Germany 2022

A long-planned road trip through Germany was next on the list, based on catching-up with one of Helen's long-time friends. 

The first stop was in Eifel National Park, a new park, one that is literally growing.   There's a former Nazi Officer training camp there, the Ordensburg Vogelsang.  It's a huge site:

With dramatic views:

The scale of the preparations the Nazis took before going to war was staggering.  Now the site is used to educate younger generations on the perils of dictatorships, fascism, etc. as well as being open for tourists to explore.

It was while we were here that the friends we were due to visit contacted us to tell us they had Covid.  That blew a large hole in our plans as you can imagine.   We hastily came up with a new plan, visiting them outside then heading on down to the medieval town of Heppenheim, where we thankfully found a room available.   Luckily it was the start of their wine festival. 

It's a very pretty old town square:

That night the thunder rolled-in and the celebrations were cut short as everyone got properly sokaed through.

The next morning we headed a little way south to Heidelberg, a beautiful town on the Neckar river, and the former seat of the local ruling family:

We walked up to the castle and beyond it looking back to the city:

The next day was a long drive across to Czechia and a small town call Kvilda.   The difference in wealth was immediately apparent after crossing the border, with lots of lower tax shops for the visiting Germans.  What we hadn't anticipated was everything was either in German or Czech, no English language signs or translations to be had anywhere, which got tricky at times. Also particularly stark was the lack of variety in the local supermarket, while just 5 miles away the shelves had an abundance, although being a Sunday the supermarkets in Germany were all shut..

Kvilda is situated in a National Park that is alongside one over the border in Germany too, a big patch of land for wildlife and nature. 

We enjoyed a long walk out into the forest hearing rather than seeing a lot of birds but enjoying the benefits of being in a non-industrailised country landscape, the grasses and flowers were covered in insects including a good number of butterflies:

A Hummingbird Hawk-moth:

more butterflies, hoverflies, flies, bees, etc., it felt so alive!

From Kvilda we headed North through rural Czechia and back into Germany to a place called Bad Schandau, in another joined-up National Park, the German side called 'Saxon Switzerland'.   A few hiccups due to the lack of anything in English but we finally got access to our room and settled in to enjoy the sunset:

We got a boat up the Elbe into Czechia and then walked up to a major landmark only to find it was basically behind a pay gate that meant any long walks required a fee to pass through the grounds of the business built there 130 years ago.   Czechia did feel that way a lot, every little thing has a price.

We then walked back from the Czech town to our room along the Elbe:

From Bad Schandau it was on to our last destination in Bad Harzburg.   The highlight was undoubtedly the Konigstein, a huge fortress built on a massive sandstone landscape feature.   This is nearly atop said feature and you can see the layers of defences laid out as you approach the main area:

We'd booked to stay in a 'sunshine apartment' which turned out to be a small apartment in a 1970's hotel complex that was a genuine relic of the times.  Towards dusk each evening a Nightingale perched in a spot that ensured his song echoes throughout the area, clever bird.

The forest in the Harz National Park is a disaster.   80% or so of the trees are dead or dying.   We've never seen anything like it.   It's like it has incurable cancer although the truth is an (accidentally) introduced bettle is getting beyond the trees' (climate change) weakened defences and introducing a fatal fungus.   They literally cannot cut the trees down fast enough:

Visiting this place is scary as you can see first hand the impact of climate change and what the future may hold.

It was a relief to head on to visit family in Kent before heading home, bringing with us Helen's fourth dose of Covid!   So much for a holiday visiting friends in Germany!