99 Germany, The Black Forest

Saturday 3rd December


After a pleasant evening, we woke with great excitment looking forward to the Weihnachts Markt.  It was still being worked on and the stalls being opened up when we went for a walk around it.  Neustadt was not as eager as I was.

This is one ot the things I like about Germany. A proper sign to the train Station. It is typical of the care and pride these people have in their villages and towns.

It was also very small, so after a trip to the bank for the old gift vouchers, we decided to go slightly larger and went to Freiburg instead.  Very good move on our part.

These Christmas Markets are nearly always in the center of the town square.

It was still well before midday when we got there and we were greeted by lots of Germans drinking Gluwein and singing christmas carols, it turned into a Christmas Oktober fest, absolutely great fun.

This was brilliant. There were several kids around the square, playing instruments to Christmas music and the locals (half drunk) were singing along to it. I wish we could produce this atmosphere in the UK.

A litttle bit of shopping and a little bit of gluwein later we were well on our way to feeling very christmasy.  It's not such a bad idea really, get everybody tipsy and then they spend more money.

We were actually struggling for somewhere to stay, all of Freiburg and the surrounding area seemed to be booked solid.  We ended up travelling to Bleibach, a tiny little village, but up on the hill was a very large and expensive hotel, but they could take us and Leon.  We had a very quiet night and enjoyed the comfort.

Nice hotel. They charge by the person and when we went to breakfast, only Karens name was on the seat label beside one place setting. They soon sorted it when I told them. On leaving, Karen paid the bill whilst I started Gromit and as we drove away I asked how much it was and it became apparent that they had forgotten to add me a guest. Nice, and funny considering we had two evening meals on the bill too.

Sunday 4th December
 On the road again, today the weather is very wet and grey.  We are moving onto Hechtsburg where Ray has pre booked us a room for two nights in a smalle hotel.  We checked it out then drove on into Freundstadt to sample their Weihnachts Markt, but the weather put a big damper on it, not only was it raining hard, but the wind had an icy chill to it, however nothing his favourite curry wurst and another gluwein couldn't sort out.  It's such a shame, I have all these spending vouchers and I can't get rid of them at the moment.  Oh well tomorrow is another day.  We took a long slow drive back through the forest, but again the weather made viewing, what we know is beautiful scenery, very difficult.

This was the main road through one of the villages we drove through.

How nice are these villages ?

Same village as above, looking the other way. In the UK there would be 2 gaudy yellow lines down each side.

One of the few breaks in the cloud.

Another main road through a village.

This, believe it or not, is an advent callender. Unfortunately, no new piece of chocolate each day.

We are settled into the hotel now and are going off to do some more exploring tomorrow. 

98 Escape from Chekoslovakia

Wednesday 30^th Nov.

Well, I would like to say that today was interesting but in all honesty I have no idea if it was.

We awoke early and it was foggy but the sun was doing its best to break through. I had a job to do today and that was to change one of the Universal Joints (UJ) on the rear axle. Fortunately I had the foresight to take a spare with me from the UK. I had intended to do it in the hotel car park but it was so cold it was impractical. I decided to do it on the road when the weather warmed up a bit. We left the hotel in brilliant sunshine and drove the 6 or so kms to Banja Luka. By the time we got there the fog was back and it was freezing again. That set the scene for the rest of the day. We saw nothing other than tarmac, barriers and vehicle tail lights for the rest of the day. Hence no pictures today !

We drove the 50 odd kms back into Croatia and stopped at a service station in the middle of foggy nowhere and I changed the UJ after taking the prop-shaft out. An hour later and we were on our way again a Gromit was not sick anymore. She was running very smoothly and she felt like a new vehicle.

So then it was North east, through Zagreb (it could have been the moon for all we could see) and then into Slovenia. We thought we would spend the night in Ljubljana but could not get a room. The only one we could find wanted an extra 20 Euros to take Leon. Needless to say they did not get our money.

We punted around a bit more in the now dark fog and decided to stuff Ljubljana and drove off into Italy in the darkness. We eventually found somewhere that would not take Leon, but it was nearing midnight, so we had no choice but to leave him out in Gromit along with the freezing weather.

All in all a pretty crap day, but as has been said, “A bad day travelling is better than a good day at the office”. 4 countries in one day is a bit much.

Thursday 1^st Dec.

We arose very early and were packed and ready to go before the completely crap 7am breakfast. We were not comfortable leaving Leon out in the freezing cold. As it turned out, he was fine and very warm when we opened Gromit for him to get a run around. At 8am we were on the road, 2-3 hours earlier than normal for us. This time the weather was glorious.

We drove West and then turned North for the Brenner pass that goes to Innsbruck in Austria. We took the scenic route and the sat nav topped out at 2200m high. It was beautiful.

Sadly we were almost out of fuel whilst Karen was driving up this pass and we were not sure we would make it. We did in the end without any problems. We had intended to stay at a campsite near St Anton but on arrival it was closed and in any case the temperature was so variable we decided to press on into Lichtenstien, the smallest country in the world I think (really.)

All the way there, there were whole valleys that looked as though they were in the Ice Age film set. It was very pretty but also very cold. One minute the temperature gauge said 6 deg and the next it was minus 2. We eventually got to Lichtenstein at dusk and again, we struggled with a hotel, this time they were all fully booked. 

We took one hoteliers advice and drove 2km up the road and crossed the border into Switzerland where we found an expensive (it is Switzerland after all) but hostel type hotel. Even the toilet was communal, however the food was very good and we were knackered so it was an early night for the travellers. Another 4 countries in one day. We cannot keep this up.

Saturday 3rd Dec.

A quick drive back into Lichtenstein to get some goodies and stickers for Gromit. This country is tiny. We saw half of it in about 15 minutes. It is a Principality which is essentially a small Monarchy and is ruled over by a Prince as opposed to a King.

We got the bits we needed and did a swift U turn and 10 minutes later we were in Switzerland and heading rapidly up the mountains.

We passed last nights hotel on the way out. It was a wierd place with a communal toilet and little in the way of furnishings. It was more like a hostel. Add to that the fact that there was a bowling alley underneath the rooms and we had a very noisy evening.

It was then up and up and up.....again.

Health and safery have a different meaning here.

Its cool for cats....

A typical village we drove through

This was an ubderground roundabout....with Christmas decorations !

The castle in Schafhausen

An idillic way of lafe.

We then crossed the German border and headed North for Donaueshingen where we stopped for a Kebab (or Kebap in German). We gathered our thoughts and then headed for Naustadt and eventually found a hotel that was not full. Outside was a Christmas market being set up. Tomorrows first visit....

97 Split...the place not my trousers..

Monday 28th November

Today we set off for Split, another medeaval town on the Dalmatian coast.  

The scenery was absolutely beautiful and I have been waiting a while for this part of the trip.  I love every minute of it.

Another one of these little townships with the wall around it.

The different types of scenery was amazing.

We noticed that Gromit was a bit sick and was vibrating quite badly. I started to go into a bit of a panic as I though it was due to the CV joints on the front wheels. These are the drive shafts that allow the front wheels to turn whilst still being driven. 

We started out along the coast road but at about halfway we switched to the motorway. A bit boring but we needed to nurture Gromit.

On arrival we parked up at a place they lovingly call the Riviera, we had a short walk about and a conflab over coffee on what to do about Gromit.

The riviera

by day

We decided to get into a hotel, search the internet and see if we could find a land rover dealer. We found a hotel,the Best Western and once settled we  found a person right by the marina and riviera that did deal with land rovers, so we decided to chill out this evening and Ray would take Gromit down in the morning.
We took a walk into town, unfortunately it was dark. A big problem at this time of year, still, in 3 weeks or so,the days will start getting longer - not by much, but they will.
The place was a like a poor version of Dubrovnik. All the attributes were there but they had not been maintained to the same degree.

by night

tired looking but still impressive

It was very tired looking, and there was lots of graffiti about.  We eventually found somewhere to eat and had a good walk round. It has all the atmosphere and it is still a really lovely place to visit. I have been very impressed with Croatia.
Tuesday 29th November.
Ray took Gromit to the fixer man after breakfast.  Apparently it is no where near as bad as he thought, so normality has resumed.  We have decided not to go to Sarajevo, we are still going into Bosnia but are heading for a place called Banda Luka.  Crossing the border was no problem and we had picked out a nice spot for a bit of wild camping.  We have had lovely weather and it has been very warm and we both miss it, as does Leon.  However as we crossed the mountains we watched the temperature gauge  dropped by about 11 degrees so we have made a decision to hotel it again tonight.

Bosnia is still very pretty, but a lot drier

Ice on the ground made for a re think.

This was part of a large gorge we passed through and made for interesting driving.

After quite an arduous journey we called it quits 7kms outside of Banja Luka and are holed up in the Motel Dragana.  Very nice little place.

96 Dubrovnik

Sunday 27th Nov.

We are staying at the hotel Lero. It is another hotel that looks 4/5 star but is only 3....nice.

We arose slowly and set out for the Old Town at about noon. The hotel receptionist lied about the distance but what the hell. It was a glorious day and we were down to our T shirts.

On arrival, the Old Town, the bit within the city wall,  was amazing. The whole place was a living monument (again) with people still living in it and placing the usual quota of washing from the balconies.

I like ice cream..can you tell

One of the narrow back streets

Another back street leading to a square with street restaurants etc.

It was spotlessly clean and the streets looked wet but were actually polished by foot traffic. The whole place was laid out in a lattice work of streets and every corner had a new surprise of some sort of conventional retail outlet, bar or restaurant. Just as you would in any town but built into a medeaval fort. On top of this were several differnt types of church depending upon the religeous belief if the builder. We attended two and the insides were magnificent. One was a cathederal and the other a monastery.

The Cathederal

Inside was incredible

More of the Cathederal inside.

We also popped into our other place of homage, a bar. This one was outside the wall through an iron gate overlooking the sea. It was very hot. The hottest we have had so far and it was almost December. 

Paying homage to Baccus, the God of wine

Struggling to see due to ....

....this.

The polished main street.

Inside the Monastery....WOW

We decided to catch the cable car up to the top of the mountain to the back of Dubrovnic and watch the sunset.

A high view of the coast from the top of the cable car.

Looking down on Dubrovnik

Daft old git soaking up the sun.

Looking North. The photos do not do this place justice.

4:16 pm....Going ...Going...

Once down again we sought out a restaurant and found a very quaint little place with only 4 tables. We ordered a Croation dish of veal in batter, it was a bit like posh sausage rolls.

After dinner we found another bar and decided to do as the locals do and had coffee....Oh and a brandy...Doh!

We then decided that we were too old for the night life and decided bed was our next port of call.

Waiting for dinner in a Croation restaurant.

On the way out of the city there is a real drawbridge with chains and counterballance weights.

The main street in the city at night

The drawbridge and counter weights.