And so to France and the Alsace. Bye bye Germany, we will be back.

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Well, have to say I was a little unsure about touring Germany, quality of campsites etc etc but now we are moving on and to France, I am very sorry to be leaving. Have enjoyed every moment so far of our trip and Germany has excelled itself in many way not least the wonderful scenery and buildings and the general air of neatness everywhere. The people are exceedingly friendly with us too.

Off to a reasonable start but not far to drive today.

Headed west and a little bit North (still not sure about that as compass inexplicably refuses to give the correct reading if it is in contact with Tandy’s body ever since the little thunderstorm the other night and despite several attempts by Bob to recalibrate it).

No motorways today just good country roads. Not too much traffic being a Sunday. Up and over a few hills, along a few valleys, round some bends and there we were passing a sign which said we were in France. Not a lot different on the other side as the place names in this area of Alsace are decidedly Germanic.



Freiborg was the only town of any size we had to cross and it was pretty easy as there is a tunnel which we went into at one end and came out pretty well at the other end. Thought there are a few cities in England which could benefit from such a system.

We drove along the edoge of a little of the Black Forest. Last time we visited it was rain rain rain all the way. Today it was mostly sunny and certainly no rain.

One thing we've noticed on our travels is that we've seen no hated wind turbines for the last two weeks. We think they look ugly, 50% seem to be stationary and we've been stuck behind them several times when they are loaded onto massive trucks (several per turbine) plus all sorts of escort vehicles to be driven to their site. This generates massive traffic jams, goodness knows how much air pollution is involved and we cannot imagine how fast they would need to go round and for how long just to compensate for their manufacture and transport. Plus they are a blot on the lnadscape,
What we have seen are solar panels in their thousands on a commerical and industrial scale not just a few on a house roof as we have in England. Here they cover the roofshere driral caoe.oirt.







We crossed the Rhine and just after that a canal, which was probably split off from it, at Marckolsheim where there is a massive lock controlled by EDF with a hydroelectric power station next to it.

Stopped for a while on the viewing platform above the lock to watch its mighty workings as the massive lock gate rose like a wall to let a pleasure boat out to the water above the lock and an enormously long canal barge into the lock, where it would wait until the water rose high enough to let it out the other end.



Stayed a while longer to have lunch as only an hour to the campsite and we can never be sure whether we will find campsite receptions open at lunch time so best avoided arriving then (though on some campsites that can be anytime between 12 and 3 so tricky getting it right every time).

As it happened we did well today arriving just as reception reopened at 2pm.

A lovely green campsite in Alsace, next to a small town, Villé. The campsite is AcSI and Campeole Le Giessen. We chose a pitch on the edge of the little river which runs through the site, after checking with an English couple (first we’ve spoken to in 2.5 weeks) that there weren’t too many flies by the water.

Great spot And has a super wifi signal which is a bonus after yesterdays.



Enjoyed a lounge in the sun watching the birds flitting through the trees above the river then took a stroll into the town, just a mile away. Would have had a swim in the pool next to the site but it is, somewhat inexplicably, closed after 1pm on Sundays.

Found a rather nice café in town which as well as serving lovely coffee also sold extremely nice patisseries. That was lucky !



Kisbee is out of the garage ready to visit a castle, a French on this time, tomorrow. Meteo France says weather will be ensoleillé and hot. That’s lucky too.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Birding
Nice one