May 27th, 2023 - May 29th, 2023
Part 1 - GERMANY
June 8th:
Today we went to Bremen, the city with the Town Musicians. The cheapest parking lot is a garage that'll cost you a mere 4 euros for an entire day, but it's small, both the spaces itself as the hallways to maneuver through. Our car is long and with the added top roof, it just got a bit taller as well so it proved to be quite challenging to find an empty space on the second floor. But we managed to get in and out without a single scratch.
One thing we looked forward to, here in Germany, were the burgers from Hans Im Glück. It seems that every major city has one, and Bremen is no exception.
After a delicious burger, we headed into the city. Plenty of statues decorate the streets and squares, there's the hunter with the pigs, the memorial to Otto von Bismarck, the Heralds at the Rathaus, and - of course - several versions of the Town Musicians. The statue of the Town Musicians is a cock on a cat on a dog on a donkey, and it comes from one of the fairy tales written by the Grimm brothers. Today we also learned that the burger chain Hans Im Glück is named after one of their fairy tales.
Near the Cathedral is supposed to be a spitting stone, the place of the beheading of a serial killer, which spawned the tradition to spit on the stone, a tradition that is still carried on to this day.
We didn't find the stone, however, there was a market closing up and I suspect one of the trailers was parked on top of it.
Across the street is the famous "hole". When you throw a coin in the sewer grate, the Town Musicians will cry out from below. We only heard the cat, and he or she didn't sound too pleased.
The Schnoor quarter is a cozy medieval area with narrow streets, cute souvenir and trinket shops and fun little cafes.
We took a long detour along the quay where two three-masters are moored, and then proceeded back to the parking garage.
As we neared the park, a line of trams and busses decorated the street. A car had tried to turn left at the traffic lights, but apparently wasn't aware that trams have the right of way. The minor accident (mainly a fender bender) crippled the public transport and drew many spectators.
We went grocery shopping and then found a place to eat and sleep.
Mosquitos plagued us during the evening.
June 9th:
After a long breakfast with an amazing view, we drove to Bad Rehburg-Loccum. The town hosts several walks, one of which is the Grimm Fairy Tale route (not to be confused with the German Fairy Tale route). This path took us through a wonderful forest full of life (including deer) and on a journey along nineteen fairy tales in the form of wooden sculptures.
Rapunzel, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, the Wolf and the seven Goats, … all the famous ones were featured. Along the path we were also treated to a few viewpoints that provided us with moments of wonder.
We wanted to take a small shortcut, but we ended up losing the path and got off track. We were supposed to go through the Wolf’s Gorge - named so after the last wolf that lived in the forest was killed there - and along a path there, but it became clear that few people had visited the gorge in quite some time. We had to crawl over fallen trees that blocked the narrow path along the slopes of the gorge. As we crossed the old wooden bridge, we saw a notice sign from the mayor prohibiting people from using the bridge (and subsequently, the path). Silly that this sign was only visible after crossing the bridge. What was even more silly is that, shortly after crossing the bridge, the path just vanished, prompting us to try and find a way through the forest towards the main road, without having to go back.
It took us a while, and we were severely off-track, but we got back to the road and continued the Fairy Tale route.
All the while, planes flew overhead. First some military fighter jets, and then military cargo planes, the really big ones, just one after the other. No idea why, but it was impressive to see, and hear.
After a nice lunch (which we took during a break in the Fairy Tale route), we drove to Hamelin, with the famous rat catcher, the pied piper.
We arrived quite late in Hamelin, the museum had just closed. We spotted a few statues and then decided to get a drink at one of the bars on the main street.
June 10th:
Since we missed out on the Hamelin museum yesterday, we decided to head back to the city and visit the museum. Next to a whole bunch of information on the history of the pied piper, the museum also offered us insight into the history of Hamelin itself, from prehistoric times over antiquity and the Middle Ages, all the way to the World Wars and the fall of the Wall.
The weather was warm, so we felt that we deserved a refreshing ice cream. After trying to find an ice cream parlor with vegan ice cream, we finally found one. But they only accepted cash, and we didn’t have any, so we eventually went to a grocery store and bought a couple of vegan Magnums.
While on the road to the Harz National Park, we stopped for lunch. The road to the National Park was beautiful and brought us along hills, mountains and castles.
We wanted to go to Germany’s longest suspension bridge (the Geierlay suspension bridge, that we did last year, was apparently not the longest, even though we did think so at the time), but as we drove over the dam right next to the bridge we got the same view that we would get from the suspension bridge. Above the suspension bridge is also a zipline, which would offer the same view as well. Maybe we should look for another zipline instead.
June 11th:
Deep in the Harz National Park, we found the Baumann Cave, which has a rich history including a cemetery for the now-extinct cave bears, a miner who got lost and nobility that enjoyed plays in the largest cave hall. The tour guide put on a light and sound show in that hall and it was impressive to say the least. The whole cave was truly breathtaking. The way the river carved out the entire corridor system, the countless stalactites and stalagmites and the stalagnates, … truly impressive and well worth the visit. The only downside was the audio guide that contained just some audio files on a website, but deep in the cave, there was (obviously) no internet, so as soon as the page reloaded or if you accidentally hit the power button on your smartphone, causing the device to go to sleep, you lost access to the website and thus the audio guide.From early on in the tour we had lost the English audio guide and had to rely on the few words of German that we understood to follow what the tour guide said.
As we drove towards our next destination, the GPS sent us through several small villages with narrow streets. In one of those streets, we saw a bird of prey flying overhead (we have seen countless of these predatory birds throughout our trip), but this one dove right down to the road, right in front of our (moving) car, There, the bird grabbed something and flew off.What a sight to behold, spectacular!
The next stop was Erfurt, our last chance in a long time to enjoy the burgers from Hans Im Glück. In the city, we saw the statue of Martin Luther, and of the famous German cartoon bear Captain Bluebear.
The rest of the journey brought us further south, into Bavaria, with many stunning views.
June 12th:
After several hours of running errands, we finally set off towards the south of Germany, and eventually there we saw it, the Alps.
After tens of kilometers driving towards the mountain range, the view kept on amazing us. We drove a bit slower, jaws dropped, to enjoy the sights.
We then entered a small village that was incredibly overrun with tourists, their destination … (and ours as well), Schloss Neuschwanstein, the fairy tale castle.
To enter the castle, a ticket and a reservation were required, and by the time we were aware of the need for a reservation, it was already fully booked.
From the parking lot (which costs ten euros) we saw the castle, towering out over the trees, being dwarfed by the mountains.
The foot path to castle Neuschwanstein was steep at times. At several intervals we could see a tower or a wall through the trees.
Near the castle are moments to gasp in amazement at the wonderful and breathtaking panoramas overlooking villages, mountains, forests, fields filled with cows, other castles, and lakes with turquoise water.
The path went along the castle towards another panorama point that also gave us an amazing view of the castle.
At 6 pm, the castle slowly began to close its doors.The last bus took visitors (and us) back to the parking lot. And with the castle now closed, the village had nothing left to offer the tourists. All souvenir shops, all bars, all restaurants, everything closed down, hoards of tourists were left stranded and confused, and slowly dispersed back home.
Part 2 - LIECHTENSTEIN
June 13th:
After waking up, we struggle to find a place with a public bench to make coffee. We passed through several villages that had many benches, but none had a table, but eventually we found something with an amazing view of the Alps.
We continued our journey through the last leg of Germany and then drove through a small section of Austria, to end up in the sixth-smallest country in the world, Liechtenstein. Double landlocked between Austria and Switzerland, the small country is incredibly beautiful and shares the same kind of spectacular views of mountainous landscapes as its neighbors.
In Vaduz, the capital of the tiny country that looks more like a cozy village, we got a stamp on our passport. While the stamp holds no official value, it’s a nice souvenir.
An ice cream shop down the road had three vegan flavors. That was a nice and welcome treat in this warm weather.
After enjoying the ice cream, we headed back to the information building to look for other souvenirs. There I found out that I had lost my wallet!!!
The last place that I had my wallet was on the bench outside of the ice cream parlor, so I ran over there. Two people sat on that bench, with my wallet lying next to them. They were so kind to keep my wallet company until the rightful owner had returned.
After I thanked those wallet-protecting people and after we checked out some souvenirs, we drove up towards the Gaflei parking lot. The Vaduz Castle that towers over Vaduz is the official residence of the prince of Liechtenstein. While being a monarchy, Liechtenstein does not have a king, but rather has a prince as its highest rank. Apparently, the prince asked his subjects for more power, and if they didn’t comply, he threatened to sell the country to Bill Gates…
The Castle was completely covered in scaffolding, so no picture was possible.
The road to the Gaflei parking lot was steep, climbing almost 900 meters in a short distance. But we made it.
From the parking lot, a short walk brought us to a viewing point over a field with horses and cows. The cows have bells around their necks and they ring the entire time, with every little movement they make. And since cows only sleep for about 20 minutes per day, they spend a lot of time grazing, and thus, ringing their bells. It would drive anyone insane.
The viewing point - a tower - provided us with a nice sight, mountains. The city (village) of Vaduz below us, then the Rhine, and across the river is Switzerland.
From the same parking lot there’s another trail that would bring us to the middle point of Liechtenstein, but we might do that tomorrow.
We headed for another parking lot near a turquoise lake for a final walk and a place to sleep.
As we were enjoying our dinner, a dude came up to us on his 4-wheeled dirt bike, telling us that we weren’t allowed to sleep there, but that we had to go to the campsite not far away.
The camp site didn’t even have toilets…
We finished our dinner, took a nice walk along the river with glacier water and then returned to our car to contemplate what we would do and where we would sleep. This place has a great view, was quiet enough, and had a good internet connection (at the previous parking lot, we were forced onto the Swiss network - despite being in Liechtenstein - and the European internet doesn’t work in Switzerland, so we had no internet connection there).
We drove off to another parking lot, which turned out to be crap. So we returned to our initial plan and parking lot. As we were slowly preparing the car to sleep in, I was talking to the inhabitants of a mobile home from France that was also parked there, when that same dude came back, telling both of us that we weren’t allowed to sleep there.
Paying 15 euros for a spot to sleep that didn’t even offer a bathroom option just sounded stupid, so we contemplated driving to Switzerland instead, but eventually settled on another parking lot in Liechtenstein, near the one we were being chased away from. What a shitty way to conclude a nice day in Liechtenstein, a country that struggled to get many tourists. Smart move, to chase them away.
The night sky was covered in stars.
Part 3 - SWITZERLAND
June 14th:
We woke up in the parking lot in Liechtenstein and drove back to the place where we weren’t allowed to sleep. There we made some coffee and enjoyed the mountain view and the sound of the river with glacial water running by.
Since sleeping in the car is totally not allowed in Switzerland, we decided to just drive through the country and visit some things in Northern Italy on the way to Slovenia.
As we drove through Switzerland, however, we were amazed by how beautiful it was. Mountain ranges, far and wide.
Right after driving through the city of Davos - where all the world leaders and rich people gather each year and decide our future - we passed through the valley and went up the mountain roads. It was so beautiful that we decided to take a hike there. With every few steps, the entire landscape seemed to change. The higher we got, the more the vegetation changed. Clear turquoise waterfalls made from glacial water and melting snow rushed and flowed down to end up in streams and one big and beautiful clear blue turquoise river.
We were just reminiscing about the snakes that we saw in Sweden and Spain, and we were wondering what kind of animals would live in these mountainous terrains, when a snake with black-brown and white-beige markings crossed our path. Later research told us that the snake was a European adder. Cool!
We continued on the road towards Italy and came to the conclusion that just skipping through much of the countries just to reach one national park in Slovenia would be a waste, so we concluded that it would be better to focus on north-western Italy and then proceed through France towards Belgium.
However … sleeping in the car in Italy is only allowed in certain parking spaces, which are often located in or near city centers. The Italians (just like other cultures and peoples around the Mediterranean) are known to be out late, so those parking spaces would often not be quiet. And while public restrooms are scarce, peeing in the city is a no-go.
We tried to find another parking spot to sleep in, but it turned out to be impossible, so we decided to head back to Germany, where we know that sleeping in the car is permitted, where there are many public bathrooms and many decent picnic areas.
Lighting was abrewing over the Como lake, and the night’s dark had already begun. We left the parking lot near the lake, drove through idyllic Italian villages, over darkened hairpin bends into Switzerland.
As we crossed the border, we realized that we were missing out on beautiful scenery. So, at midnight we looked for a parking lot to spend the night. Officially not allowed, but we were tired, it was dark, we didn’t have internet (European mobile networks don’t work in Switzerland…), so I honestly think that it would have been allowed, given the circumstances.
Again, the night sky was filled with stars.
June 15th:
We awoke to the sound of mooing cows. In the field right next to the parking lot were a herd of cows, with bells, mooing the entire time, one after the other. We both jumped out of bed and went over to the gate leading into the field. Most cows were scared and slowly backed off as we slowly approached them. And most cows kept staring at us, interested in what we were.
The cows were so incredibly sweet, coming closer and then backing off, staring the entire time. Until one of them slowly approached me as I crouched down. The first contact was a boop from her wet nose on my hand. And then came her large tongue as it licked my hand. She backed off as soon as I tried to scratch her head.
I was near this cow for not even five minutes, and the ringing of the bells had already hurt my ears.
Why do the cows in the Alps have bells?
Tradition. The same bullshit reason for so many bullshit ways to be cruel to animals.
Back in the day, the farmers didn’t use fences, so the cows were free to roam through the Alps, be it in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein or Italy. The sound of the bells, amplified by the valleys of the mountains, made sure the farmers never lost track of “their” cows. Each farmer had a unique design on his bells, so they could find “their” cows even if herds mixed.
Nowadays, the cows are limited to fields with fences (though the fields are still large, especially compared to other places in Europe), and modern technology makes tracking so much easier.
We’ve seen some cows where the bells don’t make a lot of noise, but for most cows, the bells ring all the time, with the smallest movement.
After coffee and spending a lot of time with the sweet cows, we continued on our way, enjoying stunning mountain views.
Finding a spot to eat was difficult. Parking lots almost always carry a fee, even at viewpoints. As mentioned earlier, we didn’t have internet because the Swiss mobile network charges exuberant prices. And the parking meters that we have seen only accept Swiss francs. It seems as if they don’t want tourists.
We continued towards Liechtenstein and Germany and eventually reached our destination, a parking lot in southern Germany, not far from the border with Austria.
It's near dinner time and we spent the rest of the evening just relaxing and taking things slowly.
Part 4 - GERMANY
June 16th:
We woke up slowly, made some coffee, ate some breakfast and made small conversation with a friendly German couple.
Around midday we arrived at a free animal park that contained ponies, goats, deer, rabbits, swans, ducks, llamas, chickens, and peacocks.
While the park itself was free, they did ask one euro for a small bag of feed so you could feed the animals. All the animals received the same feed, some hay and grain. And the animals were waiting for the food. Some pushed their heads through the holes in the fence so hard that you’d know they were hurting themselves.
The concept was similar to the other free animal park we visited last year. In the park last year, the feed was sold in sort of a vending machine, where you would need to put a coin in it to get the feed, this park just had a box and assumed people would put a coin in it as they took a bag. They did claim to have camera surveillance, but it must’ve been a security camera on batteries, as I saw no cables running from the camera to anywhere, really.
As we wanted to see and pet and feed the animals, but didn’t want to support this place, we gave just small change.
A loud thunder sounded over the park, and rain came after. We took shelter when we saw a big spider crawl towards us, the spider looked like the bite would really hurt.
The park gave us mixed feelings, as always when seeing kept animals. On the one hand, it’s always nice to see animals, on the other hand, there’s the knowledge that the animals are kept against their will. With cows in the field, there’s the knowledge that they will die in the slaughterhouse.
We wanted some comfort after the park and hoped to find vegan chocolate milk. As we drove around, we saw a zeppelin. At Tettnang we found Chocova, a nice coffee bar that offered some vegan cakes and warm drinks with oat milk. Nice, but not cheap.
After the chocolate milk, we went to do some grocery shopping and back to the sleeping spot. Another quiet and longer evening.
June 17th:
After the mandatory grocery shopping, coffee making and breakfast, we drove to Friedrichshafen, where we visited the Zeppelin Museum. We came across this museum while scrolling on Google Maps and thought “why not?”.
Holy hell, what an interesting discovery! The entrance fee is 12 euros, but it was well worth it. The main topic of this Zeppelin museum is the Hindenburg, the zeppelin that met its fateful and famous downfall in 1937 in the United States.
The Hindenburg was enormous. Scale models of the Hindenburg, steam cruise liner the Queen Mary and several other modes of transport of the time clearly showed how all were dwarfed by the German airship.
And then we happened to look up and there we saw it, a real-scale reconstruction of a very small part of the Hindenburg, namely the lounge, bathrooms and a few sleeping quarters, all decorated as it had been on the Hindenburg. The blueprints and schematics for the airship had all been preserved, which allowed the reconstruction to take place.
Through a folding staircase, just like on the real zeppelin, we entered the reconstructed area and looked on in amazement. Oh how impressive it must have been to fly on the zeppelin and have a cigarette in the lounge as you looked out of the windows over the world.
The museum also offered a history of zeppelins and airflight, from the first balloon at the end of the 18th century, up until the present day.
After the interesting museum, we took a stroll along the quay and ate a bunch of cherries overlooking the Bodensee, the large lake between Germany and Switzerland.
We finished the day with yet another visit to Hans Im Glück, in Singen this time and then found a sleeping spot nearby.
June 18th:
Our sleeping spot was really quiet, the people who came to walk their dog or went on a hike were quieter than in the other parking lot, which was nice.
Coffee and a small breakfast are included in the morning ritual. People don’t look weird here if you’ve slept in the car, and that is nice too.
And then we set off on our hike to two castle ruins. The path to the domain of the Hohenkrähen ruin was calm, but the small path up to the ruins itself was steep with slippery rocks. They took the word “ruin” quite seriously, since the castle was nothing more than a few walls and remnants of walls and towers. The view from the castle ruin was amazing, though. We saw birds of prey and storks from up top, quite a unique sight. And in the distance we saw other castle ruins. The country is full of them.
We then proceeded to the other castle ruin nearby, the Mägdeberg. It was a warm day, the temperature app on my phone said the “real feel” temperature was near 32 degrees Celsius. By the time we reached the second castle ruin, the only bottle of water that I brought with me was finished.
The view from the ruin was also stunning, with mountains and villages and fields, as far as the eye could see.
The heat was unbearable though, I felt myself getting weaker. Dehydrated and feeling that I could soon faint, we descended the path from the castle where we came across other hikers. We asked them if they had some water to spare, and they were so kind as to refill our bottle with almost a liter of their water. They were truly life-savers. I immediately drank almost half of it. We thanked them many times before they went up the castle and we went slowly back to the car.
We wanted to visit a museum as well, but it was already getting late, so we had lunch in the car as we drove to the museum.
As we arrived at the museum, the parking lot was closed off. There was a sign that promised free parking near a gas station, but that wasn’t the case. The parking lot was there, but it wasn’t free. Oh well, at least it’s only a ten minute walk (in the heat) to the museum.
The Pfahlbautenmuseum is a collection of reconstructions of local pile dwellings from the Stone Age, Early Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age. What an interesting museum! And what the fuck, I feel like the education system failed me. I learned so much more about the Stone and Bronze Age with this visit, than I had learned in school.
The museum took us on a tour through the ages with several pile dwellings from each era, with each era being represented by a main building (the chief’s house, the cult house, or the main gathering hall), and some other buildings with local professions such as a potter, a bronze smith, a fisherman, a mason, …
Truly a wonderful, educational and interesting museum that was worth every euro (as was the small guide we bought).
After the museum, we bought ice cream and a cold beverage to cool us down.
We drove to our sleeping spot and made pasta for dinner.
June 19th - June 20th:
Today was a day for errands and relaxing.
June 21st:
We drove to Salem. Not the famous witch-village in the US, but the small town in the south of Germany. This Salem is famous for its monastery and castle.
For 11 euros we got access to the entire domain (which is huge), and for a mere 2 euro more we could join the guided tour through one of the buildings.
The flowers in the garden had numerous colors, but the labyrinth was nothing special.
The guided tour was very interesting, albeit completely in German. Luckily I understand a little German. The man enthusiastically talked about the history of the castle and monastery, from the construction in the 12th century, about an all-destroying fire, about the reconstruction and the domain’s position during the Napoleonic War, …
The castle itself (reconstructed after the fire in the 17th century) has remained intact ever since and has therefore been an important cultural icon for the region and for the country.
Next to the monastery and the castle, we also visited the fire department museum. The great fire that destroyed everything (except the monastery, since that was the only stone building at the time) caused the abbot to fear fire and had a personal fire brigade installed on the domain (which has now been turned into a museum showcasing the history of German firefighting vehicles), and he even had his own detachment of firefighters in the castle.
Part 5 - SWITZERLAND
June 22nd:
At the Swiss city of Schaffhausen, right over the border with Germany, are the Rheinfalls. The Swiss claim it’s the biggest waterfall in Europe. Not the biggest in size, height, width, but in water flow. The water flow ranges from 600.000 liters per second up to over a million liters per second in spring, when the ice and snow from the mountains melt and join the Rhine river.
The site has multiple parking lots. From the parking lot it was only a short walk towards the quay where we got a nice view of the waterfalls.
We saw many boats on the water, so we thought we’d check the price. We assumed that it would be expensive, like so many other things in the country, but to our surprise, a 30-minute boat trip with an audio guide only cost 11 Swiss Francs per person.
We only had to wait a couple of minutes for the next tour to start, so that was ideal for a short visit to the public bathroom.
The boat could hold 60 people, but wasn’t completely full this time. The audio guide was offered in plenty of languages. During our trip alone, people chose German, English, Dutch, Spanish, Hebrew, Russian, and at least one of the Asian languages.
The information provided was interesting, but was quickly tossed aside when the boat operator approached the falls and got close enough for a lot of us to get wet. That was a spectacular view.
He turned the boat around and approached the waterfall again, this time pretending to sail right into the falls, only to turn away at the last moment. It was awesome and well worth the money.
After a quick bite to eat, we took a small hike along the river banks (crossing from Switzerland into Germany and back several times) and eventually got to the castle.
While there were several platforms from which people could admire the falls, we were shocked to see that there were automated gates that cost 5 Swiss Francs per person. We chose not to give in to this and just continued on our way. With the parking lot being expensive and the boat trip, it seemed like they wanted to get as much money as possible.
From the castle we took the path next to the train tracks (we got a small scare when a train rushed by) back towards the parking lot.
With only paying for the parking lot and the boat trip, it was worth the excursion.
Part 6 - GERMANY
June 23rd:
Due to circumstances we couldn’t go through with the plan to go to a Center Parcs on Monday. Today, however, we did manage to go to Center Parcs, well, Aqua Mundo to be precise. I love just soaking in the warm water.
After several hours, we drove towards the Schwarzwald, where we made a short evening walk.
June 24th:
Waking up in the Schwarzwald, we first drove to Triberg, which houses famous waterfalls. They do charge 8 euro per person to see the waterfalls, however, which just feels wrong.
There are at least five shops in the town of Triberg that sell authentic wooden cuckoo clocks. They all claim to have unique designs made in an artisanal way, but they all have the same clocks. And the other wooden figures that they sell, how pretty and cute they might be, they also feel like they were made by machines.
And everything is expensive. A proper cuckoo clock with a price of 800 euro doesn’t necessarily seem ridiculous, I have no idea how expensive they can be, but I do recognize the intricate machinery. But 12 euro for a small wooden pig, which is basically part of a tree branch, with a face carved on, four twigs as legs glued on and two felt ears glued on, that just seems too much.
There were a lot of beautiful and pretty wooden figures, but the price was quite off-putting.
We then drove back to part of the forest and went on a hike of around 7 km, which was nice.
A few errands, and looking for a place to sleep, and that’s another day done.
Part 7 - FRANCE
June 25th:
The final day of the European Mainland Roadtrip has arrived. We woke up near a small chapel on a hill filled with vineyards and a view over several villages with mountains filling the background.
After the mandatory coffee and breakfast, and preparing the car, a forty minute drive took us to the French city of Colmar.
What a beautiful city with wonderful medieval-feeling houses. It was crazy warm, again, but we didn’t let this stop us.
We found a parking lot near the city center, free on Sundays, which was really nice.
The staff at the tourist info center was really friendly. They had free maps with a walking tour around forty highlights within the city. We began to follow the path, but the map had several errors, so we ended up freestyling.
We happened upon an indoor market with a vegan restaurant. The food was really nice and affordable, and the staff was very kind.
After a couple of hours in the medieval-feeling city, we got in our car and headed towards Belgium, ending the road trip.
