Europe part 2

Finding a very plush campsite by the rIver in Trier (the grounds were slightly neglected but the facilities were fully automated even down to the towel dispenser) and arriving on a very hot day we set off to cycle into Trier itself which was only 5km away. Unfortunately a short way there my cycle chain broke again and we had to seek out a repair shop. As luck would have it we came across one not too far away where the chain was replaced, the gears were re set up and the wheel realigned all for 14€. Amazing service and all while we waited. We spent the day wandering around this pretty place, once again steeped in history and old buildings with the obligatory square thrown in, had lunch in the sunshine and then cycled back to the campsite where we were witness to a full blown altercation re the parking and positioning of two campervan opposite us. Spellbinding it was. The next day we cycled back to Trier railway station, 7km, and took a train to Luxembourg once again another beautiful day. We took a "tourist Noddy train" which took us round the very lower, older, historical area of Luxembourg, deep down in the valley, for one and a half hours. Although the noddy train was a bit nerdy we would not have seen this area so deep in the valley had we not swallowed our pride and done it. Luxembourg is huge and although we are not big city fans we enjoyed our day here just wandering around, stumbling over different areas, quaint streets, beautiful gardens, historic defence walls, churches, bridges - of which there are many - sculptures, musicians but alas it was time to head back to the station and back to Molly. Now this is where our little trip went slightly awry for however hard we tried to establish the time and the platform of the next train back to Trier we were constantly told something different. Ah at last, a French woman and her son who spoke a little English. "Le train au Trier?" "Mais oui. We are going to Trier also". So we all scrambled aboard and waited, and waited and waited. Spotting a couple of guards on the platform Gary was dispatched to find out if we were on the correct train. No! Our train was sitting behind this one! Quick reactions saw us jump off the non-Trier train only to see the Trier train tootling out of the station. Next one 55minutes away stopping all stations. Eventually we arrived home to Molly on the limits of daylight, tired but happy. The following morning we headed down the Mosel river to Chalons passing through the champagne district. Just short of Chalon we espied a nice grassy area down by a river where a sign said "Aire" with a couple of wavy lines underneath. Deciding this was a rather pretty aire to stop at we elected to do our first night of freedom camping, drove down towards the river and parked - perfectly flat according to our spirit level - something hard to achieve even on a campsite hardstand. So we settled in. First thing to arrive was a farmer with his tractor. Second thing to arrive was a farmer bearing a gift of a bucket full of local, freshly picked plums. Third thing to arrive was a farmer on his ride on lawnmower mowing the grass around us - waving and smiling to Gary as he did so. This was all especially nice because after we parked we subsequently realised this was not a camping aire but the river Aire!! We stayed the night there though feeling safe and loved and left early the next morning for Chalons. Arriving in Chalons was a bit of a challenge as there was a festival and expo just starting, so streets were blocked off and everywhere was quite busy. Once Molly was set up and plugged in, off on our bikes to the expo. My goodness it covered miles and it covered everything anyone could possibly want or need. Technology in all fields is out of this world. Our recommendation: gut your house, start again with a container load of "stuff" from Europe. Our day was magic but expensive. We bought a fabulous stone frying pan, could never live without one now, but our biggest expense was lunch. $102NZ FOR THE TWO OF US! But boy it was worth it. (Gary shIvers everytIme he thInks about It) This was where we accidentally ordered a litre of beer each and got those silly grey hats for doing so. This was where it took an hour and a half to drink the beer and to eat the monster size plate of spIt roasted pork, potatoes and salad. We were both defeated in the end unfortunately but it was delicious. Having satiated ourselves we stayed on to watch the evening concert as the sun went down then cycled back to meet up wIth new Welsh frIends, Anne and Jeff,  for a campsIte feast of tapas and wIne. Joe Cocker was playing the following night, so the lady at the local boulangerie told us with earnest excitement. This festival goes on for many days, is the 2nd biggest in France and attracts big names. Now If it had been James Blunt it might have been different.....but Joe Cocker? We gave that one a swerve and the following day found us in a fabulous campsite beside Lac D'Orient wIth a swImmIng pool and beautIful sunshIne. Here we swam In the lake and pool, sunned ourselves dry and spent a couple of restful days just bIkIng Into the local vIllage and our envIrons, followIng the rabbIt and rechargIng our batterIes. Once the weather starts to change we know It Is tIme to move on and besIdes Gary had done hIs dash down the waterslIdes???!!!!! We were quite sad to leave this campsite it was so lovely but Troyes was calling so move on we must. Arriving at the municipal campsite there we wondered what we had hit! The people running it were lovely but the camp was a mess. It's saving grace was wifi access but neither of us showered there it was too skundgy. The weather was also overcast and quite dreary. We had been looking forward to Troyes (pronounced Troix) so this was bitterly disappointing but we braved the condItIons and cycled Into the centre. We are so glad we dId and I am sure on a sunny warm day It Is enthrallIng. Once agaIn sooooo much hIstory. The houses are brIghtly coloured, hIggledy pIggledy, and the streets so narrow some have wedges between the upper storIes holdIng them apart, supportIng them, or for whatever reason only known to man or beast.. Cat street (Ruelle des Chats) Is named because the cats could easIly jump from one house to the next across the street wIthout effort. The old town once agaIn, wIth Its cobbled streets that shake the hell out of you on your bIke, has so much presence and hIstory. we stumbled across some amazIng courtyards, gateways, buIldIngs at every turn. SometImes I am lost for words to descrIbe thIs feast for the eyes and braIn It Is all so aweInspIrIng. It wasn't at all busy due to the weather so we could stroll around absorbIng the wonder of the archItecture at our lIesure. The cold fInally took over and we cycled back to Molly along busy maIn roads untIl Gary, not too far from the campsIte, decIded to fall off hIs bIke. To be faIr, he tells me, It was hIs turn for hIs chaIn to break! HastIlly leaving this gross campsite and the bad weather behind us we drove to our favorite place - a campsite in a vineyard at Mersault and the weather was perfect. Biking 10km through the vineyards to Beaune was the highlight of this stay. This was what we had wanted to do in France and another dream had come true. Beaune was perfect, the sky was blue, the sun was shining, the town extremely picturesque and there were 3million bottles of wine and champagne stored in cellars under the township.....somewhere? Having lunch we met a great couple from UK who we whiled away the time with chatting about everything and nothing then went into the cellars of Patriarche to do some serious wine tasting and to indulge in a little more history. These wine cellars are massive and are underneath a nunnery???? We spent a good 2 hours down there tasting wine, meeting more English people, having a really good laugh and rolling out the other end facing the 10km bike ride home. ThIs unfortunately was generally more uphIll, we were cyclIng Into a head wInd, it was late and it was hot!!! But we made it! Now we have been buying really cheap, ok wine in France and we have been very happy with it. These 13 wines we "tasted" were really expensive wines and were horrible. Nuf said me thinks - not sure either of us could ever become a wine snob. I have to say though the cellars were incredible as those who have been following our Facebook photos can attest to. Bottles and barrels for miles. Next stop Lyon! Mmmmmmm caught a bus from the city campsite in Port of Lyon to the city. As I have said we are not big city people and we were not inspired at all here, in fact we felt saddened. It was vibrant, it had the beautiful Bastille to which you caught a cable car, it had a replica of the top tier of the Eiffel tower - complete with satellite and cell dishes - it had ancient, long steps - full of graffiti - it had, once again, beautiful architecture, beautiful squares, beautiful sculptures - most of which were grafittied. Disrespect for the city was rife and the beauty of it's ancient buildings were lost to us. It has lost it's soul to graffiti artists and skateboarders. Maybe this is a lesson learned for us and a reminder why we do not visit these places too often. We gave it our all but Hightailed it out of there after paying 19€ for a bag of pick and mix sweets from the pirate treasure chest. Nice sweets just too expensive and quite a shock. Right now we are in Annecy. As I write this we have endured a very miserable, cold, rainy day and are huddled in Molly in long trousers and blankets. In contrast yesterday and the day before were brilliant sunshine and in combination with the site beIng right on the lake edge it has been a perfect stopover. We have met more incredible people here - he is an ex London old fashioned bobby who helped arrest Ronnie Kray, one of the Kray twins, all those years ago. We enjoyed Dot and Gilbert's company immensely and hope we will all keep in touch. They have gone South as we go east to Switzerland. Annecy will keep for another day. If there is a place I could live in France so far I think it might be here, in the mountains. I hope you enjoy reading this blog for we have finally caught up. Sometimes it is hard to remember where we have been, although never what we have done. Sometimes one place blurs into the next but not it's beauty or it's special moments frozen in time. Sometimes we have to really think of the route we have taken but not where we are going. We are happy. Love to all xxxx  

Europe Part 1.

Well we have fallen behind in our blog again!!!!!! Not sure how this keeps happening but it has to stop. Believe it or not we just have not had time????? How we ever found the time to work we will never know. Anyway we nave decIded to stay put in Chalon de Champagne for another day purely to catch up. I have to state first and foremost that although we are enjoying Europe and Molly we are really missing the excitement and absurdities of Asia. We travel with our home now and everything is by comparison much easier. However we do not need to take so many risks either so our tales are not so fraught with danger nor so exciting we feel. Our crossing from Dover to Calais was uneventful and very straightforward. I was dreading the getting on the ferry bit but I reckon a  child could manage as everything and everywhere is so well signposted - it was a piece of cake. Arriving in Calais we headed for our first French campsite in GuInes. Our first experience we learned a lot. We landed up on a dismal site with no sun but plenty of trees all around to shade us if the sun ever dared show it's face on that plot. The saving grace was the little village though - really cute. Biking there we stocked up on fresh fruit, veges and  choc-aux-paIn and spent a  couple of hours in the sun at the local pub. Lesson learned we moved on. Our next stop was Gent in Belgium which was fabulous. We did a day train trip to Brugge (6€  return) travelling, accidentally, first class all the way. To be honest both townships were very pretty as our photos on Facebook showed but Gent certainly won out. The flowers, the bridges over the canals, the historical buildings, the atmosphere and the sunshine made everything and everywhere picture perfect. Our perceived lesson learned at our previous campsite was not as thorough as first thought. Yes we got the sun bit OK but right outside our bedroom window was the bottle dump and nobody puts bottles into a dumpster quietly!!!!! Our next stop was Gulpen In the Netherlands, a camping site high on a hill overlooking a picturesque village with it's own quota of spired churches and old buildings. Our plan was to bike into the township but unfortunately the weather turned autumnal and rain, wind and the cold kept us marooned in Molly. First time we had had to consider wearing long trousers - time to head South which was always our plan to find warmer climes. Next day we drove through the village on our way to Cologne and were not disappointed. Cologne ah Cologne!!! Now Cologne and Kate 2 (the GPS) obviously had a bit of a misunderstanding this day. To cut a long story short by the time we reached the city it took us one and a half hours of constant rerouting and recalculating, a drive through what we now know was a pedestrian only area, possibly an excursion the wrong way up or down a one way cobbled narrow street, a left turn into oncoming traffic, a triple challenge at the base of a closed bridge that Kate insisted on taking us to from different directions and that was just to get to the other side of the Rhine. Another half an hour and we were at the camping site situated right at the edge of the Rhine. After so much stress we got out the table and chairs, a bottle of wine and some cheese and sat watching enthusiastic health fanatics, run and sweat the bike path in front of us. GREAT. Next day we biked into Cologne which once again was amazing. The Cathedral there was out of this world but the whole city was so vibrant and alive. We stumbled over some Roman ruins which were being unearthed, bought our first European Sim card (believe me NZ is not expensive) some warm clothes just in case and then headed back to Molly. We enjoyed this campsite although the amenities were spartan but this is where we realised how German people like to park directly on top of one another. So close that when you open the windows they touch. We went to bed one night and woke up with a sea of dome tents all around us. STRANGE!! Next stop Koblenz where the Rhine and the Mosel meet. Perfect site, sun, no bottle crashing and beside the river again. Seventh heaven and we had sunshine too. Blessed. This time we were able to take a ferry from the campsite to Koblenz which once again has so much history but I don't wish to bore you all. For us one campsite toilet blends into the next and I am sure, as you read this, one place is doing exactly the same thing with the next place. Facebook photos actually tie all these places together so hope you are going there. Our next thoughts were to travel alongside the Mosel river through vineyards and the German wine trail to Bernkastle where we were meeting up with Betty and Stuart who we met in Singapore. Hearing that Bernkastle was beautiful we were looking forward to this and also with meeting up again with friends. We were not disappointed. The trip down was awesome, extremely scenic, and Bernkastle was magical. Betty and Stuart had 2 days planned out for us, biking, drinking, eating, shopping, sightseeing, meeting friends etc etc and the time passed too quickly. Hopefully we will meet up again in Spain. We were given maps, information, hugs and kisses as we left. THANK YOU Betty and Stuart for the wonderful days we spent with you and your Invaluable help and knowledge. Sorry to hear about your eventful trip back to Spain The vineyards in Germany and especially Bernkastle are established on vertical slopes and produce the most amazing wines especially Reisling (Trochan of course) which we love. Mmmm. Leaving Betty and Stuart our next stop was Maanheim to meet up with old friends of Gary's where we were welcomed into the family as though no time had elapsed between the last (for Gary) and this ( the fIrst for me) meeting. This is where we could and enjoyed Swinehaxe and German Beer in a typical Bavarian restaurant. Maanheim at night is magical with it's beautiful fountains, sculptures and buildings restored after the war. May Britt is an amazing cook and speaks perfect English so the food, wine and chat was excellent. Gogo speaks excellent English too and had a special surprise for us. He had bought tickets for us to go to the local (large) football match - was that OK? Yes no problems we would enjoy that. Olaf had a different take on this crazy escapade though insisting we should not go and shaking his head in wonderment that Gogo would even think of such a terrible event to expose us to. It had been many years since Gary had seen Olaf and, although we only spent time with him briefly, he had not changed a bit. We were rather sad we were unable to catch up again before we left but work commitments got in the way. Anyway back to the football match. The idea was that we would bike to the stadium, enjoy the match and bike home. Good idea and I am sure you can feel a "but" coming on. Yep, two big buts or maybe even three or four. But number 1 - Gary unlocked the bikes from the bike stand only to find I had a broken chain????? No sweat MacIver can fix it. Chain mended but now cannot get the chain through the derailer. Ok no sweat unfix the chain and thread it through first. No way! Chain fixed so well couldn't unfix it. Ok no worries I can borrow Catrins bike. Now Catrins bike is a sit up and beg bike, bright turquoise and has no gears. My bike is a mountaIn bike with 24 gears and black! Ok no sweat I can do this! Just as we are about to leave it started to spit with rain, 100 metres later the heavens opened. It was a cold day anyway and rain had been threatening so we sported jeans and a rain jacket. Only problem was my waterproof rain jacket is red - the colour of the opposition team so of course I could not wear that. Gary was OK his is blue the colour of the local team but I had to wear a shower jacket in brown. Honestly by the time we arrived at the stadium, a good 20 minute ride, we were soaked right through to our underwear and our shoes were full. The final insult was when I was separated from the men to be frisk searched???? What the hell? Anyway the game was great. The local blue team scored 1 amazing goal and the red team 0. Well tensions mounted and really mounted, gesticulations and bad words flew from one side of the stadium to the other. Riot police with cameras were seen at half time. After 2 hours of sitting in a cold stadium in soaking wet clothes a very enjoyable game ended with Maanheim victorious. Out the stadium, on our bikes and away off home to hot coffee and a shower. Back at the stadium was a different story. Violence, aggression, 1500 riot policemen and hundreds of arrests. Why? It was only a game and a good one at that! Next day we went into Heidleburgh with May-Britt where she works to look around for the day. We took a tour around the Castle with a guide which was, once again, mind blowing. Had lunch in a very authentic  Thai restaurant, had my fringe cut, bought another pair of long trousers to wear instantly as my jeans were still drying. Bought a pair of Joseph Seible shoes for 30€ (bargain) and some antipasto for tea whIch was heavenly. We had a fabulous day which I agree was mainly about me! Oh yes, my bike was fixed that evening for 12€ by the local bike shop and the next day we headed off to see more friends of Gary's in Speyer. Thankyou Gogo and May-Britt and your beautiful children for a fabulous few days of comfort and luxury. For me it was as if I had known you for years not just a few days. Gary was so happy when everything went so well. We enjoyed every moment we spent with you and hopefully will return again soon. We are eeking out the special fruit marmalade you gave us and the lavender is keeping Molly smelling beautifully refreshed. Our next stop was an overnighter with Biggi, Woolfran and Jani their son. Once Molly was plugged in and happy a trip to Speyer township was our next delight where we spent time exploring a beautiful ancient cathedral and all the surrounding history together. The architecture, the history etc is phenomenal and we always get totally absorbed in our surroundings leading to us spending hours gazing up at beautiful ceilings, wandering through crypts, in awe as to how these amazing arched buildings with high Gothic ceilings were put together. The artwork and stained glass windows are just out of this world. So much history and we never tire of seeing the beauty of it all. Lunch was next in a local Bavarian restaurant - very nice and relaxing and where we were introduced to spaetzle a German noodle which is absolutely delicious. Back home then to chill out and for Gary and Biggi to ruminate over the past with copious amounts of wine of course. Next morning we were on our way having had a beautiful breakfast of fresh coffee and rolls that Woolfran had kindly organised for us before leavIng for hIs offIce. Jani being 19 years old was still getting his beauty sleep so we waved goodbye to Biggi as we headed for Trier on the Mosel.