ManWomanDogVan: August 2020

We headed south from Berlin and stopped after a long day of driving at Grossbaschen lake. It seemed to be a fairly new development with an empty marina and some nice, small new apartment blocks with a lake view. We watched the sunset from the marina–bar where they served us cold beer and ice cream with warm raspberry sauce.

We woke for a grey, wet morning and we decided to continue our journey towards Dresden. Although Dresden was bombed heavily during the war and much of it was destroyed, a number of old buildings have survived in the town centre, including the Royal Palace and the Zwinger complex. On the Bruhlsche Terasse by the river Danube, we have come a cross a guy producing giant soap-bubbles for the delight of the children and other passer-byes. It was raining on and off, so not the best day for a visit, but still, undeniably, Dresden is a beautiful city. We should have spent longer here, but as we were on a mission to get to Austria by a certain date, we moved on.

We found the Hermitage Court Garden in Bayreuth pretty much by chance, just by looking for somewhere to stop and walk Harley. And what a find it was! The gardens were magnificent and adorned with various old buildings, including the old palace (which currently houses a coffee), the new palace, various grottos and a ruined theatre. Thanks to a short but heavy downpour it was a somewhat wet experience, but we still spent a very pleasant couple of hours there.

We have stopped in Nuremberg for the night. We parked up on some unimpressive gravelled parking spot on the edge of town, and went for a walk. It was a bit of a surprise to be greeted by the red-light district just inside the old town walls, and I could not quite work out what protection exactly a mask was going to provide for the working girls (and some of them were wearing a mask, if not much else). Maybe they read the English papers…?? Anyway, past the girls the shopping district started off with a variety of food stalls, then turned into the usual variety of shops and coffees. It was a bit unusual to see a funfair right in front of the cathedral thought.

The following morning we went for another walk in town before setting off again, this time to Regensburg.

Regensburg lies on the part of the Danube and has a lovely medieval centre. We spent a pleasant afternoon wondering around town.

The Chiemsee lake in Bavaria was our next stop. It is a superb holiday destination, and Hamish has been there many times, but for me, this was a first. We went across to the Herreninsel island specifically to look at the unfinished Herrenchiemesee Palace Built by King Ludvig II. The palace is modelled on Versailles but only 20 of the planned 70 rooms have been completed. The King only stayed in the palace for a few days, he ran out of money and died before the work could be finished. Bearing in mind that nearly everything that has been completed is literally covered in gold, it is not surprising that this build very nearly bankrupted the royal household.

We met up with family the following day and together we walked up Hoch Gern. It has been some time since we have been up a mountain, and it was definitely and effort, but an effort well worth making! The views were fantastic and we had a nice lunch at Hoch Gern Haus near the top. The girls then walked down with Harley, while the boys made the last push to the summit. Actually I had to drag Harley half way down the mountain, as he was very concerned about the missing members of the pack…

We just sat around chilling in the carpark, waiting for the boys to make it down too before saying our goodbyes. We then settled down for the night.

We have arrived to St Johan in Tirol in Austria on the 27^th August, and spent some time looking for somewhere to park. It is not easy here, as Austria is quite strict about wild camping and campsites are expensive. We have eventually found a local farm, just around the corner from Hamish’s brother where we could stay for a couple of nights.

We spent the following few days hanging out with the family. It was great to see them again!

Then the news came, that Hungary was going to close its borders on the 1^st of September, and so we set off towards the Hungarian border in a a hurry. After drivng through the night we crossed into Hungary in the early morning, 30^th Aug, without any issues.

We stopped for the night outside of Zalaegerszeg, then slowly made our way around the south west corner of the Balaton arriving to my home town, Pécs, late the following day.

August 2020 - Part 2 Map