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Alpine trip 2017- September 7th to 14th 2017 |
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As Ken's balance is not what it used to be, he & Avis have taken to driving down to the Alps like a couple of tourists. On Ken's bucket list were the Dolomites, which always seemed just too far to go to by public transport & would take perhaps three days in the van. So, we planned it that way, taking three days to get there, through interesting places & scenery on the way. After we got there though, the weather was largely diabolical. |
The trip took us to:- |
Day one - to Annweiler
Thursday 7th September 2017
Up at 04:05, which was in good time but not the outrageously early Avis thought. We had tea & left at 04:48. The drive down was very simple. We did not stop on the waybut filled up at the BP garage in Dover. We were soon on the P&O ferry and had breakfast in the Brasserie for a change (it has service). Somehow, it seemed to take longer to Luxembourg, although we only had two brief stops. I get very annoyed that the Belgians charge to have a pee, so only Avis had one, as we did not have the change. I had made an itinerary for Avis, as, from Luxembourg, it was a road we had only done in reverse. German A8 was much dug up. However, it went well enough, despite a dull day, until we got to the turn-off to Annweiler from local road 10. This was blocked and we had to go some miles further to get off 10 onto a road which doubled back to Annweiler. Then, we had some problems finding the hotel & it turned out, it wasn’t one. There are a few apartments over an ice-cream parlour (Escher’s Eiswerk) & you get the key from a café, Café Escher a couple of hundred yards away. The room was ok. We walked through the unexpectedly charming & unbombed Old Town to an Italian Restaurant over the millstream €34.80. There are three working water-wheels in the Queide stream, including the one actually in the restaurant, However, we decided to go back for coffee & cake in the Eiswerk but it was shut & so was everything else: the town had died by 19:00. I did get some photos, below. Breakfast will be in the café as well.
Escher's Eiswerk |
Outside the Gasthof |
One of the waterwheels |
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Far left: A miserably uncomfortable castle on the ridge above the Queide Valley, like so many in these border areas to the West of Germany. This is the forest of the Rheinland Pfalz, a contested area for centuries. Left: The view from our window |