I know it's been a while since my last update, I have gotten a bit slack lately!! Here is an overview of our time in Germany and I will soon follow with blogs for the rest of the trip.

From Munich we drove west and stayed in a little village near the town of Fussen where the fairytale castles of King Ludwig are. We didn't go into the castles but strolled through the village and Cara had a play in the lake nearby.

For those that don't know, King Ludwig grew up in ‪Hohenschwangau Castle‬ and when he became King he commissioned Schloss Neuschwanstein, or "New Swan on the Rock castle", a Romanesque fortress with soaring fairy-tale towers situated on a mountain above his childhood home.

King Ludwig II built Neuschwanstein Castle as a retreat and as homage to Richard Wagner, the famous composer. Contrary to common belief Ludwig paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and extensive borrowing, not with Bavarian public funds. The palace was intended as a personal refuge for him, but it was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886. The palace has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle - yes, it's the one the fairy flies around at the beginning of all Disney movies.

While we were staying in this area we went for a drive through the Alps and actually ended up going into Austria. This part of Austria is unique because it's not actually connected by road to other parts of Austria, the only way in and out is through Germany, so the whole valley is very reliant on Germany.

From Fussen we kept heading west and spent five days exploring the Black Forest. We stayed in the very touristy village of Titisee (yes everyone has a quiet chuckle at the name!) Titisee is close to the unofficial capital of the Black Forest, Freiburg, and we drove in the next day to have a look around. We explored a fair amount of the Black Forest while we were there and spent a whole day at the thermal pools in Freiburg. These pools are brilliant!! The complex consisted of about 7 pools ranging in temperature from about 33 degrees to 40 degrees C. Inside there are two large pools and four smaller spa type pools. There is another large pool that's both indoor and outdoor. In this pool there are sections of varying temperatures. It also has spa sections, massage jets and 'fountains' you can stand under and let the hot water run over your neck and back. There are noodles available for you to use and part of the large pool is a rapid flow area that goes in a circle and takes you along - so all you need to do is hold onto the noodle and float around and around and relax!

The next day (Sunday 16 September) we drove to a nearby village where there was a clock museum (the black forest is famous for cuckoo clocks). It was only a small museum so it didn't take long to look around, and as all the information was in German we were a little lost. From here we drove across to Triberg where a lot of the Cuckoo Clock shops are, to see if we could find one we liked - none really took our fancy but we got talking to one of the owners who designs and makes them himself. He told us he could design one for us, so we are still considering having this done.

The next day we drove just a few miles away to catch a chairlift to the highest ridge in the Black Forest. From the top you could see for miles and it was a great way to spend our last day in the area.

The following day we drove north to Stuttgart to see the Mercedes museum. We stayed in a caravan park about half an hour out of Stuttgart and drove in the next day to see the Museum. It was extremely well laid out - you walk in on the ground floor, buy your tickets, catch the elevator to the top floor and then slowly wind your way through the museum eventually getting back to the bottom. The museum takes you right through the history of the car and Daimler Benz. The museum is laid out like a time line and also includes other historic events coinciding with the development of the Mercedes.

We spent the morning at the museum and decided on our way back to the caravan that we should pack up that afternoon and head across toward Heidelberg. It was only an hour or two drive and we arrived in Speyer, a town just south west of Heidelberg, at about 5pm. Speyer is known for it's Technical Museum and we found out about it through Pete & Marlene Rudd who we met back in Portugal and we still keep in touch with via Skype. We found there was camping right next door to the museum, so we parked there for the night and went to the museum the next day.

The great thing about this museum is there are all sorts of large pieces of equipment that you can walk through and climb up to - such as a 747 (which you can walk out on the wing - it is suspended 25 meters up in the air), a large rescue boat, helicopters and you can also crawl though a German U boat (submarine). A big boys dream!!

We spent all morning at the technik museum and then packed up the caravan again and headed across to Bad Durkheim. We decided to stay here because our books were telling us there was a large wine festival on at this time of year, but upon arrival we found out we had missed it by 2 days! We still spent a few days at Bad Durkheim and found some more thermal baths to visit and relax in. We also drove across to a nearby village where there was a festival on for Octoberfest. We were a bit early arriving though - we got there around lunchtime but it apparently doesn't get too busy until about 4pm. But Cara still had fun going on some of the rides, including a merry go round and the big ferris wheel with Daddy.

While we were in Bad Durkheim we were trying to decide where to go next - do we go across to the Netherlands or north to Denmark? After thinking it over we decided on north and made a beeline for Hamburg. It was a little far to travel in a day so we stopped south of Hannover near the old East/West German border. In fact the location where the old wall was - which in this area was actually an electrified fence - was not that far away.

The first day we stopped here (in a little village called Walkenreid) Loche and Cara went to a museum about the wall and showcased the many attempts that were made to cross it. A homemade hot air balloon was successfully used in the 1970's. The one on display was to be used by a husband and wife in 1989, but they abandoned the idea at the last minute. Unfortunately they were caught trying to escape via a border crossing and then imprisoned. After the collapse of the wall they were freed.

Loche has become an avid fan of the Thermal pools so we found one nearby and spent the following day there. These pools were also very good and this complex included a wave pool. There were also a couple of slippery slides but they were closed for the day for maintenance.

From Walkenreid we kept heading north to Hamburg and stopped at a caravan park on the river 30km south east of Hamburg. While we were in Hamburg we visited the worlds largest miniature railway - Miniatur Wunderland. This place is unreal and now includes the worlds smallest airport with model planes taking off and landing. The trains pass through many different parts of the world including Las Vegas and Switzerland. There are chairlifts and ski jumps, a chocolate factory (that makes real Lindt chocolate) a football stadium a rock concert and so much more, too much to list and way too much to take in at once. If anyone is going to Hamburg, this is well worth a look! 3 Million Euros or around AUD $3.6 Million were spent just on the miniature airport.

While we were stopped in Hamburg we were discussing where to go for the next leg of our trip and we thought it would be great to go up to Denmark, across to Finland, down to St Petersburg and then do Eastern Europe. But for the last few weeks I had been getting over the travelling and was ready to go home. Loche came to the same conclusion while we were in Hamburg. It's funny, when we first started out on this trip I would never have thought I'd get sick of seeing new places, but after a while the 'wow' factor does wear off. We've been speaking to a few people along the way who have travelled for long periods of time and they say the same thing has happened to them. So it was here that we decided it was time to come home. We decided we would still continue up to Copenhagen, then head back down to the Netherlands, on to Belgium and back across to the UK.

Interesting facts about Mercedes Benz:

• Started by Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler
• The car Mercedes was named after the daughter of Austrian automobile entrepreneur and racing car driver Emil Jellinek
• Mercedes means grace in Spanish
• During WWII over 30,000 forced workers from concentration camps worked for Daimler Benz
• The three points on the star represent the three areas Daimler Benz built engines for: land, sea and air. It was originally a five point star
• First passenger car with ABS and Air Bags in the early 80's

Interesting facts about Miniatur Wunderland:

• 13,000 metres of track are used
• The longest train is 14.5 metres
• 46 computers are used to control this miniature world
• Countries and towns displayed include Austria, Germany (Hamburg), America (Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Rocky Mountains, Miami, Area 51), Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland & Switzerland
• Future sections planned include Italy (Rome & Venice) and France (The Mediterranean Coast, St Tropez & Monaco)