Germany Diary

Page Contents -

Bremen - Berlin - Dresden - Munich - Dachau - Romantic Road Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

After Eastern Europe, we travelled across Germany on our way back to England

Nuremberg - Köln (Cologne)

11-10-2011 Tuesday
Today we just drove about 260ks to Bremen in Germany. We booked into a small mhome park for 2 nights (says 10 spots but I can't see it) called Wohnmobil Oase which is about 3k from the town centre. This park is actually attached to (and a minor part of) the main business of a hotel - Hanse Komfort Hotel. We had to go down a small no through road to the entrance and saw a sign on the fence "7 metre" only length for mhomes - ours is 8 and a half. Anyway we drove in (as we've learned it's always good to ask anyway) and the nice hotel owner (also a mhome owner) came out and spoke to us for a while about holidays, was very obliging and helpful and said no problem for our vehicle - there was an area that we fitted into quite nicely. And the shower (which also has a sauna in it for addtl cost) and toilets are beautiful. The shower room has actually 2 shower heads in there (in one big open space) and it is about the size of our large bedroom at home! The toilet cubicles are as large as our bathroom at home - shame we're not staying here longer.

The young lady on reception spoke English quite well and was so helpful and obliging - a real asset to their business. Even the handyman, who didn't seem to speak any English, was so helpful doing little things for us without asking - when we came back from our trip to town, there was a thing at the bottom of our step/door to wipe our shoes on (the ground is quite sandy and we were constantly brushing the sand from the bottom of our shoes especially with the rain added in) - yes, shame we're not staying here longer.

The town of Bremen - some of you may remember the fairytale "Town Musicians of Bremen" about 4 animals (donkey, cat, dog and rooster) who left home to find fame in Bremen. After our lovely showers, we walked a few blocks down the road for dinner at a Turkish restaurant. The menu was all in German and the people in the restaurant were Turkish and spoke German but not English. Anyway we took pot luck and ended up with a lovely meal.

12-10-2011 Wednesday
We had a lovely buffet breakfast in the hotel this morning for 5 euro, special price as we are guests. The rain had cleared mostly today so we rode down to the old town centre with its centuries old beautiful buildings. Bremen's Markt is striking, particularly its gabled Rathaus (town hall and sounding like "rat house"). In front stands a 13m-tall medieval statue of the knight Roland, Bremen's protector. On the building's western side, stands the Town Musicians of Bremen sculpture (1951). The animals are in their most famous pose, scaring the robbers who invaded their house, with the rooster atop the cat, perched on the dog, on the shoulders of the donkey. We noticed when people were having their photo taken with the statue, they seemed to hold onto the front legs of the donkey which is why they are so shiny compared to the rest of the statue which is dark - we thought it might be a lucky thing(?)

Also on the Markt, stands the impressive (inside and out) St Petri Dom Cathedral. Behind the cathedral is the slightly macabre Bleikeller (lead cellar) where open coffins reveal 8 corpses (through glass) mummified in the dry air underground (dating some 300 years ago). We wandered around the market where they were selling fruit and veg, cheese, spices, hot food, handbags, etc. We walked down the road a few blocks, and had lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant Il Gattopardo. We've found the trams to be as busy here as in the Netherlands and again, it's easy to be complacent and all of a sudden almost find yourself being a hood ornament for a tram!

13-10-2011 Thursday
We had an early buffet breakfast (which also does us for lunch too) at the hotel as we wanted to get to a Fiat repairer about 11ks away. A warning light on the dashboard has come on and off twice over the past few weeks and now has come on a third time with an added rough running of the vehicle. So time to get it looked at. We arrived at Pollmanns Service Centre about 8.30am (couldn't find the Fiat one) and we were there all day til 4.45pm as they had trouble diagnosing the problem, and then finally the fix cost 1211 Euros (AUD$1660 about for mostly labour and an expensive part) and they didn't take credit card! So we had to draw out cash from a couple different cards but at least we were on our way again after having lost a day's travel. (I got to read a good deal of my book though while we were cooling our heels.)

Dave was keen to at least start our haul to Berlin which was over 360ks away. We ended up in a bit of peak traffic which wasn't so bad but the exit our GPS wanted us to take was closed off for roadworks, so we passed it with the GPS replanning the route, but it took us in a circle, on the different connecting motorways, to try to get us back to that same exit that was closed off. We ended up passing that exit about 3 times before we managed (somehow) to get it to rearrange to a different route. We only managed to do 120ks in about 2 and a half hours! So we then, were finally able to stop for the night at a motorway parking stop with a heap of trucks (after having driven through 2 that had no spots left). The last few spots in this park soon filled up after us. It was 7.30pm and we'd been driving in the dark for a little while, which we try to avoid if at all possible. It was a long day!

14-10-2011 Friday
Well we'll try not to do that too often (stay with the trucks) - seemed like there was movement and truck engines going most of the night. Some come in through the night. Some of them might only sleep for a few hours and then get going again and drive through the night. Others start up at 5am. Anyway it was a place for us to stop for the night which you can't just do anywhere. We drove about 250ks to Berlin and although cool, was a lovely sunny day. We arrived at a park Wohnmobilpark Berlin at about 3pm. We were surprised to see the park was mostly full (90 places) as it's Oct and starting to get cool and we thought, not the peak season. The first time I've really had trouble with the language barrier (and I'm sure it won't be the last) - the lady at reception and I couldn't really understand each other re the washing machine use (although she knew some English whereas I don't know any German) - will have to try again tomorrow - I could see she was as frustrated as I was.

15-10-2011 Saturday
We walked a bit over 500 metres in the lovely sun, to the train station and travelled into Berlin's city centre. We saw the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) which was finished in 1791, was one of 18 city gates and became an east-west crossing point after the Wall was built in 1961. The gate is symbolic of the end of the Cold War and the break down of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The crowning Quadriga statue, a winged goddess in a horse-drawn chariot, was once kidnapped by Napoleon and briefly taken to Paris. It's back in place now. The infamous Berlin Wall snaked through Berlin from north to south, separating the communist east and capitalist west, and families and friends for 28 years. The longest surviving 1.3k stretch is called the East Side Gallery. There is a Wall Victims Memorial commemorating the 191 people who died trying to cross from East to West.

Just to the west of the gate stands the glass-domed Reichstag - parliament building. A fire here in 1933 allowed Hitler to blame the communists and grab power, while the Soviets raised their flag here in 1945 to signal Nazi Germany's defeat. The Fernsehturm, (a TV Tower) needle shaped (reminded me of Stefan's needle in Brisbane) and the city's tallest structure, erected in 1969, stands 368 metres with a revolving Telecafe at the 207 metres level. The Gendarmenmarkt hosts 2 grand churches (Doms) and a Concert House. The buildings, as we've seen in previous countries, are magnificent structures with ornate, many painstaking manhour facades.

We walked around the streets enjoying the old buildings and taking in the atmosphere of the very busy city on a Saturday afternoon. There was a big well organised rally/demonstration on the street, but it was unlcear what it was about - there seemed to be many plaquards, with several different messages (as best we could make out, mostly written in German), being carried by the hoardes, chanting as they went. Many polizie were present making sure nothing got out of hand. The city gave a feel of being quite spacious, with a few large uncluttered areas to walk. We caught the train back home and had dinner closeby (lovely and very cheap) at an Asian bistro.

Sunday 16-10-2011 Sunday
Got the washing done this morning without much incident with the reception lady, so we didn't leave the park until 1.30pm. Then, on the way to the train station, we came across a flea market so we went in to see what treasures (especially phones) we might find. We bought a second hand bike for 35 euros (for Kerry - Joy's sister coming over next week - so she can keep up with us and won't have to run behind us on our bikes), a German/English dictionary (badly in need of) for 1 euro, 2 marked beer glasses for 1 euro (I'm afraid Dave might be starting a new type of collection!), and a 2009/2010 German/Europe Road Atlas for 1 euro which will come in handy.

After taking the stuff back to the park, we walked to the train and got off at Nordbahnhof Station where a large memorial area stands behind an original stretch of Wall. This part of the Wall was built where a cemetery stood so over 1000 graves were exhumed and moved first. Two big wooden crosses stand to acknowledge graves (of many WWII bomb victims) which weren't relocated and the Wall was built over the top. It was quite a solemn memorial, especially as this had been peace time (1961) and yet innocent people were imprisoned behind a wall and denied access to family and friends, denied the normal freedom expected outside war time. And people died, fighting for that freedom!

We went to a different Starbucks for coffee and internet access. After that we caught the train back home and again, and went to the same Asian bistro for dinner. This time we ordered the same meals as last night but Dave and I just swapped what we had last night, to make it simple for the non English speaking Asian lady, and us (that German/English dictionary is going to come in handy).

17-10-2011 Monday
We drove to Dresden which straddles the River Elbe. We rode our bikes to the Neumarkt where one of Dresden's most beloved icons, the Protestant church Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) stands. It was rebuilt after bombing raids flattened it in February 1945. Many of the buildings are so beautiful and very ornate. Bought a nice grillwurst sausage with mustard and a piece of plain white bread (not a hot dog type roll) from a roadside type vendor in the marketplace. We would like to spend a lot more time here but have to get to Munich by Wed lunchtime when Kerry (Joy's sister) arrives to join us for 6 weeks.

We drove a little way further and pulled off late afternoon into a motorway parking area for the night. When we got out to have a walk around, we tried to lock the vehicle and the remote/security wouldn't work and we can't start the motor either. Dave checked things out for a while but couldn't see the problem. So we've had to call the break down service people again, the second time in 5 days. At least we're in a good safe spot (with a few truckies) for the night and are self sufficient - the repair guys are coming in the morning.

18-10-2011 Tuesday
Two guys came this morning, 1 in a car and 1 in a tow truck. The guy in the car could speak some English (which they'd been warned about). He fiddled with the remote, which also operates the security system and all of a sudden he got the engine started! The second young guy, who didn't seem to speak English, said to Dave "Magic Man!". It was good we didn't need a tow. We left the motor running and followed them to a Bosch repairer in Chemnitz, a town about 24k back from where we'd come, to get the system checked for the problem. The repairer couldn't fit us in til about 4pm so we decided to drive to Munich straight away because we need to meet Kerry at the airport tomorrow lunchtime (via the train) and we had a long way to go. Dave was pretty tired after driving the 380ks to Munich (München).

We arrived about 2pm, after a couple of short stops and not turning the motor off, at a park called Camping Thalkirchen (www.camping-muenchen.de). The park is quite a big one, next to a waterway, and is about 4k from the main town centre but closes at the end of October for the season - they're open from mid March for 7 and a half months. We turned the motor off and decided to move to another spot and luckily, it behaved and started without a problem (keep fingers crossed). It's noticeably warmer here than in Berlin although I'm not sure if that's just a coincidence (it might've been warm in Berlin too today) or it could be warmer because we're 380k further south(?)

This is what the Lonely Planet book says about Bavaria. "For many, Bavaria (Bayern) is every German stereotype rolled into one. Lederhosen, beer halls, oompah bands and romantic castles are just some of the Bavarian clichés associated with Germany as a whole. But as any Bavarian will tell you, the state thinks of itself as Bavarian first and German second. And as any German outside of Bavaria will tell you, the Bavarian stereotypes aren't representative of the rest of Germany"

19-10-2011 Wednesday
We took 2 trains to the Munich airport to meet Kerry's 1pm flight arrival. We had a nice lunch at an Asian restaurant in the airport before catching the 2 trains back. We did some shopping and then to home. The day started out lovely and sunny but by the time we came up from the underground train at our stop by mid afternoon, it was overcast and rainy - good job we were going and staying home. One of the trains travelled above ground and it was a nice sight to see the trees' autumn leaves, at different stages of green, yellow, red, orange and brown, being blown from the trees by a gentle wind. As we walked down the street back to the park, the ground was covered in the fallen leaves.

20-10-2011 Thursday
Dave, Kerry and I caught 2 trains and a bus to Dachau where the first first Nazi concentration camp was built in 1933, 6 years before the war even started and a few months after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Jews, political prisoners, homosexuals and others deemed 'undesirable' by the Third Reich were imprisoned in the camp. More then 200,000 people were sent here; more than 30,000 died at Dachau and countless others died after being transferred to other death camps. We spent over 3 and a half hours walking around the complex, looking at the exhibits and listening to the auditory commentary device, and even then we didn't read it all completely. It was a very solemn and sobering experience, as indeed any of the other many concentration camps across Europe would equal.

One part of the memorial site was the museum, which gave an account of the events, including the state of Germany's economy, which paved the way for the rapid rise of Adolf Hitler and the subsequent atrocities. It'd been quite a cold day - big warm coats and gloves day which we haven't used since we came over again in early September. We had a nice dinner and warmed up nicely at a restaurant called Zur Flosslände close to the park.

21-10-2011 Friday
The 3 of us caught the mini-bus outside the park this morning to the underground train station and went into Marienplatz. Dominating the square is the towering neo-Gothic Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall), with its ever-dancing Glockenspiel, which performs 3 times a day, bringing the square to an expectant standstill. We rode the elevator up the tower where there was a magnificent (3 quarters of the way around the tower) view of Munich and the buildings into the distance. One of the landmarks of Munich iw the late-Gothic Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), with its then-trendy 16th century twin onion domes. As with so many of these centuries old churches, you go in and just gaze at the grandeur of the place.

Off we trundled to the Hofbraühaus, the ultimate cliché of Munich beer halls. Tourists arrive by the busload but no one seems to mind that this could be Disneyland (although the theme park wasn't once home to Hitler's early speeches). We didn't want to break with tradition and wanted to fit right in, so we had to try the huge litre glasses of beer - wow they're hard to lift! We tore ourselves away after finishing our drink (1 was all we needed) as we wanted to go to the Viktualienmarkt, a large open-air market where you can buy your fruit and veg, an assortment of cheeses, many sorts of raw meats, beer and cooked foods from sausages/wursts to seafood. We tried the local wursts and bought some to take home. They even sold pork crackling in a foot square sheet which you can just break off and eat - it was nice even cold.

22-10-2011 Saturday
Didn't go anywhere today - did some necessary washing, and Kerry and I rode down the road about a kilometre to do some shopping in the early afternoon. Kerry tried out her bike for the first time, with a few adjustments by Dave, and she did fairly well. Luckily we left the shops when we did - a young group of leather clad, silver chains hanging, coloured mohawk haircuts, tattoed, pierced ear and nose, drinking and loud music playing youth had gathered on the footpath not far from the shop, seeming to be settled in for a good time and maybe the night. The day had started out overcast and quite cold but by the early afternoon it was quite nice and sunny.

After having a couple drinks to warm us up, we walked about 400m down the road to a restaurant and had a lovely meal. We felt quite good after dinner; another beer for Dave, and a bottle of wine between us, in the warm surroundings before we walked back and watched a DVD with dessert and a couple drambuies before bed eventually......... As James Brown's famous song says "....I feel good na na na na na na na....." We will be moving on tomorrow.

23-10-2011 Sunday
We drove about 2 and a half hours partly along what's called the Romantic Road (Romantische Strasse). The popular and schmaltzily named Romantic Rd links a series of picturesque Bavarian towns and cities. It's not actually one road per se, but rather a 353km route chosen to highlight as many quaint towns and cities as possible in western Bavaria. From north to south the Romantic Rd includes the following major stops:-
- Würzburg - Starting point and featuring 18th century artistic splendour among the vineyards
- Rothenburg ob der Tauber - The medieval walled hub of cutesy Bavarian touring
We joined the road at
- Dinkelsbühl - Another medieval walled town replete with moat and watchtowers, a smaller Rothenberg
- Augsburg - A medieval and Renaissance city with many good places for a beer. On the Stuttgart-Munich train line
- Füssen - The southern end of the route and the cute and overrun home of mad King Ludwig's castles

We booked into a caravan park at Dinkelsbühl called Campingpark Dinkelsbühl for the night. A couple kms from the park we saw a Sunday flea market so of course, had to stop to check it out. Kerry bought a nice warm coat at a bargain price, plus gloves and some bed socks - we're starting to feel the cold. Dave also bought some socks (everyday ones), an electric shaver and of course, some beer glasses - we'll have to buy a new cabinet to house all the different glasses!

24-10-2011 Monday
We walked into the main town of Dinkelsbühl this morning and had a nice breakfast of savoury crepes at a cafe next to the church. Walking around the town was a treat with so many old houses that have been tastefully and beautifully done up, with colourful flowers hanging from the window boxes on sometimes 3 levels of the building - these window flower boxes have been a common sight throughout Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany so far. We walked back to the cara park and left about 1.30pm to move on to a town called Wallerstein. We felt this town was not as picturesque as the last one.

We are only visiting a small number of the towns on the Romantic Rd as there are 28 on the 353km stretch and we don't have time to visit them all. We started at Dinkelsbühl which is about a third of the way from the topmost point and will head south, stopping at the ones most interesting to us over the next 2 thirds of this 'road'. We drove about 4km to the next town of Nördlingen which we will explore tomorrow. We're staying the night at an Aires or in Germany they're called a Stellplatz.

25-10-2011 Tuesday
We rode our bikes around the town of Nördlingen today. It was quite cold and overcast today. Located in the centre of a huge meteorite crater, Nördlingen can still boast an almost complete medieval townscape. It is the only town in Germany with walls and battlements that can be walked all the way round. The historical old town is dominated by its landmark, the late Gothic hall church of St. George, with its 90m high bell tower called 'Daniel'. We climbed the seemingly never ending stairs to the top where we had a 360 degree fantastic view of the town and the surrounds.

After riding back to the mhome, we put the bikes away and drove to the next town called Rain and walked around. The town hall (Rathaus) was an impressive sight. Drove to our next town of Augsburg which we will explore tomorrow, and booked into a caravan park for the night called Campingplatz Bella Augusta. We walked 5 mins to dinner at a place along a lake with lots of ducks and geese and a glorious sunset - pleasant.

26-10-2011 Wednesday
Drove into the town of Augsburg but it's quite a big, busy town and hard to find a park so we left and drove to the town of Schongau. We walked up to the older, very picturesque part of the town which had been built on the higher part of the land with the defence wall around it. The centuries old buildings were very well maintained and finished in vibrant colours. There was more to the town lower down the hill but it was more modern. We drove to the next town on our list - Rottenbuch and booked into the caravan park nearby for the night - Terrassen-Camping am Richterbichl which has a lovely view towards the town.

27-10-2011 Thursday
Walked around the lovely village of Rottenbuch today (still on the Romantic Rd) - it's amazing how many places we go where they're shut on the day that we are there! so that we should've been there yesterday, or even tomorrow but not the day we're there! The hotel where we would've liked to have had lunch today, was closed Wednesday and Thursday! The Information Centre was open Mon, Wed and Fri - not Thursday! Anyway we roll with the punches.

We visited the spectacular church built in rococo style - Parish Church of Mariae Geburt (Stifskirche Mariä Geburt). It was awesome! The ceiling especially was painted and decorated in such splendour and oolours of mostly salmon, sky blue and gold - the photos will not do it justice. Down both inside walls were 5 confessionals, with each one having 2 cubicles on each side - that's 20 people in the coffessionals at any one time - must be a lot of sinners in Rottenbuch!! The workmen outside were raking up the leaves - a neverending thankless job if ever I saw one - it is autumn and the leaves are constantly falling everywhere). The colours of the autumn leaves (I think I've mentioned this before) are beautiful - greens, turning to yellow, orange, red and brown, and they are forever falling, providing a colourful carpet to walk on. As Kerry said, it is no wonder that artists always seem to want to paint these scenes of trees in variegated colours.

We drove on to the next Romantic Rd town called Schwangau - sounds like we're in China with names like Schwangau and Schongau. These buildings gave me the real feel of the Bavarian Alps - they seemed to have the wooden balconies and external wooden structures I associate with Bavaria (I only have this sense from the movies I've seen). We are so close to the mountains and the clouds drifting across them, gave us views that we've only seen in the movies, again - I don't watch that much tv..... We then drove a few ks down the road to view the 2 famous castles (Schlosses) - Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. The castles provide a fascinating glimpse into the romantic King Ludwig II's state of mind (or lack thereof) and well developed ego. He was only 18 at the time he took over the throne, and was more interested in building castles and fulfilling other romantic notions than carrying out the administrative duties of his kingship.

Hohenschwangau is where Ludwig lived as a child, but more interesting is the adjacent Neuschwanstein, his own creation (albeit with the help of a theatrical designer). Although it was unfinished when he died in 1886, there is plenty of evidence of Ludwig's twin obsessions; swans and Wagnerian operas. The sugary pastiche of architectural styles, alternatively overwhelmingly beautiful and just a little-too-much, reputedly inspired Disney's Fantasyland castle. Yes if you watched Walt Disney's Disneyland as a child as I did, and saw the castle in the introduction of the show, this (Neuschwanstein) was the castle on which it was based. We walked up to one castle (Hohenschwangau) and back but Kerry and I rode in the horse drawn carriage up to the second, higher up and further away castle (Neuschwanstein). We didn't go inside either castle as you had to have a guide and a prearranged timeslot for your visit, in your language, and we just didn't have the time for this, so we just walked around the outside and took in the view of the surrounding mountains and trees.

We drove about a further 9ks to Füssen, close to the Austrian border and the foothills of the Alps, and the last town on the Romantic Rd. We booked into our caravan park called Hopfensee for the next 2 nights - a lot more expensive than the other parks we've been in probably because of the famous castles (even though it is a nice park). We had a lovely dinner at the restaurant on site called Hoigarte, staggering distance from our pitch site which was great.

28-10-2011 Friday
It was a beautiful sunny day as we rode our bikes into Füssen - all round we did about 10ks - no wonder we were tired when we got back. Saw the St Mangs Basilica - a former monastery church and present-day parish church is the largest and most impressive of Füssen's baroque churches - very beautiful inside. The High Palace (Hohes Schloss) is the former residence of the Augsburg prince bishops, with unique illusionist paintings on the facades of the courtyard - some of the windows appear to be bay windows, built out from the wall but it's just a painting around the window. Other windows have frames painted around them to look like a picture - it is very clever and easily fools onlookers. The building now houses the Town Gallery of Paintings and a branch of the Bavarian State Collections of Paintings - of course it was closed today (and yesterday) but is normally open on week days (as is our luck).

We visited the Holy Ghost Hospital - Church with a richly decorated rococo facade and again a beautiful interior of ceiling and wall paintings. There were lots of interesting shops and we just love all the different types of wursts here (tasty sausages not just your run of the mill snags). Our caravan park is beside a big lake and some crazy guy was out there in a boat fishing this morning in the cold! We were happy to stay snuggled up in bed until a reasonable hour. After riding back home we rested until dinner which we had again at the on site Gasthaus Hoigarte restaurant.

21-5-2012 Monday

We will leave the Czech Republic and head off back through Germany.

22-5-2012 Tuesday
After doing a bit of shopping we drove 200ks west across the border into Germany to Nürnberg (Nuremberg) and a camping park Knaus Camping for 2 nights.

23-5-2012 Wednesday
Rode the bikes about 6ks into the Aldstadt (old city) of Nuremberg, but first stopped on the way and spent 2 and a half hours at the Dokumentationzentrum (documentation centre) - a museum displaying exhibits that trace the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. Nuremberg played a major role during the Nazi years, as documented in Leni Riefenstahls's film Triumph of Will and during the war crimes trials afterwards. The Nazis chose Nuremberg as their propaganda centre and for mass rallies, which were held at Luitpoldhain, a (never completed) sports complex of megalomaniacal proportions. After the war, the Allies deliberately chose Nuremberg as the site for the trials of Nazi war criminals. The museum is in the north wing of the massive unfinished Congress Hall, which would have held 50,000 people for Hitler's spectacles.

In the scenic Alstadt, we visited St Lorenzkirche (St Lorenz church) which had suffered some bombing damage during WWII. This church is noted for the 15th century tabernacle that climbs like a vine up a pillar to the vaulted ceiling. This structure looks just like a mini church tower, with all the decorations that are typical on these churches built hundreds of years ago. There were about 4 old churches all close together which hasn't been uncommon in some towns. This old city had a defensive wall built all around as a lot of the old towns did. We tried to view some of it but our frustrated attempts and our tourist weary day, saw us hop on our bikes and head for home.

24-5-2012 Thursday
Drove a long 430ks north west to Köln (Cologne) (Germany) and Berger Camping for 3 nights. The park is right on the Rhein (Rhine River) but we don't have a riverside spot. This weekend is a long weekend with Monday being a holiday here, so the park is a bit busy and we were probably fortunate that we came in today instead of tomorrow. The weather is lovely and sunny with temperatures starting to creep over the 30 degree mark, so we're seeing everybody out on the roads with their caravans and mhomes. The drive here was beautiful, with an abundance of greenery - fields and so many trees (in the Bavarian region).

25-5-2012 Friday
We rode along the Rhine River today into the main town of Cologne, and it might have been the most enjoyable ride we've had so far. Even though it was about 7-8ks, it was mostly flat, vehicle free and just such a nice, easy ride along the river. We easily found the Köln Dom (Cologne Cathedral), Germany's largest, with its twin spires soaring 157m, and a footprint of 12,470 sq metres. Its ground stone was laid in 1248 but stop-start construction meant it wasn't finished until 1880. Just over 60 years later it escaped WWII's heavy night-bombing largely intact. Apparently it was no miracle - Allied pilots used it to navigate in an era before reliable radar. We embarked on the strenuous endeavour of climbing the 509 steps of the south tower - our knees were crying out and we weren't the only ones stopping at several intervals to catch our breath. On one level on the way up, there were a group of 8 different sized bells, the largest being a 24 tonne Peter Bell, the world's largest working clanger. We emerged at the 98.25m level to magnificent views.

We had lunch at a Brauhaus of tasty coiled sausage, creamy cabbage and potato with bacon, which is more vegetable than we've had in a long time at a bought meal. We saw a few places selling the '4711' Eau de Cologne that I remember my mother wearing when I was a kid, still with the same label - took me back.

26-5-2012 Saturday
We decided to have a rest day today so not much to report except it's a beautiful, warm, sunny day again today. The camping park we're in is pretty full and there are lots of kids around and in the play area, which is right next to where our van is parked. It's amazing that at 9.30-10pm it is still light and there's plenty of activity going on. It must be difficult to get kids to bed on school nights.

27-5-2012 Sunday
Rode along the river into the town again today. It was a lot busier today being Sunday - lots more people and market stalls with interesting things, second hand goods, jewellery, handmade items. One man had smooth, round, hand-size rocks which he'd cut out a mouth, put eyes and a tail on to look like fish, and then mounted them on a stick - they looked quite good (never seen it before). We looked inside St Martins Church, quite interesting outside but unremarkable inside (very unlike the Catholics Dave reckons). It was damaged quite a bit in WWII and we wandered downstairs to see some old Roman foundation ruins that have been left intact. After lunch we enjoyed our ride home.