Where's Frankie?

Taste Sensations

Wednesday 2nd October

Sunday evening we stayed in the overflow car park for the Eagles Nest by ourselves. Two vans have snuck back in but this is really the first time we’ve felt like we are wild camping in Germany. Half past nine in the evening a group of young teenagers walked past, not one of them knew the rules of knock down ginger. What is the world coming to?

I must have roughly treated one of the heki blinds last night, it’s not opening properly. Inside it is a very small plastic lug that guides the string. It’s too small to glue back so I went online to see if I could buy a new one. All I need is the plastic handle piece that attaches to the screen itself and runs in guides either side. Online retailer in the UK wants £92 because you have to buy the whole blind unit.

Looking for another supplier I found one north of Frankfurt and he was selling the same part for €52 plus €17.50 for delivery (UK included). That’s more like it so I put two blind units in my basket (one was broken previously and nearly fixed with a paper clip). I also need a seal and a one way release valve for the toilet cassette. Went to check out and they wanted €70 for delivery, each item was going to be sent seperately. We could go and pick it from the factory but it’s miles out of our way so I’ll keep an eye out for a motorhome service place or a stationers and buy another paper clip

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Monday morning and the sky was looking a bit grim, good job we went to the Eagles Nest when we did. I was dreading the road back down expecting to meet upcoming traffic so we left the car park early and trundled down. The road was wider than I remembered so the coaches weren’t too much of a problem but it was far steeper and even keeping in low gear the brakes took a real hammering. I have a tyre pressure management system that gives me tyre pressures and temperatures and the high temperature in the front tyres set the alarm off. It normally runs at 35ºC but got up to 65ºC.

We have a rough idea of where we are going but nothing definite. Sometimes a stellplatz is in the right place, the right distance from us and at the right price. We ended up going slightly off-piste and ended up in Bad Tolz which was much better than it sounds.

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First things first, Lunch, a taste sensation. What seems like months ago we told you about our bulk purchase of cup a soup. Above is my mushroom soup, I can’t believe how much mushroom has been squeezed into my mug, theres not mushroom for anything else (that’s Giorgios fault, he said he likes my jokes). I also mentioned that I’d just found out what the Barlauch variety was. It’s Wild Garlic and is very tasty.

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By lunchtime the weather had warmed up a bit and we took the very short walk into town. The River Isar is to the left, the stellplatz to the right, you can almost see Frankie through the bushes.

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All looks very good and the wide shopping street has been pedestrianised.

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We’ve not seen one of these before. It’s a bike service station. The two “eyes” at the top are half metre long posts where you can hang your bike. The tools are all on long cables, allen keys, spanners, tyre levers, screwdrivers and in the silver box bottom right is a pump.

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I thought these were Xmas tree baubles at first (they still might be). Inside they have black and silver squares which spin when the sun hits them.

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Beer of the day, Lucy went for her usual dunkel and I went for the Oktoberfestbier. I would have tried the Kellerbieer but the waiter was so tardy he didn’t get the chance to sell me a second beer. He didn’t get a tip either.

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Back at the stellplatz I hear a banging sound and shouting so went investigating. Summer curling. There were six pitches / courts / rinks and each team had the same number of players. You get one throw of your summer curling stone which must reach the red area of paving. Some of the players were incredibly accurate and it was almost as enjoyable as watching boules, or paint dry, or Strictly.

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Another taste sensation, red federweisser. We have seen red federweisser before and I think it is the same but this came from Italy and was called Roter Sauser. All I will say is that it is nearly as good as Federweisser and made a pleasant change.

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Another taste sensation – squash. We’ve seen lots of roadside stalls selling pumpkins and squash so seeing it in a supermarket I persuaded Lucy to give it a go. All you have to do is cut them in half, coat with olive oil and season. Chuck them in the oven for an hour and job done. The big one was good, the two smaller round ones were almost edible and the other two were very dissappointing.

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Last time we were in the area (three years ago) we visited Neuschwannstein Castle, a fantastic place to visit since it is the quintessential Disney fairytale castle. It was built for King Ludwig II and he went on to have another two palaces built, Linderhof and Herrencheimsee. I think we must have seen too many palaces and castles last time so drove past Linderhof, only to be told later by a local that Linderhof is better in many ways than Neuschwannstein. It was only 35 miles from Bad Tolz so since the weather on Tuesday was glorious we paid a visit. First impressions weren’t too favourable. There is a lot of building work going on (should be finished end of 2020) and the palace looked very small.

It was the only palace finished during Ludwig’s lifetime (unexpectantly shortened by mysterious means, probably in connection with the huge debts in the kingdom from building palaces).

I am now officially German. I asked for the tickets in my special brand of the language and was sold two tickets for the German tour. It was only when she told me when and where to go that she realised, I was so pleased with myself that I didn’t listen to her when she told me when and where to go in English.

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The above two photos are taken from around the large pond in the gardens. We had a little wander before the tour started.

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King Ludwig II modelled himself on the French King Louis XIV, the Sun God and his palace at Versailles. In the main hall is a statue of the Sun King himself with the sun above him. It all gets a bit tricky now with photos because they are strictly verboten inside. Sneaky camera man has to make a return.

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Priceless vase in the stairway.

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The stairs.

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And a room. Everywhere was so highly decorated old Ludwig must have had a migraine for half the day.

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I hung around at the rear of our group so our guide didn’t notice me taking sneaky photos but the other members of our tour kept giving me snotty glances whenever I fired the shutter. Great idea, there is a setting where I can take quieter photos but in the half light I managed to set it to timer delay. When I pressed the shutter the camera beeped for ten long loud seconds before firing. Time to give up. Above is part of the bedroom.

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The gardens were lovely and very well maintained. 

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See the tree to the right which is spoiling the perfect symmetry of the gardens, it is a Lime tree, twice as old as the palace. In German a Lime tree is called Linde which is where the Linderhof Palace gets its name. Ludwig used to have a high tree house here which he would hide away in and read his books. Ludwig was a very private person, a bit of a loner, you could say he was an unsocial climber, (hangs his head in shame).

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Every half hour the fountain is switched on.

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The grounds are extensive and we went to see the Moorish and Moroccan Huts. We’re not totally sure about the Moorish hut, a group of Japanese came in just as the english translation started and they all started babbling at once but the Moroccan hut was part of the Vienna World Trade Show and Ludwig managed to buy it have it installed near here.

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More gardens, we are at an elevation of over 3000 feet at the beginning of October, how comes my garden at home doesn’t look like this – mum, you’re sacked. Not really.

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Inside the Moroccan hut.

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Sneaky camera man at it again. This is a photo of one of the postcards at the gift shop, nearly got caught.

I asked the ticket seller if it was OK to sleep in the car park overnight. She said that officially we are not allowed to but no one will say anything. It’s now 7pm, we’ve been joined by another van and the staff have been trundling backwards and forwards doing all the bits they can’t do when the tourists are here. Hopefully I don’t get a knock on the door later.

We’ve got no wifi, no internet and almost no phone signal, this blog will be a couple of days late.

One of the problems with having no internet is that I can’t work out where to go next. I know roughly where I am going but I don’t know exactly which town it is in. I think it might be Friedrichshafen but there are three stellplatz there and it is 120 miles away, one of the places is free and the other two are in the €20 area. Checking on Camper Contact is no help because the reviews are mostly in foreign and without internet I can’t translate them. Sometimes people will give a score of 5 and say it was the best place they have ever stayed at. Other reviews will give a score of 2 because it rained all day. Google maps doesn’t work either. Just to be on the safe side I found a town half way there which had a stellplatz with services and some sort of interesting buildings.

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We are in Kempton and the first shop we see is a copy shop. Lucy needs a couple of blown up cross stitch patterns so back to Frankie to get the originals and into the shop. Lucy and I ran a photocopying shop and I’d like to say it was just like this one, organised, clean, well equipped and very pleasant staff. We weren’t any thing like this, how we ever made a living escapes me. 

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We found this church, looked nice so you get a photo and then we carried on and found a shopping centre. Lucy got herself a brand new tablet and then pulling her latest trick, “I forgot to get anything out of the freezer” and I need a comfort break we had to head for the nearest restaurant.

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She couldn’t wait for the official photo, she had to dive straight in. This is Zwickel, google translate says it is gore (blood and guts type gore) but it is an unfiltered cellar beer and very good indeed. Unfortunately the roast pork was off so we opted for the three ways pasta dish, spatula, maulthausen and noodles which was very very tasty but rather filling. Our waitress was from Guildford and spoke very good English but couldn’t understand my German. She’s only lived in Germany 20 years so probably needs to study harder.

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On the way out we found the back of the church but couldn’t find anything else in the town. By the time we’d got back to Frankie it started raining very heavily.

One thought on “Taste Sensations

  1. Giorgio

    Here are a couple of mushrooms joke to go with your cup of soup

    Fourteen mushrooms were sitting at a lunch table.
    One more asked to join. One of them said, “Sorry there is not mushroom”

    Every morning I eat French mushrooms…
    It’s the breakfast of champignons

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