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Published: September 26th 2007
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Since our last blog we have covered quite a lot of distance. So here goes...
We left Bamberg and headed down the (yet another lamely named) Romantic Road where we popped into the almost ridiculously well preserved walled city of Rothenberg. Whilst fighting our way through hoards of grandparents I almost expected to see lepers begging on the streets and criminals hanging from the rafters.
We then headed down to Munich and 2 very wet days. Luckily we stayed with German friends of Paul and Michaela´s, named Steffen and Susanna. They kindly let us hang out at their stylishly modern pad, showed us around the city, and fed us sausages and bretzels. The rain got a bit much after a while and we wound up watching a movie then hanging out in the beer halls.
Our next stop was Austria and Salzburg, the city where the Sound of Music was filmed. This had the girls behaving like they were 16 going on 17. We went on the incredibly camp but humourous Sound of Music tour, taking to the hills in a bus.
A wee bout of food sickness didn´t slow Dan down for too long, as he gathered up the energy
The hills are alive...
Dot and Michaela do Doe Ray Me. to attend the enormous Augustine Beer Hall and the Salzberg Castle, perhaps our most impressive castle yet.
After a few days in Salzberg we began to crave the wilderness once more. Our destination was Berchtesgaden National Park (back to Germany, briefly), where we had a fantastic day taking a boat on a lake to St Bartholemew where we dodged more geriatrics to walk up the mountain side to the Ice Chapel, the end of a glacier that formed a natural arched cavern. Spooky.
Near Berchtesgaden in Obersalzberg was the spiritual home of Adolf Hitler. It was (happily) bombed in WW2 and has been turned into a disturbing museum, describing the life of Hitler and detailing the war and its atrocities. We even walked down into his unfinished bunkers.
More travelling in Austria followed, where we eventually stopped in Innsbruck for a long climb up the mountain side. In true european fashion, we stopped for a drink in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere half way up.
Travelling through and under the Austrian Alps (we went through one tunnel 13km long) we popped out into the diminuitive country of Liechtenstein. The population is 30,000 and the prince still rules here
with an iron fist. It is a beautiful place, most of it being a huge mountain range. I figure if we move there I might make the national athletic squad. How many runners could it have?
After Leichtenstein Dot directed us to the small town of Bad Ragaz. Dot recalled her Hydrotherapy techniques named after the town and plied us with them in the extraordinary thermal baths there.
Switzerland´s town of Lauterbrunnen in the Jung Frau region was our next stop. By now, the weather gods were well and truly shining on us, and we had two glacier filled mountainous days, walking amongst the mighty North Face of the Eiger.
Our travels have been somewhat gastronomically oriented at times, and Switzerland was no exception. After consuming almost deadly quantities of fondue and rosti we found ourselves in Gruyere, home of the cheese of the same name.
Back in France after a brief stop in Geneva, the gastronomical tour continued with the vin jaune (yellow wine, in barrels for 6 years, unfortified yet sherry like), and comte cheese of the Arbois region, over to Burgundy for more smelly cheese, snails and 15 red wines in one mammouth tasting session.
We took
the architects pìlgrimage to find a Le Corbusier masterpeice in the hills outside of Lyon, the Sainte Marie de la Tourette. It really was a pilgrimage in that it was blimmin difficult to find, but worth it once we did. We took a 2 hour tour, mainly in French (but with a little pidgeon english thrown in for good measure) through the crumbling, delapidated concrete bunker that is a dominican priory. Despite the wear and tear however Le Corbusier´s vision shone throw, with some incredible spaces, especially the crypt with oval skylights and the mighty concrete chapel. The Dawsobbs were slightly bemused by the whole thing, but Dan wet himself with excitement.
Finding ourselves somewhat stranded that night we turned up at one campsite to find it a dodgy gypsie hovel. After escaping in a hurry we stumbled across another basic and small site in the middle of nowhere. Anse to be exact. Dot and I went with the elderly Madame owner to pay the bill and ended up being plied with port and dried snacks and chatting in french. All the while the Dawsobbs were wondering what was going on and imagining our mutillated corpses buried in the back
yard.
The next day we made the road cyclist´s pilgrimage to Alp d´Huez in the French Alps. This time it was Paul who was as giddy as a school girl. He couldnt persuade anyone to lend him their bike, so he had to settle for a drive up the famous mountain leg of the Tour de France.
We high tailed it yesterday to Spain, and arrived in mediterranean seaside Cadaques. Next stop Carcossone in France, and then Toulouse for the crunch game of the World Cup: All Blacks vs Romania.
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Kristy Rhoades
non-member comment
hello travelbugs
hi dot and dan. you look like you are having a fine time - and you both look great!! this blog is cool. i am in cairns playing with my brand new nephew byron. he is cool too. we are taking him for his first trip to crystal cascades this afternoon. i keep meaning to equal your feat and ride there dot - one day. bit jealous of the endless travel - keep up the good work!! lol kristy rhoades