Germany...

We were up at 4, and waved goodbye to Cillian at 5. He had ordered a minicab for us, which delivered us to terminal 5 Heathrow in just 15 minutes. We piled out onto the footpath, loaded our bags onto a trolley, and headed for check in. I tried the machine but it told me to go to the assistance counter- what’s new?  We checked in our bags; mine was under 20 kgs and Ross’ was just over, so we were allowed to check in my backpack as well.

Through security where everything was checked; I even had to take off my sandals! Ross’ bag was pulled up again; I think it was the computer charger that was the problem this time.  When we arrived at our gate, we still had an hour to spare so ordered breakfast with coffee. I received my breakfast bap quite quickly, but Ross’ full English breakfast took almost the full hour! First they brought him a single egg and some baked beans-I kid you not!- before finally bringing him the worst English breakfast I’ve ever seen.  He ate it none-the-less, but when the waitress asked was everything ok, he complained and got 10% off the bill and I got a free coffee. It still cost 25 pounds ($50)-the worst rip-off so far this trip.

To make matters worse, our flight was delayed almost two hours because our pilot’s wife just went into labour and another pilot had to fly down from Edinburgh! The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Frankfurt out on the tarmac, as no airbridge was available and had to use stairs and onto a bus, but that was ok. Well that was the good news!

We had to go through immigration before getting to baggage collection. I hooked into the airport wifi to get maps loaded but couldn’t change the starting position. Ross went to pull out his Samsung tablet to help me and realized he had left it on the plane! He made enquiries but the plane had taken off again and no tablet had been handed in. He left his name and number with the airport in the vague hope that someone hands it in, and we can collect it when we return in a month’s time.

We grabbed our bags and headed out to meet our driver at the meeting place. We couldn’t see him but then I realised I didn’t have my backpack! I had left it circling on the carousel! Talk about two forgetful fogies! Ross then had the devil of a job getting back into the baggage area as that was a secure area.

Meanwhile our driver was getting crankier and crankier, to put it mildly, carrying on about the parking fee and he had been waiting for 20 minutes! I sympathized and said we’d pay his parking, but I felt like saying, “Poor diddums, you’ve been waiting a whole 20 minutes!” Ross finally appeared with my backpack and we headed out to the “shuttle bus” which was actually just a taxi! I could have grabbed a taxi myself for 55 euro, but had agreed to be picked up for 75. He then handed Ross the parking charge for 45 euro!  I sat in the back and watched the speedo climb to 170; to make matters worse, he was on two phones as well! Kittens were coming hard and fast: the only thing that made me feel better was he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt! Welcome to Germany!

Randolph, our hire man, was much nicer but still very German. He was very thorough though explaining every single thing about the camper, and I was not allowed to interrupt him with a relevant question, but I had to wait until he had finished speaking. Of course, by then, I had forgotten what I had to ask!

We were off, with me saying, ”Stay on the right,” like a broken record. We drove into the village of Friedberg, and drove round and round the village looking for a spot to park. We eventually pulled up completely illegally (everyone else was double parked too) and Ross ran into the phone store to ask about SIMs. Thankfully, he wasn’t too long or there’d be more kittens appearing. We had to reverse into traffic, which was daunting but at least there was a reversing camera. We just needed someone to let us in, which a lady finally did. I waved and shouted “thankyou”. I must learn the German.

Now off to buy bedding at Danisches Bettenlager in Bad  Nauheim. We chose a doona for 14.95, pillows for 9.95, towels for 7.95 and tea-towels 3 for 3.99. The total was much less than we would have paid if we had hired bedding, and it’s clean and new!

Fortunately, we were right next door to an Aldi where a lovely gentleman gave me a euro for a trolley. The checkout boy would not oblige even though I said he could have it back when I finished shopping. Anyway, we filled that trolley with some quite decadent food, for less than 100 euro.

Walking back to the camper, we decided to abandon our original plan of driving to Rothenburg, and stay put, and get the camper set up properly.

After a dinner of salmon steaks and pasta salad, and dessert of chocolate, cream and custard puddings (part of our Alidi purchases), we decided to get an early night and try out our new bed. Tomorrow is a new day!

Today dawned clear, but not too cold; we were up early but decided to wait until the Danisches Bettenlager opened to buy another doona. Apparently, I kept stealing the doona from Ross!

That done, we headed off to Rothenburg which should have been a quick trip, but partially due to me, and partially due to the stupid bloody GPS (which maybe stupid me had programmed incorrectly), we took the scenic route, and arrived in Rothenburg ob der Tauber after dark. (the one thing I didn’t want to be doing!) I had a few kittens on the way mainly due to the narrowness of the roads, but, on the plus side, we did pass through some beautiful little villages, which we wouldn’t have seen from the motorway (autobahn). When we reached Wurzburg, I gave up on the GPS and navigated by the signs and my road map! 

On arrival in Rothenburg, we found it packed with tourists all there for the Christmas markets! We pulled into a parking area only to discover it was for cars only, but Ross asked someone and was told the P3 was the park for us. We managed to find it easily, parked our camper and headed off to the markets. There was a pay station but a driver from one of the many coaches told Ross we could park for free until 9am.

I was prepared for a long walk into town, but in actual fact, we reached the town wall only after a few minutes. The Christmas markets smelt delicious, but it was extremely crowded and had nowhere to sit so we headed away from the markets into a less crowded street where we found a lady selling wine and champagne in a little alley. We asked her for food and she told us we could walk through the garden to the restaurant.  It was a beautiful garden but we had our doubts if we would actually find a restaurant but we did. We had entered through the back door of a hotel restaurant called Herrnschlosschen (the little castle of the lords), which was 900 years old! It looked very posh, and expensive, but we asked for a table for two, nonetheless. We were ushered to the last table they had available. We sat down and ordered a main meal; a trio of wild boar (Ross), and guinea fowl (me). We asked for the wifi password and checked in while we waited for our dinner.

I had a 500 ml bottle of white wine (some German wine I’ve not heard of), but I had no trouble in finishing it. It was at this stage that we realized that it was just 2 years ago that we met, so it was an anniversary dinner, of sorts. Ross’ wild boar trio was a stew (scrumptious), roast boar (delicious), and sausage (which I didn’t taste). My guinea fowl was delicious too, but a bit tougher than chicken. They had a dessert for two for 18 euro, which we ordered in celebration. It was a three-tiered plate, with orange and tiramisu ice-creams, and three other delectable sweets which were the same on the bottom and top plates.

Even though I had experienced a traumatic day getting lost, driving on narrow country roads, not having a clue where I was, it ended beautifully.

We both slept like logs and woke up hungry. We walked into town and I searched for the Gastehaus Goldener Hirsch, where I had stayed 4 years ago. We asked the tourist information and I still managed to get us lost. We walked straight past it and down a steep, narrow street. Poor Ross!

Finally I located it, and we entered through the front door. We walked up to reception where I smiled and said that I had stayed her 4 years ago and was wondering if we could pay for breakfast. No problem. We walked through to the breakfast room, where we chose the corner table and drank in the view. It was just as spectacular as I remembered it! We just relaxed and took our time eating and eating and eating. We tried everything they had to offer except cereals; meat and cheeses, eggs and toast, yoghurt and fruit, pink grapefruit juice and coffee!

We found the shop at which the tourist information guy thought we may get a SIM, but you guessed it; it was closed. (It was Sunday.) We walked back to the Christmas markets where I bought a lovely little Rothenburg house to be used for incense. Then we visited Kathe Wohlfahrt’s Christmas shops; Ross to the Christmas museum and me to the actual shop across the road where Ross bought me a pair of crystal Christmas tree earrings. We took the long way back to our camper, stopping to buy some postcards and stamps on the way. Of course, here we are in France and I still haven’t posted them. It’s only a 10-minute walk across the bridge into Germany though.

Back to our camper, and to the stellenplatz where we emptied our toilet waste and Ross tried, unsuccessfully to fill up with water. The machine kept eating his coins and not giving him water! Finally we were on our way to Heidelberg, and the famous Christmas markets up in front of the Castle. Ross managed to navigate his way through the city centre, and we followed the sign to the Schloss.  There were people everywhere, and no parking spaces so we thought we were close. It was pitch black by this time (the one thing I wanted to avoid!), but we finally found a park on the side of the road half way up the hill and walked up to the Schloss. We asked people where the Christmas markets were and were told just through the Castle gates, so we kept walking, and walking and walking! We asked a guy guarding the gates and were told they finished on the 15^th December; another guy told us they weren’t up at the Castle this year but we down in the city centre, so we actually don’t know the real story!

I entered stellenplatz into our GPS and found there was one at Schwetzingen (the only name I recognised out of all the stellenplatzes the GPS located) so we headed out of town in the worst traffic we have encountered so far! Poor Ross! We managed to make it out of town and to the stellenplatz, where we found a little Italian Pizzeria named Pina’s. I was going to cook dinner but the temptation of an Italian meal was too much!

Tired to the bone, we dragged ourselves across to the restaurant to find a warm, welcoming host who chatted in Italian to Ross, like best friends! He gave us the wifi password and I was able to get online, while we were waiting for our calzone and our pollo (chicken) and fungi(mushroom) tagliatelli, which we shared. Another 500mls of white wine made a good end to a frustrating evening. Even the people who worked at the restaurant were saying the Christmas market was up at the Castle!

A few metres back to our camper where I had a quick shower before bed. I was going to make us a coffee but was just too damn tired! We were hoping to stay hooked into the pizzeria’s wifi but it was just too slow to be of any real use. Ross did find there was a Vodafone shop in Schwetzingen though, so after a good night’s sleep, we headed into Schwetzingen and found the shop easily. I wish getting a SIM as so easy! No luck here. He suggested going back into Heidelberg but I was not keen. If the traffic was like it was on a Sunday night, I don’t know what it could possible be like on a Monday morning. Besides a SIM wasn’t guaranteed; he said they might have them!

While Ross was working out the SIM drama, I found the Schwetzingen Schloss only 950 metres away, so decided to walk.  I took a photo of the GPS to make sure we didn’t get lost and I still managed to get us lost. We did have a lovely morning constitutional along a pretty canal with a swan and her cygnets, as well as a duck or two who’ve forgotten to fly south for the winter. (They probably don’t even know it’s winter; it’s so warm!)

Finally we find an entrance to the Schloss and walk in to the building only to find it’s a school! (It is part of the Schloss; just not the tourist part!) We take the next entrance and pay our 3 euro each only to find the Schloss itself is under renovation and only the gardens are open. We walk down through the Schloss to the gardens; well, they are beautiful, but so extensive, we couldn’t even see the sides let alone the back of them, so we took a few photos and left.

Ross went to a bank to try to withdraw some cash but they don’t do that! I waited on a high stool and managed to hook into Grey’s Restaurant free wifi! I managed to post we were fine and still in search of a SIM card, if anyone at home is worried about us. I had to get back to the camper before my fingers froze; that wind was really cold out in the open.

On to Strasbourg, just across the Rhine River into France. We stopped at Baden-Baden, where Ross checked the gas (we have 70% left) and explored the Obi (like Bunnings) while I tried to buy a packet of panadol, advil, nurofen- anything for  a headache. While Ross was in Obi, I saw a Vodafone store across the road. I managed to not get run over crossing the four lanes of traffic, which was a feat in itself. I was confident I would find a SIM at the Vodafone shop, but he gruffly informed me they had sold out! It’s Christmas and they won’t have any in until next year!!!! I tried the Toom supermarket for a headache tablet unsuccessfully-they mustn’t get headaches in Germany. Back to Obi where one of the Obi staff gave me one of her tablets; I don’t know was it was but it cured my headache! Talk about a wild goose chase!

We arrived in Strasbourg and it was still daylight! Woohoo! But by the time we negotiated our way through peak-hour traffic, it was dark. We found the Auberge Jeunesse, where we are going to camp for a couple of nights and catch the bus into town to see some of the seven Christmas markets.