Friday, April 29, 2016

Fussen.
The end of the Romantic Road, and I must say it is well worth a visit. If I was to do it again I wouldn’t change a thing. But dear reader, if you yearn for a holiday that is different at every turn, fly to the nearest airport to Wurzburg, hire a car and see for yourself. There are more Gasthof’s, guest houses, than you could count. Or better, do it in a motorhome.
There are about 26 larger towns on the route, and more gorgeous wee villages than you could shake a stick at.
Most people speak English, but you’ll always get by.
I couldn’t pick one favourite out, six or more yes, each town has something different to offer.
Fussen sits on the border with Austria, there’s less road between them than the length of Donegal Place!
We would have stayed for longer but the weather was dire. Two blizzards in two days! As I write, I’m looking out the window on an Alpine meadow, it’s still snowing, but only lying on the slopes.  This is Lahn, a tiny village at 3654 feet above sea level. When you consider Cave Hill in Belfast is around 1200 feet it gives you an idea of how high we have climbed.
So, the reason for us being in Austria a couple of days early is to go south for the sun, this weather is no good for sight seeing!

Wow, woke up to a pile of snow this morning, I put some pics on Margaret’s Facebook. It’s seriously more stunning looking now.

Hope the roads are clear, it could take a long time to get to Salzburg.
Well the roads were clear of snow, saw a couple of snow ploughs but they must have been on their way home, mind you, one was spreading what looked like pure salt crystals. Have to get the hose to Helga.

We also saw three major road works, and no detour signs, the satnav kept getting us to drive over mounds of stones etc, so all in all cost us well over a hundred miles. Not to worry though the scenery was marvellous and we’re parked up for the night at a beautiful site about 20 miles from Salzburg.


Austria is not such a motorhome friendly country, they along with Switzerland get enormous revenue from the winter skiers, they forget the grey nomads. So as a big thank you to the Austrian chancellery we will go to the Czech Republic tomorrow evening.

And we have, a gorgeous place and so unlike everything we've seen before.

Don't miss the next exciting episode offffffff,  Helga's Blog.

Monday, April 25, 2016



This is our stop for tonight, mainly because we wanted an easy run to Fussen in the morning, and from there to Immenstadt to get Helga to hospital. I say it was our main reason, but there are two others. As usual this is a beautiful place, with lots to see, the architecture just blows me away, and it was snowing. In fact, woke up this morning to snow covered fences and roves, but none on the ground. The temperature is 0°
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We can’t say this hasn’t been a varied trip, a wee bit of everything!
So anyway, we were only about sixty miles from where we had to take Helga. During the week it allegedly repairs motorhomes etc., and at the weekend is a STD clinic for BMW drivers as well as those favouring Audis.
As we set off it started to snow, we had to go over a hill that took us up to 2830 feet above sea level. It certainly is a varied trip. We arrived at the repair centre after unknowingly driving past it for about three miles. Thanks to a nice German chap called Villy, we doubled back.
The girl at the reception desk, was just a tad frosty, but when she told me they only fixed caravans I could have choked her, but not as much as when she told me the only nearby place was near Munich, and eighty-five miles away!
Worse still, to get there we had to double back on ourselves and pass last nights’ town. Turned out the people in the Hymer centre had not realized the error of their ways. The place we wanted was only thirty miles away from Landstadt!!!!
So after blizzards and total concentration on those mountain roads, we finally got to the other place.
Two techies were all over her, but Helga was passed fit and well. They thought the problem was the invertor being left on accidentally. This happens so easily because of where the switch is located. I came up with a cunning plan to fix the errant switch, and the techies implemented it. Alles klar.

Now we find ourselves on a campsite, only to get the batteries fully charged, it is between a forest on one side, the beautiful Alps on the other, and a gorgeous lake in the middle. Although it was getting dark, we went to feed the ducks, and saw an otter sneaking about, it is so stunning, and the cost? €14.30 or around 12 quid!

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Schillingsfurst.
Holidays are nothing if not eventful, and into our seventeenth day we’ve had some events.
The latest of which is the battery saga. We thought the hair drier had wrecked the batteries, but after leaving it into Erwins Hymer World discover the batteries are fine, the problem is something only a Hobby dealership can sort out. Mind you it cost us €163.51 to find out.
Helga should still be under warranty, and we had her serviced in November which is necessary to keep her under guarantee.

So that’s that, today it is cold, we’re now 1726 feet above sea level, in the heavily forested area that is our campsite for the night. We’re only here because we need the batteries charged, not to mention all our appliances.
It’s been raining from the early hours and still coming down, nowhere looks its best in this weather, so we’ll spend the time before drinkies, cleaning Helga and I’ve got the bathroom!

Last night was spent in the amazing  Weikersheim, a castle, gothic church, houses 500 years old, a gorgeous square. Everything a tourist needs and more. This site is 1500 miles from home, and I would have no bother coming back, not so many stops on the way perhaps, there’s time to rest tomorrow, immer haute morgan.
Still the rain comes, so I think we’ll go over to the campsite pub for an hour. Well it is Saturday after all.

We ended up in the van, because nothing was open, I mean the two on site pubs, it was a dreary day, and we couldn’t understand the draw of this place.

Until this morning. Woke up to bright blue and sunny skies, vehicles covered in thick ice, but the surroundings bathed in sunshine. This indeed is a hiker and cyclist paradise.

We’re getting on the road early today, so much to see and only four nights left for this part.

Our first stop was Dinklesbuhl, and there was a street market. Even car dealers were represented with about four companies selling cars. Have to say even the markets are outstanding. When we left the site this morning it was 3 degrees, and as we drove along it was trying hard to snow! To the west bright and warm sunshine and to the east snow.


We left there and proceeded to Nordlingen, another stunner. People were living and working here for around 800 years. For those in the know, that’s longer than Granny Dougan lived in Belvoir.