And back to Germany we go

 The next morning it was less windy but still cold and a bit wet so we decided to cross the border and head to a spa/sauna centre for the day. Now I should explain that we have been to a German spa before so we knew what to expect but it can be a real culture shock to those not familiar with them. A few things even caught us by surprise this time. We enter the sauna centre and asked for an all day pass which surprised them as most people only do 4 hours but we thought we might as well spend the whole day indoors today so it suited us. We headed up to the dressing room to find out it was a mixed one which did surprise us a little but after a quick check (to ensure it was mixed and I hadn’t just walked into the male changing room) we got ready (basically got naked) and headed to the shower and then, in our towels, headed to the saunas. There were 5 saunas of different temperatures, a hot tub, swimming pool, 2 cold pools, some areas to relax and a bar/café. The whole of the sauna centre is swimsuit free, except the main pool if you go in there, so you have to get used to walking around naked and seeing other people naked.

We spent time in most of the saunas, including going in for a couple of Aufguss sessions which is where they put ice and essential oils on the heaters and use fans and towels to whip it around which increases the heat and humidity and when the sauna starts at 90 degrees it gets very hot and some people have to leave before the end due to the heat. We popped out about halfway through the day for lunch in the van and then came back in and carried on with the different sauna’s and pools.

 Eventually we finished up and headed out to the van and went to the supermarket as Germany is a lot cheaper and the fridge is looking very bare and then we headed to a park up for the night and relaxed with a beer!

 The next morning we got up an headed south to a town called Lubeck which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and walked around the town. We walked into a church which appeared to also sell Apple products including iPhone and TVs as well as having a record shop in the atrium and art works dotted around the church. It was a very bizarre experience and then we walked on to the town hall, the city gate and the old salt houses as Lubeck was a very large salt town and had some of the largest trading routes with the Nordic countries. Finally on the walk back to the van we stopped in a shop selling marzipan which the city is famous for and has been making it since 1800 but there are mentions of it in the town as far back as 1530. We then headed down south and parked up just south of Hamburg for the night. We bought a little box of it and I can confirm it was really lovely. Sorry there isn’t any left to bring home as souvenirs - we ate it all.

 The next morning we headed out for an early morning run which was fairly uneventful. As we were running different lengths we ran separately which is always interesting. I managed to see a deer and bird of prey but also I was made to jump by a cyclist and a car behind me but at least I didn’t lose my route at all while Rich also saw the bird of prey he did struggle to stay on his route. We finished about the same time and showered before heading to a TUV station, which is like an MOT station. We need a environmental sticker so we had to go in with our V5 to see if we could get one. It was surprisingly easy and 5 minutes later we walked out with one for 6 euros. This now means we don’t have to worry about going into any town or city as we are compliant with all the different environment zones.  

 We then carried on south to a town called Luneburg which is  a very pretty but crooked  town. Many of the building have sunk due to the amount of salt pulled from the ground. We walked around the town seeing the leaning church, the town hall and many of the bowing or crooked houses. Apparently the builder of the Church saw how much the church leaned once it was finished and climbed the steeple and plunged through a window down to the ground but a hay cart drove past at that very moment and caught and saved him. He thought it must be god will keeping him alive after a fall like that so he went out to celebrate with a few beers but he got too drunk, fell off a bench and died.

It was a lovely town and we managed to grab some food before continuing the drive down south. We are making quite quick progress through Germany but it’s a big country so it does take time to cover the entire country from north to south.

The next morning we got up and drove a little further south to Hanover where we planned to get our washing done at the laundrette as Rich is running out of clothes. We managed to get it done by lunchtime so we headed into the city and parked up before walking to the city centre and exploring. The city is quiet small so we were able to cover a lot on foot in an afternoon. We headed to the old town hall which was a lovely building in the market square which had been heavily bombed in the second world war and had been reconstructed. Much of the city was effected by the bombings meaning very few old building still remain. There is a street of half timbered houses which we walked down which have also been recreated after the bombing. We also headed to the Oskar Winter fountain where you can make a wish and then spin the golden ring three times to make the wish come true. It was a very ornate fountain and while there was no water in the fountain it was still beautiful.  We then headed to the river Leine where we saw some surfers trying to surf a small man made lip which creates an artificial wave. There were some good ones and it reminded us of the surfers we saw last time in Munich. We also went to see the statues of Nanas which are three statues and are called the Buxom ladies. They caused controversy when they were installed in 1974 with many people asking for them to be removed by they managed to remain and are now a beloved site in the city. From here we headed to the church called Aegidienkirche which was hit during the bombing and was never rebuilt and the ruins are still in place. Instead the town of Hiroshima donated a peace bell and every year on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombings representatives come over from Japan and jointly ring the bell.   

Afterwards we headed to a cat café for some dinner, partly because we really miss pets now and wanted to see some animals and partly because it’s a well rated vegan café. We had dinner and headed out of the city for the night.

 The next day we got up and continued down south and stopped at Marienburg castle for a walk around. This is one of the many fairy tale castles in Germany and was stunning with vines climbing the walls and turrets with spiral stairs all surrounding a central courtyard. We walked around for awhile before continuing on to Bad Hazburg. Any town with bad in the name means it is a thermal town so we are considering a stop at a spa again but first we decided to get the cable car up the hill. This was a mistake, not just because I hate cable cars and heights but because the queue for tickets was soo long and full of kids. After probably more time than it would have taken to walk up the hill we were at front of the queue and up we went with me taking deep breaths and not looking down. Three minutes later we were up at the top and had a walk around and a good look at the view and the ruins of an old castle which was atop the hill. We then decided to walk to the national park which was about 3km from the top and should take about 45 minutes. In the national park they have been reintroducing wild Lynx into the forests and while it is unlikely that you will see them in the wild currently they have some in an enclosure, although this is large and therefore there is no guarantee you will see them and some of the enclosures are used to get new lynx used to the areas before being released as most of the cats are born in captivity before being released. As it was a day where they are fed we did manage to see a couple in one of the enclosures as they were still eating and walking around.

After watching them we had a look around and down into the valley before walking back to the cable car and down the hill. We then headed out of town to park up ready for the night as its quite late now and after all the walking we are tired. 

 We got up the next day late which was surprising for us, we don’t have many lie ins but we obviously needed it today. The weather isn’t great today and we did think about going to a spa but we decided to do a driving day instead and visit a spa later in the week. Off we headed south for a mammoth drive to get as far south as we could and closer to a couple of things we wanted to do this week. We drove for several hours to the town of Fulda where we had a stop for lunch and went to look around some very old buildings. The first was St Micheal’s Church which is a 9^th century church which once the cemetery chapel for Benedictine Monastery. It was a beautify building with an 8^th century crypt. We then headed next door to the cathedral which was huge and the inside was a large white vestibule with small chapels off to the sides with a huge organ that was playing music as we walked around. There were some installations around the church from trees to add messages on and a sign which you had to hold both handles and this involved holding hands with another person. I looked at it and ended up holding hands with a stranger (a 60 year old man) to make it work and then Rich got jealous and came over to have a go. There was also a crypt below the cathedral which we had a look at before heading back to the van and continuing down south. Eventually after around 5 hours of driving we ended up at a stop just north of Stuttgart where we planned to stay for the night. we did stay there but we did regret it as the church bells could be heard and went off every 15 minutes which was really annoying.

The next morning we were up early (partially because of our alarm clock and partially because of those damn church bells) and headed off to the Ritter Sport Factory which is just south of Stuttgart where we hoped to get on a chocolate workshop (we had to check they would have vegan chocolate available). They did so we took place in the workshop (as the only English – meaning they had to repeat all the information and directions in English after the German details). We were allowed to make two chocolate bars (with the same ingredients) and Rich made chocolate bars with Hazelnuts, coconut and passionfruit and mango mix while I did salted almonds, coconut and passionfruit and mango mix. The chocolate was in a tempering machine and looked soo smooth as it came out and each person was given a large bowl to add to their ingredients and to put in the moulds. While they set we were given a talk about the history of the company and how they use sustainable cocoa from several different countries. We then got to make boxes to put our chocolate into and we went and packed our chocolate while eating the off cuts and given that its only 10.30 it’s a bit early to be eating this much chocolate (especially as we haven’t had breakfast yet) but it tastes soo good. We then headed to the shop to buy some of their normal chocolates (including some of their vegan range) and then headed back to the van full of chocolate and planned what to do next

 We were considering going into Stuttgart as we are close but its raining and we have been there on our previous trip to Germany so we decided to head further into the black forest for today and hope the weather improves.       

The next day we headed to the spa town called Baden- Baden where there are a couple of spas. The issue was parking in the town was not good so we ended up parking on top of a hill and we then walked down into the tow. We headed to the more modern one where there were a range of different pools, including outdoor heated pools and indoor hot and cold pools. There were also a range of saunas and steam rooms which we spent a good few hours enjoying.  We then had the joy of walking back up the hill to the van where we had some lunch and headed out of the town and to a spot for the night.

The next day we decided to drive north west towards Belgium as there were a couple of things we wanted to do before we headed out of Germany. The drive was lovely and took lots of winding roads through the black forest and with the autumnal colours it was very beautiful and we just took our time to enjoy it. We spent the night in the forest near a ruined castle.

 The next day we got up and drove down to the castle to have a look around it and the surrounding valley. We then carried on to a town called Morsdorf where we wanted to park to head onto the popular walk. However the motorhome parking was only allowed in 1 car park and was 12 euros for 12 hours. We only wanted a couple of hours parking and there were some free car parks outside of town but they had height barriers so technically we couldn’t park there. However after a bit of off roading we got in the car park (only to see that you could drive in the exit with no issues) and we parked up and started the longer hike. We hiked through the valley and eventually came across the bridge we had been hiking to. The bridge was the Geierlay suspension bridge which is 100 meters above ground and spans 360 meters across the valley. It did take me a few minutes to get onto the bridge as I could see it moving from side to side in the wind and it was busy with other people crossing it. We managed to cross it safely and the views from the bridge were stunning. We then hiked back around the bridge so we could also get views of the bridge from below it (and see just how high it was and how much it moved). After doing a little bit of grocery shopping we headed into a town close to the Belgium border for the night, with the plan to cross tomorrow.

The view of Lubeck across the river 

One of the many old streets in Lubeck 

The TVs in the Church in Lubeck 

Art work in the Lubeck church 

A little imp outside the church

The Lubeck townhall  

Another view of the townhall

The old city gate

Another view of the gate with the salt houses next to it

The town hall in Luneburg 

An old pharmacy in Luneburg 

We were starting to see the wonky buildings in Luneburg 

The leaning church of Luneburg 

The buildings look a little wonky here but when you really look closely

You see more of the movement they have had

A nice bit of currywurst 

A bulging builing

It was a chocolate box town though - Luneburg 

Rich spinning the wishing ring in Hanover

The wishing fountain

Some river surfing in hanover

The old town hall

The three Nanas statues 

In the new town hall there were images which show Hannover throughout the years

From a small little town

To the current large city

But it was destroyed in the war

The new town hall

What was left of Aegidienkirche after the bombings 

The peace bell

A beautiful cat in the cat cafe

The fairy tale castle - Marienburg 

Inside the courtyard

A little man in the courtyard of Marienburg castle 

a view of the castle from the road

Views from the top of Bad Hazburg hill

a Lynx at the national park

A view over the national park - you can see why the Lynx are thriving here

Waiting to go back down in this - I do hate these kinds of things

Fulda Cathedral  

Inside the monastry

One of the many installations within the cathedral 

another installation - the one you had to hold hands to light up the sign

It had a very big organ in the cathedral 

Inside the Rita Sport factory

Its got a long history 

Rich - is he a Willy Wonka or an umpa lumpa? 

I'm definitely an umpa lumpa!

The chocolate pouring machine

Yum - Chocolate but how long will it last

Our creations - ready to eat

The ruined castle near out stop for the night

It had stunning views 

The black forest really is stunning

Geierlay suspension bridge 

Rich on the bridge

the views down the valley - what you cant see is my hand holding on very tightly!

The bridge from beloow

Another view from below, it was really high!