Thursday 29th November (Lou's birthday) saw us leaving Cologne and heading out for Frankfurt. We had decided on taking the scenic route along the Rhine Gorge. The river is certainly very impressive along this route but the weather was not good. It rained (with sleet on the higher ground) and so we felt we did not get a proper view of the landscape that we were passing by. In fact today was not very successful. Again it was a long day and we arrived at our overnight stop to be met by a very brusque (if not downright rude) German male. He eventually softened a bit when he realised we could speak some german. I decided we needed to do some laundry and have supper before we headed off into town. This was a mistake as by the time we got there it was around 8.30pm we found out that the market was closing at 9pm. I don't think we did this city any justice as we had already planned to leave the following morning. Still it was a lesson learn't - we need to spend at least two nights at each stop.
Friday 30th November to December 3rd
We managed to get ourselves up and out quite early this morning but we lost most of that time trying to fill up our LPG tank. This may sound stupid but this was the first time we had used a direct LPG fill and the german instructions were not that useful. First we had to get the right european adaptor - we have three: one for france, one for Spain and Portugal and one for europe! All would have been ok if the hose hadn't hidden the all important button which released the gas. By the time we finished there was a queue for fuel going back onto the carriageway and an angry tanker driver who could not get his vehicle off the forecourt and we still hadn't got our diesel. Mike decided to drive round the block and come back for the necessary fuel. Anyway we know how to do it (in Germany at least). On route to Nuremburg we stopped at a mobilehome exhibition place and enquired about snow chains: at 186 Euros we decided to leave it but we may regret this decision. We also stopped off at McDonalds and used their free wifi service to catch up on some e mails and to do some more route planning. This meant that once again we were going to arrive at our destination in the dark but our wonderful Sat Nav directed us there without any problems. We found ourselves at the back of a huge sports complex right adjacent to the area where Hitler held his Nuremburg rallies. Something else to explore.
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Pretty Nuremburg
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Interesting Architecture
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Christmas Market Area
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My birthday sweatshirt and apfelstrudel
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Golden Fountain
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December 1st is my birthday. I did awake during the night to find Mike fixing up fairy lights! Mum and the kids (plus Chris) had sent presents with Mike so it was good to be able to start the day with cards and pressies. Richard and Louise and Chris had bought me a lovely long sweat shirt.
It was perfect for the day as it had begun to snow and was very cold. Mike and I cycled into town about 6km away. We first cycled around the medieval city walls ending up at the Imperial Castle. We both wandered around the outside of the building and then Mike went for the guided tour. I didn't fancy an hour and a half of german so I explored the local area on my own. I was also hungry so had a nuremburg sausage roll and a mug of gluhwein to keep me going. I found a church that had a free concert and this kept me warm until I met up with Mike again. Mike was hungry by now so we found a cafe where I could have apfelstrudel and a second mug of gluhwein whilst Mike had a nuremburg sausage casserole. We then continued to explore this lovely city. the market areas were incredibly busy and we heard more english or at least american english voices here although I am not sure why. Soon it was getting dark and the temperature had dropped to minus 3. We cycled home as quick as we could to get warm although my hands were frozen. We found that our boiler had dropped its water - this is a safety device to avoid frozen and then burst pipes so that meant Mike had to sort that out before we could get the van warm but it did not take long. However, more gluhwein called for to warm us up (we now have supplies in the van) followed by a local reisling and a birthday supper. A wonderful day.
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Church of Our Lady
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Imperial castle
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view from castle
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The following day we had a day of rest. Well a catch up day. Mike washed the van and checked we were snow and ice proof . We were delighted to discover we have got winter tyres after all. This is just as well as it has snowed all day. I spent most of the day on line (3.5 euros) to catch up with some marking, skpye with my Mum, Millie and Louise and some route planning . Tomorrow we plan to look at the area of the Nuremburg rallies in more detail before heading to Munich.
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