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Europe 2019

April - June 2019
A new trip by Motorhome in 2019 Read more
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  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Budapest - day 21

    May 2, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Lovely and fine, over 20 degrees

    This morning we had planned to meet up with my friend Anna Eiffert at 11am. But we also wanted to go to the big city market, so decided to leave as soon as we woke up and do that first. Well I woke up at around 7.45 – I am amazed at how many nights in a row I have been sleeping for longer than 8 hours. My normal is about 6.5 hours. We were pretty organised tho, and left the campground before 9am. We are good at the train system, and Jody managed us through the train network rather than having to walk 1.2 kms to the market.

    The market was very interesting, and Jody and I split up as we had to leave there at 10.45. Lots of Hungarian food options – interesting meats, and loads of paprika. Upstairs were souvenirs, trinkets and clothes. I bought this wee linen jacket in white. Then I bumped into Jody and she bought one in a pinky colour. Then it was time to get another 2 trains which we did successfully, and found Anna by the big ferris wheel as arranged. Budapest is a city of 1.7m people, so we are doing pretty well getting around having been here for 2 days. I met Anna 6 years ago when she was taking an agility seminar in Texas which I attended with Clare Wellington and Allan and Elaine Rohde. Since then Anna has become a One Mind Dog coach, and is a really good teacher and handler.

    Anna found a bus for us to catch to go up to the castle which overlooks Budapest. Pest is on the flat side of the river, and Buda is on the hillier side. It was very cool up the hill as we could see both sides, and the castle itself was just amazing. After the castle we took another bus and had a bit of a walk to our lunch restaurant which Anna had booked. It was called Stand 25 and is part of the same company as the one michelin star restaurant called Stand. The food was incredible, and presented extremely well. It was lovely chatting to Anna and hearing about her growing up in Budapest, and about European agility. Unfortunately she had only come home yesterday, and is leaving again in the morning, so only had a short time with us, but it was lovely to catch up with her.

    After Anna left us, we made our way to the metro and took a seat working out what we were doing next. Lo and behold a sign appeared in front of us – Decathlon! Just one of my favourite European stores. So yep we just had to visit. I bought 2 pairs of togs for a total of $40 and a t shirt. Then we went to Starbucks – mainly to use the loo, but more working out of what we were going to do. We both felt a bit weary so decided that staying around for the evening river cruise was not going to happen. But looked up the market again and thought we could spend a bit more time there so took 2 more trains for that. It was good because we have now done the whole market and won’t feel like we were jmissing out on anything. I bought some wonderful large blueberries and tasty strawberries. We had been very disappointed in the strawberries in Italy, so haven’t had any for a while. After the market we walked down a road that looked like it had lots of eating places, and that was a great choice. Heaps of souvenir shops, and whatdeyeknow, some more clothes shops. Jody and I bought another linen jacket each, and a couple of other tops as well. They are so nice, and pretty cheap. We also stopped and shared a chimney cake which I had been wanting to try. Basically doughnut baked into the shape of a cone, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and filled with icrecream and cream. It was rather nice, but we won’t be needing to have another one. Then on the way to the next train station we went for a walk over the bridge to take some pics and then finally got on the train. We sort of got on a train going the wrong way, so had to get off again. That was paired with me making us get off a train which I thought was going the wrong way earlier in the day, but actually wasn’t. Lucky there are so many trains so it isn’t really an issue.

    So we walked 1 km from the train station back to Nico, and by this stage Jody was re-energised and buzzing. I suggested that maybe she take the train back into town and try out the river cruise but I didn’t get a positive response.

    When we got to this campground, we parked behind another motorhome, and the guy wanted us to move forward as much as we could. I was hoping he didn’t want anyone to park behind us, but at 9pm tonight that exactly what he was trying to do. We are going to leave in the morning, so don’t really want anyone behind us who might go out for the day. We managed to get him to find somewhere else to park, and will have to keep an eye on the situation in the morning. It is not the quietest campground, and we have been serenaded by someone playing some sort of horn this evening.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Bratislavia and Vienna - day 22

    May 3, 2019 in Slovakia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    The campground really was quite noisy with sirens going on overnight. We both woke up about 2am, and could hear the thumping of music way in the background, maybe a nightclub? But we got up relatively early, visited the very small farmers market next door (amazing strawberries tho), and hit the road before 10am. The drive out of Budapest was so much better than the way in – might have taken us ten minutes what took over an hour when we arrived. We stopped at a gas station near the border so we could use up our remaining forints before leaving Hungary. We had about $45 NZ worth, so it took a while for us to find enough to spend it on – lots of new things to try out now!

    Then we decided that as we were close and it was early we could drive through Slovakia and maybe have lunch in Bratislavia. We had to buy another vignette to be able to drive there, but when else will we ever be there? So the drive went quite well, we went into the city over a bridge saw a nice church. Then we saw a KFC sign, and I had been interested in seeing what it was like in other countries. So Jody put KFC into googlemaps – golly what a mistake that was! It directed us up this road, and then wanted us to turn right. None of the right turning roads had room for us to go down with cars on either side of rather narrow roads with buildings on each side. The road we were on started going a hill and was getting narrower. So I pulled over at the entrance of a street, and when there were no cars coming towards us I told Jody to get out and stop the traffic. She was very very good, and did a wonderful job holding all the cars at bay while I did a several point turn for a u turn in the middle of a narrow road. She then jumped in and we hightailed it outta there!

    Near the border we stopped at another gas station where we found some Adblue which is an additive that Nico has been telling us that he was running low on. Jody found a good bottle with a pourer on it, so we bought 2. We were a bit confused at the start as there was a bowser with adblue on it, and Nico has an adblue hole. But google helped, and this is a bowser where the adblue and diesel are mixed together, so lucky we didn’t use it. We both had a really nice bread roll thingey for lunch – our only purchases in Slovakia!

    So then we were off to Vienna again, and my golly our navigation could use some work. So Jody couldn’t remember the name of the camp ground we were going to, so I said it is written in 1B4 – the warwick exercise book that has a page for every day for recording useful information. After going through a few traffic jams and stops, we arrived at the camp site – hmmm, it wasn’t the one that we had been at before that Jody’s bike was in the shop nearby and that we had booked for tonight. Later on we realised that Jody had written down some random campground name in 1B4 – golly knows where it had come from. Anyway, then she put Donau Park, and we headed off for there. When we were close googlemaps said we needed to park and walk to our destination – what? Hmmm, googlemaps wanted more specific information ie Donau Park camping, so we were 6 miles away from our destination. So 3rd time lucky we hoped (ie I put our destination in my phone! Just kidding, it is very good having a navigator on board, and we always get there eventually). On the way we spied a Lidl supermarket so stopped there for some supplies. No limoncello, but I bought some schnapps to try for 5 euro.

    Finally got to the campsite, and Jody went to see if her bike was ready. Yeehaa, we are back in the biking business. So after a cup of tea and seeing as the rain was trying to hold back we went for a lovely bike ride for about an hour. Went down some trail to the river, and back via someones planted back yard. Then off on the track to Vienna which was lovely and went by the river. Then back via the main road to see the monastery. It didn’t rain the whole way which was great, but started shortly after we got back.

    Jody cooked us a lovely tea again with moroccan chicken, and we tried out the Mozart liquer little bottles and the Schnapps. Jody is keen to find larger bottles of the Mozart, and the schnapps is currently outside under the hedge, and will be left here in the kitchen in case someone is braver than me!

    So tomorrow we are off to see the Lippizaners. We have tried to get our tickets 3x so far, but tomorrow should finally get them as long as we get up at 7am, and get on our train as planned. After the performance we will be heading off to Stuttgart, but don’t expect to get all the way. Have no plans of where we will be staying for the night so that could be interesting.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Lipizzaners - day 23

    May 4, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 2 °C

    We are getting good at getting up if we need to, and were on the train at 8.30 as planned with our tickets picked up, and having breakfast in Starbucks by 9.30. Just before we were able to go in, we walked through more of the area and found some other amazing buildings that we probably should have known about before. Oh well, you can’t spend time at all of them. When we got to our seats we realised how great they were. We initially wanted to go a week earlier but couldn’t get the best tickets then. Today did work out a better day for us anyway.

    As for the performance – wow wow wow. They started with 8 of the younger horses which were still different shades of gray – they turn white when they are older. They just showed some simple exercises which was good. Then they had more experienced horses doing some of the complicated exercises while mounted. Then a session of experienced horses doing unmounted exercises with the horses leaping. Then a pair of horses doing synchronised exercises. Then a group of 8 experienced horses. What I was most impressed about was the leg changes at the canter, and their ability to turn tight circles leading with the wrong leg. The stallions looked extremely muscled and strong. It really was magical with each session introduced in german and english, and the use of lighting was wonderful as well. This was something I had wanted to see from when I was much younger, and I was very pleased that I have now experienced it.

    After the performance we went back to Klosterneuberg (camping near Vienna) and Nico. We were trying to drive as far as we could that day to Stuttgart where Jody’s son is living. We did pretty well – 570kms after leaving at 2pm, and ended up at Augsburg in Germany. The drive wasn’t too bad, though the first hour or so was on country roads in Austria before we finally got to the A1. Then when we got to Germany we were a bit confused about the speed signs, but were pretty sure that we were on an unlimited speed road by the buffeting we got from the speed of the cars going past. Nico was trundling along nicely at 70mph (around 112kph), and cars were just leaving us in the dust. We had fun watching them come up from behind and Jody was videoing them – anything to pass the time of day! It was also very interesting seeing the number of solar panels beside the motorway. The weather forecast had not been good, but the only time it really poured was when we stopped for lunch, and nicely just after Jody had filled Nico up with gas and gone into pay. The temperature got steadily lower and was 2 degrees when we arrived at 8pm. Now it says it feels like minus 1, yikes! We had been looking at different locations today and tried to stay away from the ones that were forecasting snow. We have worked out the heating in Nico now though, and are feeling toasty warm after Jody cooked some very tasty hamburgers with mince, bacon and eggs. The campsite is very basic, but is close to the motorway so we will be on our way in the morning.

    So there were no driving issues today with googlemaps, and we absolutely nailed the trains in and out. Such pros!    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Stuttgart and Freiburg - day 24

    May 5, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 -1 °C

    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

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Freiburg - day 25

    May 6, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 0 °C

    Well today was a really great day. It was beautiful and fine though pretty cool – think it got to double figures at one stage. Last night that I suggested that we do our own thing today, and that worked out really well. I got up earlier and went off biking after putting the washing on. Saw lots of fun sights in Frieburg before arriving at the market near that cathedral. I locked my bike up and looked around that for a while, then found myself at the galera for breakfast. It was really nice (and had a toilet included which is always a bonus), and had a charge per 100g for the hot food. Then I looked around a few more shops, found a shoe shop where I bought 2 pairs, and then made my way back to the market. There I found another bright green bike locked up next to mine – Jody and Jeremy had arrived there as well. I found them eating some sausage for breakfast, it is always too early for that for me. So I went off doing some more shopping looking, then biked back to Nico (unfortunately that is up a big hill), and put our sheets in the dryer. Jody and Jeremy then arrived back – Jeremy’s hire bike is not so good, so they are going to take a train to the town around 7kms, but I am going to bike there.

    So after our sheets dried, I went off on my bike to the next town, Kirchzarten, which is 7kms away. Unfortunately it is a gradual climb all the way there, but spectacular scenery being beside a river all the way. Rather funny that as soon as I got there, the first people I saw were Jody and Jeremy. We then went to a pub and had a drink (non alcoholic for me of course). Then we visited a supermarket and found such cheap berries – 2 euro for raspberries, and 0.89 for slightly older raspberries. I bought some, ate a punnet and then had to go back for more. Blueberries were 2.50 Euros for 500g – I was in heaven!

    Then J&J took the train back, and I got back on my bike. Biking back was great as it was all downhill. I stopped a few times to take pics, and got diverted a couple of times over the other side of the river for a look see, and then finally got back to Nico. I biked maybe 25 to 30kms today, so felt that I had done some exercise for a change. And then the evening really started….

    Jeremy and Jody had a card game that they wanted to play, but took forever to work out what the rules were. They even tried to ring someone in NZ to confirm – only 6am at that time! So finally we got playing, and they had an issue with the fact that I kept winning. What is their problem? There might have been a bit of Baileys and Cointreau involved as well. I don’t think Jody quite gets that I normally don’t drink at all.

    Jeremy cooked us this amazing meal with chicken – cooked in the frypan, and then the oven for around 2 hours with potato underneath it. It tasted really amazing, but I was having a bit of an issue spearing some of it on my fork, nice of Jody to com to the rescue. Then I tried to stand up – who knew that Cointreau and Baileys had such an effect?

    So I think we went to bed around 11.30 feeling slightly under the weather!    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Frieburg with day trip to Basel - day 26

    May 7, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Day 26 – this is the midway point of our trip – by golly we have done a lot!

    So today we set alarms which was a bit of a shock. We were on the tram pretty early, and then on the train to Basel by 9.15. Basel is in Switzerland, and one of our aims was to spend all of our swiss francs by the time we left. It was great to have our tour guide who bought the train tickets, and worked out where we had to be – aka Jeremy. When we got there it was a quite a walk to the old town. J&J needed a coffee so we went to a Coop (aka supermarket) and had some breakfast. Then we walked around the old town, found the cathedral which was rather cool. We visited a few shops, and had lunch at the market. I had fun spending my remaining francs pretty much just on chocolate and had exactly the right change to spend on lunch for no remaining francs – goal met!

    Then J&J walked to the other side of the river to sit in the sun while I explored a few more shops. I was a bit restricted though cos I had spent all my francs, so would have had to really want something to use my card. Then I joined them sitting in the sun which was really nice. I did take my sox off, and tried my feet in the water (the Rhine) and by golly it was cold. It would have been great if I had a sprained ankle, would have sorted that out pdq. Then we decided to take an earlier train back to Freiburg. I am a slow walker, so left straight away while the J’s were going to stop at Lidl for limoncello and something for dinner. Was so funny, we were at the train station waiting for our train at 4.30. I was wondering why people were coming up the stairs and walking quickly to the left. Then I realised that our train was already there out of sight, and there was about 3 minutes before it left! Needless to say that we got up in a hurry and rushed to the other end of the platform to get on the train. We had bought a return ticket initially for a 7.30 return, and then bought 4.30 tickets. It would have been funny if we had had to buy 5.30 tickets as well – not!

    So the train trip was uneventful, and the tram trip after. Then it was about a 1 km walk back to Nico. We then had a wee snack, and I was sent off on a mission on my bike to get olive oil and dish washing liquid. We had run out of both of those. On our initial shopping trip a couple of weeks ago we bought some flowing soap for our toilet. By golly it was such crap soap – a real mission to get any soap out of it. I was so relieved when Jody relented and allowed me to buy another bottle, we both love the new bottle! But while at this supermarket I found more berries at a similarly cheap price – ie 2.50 euros for 500g of blueberries, and 2.0 euros for 250g of raspberries. These had been more than double that price in Switzerland. I knew things were more expensive in Switzerland, but the last time we were there, we weren’t as familiar with the prices of other countries, now that we are we didn’t want to spend any money there.

    When I returned from the shopping, Jeremy whipped up another feast for us. Yummy roasted potatoes, and fillet steak. It is quite nice having our own personal chef – Jeremy works as a chef in Stuttgart and certainly knows his way around a kitchen. During and after dinner we played the card game again – bugger your neighbour. I really like this game, and winning makes it even better, tho I didn’t win every game tonight. Jody had ended up buying 2 bottle of limoncello which I thought was a bit carried away since we still had the Baileys and Cointreau – cost of that was 8 euros, and 11 euros so extremely cheap. And the limoncello was 13 euros. Anyway tonight we polished off the Baileys and Cointreua, and nearly all of 1 bottle of Limoncello. Not a bad effort seeing as I don’t normally drink – that Jody is a really bad influence. I don’t normally eat gummy bears either, but Nico’s glovebox is full of them, and they are rather handy when the navigation efforts are less than ideal.

    So Jeremy leaves us in the morning, and unfortunately the forecast is for rain nearly everywhere we would like to go. So possibly we might take a train in the morning to Titisee lakes which is about 25kms away, and then bike back (mainly downhill of course!). But if it is pouring first thing, we might not do that. We still have 9 days before we have to drop Nico off, and really could end up anywhere in those days. My weather forecast app has Bruges (Belgium), Versailles (France), Rotterdam (Netherlands) Strasbourg (France), Munich (Germany, but we are not going there, so not sure why that has come up…), Luixembourgh and Versailles (France). The forecast is rain for everywhere tomorrow, but not so bad after that.

    We can’t quite believe that we have done so much, and we are only half way through our holiday. I am not sure that the videos of me singing really needed to make it onto a public domain – apologies for that! I need to get some more incriminating videos of Jody…

    Ciao ciao ciao (yes, I am still not totally sober! But have done a pretty good effort remembering what we have done for the last 2 days. Midnight was a while ago, so bed is calling).    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Biking from Titisee - day 27

    May 8, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    Raining and around 10 degrees

    Last night I told Jody that I had a plan for today as long as it wasn’t raining too much. She was keen at the time though may be a bit wary of my grand schemes in future! Our choices were my plan, reading books in Nico all day, or driving somewhere else in the rain and trying to find another campsite. So the grand plan won out, and I thought we had a pretty fabulous day. I felt really good cos we did a fair bit of exercise. Jeremy left around 9am, and it wasn’t raining much at that stage so Jody agreed to my masterplan for the day. Titisee Lake is supposed to be really nice and is 30kms away. There is a bit of a climb up there though, so my plan was for us to take a train there, and bike back – how hard could that be? The train ride went well though it started raining a bit harder while we were getting there. We arrived around 11.30, and immediately found some really cool shops with clothing, souvenirs, cuckoo clocks etc. We parked the bikes and went shopping. We already were a bit wet at that stage, and found some awesome jackets which are lined with fleece and are really warm and cosy. We both ended up buying one, and putting them on under our rain coats. We also bought some buffs to wear under our helmets. Oh, and small cuckoo clocks with magnets on the back. We also had an awesome lunch of sausage and fried potatoes.

    Then we started biking to the next town – Hinterzarten - which was 4 kms away. We made it there quite easily, though were slightly surprised at the number of hills even on that short leg. Then we tried to find our directions to the next township. Despite asking directions from a lady who spoke great english, and using google maps, and the map that we had taken a photo of from a bike shop, we failed in our quest. By that stage we had walked and biked up some very steep climbs, and then biked back down them again. It rained quite a lot, and we were pretty wet from the waist down. We finally gave up when we were headed up this mountain bike path that got so steep that it was hard for me to walk up without my bike, and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to bike down it. And there was a drop of many many metres down to the main road which were unkeen to fall down. So we backtracked, found the train station and jumped on. We got off at Kirchzarten as I had convinced Jody that it was a lovely ride from there back to Nico.
    Yes it was lovely the other day, and still quite picturesque today. The driving rain in our faces and the chill in our legs and feet sort of spoiled the moment tho!

    We managed to find the supermarket on the way back – how did more blueberries and raspberries arrive in the trolley? As well as a couple of bottles of wine. When we got back to Nico, we stripped off our wet clothes, and both had a shower for over 10 minutes. We had turned the heater on in Nico, and when we got back from our showers, we finally started to thaw out. So it was supposed to take an hour 37 minutes to bike back, and was around 30kms which I thought was mainly downhill. I have traced our route, and golly knows where we were actually supposed to go, but our total trip was around 17kms. But the number of hills added quite a bit of effort to that though. I had thought we would be back early afternoon, and spend the rest of the afternoon reading books in Nico. We didn’t get back until after 4pm, and the thawing out process took another hour. Then reading books in bed was great. Nico can get lovely and warm with the heater.

    Jody cooked another lovely meal with baked chicken and potatoes. She also got a bit carried away with the spray and wipe so things are looking a bit cleaner. It is still supposed to rain in a lot of Europe tomorrow, but we think we will leave here and head for Strasbourg which is only an hour away, but supposed to be lovely. That is in France, so we will be bonjouring, merci beaucouping, ouing, and noning with the best of them.

    Bon nuit    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Strasbourg - day 28

    May 9, 2019 in France ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Well waddeyeknow, when we woke up this morning, guess what? Yes, it was raining. I had a great sleep after the big ride yesterday and didn’t wake until 8am. Then we got packed up and hit the road. It seemed to take a long time to get to Strasbourg which should have been just over an hour away, and we didn’t even get lost! The campsite seemed reasonable, so we parked up, hooked up the electric and watched the rain outside. About this time we realised that we had left out little step at the campground in Frieburg. How handy that there is both a Decathlon (or 3) and an IKEA here. Googlemaps had her fun with us as per usual. It was only after we had driven down a narrow path and encountered a low bridge that Jody wondered if my phone was still set to bike mode, hmmm yes it was – no wonder we had been having issues! After turning around in a rather tight space with a river on one side we set off again through a lot of narrow streets, and finally found Decathlon. This was a bit of fun though – we were dry, seeing the sights, and what else were we going to do for the afternoon? Jody was the winner at Decathlon though a couple of spare pair of tights for 5 euros could be useful for me if it keeps raining. IKEA was fun as well, and we found another step there. The trip back to the campsite took a lot less time!

    Then we had a casual afternoon reading books, had dinner in the campground restaurant – thin pizza and yep it was still raining. Fingers crossed that it will have gone by the morning when we will be doing some biking around this place which is supposed to be stunning. Will be staying here tomorrow night as well.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Strasbourg - day 29

    May 10, 2019 in France ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Yay yay yay, today we woke up and it wasn’t raining. Such a better feeling for the day. Though we expected some rain during the day, it only tried a couple of times and mainly was lovely and fine. We had ordered bread from the campsite – chose a ‘pain’ but didn’t know how large it was – it was huge! By the time we decided that it was a lovely day, and that we would go off on our bikes it was pretty late. We biked into Strasbourg old town, and it was just soooo pretty. The cathedral was marvellous from the outside, and like many others, the pictures just don’t do it justice. They are very high, so it is hard to get that perspective with a camera. We locked our bikes up and walked around everywhere. One thing we were really surprised at was the amount of gingerbread men toys, ceramics, etc that there were. We had no idea that it was such a thing in the province of Alsace, but apparently it is particularly in December. The toys were very cute, but I restrained myself – oh it would have been good to do that for the rest of the day!

    Our first real shopping stop was Pylone – we had been to this store in Italy as I was trying to get something for my nephew that I had bought there before, but had no luck. Though we both found some other pretty cool things to buy – the cutest little gumboots for a toothbrush holder was one of them. We walked quite a way, had fun with some wandering policemen who weren’t keen on Jody taking a picture of them. The patisseries have the most amazing food, and I had a lovely raspberry concoction from one of them. The serving lady was lovely, and when I said I wanted to eat there, she quickly put a reserved sign on the only free table before I did my order. Couldn't find the market we had googled, but stumbled on it by mistake. Hmmm, how did another linen jacket find its way into my bag? Also managed to have a lemon and sugar crepe. Then we found our way to Little France which is the old part of town with some stunning buildings near a river. It was really still today so we got to take some lovely pictures. We were both a bit tired by this stage, and wanted something to eat (that a chair came with), but it was 3pm and everything was closed.

    So we made our way back to our bikes, and just beside there found a pub that was open. We had a nice quiche lorraine with salad for a very late lunch. When we both googled where we were, one word flashed up – Uniqlo. This is a store that I love to visit when in London, and where some of my puffer jackets have come from. So yes we used googlemaps to find out way there, and after going in the wrong direction as per usual found the store very near where we had been earlier in the day. We both might have made a few purchases there (I think I won!). We have both been a bit curious as to what KFC tasted like overseas, and there was a store opposite Uniqlo so we gave it a try. The hotwings were like NZ, but the fries were not – no chicken salt on them, and not very nice. Oh well, we have done that now and won’t be doing it again! So then it was time to get back to Nico. We had also been to a supermarket during the day – requirements were tomatoes, and a shower sponge (as mine had disintegrated). We achieved that as well as a few other items (I came back to France really just for the Cote D’or chocolate!). So our bags were quite full and heavy. So on our way back to Nico of course we headed in the wrong direction so it took a while to get back, but it was a lovely evening so it didn’t matter at all. There were a lot of lovely historic buildings on our bike trail which looked to be deserted. So back at Nico in a new pitch site – when we said this morning we wanted to stay another night we had to move. It is a nice campsite here, but not quite as nice as the one in Freiburg. Those damn push button showers again.

    During today I mentioned the chicken thighs in the fridge which we had both forgotten about. Jody cooked them up for dinner – I think I will have to try this slow roasting of them at home some time. And we played some 2 handed 500 which I haven’t done for years which was fun. We would like to stay here for longer as it really is lovely, but it is supposed to be raining again tomorrow, so we will reassess in the morning. If raining we might just start making our way to Luxemburg – I don’t wanna leave France tho!    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2019

    Metz - day 30

    May 11, 2019 in France ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    So when we woke up the forecast was still for rain. So we leisurely had breakfast, thought about what we would do, and then decided to head for Luxemburg. By the time we had done the water and toilet emptying it was nearly 11, and by that stage looked like the weather had cleared up. But we still left, though I was mourning leaving France. About 20 mins into our journey Jody said ‘spit it out’ as I was visibly in decline. So I said I felt like turning left ie staying in France. So we stopped and looked at a map, and decided Metz was sort of on our way so that’s where we went. Of course by the time we got close it started to rain again, but we found a campsite and spent a couple of hours reading books again. Once it fined up we biked to a supermarket to stock up as tomorrow is Sunday and everything will be closed again (it has taken us a while to wise up to that one!). Then Jody found a restaurant with really good reviews, so we tried to go there for dinner but they were fully booked. So we dropped off our groceries and went off biking.

    The town is really pretty with several wonderful buildings. We also got some neat pics of the river being totally calm with great reflections. There were a lot of people in the town, and quite a few restaurant choices. It started raining again, so we chose a restaurant by the cathdral. It was funny when we went in as they didn’t speak any english. We thought they were saying that we could come back at 9pm to eat as they had bookings before then, but a few minutes later we realised they were saying we could eat now, but had to be finished by 9 as they had a big booking that. That suited us just fine, and we had a wonderful meal – I had angus beef in a yummy sauce with nice green veges. Jody had chicken with salad, but the salad didn’t arrive. It was great being served so quickly as well. Then we went back to Nico and are planning to get up earlyish tomorrow so we can bike around here and have a good look, and then head for Luxemburg later in the day.

    It is Saturday today, and we have our ferry crossing from Calais to Dover on Thursday, so have 4 nights after tonight. Plan is for 2 in Luxemburg and 2 in Bruges but our plans have changed this whole trip, so it is probably 50 50 as to whether that will actually happen! At least the weather is supposed to be nice and fine everywhere, so choices are not weather dependant.    Read more

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