it is so clean, neat, tidy and organised, it could only be in Germany or one of the Scandanavian countries.
Once settled in, and lunch eaten, we set off on foot to explore Freiberg (we are only 1.5km from the city centre). It is hot (27C) and sunny. A cooling beer is necessary.
In the pedestrian streets of the city centre, they have small water channels flowing to cool the place down!
Villers-les-Nancy, Campeole Le Brabois, (ASCI2011-1268) continued....
The plan today, is to travel into Nancy on the bus, but, it is hair washing day, so everything must be organised around that.
Whilst I go and collect a baguette, make breakfast and wash the dishes, Kathleen attends to her hair. By 10:30, it is all over, and we go for the bus.
We have already bought our bus tickets in advance at reception (1.30Euro each, each way), so we are all organised.
We arrive at the Bus Station in Place Republic, no problem, well, no problem except that I have forgotten the camera (so any photographs today are via my phone), but I have remembered to bring the street map of Nancy, a bottle of water, and some bread and cheese. Not bad for a man who had to do everything else this morning, I think.
Nancy turns out to be quite stunning, there is an enormous square "Leopold-Ville Vielle".
All around the square, there are magnificent buildings, and of course, since this is France, pavement cafes, with people sitting reading newspapers, drinking coffee, or drinking wine or beer.
The French certainly know how to relax!
We choose a seat at one of the cafes, and join the theme, watching the world go by.
It is now 11:00 in the morning and, at the table next to us, two young men are having breakfast.
They also have a two litre bottle of Rose, we do not know it right now, but when we return to the same cafe for lunch, some two hours later, they are still sat there working their way through it!
After our coffee, we wander through the old streets, we have already decided to keep the picnic for when we return to the campsite, and that we will have lunch in the square.
This is a really impressive place for what is a provincial city, eat your heart out Manchester, Liverpool or Birmingham.
The cathederal is in the process of being renovated, so is covered in scaffolding, which limits the photographic opportunities. It is not even possible to browse the inside unfortunately.
There are plenty more impressive building and open spaces however, and we have not even got to the park yet!
This one is recently renovated and cleaned, not the best photograph I have ever taken, the limits of a phone as a camera is my excuse. It is the Ducal Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine.
Next we stroll into the park, where peacocks are wandering about, and people are sitting eating their picnic lunches in the sun.
We sit and enjoy the sun for a while, before returning to the square for lunch and a glass or two of Rose.
Since I bought the coffee this morning, we discuss the possibility of it being Kathleen's turn to pay. Particularly since she is sitting with 100Euro in her purse which I gave her yesterday. The purse is not openned today.
The two young men who were there in the morning are still working their way through their large bottle of wine, joined now by two friends.
Fully fed and watered, (well wined), we need a stroll for some exercise and for Kathleen to work off the alcohol, she does not do well on lunch time drinking.
We head off towards the canal and the river.
Soon it is time to find our way back to Place de la Republic, to catch our bus to the campsite.
From my point of view, this has been a perfect day in a city. Pleasant weather, a good lunch and a few glasses of wine, a stroll in the park and by the river. Not a single shop visited. Heaven!
The remainder of the day is spent lying in the sun, drinking wine, what hard work this is!
In the evening, by the time she has graduated to the Gin and Tonic, and talk becomes careless, Kathleen owns up to the fact that, although we have been away from home for a week today, she has not even opened her purse, except to put something in the collection at church, on Sunday.
Thursday morning, Kathleen goes to collect the baguette and buy bus tickets from reception.
The chap in reception admits that he is actually English (from Manchester), so all this time he has been pretending he did not speak English and forcing her to speak French.
We head off to Nancy again, we are joined at the bus stop by another English couple, we had thought that everyone else on the site was Dutch, but no, there is at least one other Brit.
We intend to have an exercise day today, as we maxed out on culture and drinking yesterday, so we stroll along the canal as it runs through Nancy.
It has presumably once been an area of industry and warehouses, but now it has been redeveloped as housing, shops and offices, with walkways and cycle tracks along it's banks.
We use the iPhone to record our walk on Runkeeper, it would appear that picking up the GPS signal is free, this sets me wondering, who pays for all of these GPS satellites whizzing around up there? Someone (the Americans presumably) must have put them up there at great expense.
We do about 4.5miles, and eventually end up back in the large park beside the Square, for a picnic, a rest and a sit in the sun.
Next we move on to the square and Kathleen cracks her purse open to buy the beers.
Eventually we remember, there are chores to do, we (well Kathleen) must wash some clothes, so after our cooling beer we head back to the bus station in Place de la Republic, and take the bus back to the campsite.
Just to prove it is not all fun and drinking, here is Kathleen doing the washing.
But soon it is all hanging on the washing line to dry, and she is sprawled in the sun in her bikini.
