June 14th 2010 - 15th June 2010

Monday morning, still pouring with rain. It has rained non-stop for 36 hours, and it is not just light rain, most of the time it has been hammering down, with a couple of thunderstorms thrown in.

I had left a plastic bucket outside, on the bike rack, and when I went to begin loading the bicycles on the bike rack it had about 4" of water in it!

We head north toward Germany and the southern end of the "Romantische Strasse" (Romantic Route).

Our first stopping point is Schwangau, to see the famous Castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.

We do not plan to stay here, we just park and walk to see the castles, take the photographs etc.

I have to say I was disappointed.

The castles look like fairy tale German Castles.

But it turns out they are not original, they were built in the early 1800's by "mad" King Ludwig II. 

Ludwig II had two original medievil castles, on the same site, knocked down, in order to build his "pretend" versions.

As if that is not bad enough, he died before they were finished, and they were not even completed to the "original" plan.

To round things off, it begins to pour with rain again as we head back to the campervan parking spaces, and it cost us 7 Euro to park for less than 2 hours!

Rain here is clearly a regular event, the ticket machine for the car park has a sign on it in German, French and English, telling you not to put wet tickets into the machine!

I hope the rest of the "Romantische Strasse" lives up to our expectations.

Rottenbuch/Ammer Terrassen-Camping am Richterbichi ACSI2010-559

First impressions are favourable, usual well organised German site, everything tidy and spotlessly clean, plus free wifi, and the rain has stopped (for now anyway).

One of the "must see" sights (Weiskirche, which to me translates as White Church, but is shown in all of the English literature as The Church in the Meadow), is about 10km away. There is a cycle track. I am working on Kathleen to cycle there, so far, she will not take the bait.

We cycle into the village (Rottenbuch), it is beautiful and has a very impressive church, which as far as I can tell from the information (in German of course), was built around 1450.

Quite what such a small village is doing with such an enormous church is not explained.

Next we cycle towards Weiskirche, but after about 4km there are a few spots of rain, cannot risk getting the hair wet, so we head back (damn, thought I had it in the bag). In the event it does not rain.

Have you noticed by the way, my "portrait" orientation photographs are now showing OK?, don't know why, I have not done anything differently, computers!!



Tuesday, the plan is, if it is not sunny, to go to Oberammergau on the bus, if it is sunny to cycle to Weiskirche.

The weather is on Kathleen's side, although it starts fine, by the time we have had our breakfast, it is looking decidely like rain.

The bus stop is just at the entrance to the campsite, so we present ourselves at the bus stop at 10:25, and sure enough, with German precision, the bus arrives at 10:29.  Oberammergau is about 19km away, and it costs us 14.70Euro return for the two of us. 

It takes about 50 minutes to get there, and we get a tour of the small villages en-route as the bus stops at many of them.

Oberammergau of course is famous for it's Passion Play, which is performed every ten years, and 2010 is a year for the performance. I did look on the internet to see if tickets are available, but they appear to cost something like £200 each, so my enthusiasm waned.

The story of why the Passion Play is performed here every ten years is moderately interesting.

It dates back to the time of the 30 years war (roughly 1620 - 1650). At this time Bubonic Plague (Black Death) swept through Europe and killed  millions of people.

The small village of Oberammergau, did not escape and the survivors vowed they would perform the Passion Play each ten years, in thanks for their survival.

It has been going on more or less ever since, with a few interuptions due to wars, interference from the church, and economic upset.

Over the years (particularly since about 1850), it has become increasingly commercialised and there is now a purpose built venue for the play. The original was performed on a makeshift stage over the mass grave of the plague victims.

As you would expect it is now a full blown tourist industry, complete with shop after shop selling tacky tourist souvenirs, although to be fair, the buildings are beautifully decorated.

Part of the enticement to encourage me to want to come to Oberammergau, was that Kathleen would buy Apple Strudel and Ice Cream. But, Oberammergau, being such a tourist trap, the prices were exhorbitant.

I decided I would not enjoy sitting eating Apple Strudel, if Kathleen was continually complaining about how much it had cost.

Instead we had lunch in a typical German fast food place. They are attached to a shop, so I suppose it is a bit like Carricks, you buy what you want to eat at the counter, and there are sort of high bar tables, where you stand and eat your food.

Kathleen opted for Goulash Soup, which was very good.

I should have had the Bratwurst ( a known quantity), or the Jaegerbrot, which appeared to be a sandwich with a gammon steak in it.

Instead I decided to throw myself in at the deep end, and opted to have Weiswurst (which came with bread and mustard), if you get the opportunity, do not bother.

As it's name suggests, it is a white sausage (which is boiled, it arrived in a small container of hot water), and looked like two dead fingers.

Kathleen was interested to know which part of what animal it must be. I preferred not to think about that until I had it all down! Not to be recommended in my opinion, but you have to try these things to learn.

On our return journey, we were on the School bus, and had to change buses en-route, all very exciting.

I have to own up, the bit about Kathleen not wanting to pay too much for the Apple Strudel was (more or less) made up. I discouraged her from buying it on the basis that we would probably get a superior version for the same or less, at a less touristy place. 

I knew you would not believe that Kathleen was reluctant to spend her money.




  

June 11th 2010 - June 13th 2010

Natters - Ferienparadies Natter See - ACSI2010-723 Contd

Friday, another hot and sunny day. Kathleen cannot be talked into cycling along some of the walking and rambling tracks marked on the map given to us by reception when we checked in. Instead, she evades the question by promising to buy Apple Struddle, if we cycle to the village (Natters).

Being a glutton (literally), I am convinced and we cycle to Natters, not far, only about 1.5 miles, and all down hill.

The bad news is, there is nothing there except houses, a church, and (of all things) a shop selling plants. No bar, and the only restaurant is closed. I think I have been conned.

We cycle on, looking for Apple Struddle. We go down a very big hill. This is obviously not wise, since if you go down, you have to come up again. We fail in our search, and now have to cycle back about 3 miles all up hill.

We console ourselves with ice creams bought from the camp shop, then spend some of the afternoon chatting with a very friendly Dutch man, who is our new neighbour, and is keen to talk to everyone. Before talking to us, he had been talking with a French couple, but with little success, since he told us he did not speak French.

In the evening, when it has cooled down a bit, we begin our packing for our departure tomorrow.

Saturday, and we do not have far to go, our destination is a place called Reutte, still in Austria and only about 1 hour away (in theory).

Things go wrong almost immediately, the Tomtom instructs us to turn left at a junction with no left turn, so we have to go straight ahead, this takes us into the centre of Innsbruk, and after what seems like a 100 sets of traffic lights, all on stop of course.

Eventually we are out of the town and heady along an almost empty road, through beautiful scenery. It is too good to last, as we climb a steep hill, we come to a halt in a queue of traffic, . After about 15 minutes of stop start crawling, we come upon the problem, a broken down car.

Once past that problem, we move quite nicely for a while. Not for long. We join another queue, and this is a big one (but we later discover, nothing like as big as the queue comming the other way). Again we crawl stop/start up the hill, this time the problem is a short (not more than 20 meters) of road which has collapsed, and which they are in the process of repairing, so there is one way traffic controlled by traffic lights. We eventually get passed and on our way. The poor people going in the opposite direction are not so lucky, we pass traffic queuing for at least 2km. Then we come to a long tunnel (3 km), they have stopped the traffic in the opposite direction, to prevent queuing in the tunnel, and on the other side there are two lanes of queuing vehicles stretching back another 5km. It is sweltering hot, and many cars are stopped with bonnets up, having overheated. Goodness knows how long it is going to take for that lot to clear, and all because of a 20 metre stretch of road works! 

Reutte - Camping Reutte - ACSI2010-736

We arrive at around 12:00, having taken 2.5hours to do a 1hr journey. The site is excellent, and right on the edge of Reutte, you could walk into town if you wished.

 A little exploring on the bicycles and we have found the church for tomorrow, and topped up our wine supply from a Lidl.

We have not had rain for weeks now, the last time was in Spain I think, but it looks like today may be the day. Kathleen takes the opportunity to do the hair care thing, and by evening we have a full scale thunderstorm.

Sunday, it is dry but a bit cloudy, with rain threatening. We do the church run, without getting wet, then we sit eating strawberries and cream, while searching the internet for the places to see on the "Romantic Route", through Germany.

Sorry, came across this while searching on the Internet and could not resist including it, it is so funny, except, it has the ring of truth about it!

June 9th 2010 - 10th June 2010

Peschiera del Garda – Bella Italia – ACSI2010-1815 continued

Today we leave Lake Garda, and head north to Austria.

We decide to take a chance on the "ordinary" roads, rather than take the motorway, since generally speaking we find the motorway boring.

The scenery is spectactular as we head north into the Dolomites, this is our view when we stop for lunch en-route to the Brenner Pass.

(sorry if this photo is side ways, don't know why that is happening!, you will just have to turn your computer on its side).

Brenner Pass an anti climax, from the Italian side, as you can see, empty road, and nothing dramatic in terms of climbing or twisting roads,

but the scenery compensates for it I suppose, it is absolutely stunning. It may be more exciting going south from Austria into Italy, we will have to try it sometime.











We have lots of problems finding the campsite, including being directed (by the Tomtom) up a couple of very narrow and steep roads, one of which we had to reverse out of, since it was too narrow to turn around.

We discovered the problem. We usually input the map co-ordinates (if we have them) to the Tomtom, rather than the postcode. Well you may of may not know, map co-ordinates are commonly quoted in three different formats. Without going into all of the details, the Tomtom had been set (by somebody), to a different format to that in our ACSI campsite book. The result was it it was trying to take us to somewhere near where we wanted to go, but not actually where we wanted to go. How this happened is a mystery, it was OK last time we used it. I know I have not touched the Tomtom for days, and naturally Kathleen did not do it, so we must have a third party travelling with us.

Natters - Ferienparadies Natter See - ACSI2010-723

We find it in the end, relying on good old fashioned signposts, you know the way people did before satnavs!

The site is excellent, well worth the trouble we had finding it! The facilities are palatial and just look at the view from our window!

These Austrian's are so organised, everything is spotlessly clean, and works exacltly as you would expect.

The washing up sinks have so much stainless steel they could be in an operating theatre, and after watching the half hearted squirting of a hose as a cleaning exercise in southern Europe, watching the young Austrian girl doing the cleaning with a scrubbing brush is a revelation.

Thursday, we go to Innsbruk.

I am game to try cycling there (are you surprised?), since it is only about 4 miles, but Kathleen is not up for it, so we get the bus.

This involves a bus from the site, to the village of Natters, where we must get another bus to Innsbruk.

Needless to say it all goes smoothly and the bus times are set such that there is no waiting time on the way there, and only five minutes on the way back.

Unfortunately they do not accept UK pensioners bus passes, so we have to pay 9.20Euro return for the two of us.

Innsbruk is quite a beautiful place. Kathleen has been here before, in her youth, so some places she remembered from then (like the Golden Roof, shown above, on its side for some reason).

We enjoy strolling the streets so much, we stay for lunch, and have an "Austrian" lunch of Vienasnitchel, and Bratwurst (think that is how you spell it!), plus of course a couple of beers.

There are impressive buildings (right way up in real life, damned computers), even in the smallest alleys.

Plus, inevitably a triumphal arch, every city in Europe must have one, it would appear.

and of course, the usual collection of churches.

Innsbruk, is not as impressive as Salzberg, in my humble opinion, but it is still a pleasant way to spend a day.

May 31st 2010

Sorry, I have this post out of order, (second time I have done that!) I blame it on my age!

Ceriale – Camping Baciccia – ACSI2010-1735 – continued

Monday, we decide to explore further south along the coast, and cycle through Borghetto Santo Spirito, Loana, Pietre Ligure, 16 miles there and back.

This section of coast is a bit more "up market" than Ceriale and Albenga. There is a lot of money (EU money, from the signs), being spent upgrading it. They are building a promenade all along the coast, it will be beautiful, assuming the money does not run out before they finish it!

There is the inevitable church to explore, the inside is typically ornate Italian, and 

there is a very unusual "artwork", made of coloured sand. 

In addition to the resort, there is an "old town" at Pitre Ligure, with pretty Piazzas, and quaint narrow streets, much nicer than the resort in my humble opinion.

6th June 2010 – 8th June 2010

Peschiera del Garda – Bella Italia – ACSI2010-1815 continued

Sunday, we cycle into Peschiera, so that Kathleen can attend church. I buy an English newspaper and catch up the latest murders etc in the UK.


The original plan is lunch in Peschiera, but mass was 10:00, so by the time it finishes, we area little early for lunch, and being the weekend, Peschiera is very busy. We decide to re-arrange our plans and return to the van for coffee, followed by lying in the sun (much deserved after yesterdays cycling marathon), with the intention of cycling to Sirmione, in the evening, to eat.


In addition to being church day, it is hairdressing day, cycling to Sirmione after spending an hour (if you believe that you believe anything, it is 2 - 3 hours if it is a minute), washing, drying, straightening hair is a none starter. Instead we walk into Peschiera, in the evening, along the lake shore, and eat at a rather nice, floating, lakeside restaurant.

When we were at Ceriale, we had drinks in a restaurant which were very pleasant, and were, we understood, Campari.

Since then Kathleen has sampled several Campari’s (in the interests of research you understand), but none have been as per the drink in Ceriale. So after our meal we continue the research, here you can see Kathleen working hard at the task.

I am forced to have a beer whilst I wait for her.






We think we have found it. The waitress at the bar tells us it is fizzy white wine, soda water, Aperol and ice of course.

Now we need to buy the ingredients and Kathleen will have to continue experimenting until she has perfected the proportions.

It’s a hard life for some people, I do not know how we stand the pace.


Monday, we find the post office, so that we can post a card off to Houston, for Gary, Susana and Gabriel. After visiting an Italian Post Office, I will never complain about Royal Mail again, well not for a month or two anyway.

There are four counters “manned”, and only about five customers ahead of me, but it still takes almost ten minutes.

First you have to get a ticket, from a machine, to wait in the queue (supermarket deli counter style). There is a choice of three ticket types depending on what you want (one of which is to send a letter or parcel).

Each counter position deals with only one ticket type. So while three positions sit idle, one position deals with the six or so of us waiting, since we all want to send letters or parcels.

In the evening when it has cooled down a little, we cycle the 6.5miles to Sirmione.

Kathleen is able to continue the research into the orange coloured drink which is so popular here.

Sirmione is a beautiful little place, located on a peninsular which juts out into the lake.

I think visiting in the early evening turned out to be a wise decision, not only for the heat, but also because it is so much more peaceful without the crowds.

and someone obviously got their inspiration, for the colour scheme of their house, from the colour of Kathleen’s drink.















Tuesday, is a relaxing day, prior to our driving to Innsbruck, Austria tomorrow, although quite how you can have a relaxing day, when you aren’t actually doing anything anyway is a problem.


I manage to track down a shop selling bottles of Aperol (ingredient to the popular drink Spritz con Aperol), so Kathleen will be able to continue her studies.

June 3rd 2010 - June 5th 2010

Peschiera del Garda – Bella Italia – ACSI2010-1815 contd

Thursday, Kathleen is up for some exploring and exercise, so we cycle along the lake shore to Lazese, then on to Bardolino.



We go via the lake shore where ever possible, the track is mostly good, but a bit bumpy in places. No complaints however, and for once that is actually true!

The lakeshore is dotted with small villages like Lazese, it is difficult to pick one out, over the others, they are all beautifully kept, and very pretty.


We return along the road, which for most of the way has a cycle track, and despite the fact we do almost 23 miles in total, Kathleen sets a cracking pace right to the end.


Have an abortive attempt to get on the internet at the “wifi” bar on the site. But no joy, the place is packed with Germans watching football (a world cup game?), and the noise is deafening. Had hoped to use the skype to check Gary, Susana and overdue new arrival.

Overnight (03:00), we receive news we have been waiting anxiously for. Baby Gabriel has arrived (3rd June, Houston TX, time), at 8lb 3oz, so Gary and Susana are the proud parents of a baby boy, and we of course are Grandparents again, but the first “Reay” grandchild.












Friday, we set off to find Lidl, following the signposts in the town. I can only assume the signs have been put up by a rival supermarket company, because I reckon you have more chance of finding gold, than you have of finding Lidl from those signposts!


After peddling around fruitlessly for about five miles, we go to tourist information who give us a map, with the location of Lidl supposedly marked on it, (we also get a booklet with a couple of cycle routes, see later). Even with the aid of the map we have great difficulty, but we do eventually find it. As ever, once you know where it is, it is not far!


Next challenge is to find McDonald’s (also signposted), so we can use the wifi.


I follow the signs to McDonalds exactly, it says it is 2 minutes away. So to me that means, assuming you are driving a car, somewhere between 1 mile (at 30 mph), and 2 miles (at Italian speeds, ie 60 mph), but all I manage to find, by following the signs to McDonalds is a short cut to Lidl.


Our Dutch neighbours (who we guess to be older than us), return from a cycle trip and tell us they have cycled to a place called Borghetto. This they tell us is it is about 18km (10 miles) away. The die is cast, Kathleen has to better this.

Friday, we are up, picnic packed, and on our way by 9:30, armed with the cycle route booklet, we are aiming for Pozollo (past Borghetto, did you expect anything else?). We are soon out of Peschiera, and cycling along the banks of the river Mincio, which flows south out of Lake Garda.

We first pass the village of Monzambano, with its impressive Church on a hill on the opposite bank of the river.

The castle at Borghetto is visible in the distance, as we approach the village, still peddling strongly.

Borghetto is as they say a “tourist trap”, it is quaint and beautiful, we stop here for refreshments (coffee).

We are here, along with a coach party, and lots of people cycling, like ourselves.






After coffee, we cycle on to Pozzolo, which is 15 miles (24km) from Peschiera. Pozzolo is not very photogenic, so we settle for eating our picnic in the square, and finding a shop which sells greetings cards, where we can a “Congratulations on the birth of your new baby boy” card. Since we do not speak Italian and the shop assistant does not speak English, we have to rely on the fact that some cards are pink and some blue, to determine which apply to boys.


We still have not seen a picture of the new arrival (the picture above was received after writing this, I just changed the blog), although Phillippa tells us she has. For some reason, the picture will not text to us, so it will have to be Email. This means we must wait until we can get an internet connection.

We head back to Peschiera, at 20 miles, Kathleen tells me that her legs are not tired, here you can see her resting the bit that is tired (or suffering).

Back at Monzambano, I think the only photograph you have seen so far of Kathleen drinking water.






We get back to Peschiera at about 13:30, time for a drink. Kathleen has a Campari Spritz, not bad fuel consumption is it, 30 miles to the Campari.






Now we MUST find an internet connection, we need to see these photographs of Gabriel before the rest of the world has seen them!

Update, found that connection, picture downloaded and posted, plus Dana has managed to text message it too us.

June 1st 2010 - June 2nd 2010

Tuesday, we leave Ceriale, to begin heading north toward Lake Garda, then Austria, Germany and eventually home.



This means we are leaving Joan and Bryan, who are now heading further south into Italy, to visit Pisa, Florence, and after that who knows.

We share the driving, Kathleen takes the initial motorway section. In theory, this should be easy going, Italian motorways are good, unfortunately, they have Italians driving on them, so like most things Italian, they are a bit frantic. The section approaching Genova (Genoa to us), is particularly hectic, with lots of tunnels, which plunge you from bright sunlight into gloom, and all the while you have cars, vans and motor cycles weaving from lane to lane at 110kpm.

I get the second, mountainous, section which may have lots of wheel twirling with lots of hairpin bends and be a bit scary with plenty of sheer drops, but at least there are barriers at most of them and there is not much traffic!

The scenery is eye catching.












Cremona – Parco al Po – ACSI2010-1739

Cremona is a beautiful place. The area is fairly flat, and it appears everyone cycles, the town centre is full of people cycling, when we visit. We do a bit of site seeing and having drinks and ice cream while watching the world go by.


Unfortunately the campsite facilities are only adequate, so we decide one night is all we will do here. A shame because there are lots of cycle routes to explore. Perhaps another time, at a different site.


Wednesday we discover is a public holiday (at least in this part of Italy, if not Nationally), we think it has something to do with Corpus Christi, although in the UK, this is celebrated Sunday 6th June. They key thing is, it would appear, all of the shops are shut, and since I failed to stop at Lidl when we left Ceriale, we are short of fruit, vegetables and worst of all wine! In particular, we have no Rose, so Kathleen is not amused.


The journey to Lake Garda is short, only about 1.5hours, but every shopping centre we pass is closed.


Peschiera del Garda – Bella Italia – ACSI2010-1815


The approach to Lake Garda is very busy. When we arrive at the site, we are told we are lucky to get in, since we are getting the last available pitch. Apparently, not only is it an Italian holiday, but also the start of a holiday period in Germany, so there is a German invasion of Campervans, Caravans and Tents.


The site was recommended to us by Gina, who we met at Prairies de la Mer. It is not what we would have chosen without her recommendation, because it is so big. But in the event, it is excellent. Everything about it is organized and spotlessly clean.


We explore the lakeside cycling as far as Rivoltella, about 5 miles west along the southern shore of Lake Garda. We even find a small supermarket, open, on the way back, so wine supplies are replenished.


According to the signposts, there is a Lidl in Peschiera del Garda, but so far, I have not actually found it.