Heidelberg, Germany

Monday 20 June

Quite an easy drive again today to Heidelberg.  We used the same plan as we did in Colmar, ie drive as close as we can easily get to the hotel and then park the car and find the hotel on foot.

We found the hotel without too much trouble, although the weather was still not being kind, checked in and then went back to move the car to another car park as we could get a cheaper rate as we were staying in a hotel in town.

Heidelberg is on the river Neckar and has a wonderful old castle on the hill overlooking the town and also has a large university at one end of the old part of town so visitors to the town are from all ove the world.  I have heard more American accents in Heidelberg than I have anywhere else on our trip.

We spent part of the afternoon checking out the shops up and down the main street and the one I especially liked was the Christmas shop.  It was on two levels and filled with all sorts of Christmas tree decorations in so many designs and colours plus clockwork scenes and all the table linen and napery you could imagine.  I had a lovely time pottering about and walked out with a few things to bring home but not unfortunately, the windmill below.

Christmas windmill

It is STILL raining so back to the hotel to change as we are having dinner in  the hotel restaurant tonight.

Alsace wine villages

Sunday 19 June

After taking some advice from the receptionist at the hotel, we headed off for our own small wine tour of the Alsace.

Our first stop was Riquewihr which is a walled medieval town which has been classified among one of the most beautiful villages in France.  It has half timbered houses which date back to the 15th and 18th centuries and also a 13 century defensive gate.  The roads within the walls are cobbled and there are enchantiing archways through which can be glimpsed courtyards of residential buildings.  It is a tourist magnet and it was buzzing with people today but not so much as to spoil the atmosphere.  The only downside was the weather which has been raining off and on ever since we left Switzerland.  We stopped to have a bite to eat at an outdoor cafe but about halfway through the meal, the wind came up and the rain came down.  Unfortunately, the wind caught a small menu board that was hanging behind Derek's head and before he could move to get out of the way, it smacked him in the back of the head.  Um, not once but twice.  Poor Derek and I really shouldn't have laughed as much as I did.  These next five photos are all of Riquewihr.

We visited three other small wine villages today and visited two wineries and spoke with the winemakers.  I could prattle on about how beautiful the villages are or how lovely the countryside is but suffice to say, we had a lovely day and here are some photos that we took.

Eguisheim

Eguisheim

Zellenberg

Colmar, France

Saturday 18 June

Breakfast this morning was wonderful.  Andreas and Rahel sell their milk to a local guy who makes cheese, butter and yoghurt and then Rahel then buys some of it back for her use.  The yoghurt and cheese were sensational and the butter had been pressed so it had a little pattern on the top of it.  Really fresh, beautiful produce.

Derek had already been up and out to talk to Andreas and I think he was a little bit disappointed that he had slept too late and missed seeing the cows being milked.  In retrospect, it would have been lovely to stay there for a longer period of time and if we are ever back in this part of the world again, we would try and book in here again.

So it was a bit sad to wave the family goodbye and head towards Colmar.  Luckily for us, once on the highway, Colmar is quite well signposted so we didn't get lost once.  It is only a couple of hours drive so it was an easy distance today.

Once in the main street, we decided just to park the car and find the hotel on foot.  Hotel Le Marechal claims that the buildings it now inhabits were built in 1565 although it has only been running as a hotel for 30 years.  It is built on the edge of a very picturesque canal which winds its way through the town and in fact, the town is colloquially known as Little Venice.

Hotel Le Marechal

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Our room is very small but does have a small private balcony with outdoor table and 2 chairs however it is still raining so it may not get much use.

We spent this afternoon exploring the old town.  It has a cobbled pedestrian precinct and is extremely picturesque - we never actually went the newer commercial centre of Colmar as there was so much to see in the older part.  One thing we did buy today was a new GPS as ours still isn't working and it is just way too difficult to try and navigate without one.

Oberburg, Switzerland

Friday 17 June

This morning we were at the Information Centre at Naz bright and early and the lady there, kindly printed out directions for us on Google Maps plus we bought a map of Northern Italy to help with the main roads.

As my toe was feeling much better, I did the driving today and Derek navigated.  I thought driving the Brenner Pass rather than being a passenger might be less scary.  It wasn't.  Anyway, once we got past Innsbruck it was much better and I did enjoy the drive.

A village along the road

We only got slightly lost once and that was not really our fault as the road we were supposed to take to Oberburg was closed for roadworks and we couldn't figure out how to get back to where we needed to be.  However, a friendly shopkeeper put us on the right track and away we went.

The B&B, which was about 5 minutes drive out of Oberburg was delightful.  It is run by Andreas and Rahel Bracher with their toddler Lara and dog Elvis.  Elvis checked us out when we got there and after a few warning growls, he decided we were OK.

The house is on a small dairy farm which has been in Andreas' family for generations.  He runs 20 cows and, yes, they all have names.  Each milking stall has the individual cow's name on it.  Our room was on the first floor of the house and was reached by a very steep external staircase.  By the time we got there, it was pouring with rain and the temperature was dropping.

Because we had lost some time getting lost, we were running behind time so virtually had to drop our bags and then head into Bern to meet up with David Sykes (David employed Derek for the Orbit job in Cyprus).  Andreas was concerned that we were heading into Bern to meet someone and we had no map or GPS so he loaned us his GPS which was very kind of him, as there is no way we would have found the restaurant without it.

However, finding the restaurant turned out to be the easy part - finding a car park in the pouring rain was a challenge.  There were a lot of mutterings of "where on earth is that jolly car park" and "no, you can't jolly well park there, it is private parking".  Eventually, I saw a cyclist heading into a car park on what I thought could be a road so I directed Derek to follow him.  Hmmmm, I don't think cars were actually supposed to go that way however, we did find the car park and managed to get the restaurant 10 minutes early!  We had a lovely dinner with David and it was great to catch up with him and all his news.

Getting home was a doddle compared to getting into Bern so it was not too long before we were climbing the stairs to our lovely room.  It is very big for a B&B room and looks out on to someone's garden and then across the hills where the cow bells can be heard tinkling in the distance.  You almost expect Heidi to come tripping down the hill.

No trouble going to sleep tonight!

Bolzano / Bressanone / an added level of difficulty

Thursday 16 June

Woke this morning to grey skies and drizzle - not very inspiring. However, the plan for today is to drive to Bolzano and, amongst other things, visit the Museum of Archeology which houses the mortal remains of Otzi the iceman. Otzi was discovered nearly 20 years ago buried in the snow near the top of a mountain in the South Tyrol. After a great deal of investigation, it has been established that Otzi lived more than 5,000 years ago and died as a result of an arrow wound. His body is the only one found so far that has gone through a "wet" mummification process and as a result, his body, clothing and weapons were in an amazing state of preservation. A couple of grains of wheat were discovered in his clothing which makes them the oldest pieces of whole grain ever found. One of the weapons he was carrying was a copper axe which has meant that the Copper Age classification has had to be re-thought as up until then, archeologists thought that copper was not commonly found as early as this. He was wearing a helmet type cap made of wolfskin, a cape of bearskin and leggings constructed of carefully sewn together pieces of goat skin. The pieces were sewn together with animal sinew. The museum has created a model of what they think Otzi may have looked like and also re-created his clothing and weapons.

He may not be very pretty to look at now (at 5,000 years old, who would be!) but it was really interesting to see him and to find out about the results of the scientific investigations into what he wore, what his last meal was (probably cheese or yoghurt) and to try to reconstruct who he was and what he was doing walking on a high mountain pass.

By the time we finished at the museum, the sun was out and it was lovely and warm. We went for a wander around the old part of the city which is mostly a pedestrian precinct which has arcaded shops and little alley ways leading through to side streets, great fun to explore. We had lunch in a tavern which had been in use since the 1700s so that was pretty cool.













From there, we hopped back in the car and drove to Ortisei which was only about 20 minutes away but was right up in the hills. By the time we got there, it was tipping down rain again. One of the reasons we wanted to go, is that Ortisei is reknowned for its wood carvers and the local church is supposed to be something special.  However, as most of the streets seemed to be one way and extremely steep, after a quick drive around we decided to head back down the hills to Bressanone. On our way down the hill, we made a quick stop at a sculptor's studio and while all the carving was beautifully done, it was mainly religious icons.   These next couple of images were taken from the car as we drove from Ortisei to Bressanone.

Naz-Schiaves, Italy

Wednesday 15 June

After a bit of a restless night due to the fact that we were unable to get rid of all the flies in the room, we checked out, hopped in the car and set our GPS for Italy via Innsbruck. We made a quick stop along the way at an archaeological museum called Aguntum.  It was opened in June 2005 and shows the remains of an ancient Roman town which was discovered when the road was being upgraded.

It was a fairly easy drive to Innsbruck and we found a car park without too much trouble and had a walk around the old part of town.  It is very pretty with the mountains in the background and a large pedestrian precinct with its only downside being that there was quite a bit of roadwork going on. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then carried on.

The route from Innsbruck to Naz-Schiaves took us over the Brenner Pass which is the lowest altitude pass over the Alps and therefore the most popular. I found it hair raising being a passenger as I'd forgotten how crazy Italian car drivers were and the interstate truckies were not much better. They came so close at times, I just shut my eyes and thought if they are going to hit us, I don't want to see it coming!

The Brenner highway is jointly owned by Austria and Italy and is a toll road so you get to pay to be scared out of your wits. Anyway, eventually we arrived at the exit we needed and happily exited towards Pension Klara at Naz-Schiaves. We found the house without too much trouble and after a quick phone call to Klara to let her know we were standing at the front door, she arrived on a bicycle and showed us to our room. It was a lovely, big bright room with an ensuite and a balcony. Klara didn't speak much English and we don't speak much German or Italian but we managed to communicate with a mixture of all 3 languages and much sign language. She showed us where to go for breakfast in the morning and recommended a place to eat for dinner. The house has no internet connection and the only place that has it, is the information centre in the middle of the village.

View from the balcony

Naz-Schiaves is in the South Tyrol and as such has more German speakers than Italian. The houses are picturebook beautiful with most of them being 2 or 3 storeys and they all have window boxes with red geraniums growing profusely. The valley where Naz-Schiaves is, is an apple growing area so the fields around the village are filled with apple trees which are grown on trellis. It is very pretty as everything is so green and lush.
The town is very small, so we went for a walk to explore - I enjoyed exploring the supermarket :-) and seeing the different types of local apples available although they are all last season's now as the new ones are not ripe yet. We found the information centre too but it was closed so we decided to return in the morning to check our mail etc then on to the pizzeria for dinner and home to bed as we were both really tired.

Stuhlfelden, Austria

The balcony view we had to leave this morning

Tuesday 14 June

We got away to a good start this morning, leaving Bohinj at approximately 9:30am.  We had a quick five minute stop at Lake Bled as Derek wanted to take some photos of the castle.

Cqstle, church and racing gondolas at Lake Bled

From there we headed north west and quickly came to the Austrian border where we were charged 6 euros to use a 7.5 kilometre tunnel and then another 7.9 euros for a toll pass.

A village glimpsed in passing

We made our way across the Alps through some spectacular scenery, part of which was the Nationalpark Hohe Tauern.

We are having a spot of bother with internet access and a French keyboard, so we are getting behind.  There's möre tö çome later, büt D will post this to show that we are still alive and kicking.

OK, WIFI seems to be working again so will try to get this post finished and another one up before we leave for Heidelberg.

Stuhlfelden is a small town in the state of Saltzburg.  It is quite a small town having a population of only about 1,500 people.  There is only the one hotel in town but it was lovely, quite old and with big modern rooms.  All the balconies facing the road have window boxes full of red geraniums so it was very pretty.  We went for a short walk through the town which took all of 15 minutes before finding a butcher who sold all sorts of smoked meat and sausages.  So, in an effort to support the local economy, we bought a piece of speck and a dried venison salami for our lunches over the next few days.

Lake Bohinj

Monday 13 June

The first order of business this morning was to drive to the nearby town of Bohinjska Bistrica to find a pharmacy.  After a short hobble around the town, we found the pharmacy and purchased some sterile gauze, a bandage and tape.  We also stopped at the supermarket and bought some plastic bags so that I could have a shower without getting my foot wet.  That accomplished, we headed back home so that we could change the dressing on my toe.  I was quite pleased to find that it didn't look quite as bad as I first thought although the entire right side of the nail has been detached from the nail bed so it is going to be a nuisance for a while.  However, I am walking more easily today so maybe it won't be too bad.

We then decided to take a boat trip on Bohinj Lake.  It departs about 700 metres from where we are staying and makes its way across the lake to a small town called Ribcev Laz.  The main attraction here is a church and a small stone bridge which crosses the stream at the end of the lake.

Our guide on the boat, gave us facts which we thought we would share with you:

Name:  Bohinj Lake - or in Slovenian, Bohinjsko Jezero
Length:  4.1 kilometre
Width:  1.2 kilometres
Depth:  45 metres
Water temperature:  Freezing in winter to 22 degrees in summer

Because of the number of streams running into the lake and the fact that the area has high rainfall throughout the year, the water in the lake turns over 3 times per year.  This also partially accounts for the fact that the water is so crystal clear.  The other reason for the clarity of the water is that it runs over limestone and so there is very little sediment to cloud the water.

The tourist boat that plies the lake was made  in Germany 50 years ago.  It has an electric motor as the Slovenian government has outlawed all petrol driven engines from the lake, which makes it a very quiet and serene place to be.

The scenery is awe inspiring.  Because the lake is so still, the mountains and trees are reflected in its waters and on the shores, trout can easily be seen swimming about.  Here are some pictures we took on the way there and back. 

Tomorrow we leave for Stuhlfelden in Austria and as beautiful I expect the scenery to be as we drive through the Alps, it will have to be very special to beat this place!

The best laid plans.....

Sunday 12 June

It is now 10:30am and I'm sitting here on our balcony while Derek has gone for a bit of a walk to explore.  The reason I'm here and not walking as well is because I very cleverly managed to kick my toe on the shower door track this morning and I've lifted one side of the nail  right out of the nail bed on the big toe of my left foot.  It didn't bleed all that much but Dr Derek had to do some emergency first aid by using one of his (clean) hankies as a bandage.  I will definitely lose the nail and walking very far is out of the question for the next few days which is such a nuisance.  I've just got to make sure that I keep it clean so it does't become infected.  Luckily my sandals are OK to wear with my makeshift bandage as it is the only footwear I have with open toes.  There is a pharmacy in a nearby town but won't be open until tomorrow so will have to make do with the hankie bandage for now.




Julian mountains



Walking track to Sap Savica (Savica waterfall)

One of the rivers flowing into Lake Bohinj



Pension Stare


However, if it had to happen anywhere, at least I've picked a very beautiful spot to do it in.  From where I am sitting I can see ash trees and fir trees plus there is constant bird song to listen to including the occasional cuckoo.  The cable car is working this morning and I can watch it gliding up the side of the mountain.  It was quite cloudy first thing this morning but the peaks have now cleared and I can look across the lake to the other side of the valley.

This afternoon we took the cable car up Vogel mountain.  The cable car lifts its passengers 1,000 metres in 5 minutes which makes it one of the fastest in the world.  There is a hotel at the top (which is only open in winter) and a cafe which was open to feed the summer tourists.  I couldn't hobble very far so we only stayed long enough to have some lunch and then took the next cable car back down again.  The views were spectacular and even though I have problems with heights sometimes, we both thoroughly enjoyed the short ride.  The pictures speak for themselves.