Accommodation, Cycling, Germany, Sightseeing

Cycling in Germany #5 – Bad Schandau to Pirna along the Elbe

June 27, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 42 Comments

We wake up in our lime green and yellow pension in Bad Schandau (bad means bath and hence spa) and the first thing we do is check the weather and the temperature. Yesterday we were in transit between our spacious comfortable flat in Kobern-Gondorf and Saxon Switzerland on the Elbe River. Theoretically the 550 km should have taken about 5 ½ hours plus rest stops but we were held up for 1 ½ hours in a traffic jam due to roadwork on the motorway.

A little word about the German motorways. Unlike French motorways, they are free, and form a vast network that crisscrosses the country. The only problem is the way the people drive on them. The speed limit is 130 kph unless indicated otherwise (by which I mean less than 130 of course). If there are three lanes, the trucks and drivers who respect the speed limit use the right hand lane, the vast majority who drive at 130 to 140 kph (including us) mostly stay in the middle lane while the left hand lane is reserved for those who whizz past at a speed I wouldn’t even dare to calculate. I’ll leave it up to you to imagine what happens when there are only two lanes. I let Jean Michel drive in Germany.

So it was about 5 pm when we reached our destination and went straight to the tourist office to find ourselves a flat, passing a German soccer flag seller on the way! All that was proposed was a very decrepit looking building on a very busy road so we went back again to the tourist office to ask for a hotel room with wifi instead. Perhaps it was because the weekend was coming up but the only place available was our pension. By then it was raining lightly. The room is nothing much but it’s very quiet, quite large, has a stunning view out of all three windows and wifi that connects to my laptop provided I sit fairly close to the door. The bed is OK and the flimsy curtains don’t encourage us to sleep late. Maybe that’s a good thing …

So back to the weather. It’s about 14°C and sunny, with 23°C expected in the afternoon. By the end of an uninteresting breakfast, we’ve gained a degree. I decide to be German and wear socks with my sandals rather than be hot in walking shoes when things warm up. I can take them off later. It turns out to be an excellent solution. Jean Michel assures me that I don’t look too terrible.

Today we’re going to Pirna, about 25 K along the Elbe towards Dresden. The bike path is the sort we like – close to the river and free of traffic most of the way. We have wide sweeping views of the Elbe.

Our first stop is Konigstein, with its famous castle which we will visit by car another day. It’s a long way up the hill on a bike. We cross the Elbe on a small ferry with a large number of other cyclists. The cycling population has changed – a little younger and a little fitter. We don’t see many electric bikes either. Also, everyone seems to be German.

We cycle round an S-bend to Kurort Rathan and take another, much bigger ferry, pulled by a cable, and cheaper. Up above us soar the famous Bastei Rocks, with their incredible formations, that we will also visit by car another day.

The next village is Stadt Welhen with an attractive central platz completely taken up by restaurants except for the Rathaus (rat means council and not a little rodent as you would imagine) with an unusual sundial that is adapted to summer time.

The cycle path takes us past riverside homes with beautiful gardens and alarge number of ferienwohnung (holiday flats), many of which are frei (vacant). We wonder why there was so little available in Bad Schandau.

By the time we reach the centre of Pirna, it’s about 1.15 pm so our first priority is to find somewhere to eat. We ignore all the fast food places and turn down a side street with an inviting-looking restaurant at unbeatable prices. As usual, there is a bike stand at the front. We choose pork medallions and mushrooms which turn out to be quite tasty and are not deep fried. A change from schnitzel.

The pretty main square – Marktplatz – turns out to be just at the end of the street. We get a few brochures from the tourist office for our travel log and visit St. Marien Kirche with its stunning vaulting that reminds us of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Maybe it was a source of inspiration.

Fortunately our transit day seems to have improved my saddle soreness and the remaining 25 K aren’t nearly as bad as I feared. It starts spitting after a while but we’re not too worried because we have our capes. It turns out we don’t need them.

On the way back, we decide not to take the ferry at Kurort Rathan, and treat ourselves to an ice-cream Sunday. The young waitress speaks good English which is a reilef. There are so few foreign tourists here that everyone naturally talks to us in German. The lady who runs the pension doesn’t speak any English at all.

Our ice-creams stand us in good stead because the bike path from Kurort to Konigstein is like a roller coaster. Then we have to sprint down to the landing stage to catch the ferry. This time, there are only a few bikes and cyclists. I wonder where everyone has disappeared to?

We arrive back at the unusually early hour of 6 pm and have a glass of trocken riesling and pistachios in our room followed by cheese and salad and some delicious cherries we bought on the way home.

Tomorrow, we’re off in the other direction – to Czech Republic – but our bike map stops at the German border so we’ll see how we manage!

Cycling in Germany #4 – Koblenz where the Moselle meets the Rhine

June 25, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 40 Comments

We’re off to a late but chilly start today. After we leave the car a few kilometers out of Koblenz to avoid the usual large town parking problems, we both put on our windcheaters and don’t take them off for the rest of the day. This time I didn’t forget our rain capes …

As we cycle over the bridge over the Moselle and get our first view of Koblenz we remember why we try to avoid cities! It’s big and noisy and full of cars. We also know that the old town was completely destroyed during the war and there isn’t much to see. The name Koblenz means confluence and this is where the Moselle joins the Rhine on its way through Germany so the big attraction is the Deutsches Eck or German Corner.

Along the way we see some amusing facades such as the night club above. Jean Michel who’s fallen a little behind catches me up, “you missed something back there” he says so I ride back. I look up and burst out laughing.

We keep going towards the Eck, passing lots of cruise boats, one of which has walking frames lined up on the quay! “There but for the grace of God” as my mother used to say. The best view of the confluence is from the huge monument to Kaiser Wilhelmina I erected in 1897. The equestrian statue was destroyed in 1945 just before the end of the war and rebuilt in 1993. We think the flags are regional.

We follow the beautiful Rhine Promenades past some lovely late 19th century homes and some surprising modern buildings.

Eventually we find ourselves on the outskirts of Koblenz and are getting hungry. We decide not to eat at a Biergarten obviously set up for World Cup enthusiasts. I bet it’s popular at night.

Our bike path lies between the Rhine and a railway line and takes us past Stolzenfels Castle built in 1250 and destroyed during the Nine Years War in 1689. It was restored in 1838 by Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm which explains why it’s not made of granite like all the other hilltop castles in the area. I accidentally put my new iPhone 5S on black and white so the photo isn’t quite what I expect.

There are no places to eat near the castle so we push onto the next town called Rhens. By the time we arrive it’s 1.30 but in Germany you can get a meal at any time, we have discovered. We see an inviting Biergarten and choose a riverside table. Below is the view from the Ladies!

However it turns out to be too cold so we eat inside the restaurant which is across the road. Note that I’m still in black and white mode.

During lunch where we order the inevitable Wiener schnitzel and chips (it’s that or pizza) with a side salad and trocken riesling, we’re entertained by a little boy on a trike without pedals and his older sister who comes through occasionally playing Jingle Bells on a whistle and softly hitting a drum.

We decide it’s not warm enough to cycle any further down the river and head back towards Koblenz. I finally get a photo of a patriotic car with no owner around. Check out the rear view mirror! Good thing I’ve worked out how to take colour photos again.

We find another Biergarten in Koblenz but are told we have to go inside the restaurant for coffee so we keep going. Good thing we did because we accidentally found a local institution – the Weindorf. Created in 1925 for the Reich German wine exhibition, this “wine village” is the perfect place to have a glass of wine or real cappuccino.

As we haven’t had dessert, jean Michel thinks we should try the cakes. I can definitely recommend the apfel strudel … Not to worry, it’s an intermittent fast day tomorrow.

By the time we get back to the car, we’ve cycled 34 km which is kinder than yesterday’s 49! Tomorrow we leave Kobern-Gondorf for the Elbe and Swiss Saxony, about 570 km east of here. And I’m hoping for a proper wifi connection so I can use my laptop again! See you there.

Cycling in Germany #2 – Rhine from St Goar to Lorch

June 24, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 45 Comments

We’ve cycled along the Rhine on two previous occasions – on our way back from Croatia when we visited the Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhein, both very memorable experiences – and last year after cycling along the Danube, when we spent a few days at Lake Constance and visited the Rhine Falls and Stein again. The Rhine starts in Switzerland, flows through Germany and eventually empties into the North Sea In the Netherlands.

Today we begin in St Goar a 40 minute drive from our flat in Kobern Gondorf. We start with an excellent cappuccino opposite Loreley, a famous rock at the narrowest place on the Rhine. Loreley is also the name of a feminine water spirit, similar to mermaids or Rhine maidens, associated with the rock in popular folklore and in works of music, art and literature.

The bike path takes us along the river alongside a main road – not nearly as attractive as the paths we experienced along the Danube but the scenery is still lovely with vineyards climbing up the hills and little villages and hilltop granite castles along the riverside.

We arrive at the ferry stop that will take us across the river to Kaub, passing in front of the famous Pfalzgrafenstein toll castle erected in 1338. A chain across the river forced ships to pay the toll. If they didn’t cooperate they were thrown into the dungeon!

On the other side on the outskirts of the village we find a local restaurant with a view of the river where the waitress only speaks German. We learn that trocken means dry as in dry white wine and order a viener schnitzel and a cordon bleu because it’s easier than trying to work out what else is on the menu! A mixed salad arrives first and our veal and chips are excellent. We finish with an espresso and pay the bill – 30 euro.

We continue towards Lorch on a bike path which is a little in need of maintenance but more pleasant because there is less traffic. On the other side we see a town With an extravagant number of towers and a gutted gothic church. I study it with my binoculars.

At Lorch we cross the river on another ferry and start cycling back to our starting point. When we get to Bacarach we suddenly find ourselves in a very popular tourist destination. It turns out to be the town with the gutted church and has all sorts of historic buildings and the obligatory craft shops.

We go back across the Rhine at Kaub for free, completely ignored by the ferry man who stays resolutely in his little tower. The bike path on the other side is alongside the road again but in good condition. We see the Rhine gorge and the Loreley rock from the other side and get a closer look at the somewhat surprising 16 foot mermaid statue.

By the time we get to St Goarhausen, I am feeling the effects of the 40 km we’ve spent in the saddle and we’re both ready for an Italian ice-cream. We can see the ferry that will take us back to St Goar and the car and decide to try and catch it. Ice-cream in hand we cross the road and walk our bikes down the ramp and onto the ferry just in time!

I can tell you that I am glad to get back to the car and sit in a more comfortable seat. We drive along the river to Boppard and cross the high plateau between the Rhine and Moselle via a road with very tight hairpin bends. The view of the Moselle is worth the trip.

Tomorrow we’ll be back along the Moselle.

Cycling in Germany # 3 – Cochem to Zell on the Moselle

June 24, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 37 Comments

Compared with most of the cyclist we saw today – and we saw a lot of them -we are spring chickens! There are a lot of Dutch people and a lot of electric bikes. Considering most of the cycle paths are flat, I don’t imagine it makes a lot of difference. We might be looking into them in another ten years though.

We drove to the pretty little town of Cochem with its hordes of tourists mostly from the many cruise ships that travel up and down the Moselle. We crossed the bridge and joined the very pleasant cycle path on the other side. No trains or busy roads, unlike yesterday on the Rhine.

The Moselle which flows through France, Luxembourg and Germany, joins the Rhine at Koblenz. The 45 km section we cycled along today is very meandering and therefore very picturesque with riesling vines growing on steep hills on both sides.

We had lunch in Beilstein, a tiny village with a boat landing that empties large numbers of cyclists and other German day tourists into the street. We found a little Bistrot at the end of the village that looked half deserted and we able to order trocken weiss wein and schollenfilet, only because the waitress brought us an English menu. I don’t know why phone app dictionaries can’t get their act together and add some useful vocab. Whenever I look up something it’s not there.

By then we’d only done 12 km and I was saddle sore but we pressed on and were rewarded with more bucolic scenery and pretty little villages. We did stop a couple of times, of course, for things like cappuccino (awful) and eis ( much better).

We crossed the river a couple of times, at Senheim and Bullay where there is a double-decker road and rail bridge with no separate lane for bikes. Fortunately everyone was going in the other direction. We should have taken a ferry but it wasn’t clearly marked on our maps.

We had intended to go up to a blick (look-out) at Zell but one look at how high up we’d have to climb caused up the change our minds. We turned around and headed back and were dismayed to feel a few large raindrops. In my optimism ( and lured on by the weather forecast) I had not taken our rain capes. It was short-lived however and we made it to the train station in Bullay without getting soaked. A fifteen minute ride took us back to the unusual Renaissance Revival turn-of-the century train station at Cochem where we started from.

On the way home to Kobern-Kondorf we visited the little village of Tries-Karden whose oldest house was built in 1562 only 20 years before ours!

Cycling in Germany #1 – Kobern Gondorf

June 22, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 41 Comments

We reached our destination – Kobern Gondorf on the Moselle near Koblenz at 4 pm and by 5 pm we were on our bikes ready for our first ride along the Moselle.

First I’d like to explain how we operate. We have a very good bike stand on the back of our car that enables us to open and shut the boot even when the bikes are attached. Jean Michel’s lock system also means we can leave them anywhere without any part of them ever getting stolen.

We drive to our initial destination – we prefer a long drive the first day (we left Blois before 8.30 am and stopped a few times along the way including a picnic lunch) – where we stay 4 or 5 days to wind down and get back to our normal rhythm of 40 to 50 km a day. We fan out from our base taking the train to go further afield if necessary.

Last year we planned everything beforehand but bad weather made us change our plans a bit – there is nothing worse than cycling in pouring rain – so this year we decided to book our first accommodation and then play it by ear. We discovered last time that there are any number of gasthof and gasthaus offering very good value for money along the cycle paths in Germany.

Our present accommodation is in a recent building, is spacious and comfortable ( it even has a small dishwasher) and a large terrace with a lovely view. It has one major defect: the wifi only works on my iPad and iPhone and not on my laptop which means that I can’t touch type or use Photoshop to prepare my photos. The iPad version of WordPress is not as easy to use as the regular version so please be understanding – and don’t be surprised if I stop posting,

On intermittent fast days, we don’t have breakfast and take a picnic lunch. The other days we have breakfast at our flat or at the gasthaus, eat out at lunchtime along our cycle route then have an aperitif and easy to make dinner on our terrace whether we are staying in self-catering accommodation or a gasthaus.

Jean Michel looks after the itinerary and writes up the travel log each day while I look for accommodation, plan meals and speak English! I also look after the clothing situation. Washing can get complicated in a country that has practically no laundromats. But before we left Blois we went to Go Sport and made some great purchases – two sets each of 3/4 pants and shirts that are specially designed to dry quickly and get your body dry when you perspire.

Today we cycled a total of 20 km along the Moselle to Lof and back on another more interesting route past very steep vineyards. Being able to cycle for a couple of hours after spending most of the day travelling is a wonderful way to get right into holiday mood.

Tomorrow we’re heading for the Rhine.

Gardening and Getting Ready for Germany

June 21, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 7 Comments

Just in case regular readers have wondered where I’ve got to, I’ve been gardening flat out since we arrived in Blois on Thursday afternoon. It’s amazing just just how quickly the vegetation grows at this time of year. I have a theory about weeds too. As soon as you plant something that you want to grow, a similar-looking weed springs up! So I have been doing a lot of weeding.

I was worried about our geraniums which didn’t look as though they were going to produce many flowers but I think they were just waiting for the warmer weather.

After spending another day gardening and packing, we’re all set for our annual one-month cycling holiday – back to Germany again. Last year we cycled 1100 K along the Danube and I think it was my most enjoyable holiday yet.

After reading about Saxon Switzerland on Travel Notes and Beyond, we decided we would cycle along the Elbe this year. However, we are stopping off along the Moselle on the way and starting with an initial 4-night stay in Koblenz.

I’ll meet your there!

Blogging, Uncategorized

Weekly Blogger Round-Up – the Liebster Bloggers Award

June 17, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 10 Comments

This week’s blogger round-up is going to be a little different. Paula McInerney from Contented Traveller, whom I have featured several times in this blog, has nominated me for the Liebster Bloggers Award. It’s a little different from the other awards in that it is designed to encourage fellow travel bloggers, particularly those with a smaller audience, and to introduce them to other readers, which is also the aim of the round-up.

The word “liebster” has several definitions including kindest, nicest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued and welcome which are all very positive and encouraging.

How the Liebster award works

After answering Paula’s 7 questions (the original number seems to be 11, but I’m happy to downscale), I will then nominate 7 other travel bloggers for the award, all of whom I have already quoted here. I will then ask them 7 questions which they will answer in a post. They will display the Liesbster award on their site, nominate the bloggers that they wish to promote and ask them 7 or whatever of their own questions. Et ainsi de suite.

Paula’s questions and my responses for the Liebster Award

I’d just like to say thank you to Paula over at Contented Traveller for thinking of me. I love being part of the extended blogger community and I really like the idea of the Liebster Award.

What made you decide to take up this wonderful gig of travel writing?

My son and I were talking one evening just before he went to Australia and I mentioned the book I’ve always wanted to write about my life in France. He suggested a blog (I don’t think I had even read one at that point), set it up for me and that was the start of a wonderful adventure.

What has been the biggest eye opener in this endeavor

This is a hard one to answer. Maybe the immensity of the blogosphere. There are so many different and wonderful blogs to discover, each with their own focus.

When you read other travel blogs what is the first thing you look at?

The photos I guess, but the text is important too. As we like to go off the beaten track, I’m not really interested in a description of a monument, for example, but rather the story behind the visit.

What is one piece of advice that you can share with people that are thinking of trying to get into travel blogging?

Start small and take it one post at a time. Write about subjects you care about. It’s also useful to check out blogs about blogging and learn how to improve readership, for example.

How do you explain to your friends what you do?

As I live in France, most of my friends are French and not many in my age group are into blogging. All my blogger friends, whom I’ve made through the blog, are English speakers!

How do you balance social media and writing?

I currently write four posts a week: on Mondays, I select the photos that have had the most success during the week on Instagam, Tuesdays I write a “real post”, Wednesdays I publish my weekly blogger round-up featuring 3 other blogs and then Fridays are devoted to my ponderings on the French language with Friday’s French. I usually write them up in the evening, along with my Blois Daily Photo photos and look after social media in the morning before I start work (I’m a freelance translator) then at various times during the day.

7. How do you publicise how wonderful your blog is?

I don’t know about publicising how wonderful my blog is but I share it on Facebook and Twitter. My experience is that one day you accidentally write a very popular post, such as Five Places to Lunch near the Louvre or The Best Area to Stay in Paris and suddenly your readership increases.

Now it’s my turn to nominate 7 other bloggers

Travel Notes & Beyond

Gigi’s French Window – this one is a little bit different because Jill was nominated by someone else almost at the same time but I would still like to mention her.

And here are the questions I’d like them to anwer

When you started your blog, what did you set out to do?
Do you think you are meeting your objective? Has it changed along the way?
How would you classify your blog?
Do you ever wonder whether you should keep it up or throw in the towel? If you do and still keep writing, what stimulates you to do so?
Do you have a writing schedule?
Have you met any of your readers apart from your friends?
What is the best thing about blogging? And the worst?

Congratulations to you all and good luck with your blog!

Life

Panic à bord and the iPhone saga

June 16, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 1 Comment

Do you ever get that sink or swim feeling as though you are about to go under and you don’t know how you are going to make your way up to the surface again ?

Everything you try to do goes wrong. You do things and make decisions that are completely out of character and that you regret afterwards. You can even believe you were stupid enough to do them.

That is exactly where I am right at this very moment. This morning I even made a pot of tea – and forgot the tea leaves. Nothing disastrous, I agree, but pretty indicative of my present state of mind.

I have this pile of papers on my desk that I am supposed to sort before we leave on holidays on Thursday and I just have to look at them to panic.

I received my new Visa card in the mail some time ago. I have no idea what happened to it after that. I’ve had to cancel it and order another one. Will it arrive in time ?

I broke the glass on my iPhone taking a photo through a gate. I contacted the insurance who asked me for two documents and organised a replacement iPhone which must have been stolen along the way because it never actually reached me. I had to go to the police station and report it. I’ve been asked 3 times for the two documents which I have now sent three times : email, uploading on the website and by snail mail. It was much faster the time I lost it in Spain.

Two weeks later, I have finally been informed that my file is being processed. In the meantime, I decided to use my points and buy a new iphone since Jean Michel said he’d be happy to have my old one as his bathtub is part of the job he’s retiring from in October.

Now this is where I did my next stupid thing (the first was dropping the iPhone). I was talked into ordering a hot pink iPhone 5c by the guy at Orange. Not only is it really hot pink, it turns out not to have the same camera as the 5S as he assured me it did.

I sent it back and ordered a 5S. And here’s the third stupid thing I did. Wait for it – on Saturday, I ordered a GOLD 5S with a white front. I can’t believe that I did. I do not want a GOLD iPhone. I have no idea what prompted me to order it. I have no excuse. The girl at Orange did NOT talk me into it.

When I realised what I had done, I immediately phoned Orange and was told there was no problem, it was not too late, it hadn’t left the warehouse. I could have a gris sidéral instead. Whew !

Only it wasn’t true. Shortly afterwards, I received an SMS telling me to send the GOLD iPhone back. I phoned and was told it was too late to change the colour. After a lot of persuasion, I was told that EXCEPTIONALLY they would send me the grey one as well and I just had to refuse the gold one at the pick-up point and it would all eventually be sorted out. Someone would phone me on Monday to confirm.

There was no phone call on Monday so I rang back. There was NOTHING in my file to say that I had even requested a gris sidéral. That means that two people lied to me just to get rid of my call. That is the only conclusion I can come to.

So tomorrow I shall pick up the gold iPhone, open the box, fill out the return form, close the box, send it back by Chronopost and cross my fingers that it will be credited in time to order a gris sidéral before I leave France on Sunday. Unless, of course, when I see it, it’s not as bad as I thought. Otherwise I will just have to put up with my broken screen for another month. I really need a holiday.

P.S. Have now picked up my iPhone which isn’t gold at all but an attractive champagne colour. All that angst for nothing. But the bank doesn’t know anything about the Visa card. Sigh.

Paris

Photos of the Week – Palais Royal in June

June 15, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 4 Comments

Just a few photos from the sunny Palais Royal Gardens to start the week.

Tibetan flags on the balcony next to ours — Tibetan flags on the balcony to the left of ours

View from our balcony looking towards the Comédie Française

French language, Uncategorized

Friday’s French – déjeuner, jeûne and jeune

June 13, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 6 Comments

Breakfast and déjeuner both have the same origin. I don’t mean their Latin root, but their meaning. Jeûne = fast and dés = stop. But déjeuner doesn’t mean breakfast, it means lunch. Breakfast is petit déjeuner.

On the days we practise intermittent fasting our déjeuner really is when we break our fast. I searched around to see why déjeuner is the midday meal in French and came across the unverified information that it is because Louis XIV didn’t get up until noon. It seems that déjeuner still means breakfast in some far-flung corners of rural France. That, too, is unverified.

The expression à jeun which means while fasting is used quite a lot in French to mean not having eaten. For example, for a surgical operation or certain blood tests, you need to be à jeun. We would probably say on an empty stomach.

Funnily enough, the equivalent of letting your children go hungry is faire jeûner ses enfants. Not that you probably need to know such an expression.

Jeune, of course, has another meaning – young – but without a circumflex, and comes from the Latin jovenus while jeûne comes from jejunare meaning to be abstinent. See how important those circumflexes are!

Jeune can be used in contexts other than youth as well. I love the expression donner un coup de jeune which literally means “to give a stroke of youth” and can be used in various ways. Ils ont donné un coup de jeune à l’immeuble = they gave the building a face-lift or they freshened up the building.

La nouvelle lui a donné un coup de jeune = the news gave him a new lease of life.

And while we’re the subject of freshening up, I learnt an interesting expression from my younger brother when he came to visit once. He took himself off to the hairdresser’s with his schoolboy French and when he came back, I asked how he went.

“I just asked for a trim”, he said. “And how did you do that?” “Juste rafraîcher“, he answered. I went into hysterical laughter (that’s an older sister for you) because the only meaning I knew was to freshen up. “I found it in my phrase book”, he said indignantly, “and they understood exactly”.

I appealed to Jean Michel and was somewhat embarrassed to learn that it’s exactly the right expression! So now you can go to the hairdresser’s to get a trim in France.

Aussie in France

Cycling in Germany #5 – Bad Schandau to Pirna along the Elbe

OTHER POSTS ABOUT CYCLING IN GERMANY

Cycling in Germany #4 – Koblenz where the Moselle meets the Rhine

OTHER POSTS ABOUT CYCLING IN GERMANY

Cycling in Germany #2 – Rhine from St Goar to Lorch

OTHER POSTS ABOUT CYCLING IN GERMANY

Cycling in Germany # 3 – Cochem to Zell on the Moselle

OTHER POSTS ABOUT CYCLING IN GERMANY

Cycling in Germany #1 – Kobern Gondorf

OTHER POSTS ABOUT CYCLING IN GERMANY

Gardening and Getting Ready for Germany

Weekly Blogger Round-Up – the Liebster Bloggers Award

How the Liebster award works

Paula’s questions and my responses for the Liebster Award

What made you decide to take up this wonderful gig of travel writing?

What has been the biggest eye opener in this endeavor

When you read other travel blogs what is the first thing you look at?

What is one piece of advice that you can share with people that are thinking of trying to get into travel blogging?

How do you explain to your friends what you do?

How do you balance social media and writing?

Now it’s my turn to nominate 7 other bloggers

And here are the questions I’d like them to anwer

Congratulations to you all and good luck with your blog!

Panic à bord and the iPhone saga

Photos of the Week – Palais Royal in June

Friday’s French – déjeuner, jeûne and jeune

Breakfast and déjeuner both have the same origin. I don’t mean their Latin root, but their meaning. Jeûne = fast and dés = stop. But déjeuner doesn’t mean breakfast, it means lunch. Breakfast is petit déjeuner.

from the Tropics to the City of Light