It's all going so well.........or it was!!!!!

Monday 2nd September

Précis
We went to Heidelburg ate, shopped, went home, the end.

What a lovely morning it's going to be a hot one so on with the pack for carrying water, cameras etc. Off to catch bus which turns out to be totally painless and we have two 24 hour tickets to travel back and forth to Heidelburg. The annoying thing is if the lady in reception had told us yesterday we could have gone in about 3pm had a stroll around and gone again today, oh well.

They have these bendy busses which are great and very comfortable and before we knew it we were in the town. Having totally failed packing of plugs etc my first task was to buy a charger for my iPad. It's still a mystery to me how to put pictures onto our blog but next time we will have to bring the laptop or pull my socks up! The only other job was to wander around and generally sight see, so we did.

Before we knew it, it was time to sit in the main square and drink huge glasses of excellent German beer and of course eat a huge lunch. Sadly the main Schloss was wreathed in scaffolding and sacking so we did not bother to go up there. This didn't spoil the day though and having walked for miles we returned to the van tired but contented. There was still loads of sunshine so we sat outside and chilled.

Tuesday 3rd September

Précis:- We drove a long way to a place called Baume le Dames, the end.

The weather seems to be getting warmer by the day and today is no exception I'm glad to say. We are moving on, not to the Bodensee as originally planned but into France to Annecy. It's a distance of about 400 miles give or take a couple so we will be stopping today at a little place called Baume le Dames.

Getting out of Heidelburg was an absolute nightmare and needed a couple of 'u' turns to finally get us onto the motorway and going in the right direction, aren't these sat navs' great, NOT!!! I think we will seriously be looking for a new one very soon, so any info regarding what's best will be appreciated.

Anyway the journey was pretty straightforward and most of the 225 miles we did today were on German motorways which are really superb. We arrived at about 3.30pm and found a nice spot in between an Irish couple and a Frenchman. I again provided much hilarity for the French as I murdered their language, but hey I like to spread a bit of happiness as I go along. He seemed pretty impressed when I gave him a beer so that's ok.

There is a little river with some boats moored there and just to stretch our legs after all day in the van we went for a wander and came to a supermarket, so first thing in the morning we'll be there to fill up with diesel @... No it wouldn't be fair to brag about how cheap it is, ha ha!  It has been so hot today, 30+, so when we got back to the van we just sat out in the sun until about 7.30pm before attempting to cook dinner, good old wagamamas sauces, chicken and lots of veg. Off tomorrow to Annecy and my first Baguette, yummy!

Lots of love
Joan & Bryan xxxx

Wednesday 4th September

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Reena xxx

Précis:- We set off early, had major traffic problems in Besancon and got to Annecy at 3.30pm, it is very hot and sunny, the end.

We all knew I would be up early so no surprise. We are on the road by 9am on a lovely hot sunny day. Filled up with diesel and bowling along as happy as Larry, the roads are good what could possibly go wrong?  20 minutes later we entered Besancon a big city in France where, Oh joy of joys, they are having a brand new tram system installed. I kid you not, it was like a war zone with huge craters and piles of rubble everywhere. However no problem, they have deviation signs, labelled deviation 1, deviation 2, deviation 3!!!! Now I may be a bit of a deviant but they totally confused me as there were no destinations mentioned so we aimed for the motorway sign. This was made more difficult as every roundabout exit with a motorway sign was dug up or BARRED! So round we went yet again............

Joan was getting very worried, the lady in the satnav was shouting all sorts of instructions then frantically recalculating until we turned her voice off.  Eventually we followed a motorway sign and turned down a steep hill on a fairly small turning to find a huge, no I mean "HUGE" lorry and trailer loaded with straw bales reversing towards us, Joan nearly flipped. I just had room to pull over and waited until it was ok to pass, ignoring the horns blasting only to then find we are on a one way street heading along an alley with the last building covered in scaffolding! Having all the other traffic following "deviation 2" behind us, all I could do was continue slowly, VERY slowly.

We were now in the middle of the old town, i.e. little narrow streets not designed to take traffic. (I still cannot work out where they would need all that straw?). It was a bit like a scene from the Pink Panther: there's an old Frenchman sitting at a little table drinking his coffee and looking nervously at my bumper inches from his chair. I felt it necessary to wind down the window and say "pardon Messieur" to which bless him with, a very Gallic shrug he replied "Pas de probleme".  At this point Joan's blood pressure was off the scale and only by an illegal 'U' turn and jumping a set of lights did we finally get out on the right road. It took us nearly an hour and I swear we passed several people at least twice!

When we finally stopped for lunch Joan tried to get me to have a nap but we both had so much adrenaline flowing we just continued. As we drove into Annecy Joan nearly screamed, as we hit major road works. Not helped by me missing the easy turning, but I knew I needed to aim for Albertville as we have been here before and there were plenty of signposts to follow. We arrived at 3.30pm at the site and were amazed it was almost full! But we got a nice little pitch with both sun and shade. Normally I avoid anywhere with shade but it is around 32 degrees so we will probably be glad of it.

I must confess having driven here with only a short stop plus all the problems, we are absolutely shattered, still we are here for at least 4 days if not longer. Having had a long snooze and a cuppa, about 6pm we strolled down to the beach where people were swimming in the lake, apparently it's not too cold so we may try it another day.

Lots of Love
Joan & Bryan xxxx


Thursday 5th September

Précis:- It is still very hot and we cycled to Annecy a return trip of 8 miles. Had an anniversary meal, the end.

It's our anniversary today so having discovered that neither bus or river boat will allow us to go to town in the evening and get back, and Colin's or Joe's excellent taxi services not being available, we decided to cycle in to Annecy which the book says is only 5 kilometres, about 3 miles. In the event it turns out its just over 4 miles, but it was ok and we had a very nice meal then wandered around the lovely old town returning about 4pm to sit in the shade with a gin & tonic and chill.  I am surprised that I still get very tired after any exercise  but I am sure I will get fitter soon.

Lots of love
Bryan & Joan xxxx