ONWARDS TO THURINGIA

Friday 26^th May

We left Soest around 10.00 and found our way back to the motorway to drive the 124 miles to Thalwenden. It soon got really hot and the roads were quite busy, but even with a toilet stop we made good time until we turned off for the last 10 miles. Beautiful countryside, more hilly and woody and stinking hot. Then we met the inevitable ‘road closed’ sign with a diversion just where we wanted to turn.  So we took the only possible route along a single bit of lane which became gravel, met a bus and a few other cars, then a couple of crossroady places and did not know where the hell we were. Emily had her usual dicky fit of re-calculating and telling us to turn around….no, not possible we said.  Finally, we stopped outside some houses where there were folk in a garden, I hopped out and in my fractured Deutsch said, help we are lost! After a lot of umming and aahing and telling me the road was closed (as if I did not know) one of the gents indicated that he would drive and we should follow, so we did. 5 miles back the way we had come over the gravel and on to another main road and lord alone knows where we arrived at our destination, Camping Bergweise Thuringia. Now we just have to find our way out again on Monday!  By this time we were hot and frazzled so just found ourselves a flattish pitch with a tree for shade, it’s own table and water point and parked up.  There was no-one around to tell us what to do or where to go, so we hoped all was OK, then collapsed with a cold drink for a while until showers and dinner time. It is a very quirky rustic place, on a very steep hillside, kind of terraced, with the most lovely view. After dinner we hiked a bit further up the hill where there is a “Bar/Restaurant”… more of a marquee on a hillside with a wooden terrace. We sat with a couple of beers and chatted to the owner (German), hired help lady (Chilean), 5 motorbikers (German) and a Dutch couple. It is amazing where sign language can get you.

Our own little spot

Looking back down to the village

Brian trying to keep cool

Hike up to the bar

Bar set on a mound

Outside

and inside

View from our table

Saturday 27^th

A very hot, do nothing day - 30’C. I put some washing in the machine, put the chairs under the awning and we sat and read and dozed and chatted until it was time to hike up the hill again, this time to try the food and the wine.

Sunday 28^th

Well what an interesting time we had last night! We hiked up the hill again to the restaurant around 7.00pm, decided on a bottle of wine at 8 euros rather than 2 glasses at 7 euros. Food available was either fish or sausage with potato dumplings, so we settled on the fish. All was cooked on a wood burning stove, and within half an hour there were 14 people there, some only drinking but others like us eating. English, German, Dutch and Spanish were the languages being bandied around.  There was the most spectacular view over the hills, especially as the sun went down around 9.00pm. Having struggled to eat all our dinner, we were then presented with a shot glass of cherry brandy ‘on the house’. Total paid out 32 euros. Needless to say we staggered off down the hill, hand in hand holding each other up, around 10.00pm, saying “shall we come up here again tomorrow?”

Sun going down whilst having dinner

Now it is Sunday morning, very hot again, but apparently thunderstorms forecast for later. We had a short wander down in to the village admiring all the houses, most fairly new, but some older ones being renovated, had a peek in at the very modern inside of the church, but couldn’t go right in as the glass doors were locked.

We will not do much until it is time to go and eat again. We have chatted to a German couple who have a daughter in Manchester who suggested we join them tonight.