Tuesday 31st July - The Eagles Nest

Morning brought us another friend, this time Marvin the mouse! We left out a loaf of bread last night which now had the corner nibbled off all the way down.  He was trying to get into the cool bag but thankfully that was too much for him.  He was very cute though, but once we'd all been introduced we scared him away.

It was off to the Eagles nest today, to see where Hitler had been, to walk where he had walked.
Rich was incredibly overexcited, once we'd finally found somewhere to park the van, we got our bus tickets and had 20 mins to browse the souvenir shop (great marketing!)
Rich was skipping about like something out of Monty Python!
We boarded the buses for the steep winding road up to the eagles nest.  It was on this journey that we realised why they don't allow the public to drive up.  Not only was it too narrow for 2 vehicles but it required  a professional driver to get up there, a 100 ft drop on one side, cliff face on the other.
On arrival at the top we went down a long cold arched hallway to the brass elevator (kids were very disappointed it wasn't a glass elevator but that'll teach them to listen properly!) which took you 142m up to the eagles nest.
We spent an hour climbing around on the rocks, up to the highest points above the eagles nest, finding cold caves and generally messing about.
It was way past lunch so we decided to splash out on a meal at the restaurant (although could have been that there was simply no room at the outdoor cafe) it was delicious!
During the meal we discovered a keyhole in the wall, perhaps a secret Nazi cupboard? (or maybe just a place to store the napkins?)

We got the bus back down and finally Rich was calm again.
All of us were hot and bothered so we decided to go to an outdoor pool, this was different though it was more like  lake with diving boards, great rock and logs or just a beach to get in from.  It had slides and water fountains and even a wooden bridge, the kids had an amazing time just jumping in and out of it, we could easily have spent an entire day there!

We stayed until they closed up then headed back to the tent.  This time decided to pack away most of the stuff before we went to bed.
Great idea!

Monday 30th July -to Konigsee

A quick coffee and bread with jam meant a relatively quick get away, 9.30am!
We headed for Bad Tolz, hoping to catch a glimpse if not a go on the log raft which we'd read about but after too long trying to work out where they actually go from, we decided to give up.
From Bad Tolz Rich saw a sign for the Alpine Road - "Lets follow the signs", so we did, but rather than heading north or even East, it took us South to within a few miles of where we started the day!  When we realised the only way to get to where we wanted was to head north!  Almost 3 hours driving and we'd gone virtually no distance at all!

Having wasted so much time we had to bypass Chimesee, although saw a lot of it through the window.

Finally at 4pm we made it to Konigsee and set up camp.  The tent was still wet from packing it away in the rain - stinky, nearly as bad as all the muck spreading we'd passed!

We had sausages for the first time on out camping stove tonight, that was interesting, with fried eggs which kept sticking after the sausages had been cooked in the same pan.  We also had cheese on toast to finish the meal off, does that count as balanced? We also tried to warm up some garlic foccacia which we'd brought, but that was not successful, I think maybe the charcoal BBQ would've been a better option tonight.

Must remember to poach eggs in the future, after our pancakes though I assumed the pan would be fine.
We went for a walk to the lake hoping for a quick swim, took wetsuits and everything but it was more of a port with cafes & biergartens surrounding the lake, so instead we followed the path to a view point across the lake to a perfectly placed peak in the distance, which was stunning.

After a quick rehydration stop at the docks we headed back.  Ed spotted a bat flying around and they named him Steve Bat'shaw (deadly 60?).  He tried in vain to take a photo of it, even though we had assured him it would be impossible, but finally we persuaded him to have a quick read before bed.

Sunday 29th July - Ettal

Our aim was a knights tournament today but as we woke up the heavens opened & the storm hit.  Was it worth 150euros to possibly get soaked all day?
So we decided not to bother.  When packing up we managed to unhook the pulley which helps unfold the front seats. So when we pulled in for breakfast stop, MacDonalds (McCafe) do great croissants and lattee here, we tried to fix it.  Together with a further lattee and a wifi upload we spent almost 2 hours between the Aldi car park & McD's




There was more heavy traffic but we finally made it to Ettal, near Oberammergau and had a peacefeul time looking around the abbey with its amazing paintings and gold statues.

Then it was off again in search of a lake & tonights camp.  We passed through Wallgau near Wallchansee lake a gorgeous place which we really should return to.  Amelie & Rich did some bridge jumping.

We found an ubernacht parking place & as it was late, quickly got out the cooker for tea.

Meanwhile the kids and Rich walked through the forbidden forest to the lake, we ate instant noodles, saucy bangers (sharing a single fried egg) and a great mug of tea!! bliss.

Once we were all stuffed we packed up and wandered around to the lake this time along a much more pleasant road for a bit more stone throwing and "lets pretend ..."
A few spells later and it was back to the van for a good nights sleep.  Finally cooler with a few more downpours in the night meant the chief snorer got a great nights sleep!

Saturday 28th - The castles!

Our plan was to zip across to castle Neuschwanstein then move on towards Oberammergau, however it was no to be.  Firstly we got stuck on the motorway for over an hour and didn't make it to the castles till lunchtime.
We used our loaf of soda bread (not popular choice) to feed the ducks and swans at the lake before making our way up the hill to the Hohenschwangau, the honey coloured castle.
Amelie & I had to go to the little girls room, so left the boys looking at the map on a hill.  When we returned they had disappeared, assuming they had carried on we went all the way to the top to "catch up".  We watched the horse drawn carriages trudging up the steep hill, but when we got to the castle they were still nowhere to be seen.  No way they could've gone on a "tour" of the castle as I had the money, so we headed back down the hill.  Half way down we stopped for a break, we waited for a while and finally they turned up!! They'd been playing by the lake - joy!

So off we set again to the top, this time for a proper look around. King Ludwig may have been slightly crazy but he had some inspired visions about castles!!

Then it was off to Neuschwanstein on the other side of the valley, a long walk up, could anything really be worth this walk??! We'd already seen from a distance that the castle was half covered in scaffolding, but when we finally got there it was truly amazing.  We went to all the view points, took photos, wandered around the parts we could without a ticket, but it was St Mary's bridge which had the money shot! All the pictures you've ever seen of this castle were taken from there.

We walked further, the bridge crosses a gorge over an enormous waterfall.  The bridge was not solid, the wooden rails moved as you walked on them. Edward kept commenting on how much they moved as he jumped or the rickety feeling bridge! - joy
The view of the castle however was amazing, the scaffolding was on the opposite side, from here it looked spectacular. Rich insisted on taking a video for Granma, which took far too long for my liking, but even he was getting shaky and had to grab the hand rails a few times. Finally we made it back to solid ground, relief, sweet relief.  Rich wanted to go into the gorge and walk around, so I said he was welcome, we'd meet him at the van! We parted ways and headed down the hill, we took our time and looked in a few shops at the quality souvenirs, almost brought Rich an apron with the outline of a buxom lady holding 2 large beers, but resisted!!
He caught up with us as we were nearing the car park, which was lucky as I had realised (too late)  that he was carrying the keys!
Everyone was hot and had very tired feet so we headed back to the lake to cool off.
Rich & the kids went for a swim while boring mum paddled and "guarded" the clothes and bags!
Eventually we headed back to the van & the camp site, it was late and raining so we ate at the snack bar, bratwurst, curry bratwurst & a couple of hache steaks.  It was set up like a traditional beer halle with long tables and benches.  There was a disco going on and we joined in for one of the dances after dinner - lots of fun!!!

Friday 27th July - Ski jump and Lindau

 didn't write a diary today! 

We went to another port called Lindau, where instead of building beautiful cornicing (well it'll only go out of fashion!) they painted it on, everywhere, it was amazing! 

We went to the lighthouse (costs money to go up!) and watched the boats and ducks from the harbour wall.

We also found the longest summer Rodelbahn, amazing, can't get enough rodelbahns  

We also went to the olympic ski jump at Oberstdorf, wow Eddie the Eagle must have had balls of steel to get on that slope, who needs a gold medal, just surviving is a complete result!

Thursday 26th - Meersberg

Tempted to spend another day by the pool and just chill out, Rich persuaded us to visit Meersburg, a small port town; so off we set, we'd searched for Amelie's missing purple croc but to no avail, so looked for somewhere to buy some cheap sandals.  We spotted an intersport with a pair for 3 euros - bargain. When we went inside though we found a pair of crocs for 20 euros, the perfect colour so after some negotiations we decided Gez & Emily's birthday money would be well spent on these.  As she was so lacking in footwear I decided to get the sandals too and they turned out to be 1euro even bigger bargain!!
We were on our way with one very happy girl.
It took sometime to find a parking spot but eventually we did, first stop was a beautiful church with an amazing painted ceiling. While Rich described the length of the paint brushes needed to pait such a high ceiling with Edward, I found Amelie sat quietly by the candles. I sat with her and we said a prayer for an old friend of my parents who had passed away.

We strolled through the streets which were filled with toy shops & one which sold beautiful Christmas decorations (love a bit of festive charm in July!), sadly they would certainly have broken if we attempted to get one home in the van but she does deliver to the uk so maybe later!!
After some browsing &  saunter round the old and nueue schloss we made it to the port tired and hot.
Further along we could see people jumping off a platform into the sea ... that looked like fun!
There was an outdoor pool, well 2 and a "pathway" out into the lake for a very cold swim to the platform.
Amelie was the first off and after some coaxing Edward followed her.  He was not so excited when he landed and preferred to swim in pool where he could see the bottom, so we made our way in while the nutters had another jump!
The pool was lovely with small diving steps then a kids pool with a slide, rapids and a huge water mushroom to play in.
After lots more diving, a bit of lizard lounging, a bit more diving Rich heroically went to get the van (time was out on the meter) and pick us up, so we had a portion of pommes and a serious game of giant chess, which closely resembled wizard chess with pieces being smashed off the board and sent flying.

Then it was back home via lidl, sweetcorn on the cob, late night swim, shower then bed!!


 

Wednesday 25th

A real day of rest this time!
Today we sat by the pool, swam, read and enjoyed the sunshine and at about 2pm a really big truck rumbled by, then another, followed by some black clouds loitering over the hill..... maybe it wasn't a truck?

We packed our bags and ran back to the tent, managed to get all the washing off the line just before the storm hit!
Time for lunch I reckon!
So we had lunch and the storm died down. Rich actually made the comment "that's nothing we'll get some real storms when we're near the mountains!" at which point the sky flashed and rumbled some more.  This time we had to get anything not waterproof off the floor, I even put the dry washing in the van, just in case!
Finally it quietened and we went back to the pool for a final swim, there was a childrens disco going on over the fence and Amelie stood there watching like a waif left out in the rain.
I took her round and we found where it was coming from.  At first she wouldn't join in until the Hokey Cokey came on. She said she didn't have any shoes so I stole Ed's crocs as he was now out of the pool and looking through the fence! She got up and did not take her eyes off the lady who was doing the dancing, she was hooked!
Even when the rain came back & the other children ran for cover she stayed it out and danced till the end.
Even after all that, sh saw the indoor play area and wanted to go there so rushed back, got Ed and some shoes and they played there till dinner.  Omelettes followed by pancakes! Guess who was trying to use up all the eggs?! We all slept in the tent, bit cosy but it was a great night.

Tuesday 24th July - Lake Constance

Over breakfast we decided that yesterday fulfilled our spa expectations and saved us around 100euros, so instead of hanging around for another day we headed to Lake Constance.
It seemed a shame to spend a beautiful day in the van but this is not the UK, hopefully we'll get more nice days!?
After a couple of hours we arrived at Lake Constance - beautiful.  We headed to the cool camping site only to find it jam packed.
Another drive around and we realised that parking was a big issue and pricey too.
We found a layby with direct access to a beach and relaxed for a while near the lake. After plenty of snorkelling for Rich and the kids and lots of reading by me (bit chilly in the water today) we demolished a watermelon and decided we should find a proper campsite with showers and a laundrette.  Cool camping had an alternative site further inland, but with a heated pool and great facilities so we decided "who needs the lake when you have a pool?!".

Luckily they had space and we could set up camp properly, we actually slept in the tent this time as we could eat ad cook outside.
We looked at a couple of spots onsite and decided that the one next to the play park and close to the "facilities" was a great option, watch the kids play from the comfort of your own arm chair. (delusional about the comfort factor of my camping chairs already!!)

Monday 23rd July - Spa day??

Off we went once again for the spa at Baden Baden, this time we packed up our pitch - no rush we knew we were going and we only planned to stay a couple of hours, so a final play in the park while Rich tried the wifi @ the information centre to download emails & update facebook!
Then we were off dreaming of steam rooms and massages but honestly just dreaming of a really good shower that wouldn't turn to ice when the 50cents ran out! Surely in an hour or so I'd finally be really clean again?!

As we made our way over the mountain we saw the outdoor pool we'd seen enroute to Europa park yesterday what a perfect setting in the mountains, turquoise waters it surely must be some fancy hotel?  Then we passed a sign "solar schwimmbad", could it be public??
we turned around, went up the wrong street, half way up the mountain track till we had space to turn round, back down the correct road and there it was nestled on the side of a mountain, the perfect swimming pool.
We decided to leave the spa for another day!
The pool was not heated, it was freezing!!- well 19 degrees apparently but took your breath away!
The kids did not manage to get used to it and played, then came out and lay like lizards to warm up in the sunshine, it was bliss.  I sat and read my book, popping in for the odd swim now and then and felt refreshed and a bit cleaner
We had some lunch from the cafe and just relaxed till the sun went down behind the mountain. 7.30pm no idea where we would stay and no food - we needed a supermarket!
We headed towards Baden Baden AGAIN and once again we didn't make it to the spa.  Just after our supermarket stop we spotted a sign for an official campervan wild camp - no showers, no toilets but it was next to a park for the kids to play - no problem ... unless... ED needed a number 2 and refused to try doing it in the bushes, so I walked down to the pub , all the way at the bottom of the hill with him, popped in looking sheepish then had to wait for 20 mins for him to finish! difficult to look innocent after that!
Thinking that we could get an early night & dreaming of my bed as we trudged up the hill, I felt an itch on my leg, after a few more steps I itched it to find a huge horse fly - ouch!
We got back to discover Rich had decided we were going to try and drive to that castle on the hill, to watch the sunset!
We tried 3 routes but all were closed to vehicles, no go so disappointed we went back and finally got to sleep!

Sunday 22nd - A day of rest?

Ermm maybe not! Our plan was a day at the spa in Baden Baden. En route to the spa it was such a beautiful day it seemed a shame to spend it inside.
Plan B was let's do Europa park today!
We went to Baden Baden anyway to find where the spa was, after an hour of searching we finally found it.
Time was marching on so off we went thinking that Europa park closed at 6pm so we may even pop into the spa for an hour on the way home as it closed at 10pm!
Finally we got close to the park and decided it was time to tell the kids, talk about excited, they went crazy!  We gave them a map and they decided what they wanted to go on.
The park was busy and there were long queues so we negotiated which were the BEST rides and therefore worth waiting for, still under the impression it closed at 6pm which gave us 6 hours of fun!

Ride number 1 had a 100minute wait! - no way.

The queues were well thought out though and it was fun, which meant the time passed easier but still 10 minutes is a long time.
The rides were great, after the first we went for the biggest roller coaster that they were allowed on, The Blue Fire! 70 minute wait. I offered very generously to get lunch while they queued so searched the park for something that was filling but not sweets In Italy land I found pizza - perfect!

After a few more long queues we went to Welt da Kinder, loads of big slides and climbing frames with sand! Rich & I relaxed while the kids played, no queues = no stress!

By this time we realised that the park would be open till 9pm so we were more relaxed at taking our time, we went on the Blue Fire again later when it only had a 35 minute wait, we finally left the park between 9.30-10pm! tired kids, tired adults one final piece of pizza to keep us going and only a mild concern that the campsite said no driving after 11pm!
We got back around midnight, luckily we weren't actually locked out so we VERY quietly got back to our pitch, reversing in silently in the dark was a bit tricky but we made it! - sleep.

Saturday 21st July - Poppeltal

Another wet start for us, thank goodness for the awning.  Supplies were running low so a quick baked bean breakfast would have to suffice!
We started the day at the information centre which had a market/ food festival going on. Loads of stalls selling cheese, mustard, sweets breads etc then a  places making blueberry pancakes with jam and cinnamon sugar. We had a grilled wurst each which was delicious and sat in the park away from the festivities!  On our wayout we found a play area where the children could build dams and reroute water through a series of channels, a simple idea but kept them amused for hours! we finally dragged them away with the promise of a sommer rodelbahn and they soon followed.

By now the weather was beginning to clear so we got on our walking gear and walked up to Poppeltal, it was about 10km but along a river and through a forest which makes it more like fun!

Sadly when we arrived the Rodelbahn was closed due to the rain, so we hung around, had a toasted ham and cheese baguette and chips to share. Our patience paid off and finally it opened up. Edward went on his own and Amelie went with Rich on their first go - I was photographer! They came down saying "again, again!" so the second time round I go to have a go - whoop whoop!

The weather was looking a bit dodgy for the walk back and luckily there was a bus due in 10 mins so Rich gave in and let us catch the bus, they even let Amelie and Edward on with their walking sticks possibly regretted it when Rich managed to press the disabled help button as he sat down 10 seconds after we'd pulled away!
With the possibility of buying more provisions we searched the shops - all closed?! we returned to the market which was still in full swing, but nothing took our fancy so the kids had another play with the water before we discovered a feet sensory path so the kids whipped off their boots and socks. It started in a cold water pool then followed a path around with varying sized stones - sand on the path, over a wooden bridge onto a grass bank then back to the pool for a rinse off.
Once we finally got them away Ed decided he was STARVING and after a couple close calls we dragged them away from the sweet stall and back to the campsite for pasta and sauce although once at the camp playpark the starvation obviously disappeared and they had to be dragged off that to eat again!