First Part of Euro 2011 Trip

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Friday 24th June
After 2 weeks of packing and unpacking its time to go on holiday and pack and unpack yet again. The usual last minute mad rush to set off for 5 o’clock - Steve started at 9am – cats to take back to Lower Dingle sure they are not confused one bit but at least Dave will be able to feed them his last lot of chicken nuggets – just when Tevez seem to have lost weight after all the stairs in the chapel ! Just had the bikes to go on back at Lower Dingle when Steve thought the keys were at the other end of the M62! Now for avid followers of our travels this is a familiar story (2010 – bikes in Surrey keys in Oldham – 2009 bikes chained to trees in Croatia – keys nowhere to be found!! , however keys found finally in garage it was back to the chapel to pack the clothes - just managed to set off at 5.15 with a deadline at Hull of 7.30pm - made it with about 20 mins to spare. Usual purchase on board of 6 bottles of rose to keep me going for the fortnight ! not. Played cards in the piano bar and then engaged in an extremely competitive game of hangman which included SF choosing words such as Fluff , Heckmondwicke and Rythym - scrabble is staying in its box on this holiday if that’s how it is going to be – no real interesting people to watch this year so retired to bed at 12pm – spooky thing was both me and SF had dreams that involved balancing – mine over a river on a bridge with no rails and SF on a rockface – boat must have been swaying a little during the night

Saturday 25th June
Just as we get off the boat Steve is cut up by a foreign coach driver and then again round the next corner he did it again – needless to say SF offered him a sign which I think meant welcome to Rotterdam !! Again for avid followers this is where Steve usually gets a speeding ticket , we don’t reach the supermarket in time and end up eating jam and bread for the weekend and have our first row. However I have averted the latter by packing some M & S foodstuffs as a last resort and luckily I think the German police were all on strike and the fact that it rained virtually 650 of the 750 km assisted the lack of speed somewhat.

Arrived at the town near the campsite at 5pm http://www.camping-muenstertal.de/
in good time for shops with no ticket in sight. But not enough room in the car to fit some beer in but in true Fenna style we fit some in somewhere. The second row usually happens putting the tent up , however this is now the first row ! We have forgotten how to get an erection – having not done it since September – After the third attempt at getting the tent up – the pegs that have been precariously placed in the very stony surface fall out and everything collapses - the next door neighbour has popped his head round a few times but does not seem impressed with the results so far…. Neither am I to be honest – SF stomping and doesn’t know how to sort it but luckily the shop had some strong pegs and with these the erection finally sorts it self out before dark descends.. Good nights sleep required after all this effort..


Sunday 26th June
This blog will star many characters as people watching is to be the name of the game . First character to meet is the naked guy off Celebrity Juice who is stopping in a caravan up the road – good job he is covered up with his speedos ! For those who haven’t seen it click here http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%!A(MISSING)//www.youtube.com/watch%!F(MISSING)v%!D(MISSING)gcpImyyF8Gw
We have the chap over the hedge now nicknamed Chad as every now and again his head pops up to check out what we are up to - he looks like a stocky Tony Blackburn and expresses his approval in lots of ermmms mmms das ist Gut Zer Gut .

Next door neighbours Hans and Greta - he looks like a shorter stockier version of Johnny Briggs dad well he has grey hair and a moustache !! – He thinks that if they keep talking to us in German eventually we will understand, so we talk to them in English and hope they understand , then we resort to hand movements and then every one goes Ja Ja and no one has a clue whats going on !!

Did nothing at all today to make up for the fact we have not stopped for the last 2 weeks shifting stuff from one house to another. Campsite is 5* and has bathrooms rather than just showers better than the ones we have at home. Have had to create another invention with the parasol as the purpose built spike will not go in the ground (For those readers who know SF as Archie The Inventor – let it be known that this invention belonged to Archies Mate) We now have a blackbird in the tree nicknamed Jessie J as it keeps whistling Money Money ( Day 3 and we are already losing it!).


Monday 27th June
Another hot day 30 degrees so everything on a go slow this morning . SF took the bottles to the recycle bin and struggled to lift the bag in – not sure the Germans drink as much as the Fennas and he did get a few funny looks….– went out for a drive as too hot and stumbled across a cable car which we ventured on and up the extra 50m climb at the top – excellent views from the top and one particular one of a pub serving beer !! Got back to the tent – SF ran over a tent peg parking the car got the guy rope tangled in the trim of the car and managed to tear the back right panel off – then spent the next hour onto Zurich UK claims to find the nearest ford garage!! Meet Patrick Quinn the Glaswegian claims handler who was very helpful and is off to speak to Germany.

Visited the pool to keep cool – heated and extremely welcome – more old folk in speedos !! Next door neighbour has turned into ‘Baska Man’ (2009 readers may remember him from Croatia offering us Bostik to help mend the puncture in the bike tyre. ) and has resorted to communicating by pieces of paper Mexiko 1 England 1 - I think he thinks we are interested in the womens football world cup.

We have a little germinglish communication in which me and SF think he is asking us to go and watch children swimming at 9 oclock !!!! however with hindsight and reading of a poster he was trying to tell us that the band that we could hear playing were near the swimming pool and they finished at 9 oclock !!! We then discovered he doesn’t know much English and wants to learn . Our first lesson involved the pronunciation of 15 wasn’t fiveteen but fifteen he then told us he lived 18 kilometres from Baden Baden ( interesting if we knew where that was!) . Chad has started to make some very funny noises behind the hedge – his burps are real but not sure about the farting yet…. And he has the most strangest laugh

Tuesday 28th June
Archies mate had another invention today out of necessity as the parasol is not big enough to keep out the 35 degrees of heat from the sun so a concoction of sheets and pegs assisted to keep us in the shade - Chad and Baska Man the 2nd thought it was great more mmmss aaahhhs ja ja s . Needed to go in pool before lunchtime just to survive as we are just not used to the heat - tent is a no go area until dark unless vital supplied of beer required as doesn’t keep the heat out very well.

I also think the EU need to write a new EU Directive on appropriate swimwear for the over 60s – anyone with grey chest hair and a bit of a belly should not be allowed to wear speedos ( and usually a size too small) , or if allowed they should not be allowed to walk freely in the camping community in such apparel.- or hang them outside your tent to dry!!!! – may I at this point , point out that I am not spending the whole day staring at over 60s men wearing speedos!!!

Meet Micheal Schneider German Claims Handler who has located Ford Garage 10km away who can take a look at the car – that’s the afternoon entertainment sorted then !! – Ventured out into the heat of the day to the Ford garage and met a new friend Albert the guy in charge of the service department – he suffered from OCD ( tidy desk syndrome – if you know Steve Holland (Groupama) and Steve Tomlinson (Zurich) you will know what we mean – and he had a gammy leg - he looked up all the parts on the internet checked they had them only to be told by the man in charge they didnt have enough man stunde to do the work ( that’s hours to non german speakers!) and we could try going to Freiburg see if they had any – as if I am spending my holidays going from Ford Garage to Ford Garage !!, however Albert couldn’t rest so he went out of sight and came up with a temporary repair which involved a significant amount of gaffa tape . Hopefully this should do the trick till we get back home.

Back to campsite for more heat – Baska man advises that it is going to rain later – it needs to, to cool things down . Went out for a drive to local town for a very short walk and a beer /snack – too hot for anything else so back to pool for another cool down – I managed 14 lengths – too much time spent with Louisa is rubbing off. Campsite has a duck pond so we went off for nightly ritual to feed the ducks and discovered terrapins in there as well the size of turtles – no wonder when you see how much bread gets thrown in ! - Saw a duck catch a fish which was as big as its head but it was determined it was going to swallow it whole and eventually it did - I thought they only ate bread lol !
Watched a film before bed – seems nice and drepressing Winter Bones – managed to get to 20 mins before end and decided time for bed – looking at the sky very clear cant see any chance of Donner and Blitzen - thunder and lightnening - NOT reindeers…

Wednesday 29th June
Was woken up to the loudest thunder and lightening I have ever heard – Lynsey Mills if you are reading this – I don’t know what you would have done except hide under duvet for an hour till it went away. Managed to get out of bed at around 10.30 to a little bit of spitting – Baska Man and Chad - mmm aaaahh dis ist gut zehr gut plus something else I just smiled and shrugged shoulders at . Sandwiches for lunch ( have just realised we have lived mostly on sandwiches since we got here – too hot for cooking .
Off out now in the car for an explore to The Schluchsee, with its height of 930 metres above sea level, is the highest reservoir in Germany and also the largest lake in the Black Forest. The best-known settlements around the Schluchsee are on its northern shores and include the eponymous town of Schluchsee and the hamlets of Seebrugg by the dam itself and Aha. The Three Lakes Railway, an extension of the Höllentalbahn, runs from Titisee station along the northern shore to the terminus at Seebrugg.

For those actually interested in learning more about Schluhsee read on – if not skip a paragraph to the funny bits…..
The surface of the original, undammed Schluchsee, a glacier lake, was around 30 metres lower than that of today's reservoir. Despite the dam, the Schluchsee appears natural. The lake is 7.3 long by 1.4 kilometres across. Its 63.5 m high dam was built between 1929 and 1932, impounding the river Schwarza. In order to construct this gravity dam, the natural lake had first to be deepened by 13 metres. That was achieved in 1930 by a blasting out a tunnel in the rock. After that the intake structure of the dam could be built. Today the lake has a maximum depth of 61 m.
The Schluchsee is part of the Schluchsee hydropower station complex run by the Schluchseewerk which has a number of reservoirs of different heights linked by pumping stations. This complex stretches from Häusern to Waldshut. The Schluchsee is therefore the upper basin of the Häusern pump storage hydropower station. The average power generated by the Häusern power station is 100 Megawatts.

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