Panic stations. We stopped at a fuel station on the outskirts of Germany to fill up. Thinking nothing of it, I grabbed Neils wallet to pay. Turns out he had his expired card in his wallet and I had to pay with the credit card instead. So where was Neil’s card? Nope we couldn’t find it. Emergency phone call to Neils contact in the UK to cancel the card thinking it must have been swiped by a pick pocket in France. Well a long story short, I found the thing in the drivers door storage compartment. So another call to the UK to uncancel the card. With all the calling we promptly used up all our credit on our mobile. Well at least we still have the card. If anything sort your communication out in the UK BEFORE YOU LEAVE. Don’t by a SIM card overseas as the language will catch you everytime you want to topup or check your balance. Now we are in Germany and unable to topup as we have a French SIM card and the website is french… etc, etc… We’re just going to email people and get a phone card for Europe in case of emergencies.
So Germany…. We headed into the Black Forests and what a gorgeous part of the world that is. You expect to find a gingerbread man around every corner. The houses have something of a fairytale mixture about them, say Hansel and Grettel meets Heidi. We found a lovely campsite up on a hill with a lovely vista. Upon arrival at the campsite the owners weren’t there so we promptly made ourselves at home at the highest point. I’m talking low range only 4×4 type hill. A while later the owner approached us up the hill and quite a breathless state. The look on his face was one of disbelief when he saw the car. He couldn’t seem to understand how we had got the car up there. He promptly paid Neil a nice compliment and said: “You, good driver!” Now can you who know Neil can imagine how chuffed he was with a massive grin on his face. Anyway we spent one glorious evening there on top of the world. Not a sound to be heard the whole evening.
Day 2 in Germany started with a pre-breakfast walk into the forest above our campsite. We didn’t do to badly considering the altitude was about 800 metres above sea level. Back into camp, breakfast and away we drove to Munich. The drive was pretty unevently as far as drama goes. If you can, try and avoid the Autobahn as you have to pay each time you want to use the loo, and those that are free are gag material. We arrived at a campsite that evening. Something serious was going on here at this campsite. Busloads of people were coming and going and there we were just parked to one side. Out of the blue this guy taps on our window. He says: “Hey, are you South African?” We’re like of course mate. He said: “You come at the wrong time man, it’s the start of October fest tomorrow and there are like 4500 people in camp tonight, so where in SA are you from, I’m from Namibia.” With all those people there, we just wanted to put our tent up and sleep. Asking for just that, Hening (the Namibian), sorted us out with a corner just outside the campsite. Man alive, was the campsite rocking. Apparently it was the weekend when all the Ausie and Kiwi’s made their way to Germany for the October Fest. Hening organised some free passes for us. A good few beers and a couple of ham sandwiches later, we were in bed and out for the count.
Day 3 in Germany started off with a slight hangover. We slept in until about 9am and joined the crowd at the river to watch those brave Ausies attempt the river surfing that seems to be the craze in Germany. Later in the day we met up with Alex, who is a long time friend of ours. He showed us around the October Fest and guided us through the streets of Munich. We had a lovely time lunching in the gardens and taking in the mrkets and beautiful buildings. Afterward Alex treated us to a hearty supper of Schnitzel. What a huge plate of food it was and for only 9.40 Euros each. We said our goodbyes and we’ll definitely miss Alex, who by the way is getting married next year. Good luck Alex! We hope to see you in 2012 when you’re in South Africa. We then proceeded to navigate our way back to our camp on the UBahn, or Underground Rail in English. We jumped into our car and headed off for the German Alps. The night we did another wildcamp and this time to the sound of wolves howling in the distance. Quite amazing really, hearing those mystical creatures in the wild. I think we were asleep by howl number 3…
Day 4 in Germany we rose early to catch the sun rising over the fairytale castle called Schloss Neuschwanstein. Not only is the castle extra-ordinarly beautiful, but the surroundings were something of a fairytale themselves. We even met a cat who could appreciate the lovely vista from the castle hilltop. See our pics of Germany. We spent the rest of the day hiking around, since we paid the parking fee of 4.50 Euros. Afterward we headed for a campsite nearer to Salzburg in Austria. We ended up camping for 2 days in one spot just to recooperate on the shored of Lake Riegsee. We lounge in the unusually good weather, Neil even braved a swim in the alpine lake. Some much needed rest was had and off to Salzburg we headed.
