Early autumn holiday, 10 September

Engelslieth, Möhnesee.

Today has been all about the Möhnesee, which is quite a big place. After breakfast, I went to the local Edeka, which was just across the road from where we parked last night, and did a quick shop - couldn't resist apple and nut cakes in the bakery, which were, indeed, delicious.

Then we drove to the Möhne dam, which was, of course, the main dam that got busted and which did the most damage, but it is still imposing, even now. The lake is huge and placid, and probably teeming on summer weekends, but quite quiet midweek. 

And although it is only September, it is very much cooler than since years, and I am regretting not having packed pyjamas and jeans/cords rather than summer nighties and linen trousers. Of course, the forecast is for it to get nicer and nicer just as we go home! But this morning it was cold enough that we needed to give the heating a blast before we got up.

After the dam, we drove  on, but the Swan Whisperer realised he'd made a mistake and we couldn't go round the South side of the lake, so we parked in a random nature reserve off a side road to have lunch, being very amused by two Dutch lorries whose Satnavs obviously wanted them to drive through the reserve....

Then we drove on, retracing our steps to the main road, across the lake and through the village of Stockum. I said I thought we'd been there before, but the Swan Whisperer didn't think so - until we saw the car park where we had stopped for lunch about 15 months ago and bought sausages from the kiosk, which turned out to be on a plate by themselves so we were glad we had bought bread!

We have ended up in an aire in this place called Engelslieth. It's free, but no services, and, amazingly, there is another British camper van here - we don't often see them in Germany. 

And because I have taken almost no photos today, here is our drive with supper cooking on it! 

Early autumn holiday, 9 September 2019

Brilon.

This morning we decided to visit a spa bath just outside Bad Wildungen, so after the usual morning chores we headed off to the QuellenTherme. To be honest, we were rather disappointed. It was badly laid out with no signposts telling you what was where, the showers were by the pool, not the changing-rooms, ditto the loos, nobody told us where we could hire robes or towels. And none of the whirlpooly bits were in use except for the jacuzzi. As a spa, it was a pleasant swimming-pool, but not a patch on, say, the Rupertusbad at Bad Reichenhall. Still, we had a nice swim and enjoyed the jacuzzi, and then came back into the town to have a look at the Old Town

and have some lunch in a random restaurant.

After which we decided to drive round the Edersee, and given that this holiday is half over and we've only seen one of the dams, it was time to move on. Tomorrow we visit the Moehne dam, which was the main one that was busted. 

Early autumn holiday, 8 September 2019

Bad Wildungen. 

We seem to have slightly run out of ideas today, so we decided to go to the town of Bad Wildungen where are have parked up in one of the nicest aires we have yet found.

However, before we did that we went for a walk around Fritzlar,

such a pretty town, using Google Translate to tell us about some of the buildings that had plaques on

- so weird to hold ones phone in front of a plaque and then read it in quasi-English!

We were able to find a bakery that was open to get rolls for lunch, and also some plum crumble tarts,

and then back to the van

for coffee before heading off to Bad Wildungen, where we had our lunch and a rest, and we were going to go round the Old Town but it rained. So we didn't, although I think the SW went for a walk - I caught up on sleep! 

Early autumn holiday, 6 and 7 September 2019

Fritzlar.

I am very unimpressed with my phone. For the past two days it has refused to find 4g signals, with the result that most of my apps haven't worked. I have now forced it to find a perfectly good 4g signal and am back in communication, but the  draft blog post I made  in WPS Office, and I know I saved, has vanished!

So yesterday we first of all did a bit of shopping (Federweisse!), and got diesel, which we were annoyed about as the service station that had been selling it at €1.16 per litre the previous day had put it up to €1.22 overnight.

We then drove to Battenberg, which was disappointing as the aire was a long way out of town (although a lovely view)

and, despite its royal connections, there appeared not to be a great deal to see or do.

So we decided to visit the source of the Ruhr, which was not far away. The nearest access road was closed, as was the car park, because of road works, but you could, and we did, park up at the ski centre which was roughly a 2km walk from the source. So we trudged up there - and it was a bit of a trudge - finding a random adventure playground in the middle of nowhere

and fording what was to become the river, dry-shod.

The source itself was pleasant,

although not exactly brimming with water,

and I was pleased that there were seats provided before the walk downhill, which was rather cold, but enlivened by making friends with this lady:

We then drove to Frankenberg where the aire was in a swimming - pool car park, and hoped to swim this morning, but it was so wet and cold we didn't even consider it, but went shopping after breakfast and then drove up to the Eder dam, or as near to it as one can get in a motor home. These drives, and the little towns one goes through or stops at, are all so pretty. Well, the outskirts are less so, with their petrol stations and supermarkets and do on, but those are at least useful! And once beyond them, the towns are lovely.

As we did not stop at Battenberg, we are a day ahead of ourselves and have come to lovely Fritzlar, one of our favourite places 24 hours earlier than expected. The SW, needless to say, has gone for a walk, and I am looking forward to one in the morning. 

Early autumn holiday, 5 September

Siegen. 

The USP of Freudenberg turns out to be the half-timbered houses in its centre, built all at once after fire destroyed them not once, but twice, most recently in the 17th century (like Blandford Forum) and modernised in the 1970s.

After we had spent a pleasant half hour wandering around, we found a large supermarket, so the SW went for a walk and I did a bit of shopping. The pumpkins are in 

but no sign of any Federweisse as yet, alas. It will come soon, I expect. 

After that, we got some beer from the off-licence across he car park, and then headed on. We wanted the Satnav to take us into Siegen on our way to Netphen, which it duly did, but somehow missed the car park we were aiming for and I send to have misprogrammed it so while we thought it was taking us to Netphen, it thought we were going somewhere else! That got sorted out in the end, but alas, the aire in Netphen wouldn't do. It was a car park for a spa pool, but alas, the pool was closed for a couple of weeks which meant that the services were also out of use. It would have been nice! 

So we came away and back to this aire on the outskirts of Siegen, which is OK but rather full. I was very tired by then and totally out of cope, so had a nap and felt a bit better. 

But why are all the museums once would like to go to never open when one is in town? There are two here, neither open tomorrow! 

Early autumn holiday, 4 September 2019

Freudenberg

This morning we were our usual lazy selves and it was gone 10 before the Swan Whisperer went for another walk along the river he likes so much and I walked to DM (a German drugstore chain, like Superdrug only more so) and then to Lidl. It was a very pleasant walk, only had I known there was a Netto in the same car park as the DM, I'd have suggested we went there as our first stop and saved myself for what was to come.

The SW had decreed that we were going to visit Köln, and had found a P&R on the outskirts of the city, from which one could get a tram or a train into the city proper.

The first time I visited the city was almost exactly 49 years ago, and it wasn't until I re-read a piece I had written at the time that I discovered we had been taken on a cable car across the Rhein. I had absolutely no memory of any such thing, but it was still there, so we went on it. Much better value for money than the Dangleway, and lovely views across the river. 

We wished, when we got to the other side, that we had our swimming things with us, as there was a spa bath which looked lovely. However, we didn't, so we contented ourselves with a walk in the park before returning. 

We then went to the Hauptbahnhof and the SW had a very quick look at the Cathedral before we caught an S-Bahn back to the P&R (and we would have got a tram had we known the lift was not working - my knees do not like stairs. 

I fell asleep during the rather slow, rush hour drive to this little town, which I believe has some pretty houses to look at tomorrow. Sadly, the museum is only open at weekends, but I expect we shall have a pleasant walk. 

Early autumn holiday, 3 September

Düren, Germany

Today was one long drag across France 🇫🇷 and Belgium 🇧🇪, before arriving in Germany 🇩🇪.  I had bought some mirabelle plums in Carrefour when I went in there before we set off, so my first job was to render them into compôte while the SW went for a walk. 

This is not the nicest aire, but we have been here before and the SW likes it because it is near a river.