Thur 2nd Oct to Tue 7th

Only one problem with the campsite – it’s closing this weekend. So we found the only site in the vicinity that appears to be open and moved today. It’s again in a beautiful setting and on the lake shore. We visited the local supermarket this afternoon. Strange how certain foreign names strike one as inappropriate: the supermarket was called UPIM, which to us had the same ring to it as UP YOURS! TESCO sounds positively welcoming by comparison.


The Roman villa on Tuesday showed how sophisticated life was 2,000 years ago. Items like pottery and jewellery were most intricate and artistically decorated. Walls were highly patterned and the floors mosaic, with underfloor heating in some rooms. No evidence, though, of Roman i-pods (i-Claudius-pods?) or digital TV (perhaps they had some other form of digital entertainment?). The villa is located about 15 miles from our campsite, on the southern shore of the lake, and within the picturesque town of Decenzano.

Monday 29th to Wed 1st Oct

Monday was a visit to the Czech Republic, the town of Kaplice just over the Austrian border. Gloomy town & gloomy people, by comparison with Austria: the communist legacy is apparent even now. Unexpectedly, as you crossed into the Czech Republic, there were 4 or 5 casinos and also a large building labelling itself “Sin City”! There were numerous tarts in miniskirts parading along the roadsides in the vicinity, hoping to be picked up by drivers - and succeeding!!!

Wednesday – move from St Gilgen to Lake Garda in Italy. It’s a stunning run through the Austrian Alps and the over the Brenner Pass into Italy. Austrian culture persists for about 40 miles on the Italian side, including the speaking of German as their main language. Lake Garda is beyond that area, and is the largest Italian lake (32 by 11 miles). It is surrounded by mountains except at the southern tip, which is where we are now located. We’ve just pitched the van with an excellent view over the lake, and the weather this evening is dry & mild – who could ask for more? (Cold beer just being taken out of fridge).

Wed 24th Sept to Sun 28th Sept

Wednesday we saw Liechtenstein Gorge, one of the deepest and longest in the Alps. It was made accessible in the 19th Century by the Prince of Liechtenstein who had tortuous walkways & tunnels constructed, hovering over a fast-flowing river. You walk up the gorge on these paths as far as a large waterfall. It’s spectacular and the pictures don’t really do it justice.

Sunday: sunny, warm & good visibility. The ideal day for a trip to the top of Schafberg on the mountain railway. Schafberg is the highest mountain bordering the lake at 1,783 metres (5,850 ft). From the top, an amazing 360º panorama of mountains & lakes spreads out as far as the eye can see. The railway has been running since 1893, still using some of the original steam engines (and staff!), and also services a hotel and café at the summit.

Still St Gilgen: Sat 20th to Tue 23rd

Saturday was Kaiservilla time. Franz-Joseph, the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a summer villa (=palace really) at a nearby town, Bad Ischal. He rose every morning at 3.30am, and was in his office at 4.15 to start conducting affairs of state. He had a house built down the road for his mistress for affairs of a different kind. The villa and contents are immaculately preserved and are still owned by the same Hapsburg family, of whom Franz-Joseph was a member. Their immense political power (but not wealth) came to an end with the First World War.

On Sunday we visited a local farmers festival, something like our harvest festival. Many traditional farming activities were on show , in particular beer drinking, and the picture shows the local choir performing. Disappointment: no yodelling. Note the choir’s traditional dress, but numerous people don these sorts of clothes as everyday wear. Knobbly knees at the ready!

Yesterday’s little trip was to the arboretum. With so many wonderful, stately trees in the forests here, we thought the arboretum would be the crème de la crème. But what a miserable set of specimens we found, tiny trees and bushes, some having died and disappeared leaving just the descriptive plaque. Jane said it ought to be renamed the twigoretum!

St Gilgen (near Salzburg): Tue 16th to Fri 19th

It’s only 3 hours to St Gilgen from Lake Starnberg. We’re in a sparsely occupied farm site with apple trees. e lake, Wolfgangsee, is 200 metres away and is surrounded by mountains. It’s very beautiful, and although the weather’s been mixed, we’ve sat outside in short sleeves on several days.


Visit to Salzburg on Friday: can be summarised as quality tourist tat. We’re deep in Sound of Music country here, so must expect Maria buses and the like, and lots of camera snappers. However, many impressive buildings and a wonderful setting for the town as a whole (hole?) retrieved the situation somewhat. In keeping with the international attraction of the town, we dined at McDonald’s.

Munich: Sept 10th to 15th

We’re now at Lake Starnberg, 20 miles south of Munich. The site is right by the lake, with the mountains of the Germany-Austria border somewhere in the misty background, through the slanting rain. It’s still very pleasant!

On arrival, we were shown to our pitch by a helpful German (BUT, he no English & we no German) who indicated the direction of water & chemical toilet points. The water was right next to the pitch- but where was the loo emptying station? After much searching, I found a sign bearing the legend “CHEMICAL KLOSET”.

However, to get to it, one had to walk through the middle of the restaurant’s outside dining area. Picture this: tucking into your bratwurst with a procession of campers squeezing past your table, each one clutching a full, sloshing caravan toilet! But all's well that ends well – they had relocated the bog emptying facility to another, but obscure, location. You people on main drains don’t know you’re born!

We visited Ruth in Munich both days at the weekend, most enjoyably. The weather was cold, only 7 degrees, but we saw the city centre and the Deutsches Museum. The photo is of one fascinating exhibit – a homemade aeroplane from the 80’s, intended to be flown from East to West Germany. It never flew since they were arrested the day before the planned fight, but it was later judged airworthy. We’ll stick with Ryanair!

France, Germany, Austria, Autumn 2008

Sept 5th to Sept 10th

The Blog awakens. Left home on Friday 5th in torrential rain & arrived at Obernai, near Strasbourg, in torrential rain. It’s perked up a lot since then & today was a sunny 26 degrees. Beautiful walks in Vosges mountains a few miles from site and many picturesque villages & towns, as per the photo.

This area of France is called Alsace, the home of Alsatian dogs, but very few are to be seen because they don’t actually come from Alsace. The locals speak a German type dialect because Alsace has yo-yoed between France & Germany, but the Germans themselves don’t understand it.

Strasbourg airport is not far, and, as the planes go overhead, we’ve waved to our travelling Euro-MP’s, the dutiful guardians of our euro billions, and I could have sworn I saw the Kinnocks waving back.