Bye Bye Germany

Our last week in Germany was pretty full. We managed to score some great weather in the Black Forest resulting in a hike up and down a big mountain (we always seem to manage hikes down mountains, we wanted to see if we could do the up part), and a great bike ride. We had based ourselves in Frieburg after our night of luxury in a hotel in a Schiltach, it was great to chat to Ryan for his birthday - free wifi rocks!

We didn't spend much time in Freiburg itself- we had reached our fill of towns for a while- and dedicated ourselves to more outdoor pursuits. The bike ride was particularly nice looping us along a valley floor and taking us through both forest and farmland reminiscent of Romania's Maramures area although with good roads and locals that don't hide from you.

Our next destination was Munich but we broke the drive at Lindau, a small town along the banks of Lake Constance which borders Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The lake was kind of spooky in that such a heavy mist hung over it- you could not pick where the water stopped and the air began- it also brought a kind of quietness over the campground near the shore. We could just pick out the silhouette of the alps through the mist.

We hit Munich- checking our Mad King Ludwigs castles on the way- armed with a Lonely Planet walking tour which makes the aimless wandering so much more interesting, if not for the facts involved but for the fun of trying to follow the authors directions! We stayed for three nights in Thalkirken campground where Adam stayed seven years previously during Oktoberfest. The difference was quite amazing, the campground was like a ghost town where Adam recalls avenues of Combi vans, mountains of broken glass and all sorts of bad behaviour. Some evidence remained of this years party, a couple of left behind vans covered in graffiti and dumped outside of the campsite.

We paid a visit to several Munich beer halls but the best fun was definitely to be had at the Hofbrauhaus, despite all the tourists the atmosphere was genuine and friendly. When we were told that 1/2 litre pints were no longer served after 7pm we were shocked but stoically continued. All of this led to our third day in Munich to being one of rest, besides which the weather had turned nasty.

And by nasty we mean snow! That's right we got snowed on in our little tent. How cool is that! Actually it wasn't too cool, we managed to rug up enough to enjoy the novelty of the snow. Only our numb hands were the casualties after packing up the tent on our final day in Germany.

Photos: Adam chatting to Ryan on Skype (you can just make out Ryan's face on the screen), The view from the mountains in the Black Forest- smoggy mist and all, Farmland in the Black Forest, Us by a lake near King Ludwig's castles, These beers make me feel like a little person