Another day another country

We had a great time in Hall Tuesday evening. There was a 2-day festival
Monday and Tuesday and the main event each evening was 'Teatro Nucleo', a
travelling group of entertainers. I think they are originally Argentinean
but are now based in Italy. On Tuesday they put on an open-air play of Don
Quixote that was brilliant. Despite the speech being in Spanish and German
we were thoroughly entertained. Thankfully the weather held out and the hour
and half passed without any rain, well apart from that included in the play,
both water and wine!
After a day of shopping on Wednesday, we left Hall early Thursday morning
for our next destination Freiburg in southwest Germany. It was quite a long
drive but the sun was out and the route was very scenic. The site in
Freiburg, we eventually found it after going the wrong way initially, was
very wet and boggy. Ten or so days of rain had made a mess of most of the
grass but the site was quite pleasant despite this and the owners very
friendly. After settling in we made the most of the sunshine and strolled
into town. The old town is very pretty and they still have the old open
'sewer' system in the roads. Well it is actually a network of large gutters
that still flow with water. They were originally used to water the livestock
that passed through the town, and now they are just a water hazard for
unobservant cyclists and pedestrians!
We only stayed for the one night due to all the mud and on Friday headed
further north up to Heidelberg. We are actually staying a few miles east of
the city at the town of Hirschhorn. Again the site was quite wet on arrival
but thankfully we have some paving slabs on our pitch to park on. The site
could be much nicer than it is. They have a lot of static caravans here, but
where people have removed their caravans the pitches have just been left a
mess. I don't think the owners are really keeping on top of things and there
are a lot of defunct electric hook up and water points. Apart from that the
site is quite nice and handy for Heidelberg.
As yesterday was dry and sunny we cycled into Hirschhorn and got a train to
Heidelberg. The city is very nice, the old part that is. After grabbing a
tram from outside the train station that took us to where we needed to be,
we had a nice stroll around, past all the shops, and through the old town.
The cathedral looked recently rejuvenated and we were lucky to be treated to
an impromptu organ recital. There was a concert later in the evening and the
organist was brushing up on his programme, so we got to hear most of it, and
for free too. Afterwards, we paid our 1€ each to go up the tower of the
cathedral, and after all the steps enjoyed the great view from the top. By
this time we were getting a bit peckish and so first headed for a nice
couple of large German beers, hic, before grabbing a snack, or two, to eat.
Thankfully after our nice sunny day out we made it back to camp in the
oncoming drizzle before the heavy rain dropped.
Today has been a cleaning day. I gave Noddy a bit of a wash down outside as
he was slowly losing his nice white shiny finish under a layer of muck and
grime, and Sue got to work inside. The weather has stayed good today with
plenty of sunny periods and the odd spot or two of rain. If the sun is still
around we will go into Hirschhorn tomorrow for a look around.
When we leave here we will continue our northward journey heading towards
Dusseldorf for the start of next week. The biggest motorhome show in Europe
is on in the city for the duration of that week, and as we are here we
thought we would go and have a nose at all the nice expensive motorhomes on
show, and do a bit of dreaming, or future planning!
Cheers
M&S