GRAND TOUR 2015

THE GRAND TOUR: GERMANY 8/ 9th JUNE

We were on the trail early to avoid the heat we had been experiencing last few days as the hounds had been panting, drinking and diving for shade any chance they got.

The morning light lit the wild flowers and dandelion heads as we headed along the mown paths through the meadows above the town.


Soon we entered a conifer forest on a wide track that reminded me of the Coillte forests back home in Ireland and we wondered what the difference between them might be. We soon discovered some major differences. They don’t have these at home.

Suddenly we were surrounded by the structures of a ski resort with jumps and toboggan runs and lifts and slopes running up the mountain between the blocks of trees.


Pretty impressive. Especially when we spotted the bar and lighting for nighttime activities. Made us realise we were pretty high at about 750 mt in a country that gets a lot of snow.

We got up to 770 mt soon after at a viewpoint on a rocky outcrop where someone had left a momento.



The conifers gave way to a huge coppiced beech forest that had obviously been worked for centuries. Then we descended into Brotterode past the beginners jumps. I had wondered how a beginner practices that sport.


It was a town with mixed architecture. Some nice old bits

 but also a real mishmash in parts. The solar panel covered swimming pool where we had camped up had been good fun. We had frolicked on the long twisting slide and had fun flight img against the current machine and being swirled around in the whirlpool.

Time to move off deeper into rural Germany, to a park up listed in the book at Saalfeld, still in the Thuringen nature park.

On route we stopped at Paulinzella where the plethora of hiking routes included a Camino Way to Santiago ! Now THATS a pilgrimage!

 There was also a local pilgrim way to the Kloster site here, an impressive ruin.
 In the grounds were some great chainsaw sculptures including this one of a chainsaw  

We arrived at the site which turned out to be at a “Fairyland” but it was just closing up so we retired to the trusty tranny ( 1000 miles so far) armed with loads of info on hikes Iin the area.

So we tackled a route from the van first thing this morning which led us through more well managed forest dotted with info huts, picnic huts, compost toilet hut, classroom hut

 and even a bus stop but at the end of a forest track. The sign for this last one was decorated with empty miniature spirit bottles.

 These marvellous woods even have musical instruments to play made from themselves.  

Then it was back down to fairy town

Where you could by fairy soup from fairies.

  

Some of the fairy products seemed a little risqué

 I guess those were the “bad” fairies.

I couldn’t resist a collection of local ales and some energy cake from the shop where incongruously there was a glass blower.

The energy cake will come in handy over the next few days as we go ever deeper into the heart of rural Germany. We are doing a four day off roader. Taking tent, bivvy bag and rucksack of dried food on a 75km route that goes around a lovely looking lakeland near here.

So we may be out of contact for a bit.

 

The THE GRAND TOUR: HOLLAND AND GERMANY 6/7th June

The cloudy skies that greeted me at dawn were breaking up as I wrote the blog and watched the barges glide by. 

  
I’m not sure if you can see the length of the barge on the right but I was amazed at the capacity of the vessels plowing up and down. 

Time to hit the highway and after an hour and a half of Hollands sunken fields and glass houses and complex patterns of motorway intersection we crossed into Germany and it immediately became hillier and with a lot more  trees. Driving south west toward the industrial heartland of Essen, Dortmund and Düsseldorf it was still deeply wooded with fields between the trees rather than the other way round. The motorway was shielded from the rest of the country by tall walls covered  in ivy and creepers- a fast paced green tunnel running through the landscape- Keeping the hubbub around them from the drivers view. 

We pulled into a service station to swap drivers and mingled with classic car enthusiasts and bikers galore. 

   
 

We got off the motorway to head across country to an area that looked good for hiking and as luck would have it found a familiar shop to stock up on supplies. 

  I’d bought a book listing free and cheap overnight park ups and it led us to Grandenborn in the Thuringer Natural Park. Set amidst beach and oak covered hills and fertile fields of rye, wheat and barley the quiet town supplied us with a pitch for the night next to an abandoned football pitch. Grand job. A wander around revealed a mishmash of architecture  

 and a map of a 17km hike for the morning 

 

And so after a carb loading breakfast we headed up the farm tracks 

  with  pretty hedgerows of rose and elder and guilder rose and a multitude of other trees and shrubs beside us. Wide ranging views were marked by signboards and benches and sometimes a little extra  

 

The route was really well signed  

 and we discovered that we were on a pilgrim route to Boyneberg, a promontory castle keep deep in the beech woods that we began to immerse ourselves in.  

     

The woods were a glory and as the sun heated up the shade was a godsend. So much wonderful timber in such well managed forest. We had seen dozens of firewood stacks to covet around houses and I these woods were the source. Occasionally there would be a viewpoint over the fields and woods beyond.  

 

The ancient remains of the 11 century structure of Boyneberg were in a fantastic setting atop the hills with a few small grassy fields around it. 

  

There were other structures of more recent times. Spread across the grain fields and lining the woods edge were lots of raised timber hides. 

   
And occasionally a well built shelter for the hikers 

 

We saw a lot of birds of prey but only a couple of humans on the whole route which we we’re surprised about for a sunny Sunday in hiking friendly Germany. 

We heade d to what looks like a hikers heaven at Brotterode after we got back to camp and had lunch. In another Naturpark about 40km South with higher hills and deeper woods and trails everywhere from where we’re parked up, it looks good. Early start tomorrow. 

   
 

The Grand Tour: England and Holland 4/ 5 June

Finally packed up and left Hollymount. We gave ourselves time for a 3 hour hike around Howth Head and a leisurely dinner luckily as around 20 miles from Dublin we realised that we had forgotten to bring the van and travel insurance documents. DOH!!

We had to go through the motorway toll before we could turn around and go back through it and do a 4 hour return trip to the toll again. 

We managed a stroll on the beaches of Bull Island before the ferry so all was not lost. 

  
I’m up early the next morning, out on deck of the ferry as we approach Liverpool, desperate for a look at Antony Gormley’s Iron Men statues standing in formation in the sands of Crosby as the sea envelops them. 

  
I think I see them in the distance but then the docks are upon us and after Dublin they are very impressive. It takes us over an hour to make our way to the berth so after we disembarked at 6.30 there was no time to see the Men from close quarters as we had a nephew his wife and their new born baby to visit in Sheffield before they had to go out at 10. 

So I programmed my new navigator friend “Serena” with the address and she skilfully led us through the complex motorway systems of Liverpool and Manchester which were an early rush hour shock to us country bumpkins. Clearing the commuter crush we had a glorious drive over the Peak District looking it’s best in the  sun. It seemed like summer had arrived at last on the first day of our trip and with what looked like a full moon over the ocean last night the signs were auspicious. Luckily there was a diversion (!) so we were forced to experience more of the lovely countryside before coming down rapidly into Sheffield where our visit with the new family was all too brief. 

With the day free before the ferry from Hull we headed back up Ringinglow Road to Fidlers Elbow to hike along Strange Edge to Crow Chin … and not just because we loved the names !

  
This area is the birthplace of hiking in the hills with the first mass trespass happening at Kinder Scout. Close to a huge urban population looking for free and healthy recreation the Peak District gets a lot of visitors and paths are often stone paved to relieve erosion. 

  
They also come for the climbing, the gritstone rock securing trusted grip on the sheer cliff faces and there were plenty helmeted folk at it. 

   
   

The bottoms of the cliff were strewn with mill stones carved from the rock and some of the slabs above had been cut to collect water, maybe to facilitate the sharpening of tools (?). 

   
 

The views along the Edge were lovely so we continued to the trig point before heading down into the valley for that British tradition “the pub lunch ”

   
   

Fortified with sausage and mash and a pint we did another looped walk on some of the multitude of public footpaths that crisscross Britain before heading east again through flatter lands to Hull and the ferry. 

Another calm night and flat sea made for a good sleep in our dark and windowless cabin so we were passing through the first sea defences when I got on deck for a look around at Rotterdam. 

  
Then we cruised deeper and deeper into the warren of waterways past a wealth of industry. The Dutch have been a great sea going nation for centuries and it seemed their ports are still mighty powerhouses. 

   

There had been a party of scooter riders on board and we joined them in the queue for customs. There were dozens of them, some of whom were off to a big meet in Croatia. Fair play to them. 

  
After dog ablutions and routine van maintenance we asked Serena to guide us to a wetland National Park, the Biesbosch, about 100km away. 

She got us to the nearest town, my first in Holland, and it seemed really quaint in an indescribably Dutch way. Neat and tidy, organised and very cycle friendly…and scooter friendly. 

   
 

We got a map of the park and were soon walking on raised canal and river banks through a lush landscape of grass and grain with tree lined path and roadways. 

   
 

Sea defences are everything here and there is a whole programme of building up the dykes going on everywhere. 

  
It was hot and not wanting to walk on a building site we headed deeper into the park for a swim in one of the multitude of waterways to cool off. 

  
There were some lovely riverside park ups so we knew it wasn’t going to be a problem finding somewhere to stay with a view. We continued on to explore another area of the wetland where they were building an earth covered museum and had some land art. 

   
   

We discovered an area of willow growing and coppicing where they have been making structures of all kinds

   
 

With the temperature and humidity rising we found a nice park up where we could watch the barges plying their trade up and down the river and went to bed with lightening flashes and rumbling thunder.