davros9

This blog entry could really have been three separate entries, one for each day of the Alpine Road trip, but I didn't have time to do the blog each day. Now I am in Munich winding down, so have time to put it all in this mega-entry. Hope you have time to enjoy all the pictures (there's two pages – don't miss the second page) and don't forget to watch the panoramas change at the top of the page. Saturday 29th June I slept quite well, with the sound of the rushing water in the valley outside being a soothing sound. At breakfast this morning they had some GF bread for me, and it was really like normal bread, and delicious. Then I headed down the road to Berchtesgaden. There was a stream of classic cars ... read more

Tuesday 25th June Well summer has definitely arrived. It started on Saturday, and as soon as the seasons clicked over, the heat came on. Yesterday was 35 degrees here, today 36, tomorrow 37. I am heading to Lindau on Lake Constanz in Germany tomorrow, via Zurich, but the forecast is only a little cooler. The heat is forecast to continue until the beginning of next week. At least this hotel has air conditioning, though it was faulty for the first two nights here and sat on 26.5 degrees all the time. They must have finally fixed it today. No more air conditioned hotels from here on. At least when I'm up in the mountains on the weekend it should cool off at night. Mulhouse is a fair-sized city of about 100,000 or so, and features several ... read more

Saturday 22nd June The TGV was a direct service from Rennes to Strasbourg. It went via Paris, where it made two stops in the suburbs, and this was the slowest part of the trip. The train sat on 320 km/h for long periods on the run east from Paris. I arrived in Strasbourg at 7pm and checked in to the hotel which was close to the station. Then I headed out to find some dinner, crossing the river onto the Grand Île of Strasbourg, which is the old city. Google directed me to a completely gluten-free restaurant, which was a great find! I was able to have a more normal meal with confidence that it would be GF. I am a bit sick of galettes. I followed up with a piece of fabulous berry meringue pie ... read more

Saturday 15th June My sixth week in Brittany was taken up with the road trip, so now we find ourselves at the end of the seventh week, with only one more week remaining before my placement as a language assistant ends, and I move on. Last weekend, straight after my road trip, here in Guipry-Messac was the Happy Days Festival (Les Jours Heureux), a 1950's rock'n'roll music festival. It was held over three days (Fri-Sun) and included many bands, food and bar stalls, merchandise stalls, classic car display, drag races (at nearby Lohéac raceway), and more. My host family was very involved with the event, being members of the organising committee too. We spent many hours there, setting up, manning the ticket booth, and also packing up and cleaning the venue afterwards. A number of consecutive ... read more

Wednesday 5th June After a good night's sleep, this morning I headed back up to the north coast to visit the Cap d'Erquy and the Cap Fréhel. This combination is listed as a Grand Site de France (as was Pointe du Raz, btw. Mont St Michel is World Heritage listed). Arriving at Cap d'Erquy, signs direct you to a car park, where I parked. It turns out that there is a closer car park 500 metres further on, then an even closer car park a further 500 metres past that. So, an extra 2 km walking there and back! The cape itself is quite spectacular, with a jagged coastline and rugged rock formations, with a nice beach a little further east around the point. The vegetation is low and hardy, and the walking track continues around ... read more