57 Monza, Monaco and St Tropez

Friday 6^th May

We woke up to the early bird catches the worm morning song.  I have to admit, that I am in my element. Weekends don’t get much better than this. At home (with Lizzie) I have all the nature I want, and very shortly I will be watching some of the riders I really admire. I am going to be in one of the most famous race tracks in the world watching and chatting to the stars of motor cycle racing, WSB’s. So far it doesn’t get any better.  Retirement, I recommend it.

We fell asleep to frogs calling through the twilight, Ray and I sat out just listening to the sounds and dodging bats. We left all the screens over our sky lights open also so that we could wake up with the sunlight pouring through.  For the first time in my life, I was up early, happy, and raring to go. We had breakfast in the sun and then headed off for Monza.   We are probably 20 miles north of the circuit, and the site is called” Two lakes”, in English, or Due Laggio, or similar in Italian.

Anyway as usual I digress.  

WSB stands for World Super Bikes. These bikes are basically the same as you can buy in the shops with some limited performance and safety mods. The other main class of bikes are called Superstocks and as the name suggests, these are road bikes without lights. Despite being road bikes, these beasts are frighteningly fast.

We hit Monza and bought our tickets.  It was a 100 Euros for the three days, with entry to the paddock.  That means we could go and watch the practice and walk around where all the riders have their motor homes and generally chat to the fans.  On our first walk around, we came across Alex and Sam Lowes, who are two identical twins.  Alex rides for the British Super Bikes, and we’d watched him the week before (on telly), have a brilliant ride at Oulton Park.  His brother Sam is in WSB’s and he was going to be riding over the weekend. He is sporting a shoulder which was broken in 5 places, just 3 weeks ago in Assen and when we saw them, he had just finished his practice.  For a man in pain, he was really chatty and he showed us his injury.  

The twins, Sam and Alex Lowes, you can just see the bandages under Sams left collar. Good hard boys and likely Britains future racing hopes.

I have to say they are two of the nicest young men we have come across and so full of enthusiasm for their sport.  We arranged to go back later and have a photo taken with them, which we did albeit on the Saturday, but it was a great long weekend and on Sunday, at the racing, we met up with a few other Brits and took the mikey out of the Italians when their racers didn’t win.    

The Italian Max Biaggi, the current WSB champion. We thought it odd when the Italian fans did not clap at all when he came second. Apparently only first will do !

Leon Haslam, probably our best rider at present. His Dad, Ron was a legend in his day too.

Leon Camier, probably the next best Brit.

Monday 9^th

We left the bird song and on a rather cloudy day, set off towards Monaco.  Another of those little places I wanted to see.  We had to stay in a campsite in Nice, France and we took Wallace along the windy road to the Principality.  We had a walk around and ended up outside the Monte Carlo Casino.  Neither Ray or I are gamblers but it had to be done.  We weren’t able to go into the big gambling den, but we could have a look around the magnificent building and play on the slot machines.  It just had to be done, and 20 euro’s lighter we decided to call it quits and get a meal.  We sat in a cafe outside the casino and people watched.  Then we car spotted and tried to guess how many millions each person had in the bank.

Monte Carlo Casino. A British Lambourghini and a Swiss Bugatti Veyron parked outside. The Bugatti is probably the fastest production car in the world.

We found another restaurant to eat at and then drove around some of the circuit for the F1 Grand Prix, again I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and we headed back to the campsite.

A park opposite the Casino.

Ray on Wallace on the track to be used for the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Pricx on 29 May.

Tuesday 10^th

We packed up again and after a brief discussion, completely changed our plans again.  The weather is beautiful and we, well I wanted to see St Tropez as we were so close.  What a lovely part of the world, and our campsite is on the beach.  We went into St Tropez and watched the next richest bunch of people in the world, walked around the harbour and drooled over some of the boats. 

St Tropez harbour. Money, Money, Money

But even here, there is the obligatory Irish Pub, so it had to be done and Ray had a Guinness.  I don’t think I could cope with either place for very long, but it has been great experiencing them.

The Irish pub. There were a lot of Harley davidson riders in town - about 4000 actually - they are having a bit of a bash in the next campsite !

Wednesday 11^th

Did absolutely nothing today, after the housework, but lay on the beach, reading our books and taking in the rays.  Tomorrow we are heading north again  towards Chamonix on our slow return to Britain.

The beach facing St Tropez Bay. God this retirement is hard work !

56 Bavaria and the Tirol

Saturday 30^th April

Once again, we packed up and set off for our new campsite in Fussen, Bavaria.  We are only planning to stay here two days and on arrival, we set up camp.  What a beautiful place.

We’ve done Italian traffic, now German Cows!!!!

The views from all of our windows were quite spectacular and we decided to go for a long walk around the lake that wasn’t.  It turned out, that true to form, we were a month early, the lake had been drained, something to do with the water being used for electricity and would not be returned until the first of 

June, however it was a very fetching mud flat. 

Lake! What Lake?

We had hoped to see some wildlife, but all we could see was a group of swans that were so far away, they looked small even with binoculars.  The surrounding area of hills, flat ground and scenery made you forget about that.

Mud flats.

Sunday 1^st May

After pinching and punching Ray for the first day of the month, we took off on Wallace to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. 

On the way there, this is what was on offer, but we can’t do it justice.

To some of you this will be more recognisable as the castle that the child catcher took the children to in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  I had been singing many of the songs from the film all the previous day, and quite frankly it is a surprise that I didn’t get the pinch and the punch. 

 We signed up for a tour of the castle and were left to our own devices to get up to it.  You could walk, get a bus or as we did went by horse and carriage. Our horses were called Donny and Valeska.

Donny to Valeska……”I think someone has been at the curry wurst again dear, don’t you?”

Whilst waiting for our carriage, we had a good look around. It is almost a little holiday village at the bottom of the castle, (the reason is that there are three castles in total to visit, we only wanted to do the one).  There was a May Pole being erected and loads of people all dressed in traditional dress. 

Erecting the May Pole.

The whole place is beautiful and the views from all angles of the castle, the scenery and hills and lakes, (full ones), I can understand why King Ludwig II built it there.  If I lived in a place like this, I would spend my life walking from window to window and never get bored.

Front view from the courtyard as we entered the castle.

A view of the Hohenschwangau Castle, from the hallway.

A view of the dry lake and Schwangau, “Schwangau” means Swan which Ludwig loved with a passion

A brief history of the place is that it was built by King Ludwig and was inspired by his love of the composer Richard Wagner’s music and operas, and was built between the years 1869 – 1886.  Apparently King Ludwig never got to live in it permanently and he never married. It took 11 years for 14 carpenters to carve the ornate furniture in his bedroom alone, and the walls are painted from scenes from Wagners operas. King Ludwig was declared insane on 10th June 1886, 2 days later he was arrested and taken to Munich. The following day he was found dead in Lake  Starnberg,  alongside the psychiatrist who had certified him insane.  This is now one of the oldest cold cases in Bavaria, although the more cynical of you may suspect the Prussians, as they were then.

No one has resided in the castle and it is now used for opera and music festivals. However this is one of the most beautiful places I have visited.

From the castle we walked up hill to Marien Brucke (Mary’s bridge,) you can just spot it in the picture,  it is quite narrow and looks down into a ravine, again spectacular.

Castle from the bridge.

As I said previously, we didn’t really want to visit any more of the castles  on offer, so we walked back down to the village through the woods and had a beer whilst listening to Bavarian bands and watching the thigh slapping, lederhosen clad dancers.

The pretty village of Neuschwanstien

The Bavarian Umpah band, note the beers, that is how they manage to yodel!

A bit of thigh slapping and rubbing leather never hurt anyone.

We then took Wallace and went into Fussen, the local little town.  Typically Bavarian, beautiful, clean, and friendly and I just don’t have the vocabulary to tell you how impressive it is.  I have loved every minute here. We popped into a Chinese restaurant and decided not to have this:

Not our first choice

Monday 2^nd

A gentle start to our day, we are going just over the border into Austria, up here in them thar hills. 

As we were pulling out of the site and paying, bearing in mind that we had heard the news that the Americans had dealt with Bin Laden, we had to laugh at the sign above the shop, needless to say we hadn’t bought anything from it.

Speaks for it’s self.

Again we have found a fabulous camp site called Feriencenter Camping in Biberhof, situated in the Tiroler Zugspitzen area, we are looking to do some walking and cycling and will be here until Friday when we head back down into Italy, Monza, for the World Superbike meet.

Lizzy and Wallace enjoying the view ..

This Devil Cat turned up and would not shut up till we fed it.

Tuesday 3^rd

The best laid plans.  It has absolutely tipped down today with thunder and lightning, so we stayed put.

Wednesday 4^th

Today the weather was still dubious, but we decided to brave it.  Ray planned a route and we were going for a reasonable walk.  I have been married for 12 years now and you’d think I’d know better by now, but no, I tripped off after him like a lamb to the slaughter.    The weather did come out lovely and we wandered off into the hills.

Approaching Blindsee.

The route around the lake was precarious in places but beautiful.

We made our way to Rasthaus Zugspitz blick   which is the Austrian side of the mountain from when we were in Garmish, last year. 

View from our lunch break.

Another just for luck.

We had lunch there and then Ray said “It’s only 4 km’s to home, follow me”.

Ray before being beaten up for underestimating (i.e. lying about) the distance.

Hours later we got home.  I have to say the scenery was beautiful and the walk was lovely, but I was glad to get home.  We have been un-impressed by Austria. Yes it is beautiful, yes we have been reasonably comfortable, but it has taken the total mickey where money is concerned and for such a forward thinking place, in many ways,   they have no concept of providing internet or useful services such as this, that we felt quite let down.  Also, when it came to paying the camping bill,  (which we have done tonight as we are moving on tomorrow), the extras that were charged, did not impress.  Don’t get Ray on the subject of the vignette either. 

We have elected to leave a day early due to lack of internet access. It’s a small thing but it does get annoying. We could use their computer(with an Austrian keyboard)  but we could only read/send e-mails and would not be able to publish photos or this blog. On top of that, they want us to spend 1 Euro per 20 minutes for the privilege. Sadly, all they need to do is put in a WiFi hub in place of their own router (the box that connects to the internet at the phone socket) and they could provide access for a sensible fee.   

Thursday 5^th April 2011

A relatively long drive to the “Lakes” area of Italy. We arrived at about 5:30 pm and what a beautiful place. Situated on a peninsular of land in a large lake with access to the lake from both sides of the campsite. We elected to park up on the West side to watch over the lake with the setting sun. The birdlife here is amazing. All the time there is a chorus of different types of bird and within an hour of arriving we had seen several species that are very rare in the UK. Bliss.

55 Germany Pt 1

Saturday 23^rd

We have decided to stay here until after Easter, we know that the site we wanted to stay at in Germany is full until then, so after a relatively quiet day, we headed back into Prague for what was described as a traditional folk evening.  We met up with our transport and were taken to one of the villages outside Prague and to a typical Czech restaurant.  There was 9 of us on our bus and at the restaurant, there was only one other couple. A total of 11, we were outnumbered by the staff.

We were treated to a three piece band and 2 dancers, who performed throughout the meal, which was quite tasty and laced with garlic.   

"Take That" - Czech style

If you look closely, you will see that the right foot is actually nailed to the floor.

We both enjoyed it, helped by the fact that the wine and beer were free and that an Australian couple, originally from China were sat with us and we had a guessing game about what the dancers would be wearing.  

And then despite prior protestations, I was captured.

 We were even dropped off back at the campsite rather than have to face the night train.

Sunday 24^th

The weather was again beautiful and we went for a ride on Wallace.  We visited another glass factory, this one made coloured glass and we were able to watch them do this close up and personal.  We then went into Prague again and went in search of a fountain that “danced” to music, and when we found it, it was switched off and being worked on, there was however a fair so we had a walk around and then headed for home.

Tuesday 26^th

After getting everything ready yesterday, we set off for Germany. We were headed to Stadsteinach which is a peaceful camp site on the southern edge of the Frankenwald forest.  We got caught out once on the journey when we followed the signs for a particular town, only for the road to be closed.  We had to unhook the trailer and do a 50 point turn in the road, that was only about a meter wider than our vehicle is long.  That was fun.  Anyway we made it without further problems and got settled in.  We are here mainly to visit the Frankia dealer and get a couple of bits and pieces for the mobile home and for Ray to feast on Curry wurst.  It was also wet, haven’t had a thunder storm for a while.

This is the famed "Currywurst mit Pommes frites".

Wednesday 27^th

Today was wash day and Ray went to visit Frankia.  On his return, we walked down into the town and found a supermarket and also had to partake in a light lunch of curry wurst. The weather today was dry this morning and throughout our walk, but it started raining again later on. 

There is a really nice restaurant on site so both evenings we have gone there, yesterday we met up with a german couple, the wife could speak a little english, the husband none, but between us we all managed to have a conversation for about an hour and even tell jokes.  It was a pleasant way to spend the evening.  Today we were there to use the internet, well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  The food and beer are very good too.  Ray had to return to Frankia in the afternoon and now tomorrow we have to take the mobile home to them so that they can match up one of the parts.

Thursday 28^th

We upped sticks, for a short time and got the bits ready for replacing on Lizzie and collected them from Frankia.  Shopping at the supermarket, so that we could sit in peace and nibbles for the royal wedding tomorrow.

Friday 29^th

We were up early to catch all the build up for the wedding. Ray printed off several Union Jacks and we stuck them around Lizzie. It’s a bit surreal, middle of Germay, no other Brits about, singing the national anthem and drinking beer, both of us welling up, and feeling really patriotic.  Loved it.  

Yes, I know they are little, but at least we tried.

We then came to the bar, ordered Champagne, fizzy sweet wine was on the menu, and when Ray tried to toast the happy couple, we were looked at kind of funny, never mind, we are getting used to it now.

54 Tenzin – A somber day

Friday 22^nd April 2011

Those of you that know me, know that I am an “eye for an eye” kind of guy despite the shackles of my former employment I and believe in proper justice rather than the mamby pamby crap that our legal system delivers. No punishment, currently deliverable in Europe is strong enough for what we saw today.

Today we visited a sort of concentration camp. I say “sort of” because it was actually more of a transit camp and the prisoners, predominantly Jewish with other resistance prisoners did not spend too long here before being sent to extermination camps including Auschwitz. During the period of operation, June 1940 to May 1945, 141,000 prisoners passed through the camp. Of these, about a quarter died in this camp, the victims of disease and starvation. Most of these were cremated and the remainder buried in a mass grave within the camp grounds. 601 of these corpses were later exhumed and buried with dignity outside perimeter of the camp.

The figures make tragic reading: of the 15,000 children who passed through Terezin, only 100 survived; of the 88,000 deported from the camp (about half of whom went straight to Auschwitz), 84,500 were murdered; only 23,000 of the 141,000 sent to Terezín before April 1945 survived the war.

Many were tortured to death and others executed by firing squad at the firing range of the fortress for minor “offences” such as illegal associations and smoking. 3, including a woman were hanged for trying to escape.

In 1942, the monthly death-rate in the ghetto climbed from 1,000 in July to 4,000 (with an average age of 76) by September.

Even when liberated by the Russians on May 11th 1945, the bad news was still not over. In the 2 weeks preceding this, non Jewish prisoners, from other concentration camps were sent to Terezin infected with Typhoid. In the week leading to liberation the remainder of inmates were dying from the disease. 500 died following the liberation despite valiant efforts from Russian doctors.

The history of the camp is that it was initially built as a military fortress at the end of the 18^th century, however it was only ever used as a normal prison. Inmates included, the Serbian assassins of Franz Ferdinand d’Este, the murder that started the First World War.

The entrance and the re-buried 601 coprses

ARBEIT MACHT FREI – a German lie that translates to WORK MAKES ONE FREE seen at all concentration camps.

The hospital/doctors room

The mass shower block (not a gas chamber)

The clothes de-lousing chamber

The military firing range used for executions

 

The Gallows

The monument

A large quadruple bunk cell

One of the courtyards, at the far end, execution of escapees was done in full view of the other inmates.

A small triple bunk cell. 75 beds !

The solitary confinement block. Used for prisoners to be executed.