Our drive took us towards a place called Berghausen, and – with two hours to spare befoere our couchsurfing host arrived, Luke and I fired up the Sat-Nav and took a look at what was about.  “Photographic spot Berghausen” was all that was available so off we went down some of the narrowest lanes ever (Sat-Nav has yet to learn that we cannot always fit through some of these villages) towards this photographic spot.

What the Sat-Nav had neglected to tell us what that there is a castle in Berghausen, in fact the longest castle in Europe, over 1 kilometre long.  and that it is impressive enough to dwarf the town it presides over.  All this came as a shock to the two guys in a bright red LDV COnvoy who were just expecting another Sat-Nav foul up.

Parking up and taking a walk through the caslte quickly whittled away the two hours, the free english guide books allowed us to gather a bit of the history, though much was lost in garbled – yet funny – translation.

The Castle was originally built for the Marriage between a Bavarian and his Polish fiance, it is their coats of arms that ca be seen on the main castle courtyard.

The catle is mind bogglingly long, with 5 different courtyards added throughout the ages, (you thought adding a conservatory was an extension… its nothing compared to this!)

Each extension is distinctive in it’s purpose, the original castle was built as a small fortress, mainly to collect tolls from the river below that crosses the German / Austrian border.  The first extension houses an armoury and several turrets for greater protection, for this was the time that the Swedes were rampaging around Europe, the latter extensions hold mostly society functions, including a chapel, living quarters and food gardens, allowing the castle to be self sufficient as sieges took hold as the best castle breaking strategy.

A full two and a half hours later Luke and Iwalked back to the van and finally headed to our couchsurfing host’s.

Luke and I have been using Couchsurfing.org for a few meet ups and one overnight stay in Sweden, so now it was time we thought we would put it to the test and stay for two nights near the town of Berghausen.

Our drive out of Berchtesgaden had taken us over some of the most incredible mountain roads.  Including one at 27% where Lady Muc, (yes we have now named the LDV Camper) managed to crawl up at 20km/h in second gear – mighty fun and mighty annoying for all caught behind us – especially on the ridiculously steep hairpin where 1st gear and near full throttle were needed!

So, after burning a bit of the clutch, the brakes and the gearbox we finally made it to the other side of pass number one – only to find ourselves in Austria, not Germany and having to do a different pass, on smaller roads and with less warnings about the corners!!!

Our drive eventually took us into the lush, fertile lands in mid-Bavaria and away from the alpine cattle fields of the south. After stopping for some much needed coffee (and biscuits) the necessary photographs were taken…

If you visit anywhere in Germany then this place should be it, forget the beerfest, forget the wall, forget Berlin, come to Berchtesgaden.

The area of Berchtesgadenerland is a national park, and rightly so.  A twisting, near death defying road meanders round the foothills of the alps and eventually drops you into Berchtesgaden, from there it is only a 7km route through the incredibly flat valley towards the Konigsee (King’s Lake).

Parking is only 2 euros for the whole day so Luke and I parked the van, said another hello to our next-camping-pitch-neighbour from the night before and duly trotted off in search of the incredible views.

The town of Konigsee is completely traffic free, but has become an absolute tourist mecca, so – my best advice – is to grab a pretzel for some energy and keep on moving through, though you must stop at the shop that sells traditional German dress, (Lederhosen for the men and Dirdl for the Women).

You can either hire a rowing boat for a day or grab one of the electric boats that silently sail across the lake or you can walk!

A walk up to the viewing platform is highly recommended, I think that no human will every be able to express the sheer beauty of this lake, the cliffs falling instantly into the clear lake, turned green only from the reflection of the trees, the waterfalls that echo occasionaly as they fall onto rocks and beaches before joining the lake, nor the man made creation of St Bartholomews church, nestles on a tiny spit of flat land and shimmering red reflections across the perfectly still water.

In fact, I think now is the time for the photos….

Hopefully now you see what I mean, jaw dropping, awe insiring beauty.

Pronounced Pree-en am Kim-tsey.

Or something of the sort.

I often believe that in a past life I was Bavarian.  In fact I often believe that in this life I am still Bavarian. Bavaria is that large south-eastern part of Germany that everybody usually associates with beer, Lederhosen and sausages – and they would be right.

But there is another, less stereotypical part of Bavaria – it’s nature.

From Berchtesgarten to the Bayerisches Wald, Bavaria is cramed full of beautiful views, awe-inspiring cliffs and more castles than even the Vikings could invade (and they tried!).

Southern Bavaria is where you will often find me, either skiing or recklessly attempting to climb up come mountain path – followed of course by a Currywurst (a sausage in a spicy tomato sauce) and a Dunkel Beer (nothing else comes close to it’s taste) served by a beautiful lady in a Dirdl (the womens’ traditional dress).

Southern Bavaria is quite close to my definition of heaven.

Chiemsee is home to not just one, but two casltes built on Islands.  The earlier caslte was built as a monastry and the latter was built by “Mad” King Ludwig as an almost exact copy of the Palace of Versailles in France.

Luke and I decided that our funds would stretch further if we went off in a diferent tangent though and went searching for the castle of HohenAschau.

To be honest it wasn’t a hard search.  Perched atop a small hill in a valley between two gigantic alpine peaks the caslte looked over one of the many mountain passes on the border between Austria and Germany.

Unfortunately for us the Caslte wasn’t open, but the views afforded to us from the caslte’s high vantage point made for some excellent photos…  more Germany countryside coming tomorrow.

Hello guys and girls!

Apologies for the lack of updates.  It has been quite hard to find internet and I can never remember the password for this website to upload stuff at an internet cafe, might change the password soon!

So I am now in Hungary. Which in itself is incredible, the van has done over 6,000 miles.  and not all of them have been fault free!  Even just a few days ago the van managed to miraculously fix itself after half an hour of trying to turn it on, and nothing coming it just decided it wanted to work again.  I suppose even LDV’s need their rest time.

The roads in Hungary are a bit…. well… backward. If they aren’t all rutted and potholed then they are just dirt tracks!

What has suprised me about Hungary is the number of churches and lakes.  I had always thought of Hungary as being a bit of a desolate land with one or two lakes, but as it turns out I am now sat at the side of the largest lake in Central Europe, Lake Balaton.

I have had a few days R&R here, just relaxing, getting caught up with friends and of course family through the wonders of Skype and Facebook.

I am off to explore a place called Pahi next, where a friend of the family lives, For yet more R&R, oh yes this travelling malarky is tough work.  Not an easy life at all!  haha.

Some photos from Hungary are below.  The next few updates will be a bit of a “back-track” over the past events so, Happy reading!

It’s not what most people hope for when they go wandering off travelling, yet it is an essential part of any experience.

Yes – as a Englishman I honestly could tell you whether rain is wet or dry – heavy or light (not as in how much rain, but as in whether each drop is heavy or light) and countless other measurements, for that is pretty much the weather forecast in England.

We may as well have our forecasters stand there and just say – at some point this week it will most probably rain, then – should a week pass without rain we are suddenly alerted to the fact that global warming is about to happen, all hell breaks loose as hose-pipe bans are introduced, water butts arrive in streets and there is not a water bottle left on the shelves of Tesco’s.

I have little idea of where this entry is going really, except to say that it is raining here in Prien am Cheimsee, and it has coated the alps that haunt the view out of our door in a strange forboding darkness.

Which is just bloody awesome.

Berlin, in a converted LDV Campervan, in glorious sunshine – had we really made it here in one piece, had the van really made it here?  And was that really sun?  The monstorous rainclouds that had shortened our stay in Warsaw were now a cause of constant worry.

The LDV Convoy is not a van that many people would think of when somebody mentions the word “quality”.  Really it isn’t.  In fact when it rains as hard as it did in Warsaw you really start to notice that the builders of this van were quite possibly distracted by, well, anything and everything else.

For Luke and I can both actually see the road out the bottom of the doors, yes – we really can, not only does this let in some very cold air, but also allows a certain amount of rainwater to, well, splash in.  Creating a puddle within the footwell on each door, hence our escape from Warsaw was made even more pertinent when we saw the size of the puddles, and the amount of water entering the van turned from trickle to torrent.

So onwards to Berlin it was.  The city that was, for most of the last century divided into two sections, that of the allies and that of the Soviets.

It is hard nowadays to tell which part of the city is which, modern buildings have sprung up everywhere, the only reminder is the tram network, that was preserved only on the Russian side.

AfLuke and I checked off the major tourist points of the Reichstag and checkpoint Charlie (the old American sector border), which is nearly lost amongst souvenir shops, relic hunters and a rather large advertisement featuring a good looking lady in not very much.  So, more critical than myself,  might comment “how times have changed”

One of the greatest, and possibly most underappreciated buildings is the new parliament buildings. They are starkly modern, sitting only a few hundreds metres behind the old palaces of Justice and Reichstag.  The building actually sits on two sides of the River, yet they are joined by several bridges, signifying the unification of Berlin after the fall of the wall.

After that Luke and I took our usual random walk and found a variety of other buildings and sights, and generally explored Berlin, you can see the photos below.  And now, dear readers, I am going to have to cut this entry short as I amoff to bed, for it is near two a.m. and I must arise early in the morning, our hosts for this evening have previously informed us that Fruhstuck (breakfast) is at 8am, which is just cruelly early!

You can track us down, we have employed yet another wonder of the modern world in the form of a Google map that will keep you guys and gals up to date with where we be going and where we be gone.  And yes, that is imperfect english, and no I don’t want to change it, thank you very much Windows Grammar Checker.

Without further ado… Stalk us at will, here http://twurl.nl/nofsrh

So where have we been?

It has been days, if not weeks since I last updated.  I feel like it is an age, and yes – I am going to use the excuse that we simply haven’t been able to find internet, mainly I use that excuse because it is true.

The internet populous land of Estonia seems far away and in Latvia, passing along roads that are barely surfaced with lonely old women picking their own food on either side, the modern world could not seem further away.

After passing through the lovely city of Riga, with its grand buildings we start to get the feeling that it is, in fact, no greater than most European Cities, it seems to be missing the medieval splendour of Tallinn, the quaint feel of Stockholm or the veibrant alternative culture of Copenhagen.

After a night out on a few very reasonably priced beers and, in the warmth of an evening, watching young lovers dance to the live band I decide that I really didn’t care about how backward Latvia was, how I will probably be paralysed in the next few hundred kilometres of bad roads nor how certainly unscrupulous campsites mangage to turn just a few Lati into 20 euro, I really don’t care about that anymore.

We have ahd some real shi t-hit-fan times on this trip – the van breaking down, not being able to find places, the sat-nav having directed us in the almost complete opposite direction and so forth.  Yet every single time it seems like things are just destined to continue upon the road of pain, discomfort, misery and short tempers something comes along and makes everything ok.

It comes in just such a slight form, you allow yourself a little smile of recognition as suddenly you are in full realisation of the fact that you are many miles from home, in another country, another culture (and another bloody currency) and you find yourself attempting, in no more than five universal words and unlimited hand actions, nods, waves and expressions, to explain what we are doing and what the other person, sat on the table across from us is doing in this town, this bar, this moment.

That pretty much sums up our whole trip to this extent, Drive, have a few problems, loose where we are, eat, sleep, meet people, regale upon them our stories (which by now are approaching voluminous sizes) and listen to their stories, go for a few beers and start again.

A life that, on the whole does not sound exciting, but yet in a way it is.  From the morning to the evening we have no idea how our day is going to go, no idea what events lurk around the next hairpin bend that the sat-nav has decided is the fastest route for us, nor any idea as to what state the food will be when it is served from a small roadside cafe that does not have a menu in English, nor we have any idea what the food is, (it was delicious by the way, though the meat was quite possibly fried donkey.)

I know none of the above answers the question of where we are now.  We have also visited Warsaw and Berlin in the meantime, but all of this is seemingly inconsequential.  Buildings are buildings, streets are streets, we are glad that we have seen, no, experienced them – but truly we are all in search of that holy grail, those few minutes of learning about and from other people and then attempting to relay our story, perhaps the greatest challenge on this trip is being understood.