Early autumn holiday, 13 September 2019

Wuppertal, NRW.

The Swan Whisperer wanted to go for a run this morning, but as it was nearly 08:00 when he finally headed out the door, he only had a short one. I, meanwhile, washed, dressed, tidied up and got breakfast, and then we headed out.

We were on our way to the Neanderthal museum in nearby Mettman, which was about an hour away by public transport (bus, S-Bahn and bus). The bus dropped us just outside the museum and we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours looking round, learning not only about the Neanderthals and their culture (not that they know much about the latter) but also about human evolution in general, and the evolution of culture, science, etc. Good stuff!

We finished our museum visit with a light lunch in the café, and then headed back to Wuppertal to have a ride on the Schwebebahn

We have been here before, but there have been improvements and renovations since we were last there. All the fleet is the same model

and I think the ride is smoother. It was closed for much of the past year, following an accident, but they took the opportunity for some serious renovation.

We got off at the far end and walked (via a wool shop where I got some cotton for Christmas face - flannels and resisted some seriously reduced stuff. Almost rude not to, but I have such a queue of projects....). 

Anyway, we then walked back to the previous station via an Aldi as the SW needed milk, and then got back on the Schwebebahn to the terminus at this end of the line. We had just missed a bus so had a very greedy (and rather too sweet) ice cream

before catching the next one back to the aire. 

Early autumn holiday, 12 September 2019

Wuppertal. 

It was a much warmer night last night. For - er - digestive reasons - I had  to open the window in the middle of the night and it was really very pleasant.  Today has been much milder, too. 

The Swan Whisperer decided not to go for a run this morning because he had got so lost last night. We were not away very early, as we had to use services and so on, but once that was done we headed to Altena via the nearest shopping centre.

Altena was lovely, an industrial town on the Lenne river. It has a huge castle above the town

which you reach by means of a lift at the end of a tunnel with an exhibition in it. I don't do tunnels, and the SW, who doesn't mind them, said the exhibition was wasted on him, anyway. He did go up in the lift, but I gather it was just a lift not a funicular or anything fun like that, so I didn't bother, but after lunch we went for a walk along the street that takes you to it, which surprised us by all the shops being shut for lunch, as if it were France (just as well, in the case of the wool shop which looked lovely!). I think there had been a street market earlier but this had now finished for the day.

We walked back along the river, admiring the hanging baskets sponsored by local businesses and families,

and then it was time to move on to Wuppertal.

It was the first time for several days that we had used the motorway. I must remember to take my hearing aids out when we do this as otherwise it is very noisy and echoes through your head in a very tiring way.

We arrived in Wuppertal, to the aire we stayed in last time we were here, in nice time to have a cup of tea and have spent the rest of the time planning what we are doing tomorrow.  We  know what we're going to do but it's a question of logistics. We are going to spend two nights here and then start heading home on Saturday. 

Early autumn holiday, 11 September 2019

Balve, NRW, Germany

Didn't stir until 08:45 this morning, which meant it was quite late when we set off. Our first port of call was the town of Arnsberg, where we had originally been going to spend tomorrow night, but as it was, we only stopped for a quick shop.

Then we drive to the Sorpe dam

- the third and last of the Dam-busters little efforts, and one that did not work as it was an earthen dam, so all they succeeded in doing was to take a bite out of it.

Then we had a lovely drive, first along the lake

and then cross-country, to the town of Balve, where first we stopped by a swimming-pool to have lunch and a nap, and then we drove up here, which is just out of town but in a hotel car park where you don't have to pay if you eat in the restaurant. So we did - this time of year it's all mushrooms, so I had those with dumplings, and the SW had pork schnitzel. One item on the menu I had to use Google translate for, as it was Kaninchen, which turned out to be rabbit (I could only think puppies!), but they didn't have any. 

The SW had been out for a walk between our arrival and dinner, but I don't think it was very nice as it was raining and he got a bit lost.

I am totally confused about where we are supposed to be, as the SW keeps changing his mind, so the "laminated sheet" we usually use to tell us where we are going next is worse than useless! 

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.