There would have been plenty to keep us occupied in the Meersburg area for several days, just exploring round the lake (46 miles long) would have taken us quite a while. Also the airship museum would have been interesting. But, us travelers have to keep moving so it was on to our next stop.
About 130 miles to drive today to the town of Sasbachwalden on the western fringe of the Black Forest. The satnav took us on a different route, heading north on the main road. I knew we would have to turn left at some point though and it wasn't long before we were winding our way through the Black Forest via a couple of decent sized towns.
The satnav I was using at the time was a Noza Tec (who?) truck model that I bought from Amazon for just over £40. Its got a 7 inch screen and as you can type in your vehicle's length, width, height and weight it will not, in theory, send you down any very narrow roads, width restrictions etc.
We were having a pleasant drive through the forest, weather was not ideal but at least the road was fine to drive along. Only slight fly in the ointment came when we had to climb and descend some hills. Going up was okay actually but when we were driving on the dowhnill sections poor old Ruby started to suffer a bit! The hills were not that steep, often 12%, the trouble was they went on for a very long time.
Sometimes I would have to use 2nd gear to slow us down. Despite being very careful not to use the brakes too much we were getting a very definite burning smell so I had to brake only when I really needed to.
We soon arrived in Sasbachwalden though and found the stellplatz without too much trouble. This is just a large car park at the rear of a wine shop, alongside a small stream. Quite a few vans here when we arrived. We could get electricity no problem which was handy but I didn't have enough change to pay for parking (7 euros a night) so I had to wait till the afternoon to get my ticket.
Although the weather was not good we went for a quick walk round the town to get some supplies. Very nice place actually, obviously totally geared up for the tourist industry with every building along the main road seemingly a cafe, hotel or some other business. We noticed that the town has suffered a bit in the recession with several businesses not in the main area closed.
Nice stellplatz at Sasbachwalden, good view of the hills surrounding the town.
Walk round the town, all very pretty.
Sign in the stellplatz.......
Dragging Lucy out for a walk.
Breakfast and Black Forest gateaux for later, delicious.
There is a small stream that flows near the town, part of it goes through
this spa type thing.
this spa type thing.
Me signing the visitors book in the church. They must have been so thrilled.
On our way out of town we spotted these lovely floral displays. Lynda wanted
to stop for a photo of course.
to stop for a photo of course.
2nd September.
Nice quiet night as expected. There are quite a lot of vans here now, no Brits apart from us of course. I took Lucy for her usual walk across the small bridge to the grassy area where she could do what she had to do. The town graveyard was located nearby and I would have had a look round if I hadn't had the dog with me.
Weather is better today so once back at the van we got ready to have a proper explore of the area. As you can see from the photos its a very pretty town with some reasonable shops. We stopped at a bakers and bought some breakfast and as we were in this neck of the woods we thought we should really have - Black Forest gateaux. We bought a huge slice then wandered back to the stellplatz.
The original plan was to stay here for two nights but by the early afternoon we had seen most of the best bits of the town and decided to move on. The original plan was to head towards the Mosell / Rhine valleys but the stellplatz I liked the look of were all quite a long drive away. In the end we decided to just drive the short distance to the town of Kehl, just across the Rhine from Strasbourg. We stayed here on our 2012 tour and so knew we would be okay.
Only a short drive to Kehl and in no time we were parked up on the stellplatz and getting ready to walk into town. Lynda thought she knew the way but we went the long way round into the city thats for sure. We went in to the tourist information office to see if we could get wifi but again we were told no. In Germany there is some sort of rule that you have to supply a German mobile phone number and register before you can get public wifi. They have to send you a text with a code number to use to log on. All sounds a bit Big Brother to me.
One of the shops we went into was Woolworths (yes, they still have them here) because Lynda wanted to get some mugs with a particular pattern on for her sister. While in the large shop I noticed that they had red wine for sale at a low price. As I had almost run out I was tempted to try some until I noticed the 'produce of the Republic of Macedonia' printed on the label. I will drink most things if the price is right but I don't think I'm as mean as that.
Once rested back at the van we thought we should really take a closer look at the mighty Rhine as we are so close. We took Lucy with us as its only 5 minutes walk away.
Parked up on the stellplatz at Kehl.
Lynda calls this stuff her 'beer', its flavoured fizzy water (no alcohol) with loads of sugar. Unbelievably she described it as, wait for it, 'the best drink in the world'!!!
When did you last see a cigarette machine in the street in the UK?
Downtown Kehl, quite a large town.
Lynda bought a German sim card in that shop, I can't even remember why now.
The Rhine. We never saw a single ship.
Its easy to take selfies with Lynda's new ipad. Not sure if that's a good thing though.
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