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Honeymoon
  • Bill C
  • Jovita Finnegan
  • Bill C
  • Jovita Finnegan

Honeymoon

Un’avventura a tempo indeterminato di Bill C & Jovita Leggi altro
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  • Inizio del viaggio
    3 settembre 2022
  • Honeymoon

    Fontainebleau

    4 settembre 2022, Francia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We drove through the morning after an early landing in Roscoff at 7am and made straight for Fontainebleau to stay for the night and do a quick spot of bouldering . After stopping at the Hippodrome "bivouac site" to make toasties and consult the climbing guidebook, we headed for the Apremont bouldering area. Fontainebleau, once the private hunting grounds of a since expired French monarch, is a largely wooded area whose ground is sandy and strewn with large sandstone boulders, deposited by a passing ice sheet. This shady boulder field has become a mecca for climbers. You can't drive 100m without passing a car or van rammed with bouldering mats and the occupants awkwardly squeezed in around them. Our own bouldering mat on Bill's back, we headed out into the Fontainebleau labarynth of pleasant old growth forest and boulders and, as is tradition, promptly got lost. Having eventually found our way, Bill pulled on his climbing shoes and leapt on a few of the lower boulders, Jo chasing around under him with the mat. After three climbs Bill decided that he would not be thanked for breaking his ankle on the first night of the honeymoon, so we opted to head back to the bar chalet at the entrance to the woods. We're now parked up at the Hippodrome again having cooked and eaten a satay that was just the far side of too spicy, and are now sat out, cans in hand, watching the stars and judging oversized campervans.Leggi altro

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  • Honeymoon

    Baden Baden

    5 settembre 2022, Germania ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    For the second day of our honeymoon we drove from Fontainebleau just over the border into Germany, to the German spa town of Baden-Baden. Here theremal spring water at 60-odd degrees has meant that there's been some settlement or other here for many centuries. It's good money that there were Roman baths here. It's the sort of thing they'd do. The main star of this town is the Friedrichsbad spa, a so-called "Roman-Irish Bath." It turns out that one Dr. Richard Barter from 1800's Co. Cork pioneered a Roman-inspired bath house concept of dry air and cool pools and, crucially: nudity; for general health and wellness, which caught on in a big way in Germany and Switzerland. The more we didn't know. Friedrichsbad is one such famous example. Friedrichsbad has a strict 17-stage process of showers, cold pools and increasingly warm saunas, all in a beautiful ornate building that opened in 1877.

    Our plans for today largely revolved around visiting this spa. Having found a nice spot to park a ten minute cycle from the town, we headed in to Baden-Baden proper and had our first ice creams of the trip. This was followed by some good mooching and a beer in a beautiful-if-over priced beer garden in the old town. Suitably emboldened, we entered the spa where we were assigned lockers and a towel and told to remove our clothes. The Germans have a refreshing outlook on nudity: it's just a naked body. We all have one. Get over yourselves. Wandering around an array of showers, saunas and splendid ornate swimming pools surrounded by naked people young and old has never seemed so normal or refreshing. Suitably relaxed and calmed, we finished our evening with a pizza and then a few beers on one of the plazas before heading home on our bicycles along the wonderful cycle paths back to the van.    Leggi altro

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  • Honeymoon

    Freiburg

    6 settembre 2022, Germania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Had an early start from baden baden to head towards Freiburg for 2 nights. After a 5hr 30 drive with a brief fuel and peach ice tea stop, we made a small detour for a dip in lake Opfinger See. Lovely lake with many ducks and geese. The latter doing many belly flops into the lake. Not the most graceful of birds. Arrived at Buses campsite just after 2pm, approx. 5km from Freiburgs city centre. Having parked and unloaded the bikes we headed for the city with separated bike paths the entire way. We wish ireland was more like this.

    We parked the bikes at the augustinerplatz and started to explore. This involved some beers, flamkuchen (a German pizza style flatbread) for jo, and schnitzel for bill, coffees, and our first look at the Freiburger Münster Cathedral. Completed in the Middle Ages, it miraculously has lasted till the present, surviving the bombing raids of November 1944, which destroyed all of the houses on the west and north side of the market. An impressive structure with a 116m spire and its oldest surving 3.27tonne bell, hosanna. Nobody seems to know who is the maker and there is no other like it known.

    We add climbing the spire to tomorrow's list and continue on exploring the beautiful streets, shops and making the odd stop at any interesting bars we find along the way. Find a great little bar called Schnatnel where we discovered 'Colawein' a Cola/beer radler (will definitely be making these in the future) and sat outside next to a little table on the ground amongst 'The Freiburg Bächle'. Fed by the Dreisam River, the water runnels flow through countless narrow streets in Freiburg’s Old Town.
    Since the 12th century, the flat paved gutters supplied the city with water for drinking, fighting fires and other uses. According to local legend, any single person who accidentally stumbles into a Bächle will go on to marry a Frieburger. Luckily, we managed to avoid.

    Having had one last stop in 'Flamingo' a very cool punk bar on our cycle home, we headed back to the campsite around midnight with a lovely new souvenir, a 'Ganter' local breweries glass in tow.

    We wake up a little worse for wear around 8.45 and have a relaxed morning involving showers, coffee, and more coffee, and finally some van admin before setting off for the city again.

    Our first stop is back to the main square munsterplatz, a market directly outside the cathedral as i had heard about (and was very excited about) a tofu van that sold apparently excellent vegan bratwurst, and was not dossappinted. Bill had a non vegan bratwurst, (which he was also very happy about) and we manged to find a tiny corner of shade to eat them in with some coffee/iced rhubarb lemonade.

    We then climbed the almost 300 steps to the top of the cathedral spire, just in time to hear and see the bells ringing. Amazing views from the top accross the city and over to schlossberg.

    The rest of the day involved a little shopping, some out there cocktails and seeing many of the various sites accross the city including the blue bridge, the old Synagogue plaza and memorial fountain, the University and the lively student centred Sedan District.

    After a some food and a beer we cycled back to the campsite to sit outside with a glass of wine, until the rain arrived informing us that it was time for bed.    Leggi altro

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