After saying goodbye to the excellent people who ran our favourite campsite so well (Annick, Phillippe and their young grandaughter Chloe) Monday was a travelling day which seemed to take a long time in the very warm weather. Schallstadt, just south of Freiburg in the Black Forest region of Germany, is where M1's pal Philip Bambury from MoD all those years ago, now lives with his German born wife Renate. It had always been the intention to visit them and now the time had finally arrived. The journey took us slowly up and over the Jura mountains eventually dropping down through Gex with fabulous views of Lake Leman and Geneva to Divonne then along the north side of the lake (heavy traffic due to roadworks) through Lausanne, Bern, Basel and onwards through Switzerland (which was chocolate box scenic, neat and tidy) and across the Rhine into Germany. We arrived to a warm and enthusiastic welcome from our hosts, a licking from Jessie and Kiwi their two black labradors, then shared a few cold beers. We were happy to be there and able to relax. Although we intended to sleep in the van, conveniently parked in the adjacent farm, Philip insisted that we use his excellent shower and loo facilities in his rather grand cellar conversion. This was probably because he feared we might stink a bit after nearly 4 months in the van! We scrubbed up and changed then were treated to a BBQ on the terrace as the impending rain clouds subsided. We were light on gifts but we did put aside a reasonable bottle of Portuguese red wine bottled for the bicentenary of the battle of Vimeiro in 2008 which we hope Philip and Renate will put to best use. During and after supper, we talked and drank too much but it was a real and relaxing treat.
No comments:
Post a Comment