On the Road Again!

Haggis.  Ornery Little Critter. You hardly see them in the wild, and it takes a specially licenced hunter to go and catch them. The two families that I buy from are the MacSweens and the Halls. Once caught, skinned and dissected it can be cooked in a microwave, although many afficioados leave them in their skin and boil or better, steam them. Although in their homeland of Scotland, they are often consumed in the form of a sausage either in batter or without, and deep fried. Yum. They can be served with traditional tatties and neeps, but in this instance it comes with boiled spuds and baked beans. The Hall's haggis is milder than Mac Sween and some others, far less peppery. This time it was washed down with Bing rather than Irn Bru or beer and there was no dram either.

We were up early to escape the ashtray that was and is the Etap Düren West. The idea was to stop at the first services on the motorway and have coffee and maybe a croissant. We happily sailed past the one at Aachen Ost as there was another signed at 14kms. Sadly we turned on to another autobahn and missed it. Finally 75 minutes later and after crossing the Netherlands we arrived in Belgium, and after a false stop at a weekday only services (one with no petrol) we arrived at one where we could sit outside in the sun with the wasps and eat!! As usual the monument to moronic driving and poor planning that is also known as Antwerp arrived in front of us. Solid traffic and lane swapping all make for tense driving. I was glad of another calming stop before we got stuck again in a huge tailback. No reason to be seen and no information available, but traffic as far as the horizon. My detour via the cobbles of Gent and the N9 might not have saved time but is was certainly more scenic although p...

The YHA at Creglingen was relatively cheap for an en-suite twin room. Breakfast was the usual German youth hostel fare; rolls, cheese, ham and salami plus cereal and coffee. The coffee was some of the best all trip and I gorged three cups. The plan was to spend all day to meander to the Etap at Düren. And we did. The first part was along a bit more of the Romantische Strasse and then across the 'green' routes on the Michelin map towards the Rhein. First stop was Rüdesheim am Rhein. We have been here before, but on a river boat trip not by road. We had lunch. Here I learned that rindwurst is beef. Once again we had sausage and for the first time (and last!) chips. A walk round the tourist heart wasn't complete without another Käthe Wohlfahrt visit. In Rothenburg our beer was served in lidless steins and it kept it cooler longer, so I was on the lookout for one. In the end it was the afore mentioned shop that had them, and more surprisingly they were cheaper than any I had se...

A largish breakfast to set us up for a day sightseeing in Bavaria. As previously mentioned this came about after the  Romantische Straße  was featured on "Worlds Greatest Motorcycle Trips". We escaped from Prague by a route I have never seen before but were soon on the D5 towards Plzen and the border. One stop for petrol as it is about the same price as home than more expensive Germany, and also to use up our coins to buy Kofola and lemon tea!! After Nürnburg we stopped for a sausage! This time we both had a 30cm bratwürst and fried potatoes rather than chips. I wanted to get off the motorway sooner rather than later for Dinkelsbühl and as luck would have it the A6 ground to a halt by a junction and we were off! By now we were back in TomTom's hands. Dinkelsbühl is very nice. Lot's of old buildings and hotels too expensive for our budget. No doubt Henry Wassisname gets rooms paid for him for his programme. We dawdled about and then set off for Rothenburg ob der Tauber...

After consuming so much wine the night before we had quite a late breakfast. Jarek and Tomas joined us to try and eat our way through a mountain of palačinky. Pancakes to us. We'd packed and loaded the suitcases the day before and I had the Garmin sorted well in advance. Firstly, after saying our goodbyes, a nostalgic trip to the Gymnázium in Zastávka and then across to where I used to live in Sportovní 481. The plan was then to visit the Santini designed  Pilgrimage  Church  of Saint John of Nepomuk near  Žďár nad Sázavou  and then to The Church of Bones ( Sedlec Ossuary) . We were told by "experts" that neither was worth a stop. Wrong. Pilgrimage  Church  of Saint John of Nepomuk You can blame Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor for the Sedlec visit. They went there on the "Long Way Round" trip and I harboured the interest to vist. Both sights are well worth the detour.  The Church of Bones near Kutna Hora is weird rather than frightening. Macabre...

In the first part of the day we went into Brno, ostensibly to do some sightseeing of places I hadn't been for years and that Claire hadn't ever been. We parked behind the International hotel and walked through to Svobody Nam to see the new clock. I thought it looked like a bullet but apparently is was supposed to commemorate the defeat of a Swedish Army and at 11am a ball drops and it sounds off. http://my.opera.com/Gaddag/blog/new-black-granite-clock-in-brno-post-100 . I was right huh!! After a few sights were struck off the list of things to see, we ate a slice of Czech pizza before visiting a large shopping centre. I needed new trainers and bought a good pair of Puma in the sale. Result. Once back at Lilka's we had a quick snack and then off to the wine tastings!! No spitting it out required although we could if necessary. We drove down to Mikulov and then into the countryside to a vineyard that Jarek already knew about and had already bought wine from. Reisten in Pavlo...

After a coffee by the entrance we set off for home, stopping in   Křtiny . Here we saw a magnificent church. We stopped to have a look and it is another pilgrimage church. The legend has it that the Virgin appeared to villagers in the 13th century and of course it became a site for Catholics to visit across time. The current church is by the architect Santini and was built in the mid 18th century.  Santini has also responsible for another seven or eight similar edifices in Czech and surrounding countries. Tomorrow on the way home we will call into another one at Zdar. In the evening there was a big shower but we still did the rounds of Lilka's relatives. Everyone is so friendly and greet you like friends. Lovely.