Blogs from Germany, Europe - page 5

It was with great relief that after an arduous all day journey from Innsbruck that I summited another European high point although this was very much in doubt up to the last minute. All started fine as I left Innsbruck station on time, transferred to a bus in Mittenwald, Germany bound for Garmiesch-Partenkirchen (a.k.a., GaPa), sort of a Leavenworth in Bavaria, which is generally considered the staging ground for Zugspitze. Armed with my GPS-enabled mobile app (Mapy.cz, fantastic Czech app), I immediately set out from the train station at 9:58 for the trail to Knorhütte via the Reintal Valley which is the non-technical route. Being a Sunday (and a German holiday weekend, I think), the crowds were insane. Having done little research on the approach, I followed the masses into the gorge where there was a ... read more

Let's start with dinner last night. We went across the road to the Greek restaurant, Santorini's. Another big plate of mixed meats and a strudel to finish off. We were celebrating smashing the 2,000km mark after all. It was still wet when we went to dinner, and when we came back to the hotel. It rained all night. We woke and it was still raining. A look at the forecast and we knew we were in for a cold and wet day. I put an extra layer of clothing on to keep warm. It never rains in California because it's all falling in Germany - on us! I thought this was meant to be summer? Today was simple, get from A to B - safely. At least the breakfast was first rate, best we've had so ... read more

Rennes, the capitol city of the Brittany region of France was an amazing place to visit. We did a walking tour to its main areas of interest, winding through the old cobbled streets and it's half timbered mediaeval houses. We were fortunate to be there on Saturday when their huge farmers market, one of France's biggest, was on and what a display! The stalls were bursting with so many kinds of meat, cheeses, breads and seafood! We sampled the local speciality which is a sausage with cheese and onion wrapped in a buckwheat pancake and cooked in front of you. Delicious! During our walk, however, we were approached by beggars at least five times and all of them looked fit and healthy to us. We are just not used to it in NZ. There are literally ... read more

The last few days we have been cruising down the Rhine and Main rivers. Now we enter the Main Canal, built to join the Rhine and Danube. We have stopped at some lovely German cities and towns and enjoyed the sights and sounds but the summer has deserted us. We have had some sunshine but the temperature has only been in the low 20s and we have had lots of rain. On Thursday, we had an interesting glass blowing demonstration on board the ship and then in the afternoon we were bussed to the small town of Miltenberg. Here we had a tour of the main areas and admired the wooden buildings.We stopped for a wine at one of the many outdoor cafes although the showers returned then back to the ship. That evening there was ... read more

Move over Gent, here comes Nuremburg. Wow, just Wow! Rest day today and I spent it doing a self guided walk I found on "The Flashpacker" which took in the major sites of Old Town. Nuremberg was part of the Roman Empire and was where the emperor would come on his holidays. The city is completely surrounded by an intact huge stone wall and the Imperial Castle stands on top of the hill at one end presiding over Old Town. Not only is the wall that surrounds the city intact, so is the outer wall which surrounds that. While some of it was destroyed by bombing in WWII it has been rebuilt seamlessly since then. I could go on about the semi-wooden houses done in an eclectic mix of colours, the towers, the churches, the fountains, ... read more