Monday 16th September
Sorry, missed a day. I can only blame Bernhard and Ursula for leading me off into bad habits which meant I was slightly worse for wear yesterday.
After filling up with water at Bernhard’s, we were directed to a stellplatz at Burgstadt, an old wine village. Room for 30 motorhomes, electricity if you need it and on a cycle route along the River Main. As you can see the bikes are off the back and we’re all ready to go. Just waiting for Lucy to go through her very long checklist of essential items to take (and which I can carry). Another scorching day, we’ve been so lucky with the weather this last week.
After 6 miles of the flatest, smoothest cycle path ever, with the occasional bit of traffic, we arrived in Freudenberg. It looked like the local Sunday morning boot fair so we had to park and go shopping.
I was impressed with this machine, for a small fee you can recharge your cycle batteries.
The boot fair turned into trade stands and even a brass band with men in odd costumes wandering around.
Luckily there were food and drink stalls as well. I got a bit eager with the wheat beer and then overcompensated with the pils. Pils is €2.10 and wheat beer is €2.30. For the same price I could have had…
the same as Lucy. See, I’m not so daft after all and I wasn’t about to share either.
The Main is one of the big rivers in Germany and it’s brilliant seeing the river cruise ships and commercial barges travelling up and down the rivers.
You don’t see this very often (ever). At the bottom is a wood fired stove and in the pan is brine. The water heats up and the salt begins to crystallise and float on the top. The first scrapings contain all the impurities and you can see them on the corner of the pan. The clean white salt is scraped up onto the sides of the pan, allowed to completely dry and then can be sold.
With almost perfect timing by the time we arrived back at Frankie Bernhard called to say he was picking us up in a few minutes. We had another walking tour of the town which took us up to the top where the castle is. I’d mentioned the Bernhard that I would love to live in Germany and he has taken it upon himself to find me somewhere to buy. He wasn’t impressed with the 6 bedroom half timbered house I found on Rightmove for £45,000. He thought me more suited to the €1,200,000 house in the middle of Mildenberg.
This is the view from the castle, lovely scenery in all directions.
These are the castle steps I told you about the other day where the boys used to wee down them. Lets just say that Bernhard has vastly more local knowledge than me which is why he beat me.
Oh dear, we found a pub. This is inside the oldest pub in Germany, the one I had to walk through yesterday. We might have had one or two drinks in here and then went back to Frankie for more.
Certainly had a sore head in the morning but breakfast, strong coffee and a hot shower soon sorted all that nonsense out.
Two years ago we travelled down the Romantische Strasse and found a country fair and one of the stalls was selling a dried soup mix. We bought a couple of tubs and were very impressed with it. Two teaspoons worth in a mug with boiling water and we had lovely soup without the croutons that Lucy despises. I tried ordering more online through their website but they won’t deliver to the UK so since we weren’t too far from the factory we paid them a visit Monday morning.
Kann Ich verkaufen Suppe heir. Ja, Ja, kein problem. It was like being let loose in a soup shop, might have overdone it and the bank balance is now suffering but this should get us through six months stewarding in Spain. I know I love the spargel, looking forward to trying the steinpilz and I’ve just looked up what barlauch is, I’m so excited.
After picking up our goodies we motored down to Aschaffenburg. You’ll have to wait for the official tour tomorrow but the photo above is a taste of what is in store.
Whilst chatting in the pub last night we managed to sort out a few little things which may be of interest to you. We are now in Aschaffenburg, this morning we were in Dieburg and yesterday we were in Miltenberg. Note the last four letters in each name. It turns our that burg is a castle and berg is a mountain (think iceberg). We could be going to Wurzburg soon so already I know there is a castle and I also remember not visiting it last time we were there.
How much tip do you leave? All food and drink includes service charge so there is no need to tip, don’t worry about it (as we have done) but if you would like to there is no problem just rounding off, one of yesterdays bar bills was €23, giving €25 was perfect (so Bernhard told me).
Last week when we were in Kehl, just outside Strassburg (castle) I mentioned that there was no dawn chorus. We’ve seen no sparrows, finches, blackbirds. Some pigeons and rooks, quite a few red kites and it seems to be a real problem which has developed over the last couple of years. Is it a sign of climate change?
We are in a stellplatz very close to the centre of town along the side of the main river. It is €8 a night and there is no water or elsan point but it feels very safe and we have free wifi. I’m doing the blog and taste checking some Faust beer and Lucy is catching up with Mr Tumble. Life is so sweet.