Stuttgart and Freiburg - day 24

Well it was pretty cold last night, but we were snuggly warm in Nico. I did wear my puffer jacket and sox to go to the shower though. The showers and toilets were lovely and warm with no silly push in button on the showers that you have to use every few seconds. It was still only 2 degrees when we left around 10am. It took us around 2 hours to get to Stuttgart, and Jody’s navigation was impeccable as per normal ie she had to call Jeremy (her son) and ask him if he lived in a University as that is where her address took us. He said no, and then suggested that he come to us as he must have thought we woudn’t be able to work out how to get to him. So I then friended him on messenger, got him to send a link to his address and we were off again. About this time we had a discussion about her navigation skills, and what we have been experiencing is not unusual! Though she is pretty good at directions on motorways still.

Anyway, we ended up going down a one way street, and at the start of it I suggested she let Jeremy know that we were close ie 200m away. We could hear him running down the stairs through the phone, and then he wondered how he would see us, hmmm I think it was pretty obvious when we were the only huge motorhome in the street, partially blocking traffic once again. Jody then got out to stop the traffic properly, Jeremy got in the back and we were off. It took nearly half an hour for us to get to a rest stop where they could say hello properly. We also had yummy hamburgers for lunch again courtesy of the chef (ie Jody, not the actual chef Jeremy who is now on board). While we were stopped, it started snowing.

We headed for a camping ground near the Black Forrest. There was no-one on reception, the sign said find a pitch and can check in from 2-4. We found a pitch, used the toilet, and then decided that we would rather go somewhere else. So we drove for another hour and ended up in Freiburg which is near the borders of both Switzerland and France. We got a bit excited on the way as the temperature got into double figures. This is a really nice campsite, and the guy who checked us in is from Taranaki. Then we jumped on our bikes, and Jeremy hired one and we biked into the city to try and find some dinner. I saw a steeple in the distance and made my way there, and we were in front of an amazing cathedral which turns out to be the main attraction here. A lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays (actually most things are closed on Sundays in Europe), but we found one in that square that served German food, so we had some nice things for dinner – sausage, fillet steak, roast pork with potato dumplings and dark beer sauce. Then we biked back up the hill, but it is a lovely evening for that, although rather chilly.

We had vague plans of Jeremy sleeping in Nico with us – the table converts into a bed somehow. But, luckily this campsite also has a hostel, so he is going to sleep in that. We plan to be here for 2 nights, and will be going out biking tomorrow. Tho there is a great market in the main square from 7.30 to 12.30, and we possibly might have to visit that first!

Pretty amazing that 2 days ago we were in Hungary, and now we are on the western border of Germany. Budapest is just over 1,000 kms away, so maybe we have done a bit of driving! We drop Nico off in 12 days, and are currently 700kms from Calais. So we have a bit of time to explore near here – Basel and Strasbourg are both close, and meant to be lovely places.Read more