Today we left the rainy Harz mountains behind and rejoined the fairy tale road. We saw "Rapunzal's tower" we think. Not quite how I'd expected it but nice all the same - see photo! We have a bit of a problem trying to make sure we're seeing what we think we are as everything is in German and they're not very sympathetic to English speakers! So sometimes we might just be making it up, but we're happy!

The drive down was lovely -�passing through lots of pretty villages nestled in little hollows with woods here and there. So many of the buildings are half-timbered so all very attractive. And of course it helped that the sun had finally come out! We are now staying beside the Edersee which is a lake near Kassel - its very nice so Gordon made a good choice - I had to say that as he's complaining I keep running him down but it's all for entertainment value!

We have been sampling some local wines as all we know of German wine is Leibraumilch - yuk! We tried a red Spatzburgunder which was alright but a bit sweet but amazingly the whites we have tried have been OK so far - one Reisling and something like a Katzundmeiss wine though I might have spelt that wrong. The German speaking has generally been OK and Gordon has excelled himself with picking up vocabulary concerning beer - Dunkl, Kristall, Pilsner etc, I'm very impressed!

Just to finish todays update, there has been some comments on the cost of wine etc in the various countries we've been in. As expected Norway was by far the most expensive however Sweden was actually the cheapest so far. Denmark and Germany are about the same as the UK though of course everywhere is cheaper�for petrol. This will all hopefully get cheaper as we go East.

G' chance to write a few words. Forget the price of wine. The sun shone most of today and we headed off down lake (walking) to see what we could find. Edersee is a pretty big lake, with lots of boats going up and down between the various towns and villages. Big dam at the end, (about 5k from our start point) probably last visited by Brits around 1943 ! (in fact the museum outside did have pictures of a night during the war with lights, planes, flack and all that stuff (of course we wandered around speaking fluent German so nobody was any the wiser and we didn't have to feel embarrssed about the war). Anyway enough of that...best bit of the day was a trip to a "wild park" which we stumbled across on the way back. We were luck to arrive just as the resident "falconers" exercised their birds for the people around at the time. We've added a video to the site which shows better than I can describe what it was like and a few pictures. Incredible to be so up close to birds of prey as they flew between the handlers. Most incredible is that they came back at all, particularly as there were a few wild kites, buzzards etc in the same area. All in all this was one of the best bits of the trip so far.

Back on the road tommorow, finish the fairytale road and off to the Rhine Valley...more soon.