The forecast for today when we went to bed last night was not good with rain predicted for most of the day which will not make for a pleasant day of sightseeing. However, the forecasters thankfully have got it wrong and there were patches of blue sky appearing as we awoke. Late last night Gretchen got her mobile phone working and the updates downloaded and there was time to check this morning that it was still working as she had left it last night. Now there was no need to go searching for a replacement phone today. We are meeting Emily today who is taking the train down from Cottbus, an hour and a half or so north of Dresden where she is studying at the University. She is going to guide us around the sights ... read more

Trying to set fire to things while on a BBA is difficult for me not to achieve or so it seems. On the BBA V2 we had the burning toast incident at Cumbernaud which resulted in the local fire brigade being called to the Travelodge we were staying in when I overlooked the damage one piece of bread in the toaster could do while I was on Skype with our eldest daughter. It is not that we have burnt any hotel rooms as yet but today we or should I came close and I must take full responsibility for this morning’s close call. Our apartment here in Lohberg is large with a separate kitchen/dining room to the lounge and the bedroom. I had got the pan out of the cupboard and put some water in it ... read more

A bit of a change this morning for us as the closeness of the apartment to the eastern hillside seems to have made it later for the sun to really light up the day. A decision to be made over breakfast as we look out to the mountain that could be the challenge for the day or do we satisfy our hiking desire by making it just as far as the lake below the mountain? The sun made a brief appearance before it clouded over again but at least this will make hiking a little easier especially if there are sections that are over open farmland. We don’t know a lot about what is ahead of us as the map we have is not too descriptive. There was some time for administration including washing clothes and ... read more

Gretchen has all the logistics of getting to and from Munich worked out. It is another beautiful day and we can keep the summer theme going with appropriate clothes for temperatures in the high 20’s again. We must say that almost everywhere we have been on the BBA V3 the public transport system that has been available to take us places we don’t really want to take the car too has been outstanding. There have been buses in the most remote places we have been, and there have been a few of those. And trains haven’t been too far behind. Today we are taking a bus to Wolfrathausen which is about 5 kilometres away and then the S Bahn train to the central station in Munich. There seemed to be at least half a dozen bus ... read more

We are sad to be leaving Italy behind today because we have had some great accommodations and places to visit and hike in making it a very memorable time. However Germany calls and it is time to move north. The weather there over the past couple of weeks hasn’t been good with a lot of rain and floods whereas we have avoided all that to date even if it hasn’t always been summery. Our apartment in San Cassiano has been very comfortable and well located for everything that we wanted to do. We had an interesting conversation with the lady who owns it when she came to collect payment for our 4 nights. We had noticed that people spoke a dialect that was neither Italian or German which we thought would be prominent in this area ... read more