|
Germany
The following is a collection of pictures from our stay with my wife's relatives in Dortmund and the Surrounding area.
|
|
family barbeque
|
chef
We are doing a extensive tour of Germany in spring 2007 using the stelplatz from the Austrian border up to Mid Germany, watch this space. As promised below is the account of our trip in southern Germany in the hottest spring in many a year.
We started of by leaving Slovenia after a glorious 3 weeks dampened only by the scooter accident in the last few days which unfortunately made the scooter totally useless. We arrived in Austria and stopped the first night at Miillstratter by the lake on a deserted camp site - very enjoyable, after a restful night we drove via the quite back roads to see the glacial valleys which were very quite due to being early in the season. We enjoyed the change of scenery after Slovenia and ended the day at the popular resort area of Zeel Am See, very nice but the price was daylight robbery at 35 Euros a night so we high tailed it the following morning over the border into Germany and the Bavarian countryside.
|
|
|
|
|
click to enlarge
We started are tour at the beautiful lake of Konigsee were tourist trips on the lake leave frequently and well worth the stop of, after lunch we continued round the huge lake of Chiemsee with many campsites and cycle tracks ending the day at a small rural farm our first stelplatz of this trip at Ubersee were the farmer sold fresh milk and schnapps. The next morning we continued along the "Deutsche Alpenstr" route to arrive at Fussen our base for the next two days, we stayed on the stelplatz next to Aldi/Lidil supermarkets on the edge of town with excellent facilities and only a short ride/walk into the beautiful town. Nearby our the twin castle of Neuschwanstien and Hohenschwangau were you can while away a day with no problem or take a ride in the cable car up the local mountain to watch the hand gliders/Para gliders soared through the air. We chose to walk round the town tasting the good food and speciality snowballs while taking in the sites, well worth allowing two days for as this is also the starting point of the "Romantic road" a tour route devised after the war. We chose to continue along the Alpine road towards lake Bodensee on the Swiss/German border stopping at the small stelplatz at Lindau basically a large car park in town with a service point, the following morning we walked the 30mins into town to see the old walled section which is very beautiful with a signposted route to follow-allow a morning to explore and don't forget the tasty treats in the bakeries.
After a late lunch we carried on along the lake shore road which was very busy and ended up at Hoffinghum a small farm town with an excellent stelplatz next to a small stream and play area which was being used by two swiss families in their very old converted coaches, while being parked next to a large finish motor home everybody seemed to get on well all gathering round a large fire in the evening drinking beer-the true meaning of camping and friendship seemingly lost in the Uk in recent years. We woke the next morning with a sore head so drove slowly towards the Black Forest starting at Frieburg and stopping the night at Baiersbronn midway along the 462, here we had a quite night with French/German motor homes for company .
The next day we headed to Baden Baden stopping at Stolhofen on the shore of the mighty river Rhine before heading back into France and the region of Lorraine taking a short cut across to the base of the river Mosel our next area to explore .
Bavarian Trip
The Alpen strasse route was planned in 1927 and was intended to be a route through the most beautiful parts of the German Alps. The route goes from high mountains to low foothills from Bodensee or Lake Constance on the swiss border in the west to Konigsee in the east [Berchtesgaden] .Particularly impressive is the winding section around Hindelang and Baryrischzell which offers breathtaking views over the Zauber or “magical forest”, the total length of the rout is about 280mls passing through various villages.
Brief rout as follows:-east to west
Starting at Berchtesgarden on the 305 via Hintersee before taking the 307 to Bayrischzell via Zugspitze[2963mts] to Fussen.
Then via the 309/310 to Jochstrasse then the 308 through Sonthofen to Lindan on lake Constance.
Some tempting stop off points on route.
Konigsee Lake- crystal clear waters in a fjord like seting between mountain ridges one of the most beautiful lakes in Bavaria, electric powered boats are used along its 5mls length.
Reit Im Winkl- This small town at 700mts may not have many historic buildings but is frequented by many tourists as its set in the middle of a forest with many picturesque buildings amongst narrow streets. In winter its reputed to have the best snow in all of Bavaria, the road to Ruhpolding[15mls] has many photogenic oppertunity
Chiemsee Lake- this large lake lies north of the E52 8 autobahn at Bernau and covers a area of 35sq mls being Bavaria`s largest lake. Its shoreline is dotted with holiday villages and towns offering plenty of water sports in Alpine scenery with a road route of 40mls round the lake shore.
Mittenwald- Situated at the foot of the Karwendel mountains this small town is famous for is violin making and stands on the old trade route between Verona and Ausburg.
Garmisch-Partenkichen- Two separte towns that where joined together in 1936 for the winter Olympics and have remained together ever since, becoming a renowned winter skiing destination and also holding many championships.
Fussen and surrounding area- In the area near to this busy town are many local attractions the main two being the castle at Neuschwanstien and the castle at Schloss Hohenschwangau . The later is from the 14th century and the first being one of Ludwig II most renowned castle built in 1860-1892, at Hobenschwageau there is a cark park and wooded walk to see the “marienbruke” a cast Iron bridge spanning a 300ft deep gorge cut from the rock.
Lindau and Wasserburg- Both these two beautiful towns are on lake Constance and are well worth seeing for the views over the lake the church in Wasserburg being very ornate .
Lindau is the only town on Lake Constance that is in Bavaria the old part of the town stands on an island connected to the mainland by a road/rail bridge and was founded as a fishing village in Roman times, the main town still has some old medieval buildings from the 13th century.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
click to enlarge
From the border with France we cut up into the river Mosel area starting out at the village of Trier before taking the road along the river to Koblenz. We spent the first few nights camped on a stellplatz on the river bank with 50 other German motor homes at Mehring within the grounds of a local wine producer, a good time was had by all and new friendships formed while taking the local village wine tastings and walking through the vine covered hillsides. The next morning we took a short trip up the river to the village of Piesport were the world famous wine comes from, very picturesque and more wine tasting. After lunch we crossed the river to stop the night at Minheim and another stellplatz this time a local community affair but still on the river bank with local wine producers agar to sell their produce.
The next morning with the weather becoming cloudy for the first time in 5 weeks we headed up to the town of Cochem with its old castle and riverside cruise departure points. well what a contrast to the other river villages as this was much larger but in the best taste with plenty of site seeing not forgetting a visit to the medieval castle overlooking the village. Or you could jump on a small boat for a leisurely trip along the river to admire the views, best done in nice weather not like the rain that had set in so we drove 3 miles south to a small wine producer to spend the night .After a night of rain we headed onwards to stop off at the Nurburgring race track to watch the motorcycles and cars flying round this old race track, we thought about taking the scooter but due to the accident in Slovenia it was unroadworthy still it was nice to site on the grass overlooking the track and listen to the other vehicles racing. From here we journeyed on to the village of Mayschob and a small stellplatz in amongst the vines okay for a night halt when crossing the region, we had a great time in this area as there are plenty of motor home stop off points and many different wines to be tasted .
|
|
|||
From Mayscob we journeyed onto Dortmund to spend a week with relatives before returning to France for the Tunnel Home.
