The fat mice of Freudenstadt

The place I was heading for to start with was the Black Forest as I don’t think you can beat a forest in autumn. And 10 or so days on I’m still here. I’ve drifted around, finding different walks to do in each place and making the most of the blue skies and sunshine. My zip offs have been zipped off and the suncream has also had to make an appearance. There’s not too much to say that a few pictures won’t say for me so this blog is mainly photos.

Two hiccups to report so far.

1: My bed broke. A screw that holds the spring mechanism to the frame snapped so it was stuck down in the bed position. I found a hardware store, bought some screws and have temporarily fixed it – will be a winter job to sort it out properly.

2: I covered a petrol station forecourt with granola. I opened my sliding door to get my purse out and a wave of granola came out as the lid had come off it’s box. My language skills don’t stretch to “I’m sorry, I’ve covered your forecourt in granola” and as it’s not highly flammable, after paying I just left. When I got to the parkup for the night I brushed it all out of the doorstep and then heard some squeaking and rustling in the leaves, definitely not birds. Anyway, by the morning it had all gone, so problem solved. Apart from the crunching every time I slide the door, I’ll sort that at some point too, or leave it open and hope for some more rodent visitors.

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Bertha’s Travels

Last year’s big trip was brilliant but even with 3 months it felt like I had to keep to some sort of schedule. After I got back I decided that the next year’s wouldn’t be a touring one but more of a potter round one area, maybe one that I’d passed through before.

Now of course, being employed, it’s not entirely in my control. Although I have a feeling that my boss thinks that this is the worst deal he’s ever signed up to, he tries to remain cheery and through the winter the taboo subject was mentioned a few times. It was looking like we’d be busy during the summer, and as I’d signed up to do my little bike ride in September we agreed (‘agreed’) that the autumn would be the best time for me to disappear for a while.

Autumn – a tricky time of year. My obvious choice would be to head north but by the time I’d get away in my van after my ride it would be late September, the end of Scandinavia’s autumn. Before long autumn would be over and it would just be cold and wet before the snow arrived. Not great. I could head south for some sun – Spain, Portugal, southern Italy, Greece maybe? But I’m not a sun worshipper and don’t want to spend all my time off driving. How about the country that really surprised me 2 years ago in October. The autumn skies and leaves, the people, the towns and the campervan friendliness. So this year I’m off to Germany, for plenty of outdoors time and not too much driving.

I set off from Dover yesterday and had aimed to get the driving over and done with in 2 days but the place I stopped overnight was so nice that I decided to stay another night and make the most of the sun and walking trails. A very good start to a slow paced trip!