Episode 2The weather finally took a turn for the better and we were eventually ready to be off on our way, all about the same time.L, in a fit of efficiency booked us on the Dunkirque ferry on a Friday evening, then Heather told us that traffic is horrendous on a Friday afternoon on the motorway so L got a bit stressed over that. We headed off on our way fairly early so as to avoid that Friday afternoon chaos. We got a good run to Dover, no hold-ups at all and got there in plenty of time to catch the early ferry. DFDS do put you on an earlier ferry if you arrive early and there is space. That was nice, so instead of leaving at 8pm we were already at the Dunkerque terminal where we camped the night.Next day we set off up into Belgium to get the cheap fuel on the border then across Belgium into Luxembourg, taking mostly smaller roads. We did cross into France once or twice for short sections where our route paroled the border region.Firstly, everything worked fine. Then the sat-nav began having trouble booting up. Come late in the day after we’d stopped for an afternoon cuppa it refused to boot-up at all. Have you any idea just how much we have all come to rely upon these devices. L could once navigate across Europe with only a map no better than the one we have now, we couldn’t even work out just where we were, or even in we were in France or Belgium. My goodness, something would have to be done, and quickly or we would simply grind to a halt and still not know where we were.Following a stream of traffic through a fairly large town, still have no idea what town, but it was in Belgium, L spotted a large electrical store; stoves, fridges, that sort of thing: Anyway we pulled in and went looking and soon found that they kept electronic gadgets too, and lo and behold we found sat-navs, quite a selection of them and a Garmin one that we really needed because all the ‘open street’ maps David has for Russia and Central Asia are from them and formatted only to work on a Garmin. Boy! I can tell you I heaved a massive sigh of relief when they came out with a new Garmin, I was most concerned we would be forever lost without it.Of course, all did not go smoothly, my lot then had to learn how to work this new garmin christened ‘Gertie mark 3” Mark 2 had quite a short life while Mark 1 is still going but plays up frequently.At least with this new sat-nav even if we didn’t know where we were this device would set us on the way to where we were heading, it seems my lot did know that. They are a worry I can tell you.After passing round Charleroi we headed towards Namur then along a very pretty rive valley towards Liege before leaving the valley and heading south into Luxembourg. This too, was quite a pretty route passing through a lot of forest covered hills in both Belgium and Luxembourg, we avoided all the larger towns and cities. It was a Sunday by this, lovely and sunny and warm and it seemed as if every one was out and about. there were people cycling, hiking, walking the dog, whatever, so long as it was outside. All the parking areas were packed solid with cars while their occupants were off doing whatever. Those not already parked were jamming the roads trying to get someplace where they could, though there wasn’t any real hold-up along our route just a bit slow now and again.We crossed Luxembourg in a fairly short time, it’s not very big, filled up with cheap fuel then exited into Germany across the Sauer river, then headed down though a few different river valleys into the upper reaches of the Mosel valley. There are many vineyards along this route and last year when we came along the Mosel valley, the lower reaches, the fruit had all been picked but the vines hadn’t yet began to go to sleep. This year they are only just beginning to shoot out, many showing no sign of doing so yet. There are areas with new vines and places where a new plant has replaced an old one that has been removed. We sat by the river and watched the river traffic while we had a cuppa in the shade of a lovely horse chestnut tree. David tells us that the fruit of these trees are called ‘conkers’ and that when he was a kid (bloody long time ago), he and his mates used to play with them.Crossing the Mosel river and leaving it behind we detoured around Karlsruhe and made our way south towards Biberach an der Riss where Maggie lives, keeping to the smaller roads and passing through loads of small villages where the speed limit is now often 30k’s, so that didn’t make for a fast trip I can tell you. If we’d been able to get away a couple of days earlier we would have visited Gabbi and Wilf near Stuttgart, however as it was now well into the working week we had to give them a miss and hopefully catch up with them on our return journey.Apart from that, their daughter Mary had a bad accident on her bicycle just a few days ago and is now in hospital in Karlsruhe, so we wish her a speedy recovery.In the car we have two little kettles that work via a cigarette lighter plug. Fortunately we bought both with us, L did think to leave the white one behind, just as well she didn’t. Firstly the white one packed up, then the blue one blew a fuse. After some checking David decided that it was the electrical plug for the white one that needed some re-wiring. It was new but the wiring wasn’t heavy enough for the power it was providing. The blue one would need more investigation. We had to revert to using the gas stove to heat the water for our cups of tea and coffee.Maggie and Oliver greeted us warmly at Biberach when we arrived and we enjoyed a few days in their company. I really like Maggie she appreciates me, and I, her. Not sure about Oliver, he could be a bit jealous of me getting too friendly with Maggie. I’d better watch out he’s bigger than me, and meaner, still I gave him some chocolates to help keep him sweet.One morning after a visit to the hardware store David set about repairing the plugs for the electric jugs. He got some much heavier wire and with a little ingenuity got the plugs working again, and the white jug too. The problem with the blue jug though was more terminal, in the end he decided that the element in it had blown so it got consigned to the dustbin. Oliver had to leave us, and fly over to the UK, and along with him went the good weather. The rain tipped down and it turned quite cold. It was still doing so when we took our leave of Maggie after a very pleasant visit and my lot wish to thank her and Oliver very much, for having us to stay. Me too Oliver, thanks mate! L now has to remember his birthday too, next week. This rash of birthdays L now has everyone mixed up. She is totally confused and thinks she has got Daneyl and Denise birthdays back to front; if she did so then please forgive her, she is getting a bit long in the tooth herself and gets confused easily. She should remember Heather’s on Monday the 16th and Oliver on Tuesday the 17th, but will probably get them mixed up in the future so be warned.After leaving Biberach we headed northward, the weather was supposedly better in that direction, it wasn’t. We spent a half day in Bayreuth fortunately without rain, it saved that for just as we were leaving. This is a very pretty old, small city. It has two castles, and a very lovely Opera house that is UNESCO listed and undergoing extensive restoration works. Because of the on going work we weren’t able to see inside. This city was also where Richard Wagner lived and worked. He is buried here; whether he is buried in the grounds or the building we don’t know, the place is just marked as his final resting place and there is a museum dedicated to him in the same grounds. It wasn’t open when we passed. My lot enjoyed walking around and looking at the lovely old buildings and I did some posing here and there to keep them happy.There seemed to be very few other people around considering it was a Saturday and summer is on its way, though it didn’t feel particularly like it at the time. Even the market had very few customers and that seemed odd. In front of the Rathaus (Town Hall), there is a cabinet in the street full of books. Anyone can borrow one, read it and put it back or replace it wit another book. Just help yourself; can you see that working in Australia?Still sticking to the smaller roads we continued to pass through lots more small villages, plenty of open countryside where the wheat and barely is already in head, seems very early to L, and the fields of rape in full bloom provide a brilliant splash of glaringly bright yellow, enough to brighten anyones day. Here and there are patches of forest with the dark green of the pine/spruce forests or the lighter green of the birch forests. See lots of signs for deer but have yet to spot one.Another lovely old city we visited is Leipzig. It was the demonstrations here in the latter part of the 1980’s that formed the catalyst for bringing to an end Soviet rule in this part of Germany, and bringing down the ‘Berlin Wall’. For those of you old enough to remember it, and those like my lot who are old enough to remember the Berlin Wall going up, boy that is ancient history:This time we were’t quite so lucky with the weather and it did drizzle on us for much of the time. We made our way into the centre fairly early in the morning and had to wait for the Tourist Info office to open before we could get a map. Not even Macdonalds was open but we found another nice cafe where my lot had a lovely hot chocolate and we sat and watched the rain tip down outside while we waited for the TI office to open. The rain eased off and the office opened so we got a map and headed off to see the sights. Again I had to do a lot of posing between the rain drops.There was a statue of Bach outside St Thomas’s church where he used to play the organ, Wager used to play here too so we read. In another part of the city we came across a statue of Goethe, though none of us are sure what he did.The massive train station is said to be the most attractive one in Europe, though who says this we have no idea. Still, it is a massive place with a large shopping mall on three levels inside. It was the only part of the city where we saw any number of people, it being a Sunday and a long holiday weekend, there was plenty of people passing this way.Most of the attractions are within quite a small area so it was easy to walk around and see must things despite the occasional heavy shower. I kept tucked up inside L’s coat when not required to pose here or there, so I kept dry. Still, after about 4 hours we had had enough and headed back to the car and out of the city.Now we are heading for the Polish border. L notices that the rape corps seem to be past their peak now, perhaps the rain has made them lose some of their bright yellow petals. The stormy, heavy showers keep coming, and it is really cold and windy. Everyone was wrapped up as if for mid winter in Leipzig. © Lynette Regan May 15th 2016