Belgium 21 - 25 June 2002 |
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Crossing from Dover |
T'Zwin Nature Reserve |
Brugges |
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We left London on 21 June, crossing the channel by ferry and arriving in Blankenberg Belgium (NW Coast) that evening. Though cool, we still enjoyed a couple days exploring the coastal resort towns and digging in the sand. We especially liked the Zwin Bird Sanctuary where we hiked across the marshes and sand dunes looking for different bird species. Our last day was spent in Brugges, which was much prettier in June than in had been during our February visit. We took a cruise along the canals and had a lovely dinner with the Bottecinis at a restaurant facing out on a beautiful square. Life in the caravan is actually quite fun and Scott has managed
some pretty impressive meals in our little kitchen. The towing
of the caravan though is a different story...much too slow and
unforgiving, but we will hopefully get better with time. Luxembourg 25 - 29 June 2002 |
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Luxembourg walk |
Overlooking the Bock |
Castle Vianden |
Bourscheid Castle |
Breakfast over Larochette |
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Luxembourg is a beautiful country with a lot of variation in a very small space. We drove through the farmland (le Bon Pays) to the forests and bluffs of the Petite Suisse where we stayed near the quaint village of Larochette. Every village seems to have a castle and we explored a beautifully restored castle at Vianden and a ruin at Bourscheid, both with incredible views over the river Sure. One day we went into Luxembourg City and walked along the old fortifications. We went to a great history museum where we saw the various stages of the fortress before it was largely pulled down in 1867 to ensure neutrality (which was then pretty much ignored in WWI and WWII). Scott's French has come in really handy. Though Flemish and then Luxembourgroi were the first languages in these last two stops French was usually the second language.....then German and English (very impressive). Rhine Valley, Germany 29 June - 3 July 2002 |
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Crossing the Rhine |
Coming down from the vineyards |
Overlooking the Rhine from Lorelei |
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Vineyards, vineyards and more vineyards. The hills, no matter how steep are covered in vines. We have enjoyed tasting our fair share of the Rieslings and most of them are wonderful. We drove through the Mosel valley on our way to the Rhine valley where we stayed in the town of Rudesheim on the Rhine. The views are best from the top of the cliffs so the first day we took a cable car up, hiked, took a ski lift down and finished off with a river cruise. Then we decided to explore further north by car and stopped to see a couple of the castles and hike up to the top of Lorelei. There are castles on every ridge and the kids now consider it a threat if I suggest we stop off to visit another one. European campsites do not have picnic tables or allow fires (hard to call it camping!) So to create the right atmosphere we bought a big citronella candle, added lots of sticks and pretended in was a fire...until Scott tried to put it out with water. The fireball was impressive, our fire alarm works really well, and the awning, table and Alexander only got lightly singed... a story for another day.
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A beer garden lunch |
Paddle Boats on Lake Titisee |
Overlooking Triberg Falls |
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We stayed in the southern part of the Black Forest where it is very wooded and hilly. Our campsite was right along a babbling creek near the town of Staufen. Scott did more wine tasting at a Freiberg wine festival and the next day we took a drive up to the glacier lake in Titisee. Another day we took a train to see the waterfall in Triberg (and avoided driving the winding roads). This area is really picturesque and the villages are quintessential Germany.
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Train journey up to Jungfraujoch |
Top of Jungfraujoch |
Lunch at Jungfraujoch |
Underground waterfalls at Trummelbach |
A pit stop on the hike from Murren |
Top of Grindelwald First |
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Our most spectacular spot so far! We stayed near Interlaken on Thun Lake. Our first day there was the only truly clear day we had and we were lucky enough to choose that day to take the 3 hour train journey to the highest train station in Europe at Jungfraujoch. Outrageously expensive, but amazingly gorgeous views. We explored an underground ice palace, threw snowballs, went sledding and tried some hiking, but we had yet to acclimatize to the lack of oxygen and the kids really struggled to breath. On other days, in between the rain and clouds, we took funiculars, gondolas and trains up into the mountains and then rode scooters and toboggans down the mountains and did quite a bit of hiking. We also visited some truly impressive underground waterfalls. The days spent driving between sites are our most stressful. It is slow going with the caravan attached and hills, curvy roads and narrow spaces can be harrowing. We had our first (and hopefully last) accident entering Switzerland. We were parked next to another camper at the customs station. They had opened all their car doors and as we pulled away we tried taking their door with us. Left us with a pretty good scrape, but we were able to be on our way again after insurance info was exchanged. We are now very wary and our drive from Switzerland into Italy did little to calm the nerves as we maneuvered hairpin turns, up entire mountains in 2nd gear.
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The Campo of Siena |
On the beach in Tuscany |
The leaning tower of Pisa |
Bridge of Sighs in Venice |
Piazza San Marco |
Over the doorway of the Basilica |
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We spent almost two weeks in Italy and experienced our most wet and our most sunny days. Our first stop was along Lake Garda where we spent a couple nights in a convent-hotel (a break from the caravan), but it rained so much that we didn't venture far and hung out with the Italian-speaking priests and nuns playing card games in the lobby. We then headed for Tuscany hitting more traffic, thunderstorms and awful roads.....driving in Italy lives up to its reputation. We stayed along the beach about 100 miles south of Pisa and took day trips into Sienna and Pisa. The Campo and Duomo in Siena are great and the town picturesque. Pisa has a leaning tower and lots of souvenirs, but we had a fun day as the sun had finally come out. We then headed for Venice hitting hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic.....summer holidays were here in force. We staying on the beach again (this time on the Adriatic Ocean on a Lido across from Venice). It was hot and muggy and we really enjoyed the beach and its cool breezes. We took two day trips into Venice by vaporetto (water bus). It is such a wonderfully unique city with great alleys and piazzas to explore, but it was very hot and very crowded.
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Campground near Innsbruck |
Alpine garden |
View over Innsbruck from Igls |
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Austria meant mountains and cool weather again. We stayed in one of the resort villages that surround Innsbruck, nestled at the base of the mountains on a small glacier lake. Innsbruck is a lovely little city with remnants of past Olympics scattered about and constant reminders that it is a skiing mecca. We took a gondola up to the top of one of the many mountains and walked through an alpine garden while gazing out over the city. We also visited a small Alpine Zoo which claims to be the highest zoo in Europe (a claim to fame we found quite amusing). On a sunny day the boys braved the waters of our lake (Natterersee), but soon had a slightly blue tint and teeth chattering We really started to slow down in Austria. I think the heat and stress of traveling in Italy had worn us out a bit and there wasn't a whole lot around Innsbruck that we felt we "had to see". So we thought we would catch up on our exercising. The first day Scott and I enjoyed a great day of mountain biking, but on the second day, as I was jogging on a mountain path, my ankle twisted pretty badly and gave us one more excuse to slow down. I of course expected to be back to normal in a day or two and was disgusted to find that my aging body took more than a week before I stopped hobbling. Scott continues to exercise almost every day and he and the boys enjoyed some hikes into the nearby forests.
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Karlstejn Castle |
Bird santuary near Konopiste |
Town Hall Clock |
Wallenstein Garden |
St. Vitus's Cathedral in Prague Castle |
Drying laundry on a rainy day |
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Our first few nights in the Czech Republic were spent in Bohemia, south of Prague. We visited a couple castles in the area (Karlstejn and Konopiste) which are pretty impressive from the outside and look to be pretty amazing on the inside as well (but our kids won't put up with any more castle tours). We also learned a bit about Charles IV and Franz Ferdinad. We then left our caravan at the campsite and went into Prague for a couple days. What a visually stunning city. The architecture is varied and interesting with something to look at around every corner. We spent two days and felt as though we barely made a dent. The Charles Bridge and Prague Castle were the big sites, but we enjoyed it all....even in the rain. When we planned this trip I was so worried about hot muggy nights trying to fall asleep in the caravan. With the exception of a couple nights around Venice our weather has been unseasonably cool (which has been a blessing), but also unseasonably wet (which has been especially frustrating the last 10 days). When you can't dry out between rainstorms and have to string laundry across the inside of the caravan, it's time for the rain to stop.
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The Berlin Wall |
World Art Bears |
SanSouci in Potsdam |
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Our drive into Berlin brought great relief as we went from rough narrow Czech roads to the wide smooth Autobahn. Pulling a caravan is always a challenge but good roads go a long way to making things easier; we even hit 70 mph! Berlin is a city that needs much more time to explore than we allowed. We did enjoy just walking through the town, comparing the east and west sides Especially enlightening was the Check Point Charlie Museum which documents the history of escape attempts over the Berlin wall. We also enjoyed the Berlin Zoo and an English language movie, which at this point was a treat, even if it was just Scooby Doo. A very pleasant surprise was the Sans Souci Park in Potsdam. The Sans Souci Palace has extensive grounds that were much grander than we expected. We have met some nice people in our travels, but have epecially enjoyed getting advice from the Kiwis and Aussies for the later stages of our trip. Though we have bumped into lots of Americans while siteseeing, we don't see them much at the campgrounds.
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Madurodam near Amsterdam |
Windmills of Kinderdijk |
RijksMuseum in Amsterdam |
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Amsterdam was our last stop of the summer. We visited the Anne Frank house, which was especially interesting since Zachary had just finished her Diary. We also enjoyed the Van Gough museum, and a canal tour. This was our third city with canals (Brugge, Venice) and it was interesting to compare them. We also explored the surrounding area, the windmills of Kinderdijk as well as a miniature Netherlands (1:25 scale) called Madurodam in The Hague. We'll miss the caravan more than I would have expected. Though it seemed like such a small space, with so little storage when we started this trip, I know realize how much we were able to carry and what a luxury it was. The idea of cutting back to four suit cases for the next eight months of travel is frightening.
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