Germany is famed for many things… the industrial heart of Europe, BMW and Mercedes cars, umpah bands and beer.

Now if you take the alst two of those, add in some local patriotism, a massive tent and super-women able to carry atleast 6 litres of beer at a time then you have the most German of Germanisms.  The great beer festival.

Beer festivals in Germany are commonplace, almost everyone will know of the huge Oktoberfest held in Munich but what you might not realise is that there are smaller versions of these events happening almost all the time.

A lot of the smaller towns in Germany and especially in the south of Germany have their own breweries and their own beer fests in their local town.  You will find that a lot of locals are quite loyal to their own beer brand and will always carry a crate with them if ever they leave the area (this might not be true, but I like to think of the Germans as always having two bottles of their local beer just in the first aid kit just next to the plasters and on top of the safety pins).

There is quite a family atmosphere at most of these smaller fests, but towards the end of the night the kids are usually in bed and the adults of all ages are out to play.

The drescode for these events is simple… Lederhosen for the men and the Dirndl for woman (cleavage is optional but embraced by most hehe).

You may be thinking now of the traditional Heidi and Klaus stereotypes… and you would probably be right, but I tell ya now – until you have experienced the warmth and friendlyness of the people at these festival you won’t believe it.

By the end of the night everybody, without exception is dancing away on the tables, reciting the words to songs that mean virtually nothing and just enjoying themselves.  To be honest though it is nights like these that make me really want to go back home to Maidstone and spend the night avoiding fights, over zealous bouncers and binge drinking ladies, truly miss it!

So here below are the photos of Luke and I binge drinking with our couchsurfing host Manuela and the lovely Gudi who is modelling the Dirndl

Happy Travellin’

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.

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!

So, since we last spoke to you guys we have managed to get the waste tank sorted, well kind of sorted… It still bubbles up now and again but not so much anymore.

Also we are now in Denmark, having left Germany later on yesterday.  We’re heading further north and strangely, it’s getting warmer (although this may not be weird to those living in Australia!)

We left Germany after staying the night in Flensburg, a nice little harbour town.  Our overnight stop was on a small spit of the harbour, which we only found out in the morning was next to a sewage works!  It didn’t smell at all, which was lucky, for in this heat any smell rapidly turns horrible!

Sunsetting in Flensburg

The town of Flensburg itself dates back to the 1200’s and the town has a bit of a time warp feeling to it.  One moment you could be standing outside of the througholy modern invention of McDonalds, the next you are negotiating yourself through a small alleyway and into a small side street, with bright yellow buildings either side.  This old world architecture hides another modern invention, the internet cafe!

The sunset was absolutely beautifully on this evening.  Our “next campervan neighbour” described it as being almost as good as the sunsets he had seen in Africa, although he also pointed out how little the sun looks up here in the north, something I had never thought of!

Well after that night we headed off in the morning (or mid-day ish)  to find some more bits for the campervan and we also plugged in our two door speakers that we have been waiting ages to do.

Then we shut the vents, turned the coolbox on, turned the isolator to the “on” position and off we went to Denmark.

As if in anti-climax Denmark was only a couple of kilometres away. So – hello and welcome to Denmark it was for us… we had our new course plotted and set for Dalby, on the central island of Denmark.

Stay tuned to hear more tomorrow (yes, I’ve figured out how to do delayed posts)

Happy travelling

and please leave a comment, even if just to say hi!

Ah, my homeland.  Yes Blog readers I was born and spent my younger years growing up in Germany.  It is a country that offers much more than many people think and one that is very motorhome friendly.

We are currently sat in our incredibly comfortable van, Luke is making a cup of tea and I am here updating you.  Ten minutes ago things were very different.

We had forgotten to check the levels of our waste tank, it was only when we noticed some water on the floor that smelt ever so slightly of our dinner just a few hours ago that we realised our mistake. So we rushed round, removed the spare wheel, boxes of stuff and offending waste tanks in haste, sprayed everything with some Dettol and soaked up the water with some tissues.  Well – we have learnt our lesson.  The real killer though is that we have put our electric heater on to dry everything out, but it is so bloody warm already!

We have had some really brilliant weather here.  From our first overnight stop in Belgium, where our lie-in until 10am not only meant that everyother van had already left the services, but also meant that we were swelteringly hot!!

Anyways we have not done too much sight seeing, we have been on a few errands, getting used to the camper lifestyle, finding out where we are going, getting used to the van (particularly the dodgy steering) and just settling in.

We’re currently in NeuMunster, in Northern Germany (on the little bit that connects Germany to Denmark), In a brilliant Stellplatz that costs us 6euro per night, and includes free wi-fi internet, awesome!

We would love to stay here, but we’re unfortunately limited to just one night.  Tomorrow we head off to the port city of Kiel.  Staying in a free camping place.  Unfortunately no internet there though.

So till next time -  Tcheuss!

Hang on – don’t forget to check out my flickr account for all the photos…. http://www.flickr.com/photos/11431278@N07

Hey all, how are ya doing?

I’m really tired after my first day back at work after the holiday. Still – only four days to go, I think that’s the only thing that is keeping me going currently. Things aren’t exactly rosy and I have never had so many problems trying to teach people bloody simple things. Anyway – musn’t grumble (in the word of Terry Wogan!).

Four days until the real hard work begins. But this will be working for myself. Which makes it a seem so much easier.

For now though have a look below at some of my skiing photos. Some of which are wonderful sunsets, of course, you could never guess which time of day I most admire!

That’s all for now folks – will update more later!

Happy Travelling
OverlandSi

Good evening all, how are you?

Thanks to the wonders of mobile internet from T-Mobile Germany I am able to stay in touch with you guys direct from our glorified car park hehe.

I should also say that we have snow, wonderful snow, and lots of it. When I get round to replacing the batteries in the camera I will upload the photos of our excellent Snow Table!

While the snow storm outside batters us I shall inform you all of a new travel invention that I have seen on my travels.

We stopped over night at another stellplatz near the German twn of Julich, which is home to one of the largest open cast mines in the world. Whatever you may think about the terrible destruction that this way of mining causes, you cannot stand near the edge of this “hole” and wonder at the scale of it.

Mahusive! and yes that is intetionally spelt that way!

Whilst staying in Julich I noticed that next door to us was a lovely patch of flat land, with some brlliant “pitch turf”, lights and a small toilet and shower block. This is the future of budget travel ladies and gentlemen…. A youth tent platz!

We’ve all heard of youth hostels, so just apply the same principle to tenting, basic – but nice and clean – and of course fairly cheap!

So there we go – ony one day down and already I have found the future of travelling. You can find out more about this place here

Happy Tavelling
Overland Si