Day 9: Limburg

We left mom and Juergen's early this morning and drove to Limburg. We wanted to stay another night in Bruges before arriving back home and found Limburg to be exactly half way between Eching and Bruges. It was really foggy when we left this morning at 9am and lasted for the first hour of the trip. Then the sun came out and the temperature rose too. The first half of the day was pretty cool at 11C but later rose to a wamer 17C. Much more comfortable.

A rest stop with a beautiful view

 

Partly due to the nice weather but also I think due to us getting more used to long bike rides now, we were able to comfortably ride for over an hour before resting. Until now we could only just manage an hour at a time before needing to stretch our legs.

 

Anyway, we arrived in Limburg at 2.30pm after 3 rest stops on the way. Checked into our hotel and went for a walk around the city. It has a beautiful old town area with cathedral and castle and apparently Germany's oldest fachwerk (spelling?) house which is the typical building style. The stone bridge is from 1315 and during the medieval times toll was charged for pedestrians and vehicles (whatever vehicles they had in that time, I guess on horse back). A lot of history. I tried to translate as much interesting bits as I could from the city map we had. Andre and I don't usually do the typical tourist sightseeing, preferring to just take in where we are by just being there and doing our own thing. Today we decided to follow the historical walk on the map we were given at the hotel around the old town. It was interesting and fun. Felt a bit like a treasure hunt going from one point to the next!

 

The old stone bridge

 

The oldest fachwerk house

Oldest fachwerk house again

The cathedral

 

View over Limburg from the cathedral

 

Inside the cathedral

The castle

 

Doing some shopping

 

 

 

After seeing what there was to see we strolled around a bit more, had a drink at a cafe and then went for an early dinner. After a day on the bike with only breakfast bars on the road as snacks we were again very hungry and ready for some good food. (Mom, we did think of the sandwiches you offered when it came to lunch time!!)

 

 

 

For some reason this town has a lot of Italian restaurants. The first one we passed looked good and even had schnitzels for Andre so we went straight in. We were their first guests at 6.30! I had pasta which was delicious and then tiramisu for dessert.

 

 

 

We can definitely recommend Limburg if you're ever in this area. It's like a fairy tale town! (Mom and Juergen, you have to drive here and stay for a night at least!)

 

 

Day 9: 270 miles Eching - Limburg

Time on the road: 9.10 am - 2.35 pm

 

 

 

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Day 8: Noerdlingen

It's Saturday today and we get to spend all day with Mom and Juergen. Juergen drove us to this lovely town called Noerdlingen about an hour and a half from their home. The town still has a wall right around. There's also a cathedral and the houses looked like they had been built long ago by an apprentice builder as most are leaning sideways or even backwards! Lovely buildings though, lots of colour and pretty cobblestone streets. We stopped for hot chocolate and apfelstrudel before heading home again. It's been raining all afternoon so it's quite nice just being here at home. Andre and I like just being at mom and Juergen's house anyway, doing nothing. Here's some photos. We're back on the road again tomorrow, heading back home.

 

On or inside the city walls

The city wall

 

Pretty flowers on all the window sills

 

Mr Mustard entertaining us all the way as usual

 

 

Time for cake again- with the cathedral behind us

 

 

 

 

 

Day 8: zero miles again

 

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Day 7: Eating before the trip back!

 

 

 

Mom finished work early and we drove to Schleissheim castle. It's a very big castle complex with beautiful gardens and water features. We had a typical German lunch there. Andre had Wurstsalad which translated directly means sausage salad, but really is strips of cold meat. Mom had sausage and sauerkraut and I had a Brezen (pretzel type bread with salt) and cream cheese.

 

 

 

We wandered around a bit there and cheated by using mom's camera. Up until now we have only been using the iPhone, but she had hers with her and it was just too hard not to use it for a few better pictures.

 

 

 

On our way back home Andre declared that he is all of a sudden terribly hungry and so we stopped to get a few slices of cake at the bakery. Andre felt he needed two dffent slices, which he did all finish at home. He gets a sweet craving about once a year and then he eats enough to last him the rest of the year. So he won't have anything sweet again until next year this time!

 

Above is Andre after finally having decided which cake to have. Here's a better picture of the bakery:

 

 

 

It felt as though we'd hardly finished our cake before it was time to go out for dinner with Juergen's parents. They invited us out to dinner at the Indian restaurant. So more eating! And I didn't even try to argue against dessert. We were brought a platter of dessert to share. I am on holiday after all.

 

With Juergen's parents

Day 7: zero miles

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Day 7: the sun is back!

Look at this beautiful sunny day outside:

 

 

I've only just woken up (it's 7.55). Mr Mustard is still sleeping, or pretending to be at least. We really should have stayed home yesterday and gone out with the bike today instead. I can't remember now why I was so eager to go out in yesterday's weather.

 

I don't know yet what we're doing today but I don't really feel like going on the bike. Or not very far at least. We would go shopping in Munich if only we had more room to take things home! It's also Octoberfest time at the moment, but Andre doesn't seem too bothered to go this year. Did you see me and my sister in our dirndls last year? Let me see if I can find a picture...

 

 

 

We had so much fun there last year!!

 

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Day 6: Chiemsee

After having a rest day yesterday I felt we should get back onto the bike again today. It was raining on and off this morning but being used to the way the weather can be in England I reckoned it might go either way so we might as well go for a ride and hope for the best. Well, we didn't get the best weather in the end. It was pretty cold, around 10C most of the way and very wet and rainy. We drove up this hill called Samerberg where you have a lovely view over the Chiemsee, but it rained when we stopped there so we didn't even take off our helmets. At least we stay dry in all our bike gear. We took a few photos and video and then made our way back home, this time via the motorway as we just wanted to get back to a warm house.

 

That's the Chiemsee you see in the distance.

Even though cold and wet it was still good to get out on the bike again.

 

 

The rest of the afternoon we relaxed at home and this evening I went with mom and Juergen to their dance class- they do ballroom dancing every Thursday. It made me want to do dancing again, but Andre's just not interested!

 

 

Day 6: 134 miles Eching - Chiemsee

Time on the road: 10.00 am - 2.05 pm

 

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Are you keeping up?

I'm really making up for the past year's infrequent blogging! I do sometimes miss the time when I was able to blog every day. Then I had not only the time but also things to write about when moving countries and continents made for some interesting posts.

 

 

Just showing you our dinner tonight. We first had Flammkuchen right before leaving Switzerland. I've had it a couple of times again since and have said for a while now that I must find a recipe and try and make it myself. So when my mom asked if we wanted to have some tonight I was eager to see what the recipe is like. It turns out it's so similar to our pizza base recipe that if I make it at home myself I'll just use our usual pizza base recipe and then roll it out much thinner and use Flammkuchen type toppings.

 

 

Basically the Flammkuchen is lighter, not as filling as it has less toppings and no cheese really. Well at least not the ones I've had before. We did make some tonight with a little cheese too. The main thing is that it has creme freche on the base instead of a tomato base.

 

 

Juergen also made us Hugos- elderberry syrup, sparkling wine and topped up with mineral water with mint and lemon. Yum!

 

 

 

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