DAY THREE

The day started off with breakfast at the parking lot in Rothenburg. I have to say that making breakfast with the strange pots and pans that the van is equipped with is very challenging. We got up at 6am and were done with breakfast and on the road by 8.30am. It was -2 outside and I think at last the waste water tank on the van would defrost enough to be able to drain out on the drive to the Hohenzollern Castle. The drive was about 230 kms and the road was busy but easy driving. The castle was high on a hill and driving up to the castle shrouded in snow and clouds was quite amazing. The castle is huge and a fortification of note. The only drawback was that the shuttle to and from the parking lot at the bottom of the hill doesn’t run in the winter months and as a result we had an hours climb up to the castle. We are now both well and truly sun burnt – yes you can get burnt in the snow. We had good coffees and gluwein in the castle restaurant. The tour of the Castle was most informative and gave a lot of detail on the history of the German Monarchy as well as the changes in the government.

We left the castle and then went onto find a camp ground for the night. The one that was selected as a possibility – where we will be camped for the next 2 days – is in the Back Forest region in the South West of Germany – about 50kms from the French, Austrian and Swiss borders. We had to first pass through several road detours and arrived at the camp site after 2 hours to travel 60 kms in the mountains. The stress levels of the owner of the Leopard Lair were at this stage running somewhat thin – well as Glenn put it several times – breathe in, breathe out. The day needless to say was very stressful and I was glad to reach our campsite. The setting is beautiful and Glenn was so excited to at last have a nice hot shower in a space larger than a 50cm square box. The sad part however is that Glenn returned from the bathroom somewhat disheartened since the water was just about room temperature. At least the floors are heated in the bathroom at the caravan park. We then went to the park restaurant and had local beer, Schnitzel and chips for dinner.