C: One week into our trip, we are currently (since Tuesday) pleasantly stranded in the Black Forest (das Schwarzwald) in South West Germany. Nessie got us to Tubingen, a lovely medieval university town near Stuttgart, before it became apparent that she was in fact, operating on only three cylinders and as a result going rather slowly and somewhat smokily. Our dub doctors in the UK had missed a trick this time, but fortunately we are probably in the best country of all to break down in an 82 VW transporter ;-) We spent a rather harrassed day on Tuesday limping round various Volkswagen garages before we were referred to specialists who have agreed to try and mend her :-) so she goes in on Monday. We have become those people who spend ridiculous vets bills on keeping their pets alive, only in our case ours is a mechanical one. However, the bill will hopefully only equate to the equivalent of a few hotel nights, and it should only take a few days, which we will take advantage of by going on a cycle tour of the Black Forest and sampling various Gasthaus chalets (covered by our insurance :-) If all fails, we will get Nessie towed home on the insurance and buy interail passes. It's always worth having a plan b hey! Below are some pics of Tubingen, which is really rather delightful. Our campsite was 20 minutes walk from the town centre and had good beer from the brewery in town and rather good food too (including a vegetarian menu!). The best veggie food was flammkuchen, like a cross between pizza and a shallow savoury flan, yum. I can't however recommend pretzel dumplings (see photographic evidence below :-S).
Tubingen was declared industry free by the prince of the town in the 13th century and as a result it is unblemished by factories, and all very focussed on academia.
We met our friend John there who had flown in from Japan to speak at a conference.
Once Nessie had been fully diagnosed we were advised to rest her, so we set up camp just outside Freudenstadt, which has the biggest marketplace in
Germany (essential but rather uninteresting fact ;-) It's also a really nice town, and rather fortunately given our current circumstances,
we get free rail and bus travel within about a 60km radius. We are also on the edge of the black forest, which has reputedly the best cycle network in Europe - there are
literally 100s of km of off road cycle tracks. We did 30km on our first day here which took us to the little village of Alpirsbach, and another brewery.
The beer here is good.
Today we got up early and hit the town market, which was fab- they do good markets here, really fresh fruit and veg (loads of cherries :-)
cheese and of course, wurst.
Another thing I'm really liking about Germany is how clean everything is - our campsite facilities are reminiscent of at least 4 * hotels!
Plus we've found most people really friendly and helpful which is nice.
Our plan tomorrow is to use our free rail travel to get down to Triberg, which is getting into the mountainous region, where we're hoping
to see some big mountains :-)
On Sunday we will drop Nessie off, and start our 67km cycle (all downhill, and beside a rail line so if we get tired we can just get the
train home before the end of the trail!) We'll start at Freudenstadt, then round to Alpirsbach for a brewery tour (we missed the one last
time we were there) and then the first night in Schiltach. We'll then continue on to the end of the trail in Offenburg, and get the train
back to Freudenstadt, where hopefully Nessie will be waiting for us raring to go to Italy...!
The upshot of our van uncertainties is that we will probably stay off high Alpine roads and do toll tunnels through the Alps to Italy,
so as not to exert too much pressure on her. In addition, we probably won't be able to go to Croatia, as she is not covered for breakdown
there. However, we will just have to wait and see what happens next week and what guidance the 'chief' at the garage gives us.
We hope to keep y'all posted, in the meantime back to the beer.
S: Photos soon - when blogger decides to behave
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