Dinkelsbuhl

We left Rothenburg o d t and went directly to Dinkelsbuhl since we had bypassed it on the way up. This was another really delightful medieval village and we spent some time exploring the inner city (old town) area. The city has grown up outside the walls of the old town but then it looks just like any other modern city. The real romance is on the inside of the city walls with the grand entrance gates, cobbled streets, old towers, old churches, stout city walls etc to give it the charm we all think about when we mention the word ‘medieval’.

One of the photos here shows a group of cyclists enjoying morning tea at a restaurant. What has been amazing is to see large groups of cyclists and walkers all over the place. Restaurant owners must rub their hands together when a group arrives. Certainly as you walk past restaurants they seem to be expecting lots of people; many umbrellas, tables and chairs are set up on the pavements.

Like Rothenburg o d, many of the buildings on the inside of the walls seem to be hotels and pensions. Others are charming little shops selling a range of goods, many for the tourist market.

Around Rothenburg

This afternoon we walked the city walls and took in the wonderful sights within the walls. It was really interesting looking at the gardens at the back of some of the houses, the wavy roof lines and the different kinds of block walls. Probably the most interesting feature was the way the old city has been preserved. Apart from the area outside the Town Hall, there isn’t really a commercial centre since the whole of the old town is the commercial centre. Restaurants, various souvenir outlets and other retailers are dotted all over the old town. There is a ‘new town’ existing outside the walls.
There are so many picturesque objects it is often hard to decide what to photograph! Lynne stands in front of some of the beautiful buildings.

Northern Villages

This morning we had a good breakfast – part of the price – and set off to explore the northern villages. We decided to book another night at Pension Becker so we wouldn’t have to pack up all our gear again. We also knew it would be easier than looking again for accommodation.
Most of the day was spent visiting little villages such as Creglingen, Rottingen, Weikersheim, Bad Mergentheim, Lauda-Konigshofen and Tauberbischofsheim. Each had some unique features but collectively they simply added colour and depth to the well publicised Romantic Road.

We also found the countryside in and around the Tauber valley really fascinating.The well laid out fields with their great variety of crops were many wonderful shades of green. Some had rings of red poppies around them. Most of the fields were so geometrically aligned that you could be forgiven if you thought a mathematician had planned it all.

The Night Watchman

At 8 pm we joined about 100 other people on an English speaking tour of the old city of Rothenburg with the Night Watchman. His was a mixture of information and entertainment and we really enjoyed the hour and a quarter with him. We were pleased we had our jackets because it became colder as the night went on.

Rothenburg

A view of Rothenburg from a hill outside the city.

We arrived in Rothenburg shortly after 6 pm, guided to the door of Pension Becker by Garmin. We were also very fortunate to secure an overnight parking space near our pension. Pension Becker is in the old part of the town; entry through the main gate. The streets are very narrow and cobbled and make it sound as if the car is travelling a lot faster than it really is.

Romantic Road

Our association with the Romantic Road started at Fussen where we gathered a map of the route. We decided to leave some of the villages closer to Fussen until next week when we return to Oberstaufen where we will stay in a Time Share resort and will further explore Bavaria.
We also decided to avoid the bigger places since negotiating streets, parking and exploring local sights can be difficult and time consuming.
When we got to Nordlingen we used an internet café to book ahead for accommodation at Rothenburg ob de Tauber. That took off some of the pressure. Now that we are travelling by car and not public transport finding internet cafes has been difficult. I guess most internet cafes are located in places that tourists/travellers gather, and that’s not where we are. We are also staying in budget accommodation and they don’t have wireless internet. Oh well you can’t have it both ways! I need more time to check out my assumptions.
When you drive through so many new and fascinating places, at then end of the day it’s hard to remember what each one looked like! Already places like Rottenbuch, Peiting, Hohenfuch, Landsber am Lech, Augsburg and Wallerstein are fast fading from memory – isn’t it just as well we have photographs and maps to help? However, taken together they certainly help to create a series of beautiful fairytale images.

Hotel

This visit was all too short and we were away shortly after 1 pm with two of Jane’s bread rolls to have for lunch some-where on our way to Germany.
Garmin very skilfully helped take us through typically picturesque Swiss villages and countryside and across Austrian and German borders without any difficulty at all. We stopped in at Fussen to use the internet to organise some accommodation for the night at the Hotel Schoenburg.

Now this is where Garmin really came into his own. The hotel is in a place called Pfronten. It is on our map but then there are a lot of roads in that area that aren’t on our map, and that makes navigation very difficult to say the least. The hotel is in the country in terms of the type of roads in the area.

At one stage Garmin said to turn right in 10 m. I couldn’t see how that could be done and started to have serious doubts about where we would sleep this evening! However, after ignoring his instructions, doing a u-turn and starting all over again, I did as I was told and drove down a right of way and there on my right was Hotel Schoenburg!

From our balcony we could see a large village below – typical beautiful, Austrian image – and we could also hear cowbells nearby. We were so tired they didn’t worry us at all.

Madison and preschool

We slept so soundly that we missed the trip to Madison’s pre-school session next morning. However we made up for that later when we accompanied Jane to meet her. We went via a hill walk to a look out over the village of Weggis – again, another brilliant picture postcard scene.
Upon reaching the village we had time to watch and listen to a summer quartet as they prepared to give a free concert; this is a council sponsored event for the summer. The group plays each day of the week 11 – 12 and draws really good crowds. The setting was superb with the concert taking place under cover. With colourful hanging baskets, fairytale houses and the lake and Alps as a back drop, what more could you want? And it’s all free!

Jane and Paul

Jane and the children were at the garage door to meet us; it was really wonderful to see them although Samuel and Madison needed time to get to know two strangers!

Jane and Paul looked really great and it was super to catch up, share travel stories and for us to learn about their Swiss experiences over the last year.





Paul’s BBQ skills and Jane’s salad making expertise soon had us all feeling replete, aided by two of Jane and Paul’s favourite Swiss chocolates. We also managed to fit in a bottle of French Bordeaux and a bottle of Savignon Blanc from Germany.

The view of Lake Lucerne from their balcony is absolutely brilliant; real picture post card stuff. Paddle steamer and other ferries regularly make a colourful centre piece to the lake in the foreground and the Alps in the background. One could never tire of a year round scene like that.

Swiss Border

Crossing the Swiss border was painless apart from a 30 euros toll. An hour and a half later we were in Weggis. Garmin had performed superbly to this point but we needed final instructions from Jane on how to get to her apartment. The address we had was for a Hotel and set of apartments and not an actual street address. Had I known that I would have used one of Garmins other functions to find the address.

Auto Bahn

Whatever stories you have heard about speed and the German autobahns is probably true. I’m usually not one of the slower drivers on the open road but today was quite different. While travelling at 150 km (only very briefly) vehicles of all kinds, large and small cars, trucks etc went past me as if I was standing still.

Leaving Frankfurt

On Tuesday we had an urgent round table conference and decided to revise our travel plans for Germany.
While we have been travelling we have often mentioned Malcolm and Elizabeth Sutherland as they have travelled extensively in this part of the world. So it was really good to be able to visit their daughter Jane, son-in-law Paul and their family who are living and working in Weggis, Switzerland.
The first step was to see how practicable that was in terms of time and distance. The only way to do that was have Garmin plot a course for Basel and take us there. He was brilliant at getting us out of the big city. Had it been up to us I am sure we would have made much harder work of it.
As we got an hour and a half down the motor way we decided that Switzerland was definitely on and that we could be there by late afternoon. A quick call to Jane and all was confirmed and we were on our way.

A Walk in Frankfurt

We spent an evening enjoying some of the wonderful inner city parks and walks.










The setting of the sun added to the ambience and helped us to develop a certain empathy with Frankfurt.















We walked along the banks of the river Rhine where we saw joggers, walkers, cyclists and families enjoying picnics and the odd BBQ. Another group was enjoying a board game.











Beautiful gardens, fountains and peaceful surroundings all helped to make for a very pleasant evening.

Football everywhere!

With the current football tournament on, restaurants have set up huge screens inside their premises and on the pavements so their clients don’t miss any of the actions. You can hear them from a long way away!

We had an evening meal at a Thai restaurant and it must have been the only one that wasn’t showing the matches live.

Germany 2 - Poland 0

Yesterday Germany beat Poland in a football match and the streets near our hotel were filled with the noise of car horns tooting incessantly. Young people were driving round and round the streets, bodies extended from the window openings of cars, flags were being waved and shouts of jubilation were going on between those in the cars and those on the footpaths. A colourful and noisy event that was very difficult to capture on film. The noise went on until the early hours of the morning.

Garmin you're on

We’re at Frankfurt Hahn, Germany and it’s time for Garmin to do its thing! The first task was a simple one, “Take us to Koblenz”, but we made a bad start on that one with Garmin giving directions that took us the opposite direction we believed should have been the case. We arrived at that decision based on signs we decided meant cars shouldn’t be there.

We seemed to be the only car going in the direction but we dutifully followed the instructions and we eventually found ourselves travelling through some of the most beautiful countryside imaginable; fields of every shade of green you could think of; trees of every type, some we see at home but others seemed new. Although a secondary road most of us would be pleased to have to drive over it each day.

Three times Garmin told us to take turns that were one-way streets, no passage allowed due to road works or made calls too late for me to act on. We didn’t have a very good middle game I’m afraid. It seems we were trying to connect with a main arterial route but just couldn’t make it. After ‘recalculating’ each time we missed a turning we seemed to take some obscure pathway to get us back on track.

While we were having these teething problems we got to see a lot of places that weren’t on our ‘detailed’ map of Germany but not many of those that were! We visited some delightful villages along the Rhine and nearby valleys; grapes seemed to be growing everywhere and all villages were very neatly ordered and in strong contrast to many we had seen in Turkey and Greece.

However, we kept missing Koblenz by about 10 km until we decided that even if we did get there we had somehow to get back to our hotel in Frankfurt – which we hadn’t yet booked into – so decided to reset Garmin on a course for the city. In this area Garmin performed creditably ensuring we stayed left or right or whatever was required and that we took the correct exits at the right time.

It was a different story though when we asked him to find the street our hotel was in. We seemed to get locked into a circular route we couldn’t break out of. Garmin couldn’t see the one way streets or those with temporary road works, thus requiring us to decline the choice he had given us.

Eventually we pulled into a parking building, called the hotel and asked how to find them; we did that on foot since it was not far from where we had parked. Once we established where we should have been and had a good look at the neighbourhood, we picked up the car and parked it in the grounds of the hotel across the road – 8 euros per night!

We now have a detailed map of Frankfurt to use while Garmin and I develop a better working relationship. He earned enough points to ensure he stays on the show for another day.

3 am in the morning

[Aboard the Athens airport bus]

We’ll have to stop these early starts! Today required a 3 am alarm so we could have the desk downstairs call a cab to take us to Syntagma Square where the bus starts its journey to the airport at 3:50 am. Our ride took us up through a sleazey area where the girls of the night were still working and seemingly, customers were still driving through the area – not a pretty sight.

It took a full bus about 1.5 hours to make the journey today. Athens airport was busy but we were ready to go through to the departure lounge before 5 am so had plenty of time to practise sitting, waiting and people watching.

The flight was broken at Thessaloniki and eventually arrived in Frankfurt on time. From there we had to catch the Ryan Air bus to Frankfurt Hahn to pick up our rental car; an excellent sightseeing tour I have to say. Everything seems so clean, green and ordered.

Athens Dry Cleaner

Part of day 1 in Athens was tempered by our attempts to find a dry cleaner. See picture at left and below for the reason why I needed one!

I checked the internet and found one that seemed close to our hotel; in fact it was the only one anywhere near our hotel! The hotel front desk staff didn't know where there was a dry cleaner either.

We walked for over an hour before we found it some distance from our hotel. Because of that, I asked if he could deliver to our hotel; that did not seem to be a problem and 5:30 pm was agreed. During the day I was to ring him to let him know the phone number of our hotel (he had the name and address). I tried several times to do so but he wasn't answering the number on his business card. Very late in the afternoon/early evening I eventually managed to talk to him and he assured me my dry cleaning would be delivered to my hotel around 8 pm.

Unfortunately 8 pm came and went but still there was no dry cleaning and, surprise, surprise, no-one answering the phone either!

I eventually contacted him this morning - his excuse - the driver couldn't find the hotel! I guess the five-storey sign blinded him! He said he would deliver it when he closes the shop at 2pm; I declined his offer and said I would be there shortly to pick it up.

I suggested that he should fire his delivery person. His excuse for that was that the delivery person was new to the job. How would I know which parts of his story were true???

Never mind, I have my suit back and won't have to wear my shorts to Derek and Donna's wedding at the end of the month.


Tomorrow morning we leave our hotel at 3:30 am in order to make the connections that will get us to the airport for our flight to Frankfurt.

Why I needed a dry cleaner!
As we were leaving Pamukkale I decided to check the placement of a few things in my luggage. When I opened the suitcase what a mess there was to greet me. My hair shampoo (it was in a plastic bag - I had had this problem on a previous trip and had learned the lesson!) had leaked and gone all over several items of clothing, including my suit (that was going to need a press any way). Fortunately we had more than an hour to wait for our bus so it was a matter of unpacking everything on the pavement, cleaning the shampoo from the inside of the case, removing as much as I could from my clothing and repacking everything. Several people came along to see what I was up to - none of them could do much to help! The bus depot manager did give me a cloth and offered some water.

When we got to the hotel in Kusadasi I was able to send the affected items out to a laundry but the suit I was to leave until we got to Athens.

The lesson to learn from this experience - leave the shampoo at home and stick to old fashioned soap and water.

Day 2 in Athens

Day 2 was spent getting to know Athens a little better. We used the buses and the trolley buses to get around and do some exploring. The weather was sunny and very warm - 33 degrees celsius for most of the day.

This shot was taken in Syntagma Square where a new crowd of pedestrians faced the lights every few minutes throughout the day - they just kept on coming!






Something that surprised us was the amount of grafitti around the city. I guess they have their vandals like the rest of us do and their 'art' appears in all parts of the city we visited from the 'dive' area near our hotel to the high class shopping areas.











Within a few blocks of our hotel we came across a very large market area. Numerous butchers called to potential customers to buy their goods while others simply wielded a knife to gain attention!

The fishmongers' area of the market was equally interesting with all sorts of species of fish for sale.








The fruit and vegetables section was across the road and it too seemed to go for miles. You could buy almost anything that took your fancy. The huge tomatoes looked particularly inviting as did the strawberries, cherries and olives.






In the afternoon we spent some time looking at the fashion shops with their enormous range of designs and colours. It is certainly a city to shop for clothes in. We were amazed at the number of shopping bags we saw coming out of shops - people really do buy the goods! Unfortunately we weren't buyers!

We loved all the outdoor restaurants and took advantage of one at lunchtime to rest our feet and to have a Greek salad. People watching was something else we did a lot of - the place is ripe for it!

At the end of the day we felt that Athens had a little more to offer than the crumbling and patched up monuments we saw on day 1. We actually had an exciting and enjoyable day.

Around Athens

There seemed to be a lot of police around parliament today. Every second person had on a uniform with many of them talking into their shirt collars. Must have been something big going down because there seemed to be camera crew by the mile as well. Many police also had riot shields amongst their kit.

However all that didn't stop the changing of the guard ceremony.





We spent much of today making the obligatory visits to the many monuments that Athens is famous for. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is an impressive venue - I think we had a televised performance from here by Pavarotti.



View of the Acropolis and the Pantheon - an impressive piece of restoration work going on there. I'm glad we visited on a Friday; I can imagine the crowds at the weekends.

Later in the day we took a city sight seeing bus to see what else we need to put in the agenda for tomorrow.

Santorini to Athens with Aegean Sunsets

A Blue Star ferry from Santorini to Athens takes about about 10 hours. The first few hours are fine while you are calling at various islands on the way and have their buildings and colour schemes to admire.

This is a church on Ios.






Each stops sees new passengers come on board as others leave. Nothing disciplined about boarding - it's every person for themselves. Surprisingly there are very few problems amongst the passengers. I am sure our OSH would find a reason to stop a sailing!











The journey gets even better when the sun begins to set. This makes the the hour or so before sunset a paradise for photographers.








Almost gone!

The last hour to Athens is a bit long - especially when that hour finishes at about 12:45 am!

At that time of night a taxi is a good option even if it costs 26 euros to get from the port to the centre of town. There are buses and trains but that would have made it an even later night!

Last Lunch at Thira

This was the view from our restaurant as we had lunch before leaving for Athens. Choosing a picture for this post was very difficult since there were so many pictures from which to choose.











Paul has his last lunch at Thira; nothing elaborate, just a simple banana split complete with a Greek flag. Lynne had a Greek salad.

We chose the restaurant for the view but it was worth it! The restaurant next door has a 2 Euro compulsory cover charge before you sit down! Given that I thought 21 Euros for lunch was just fine.

Local Tour

In comparison with yesterday, today was definitely ‘quiet’. We didn’t get up until around 8 am, believing we had a 9 am start. However, upon checking our tickets we realised we wouldn’t be met until almost 11 am. All that ‘spare’ time was squandered on little bits and pieces such as making sure washing was hung properly and noting that internet cafes in the area don’t open until later in the day etc.

For those of you who know the area, today’s tour took us through Pyrgos to the monastery of the Prophet Elias. From there we descended to the village of Megalochori for photo opportunities and a talk by our guide. Akrotiri provided us with an opportunity to get our feet wet in the Aegean sea before moving on to the town of Emboreio. By this time most people on the bus just wanted to get on with lunch!

When it was time to stop for lunch, Lynne and I found a shady spot along the beach to enjoy our picnic lunch. Most people ate at a restaurant however we enjoyed our bread rolls while watching the people across the road at the beach enjoy their shade umbrellas and beach loungers – 2 loungers and 1 umbrella costs 6 Euros – don’t know for how long.

We must have been reasonably well hidden because one car load of beach goers was quite happy to change into swimming gear across the road from us!

Volcan Winery

The last item on the agenda was the Volcan Winery where we visited a brilliant underground wine museum made up of all sorts of historical events concerning the establishment of wine on the island; tourism and wine now make up most of the island’s economy.

http://www.thirahotels.com/The-Museum.htm

We had an opportunity to do some tasting but declined to buy any of the three wines on offer. Two English women beside us emptied each of their tastings so I guess they weren’t impressed with what was on offer!

Bells and singing

For people who enjoy church bells we were treated to a few minutes of their beautiful melodies; the only problem was they went on and off for over an hour and there was no way of getting away from it - me having a head ache didn’t help either. We tried closing the door for some relief but all that did was heat up the room!

We heard some beautiful male voice singing the night we arrived in Samos and a few minutes ago we could hear more of the same coming from a building nearby.

Pension George

George and his English wife, Helen, run a very sound accommodation operation in Karterados, a small village about 3 km from the main town of Thira. Helen said she came to Santorini 20 years ago on a one week holiday where she met George; the rest is history!

The pension has marble floors everywhere; inside and out. A most inviting swimming pool can be seen from our room. We have a bed in a loft, kitchenette, bathroom, cutlery, crockery etc so are well set up.

We quickly checked out possibilities on Santorini and booked an extra night’s accommodation, two tours and Blue Star Ferry to Athens on Thursday.

While it’s only a 20 minutes walk to Thira, there is a gauntlet with traffic to run. There is all manner of vehicles using the route from tour company vehicles ranging from vans to 50-seater buses; cars, scooters, motor bikes and four wheel drive motor bikes. Vehicle hire is a big business on the island but we opted out of that one!

We did some grocery shopping for breakfasts and lunches, caught up on some washing and had a restful evening.

Kamari Tours

This is the boat we used to 'island hop' during the day.

At 9:10 am we walked up to the ‘corner’ to be picked up by Kamari Tours. We were with them for the whole day. Our first visit was to a very picturesque area in Pyrgos, the subject of many calendar and post card pictures. We also visited Agia Paraskevi castle and from there we were taken to Port Athinios to board our ‘pirate’ ship.

The first part of our time on the water was used to sail along beneath the cliffs of Thira. This is something one could do often; the views upward are magnificent and the cruise liners in the bay simply add to the beauty of any photographs.

Our next port of call was Nea Kameni active volcano. All passengers disembarked and set out on a climb to the top of the volcano. Every volcano has its story to tell and this one is similar to others we have read about. However, for the journey to the top we were rewarded with the most amazing views of the five islands that make up the Santorini group.

When we called at Palea Kameni hot springs about 30 people took the opportunity to swim up to the mouth of the spring. Apparently it wasn’t as warm as they had expected. I was feeling a bit off colour today so passed on this one.

Thirassia Island was our next stop and that involved a zig zag climb to the top; one did have an option to pay 5 euros and ride a donkey; however, we saved the donkey a trip. Having said that, those donkeys can give one person a 10 minute start, carry another 80 -100 kg person up the trail and still beat the person whom they gave a ten minute start! It took us just on half an hour non-stop to make the climb to the top; unfortunately there was little reward there so we made our way back down to the boat to catch our breath for the next stage of the tour. It was like a ghost town.

After leaving Thirassia we next stopped at Oia where we again had a choice with which to approach the zig zag climb to the top; walk or pay 5 euros for a donkey. Again we chose to walk!

Once we made the 20-30 minute walk to the top we had almost 2 hours to take in the shopping; some really lovely shops with very interesting art and design.

We found an inexpensive café where we ordered crepe and drinks and waited for the famous Oia sunset. The sky was a little hazy but around 8:20 pm we were treated to a really beautiful sunset. However, I think the commercial photographers know and have some assistance to get the best shooting opportunities.

Our bus delivered us to the ‘corner’ and we were home by 9:30 pm – a really big but fabulous day.

Arrival in Santorini

Almost all boat visitors to Santorini arrive via Port Athenios and no wonder; wouldn’t anyone want to make use of the spectacular cliffs with which to welcome visitors? The postcards are indeed true and Santorini is rightly the subject of many of them.

We arrived in Port Athenios, Santorini at around 6 pm and faced a wall of people offering accommodation. We spotted the name ‘Georges Pension’ in the crowd; this was a site we had looked at earlier so knew enough about it to approach George and confirm the price etc before setting off with him to his establishment.

Fast Cat Ferry

Fastcat Ferry

We took a Fastcat Ferry with a departure time of 2:45 pm from Mykonos to Santorini. This was the fastest and most expensive option but since it would get us into Santorini with plenty of time to find a bed we took it. There is no doubt the service lived up to its name taking only about 3 hours to make the trip and that included stops at Paros, Ios and one other (name escapes me) to pick up and set down passengers.

As usual Lynne checked out the safety features, worked out where our life jackets were and assured herself that there were enough flotation devices for everyone!

Delos

Today was another history lesson revisited with a trip to the archaeological site of Delos Island; about 40 minutes from Mykonos. We had been warned to take a hat because there is no shade on Delos; words worth taking note of. The tallest piece of vegetation was a palm tree; other plants consisted grasses and ‘scrub’.

Delos is famous as the sanctuary dedicated to Apollo and his sister Artemis, with the Hellenistic city around it. Today it is a barren archaeological site ‘littered’ with ancient ruins. It is protected under a UNESCO World Heritage agreement.

One of the photos selected for this post is of the water cisterns that drew water from the nearby theatre.

Our guide was excellent and we all came away a lot more informed than we did by the end of our fourth form history lessons!

It is hard to imagine a ‘culture’ comprising of up to 30,000 people thriving here since 1400 BC. Harder still to imagine why Mithradates would want to destroy it in 88BC – but that’s another history lesson!

The Delos museum houses many of the original items archaeologists have excavated while others lie in museums in London and other places.

Pelican

If you look hard you will be able to see a pelican in the bottom right of the picture; I think it got more attention than the Island of Delos!

Noise

It is just as well we didn’t have a big day planned; last night was marred by the creation of excess noise made by some ‘lads’ in other units. A lady near us had obviously had enough by 7am and gave them their pedigree. Today we saw the George, the owner, also having a word with them. He said that what happens is the young people spend all day at the beach, return for a shower, have a meal and hit the bars at about midnight! If they would stay out until 7 am that would be fine but coming home early is a bit of a nuisance!