Category: Germany

Next day – still headed to Cherbourg…

…further along this road, I arrived at my lodgings for the night…

Formerly a command post for the Knights Templar…

From their website:

Moulin Banal: former name of the Moulin des Templiers

In 1167 next to the river is located the Moulin Banal (attached to the Commandery of Knights Templar Island) and the chapel of St Jean Baptiste. Donation of a lord of Avallon the Templars.
1506 the pastor of Pontaubert is still reading the Mass in the chapel
1569 The Huguenot family, masters of Vézelay burned the Moulin Banal of Pontaubert and the small chapel.
1910 Its last function was ice blocks making.
1925 It was converted into a hotel.

Waking up to the sounds of birds chirping and water dancing along the riverbed…

…and according to the GPS…

…this is my hotel..??? 🙂

…did I eventually find my hotel? 🙂

~ Bella

Next day – headed to Cherbourg…

A beautiful morning to head off yet again through the French countryside – that, by the way, smells continually like hot, squished grapes in the sun…

…and down this small lane is my accommodation for the night… A medieval water mill and command post of the Knights Templar…

~ Bella

Goodbye Munich – hello Autobahn and more…

Finally, my time comes to leave Munich and I get a car to the airport where I collect my rental…

Meet Clio – my companion for the next few days…

Dear Clio did her best, but anything over 150 she felt decidedly unstable… I did however manage to get to 185 for a brief moment… Hey, it’s the Autobahn! One needs to do these things!

Our first stop was an abbey that supposedly has an incredibly library, however it was closed…

Not to worry – it was fun wandering through the grounds…

In case you haven’t guessed by now, I didn’t exactly take the straightest route from Munich to Cherbourg, but rather meandered through the French countryside…

Time to stop for the night and I found a delightful hotel where from my window I could hear birds happily twittering away…

…and off again in the morning…

~ Bella

Munich’s Rathaus-Glockenspiel

I still find it amusing that council buildings / town halls are called ‘rathuas’ in German…

Anyway, this is quite a famous rathaus due to its glockenspiel…

~ Bella

Terrorist Drills in Munich

Upon arriving back to the hotel after dinner, the streets were all cordoned off… however we were eventually able to make our way back to the hotel… and I had a front row seat from my room…

Never a dull day/evening…

~ Bella

Neuschwanstein Castle (Walt Disney’s castle inspiration) and Alpsee Lake

Heading off on a damp Munich morning, we went in search of the castle that inspired Walt Disney…

I wasn’t up to the trek to the top, so Donna went up, and I explored the museum and lake…

A parade of Japanese umbrellas…

I like Donna’s memento of the trip!

…and we found a fabulous Italian German restaurant for dinner…

…and back to the hotel once again…

~ Bella

Traditional German restaurant

We decided to find a traditional German restaurant – and were delighted to discover “Pil’s Corner”…

…and back to the hotel, when I first noticed this delightful notation on the reverse of my room card:

~ Bella

Welcome to Munich and then Nymphenburg Palace

Deciding to rent a car, we headed across the road to the car rental place within the main Munich train station…

…and then headed to find the palace…

I always figure it’s a good idea to take a photo of the rental car, including license plate, as when one rents a lot of them, one is occasionally bound to go looking for the vehicle one rented at another location! 🙂

A ramp for the ducks?

I had purchased a fabulous and reasonably expensive 360-degree camera for places like this, and an abundance of places previously in Vienna, however there were multiple challenges with actually taking delivery of it – so while I was so very sad (since the majority of these places I will never again visit and would loved to have captured them in-the-round), I did the best I could with my standard camera…

…and back home to the hotel…

~ Bella

Hallstatt and Salzburg

Welcome to Hallstatt…

We didn’t end up wandering through the town, and instead headed off again – since we were bound for Munich and still had many hours to go…

Welcome to Salzburg…

…and despite having a list of places we did want to go, our driver was quite insistent on dropping us off to see the gardens at the palace…

They were lovely, but… anyway…

By this stage, Donna and I were at our wits end with our driver and simply told him to high-tail it to Munich.

…and yes, that is a BOAT sitting up there!

…and FINALLY we arrive, 13 hours after we left, in Munich…

Much needed wine!

…but don’t get too comfortable, for tomorrow we go exploring Munich!

~ Bella

Farewell to my beloved Vienna – hello Germany…

I knew the day would come… Farewell to my beautiful Vienna… Although I do not want to live there, I would love to visit a couple of times every year – perhaps have a home in Scotland and one in Vienna… Hmmmmm, that’s a lovely idea! 🙂