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| Vanni |
Leaving home in New Zealand, we had a three-night layover in Dubai, before catching a flight to Prague in the Czech Republic (Czechia).
This was to be the first of many stops on our 6-month tour of western Europe in our motorhome, Vanni.
We arrived in Prague, but stayed only one night as we had visited Prague the previous year. The next morning, we caught a bus to České Budějovice, where we were to pick up Vanni.
Our Czech friend Klara, met us at the bus depot at České Budějovice and took us to the supermarket so we could stock up on food for our journey.
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| Marg in front of the town hall, České Budějovice, Czechia |
České Budějovice is a lovely town with a huge central square. We admired the architecture, especially the colourful Baroque town hall, then headed to Klara's place where we found Vanni waiting for us.
Vasek, Klara’s husband, had done a great job in storing Vanni over winter, and then servicing her ready for the road.
While we were there, Klara’s Dad made us a gift of marzipan from his factory, and her Mum provided us with a delicious traditional Czech meal. We felt very honoured.
It was lovely to catch up with Klara and her family. Two days later, we were ready to drive off in Vanni for our tour of western Europe.
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| Marg driving Vanni north in Czechia |
We were quite concerned about getting back on the road in Vanni. She's a big motorhome at 2.4 metres wide and 7 metres long.
Plus, we would be driving on the other side of the road, and with manual gears – very different to our small, automatic Audi at home in New Zealand. But Marg did a great job.
We headed to the far north of Czechia, to a very small village called Stará Oleška, where we camped at Pension Rosalka, owned by Dutchman Oskar and his wife Heidi. They have renovated a lovely old building into a modern and attractive pension, with a small camping area at the back. We were made to feel very welcome there. We were at Rosalka because it is very close to the town of Děčín ('Techin').
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| Marg in Děčín, Czechia |
Settled in the 9th century, Děčín has developed into a bustling city, known mostly for its interesting architecture and the nearby castle.
The castle is built on a crag overlooking the Labe (Elbe) River and is quite imposing.
We were in Děčín to visit Patrick, the only Rimor motorhome agent in Czechia. We had arranged for him to repair a few things on Vanni.
While we were waiting for Vanni to be sorted out, Oskar took us to visit Bad Schandau, a very pretty little town over the border in Germany.
We walked around the lovely old town, then went for a tram ride up to the sandstone mountains where we walked around some of the more accessible areas.
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| Leigh in the mountains at Bad Schandau, Germany |
There was a resting point there that gave spectacular views over the valley and surrounding rock formations.
The sandstone from these mountains is the sandstone used to build some of the oldest renaissance buildings in Europe.
The next day, Oskar drove us to Dresden, further into Germany.
Dresden is in the German state of Saxony. Settled by Slavic people in 7500 BC, it has evolved to become a place recognized as a cultural educational and political centre for Germany.
It is now considered one of the Jewels of Germany, with its palaces, museums and grand architecture.
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| Marg at Dresden Castle, Germany |
It certainly is a lovely city, and we really enjoyed walking around, seeing its main sights. We particularly liked the majestic Frauenkirke, the beautiful Zwinger Palace, and Dresden Castle.
Later on, we headed for our pick-up point to meet Oscar, and return to Pension Rosalka. However, after waiting for over an hour, we became concerned, especially when we learned that we had the wrong cellphone number for him.
As we were beginning to think we were stuck in Dresden, a long way from our accommodation in Czechia, we used ‘Plan C’ and rang Klara (Plan B was public transport but there was nothing to Czechia).
Klara phoned the Pension and spoke to them in Czech. Finally, to our relief, he arrived.
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Marg in Regensburg (UNESCO), Germany |
After four days, we said our good-byes to the Pension Rosalka team, picked up Vanni, and headed south to Regensburg, Germany, a UNESCO World Heritage town on the Romantic Road.
We camped there for two nights in a lovely treed environment on the banks of the Danube, and confused our neighbouring travellers with our Czech “CZ” number plate and our English language.
We visited Regensburg to find it's a pretty town with narrow cobbled streets, historic buildings, and quaint shops. We walked around this lovely historic town, visiting many of its landmarks, including the Cathedral of St. Peter, Old City Hall, and the Stone Bridge. A good find was a local coffee shop, where we bought some freshly ground coffee beans.
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| Leigh & the piano accordion shop, Regensburg (UNESCO), Germany |
Leigh found a shop that sold exclusively, piano accordions.
Her Dad was a musician and played an accordion, so it brought back lovely memories for her.
The next day, we drove to Augsburg which is another pretty town with a very old centre.
It was a Sunday which was a real bonus, as we were able to find parking for Vanni close to the centre.
Augsburg, Bavaria is one of Germany’s oldest cities. It is full of medieval guild houses, ancient churches, and Renaissance buildings. We thought the Fuggerei, a 16th-century social housing complex was very interesting, and loved the onion-domed Sankt Ulrich und Afra abbey.
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| Mozart's House, Augsburg, Germany |
As we wandered around, we found Mozart’s House (we also saw the one in Salzburg last year).
Just as Marg was about to take a photo of Leigh outside it, a woman asked if we would like a photo of both of us. It turns out that she is a Kiwi from Hawkes Bay (Marg is from Hawkes Bay and seems to find other Hawkes Bay people wherever we are in the world!).
This Kiwi is married to a German and had only just come back from living in Havelock North, close to where Marg was bought up. Small world!
After the photos, we enjoyed a great coffee, then went out for more sightseeing. Augsburg is a beautiful city and after wandering around for some time, we reluctantly moved on.
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| Leigh in Augsburg, Germany |
Our next stop was Munich.
Finding a suitable camping ground in Munich proved to be a bit of a problem. We found two on the outskirts which were rather grotty looking, so we drove into the city with very vague directions to a suburb with another camp.
A fortuitous stop at a local café produced clearer directions, and we finally found the Munich-Thalkirchen camping site. We were lucky we didn’t arrive any later, as it was full and they began turning people away.
The camp is on the banks of the Isar River, which runs through an amazing parkland that is crisscrossed with paths for both walkers and cyclists. It's a lovely environment to have on your doorstep.
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| May Day fun on the Isar River, Munich, Germany |
While we were there, two huge log rafts came down the river and rapids. They each had a big group of people on board with music, food and beer.
Later in the day a truck with a crane arrived and they dismantled the rafts log by log, with amazing skill and speed, and trucked them away.
We were a little confused as to why this weekend was so popular, but then discovered that Tuesday was May Day, (1st May Labour Day) a National holiday, and many people had taken a long weekend holiday.
We explored the park and river on May Day, and were amazed at the huge number of people picnicking, eating, drinking, and cycling everywhere. We'd never seen so many bicycles in one place.
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Marg in front of the neo-gothic Neues Rathaus, Munich, Germany |
The next morning, we caught a tram into Munich city centre.
We visited many places, including the the neo-gothic Neues Rathaus, Theatinerkirche, Frauenkirche, the Bavarian State Opera, the Victuals Market, and more.
Munich is known for is numerous museums, Oktoberfest celebration and beer halls. We weren’t there for Oktoberfest, but we stopped at a few beer halls and museums as we walked around this vibrant city. We wandered for ages; there was so much to see.
We loved the wonderful architecture, especially in the Old Town with its Marienplatz (main square). It is surrounded by very imposing historic buildings.
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| View of the Alte Rathaus, Munich, Germany |
The Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) was a favourite with its ornate architecture and glockenspiel. We climbed its many steps to get a fabulous view of the Alte Rathaus (Old Town Hall), and the surrounding area. It was lovely.
Later, we stopped in the Hofgarten and sat in a café under some lovely trees, enjoyed a wine, and watched life go by.
After that, we wandered back to the metro to get back to our camp.
We thoroughly enjoyed exploring Munich city. It is highly walkable, and contains so many green spaces, and lovely old ornate buildings. The public transport is easy to navigate, and over a few days, we saw a lot of the wider city. We liked it a lot.
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| Marg at the City Museum, Lindau, Germany |
The next day, we drove south to Lindau, an island town on Lake Constance, dating back to Roman times.
We immediately liked this small town, and saw the ornate historic town hall, the even more ornate City Museum, and spotted several old mansions, towers and gardens. It is a charming town.
It has well-preserved ancient buildings lining winding cobbled streets, and we walked around it for ages.
We particularly liked the harbour entrance flanked by a proud looking lion sculpture on one side, and a beautiful lighthouse on the other.
After a good look around, we crossed the causeway back to the mainland, pleased that we’d taken the time to stop here.
Tomorrow, we cross the border into Switzerland.
The above story is the first in our 6 month motorhome trip around western Europe.