26. Jun, 2016

SUNDAY 26-06-16

We were up in good time as we were back on the road today. Showered, fed and sorted we said our goodbyes to Howard and Alayne and hit the road about 10:00. The drive out of Switzerland was quite straighforward and stress free as it was nearly all motorway.

The only incident of consequence on the journey was that we passed two cars full of Indians, not American Indians, but Indian Indians. Lord only know why they were parked on the hardshoulder, maybe somebody needed a pee, but there's no way both cars should have been there. And why was that such a big deal? Well a few miles further down the road, I kid you not, there was a motorcyclist doing something like 80-100mph on the hard shoulder on our side of the road, but travelling in the opposite direction, that is towards us on our right. We couldn't believe what we'd just seen, and then remembered the two car loads of Indians parked on the hard shoulder further down the road. We'll never know the outcome, but that motorcyclist needed to be very competent at an emergency stop on his motorbike whilst keeping it in a straight line because if he failed, it was either a ditch and embankment to his left or busy oncoming traffic in the nearside lane on his right, with a potential impact speed of something like 160mph. I don't know how it turned out, but I don't envy the person responsible for washing his underpants.

We arrived here at a place called Turkheim, just outside Colmar in France at about 13:30. The weather is lovely, in fact it started to improve as soon as we got to Bern in Switzerland. After setting up shop here at Camping Medieval (GPS: N48.085330 E7.272392) we headed in to the village for a look round. The buildings were a delight. The added bonus was the number of House Martin's nests on the side of houses. I don't think I've seen House Martin's since I was a lad.

Our walk  included the surrounding vineyards where they produce Alsace wine. There are also a number of storks around the village, many nesting up on the chimneys of local properties, and there is also a stork conservation area. We went to visit it but the birds don't do much, and only then after you've put your camera away.

Tonight we have enjoyed The Chef's offering of Spaghetti Bolognese, with garlic bread and a drop of liquid grapes.

Tomorrow we plan to catch a bus in to Colmar which is supposed to be pretty, and have a good look around. On our return I plan to coax a stork to our pitch for a photo shoot.

26. Jun, 2016

26. Jun, 2016

26. Jun, 2016