Friday 7th October

We are still in Bad Reichenhall. It is still raining and looks like it will be raining for the next 10 days judging by weather.com  We have no wind which means the rain isn’t getting blown away and it is just sitting here.

We had a walk into town yesterday to stretch our legs and get some fresh air and after walking for what seemed like ages we reached the town centre.

The Town hall in the main square which leads onto the main shopping street.

Another view. Bad Reichenhall got rich through the salt trade. There are many salt mines (hence Salzburg – Salt City) in the area but this is home to the largest. Originally mined in pre Christian times by the middle ages the salt industry was supporting the economies of Munich and Passau. In the early 19th century King Ludwig 1 built an elaborate saltworks and spa house here.

Another lovely old building, everywhere here seems to be deserted and even though there was a very long interesting shopping parade there were few shoppers.

This could be a clue, we are out of season. Turn around from the Town Hall, lean back as far as you can and you’ll just see the top of the mountain with ski lift going up to the top. In the winter this is a skiing paradise and rated right up there as a ski resort. Now it is raining so we have some inside work to do.

Beer photo of the day, a dunkel for the Frau and weisse beer for me. So far we have only sat outside bars basking in the autumn sun and people watching. We tried going into a bar in Rothenburg, the door was wide open, the landlord was behind the bar, Kann ich habe zwei beir bitte? Nein wir sind geschlossen. Do the pubs have opening hours, we don’t know so have avoided them but today it was cold and wet and we weren’t sitting outside.

It’s almost recognisable as a pub. The seats were a bit hard but it is warm and the serving girls all wore dirndls. One of the serving lads wore his lederhosen so Lucy got a good eyeball of legs. The food looked good and they could all understand my pointing finger.

There was even a table of old boys just like when East Essex DA go down the pub.

Another view, it looks a bit empty here but was full when we arrived – maybe they recognised that we were English.

And beer photo number 2. I’ve gone on to a Dobbelbock which was very very good. Every beer comes in it’s own individual glass and they do brewery tours (it was yesterday of course).

Walking down the shopping street you can’t help but to stop by the chocolate shop. Reber is a large shop / cafe serving chocolates and nuts for the last 150 years and dedicated to Mozart and his wife, Constanze. History buffs will know that Mozart died well before the shop even opened but most of the tourists won’t know that.

Dinner of the day. I hesitated to put this photo up, polenta isn’t very photogenic and it is very possible that it isn’t meant to look like this. It is the first time that I’ve cooked it and we think that it is the first time that we’ve ever tasted it but it was very good. It’s a bit disconcerting when you put it in the saucepan with the water and after a couple of minutes it’s gone as thick as a thick thing and you know that you’ve still got 40 minutes of it gurgling away – fighting the urge to add more water was incredibly difficult. It has been served with Pomerato, basically ratatoulli without the aubergine or courgette. 

The latest plan is to move on in the morning, visit the salt works at Berchtesgaden and leave the Eagles Nest for another trip when it is warmer and clearer. I’m really loving this area of Germany, the scenery is fantastic, my German is now fluent and having been plugged into the electric with free wifi as well is making it difficult to get a move on. (My email works through my mifi box but not through the free wifi – thanks for the suggestion). We could be in Austria tomorrow (another language to master) and then into Italy in a couple of days. We’ll be staying off the motorways so no need to get a go-box, we will have to think about the route very carefully, lots of steep slopes means lots of stress on the brakes and clutch (I’m already imagining the smell of a burnt clutch).