Oui - Finally an Update!

Blergh! The power inverter we were using to charge my laptop in the van died, so now I can only  charge my laptop when we pay for camping, and then the battery is so crap it doesn't last long so I have to ration my laptop usage! Luckily Zac has his ipad but he hogs it and I can't do my blog on it - grrrr.... we'll have to sort something out but basically this is my excuse for not having updated my blog for some time...

Our first night in Switzerland we spent in a camp ground in Zurich on the lake. This was also our first introduction to some of the prices in Switzerland that we had been warned about, when the campground employees told us that 1 night sleeping in our van was going to cost around 45 Swiss Francs, more than double what we’ve been used to paying. Luckily when they saw the looks on our faces they said we could have a “bad weather” discount  and pay 30 Swiss Francs for the night instead.

Zurich city we drove in circles for ages trying to fnd a park and eventually gave up and drove to a mall on the outskirts instead, but on the way back we stumbled across one of the most awesome flea markets either of us have seen, hidden away behind an old service station, they sold anything and everything you could think of and I could’ve stayed there all day.

We then drove from Zurich to Lucerne which is such a beautiful little town where we wandered through the old cobbled streets and had two coffees that cost $5 Aussie each (!) although they were some of the yummiest creamy coffees we've ever had.

Our coffee spot in Lucerne

 We stayed in a camping place just outside of Zermat Switzerland which is home of the famous ski- resort which includes Switzerland’s highest peak, Matterhorn . The one thing we unfortunately overlooked though is that it appears to be a ski-resort tailored to the rich and famous, and we have a modest budget this trip, which doesn’t include 90 Swiss Francs for entry into an ice-bar full of beautiful ice-sculptures. The town of Zermat itself is car free, which is a great idea, but it means that we have to pay 30 Swiss Francs just to get there. Zac was frantically looking on the internet for another ski-field we could use in Switzerland that was still open this late in the season and that won’t cost us an arm and a leg, which included one which was actually back in Liechtenstein.

The drive to Zermat was through some of the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen, sadly the weather was a bit drizzly and there was low cloud over much of the mountains marring the views.

Our camping spot near Zermat

 During our night camping we heard bell klanging noises and after investigating we discovered that in the small barn next to the house that was in the grounds, a family of sheep were keeping out of the cold...cute!

Peek-a-boo

Swiss sheep with bells around their necks keeping warm

We decided the best place for snowboarding that wasn't heading back where we'd already come from would be France - yay! So the next couple of nights we spent in the French Alps free-camping in the carpark of the ski-resort. The drive from Switzerland to France included a section where our car had to be put onto a train to be taken through a tunnel for 15 minutes and on the other side of the tunnel where we came out the weather was perfect - score!

The drive through France was beautiful and with clear blue skies and perfect views as far as the eye could see - very lucky...

Our 1st night camping in the French Alps

A baguette so big it came with its' own box

It was so much fun being in France and saying 'Bonjour' & 'Merci' to everybody, it's just such a beautiful language I love hearing it spoken. Zac has a 'thing' against French people which I was hoping a visit to France would help him see beyond, and luckily all the French people we met were super friendly and helpful, all except one French lady in Switzerland who dobbed us into the caravan park owners after we tried to use their laundry facilities for free and was telling us off in French even though we clearly didn't understand what she was saying. Was quite funny actually. I think because this lady was technically Swiss and not French, and because it's only one 'bad' French experience out of many, that this trip has definately helped open zacs mind - at least a little...



Our last night camping in France by a river



Austria and more!

It is 7am in Bregenz Austria on Lake Constance (Bodensee) and we have woken to the lovely surprise of snow all around us. Yesterday was pouring with rain as we drove through Austria from Tirol to Voralberg then through the 6th smallest country in the world, Leichtenstein, and then skimmed through the edge of Switzerland then back to Austria to settle at this spot on the lake. Three countries in one day is not bad going, and considering Liechtenstein is only 25 km long and 6 km wide, it was not a hard feat. 

With the weather so wet the visibility has been bad and therefore I wasn't keen on traveling through much of Switzerland until I could actually see it since its famous scenic beauty is the reason we're here! We plan to make our way from here across Switzerland to Matterhorn to do another day of snow-boarding so fingers crossed as today gets older the visibility will also improve so we can continue on.

Our free camping spot right near the chair-lift in Obertauern, Austria. Snowboarding in Austria rocks!

After we left our pet-sitting job last week we headed to the Bavarian national park which borders the Czech Republic and is the largest national park in Europe. It was a perfect time of year there as the ground was still covered in snow. There's a wildlife park over a 7km loop track through the forest which included enclosures for bears, wildcats, wolves etc, basically all the animals which used to be found running wild in the forest but can now only be found in captivity, a bit sad but there was a success story about the Lynx's who's numbers increased in captivity and they were able to release a population back into the wild a few years ago.

All the signs were carved into wood

Tuesday we arrived in Salzkammergut Austria, I had been here before and so knew it was a spot Zac would love and was definitely worth visiting again. It was a funny feeling driving through Austria on some of the same roads I drove my motorbike on a few years earlier, awesome memories...

The inside of our van - unfortunately it doesn't usually look this tidy- and yes I went crazy at Ikea straight after I brought the van!

Thursday we popped across to Italy to have a pizza and Italian coffee in a town near Bolzano, but nearer the border,  where they still spoke German as well as Italian. It was the most awesome yummy pizza ever and my coffee was great except it was pint sized (a macchiato), apparently that's how they like it in Italy. The weather was beautiful and almost reached 30 degrees so we enjoyed our lunch and a beer outside in the sunshine.

Now off to Switzerland for more snowboarding and plenty more chocolate eating!

Black, White & Czech

During the last few days we've managed to visit several towns within an hours drive of Kaltenbrunn including Nuremberg, Regensburg, and just yesterday we spent the day in the town of Cheb in the Czech Republic. 

Nuremberg

Ruins of Kallmunz Castle near Regensburg

Awesome that we are so close to the border that we were able to 'pop' over to the Czech Republic just for a day. Was super awesome when we went to the supermarket and saw how much cheaper everything was, except I forgot that even though they are part of the EU that they still have there own currency, so we weren't able to confirm this fact until we got back out to the car and checked the conversion rate in our guidebook. I have been to the Czech Republic before but Zac wouldn't take my word for it when I said things were cheaper, which was fair enough considering the whole time before we arrived I was telling him they use the Euro.

Just outside the town of Cheb there are a few lakes which are popular in Summer and we also fell upon a random 'Amerika' themed petting zoo and small wildlife park. There were a couple of Snow owls which pulled the most hilarious faces.

Czech flavoured milk - yum

We've both fallen in love with Darcie, she is just the sweetest little thing, she always wants to be on one of our laps, or at least as close to us on the chair or couch as possible. I am her overall favorite (naturally) but over this week she has also warmed to Zac. They look extra super cute together because he's so big and she's so little.

It's bittersweet that we're about to leave this pet-sitting assignment, say good-bye to Darcie, and continue on our way. I wish we could bring Darcie with us but I'm also excited to see where we end up next. The plan is loosely to head to the Alps and try to get some snow-boarding in before the end of the season.

Exploring the forest in snow

The cars being running so well (touch wood) and I've even named him 'Gunter' as it suits. Yesterday we decided to drive from Kaltenbrunn, where we're staying, towards the Czech border and the Bavarian State Forest. Zac just typed in 'mountain peak' into the GPS (which is using Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice ofcourse!) and one came up as being just over 20km away so we thought we'd just try it out of curiosity. Even just the drive getting there was beautiful with some amazing views from hilly areas right over the Czech border.

Actually where we're staying is slightly north of here, but you get the idea...

So many cute little villages everywhere and many streams, rivers and lakes.

This lake is still frozen in the middle

We kept following where Arnie told us to go until the road changed into an unsealed road and was covered in snow so, even though Zac was egging me on to drive through the snow I didn't want to get stuck, so we then got out and walked the rest of the way.

The end of the road for Gunter but beginning for us on foot

It was beautiful walking through the forest with snow on the ground and it was surprising how thick the snow still was and was quite deep in some areas so we had to be careful our socks didn't get wet because we were both just wearing our sneakers. Although at one point Zac stepped onto a 'frozen' stream which broke under his footing so he had wet socks within 20mins of leaving the car, boys eh?! 

A little cabin/bunker we found

lynx?

These hunting posts are all through the forest

Zac took this photo with a new filter he brought so I can't take the credit for it

 I can't remember the last time Zac and I went hiking together, we were exploring the forest for around an hour and walked maybe 3 kms or more. Zac was full of energy the whole time and kept remarking on how good it was to be able to walk so far and not get sweaty at all. I saw an opportunity to slip in a remark about how if we lived here permanently, life would often be like this, pretty sure he saw straight through it but I don't like to miss an opportunity...

Pet-sitting Assignment Number 2

Recently we arrived in Kaltenbrunn for my second pet/house-sitting job. This one is for a lovely mini dachshund named Darcie for an American couple who work on the nearby US army base.

She is such a sooky little sweet thing she gives you "the look" when she wants to get up onto your lap (which is often).

Darcie giving "the look" - how could anybody resist that face??

We took Darcie with us for an explore of the nearby village of Amberg which is amazing with a medieval old town centre which still has sections of the old city wall/fortress intact. Walking Darcie around the old cobble stone streets was so much fun and everybody looks at her and smiles or asks about her. We met a lovely older lady who had a Dachshund following very slowly behind her which we found out was 14 years old.

We had lunch but sat outside the restaurant to eat as we weren't sure about whether Darcie was allowed inside or not which turned out to be completely unwarranted as we saw patrons coming out from inside the restaurant with little dogs and even dogs as big as a Labrador. It cracks me up here how dogs are allowed to go pretty much wherever their owners go - we took Darcie into a big electronics store the size of Harvey Norman and people just looked at her and smiled.

 So far so good on the Zac front as he has been loving every minute of Germany, and especially loving the cold, although the snows pretty much all melted around the towns so he's keen to head to a higher altitude to see decent snow. He's doing pretty well with the language too as he will ask me how to say a certain word or basic phrase in German and then he has no issues using that word with a person in a shop or somebody on the street and they usually understand him. In particular he's quite confident asking where the toilet is in German since he learned that the English and German words for 'toilet' are very similar, which is nothing to be sneezed at since knowing where the closest toilet is is important information.

Day 1 - our adventure begins

I'm posting this which means I obviously made it to Frankfurt in our new camper safely. Driving through central Berlin on the opposite side of the road was one thing, but having to change gears with the other hand only added to the confusion, luckily nobody was in the car with me to hear me cursing and yelling as I entered an intersection on the wrong side and frantically tried to correct myself with car heading straight at me. After the seven hour drive from there to Frankfurt though (it's normally only 4-5 hours but I got lost!), I believe I am now well and truly used to it, and more to the point - the car made it!!

I picked up Zac from Frankfurt airport then we drove straight to my friend's dads place in Mainz where he had a big German breakfast waiting for us. My friend was there long enough to introduce us to her dad who couldn't speak any English before she had to rush off to work and then I was left to try to interpret what he was saying to Zac with my German language skills which would show-up any 5 year old any day. Luckily he was patient and spoke clearly enough to me that we actually managed to carry out a polite conversion and managed to interpret Zac's questions to him including "are there any coal mines in Germany?" and "why is there raw mince on the breakfast table?"

That evening we met a few of my friends' friends in Mainz town centre as they were kind enough to offer to show us around the city as they were studying English and saw it as an opportunity to practice. We walked around the old town centre and took a peek in the cathedral, had dinner and a few beers and by that time Zac's lack of sleep from his 22 hour flight the night before was kicking in.

The next day we headed off towards Grafenwöhr as our pet-sitting assignment started in a village nearby the following day but we wanted to take our time and have our first night sleeping in our camper on the way. We stopped in Mainz first at a couple of second hand shops which had been recommended to us to stock up our camper, then with our new tea pot, knives and forks and can opener we headed off.

Our 1st camping spot near Würzburg

 

Our first night was cold, unfortunately the heating in the back of the van doesn't work and we didn't want to start the engine to get the heater in the front cranking as we might wake the people parked near us, so we just slept with lots of blankets and lots of layers and it was fine. In fact we both slept really well and woke up feeling fresh and the first thing we did in the morning was pop across the road where Germany's largest indoor camping shop happened to be, brought fuel for our stove and cooked a breakfast and had a cup of tea like weirdos in their carpark, before heading off on our way...

The Day Before Tomorrow

I have not posted for a while but that's only because I've been busy and not simply because I've been slack (although there maybe an element of that too). On Friday the pet-sitting assignment finished and I moved back into my girlfriend's place and the same day I also brought a campervan!  I plan to drive the van to Frankfurt on Tuesday (tomorrow!) to pick my husband Zac up from the airport, and then we begin our trip together, and thus begins the 120 day challenge...

Originally I was thinking I would take my time and buy a van within the next few weeks but then I realised that in Germany you must register a vehicle in the same region where you are registered as living, which is Berlin, and that if I didn't buy one before I left Berlin that I would maybe not get another chance for maybe a couple of months. Basically that is why all of a sudden I own a van, plus I did inspect several, but this one suits us pretty well perfectly.

Our New Home

I'll upload more photos once I officially take ownership, before I can do that though I have an appointment with the infamous German bureaucracy that is the vehicle registration department tomorrow. First thing when they open I will be there to attempt to change the paperwork details and get the car in my name. The guy who I bought the car off is super nice & helpful and is coming with me (which is also to ensure his name is taken off the paperwork ofcourse!). As long as that part of it goes off without a hitch I will then be moving out of my friends apartment in Berlin and moving all my stuff into our new home...

Wish me luck and Happy Easter from Germany!!