Month: April 2018

Konstanz – Germany

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Dave posting,

Thursday 5th April 2018

Konstanz

Left the Aire at Radolfzell this morning and drove a short distance of approx. 22 kms to Konstanz. Before reaching Konstanz we called at a petrol station to buy a Swiss Vignette for the motorhome, it’s requirement to drive on certain motorways and roads in Switzerland, it cost €36, but it means in effect that you have prepaid for the toll roads, it’s valid up until 31 Jan 2019 I think.

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Widely available at stations near the border

The motorhome stopover at Konstanz is a very busy car park 50 yards from the city centre, buses and cars park here also there was about 8 motorhomes when we arrive. (It’s €18.00 for a 24 hour stay). The police seemed to be stationed in the car park which is very comforting, and they seem to be checking every bus that comes in, we’re not sure what they are looking for but they are thorough in their work.

It’s raining heavily so we get the kettle on, finally it breaks and off we go to explore but we got too complacent and it was only a break in the weather, we quickly hurried in to a coffee shop to avoid the downpour, coffees requested and I asked for an espresso special on the menu, turns out it had whisky in it!

There’s a break in the rain and we head back to the van as it’s forecast heavy rain for another hour or two. Relaxing and chilling out in the van, Cathy used the Mr D pot for the first time on this trip, made a chilli con carne for that evenings meal. As it’s being prepared the smells waft across to the van next door and the German lady says with a big smile “das izz goode, yah” we laugh and call back “it’s a chilli for later”. The Mr D pot works like the hay box method of cooking where an inner pan sits inside a thermally insulated larger pan with an outside skin, just chop food in to small pieces, add enough liquid to more than cover, bring to the boil & simmer for 10 mins, put the cooking pan inside its insulated pot and leave for up to 4-5 hours. It loses heat at a very slow rate therefore the cooking process continues. It’s great for low energy use and the convenience of your meal being cooked whilst you are doing other things.

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Imperia Statue, it slow turns 360°

Imperia Statue

The statue stands at the entrance to the harbour of Konstanz, Germany to commemorate the Council of Constance that took place between 1414 and 1418, it’s 9 metres high, it rotates on it’s axis once every 4 minutes. A voluptuous, scantily clothed woman holding 2 men on her hands, one is Pope Martin V and the other is Emperor Sigismund, both are naked except for the crown and Papal Tiara. It is said to conspicuously memorialise a prostitute.

Konstanz was the place where the Catholic church finally resolved the question of how many men should rule the Catholic Church and from where. During the council of 1414-1418 the population swelled from 7,000 to 20,000 as the European powers arrived to argue who should have the Papacy, Gregory in Rome, John XX111 in Pisa or Benedict in Avignon. Cardinals, academics, bishops settled to discuss, the statue is said represents the weakness of these powerful, important men gathered to discuss the future Catholic church and yet Imperia has power over them, their morals forgotten.

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Old Rhine Bridge

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Old town gateway

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The flags caught my eye

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Harbour

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Ah, we have found the sun at last!

The sun appears once more and we got out again all wrapped up, not chancing it again we are out now no matter, we walk alongside the huge beautiful lake in a westerly direction, it was a dry, clear late afternoon and early evening is imminent. Let’s see if we can buy a drink in that Lebanese restaurant, it looks like its got a balcony overlooking the water, as the door opens we can smell the most gorgeous food smells, urmmmmmm, lovely pity we’ve got a chilli waiting.  Nice owners, no problem, zwei lager bitte and can we sit outside? Are you sure? isn’t it very cold and windy she said in excellent English. Yes please if that’s ok we’re English! she laughs yes no problem. Two lagers appear in lovely glasses with Konstanz written on them that we wish we could take home

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We sit outside enjoying the tranquillity, the view and our time here at Lake Bodensee.

The chilli con carne was superb, spicy just how we like it! Cathy threw in some fridge stuff too like green beans, no waste in our van!

The next day we are up at 7.30 and out by 8am without breakfast in glorious sunshine, it looks warmer than it is though.

Heading of in an easterly direction on the shores of the lake. This area is mainly sports and community facilities, museums, docking for boats, lakeshore cafes, bars and restaurant, couple of smart looking hotels, large open spaces and parks. Fantastic for families and big kids!

What a great way to start the day!

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Peaceful few minutes

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These keep catching my eye!

Meandering back we had to have a coffee on such a superb day we’re not ordering any breakfast we’ll have something back at Pogo, these are the most expensive coffees we had to date at €4.50 each! they were large and they tasted good and we had a lovely view too! we had walked for about 2.5 hours though so well deserved.

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Dave

Border crossings

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Dave posting;

Wednesday 3rd April 2018

Woke to the sound of gentle rain drops and rustling leaves in Ribeauville, our plans to climb the hill to Château de Saint-Ulrich quickly dissipated, we decided to get dressed and have breakfast on the road after we have driven for a short while.

40 minutes later we crossed the border on the D424 road in to Germany near Emmendingen. We stopped in a resting place and ate breakfast, switched the van Mifi on click here for our mifi blog,  and researched sites and places to stay near Konstanz, Bodensee, we have been to Lindau at the southern end before in 2008 on our motorbike so we thought we would like to go the northern end near Konstanz.

I also wanted to buy an Umwelt Plakette, a green emission zone sticker, you need one for your vehicle to be able to drive in to some German city zoned areas, it’s like the London Low Emission Zone. I tried to buy one online before leaving the UK but I was declined so I thought I’d chance it and try to buy one from any of the 300+ TUV SUD stations in Germany, I found one about 16 kms away, good news, let’s go there and sort that out and we can then relax as we drive through Germany without fear of being caught out or driving into a zone without realising.

Got to the TUV station, after presenting my V5 log book and an inspection under the van I was told we can’t have one because pogo is too old and doesn’t meet the emission standards, oh, that’s a blow but its not the end of the world.

Whilst I was in the TUV station Cathy has found a place to stay at Radolfzell, north end of Bodensee Lake which is actually Untsee,  I put the coordinates in and guess what the Sat Nav asked me if I wanted to avoid the environmental zones! What a great Sat Nav this is! That makes our lives more relaxed whilst driving in Germany.

sat nav zones

Should prevent a problem later on!

Route planned avoiding environmental zones and off we go, on our journey we see the Alps, they look fantastic, very far away but the scale and size makes them stand out all grey, dark and moody, rough jagged edges and snow capped peaks, we tried to take a photo but it doesn’t do the views we had any justice. I could have stopped and looked at them for hours, to me they are so beautiful!

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The Alps

Got to our place at Radolfzell at 3.30pm, and it started to rain hard we’d missed lunch so we ate a meal and read a for a little while and listened to music and waited. The rain stopped and we went for a walk down to the shoreline and the sun started to break out even though it was 7.30pm creating fantastic light and sunset, it was then that I discovered my camera battery was flat so I had to use my iPhone camera.

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P1030476This area near the lake looks like it would be a super place for families in warmer weather, lots of water based activities, cycle and walking paths that go for miles around the water along with cafes, coffee shops, bars, hotels and restaurants. There are two marinas plus lots of bird life, we saw a heron quite close by until it flew off to “safety”. This is a really interesting place and well worth a visit in our opinion.

sunset

Walked along the shoreline for quite a while and back through town its evening now about 8.p.m  and we spotted an Aldi and Cathy has run out of porridge! it’s a staple for her and tea bags, essential items bought we were paying at the checkout and picking our shopping up when I noticed that Cathy still had a box of tea bags under her arm that we hadn’t paid for, good job I noticed it otherwise we might have been in the Gefangnis! or Jail as we know it.

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Tree of the day! we’ve seen some unusual trees on our journey so far, the ones in France which seemed to line every road I nicknamed Brussels sprout trees, if any one knows what they’re called let us know and these above here in Germany are amazing! they look like they’ve been wrapped in fabric.

We had a relaxing evening with The Bank rolling Sausage and cheese, olives, red wine, music and chatting about our adventures so far, we agreed that we were both enjoying life in a motorhome.

Dave

Sausage gate!

/ meyouandpogo2 / 6 Comments

Cathy posting

Tuesday 3rd April 2018

Up at 6am wide awake as we had gone to bed early the night before, I made a cup of tea and sat outside on the bench in front of Pogo and watched the light changing on the River Moselle as the day began to break, I had a good feeling today was going to be a nice day.

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Morning coffee, it’s going to be a good day

Left the free Aire (with services) at Millery near Nancy this morning, we bought a baguette from the mobile bread van who came to the Aire. There was a small road nearby but it wasn’t a problem with ear plugs in and the church bells stopped ringing at 11pm.

Drove to Ribeauville in the Alsace region through our first mountain pass  Col De Sainte Marie, we peaked at 742 metres above sea level, very steep gradients up to 10% in places on both sides of the mountain, Pogo was miffed a bit and started overheating, not dangerously so but we put the cab heater on full and opened the windows, that seemed to do the trick!

Once we had come down on the other side we pulled in at a supermarket, time to buy supplies, lots of lovely salad and fresh meat , we bought a tin opener! It was €5.75! but we needed one.

On towards the Aire at Ribeauville next to a wine Cave – Cave de Ribeauville, we found the exact spot but now it was a building site. Dave went inside the wine company offices to ask about the Aire and was advised to go the Tourist Information office just a short walk away. Dave came back with information about a new Aire located up the pass slightly, the way we had driven, it was an old campsite it seems as the areas  for tents were still numbered it was in the shade of a large rock and away from the road so it was quiet, it took us about 7 mins to walk into Ribeauville, can’t beat that!

Were all alone for now but we saw lots of other motorhomes going to the same closed Aire as we had done so it won’t be long before others arrive, Dave parked up after putting planks down under the drive wheels to make sure we don’t sink in to the grass. The ticket machine was broken so it looks like it will be a free stopover here tonight! Waahay!

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The town really made an effort for Easter

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Château de Saint-Ulrich – up the hill!

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Butchers Tower built in 1920

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Town Hall

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zoom in to see the teddy bears!

Dave spotted a Stork on the roof of a building, he gets excited when he sees birds! And the camera was soon out!

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On one of the roofs in the centre of the village

We are in need of supplies so when a nice young man invited us into his Fromagerie to taste some cheese we thought why not? We tasted a couple and liked one which was reminiscent of Comte but a bit more fruity so we bought some, I pointed to where I wanted the cheese wire to go but he doubled it! I didn’t say anything as I thought oh well it won’t be going to waste, next was the sausage, we tried a couple but settled on the smoked one, dried hung and matured Saucisse Fumee ….. it was really delicious so we said we’d buy it and I asked him how much it was, he pointed to the scales and I saw 4.6, he duly wrapped it all up nicely in lots of fancy paper and then told us how much it was….. It turned out that my saucisse was in fact 0.46 kg and €25 !!!!  lesson learned Cathy, wear your glasses when buying stuff!

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How much!

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Traditional Alsace wine glass

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Traditional UK beer drinker!

We got back to the van and sampled the bank busting Sausage with the lovely cheese and some olives and crackers and it was delicious, erm was it worth €25 of course! at 2mm slices x 2 each hahahaha!.

Cathy

Verdun – day 2

/ meyouandpogo2 / 4 Comments

Cathy posting

Monday 2nd April 2018

Pogo is still in the sugared almond factory.

We woke early and walked the 20 mins into Verdun, sun was breaking through and although it’s very quiet all around as it’s Easter there were a few people milling about.

We took a stroll down to the river by the 14th century gates, it’s a lovely riverside and the Meuse as it’s called is reminiscent of the colour of the Moselle.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Moselle, it was at Koblensz, and we were on a motorbike tour following the Rhine and when we got to Koblensz we went to the fortress Ehrenbriitstein  looking down on to the point where the confluence of the Rhine & Moselle meet,  I couldn’t get over the difference in the two colours as they met the Rhine being very blue and the Moselle a sort of soupy pea green.

Back at the riverside in Verdun we spotted a café open with chairs outside and ordered coffee, a cappuccino for me  and espresso for him, no food though but monsieur says go to the patisserie around the corner and bring them back here, off Dave goes and brings back the best pain au chocolate I’ve ever had and he had the freshest quiche Lorraine, all warm and soft in the middle.

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Breakfast in the sun!

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What’s that doing here?

It was lovely sitting in the sun

We head off to see Verdun Cathedral it’s called Notre Dame it has beautiful stained glass windows and I don’t think I’ve seen so much art on the walls in a cathedral before.

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Cathedral Notre Dame in Verdun with paintings

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The marks of the largest battle of WW1 from 21st Feb to 18th Dec 1916, 9 months, 3 weeks and 6 days! Between French and German still an every day reminder of the horrors that took place in this area, lest we forget.

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Battle scarred walls

The Eastern side was destroyed and the towers were never rebuilt

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It was freezing inside the cathedral you could see your breath it was that cold so we decide to have a walk along the river banks it was lovely and sunny and lots of joggers about which reminded me to find a walking app, our daughter suggests Run Tracker so I’ll look at that later.

These strange looking trees are all round the city.

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The area around the River Meuse has a surprising variety of fauna and it’s an area of European importance for bird life as 30 endangered species reproduce here in Spring including the Ash Coloured Eurasion Curlew for the bird lovers amongst you, hundreds of migratory birds come to this valley in Autumn and some spend the winter here.

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River Meuse

We walked back to Pogos’ resting spot at the almond factory and decide to drive 14kms just outside the city to Douaumont Ossuary high up in the hillside.

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Douaumont Ossuary

This is a monument and chapel and national cemetery of war graves dedicated to the dead and it also contains the skeletal remains of French and German soldiers who died on the battlefields, at least 130,000 unidentified soldiers bones can be viewed through windows I wasn’t expecting that and although we’ve seen the huge cemetery nothing prepares you to see bones and skulls piled on top of one another.

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Germans fired 1 million shells in 10 hours during one day in 1916

We climbed the tower 46 metres, 204 steps high and had a panoramic view of the battlefields we went back down and lit a candle in the Chapel.

 

That’s it on WW1 can’t do anymore it’s too emotional.

We got back into Pogo for a cup of tea with Jacobs cream crackers and Laughing Cow cheese! I know !! but Dave loves them!

It reminds him of all our family holidays in France when we stayed in Gites or Keycamp sites, our son Christopher had his 1st birthday in a tent in St Jean de Monts, Vendee, France, we hung his cards up on the tent poles!

Tea and crackers done and we’re off to Nancy en-route to Ribeauville. We are on a free Aire at the side of the Moselle now and we like free Aires!

Cathy

Verdun – 1st day

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Dave posting;

We left Mutigny this morning and headed towards Nancy in Eastern France, we will have an overnight stop at Verdun.

En-route we bought diesel at 1.36 euros and later stopped at a local boulangarie for a lunchtime baggette, time to try out my schoolboy French, whilst in the shop I bought  two cakes, after all it’s Easter Sunday and we don’t have any chocolate in the motorhome!

About 30 kms from Verdun we pull over and munch the lovely bagettes and cakes!

After a decent break we travel on and arrive at the free overnight site, it’s a designated spot at a factory but it’s like an Aire with no services. Verdun centre is 20 mins walk away and it seems very quite here inside the residential area of Verdun.

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Clean sugared almond factory at Verdun – a free stopover

Pogo is parked  at Dragees Braquier, sugared almonds to me and you! a sugared almond small unit/factory and it’s the smartest, cleanest factory I’ve ever seen, there’s a shop attached to pop in buy their products, maybe we will go in later or tomorrow.

When we arrived there was a locked gate across the entrance, what are we going to do now? wait a minute Dave, Cathy says and reads the signs on the gates, it looks like we are the rear entrance for delivery vehicles! So we drive around the block and found the entrance on the other side! The signs direct us to the rear where there is marked out and designated space for 3 or 4 vans, we are the first here, so we choose our spot.

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City Gate at Verdun

 

After a little rest we walk in to town it’s now about 5pm, over the bridge and through the city gates, we discover a museum tucked away and we spend an interesting 30 minutes in there, it’s an old building dated from 1525 & we found the courtyard really interesting, plus it’s free entrance on the first Sunday off every month, that was lucky!

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Musee De La Princerie

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Monument of Victory in Verdun towards the River

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Monument of Victory where records of soldiers are kept on an old carding system

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How about this! a toilet for dogs, only in France!

We head towards the cathedral, and square, once there we decide to save the cathedral visit for tomorrow when we have more time. As we wandered  back down the hill towards the River Meuse, we see a bar, Le Club over the bridge, let’s go for a drink ! we have not been to a bar yet and 5 mins later we are having our first wine and beer of the tour! I had Battin Extra at 2.50 Euros for 250ml, expensive but it was lovely! Cathy was happy as they had her favourite Rose wine Cotes de Provence. It was entertaining watching the folks in the bar as there was a bit of Argy – bargy going on with one of the local lads who had obviously had too much!!

We really enjoyed our day and evening today!

Dave

Bubbles – hic!

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Saturday 31st March 2018

Dave posting;

A yellowy sun pops its head out through the clouds and warms the day up. We did a quick morning walk for 45 minutes along the old railway track

We are looking forward to going to the Champagne region today, left about 11am and we enjoyed the drive through rural France listening to a master mix of disco hits! Guess what? we found the Aire without a hitch, it’s easy when you know what you are doing with the GPS coordinates!

We are the second motorhome here now at Mutigny in heart of the champagne region, 170 kms north east of Paris. We park next to the service bollard as we need to top up with water and electric, costs €5 for 300 litres of water and 3 hours electric, it’s a sharing system and it seems to work well enough. A kind German motorhomer lent me his water connector as mine didn’t fit, we will buy one locally soon.

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View from the Aire, vines for miles!

Shortly afterwards we walk up the hill to the centre to find out more information on the tours and walks, everywhere is closed, so we asked the locals and later knocked on the door of a Champagne producers’ home where they also make Champagne, she has a sale board ouside, a lady appears and then between Cathy and the lady, Cathy speaks a little French, we deduce we have to be at the town hall at 5pm tonight and her daughter will there to explain and help us choose a tour or tasting.

Lots of houses had these outside, Champagne for sale!

Okay we said we will come back in 3 hours and meet her at 5pm, as we walk off Cathy saw a young man unloading his car, Cathy asked him if he knows anything about the tour and tasting, he said yes, Cathy explained about the previous chat at the producers house 4 doors away, and Cathy asked where do we meet.

He then says it’s my grandad you want, hang on I’ll call him, incredibly the grandad says he can come now to the Town Hall where it takes place and he can do the tasting for us, so between the young man, grandad and us we establish that there are no English speakers on the tour so we opt for the tasting, we ask if we can come back in hour as we haven’t eaten and we didn’t want to get drunk on an empty stomach! Ok that’s no problem they said.

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Town Hall at Mutigny, Champagne tasting was inside

We pop back to the van to make lunch and an English couple arrived at the Aire, we got chatting and asked them if they wanted to join us in the Town Hall for tasting. Tony & Bet from Weymouth said yes, we got back in time and the Town Hall was open and inside was a young lady, Cathy said we are here for the champagne tasting, Cathy told her there was a gentleman coming to do the tasting, the lady said she knew nothing of this, so we waited outside for him.

10 minutes later a chap appears who we assume is grandad, introduces himself in French to us and we all go inside, and grandad introduces us to the same lady! It like a secret society or something!

The lady, Carine,  now introduces us to a variety of Champagnes in very good English, complete with detailed information on types of grapes used, two or three methods of fermentation, acidity, the local producers, how the grapes and vines are cultivated. We were particularly keen to try the locally produced ones. Grandad Bernard was showing us how to aerate the bubbles the correct way in our glass.

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Champagne lessons!

Whilst chatting it transpires that Bernard had worked in the champagne business for 46 years at Bollinger as a bottle turner, known as a riddler, the bottle is placed upside down in a holder at 75° angle. Each day the Bernard would come in to the cellar and turn the bottles 1/8th of a turn whilst keeping it upside down, this forces the dead yeast cells in to the neck of the bottle, Bernard would typically handle 20,000 to 30,000 bottles a day. Bernard told us this area produces 310 million bottles a year!

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A little display at the entrance of the village

We tried, I meant we drank 8 glasses between the four of us, four different varieties, two of which were Rose.

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We enjoyed those glasses of Champagne!

We bought 3 bottles at €17 each, £15 ! (that is a bargain at those prices) and we will save them for special occasions on the trip. We will economise somewhere else!

These champagnes tasted excellent and we were so glad we did the tasting, it was a lovely experience.

Spicy Teriyaki Salmon for evening meal with noodles, I’m trying to persuade Cathy to write her recipes for the blog as she cooks instinctively without recipes, we had another walk around the village in the evening, there are no shops, bars or shops here just houses that sell champagne but there are great views.

Dave