Here are a few panoramic photos of some of the more impressive views from our trip - click to enlarge

Town centre, Troyes, France

Danube River from Walhalla, Germany

The Louvre, Paris, France

Neuschwanstein Castle (centre), Bavaria, Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria, Germany

Paris from Sacre Coeur, France

Town centre, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Seine River, Paris, France
 

Triers  to Frankfurt

A low key final day.

We drove into Triers and parked not far from the city centre (in a bus parking zone). The main excitement for the trip in was finishing up accidentally driving through the pedestrian mall in the centre of the town. We got a few strange looks and some German obscenities (we think).

We had a quick lunch and then headed off for the 200km drive back to the motorhome depot just out of Frankfurt. We refuelled it, gave it a quick sweep out and then returned it with no dramas (everyone in Germany is still on cloud 9 about beating the poms, so they didn't give a shit about a few minor damages - especially since David gave Klaus the  Depot Manager a left over 1 litre can of beer).

So now we're sitting at the airport with a few hours to kill, during which time we need to buy and extra bag and re-pack the fragile stuff (including the Moet and Cullen's stone gargoyle !!).

Epernay  to Triers  (Germany - via Belgium & Luxembourg)

Cullen organised breakfast again by buying some chocolate croissants from a mobile baker's van that drove through the campground just as we were trying to work out what to do for breakfast.

We headed straight into Epernay's town centre where Moet & Chandon's facility is located in the Avenue Le Champagne.

We went on an hour tour that included a tasting at the end, and then visited the Moet shop on the way out. The Winery is amazing - it has 27km of underground tunnels on three different levels below the ground, and on top their office is a 400 year old mansion originally built by the Moet family, who could count Napoleon as an overnight guest.

The tour guide was a Japanese lady with a French accent which gave her this crazy way of talking that sounded a lot like Borat.

After the tour we drove further north through Reims and then headed East in the General direction of Germany again.

We bought some baguettes at a bakery in a small town, along with some cold meats and then had what we all rated as the best lunch of the trip in a shady roadside parking bay on the side of the road surrounded by wheat fields.

After lunch we drove on through Belgium, Luxembourg and then back over the border into Germany, where we found a campground in Triers - alongside the Mosel river (which lends its name to the Moselle wine produced in the region). Triers was once the head of the Roman empire and boasts Roman ruins dating back to about 400 AD.

We walked about 2km into town to find it 'going off' at a festival of some sort that seemed to be based on Germany playing (and beating) England in the World Cup. When Germany won, people drove around honking their horns and hanging out of car windows for a few hours.

We found a great Italian restaurant and after dinner wandered around listening to German bands doing covers of Billy Joel and U2.

Epernay to Paris (& back)

We are still having a great time but our energy is starting to wane a little. We had a massive day in Paris starting with an 8:30am train from Epernay - which takes about 1 1/2 hours to get to Paris.

We took in all the major sites including the Eiffel Tower, which we decided to climb along with the million or so other tourists who were lined up. We drove along the Champs Elysees and under the Arc de Triomphe in an open top tour bus.

Notre Dame was on the agenda, but a huge mass and thousands of people meant we couldn't go in. The Louvre would take a week to go through properly, so we just visited the Ialian Masters paintings hall - including the Mona Lisa, at which the tourists were 10 deep.

Later in the day we went past the Moulin Rouge and the Sacre Coeur Cathederal, which is probably the most beautiful church we have seen on the trip.

So after all that walking (lots and lots of walking) we headed back to Paris East station for our 8:30pm train back to Epernay. We had a quick drink at a bar near by, and the kids did some last minute shopping, before we went into the station about 8pm.

We had only been in there a few minutes and there was a commotion on the platform, so Mel went to investigate and reported back (not to the kids) that there were security people all around and there was a 'jumper' on the roof of the station. He was agitated and was yelling in French (he looked to be African like half of Paris' population) at what seemed to be the equivalent of our SES who were bringing in ladders to ry to get him down.

We distracted the kids for a while, but then they decided to evacuate the whole station so we let them know what was going on.

After sitting outside for nearly an hour, we were finally let back in to find the jumper being tended to by Ambulance crews after apparently falling/jumping off the roof onto some turnstiles about 10 metres below, and bouncing onto the concrete.

The train finally headed off at 10:00pm and we got back to Epernay exhausted at 11:30pm, faced with a 2km walk back to the campground. Cullen had a migraine and the station was organising cabs due to the delay, so Mel took Cullen by taxi  (which he climbed out of back at the park and promptly threw up a whole day's food - which in Cullen's case is a lot).

David and the others walked back via McDonalds and we ate it outside the motorhome at about midnight - to wrap up a very big, but memorable day.

Langres to Epernay

Cullen collected our pre-ordered pastries from the park office and we headed off North towards Epernay - the home of Moet en Chandon. On the way we stopped over in Troyes for lunch.

Troyes is quite a large city, but the old town centre must be approaching 1,000 years old, as the huge Cathedral was built in 1150.

On our way to find a parking spot we negotiated some of the narrowest city streets yet - at one point we were stuck with nowhere to go as the street got narrower and narrower to the point where a parked car was stopping us going any further. Just as we were thinking about a very long reverse out, the owner if the car came rushing up, tapped on the door and offered to move his car. We found a spot a few hundred metres from the centre of town and parallel parked taking up about 3 car spots.

We strolled through a market set up in a street that ran alongside another big church and did some shopping.

The centre of town has a lot of restaurants offering outdoor eating at tables that nearly fill the city square, which is surrounded by Tudor style buildings.

By now the weather had warmed up and it was over 30 degrees for the first time, so we (adults) enjoyed sitting in the sun having lunch and a wine.

From there is wasn't far to Epernay, where we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the municipal campground which was about a 2km walk to the Railway station where we would get the train to Paris the next day.

That night we walked the 2km into the town centre for dinner, which was a little disappointing - which is not what you want after a big walk like that to get there. We didn't eat until about 10:00pm, but walking back late wasn't a problem as it is light until about 11:00pm here - and then gets light again about 4:30am !!

Waldshut  to Langres (France)

We put in a fairly big day on the road with only a lunch stop in a picnic area to make as much distance as we could. By getting ahead we are now able to confirm (the kids didn't know) that on Saturday we will get a TGV bullet train into Paris for the day.

Langres is a fortified hilltop town that was built in the 1100's. The Cathedral is huge and very cold inside.

It's a strange town because it's not overly touristy, but instead is just a normal city with very narrow streets and all the buildings are 1,000 years old.

Everyone just goes about their business seemingly unaware of how amazing their city is. We bought some local cheeses and nibbles and had a very nice pre-dinner snack and wine session.

The caravan park just out of town was the best we have stayed at so far, and for dinner we had a barbeque using two disposable BBQs. Note for self - don't bother using disposable BBQs.

Munich to Waldshut (Switzerland)

First stop today was Oberamergau which is a small town in the Bavarian Alps near the Austrian border which seems to owe its existence to selling wooden carved souvenirs, Christmas decorations and Jesus stuff. As usual we put the motorhome through some streets narrower than it was designed to go down, and eventually parked in the bus parking lot.

All the buildings in the town have murals and flowers painted around the windows. Maddy and Natalie shared a change room and tried on some 'frauline' type outfits and took photos, which was strictly verboten.

From there we headed to Scholss Neuschwanstein (or something like that) which is the castle that Disneyland was modelled on. It was built by Bavaiaria's crazy King Ludwig II, who loved building fancy castles and the like.

He also preferred the company of men so they pronounced him insane and drowned him in a fountain.

We had a lunch of traditional German sausages, before we made the gruelling 3km near vertical walk up the mountain to the castle. There was a huge queue for tours so we just looked around the outside. David & Mel had their photo taken with a Bavarian guy who spends all day hanging around earing leather pants having his photo taken with tourists for donations.

We left the castle about 3pm to make for Switzerland. We travelled around the northern shore of Lake Constance (or the Bodensee as the locals call it) eventually crossing into Switzerland at Schaffhausen. It turns out the motorhome didn't have the right rego sticker to drive it in Switzerland (as it is over 3.5 tonnes) so they stopped us at the border and stung us 20 Euros for a 7 day pass.

The campground was pretty special. The owner didn't speak any English at all, so she got a Dutch camper to translate for us. This is the only campground any of us have stayed in that had a grave in it. We walked up inti the small town and had Italian (again) at a small hotel that had the world cup on TV. Germany were playing Ghana and Australia we playing Serbia.

All the Germans went nuts when they won and drove their cars around the streets honking their horns.

In and around  Munich

While David went to work for the day, Mel and the kids walked around and saw the sites of Munich including the Gardens, the Prime Minister's Office, Cathederal, and the Glockenspiel (world's biggest cuckoo clock).

After lunch it was shopping time for the afternoon.

We had a drink and some pretzels at the Haufbrauhaus before dinner. It was loud and tacky and the beers are 1 litre each.

That night we had dinner (Italian again) with Uncle Stu and some people David & Mel know through work. Hobbsy called in for a late dinner as well.

As the buses had stopped by the time we finished, we caught 2 cabs back to the Campground (The Germans call them a Campingplatz). The first cab on the rank was a Porsche Cayenne - which the boys jumped into. The girls followed in a boring old Mercedes.

Salzburg to Munich

We headed into the old town or 'alstadt' of Salzburg before breakfast and hunted down a bakery to have pastries and hot chocolates / coffees. The Regensburg parking experience looked like happening all over again until a helpful service station attendant gave directions to an area that was OK for motorhomes, and not too far from town.

We wandered around Salzburg until mid-afternoon taking in the Dom (Cathederal) which was built in the 1600's although 2 earlier churches stood on the same spot before the current building. The ceiling is 70metres high and it seats 10,000 people.

We bought some Christmas decorations from a huge Christmas shop and for lunch had bratwurst hot dogs.

Looking over Salzburg is the Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress High Salzburg) which is over 900 years old and has great views over the city and surrounding hills in every direction.

Late afternoon we he headed to Munich (back into Germany) and found our caravan park which was near the zoo.

As it was Cullen's birthday we caught a bus and U-Bahn (underground) train into the City Square which is called Marienplatz, and had dinner at an Italian trattoria which was excellent.

Gunzenhausen to Salzburg (Austria) via Nuremburg

We had planned to do some shopping on the way to Nuremburg Airport to meet Natalie - but it turns out absolutely everything is closed in Germany on Sunday. Only service stations and fast food outlets appeared to be open. Australian retail is much more convenient.

It's also very quiet on the streets and in the towns so it really does seem like a day of rest.

Whilst Nuremburg Airport isn't huge like Frankfurt (it's about the size of Tullamarine), parking a 30ft motorhome still isn't easy. After a few laps of the ring road and a couple of attempts to get through boom gates, we decided to run the risk of a ticket and parked in a bus-parking area. No ticket, so all good.

Natalie's flight was on time and she managed her first solo International trip well.

We headed South towards Regensberg which is a well preserved walled city on Germany's Eastern fringe, but on the way it began to rain - making walking around a city less appealing. When we got to Regensburg it became clear that town planning 1,000 years ago wasn't what it is now - and motorhome parking hadn't even been considered.

So we left Regensburg and decided that if we couldn't do much looking around we would try to make it to Salzburg Austria, which we had planned to get to the following morning. We dod make one stop at a place named Walhalla, which is a replica of the Parthenon in Athens, built by Bavaria's King Ludwig I as a monument to his country's 124 'great thinkers'. It was only drizzling a little, and Walhalla has a large verandah all around in any case, so the rain wasn't an issue.

As Salzburg was a late inclusion on the itinerary, we hadn't loaded the Austrian maps into the GPS yet, so Mel did an outstanding job of navigating us through the city and to the campground using only a 2 inch square map in the Lonely Planet guide. Good News / Bad News - the campground the book recommended is closed and derelict and by now it was about 8:30pm At another one nearby the office was closed and no-one answered the doorbell.

So we rang another one  on the other side of the city and a helpful elderly lady said to come on over - then on our arrival happily cooked us a meal of schnitzels and spaghetti bolognese, complete with wine in small beer steins. The rain continued lightly but steadily all night and into the morning - and it was cold.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Gunzenhausen

Not much to report today - a nice drive along the Romantic Road (Romantische Strabe) south to Dinkelspuhl, another  walled city where we had lunch in the  underground wine cellar of a 700 year old Hotel.

We visited another town that was celebrating its 1,000 year anniversary. During a walk there we stumbled on an old hunting castle where trained birds of prey were used for hunting. The show was in German so wasn't that informative, but the birds were impressive.

Cullen was particularly taken with Bald Eagle and got a couple of great photos. We'd never seen trained vultures & buzzards before either.

The Caravan Park at Gunzenhausen had an OK pizza & pasta restaurant on-site so we ate there.

This afternoon we heard from Natalie that she was in Singapore and is on schedule for us to meet her at Nuremburg Airport tomorrow morning.

Frankfurt to Rothenburg ob der Tauber

It all went so well that we landed in Frankfurt at 6:00am,  whipped through customs (in fact they don't care - it's kind of self-serve customs into Germany), got into our transfer bus and were outside the motorhome hire place in Offenbach by 7:00am. Unfortunately they don't open until 9:00am so we had (another) breakfast at the McDonalds a few doors up until they opened.

We weren't supposed to pick up the motorhome until2pm, but they were happy to let us go earlier, so we headed off to get groceries and be back at 11:00am to go through the paperwork and motorhome 101 lessons. The motorhome agent gave us some directions to a park where they apparently had big screens showing the World Cup Soccer which sounded like a good place to rest after being up for about 36 hours already.

Either he had no sense of direction, or we misunderstood his instructions, but we wandered around for an hour and never found it. Good one Klaus !!

We headed out of Offenbach, South East along the A3 Autobahn towards Wurzburg and the northern end of the 'Romantic Road' which runs down almost to Austria and has many well preserved mediaeval towns along the way. After stopping for lunch at a roadside picnic area we drove to Rothenburg ob der Tauber ('on the Tauber' river) which is a700 year old walled city. After tying to park too close and finishing up in a 'no motorhome' carpark we retreated to one a bit further away that had bus & motorhome parking.

We had a coffee at a Cafe in the main street and then wandered around for an hour or so, took some photos and then (remembering we had been awake since 6:00amThursday and it was now about 3:00am Saturday Melbourne time) we heading for a near-by caravan park.

Dinner was a challenge. The pots and pans and kitchen aren't really up to pasta for 5, and by the time it was cooked the kids were all fast asleep and needed some serious waking up to eat it. Not a lot of conversation over dinner.

Click map to enlarge

Melbourne to Frankfurt

Just a quick update to get us started. All good in the flight department - just very long.

The main excitement on the Sydney-Singapore leg was the young Indian (dots not feathers) couple who we think may have been honeymooners across the aisle who Maddy thought were about to join the mile-high club without even leaving their seats. Luckily they got off at Singapore.

On the Singpaore-Frankfurt flight the German business-man sitting next to David had a unique way of getting some sleep on the plane ... he started farted continuously until he lost consciousness. Didn't help David get any sleep though.