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The 18 May dawned fine and we packed up and made our trek across town on the Metro, to the Crimee area where Vladimir, our trusted Volvo had been parked for the last 10 days. I slipped the dodgy looking Mexican dude 70 Euros and off we went , around the Peripherique ( ring road), till Jennie spotted the right exit and we were away towards our camp for the night.
We travelled through thousands of acres of farmland, without seeing any livestock, but passing though one run down rural village after another. The style in Europe is not to build your house out on your farm but in the local village and farm from there.
I felt a sense of trepidation being a farmer on the other side of the world and seeing these vast areas of beautiful cropping soils , with no irrigation needed, and wondering how we compete?
But the answer is in the system, everywhere we went we saw grass being harvested in Spring time by huge expensive machinery and carted to sheds to feed animals. where in NZ we match our feed demand to the natural growth curve and reap the rewards, that is the secret to our competitive farming system, so dont forget it. I feel already that the Dairy industry in NZ has strayed from this position of strength.
About three hours out of Paris to the North East we came to the town of Epernay, which we decided to make our camp for the night. This town is in the heart of the Champagne region, and we visited the very Abbey where Dom Perignon perfected the art of making Champagne, in between his monk duties.
Two of the local wine varieties that are necessary for Champagne making are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and through a process of double fermenting and the addition of, the Champagne wine was born.
We toured the Champagne houses of Epernay, before heading off to a small rural campsite that Vanessa had found on the internet in a small town called Buzancy.
From Buzancy we made a day trip down to the battlefields of Verdun,. This battle was horrific in both its scale and loss of life , and this was borne out at the huge war memorial that commemorated the 3500000 that died over the 300 days of battle. Surely an example of the futility of war, as the battle lines had changed little after this event.
The next day we were off travelling, and drove through three countries in one day, out of France, into Luxembourg, and then on into Germany. The sort of thing you can'. do in NZ.
We stopped in the German town of Trier, supposedly the oldest town in Germany, with ruins that pre date Roman times !!. From here we followed the beautiful Mosel River towards Koblenz through one picture post card village after another. The villages having narrow cobbled streets, half timbered houses with window boxes of geraniums and colourful cafes with tables and umbrellas taking up half the street. Along the valley the steep hillsides were covered with vineyards, terraced with stone walls, some on impossibly steep slopes. In places they had little train tracks going up the hill to give access to the vines and cart the harvest I presume.
At the end of our long day we drove into a very busy campground at Winningen on the outskirts of Koblenz, expecting to have to negotiate a nights stay in German. But to our surprise we were welcomed by the unmistakable kiwi accent of a lady from Greymouth,, who treated us like long lost friends as very few Kiwis get to this magnificent part of Germany .
The next day dawned beautifully fine, as it has everyday since leaving wintry Paris, and we spent the day exploring Koblenz which is on the junction of the Mosel River and the Rhine. The rivers are very busy with boat traffic, huge barges carting bulk cargo up and down stream as well as huge cruise ships and lots of pleasure boats.
Back at camp which was very full of Germans in campervans with satellite dishes galore as it was a German holiday, Vanessa and Liam made friends with some German kids camping next to us, so they enjoyed playing kids games for a change instead of with Mum and Dad. Mum and Dad enjoyed the break also!!
Next day we drove up the Rhine river through lots of beautiful villages and we spent our time castle spotting. We must have seen thirty castles in the last two days!!!
That night back at camp we taught the young guys next door how to play cricket, much to the amusement of all our other neighbours.
We broke camp early the next morning, so as to dodge all the holiday traffic heading home.
The German Autobahns, are great fun to drive on, and cut down a lot of travel time, when you can cruise at 130kph.(although some cars pass you doing 200kph plus). The official speed limit is 130,but nobody seems to stick to it, and you never see traffic cops or speed cameras.
By using the Autobahn, we were down near Heidelberg in no time, so we turned off at a place called Worms, ( the name tickled Liam's fancy) which boasts the largest Romanesque cathedral in the world.
Next stop was Heidelberg, a beautiful University city on the banks of the Neckar River. We encountered the hottest weather of our European journey (28-30 degrees), and spent both evenings at the local pool to cool off. We spent a great day exploring the huge Castle on the hill above the city and the old town, greatly assisted by Vanessa's German friend Annika.
Heidelberg Castle dates from the early 14th century, and among other things boasts the largest wine cask ever at 221,726 litres ( now that's a party).
From Heidelberg we headed south on the back roads, and as luck would have it we ran into a huge Audi factory near Stuttgart. This place was massive, with 10 gates into the place with a highrise carpark for the workers at each one, and 100 staff just in the visitors centre. We also managed to stumble over the Porsche factory, much to Vanessa's and Liam's pleasure.
From here it was further south to a town called Rotweill, where the weather was so bad we had to stop and check into a hotel for the first time in Europe, but for 120 euros for four plus breakfast it wasn't bad value.
We also got Vladimir the Volvos air conditioning checked here, but alas the prognosis wasn't good, the compressor was playing up and would cost 500 euros to fix, so as the mechanic told me, when it gets hot we would just have to do what people did for 20 years " you vill have to Vined down zee vindoze".
The next morning we were off bright and early heading for Switzerland !!
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