Munich, Germany

Originally, this blog was going to deal with France only, but our drive from Andorra into France was too exciting to not rate a mention, so here we go…

I don’t know if you know the geography of Andorra, but it is a small country that lies between Spain and France and it is located wholly within the Pyrenees. The altitude of Andorra La Vella is just over 1000m above sea-level but as you head north, you go up in altitude. That means the depth of the snow of the road and beside the roads increases too! Just before you get to the northern border of Andorra, there is a tunnel which means that you don’t have to drive up the mountains. Maybe we should have taken it as a hint, that when we got to the toll-gate at the start of the tunnel, we were waved through without having to pay a toll. Nick thought that the tunnel would take us right to the border but it ends just before a roundabout which has 3 exits – one to Andorra La Vella, one to Pas de la Casa and one to France. So we get to the roundabout and drive onto it, go past the first exit (Pas de la Casa) and then to the next exit (Andorra La Vella)! What happened to the French exit?? That’s right – that was that huge snowdrift that was almost as tall as the car!

By the time we got to Puigcerda, just before the Spanish-French border, it was lunchtime and we decided to stop for lunch before we entered France. So we stopped for the last time at a Spanish town before the border (about 1km from the border) and went into a café. We asked if we could buy some lunch, “No.”! It turns out (we should have remembered) that in Spain, you can only order lunch off the menu in cafes after 1pm and as it was 12:45, then there was technically ‘no lunch’! But with our limited Spanish and the café owner speaking Catalan (no English), we managed to get some Tapas and boy, was it yummy! Little Chorizo-like sausages, some really tender pork casserole and chicken wings. Best Tapas so far and only 1km from France! Go figure!

Over the border we go and back into France. Our first night back in La belle France was going to be at Millau, which meant that we had to drive the coast until we got near Perpignan and then turn inland towards Millau. It was fairly simple to navigate this way and we were avoiding all the toll-roads. But around Perpignan we encountered a really strong wind and poor Nick had to battle to keep the car on the road. As we were sharing the road with a few semis and big trucks, they also faced the same problems which made driving rather nerve-wracking.

Yep, mist (or fog) but the result was there was no Viaduct to be seen! Back into the car – have I mentioned that I was cold by this stage? And time to head down into Millau. We found our accommodation, which we had booked some time ago on Booking.com and discovered that our hotel was actually part of a sports centre! The weather was really ****** by this stage and Nick didn’t want to drive any further that night, so we walked across the road and had dinner at McDonalds.

The next morning, we went to have our breakfast in the café area of the sports centre and voila! There was the Viaduct in all its glory! It was pretty impressive looking. We drive to another lookout and managed to get some good photos of it but sadly, as it was ‘out of season’, all the tourist traps were closed. The only coffee we could get was out of a machine! But, hey, we’re back in France, so at least the machine coffee was drinkable!

On the way south through France, we stopped at a B&B (Chambre d’Hotes) in a rather out-of-the-way spot called Viddailot and we decided to stay there again on our way back to Germany. The hosts of Chez Jallot, Doug & Deni, kindly welcomed us back and we felt like princes during our two nights there. We were the only guests and, as we had previously met Doug & Deni, we had a great chance to chat to English-speakers (they are Poms) and we didn’t really have to talk about our trip. As on our previous visit, Deni produced some absolutely mouth-watering meals and she had even taken note of Nick’s likes & dislikes in the Vegetable department and presented meals that were glorious! On the spare day, we found that there was a Marché de Noel in Aubusson and decided that it was only appropriate to visit a French Christmas Market. We drove to Aubusson which an old town that was particularly famous for carpets and visited the Markets (no we didn’t buy any carpets). Well, we don’t think that we have heard more English accents since our last trip to the UK! And, no that wasn’t from the people visiting the markets, but from the stall-holders! Are there any Poms left in the UK or are they all living in France, Spain or Portugal?

From Chez Jallot we had a relatively easy drive back to the Loire Valley. Yes, on our way south, we ran out of time and didn’t get to see all the Chateaux that we had ear-marked, so we were heading back towards Blois, so that we could visit Chambord. Wow! What a Chateau. This one was a Royal Chateau, as in it was built by the kings, particularly François I. We had thought that Chenonceau and Cheverny were pretty impressive, but they paled into insignificance compared to Chambord. But, having said that, we can understand why this particular chateau wasn’t high on the “must stay” list for the kings – we were there in winter and have to say that it was warmer outside than inside the Chateau! However, it was interesting to see what had been done in various apartments over the years in attempts to make it warmer and easier to heat. I am now going to do a shameless plug for a restaurant where we had dinner whilst staying in Blois. We had eaten one night at the hotel (food tasty, poor ordering and expensive) so we wanted to find somewhere else to eat and Nick had a yen for Pizza. We found a Pizzeria about 1km from our hotel and decided to go there for dinner – but it was CLOSED!!!

On turning around, we noticed a restaurant but we weren’t very hopeful as itlooked like it was a seafood restaurant, until I translated the name of the restaurant which was “Entre Terre et Mer” (between land & sea). GREAT food! Yummy dessert and the waiter was an enthusiast of wine. So, I ordered a glass of the “wine of the month”, which was a quite nice red, but then he brought me over a glass of Le Beaujolais Nouveau… Yummmm! So smooth and soft. And he didn’t charge me for it either!! Anyway, the name of the Restaurant is “Entre Terre et Mer” and it is located at 8 Place du 11 Novembre 1918, 41350 Vineuil and the food AND the wine is divine!

When you travel, it is surprisingly difficult to find a balance between taking your time and meandering around the countryside and aiming to arrive at a specific location on a certain date! Because we wanted to be in Southern Germany for Christmas and had to be in Munich on 6 December to fly to Antalya for a 7-day tour, we were suddenly faced with the need to travel quickly and reach some specific locations. This meant that after a relaxing couple of days, it was time to get some miles (or kilometres, seeing that we are in Europe) under our belt and head across to the French-German border. We had looked at some maps and didn’t want to be forced to get a Vignette for the right to drive through Switzerland without any stopovers, so we headed to that very popular area of France (with the Germans, see WW1 & WW2), Alsace. We stopped overnight in Nancy and then continued over the border to Baden-Baden for another overnight stop.

Did you notice how I skipped over our visit to Nancy? Horrible hotel! But we did find a nice steakhouse-style restaurant and had a very nice dinner. Now back to Baden-Baden…

We had hoped to visit a spa in Baden-Baden for a few hours and we had heard some really great reports about a specific spa called Friedrichsbad but unfortunately, Baden-Baden Gemeinde doesn’t cater for vehicles that require a clearance of 2.4m. What am I talking about? All the car park areas in Baden-Baden were covered parking and the highest clearance we found was 2.1m! We would have lost the roof rack if we had tried to go into that parking area. After contacting the Spa, they told us that there was a council-provided parking area that was suitable for mobile homes. What they didn’t tell us was that it was about 8kms from Baden-Baden. We could have parked there but then we had to catch a bus back into Baden-Baden, get to the Spa and enjoy a 3-½ session, only to go back out into the cold weather (not snowing but VERY cold!) to get back to the car. After some discussion, we decided to skip the Spa but we have promised ourselves that we will be back, driving a more normal sized car – by European standards!

Hey, wait! We’re in Germany, so I’ll continue this blog with our first week in Germany.

For our first weekend in southern Germany, we were visiting a dear friend (Sabine) and spending a couple of days with her. Sabine has the pleasure of initiating us into the wonders (gastronomic and otherwise) of the traditions of the German Christmas Markets. Our first markets were the markets at Esslingen, which are quite a large market and run every night until 24 December. Whilst there, we were introduced to lovely hot soup (yes, it was cold again), Glühwein, Dampfnüdeln, Bratwurst and we did some serious hunting for a Christmas Pyramid. We also found something new to collect – Christmas Market mugs! return the cup. So, for only the price of the Pfand, you can keep the cup! At the time of this blog going to press, we have mugs from Esslingen, München (2012 & 2013) and Shrozberg! Mary Jane is aiming for a full set – but who knows how many there are in a set!!

As we have been frequent visitors to Stuttgart, Sabine always tries to find somewhere new to take us so that we can see the many wonders of Baden-Wurttemberg. In the past, we have been to the Mercedes Museum, the Porsche Museum, Schloß Lichtenstein, Maulbronn (old monastery), so on this visit, Sabine had outdone all previous efforts – she had arranged a private tour of the Stuttgart Fire Brigade Museum! Herr Jung (German for “Youngster” – QFRS readers may know who I mean) came in on a Sunday to provide us with a personal tour, which we were told would take about one hour and ended up lasting for two and a half hours! Thank Sabine for arranging a fantastic outing and thanks to Herr Jung for his kindness and patience.

Thanks to the generosity of a young German girl that Mary Jane met whilst she (Christine) was travelling in Australia, we have based ourselves in Crailsheim, which is a small town close to the border between Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria and we have a chance to do a few things to the car in preparation for its time in storage whilst we go home to Australia in January, as well as just sit back and chill (have we mentioned how cold it is?). Christine and her husband, Tobias (Toby) are also travellers and motor-bike enthusiasts, so Nick is feeling very much at home. Washing is done and our bags have been repacked, so now it’s time to catch the train to Munich in preparation for a trip to southern Turkey.

Munich is one of the iconic cities that Australians love to visit – especially during Oktoberfest. We spend a night there and encountered some seriously cold weather. Every time we look at the weather on TV, it seems to be talking about unseasonably cold storms rushing across Europe! And, yes – it snowed, again! But we found time to visit a HUGE camping store – 4 floors! Nick was in heaven and all credit cards were firmly locked away! We also went to the Christkindlmarkt which is the traditional Christmas Markets in the main square (Marienplatz) and we also had time to explore the Viktualienmarkt.

Now, we are off to the Airport and our flight to Antalya, Turkey.