Germany

We arrived in Germany late friday night and took the first campsite we could find, right on the banks of the Mosel River. A delightful part of the world... and most of Germany agrees. Of course saturday was National Germany Day and every German with a camper was headed for the Mosel Valley. Across the river a huge marquee was set up with long tables and lots of beer, sausage and oompah! I snuck in and thought the atmosphere was great, unfortunately not necessarily a great family night out, so we enjoyed the sounds of the live band doing standards all night. Traditional accordian and bass tunes with massive sing-a-longs and hand-clapping. The crowd loved it. We listened until 2.00am. Among the great standards were ACDC's "jailbreak" and "highway to hell" done in cheesy- knees-up crowd pleasing fashion. You have to imagine "oi...oi...oi" done with a German accent and 300 drunk Germans singing along. I think Neil Young, Led Zeppelin and Bon Jovi all got that special treatment along with a host of true Euro tunes that translate into every cultural sing-a-long. Oh what a night... (actually that was another one they did).

The Mosel River is a beautiful winding river with steep vineyards and traditional villages on both sides. The road hugs the river and takes in all the scenery as barges glide along and tour boats loaded with German tourists, cameras clicking wildly, zig-zag between bridges and churches. The National German Day to celebrate unification of old East and West Germany meant there were lots of little festivals and celebrations. We enjoyed some "gemukkelijkheid" which is my Dutch interpretation of "enjoyable atmosphere" at a town market square with a beer and bratwurst on bread rolls. There was a live one man band - once again doing interpretive covers in that great traditional German style. It's quite fun playing "Guess that tune". And the crowd enjoyed the sunny afternoon drinking and eating.

We climbed up to a nearby castle ruin to get a bit of a physical fix and were rewarded with stunning views up and down the Mosel River. The walk up was also interesting as we crossed vineyards through tiny ancient walkways and stairs. The ruin- there wasn't much castle left had been invaded, conquered and renovated over 13 times by various lands including Dutch, Swedes and the French who finally blew most of it up. We loved it.

The Rhine river section around St Goar and the Lorelei rock was busily touristed but quite uninteresting compared with the Mosel so we didn't stay long.

The Black Forest took a few hours to reach but we've been rewarded with lovely campgrounds with outstanding shower facilities and panoramic scenery. We've walked a few trails and snapped a few thousand pics of waterfalls, typical houses with steep roof gables, alpine streams, cuckoo clocks, iron shop signs, floral window boxes, cuckoo clocks, forest fauna, cuckoo clocks, autumn leaves ... and cuckoo clocks. The forest floor is really springy as it is made up of fir tree needle leaves covered in a type of velvety moss. It is very magical and makes for great stories. No wonder the Brothers Grimm did so well.

Tomorrow we head to Switzerland.