From Belgium to the Black Forest

 Happy Birthday to you, Father Constable!

Morning all! We have found a computer! In Todtnauberg, a mountain community in the Black Forest in southwest Germany. All is still well, we are in mourning today as it is officially only 1 week to go till we hand back the Snuggle Truck!!! but we are going to pack that last week full of action, let us assure you.

Since the Belgian beer drinking stopover we drove all the way down to Baden-Baden at the start of the Black Forest, where we found a great campsite with the help of the tourist office, called Campsite Adam! It had a swimming lake and the weather was boiling hot on our arrival so we swam, cooled down and had a generally nice evening. In the night it rained and stormed and when we woke up it was a lot greyer and cooler, so we decided it was a good time to hire bikes and have a cycle round the area. Luckily at that point it was still quite flat so the cycling wasnt too bad. We made it to the river Rhein and cycled along the banks for a stretch, on the German side of course! Conveniently we made a lunch stop at exactly the point of the next storm, and we were warm and dry and eating kebabs and noodles while the rain came down. Once it cleared up we cycled on and eventually completed our 5 hour circuit back at camp. That evening was a bit annoying as we had just done a massive load of washing and it wouldn´t dry in the dryers, and just as we were checking it a HUGE storm came and it chucked it down!!! So we had to sleep amongst pants and socks strung up around the inside of the van, lovely!

After these couple of days enjoying the lovely scenery just before the Black Forest, we headed to the Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden. For those of us who know about our secret (not so secret any more!) spa passion, the Friedrichsbad was brilliant. It is a 130 year old traditional Roman-Irish spa where you follow a circuit of 17 stations around through steam rooms, hot showers, warm baths, hot baths, cool baths and a soap and brush massage, until you are thoroughly clean and relaxed. It was just what we needed! We spent about 3 hours there including a sleep in the resting room at the end, where they wrap you with towels and leave you all warm and sleepy, and then we grabbed lunch in Baden-Baden and drove on into the Black Forest proper.

We were lucky to find our current site, Camping Hochschwarzwald, at 1050 metres above sea level in the beautiful forested hills. Yesterday we went for a half day walk through the hills, woods and fields to a little hut where we had sausages and cheese, black forest gateau (had to be done!) and ice cream for lunch. In total the walk was only about 10km so today we are about to strike out from Todtnauberg up to the Feldberg, the area´s highest point, for a longer stretch of the legs.

After here we are going to a theme park!! Europapark of German text book fame. Then hopefully 2 nights in Freiburg, maybe a meeting with Jan and Janine our German friends in Konstanz, and then the final event of our tour  - 2 days at our favourite spa EVER, Erding by Munich.

Belgian beers, yum!

We are currently drinking beer. See picture.

It is a very nice Chimay spécial potaupré as a taster after visiting their beer museum. Next we are off to the Abbey where the beer is brewed.

Very Belgian.

Where we are... Today!

... A French wine festival. :-) Today we woke up by a small river, it was very nice and probably the best nights sleep we have had in ages. Consequently we overslept. Even so we managed to roll on into Buis-Les-Baronnies by midday. We stocked up on groceries which we then failed to consume when we saw a quaint and quintessential French creperie. Yum. Buis was a lovely village, with a dramatic and rocky backdrop courtesy of the drome de provence region. After this pleasant pause we headed straight for Cairanne to their 38th annual wine festival. Now some of you out there might think this part of the proceedings would be a bit of a jolly. But no! Wine is serious in these parts and much time was spent tasting, considering and writing comparative notes such as, "NICE!" and "mMy mum would like this." The village feast and jazz band is about to start, so we will stop using the handy touris office's wifi and get back to the cheese and wine.

Catchup #2: The Italian Dash

What has Italy ever done for us? Well, the Romans for one. A great one at that. Worth multiple holidays and a lifetime of study. You would have guessed that we would spend a good chunk of our time here wouldn't you? Well, you would have guessed wrong. We did a mad dash across the top of Italy to cover the space between Trieste and the south of France as quickly as possible. In doing so maximising our time sunning ourselves in the Riviera. Great.

The morning after arriving at the campsite began again with the sound of Crickets. Our constant backing track from this point onwards in the journey. Not quite as annoying as you get used to them.

We left around half 9 with the aim to see both Trieste and Koper. Unfortunately Koper was so full we were unable to find an appropriate parking space near the centre, though we are told by Ma and Pa Ford that it is a lovely place. We then headed off to Trieste. Which was nearly as full as Koper... nearly. We found somewhere to park and had a stroll around the town. It was nice. We had our first (and it turned out only) bowl of Italian pasta and saw the docks and old town square. A quick snippet of history, both Slovenia and Italy had claims over Trieste after WW2 and it could quite easily had been a prospering Slovenian port town not Italian.


We left Trieste after a couple of hours and made a monumental decision. Though the potential for Italy was great we both were looking forward to France too much. So we aimed to try something new, two days of driving due west on the surprisingly good Italian Motorways to eat our first Baguette two days earlier than planned. And it worked. We drove. We slept at a service station carpark (for free, with showers!). And we crossed the French/Italian border mid day on Friday 13th July. Lucky for us!

Catch up #1: Slovenia

Good evening! Sarah here, communicating from a farmyard somewhere in Provence. Really! Tonight our van finds itself at Camping le moulin de cost, where we are pitched next to a pretty stream and currently in the campsite restaurant - which is the yard directly next to the farmhouse, ie the farmyard! Rural living at its best.

Anyway, more about that later. This is the first in a series of catch-up posts filling you in on our journey over the last 10 days or so. It's been, well, pretty great to be honest, so to sum it all up will take a long time, therefore we'll just do a few highlights of each. First up, Slovenia!

After coming down from the Grossglockner we went through the Karawanke tunnel into Slovenia and pitched up for the night at Bled, right on the shores of the lake. No bleeding in sight but just beautiful, clear, blue lake water which we used for swimming, boating and lakeside strolling. That was a very HOT and sticky day and we were very hungry after our arrival, so we went straight to the pizzeria recommended to us by the campsite's receptionist and had a very yummy dinner. Our first experience of Slovenian Grapefruit Beer was absolutely delicious and we were hooked!

Next day was spent lolling by the lake and we extended our stay a night longer than planned as it was so beautiful. Anthony rowed me around the lake in a boat which was fab, and we continued our Magnum Survey by eating some on the lake shore. Note: if only we knew then what we know now about the increase in Magnum prices as you head west across Europe! That night we probably cooked at camp (can't remember) and readied ourselves for a move across the country in the morning.

From Bled we headed to Camping Menina with an afternoon's rafting on the Savinja river planned. However, on arrival we were informed that since it hadn't rained for 2 weeks, the rivers were dry and there was no rafting to be had. Anthony was quite upset about this so to make up for it we hired bikes and got some exercise another way: cycling through pretty local villages until an ENORMOUS storm hit, including rain, hail, strong winds and some very impressive lightning. After a sodden and freezing cycle ride home we jumped straight into hot showers and by the time we got out of them, the storm had passed and it was sunny again! That was the last time we had the internet till now and so we wrote our Grossglockner update that evening.

Next day we had a city-fix in Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital. A really pleasant city on the river, Ljubljana served us well as it was hot and sunny, easy to navigate and had an excellent laundry where we did a ton of washing! It was great to be in a city again and we had some breakfast at a market square cafe while waiting for the laundry, and after that we hiked up to the castle and looked around there. Highly recommended for the views and the castle itself, if you are ever in Ljubljana. We stocked up on market veg for our planned dinner of couscous and stuffed peppers, and then planned our afternoon drive to Italy, via Slovenia's most famous caves at Skocjan, which were WELL worth the visit. If you like caves, this is the place to go! They have 20km of caves under there but just 2km are open to visitors, and we took an underground train deep into that part of caves and then had an hour's walking tour. It was really excellent, so much to see and such beautiful formations. Well worth the stop.

Finally we made it to Italy where we pitched up and listened to our first sounds of cicadas, this is a sound which has accompanied us on our journey ever since then. Our campsite was San Barcoleo or something like that, right out on the little part of Italy just next to Slovenia and before Trieste. It was a most strange campsite with people who seemed like they'd lived their whole lives there, Anthony commented it was like the setting for a horror movie! Luckily we did nothing more scary than muck out the van, and have a brief chat to our late-arriving German neighbours just before the next storm hit. 

I will hand over to Anthony for his description of the 'mad dash' across Italy. Keep an eye out for the next of our catch-up series!


EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA - Videos! Below is a video of our arrival at the Italian Campsite. We have just booked in and are retuning to our van to find out camping spot. Enjoy.

Incoming! Lavender! Run!!!

Hello everyone, just a quick update. We are Still in Provence, France. Loving the markets, the wine, the weather and the laven... Wait, we haven't found any lavender yet. This needs to be sorted quick!

It has been an eventful few days. We had a fantastic time on the beaches of pampelonne, near st tropez, and could hardly drag ourselves away. Campsite of 'les eucalyptus' highly recommended. Eventually we headed to carpentras, where we had a NIGHT IN A HOTEL!!! as there was no site, so that we could go to the Friday morning market. That market was massive and a sight to behold, and I think we don't need any more markets for a while!

Today it's roman ruins at vaison-la-romaine, and then we are driving the lavender fields trail. Tomorrow we have tickets to a local wine festival complete with banquet dinner and jazz, in cairanne. After that, well... who knows?!

Apart from a few frustrations with lack of wifi, and stuff breaking, and stuff being sold out, all is very well. We are tanned and a little hungover (Sarah's turn today!) so the hol must be going successfully. Photos to follow soon or whenever we next get a connection.

S&A x

Very quick update from... St Tropez

Hello one and all. Please forgive us for the radio silence. It seems as though all WiFi connections across Europe have been broken during the past week. Especially those at the various campsites we have visited.

We are currently at St Tropez! more beautiful sunshine and wonderful beaches. All is well. Here is a picture of one of our previous campsites in Provence. It had a pool as you can see, Sarah loved it.

Ciao for now.

Grossglockner Plus.

Pictures of what Sarah was scared of... The Grossglockner. 

Have YOU done the Grossglockner drive?

Hello! Sarah here, it's a while since I've written - as you know, I try to stay away from the internet on holiday but Anthony has convinced me that blogging is a good idea this time - so I leave most of the postings to him. But sometimes I just have to write to recount some of the experiences we've had, and this is one of those times.

So, two days ago we found ourselves needing to get from Austria to Slovenia, and it just so happened that the best route for us included one of the most famous drives on earth - the Grossglockner mountain highway. So, of course, we took it! I wasn't convinced that the SnuggleTruck would make it up and down all those mountain passes and round all those hairpin bends, but hey, we decided it was worth a try! So with some trepidation we shelled out the entrance fee to this National Park and hoped it was worth it. And, it was.

This was definitely the scariest drive I have ever done. We experienced many, many hairpin bends and switchbacks, with stunning mountain views on either side, and reached heights of around 2500 metres above sea level (6000 feet? for all you imperials). Mostly I was very, very scared but Anthony helped me through by providing reassuring comments and helping me count the bends to see how close to the end we were! Having a British-side-drive vehicle was not ideal, as I got the scariest views of all when taking bends round to the left, but at least Anthony was protected as he's the one who's scared of heights! We stopped for a brief lunch stop (when I could find a reasonably level parking space, as I was scared of having to do hill-starts in addition to all of this) and enjoyed a slice of good old Austrian bread with some cheese (me) and ham (Anthony), and took in some mountain air. Mostly, however, I was just scared. So we continued on up and eventually started the downturn, and all the while Anthony was snapping away and taking in the views. I was glad that he, at least, could enjoy them! On the way back down we stopped at a roadside restaurant to explore a bewildering display of stuffed animals and have a reassuring drink of Almdudler local lemonade (me) and beer (Anthony). Finally after a good couple of hours we arrived back on level ground and headed through several beautiful valleys on to Slovenia. More about Slovenia later.

What did I learn during my Grossglockner experience? Well, how to use the gears in an automatic, for one thing! We read in the advice leaflet given to us at the park's entrance that it was best to use engine braking on the descent and to only use brakes 'in an emergency'. 'But, Anthony, how do we do that? We have an automatic!' I asked in probably a scared voice... However it seems that below D there are 2 other gears, called 2 and L, which on reflection we remembered the rental agent telling us we would only need 'if we were going down a very, very severe gradient' or something. So it turned out that the Grossglockner was the perfect learning curve! - straight up, and then straight down...

To summarise, we had a great day driving the Grossglockner and now we are convinced that Austria's scenery is particularly spectacular. Note to M&D Ford and to Grandad Lamb: you are correct, we are sure we won't see a more beautiful country.


More photos of this brilliant mountain drive to follow, courtesy of photographer/navigator/all-round excellent co-pilot Anthony. :)

Life in the van.

Pictures of me doing things in the van.

Day... er... A couple and some more: Austria

Well that holiday feeling has officially set in. The days have become other days and the nights have been spent exhausted. Sorry to all and sundry for the lack of posting, but we have been busy doing things... Like Spas and going to the Eagle's Nest, but more of that later.

Austria. What should I say about Austria? We love it for one. The views are breathtaking. Just look at the pictures that are on this post! Yesterday we went on a guided walk advertised at our campsite. In 4 hours he took us along the beautiful Saalachtal valley and straight up a mountain. Luckily at the top was a Mountain hut, fully stocked with Schnaps!! Yum!! (Ok, the food was yum, the Schnaps less so, though equally Austrian)




This valley is amazing and we are already planning a return journey. Don't just take our word for it though. Last night we went into the nearest town - Lofer - to watch a performance from their village marching band. Half way though this performance awards were given to two families who had returned to spend their holidays here for TWENTY YEARS. The band were spectacular. So much so Sarah had to hold me back from finding a time machine and signing up for the 17th Century Austrian Army. On a serious note, it was impressive to see the community of this small Austrian town truly appreciating both their own cultural heritage and the tourism that allows the community to thrive in the present day.

Today we visited the Eagle's Nest in nearby Berchtesgaden, Germany. Hitler wasn't there so we and a bunch of tourists had a nosey around his place. We focused on the fixtures and fittings largely because the view was obscured by clouds. Yes, the weather was bad. Darned bad. We missed out on those spectacular views that Father Ford told us about, but we saw plenty of photos of them on postcards. Either way we had a lovely time and a picnic lunch at the top.

A quick note to mention the drive down. Father Constable, you advised us to "Burn rubber, see stuff and drink beer." Well, the first of those instructions was achieved as Sarah kept her foot firmly (and wisely) on the brake pedal down the steep descent back to the valley floor. The result was a safe return and a shocking smell, of yes, you guessed it, burning rubber. Is that what you meant, Father Constable?!?!?!

After such a hard day's touristing we repaired to a spa. And had a jolly nice relax. Great!

Next stop........ Somewhere else in Austria Austria or Slovenia (the plan changed over night) via the Grossglockner Mountain Highway. Go google it, the drive will be special.

Grubhof, Austria - a day of three countries - two of them twice.

Good afternoon all and here we are with a quick update from the Lofer tourist office in Salzburger Saalachtal. It's hot, humid and absolutely beautiful. Yesterday was a long drive in and out of Czech Rep, Germany and Austria including highlights of being stopped by the Deutsche Polizei about 2 mins after arriving in Germany, and zipping along the Autobahn to arrive at our destination. We arrived in Grubhof around 7.30 last night and fell in love with the place - it is beautiful. Surrounded by mountains, our tent and van are stationed on a grassy meadow footed by a lively river, with brown cows ringing their bells all around.  It is truly lovely here.

Today we are heading off for a swim in the local outdoor pool, together with a stroll around the local area.

All well so far! Hope everything's good with  you too.
S & A

Update on the driver's licence situation...

Hi there, Sarah here, just seen some comments from Helen VN and also seen an email from my Dad (bless him!) about the driver's licence situation. The good news is that the rental guy wasn't that bothered and let us both be on the insurance, so that's alright, and it was only the counterpart bit that Anthony left behind so we're hoping it won't be an issue. We got a scanned-in copy of it thanks to Father Constable and so we have that saved on Anthony's Kindle and phone in case it's any use.

What would we do without our dads, eh? Thank you both for your help and suggestions with this xx

Will let you know if we do get stopped by Interpol or the CIA for transgressing highway rules or anything like that. :)

Cesky Krumlov on a sunny day

Our beautiful home for the next 5 weeks.

Hello, readers!

First some good news - we are very happy to report that the van works! Not only  that, but it is big, roomy, safe, easy to drive and generally awesome. Sarah has done well to get her head round the automatic transmission, and now swears that she will only ever drive an automatic in the future. I've been navigating and  I think I've done OK so far, keeping Sarah away from that middle white line and getting her to use only her right foot with the driving.


We took a roundabout route down to Cesky Krumlov, due to Sarah being scared of motorways - and after an hour of country bumpkinism we decided that seeing as Czech motorways generally have 1 lane, we might as well find one and get on it. So from then on the journey went smoothly and we arrived in CK around 6.30pm. We camped by the riverside with about a million canoeists, got our first celebratory beer of the trip and then decided to wander off to get provisions.

Or so we thought. At that time, the storm hit and the deluge prevented us from doing our plan, coupled with the fact that I FORGOT MY WATERPROOF COAT! Doh. Might have to start a second blog about the things I've forgotten. Anyway, we spied a fellow Wicked van and the two kind Kiwis inside - Sam and Jamie - welcomed us over, gave us dinner and protected us from the rain. A great start to the trip and a great experience of hopefully many more new friendships to come.

Sam and Jamie's Wicked  van.

The evening progressed into a few beers in the campsite pub (a barn) and several discussions ensued around such light-weight topics as the comparative farming methods in Britain and NZ, the lack of individual responsibility in society, and why we continually seemed to knock our beers over despite not actually being drunk. A good evening was had by all and suddenly it was 1am, so time to build our bed and tuck in for our first night's van sleep.

Cosy!

Hope you are all doing well out there in the real world, we are slightly tired but so far very happy. Ready for AUSTRIA this evening!

S & A

Reasons to be scared

Here are some reasons why, with less than 3 hours to go, I am suddenly scared of this holiday.

1. I am now, in all likelihood, the sole driver as SOMEBODY left their driver's licence in the UK, and only just realised it yesterday. Doh!

2. I think I may have forgotten how to drive over the last 2 years, and have certainly never driven on the other side of the road... roundabouts seem particularly tricky.

3. There are currently huge electrical storms everywhere we are going - Czech Republic, Austria, Berchtesgaden in Germany, Slovenia - you name it, lightning will strike it. Last night's spectacular Prague storm lasted over 2 hours and kept us awake, so I'm not feeling too refreshed this morning. Still, at least we can turn our car into a stormchasing wagon... Check out www.blitzortung.de for up-to-date storm info, and feel scared for us in our little metallic home!

I want my mum...

The Route.

Ok, we are nearly ready to go. I have most  of my things packed. And, bar a major mistake committed by me (more of this to come from Sarah I am sure, oops!) we have nearly all of the documents needed for safe and legal travel around Europe. So with an approximation of preparedness... Sarah and I are going to a restaurant tonight to relax. Yum.

Before we go on that culinary adventure I wanted to give you all a copy of the map which will cover the first week or so of our planned Itinerary. Click on this link >>> http://goo.gl/maps/XyjM <<< for the full Google Maps experience, or see below.



View Larger Map


Czech Republic
3rd-4th July - Korunni to Kemp Krumlov 175km - 2 hrs 57mins 

Austria
4th-8th July - Cesky Krumlov to Grubhof, Austria 244km 
8th-9th July - Grubhof, Austria to Spittel an der Drau, Austria 131km


Slovenia
9th July - Spittel an der Drau, Austria to Savinja region, Slovenia  170km - 2 hrs 49 mins

Packing, packing, packing!

Morning! After some much-needed sleep we awake to a pile of bags which I assembled last night in my excitement. The truth is that I probably can't remember what is in the bags now! I know that I did sleeping stuff (sleeping bags, thermarests, silk liners, mozzie net); cooking stuff (sharp knives, stove, plenty of gas, spices, matches and all-important tomato ketchup); and 'small fiddly stuff' (torches, drybags, padlock...more 'just in case' items). Today it's clothes and board games and I reckon that's all we'll need for 5 weeks on the road. The travel library is assembled with Lonely Planet guides to France, Czech rep and Slovenia, and kindle reading downloaded- Ant's got De Botton's 'the art of travel' and I've got Bryson's 'neither here nor there' about European travel- very fitting! So all we really need now is our wheels- visit www.wickedcampers.co.uk to see what we're hiring.

Welcome, people!

Hello and welcome to the exciting blog in which we will detail our exploits over the coming 5 weeks. It may just be our parents reading this, but anyone else is welcome, and please leave a comment so we know you are there. Any suggestions, ideas and warnings (especially the warnings!!) are gratefully received.

For now we are just packing and really excited. We will add some pics (and videos! Yes!) as soon as we get our van and get on the road.