The Last Post: Bavaria to Trier

Our friends Trish and Paul left Bavaria before us to catch an earlier crossing home. It feels strange being just the two of us. We have shared so much together and been such good companions since meeting up on 31^st March, nearly 3 month ago.
We now head for Trier, the oldest town in Germany, on the Luxembourg border. Our campsite is on the river Mosel 8 miles from Trier and is run by a couple whose real business is importing marble from Italy. It’s a lovely setting.

The Mosel here is large enough to take the biggest freight barges of 1500 tonnes, that’s about the size of the one in the photo above. The riverbanks are lined with vineyards on impossibly precipitous slopes. They still manage to maintain the vines immaculately and even use mechanical devices. We saw small tractor-type vehicles driving up and down the rows. The next photo gives an idea of the angle they have to work on. But maybe picking the grapes is then easier as they can roll them down to the bottom for collection.

There’s plenty of wildlife, too. Next is a selection of what we came across on our walks near the campsite. Clockwise: honey buzzard, Egyptian geese, pine marten, field mouse.

Now on to Trier. The Romans were here in force, and the 2^nd century AD Porta Nigra is one of the best preserved Roman gatehouses anywhere. The extraordinary thing is that it has survived, not that Roman buildings don't last for 2,000 years, rather that the stones weren’t pillaged by later generations for their own building projects as often happened. 

Keeping with the Romans, we walked on to Constantine’s Throne Room, also known as Constantine’s Basilica. Constantine was Roman emperor from 306 to 337. In 313 he allowed full tolerance of Christianity in the Empire and was himself converted before he died.

This is a huge hall, originally lavishly decorated with marble and tiles as befits a throne room. It was much altered through the ages but has been restored since the last war, when it was extensively damaged, to original specification (but excluding all the marble). Somehow it doesn’t seem quite the part on the outside: it looks more like a public library.

The market square is a wonderful mix of medieval buildings in different colours. It’s still a market place today and we bought some tasty cherries and apricots there.

From the same era is the Dreikönigenhaus: the Three Kings’ House. It’s 800 years old and was originally accessed by a wooden staircase to the first floor. The style reminded us of Morocco, having seen many such buildings there last year, and the façade had the appearance of one of those false fronts they sometimes put on buildings when they’re carrying out repairs.

The cathedral is dedicated to St Peter and is built on the foundations of a very large Roman Christian church complex. The Church of our Lady next door is built on the same base. In the photo, the cathedral is on the left and about half of the church on the right. With its solid design and turrets it could pass for a castle, and the interior is equally functional but very atmospheric.

The focal point of the interior is a reliquary containing the robe worn by Christ. Religious relics were big business in the Middle Ages for attracting pilgrims, so their authenticity should be viewed with caution; it is said that there are enough pieces of the true cross in the world’s churches to make a Noah’s Ark. It is, nevertheless, magnificently presented, as you see.

Not forgetting the importance of the Mosel River trading to the city of Trier, here is a crane dating back to 1413. They’ve clearly reclaimed some of the riverbank margins over the years because the jib of the crane doesn’t quite reach the river. Doesn’t it have a wonderful fairy tale appearance, and should be made of gingerbread!

Trier gave us a really interesting day out. This was our last stop before Calais; one day’s drive away, and then home. Sometimes we’re not sure which is home- Alconbury or the caravan?

June 18th & 19th: Alpine Walks

Two consecutive days saw us in the Alps close to the border with Austria.

On the first day we went to Oberammergau, which most people will associate with the Passion Play. This is performed every 10 years, in years ending with “0”, and dates from 1634 when the village made a vow to perform a passion play for being spared from the plague. It is said that over half of the 5,000 plus villagers take part. Does that include the programme and ice cream sellers?

Oberammergau feels more like a town than a village because of its many tourist shops and hotels/guest houses. Apart from the play, the village is a tourist venue in its own right, being set in a beautiful valley and with many extraordinarily painted houses. This is an example that reflects the Passion Play

Some of these murals are country scenes, some fairy stories like Hansel and Gretel, and others are elaborate architectural features like balconies and porches. So if you’re thinking of getting, say, a conservatory, save your money and get one painted on instead. The photo underneath shows how effective it is.

The Oberammergau area is famous for traditional woodcarving, with around 120 woodcarvers working in the area, and is the location of the Bavarian School of Woodcarving. Next is a photo of a woodcarving of a travelling salesman of woodcarvings. The shops are full of woodcarvings of all types and sizes many, like the one in the photo, nearly life size. As impressive as these are, where would you put them in the average house? No, our toilet’s not big enough either.

A few miles from Oberammergau is Linderhof Palace. It was developed in its present form by Ludwig 11 of Bavaria, between 1864 and 1886, having originally been his father’s hunting lodge. It is the smallest of Ludwig’s three palaces.

By the time we arrived, the inside tours had finished for the day but just walking the grounds was well worthwhile. Ludwig had been greatly influenced in its design by Louis XIV’s Versailles, which can be seen from the photo.

Day two took us to Garmisch, from where we started our Alpine walk. Not far up the path, when we’d got some height, we were treated to some stunning views of Zugspitz, Germany’s tallest peak.

The day was hot as we toiled upwards and, even with intermittent shade from the pine trees, we were glad to reach the more level alpine meadows. A cold drink would have been most welcome. But wait a minute. And it’s not a mirage: a real life café/restaurant, right here by the meadow

We head straight in. It’s pretty full, but we get a table under one of those white umbrellas. We decide to have lunch including, of course, the cold drinks. Paul rounded it off by ordering the largest desert in the world. Even with the help of the rest of the group some had to be left. So here it is, a true complement to the giant burgers we had in Sibenik.

Lunch over and we needed to carry on with the walk. The meadows were full of flowers, with a mountain backdrop and the path was flat, so it was an easy and delightful stroll. As the trail started its downward run towards Garmisch, we noticed a small chapel to one side of the route.

You can perhaps see from the photo below that the circular, white wall has things attached to it. These are wooden plaques commemorating deaths of local servicemen in the last war. Many perished on the Russian Front where 90% of all German deaths occurred. Each plaque held a faded sepia photo of the lost person: sometimes two or even three sons from one family. They all looked so young.

It was a moving reminder that Germany suffered even more family tragedies than us in the last war and that, regardless of the politics, the rank and file on both sides bore the brutality of the conflict.

15th June: South of Munich

Between Munich and the Alps are a number of lakes of all sizes. Our campsite is on one of the smaller ones, about 3 km by 1 km. It’s a lovely location (I’m running out of different words of praise to use) as the photo shows, with Jane swimming in the lake.

The local town is Murnau, quite up-market and beautifully maintained. It was extensively rebuilt following a fire in 1835, although is first documented in 1150. Some of the buildings have external painted decorations that are a feature of Bavaria. This is the town, with the Alps in the background.

Jane’s sister Ruth lives at Feldafing on one of the largest lakes in the region, Lake Starnberg. The lake is very popular for all types of water activities (perhaps not white water rafting) and on clear days the Alps are visible, as in the photo. The boat is an ancient ferry serving Rose Island a few hundred metres off shore.

The town of Starnberg was celebrating its 100^th anniversary of being granted town status, so we went to see some of the festivities. Here’s a traditional brass band, which I wanted to describe as an oompah band, but they didn’t play any oompah type music when we were listening. When is an oompah band not an oompah band? Were more steins of bier required? Would you believe, some oompah bands now play a type of pop music called oompop.

So, family album time: Jane and Ruth, as we walked in the woods next to the lake shore.

11th June: Postojna Caves

These caves are one of the top attractions in Slovenia. They have been visited since the Middle Ages, and there is reputed to be a cave signature dated 1213. It is now not visible. Others, that you can detect, date from the early 1800’s. But don’t try signing your name these days- it’s long since been banned.

The Gallery of Signatures, as it is called, is at the entrance to the cave system and houses the vivarium displaying creatures that live in the caves. It’s mainly small bugs, but there is also a most unusual animal on show, the Proteus Anguinus, a type of salamander. It’s the largest permanent cave-dwelling vertebrate known to man.

Now you’re expecting something about 10 feet long- but it’s only about a foot. What is so odd about it is that it’s a fish with legs! The photo’s slightly fuzzy because the light levels were very low, but then all the best weird photos are out of focus. Have you ever seen a clear photo of a flying saucer or a ghost?

The cave visits proper starts after an underground train journey of 3 km. The carriage seats resemble garden furniture. You duck, as low rock overhangs and tunnel roofs threaten to hit the top of your head; of course it’s an optical illusion.

A guide walks us through about 1 km of the 20 km cave complex, but it’s the most impressive bit. Low light levels make it difficult to portray the scale of it all, but the tiny images of some of the people in our group are visible in the middle left of the next photo.

There are the usual stalagmites (grow up from floor) and stalactites (grow down from ceiling). Some of the stalagmites especially were huge, twenty or thirty feet tall. Some were in curious sci-fi figures, as in the photo.

All the fantastic shapes can be whatever your eye wants to make of them. This next one seems to suggest a great pile of skulls.

Below, these could be small skins hung out to dry.

 

The final chamber is the Concert Hall, a huge cavern where concerts are held occasionally. There is provision for 10,000 seats, just to give an idea of size.

Parts of this immense underground space were used by the Nazis in the last war to store ammunition. Perfectly safe this far underground, you might think. The black marks are still visible where the munitions dump was blown up by the Yugoslav Partisans after they got wind of it and could carry out the deed.

Postojna Caves, spectacular and memorable. Postojna Town, ordinary and forgettable.

June 10th: Vintgar Gorge

The gorge is 4 miles from the campsite. It was discovered in 1891 by the local mayor and his surveyor friend. By 1893 they had organised a trail through the gorge, which was no mean feat as you can see from the photo. These wooden walkways cover practically the whole mile length of the canyon as the rock walls are too sheer for conventional paths.

The river drops quite quickly so there are many rapids, as can be seen from the photo above. The walls almost touch at a few points, with the wooden walkway edging around, faithfully attached to the rock face. Let’s hope they’ve used plenty of creosote on the wood.

It’s full of fish and birds, which generally move too fast to be photographed. But here’s one who posed for us. It’s a dipper. These bob up and down under the water looking for food, and are to be found only in this sort of fast flowing river. It’s looking a bit cheesed off, but then maybe we would be too, if we had to eat our roast beef or big Mac with our heads under the water.

The gorge finishes with a lovely, tumbling waterfall. Those are people on the bridge above the falls, so as you can see it’s a good size. They obviously sorted out their problems as they didn’t jump.

The return route was either retracing one’s steps, or a footpath through the woods. We went the footpath way; it turned out to be a muddy track, having been churned up by forestry machinery. But onwards and upwards, literally, passing this interesting refreshment arrangement on the way. Some kind soul had placed a glass tankard on the branch (upper right) for use at the spring. Clean water maybe, but not so sure about the tankard!

Finally we surfaced from the forest by a small church, St Catherine’s, in the middle of nowhere but apparently a venue for pilgrims and certainly a venue for walkers.

From the church back to our starting point, where we had left the car, was an easy stroll on a meadow footpath with super open views down to Bled and into the mountains.

June 7th: Ljubljana

This is the capital of Slovenia, located about 40 miles from Bled. It is one of the smallest European capitals, and its medieval core is delightful. In many showcase cites, the streets are wide and full of imposing edifices, or narrow winding and quaint. Here the thoroughfares are wide and gently curving with varied, elegant old buildings of quality. See below as an example

There’s been habitation here since 2,000 BC, with Roman, Slav and German/Austrian influences being the most important. It has suffered two large earthquakes, in 1511 and 1895. The old centre is almost encircled by the River Ljubljanica with the castle on a hill at the back. River frontages usually look appealing and this is no exception.

Many of the bridges have a long history. The shoemakers bridge shown next was occupied by shoemakers following the eviction of the butchers by popular petition to the ruling Emperor Maximilian 1st because of the smell. Max was a depressive and used to take his coffin with him on his travels. There are no shoemakers left, but the pile of shoes hanging up in the top right hand corner represents their past glories.



However, another reason for being in the city was to meet up with Jane’s nephew David who is doing research at Ljubljana University. Here’s Jane and David in Prešernov Trg, one of the principal squares.

 With a local guide, how could we fail to properly check out the city? It’s not the guidebook stuff; anyone can get hold of that, but the hidden corners. So now guess what this is.

 

A graffitied, derelict building? It’s certainly covered in graffiti; in fact it’s a non-profitmaking cultural and social centre, a huge 7,000 square metre squat of the former premises of the State owned ROG bicycle factory, closed in 1994. The organisers and users see this enterprise as providing extensive cultural opportunities from an unused building, and you have to ask the question, why not?

Bring your own bottle and fill it with milk from the dispensing machine. It’s in the market square: fresh milk every day, and cheap. What a great idea, but would it be too much bother for us back in the UK?

We liked Ljubljana very much. It had a great atmosphere and vibrancy. And not just the old quarter; the post 1895 earthquake buildings are quality designs, like this department store, completed in 1905 in the art nouveau style.  

To Slovenia 1st June: Lake Bled

Camping Bled is right on the Lake. It’s a large campsite, so our actual pitch is a few hundred metres from the lake, but you walk out of the site entrance onto the path that circles the lake. The town of Bled is at the opposite end to the campsite. It’s not a large lake, about 4 miles all round, but very picturesque. Here’s a view from the path with a tourist boat being rowed gondola-style, at gondola-style prices.

The other distinguishing feature of the lake is the island. This appears on every tourist ad for Bled and often for Slovenia itself. Can’t manage the usual helicopter shot, but this is it, the clump of green trees where the church is.

Something always seems to be going on. This weekend it’s the European Junior Rowing competition. The lake was sectioned into lanes along its total length for races. It was great to see all the youngsters keenly competing, and here are three boats speeding neck and neck for the finishing line. We decided not to take out a pedalo and show them what real speed was.

On the walk around the lake there is a long garden containing many unusual sculptures, the most bizarre of which is in the next photo. It’s a pyramid of fish-heads. You always look for some deep meaning in these sorts of works, but maybe it’s nothing more than a hint to the wife that he’s fed up with fish for dinner four times a week.

30th May: The Zumberak

This was our last trip out before leaving Croatia, to a region located between the campsite and the Slovenian border. It comprises remote villages and steep green hills. Buildings like this old mill were typical.

There were also some beautifully simple small country churches as shown in the photo below.

None of our maps covered the area in enough detail to navigate the small country roads, so we used the sat-nav. Just put the name of the next village in and let the device do the work. We stopped at a lovely spot for lunch, in a valley by a stream, en route to the next destination. It was from there on that the trouble began. The road started to deteriorate and soon became a rubble-strewn, narrow, grass covered track that ascended steeply through dense forest. At one point the trees fell away down a steep ravine to reveal this lovely view.

Why do we have such blind faith in these gadgets? After 20 miles of crawling along the dirt track at no more than 10 miles per hour, the sat-nav voice cheerfully announced: “Welcome to Slovenia.” It had taken us into another country! We were expecting customs officers to appear through the trees at any minute, and of course we had no passports with us. Was this an ancient smuggling trail perhaps?

But plod on, having come so far we didn’t want to retrace our steps on such an awful road. A sigh of relief- in a few miles, the sat-nav welcomed us back to Croatia. Soon after, at a crossroads in the track, I was able to reset a route to another and nearer village, still 6 miles away, but here was a proper tarmac road, with lines on. It was like driving on a motorway.

Off-roading adventure not withstanding, we found the Zumberak a lovely area. Just as we were running out of the hills, we passed another unusual small church, complete with reflection, that could have been transported straight from Russia. With love.