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Mechanical Mutt

Mechanical Mutt

What’s the brief?

What can you make, that doesn’t have a fixed base, but can still do tricks? Man’s best friend of course! For simplicity’s sake, the design has to be reduced to just those things that make a dog a dog. If you like them, their essence is a shiny nose, appealing eyes, a wagging tail and a smile. If you don’t, it all comes down to the teeth. With four legs, one can be used to wag the tail and another to work the smile. The nicer the smile, the less there will be to worry about with the teeth.

What do you need?

My dentist says that you must always brush your teeth for a nice smile, so a brush is vital.

Brush
Sand the varnish off of the brush and cut it into two equal halves and an appealing smile is guaranteed and no one will be worried about the teeth!

An instant nice smile

Eyeballs without brass screw heads

Bright eyes complement the perfect smile, and by gluing cut-off brass screw heads into two 10 mm beechwood balls, the painted eyes always look appealingly up at you, however you tilt the body. Intelligent eyes must never be too close together, so there is a small piece of brass tube between the eyes sliding on the brass rod glued between the ears. As the smile is so nice, no one notices the brass rod.

Bright eyes

Nose

A 20 mm long beechwood egg just needs one quarter to be cut away so that it fits nicely in place and high gloss black paint gives it that healthy shine.

6 mm thick plywood serves very nicely for the dogsbody and its legs, cut with a scroll saw. The back legs are a little smaller than the front legs, which are hinged so that you can press them to work the dog’s tail and jaw.

A leg and its hinge, which is glued into the cutout marked on the leg

The tricky bit

Each side has two rectangular cutouts. The top cutout is to hinge the leg, pivoted on a brass rod inserted from the front. The bottom cutout takes a crank, hinged on a brass rod inserted from the bottom. When you squeeze the dog’s leg against its body, the crank is pushed in, and its action then pushes the top jaw open via a sprung lever. Tricky huh? Here’s a picture and there’s a video underneath, showing it in action, which hopefully makes it easier to understand.

Mechanism to open the jaw

Pressing the crank from outside moves the lever, which then moves the jaw via the brass rod

Interesting things about brushes

One tuft held by a small piece of wire

Each tuft in a brush is just pushed in with exactly the right number of bristles to fit snugly. To remove a tuft just grab it with a pair of pliers and pull, just like a dentist! This is how I made space in the dog’s upper jaw for the slot needed to take the loop on the end of the brass rod.

The link to wag the tail

The return springs fitted

The end of my tale

I had to experiment a little to get the tail to wag nicely and to look OK when it’s not wagging, so its hinge is not exactly central. As you can see from the pictures not much is particularly square, but hey it’s a dog right, and here he is in his finished glory – Mechanical Mutt.

Mechanical Mutt – The video

Kim Booth – Bearded, bespectacled British bloke, born in the best bit of Birmingham, he blithely beavered to become a Bachelor in electronics, before boxing his bespoke belongings and boarding his bike to brave the borders, breaking out for beautiful Berlin. Belatedly, being both bilingual but bereft of business, he breezily became a broadband bandit, translating buckets of balderdash into Brummie British and by the by, builds bulldogs with bite.

Twelve Tweeters

Twelve Tweeters – A clock

A clock with roots that occasionally hoots.
The time it can tell without even a bell.
Ask it nicely and it will tell you precisely,
But if no one’s around it won’t make a sound.
A dozen on their perch won’t leave you in the lurch,
The assembled dawn chorus will sing something for us.
To make time a pleasure – a real treasure – not just something to measure.

Why did I make this?

My aim was to make a clock that doesn’t look like a clock, and has no rotating hands to point to the hours and minutes. Cuckoo clocks came to mind and I really liked “bird’s tree” by the amazing Carlos Zapata, so birds seemed like a good start. Then I heard the BBC’s fantastic Tweet of the Day so I just had to make it.

Moving from the initial concept to the final design

Original design for Twelve Tweeters

Things that are interactive are more interesting, so if no one is paying attention to the clock it shouldn’t do anything. Only when you really want to know what the time is should it do anything. Things that constantly move eventually just become part of the background and you don’t notice them any more. Not to mention the wear and tear on the mechanism.

Remembering Swiss cuckoo clocks, I thought it would be fun if the birds sang to tell us the time. Of course I had to break the Swiss cuckoo’s monopoly and open up the tree to all sorts of birds, so I chose a different bird for each of the twelve hours of the day. To tell whether it’s two in the morning or two in the afternoon, you just have to turn around and look out of the window.

Simple lever on the servo pushes/pulls the brass rod in this prototype.

For the minutes, the birds had to do more than just sing and more than one servo motor per bird was too complicated so, after experimenting with a prototype, the idea of a two-stage movement popped up. Push a brass rod half way and the bird’s beak opens. Push the rod all of the way and its head lifts up away from its body, apparently stretching its neck.

So now, when you push the button to ask the time, the birds first stretch their necks to show the number of hours from 1 to 12. For example, if it’s 3 o’clock, 3 birds will stretch up. The second part then follows, where each bird is responsible for 5 minutes, so for example, if five birds open their beaks and the fifth bird sings that means twenty-five past the hour.

For the ornithologists, each bird has its own voice 1 – blackbird, 2 – bee-eater, 3- chaffinch, 4 – goldfinch, 5 – skylark, 6 – duck, 7 – greenfinch, 8 – great tit, 9 – mistle thrush, 10 – ortolan, 11- marsh warbler, 12 – nightingale.

For more drama, a light shines on the birds perched on their tree as soon as you push the button. This stays on for half a minute or so after a bird has sung the time and a “dawn chorus”, recorded by someone early in the morning in an English forest, then plays quietly in the background for a while.

In the end I also succumbed to tradition and allowed the cuckoo to briefly show off on every full hour. When we have visitors, this inevitably tickles their curiosity and is an invitation to push the button and see what happens.

A short video showing Twelve Tweeters in action

Materials for the birds

Anatomy of a tweeter

A beech egg, from which a bird will hatch

Everyone knows that birds hatch from eggs, so for each bird, I used one 45 x 30 mm egg for its body, one 30 mm ball for its head, two 15 mm ball halves for its eyes, 13 x 10 mm wooden strip to cut its beak, 8 mm brass tube for an extensible neck, a small free-moving hinge, 2 mm plywood for the comb, 2 mm brass rod for the bird’s legs and feet and 1.2 mm brass rod to connect to the servo arm.

Precisely drilling beech eggs and balls is tricky and although I made some jigs to hold them in a fixed position and drilled pilot holes, each of the 12 birds is slightly different, just like in nature. It wasn’t practical to screw or nail the hinges so I used fast-setting, two-component epoxy resin adhesive instead, taking care not to gum up the mechanism so that the beak still moves easily. The 1.2 mm brass rod is used to push the beak open until it reaches 45°(ish) and is restrained by the comb when the whole head will move up, exposing the brass neck which is fixed to the bird’s head but not to its body.

Making the birds move

12 servo motors with wooden arms to push a brass rod up and bring the birds to life

Previous generations would have used clockwork I suppose, but the flexibility of being able to programme the movements and sounds electronically is ideal when you are feeling your way with no exact plan. That’s why the base hides 12 cheap and cheerful servo motors which turn through an angle set by an Arduino Uno computer. I collected the bird tweets wherever I could find them on the Internet and they are kept in a micro SD card, which is read by a Music Maker shield and this is what drives the loudspeaker. A real-time clock board then tells the Arduino what time it is. When I got fed up of having to reprogram the Arduino from my laptop for summer time and then for winter time, I added a new button on the back which sets the time to 12 o’clock when pressed.

Ready to paint

It’s hard to say how much time you spend on a project like this. It takes a while to settle on an idea and then try a quick prototype to see if it does what you intended. I suppose once you start to make 12 of everything, that’s when the “work” starts. Maybe I then needed a week to make the parts and assemble everything.

The brass rods moved by the servo motors to bring the birds to life

Twelve headless birds waiting for feathers

Something like this is never quite finished. Once I had painted it and put it all together I found that having a button on the side meant that the whole thing slides around when you push it. After I while, I moved the button to the top and that problem was fixed. Then I put it onto a shelf at the dark end of the room and each performance required the lights in the room to be turned up. I made a quick trip to get some LED strips, added a new socket to the back and a small power circuit and now everything is brightly lit as required.

Now I am content and every time I hear a cuckoo in the distance, I think, is it that time already?

Nantes 2019

Just the map

See everything on one long page here, or choose a day.

Nantes (edit)

To order a taxi, call +33253457796

French Summer Holidays 7 Jul to 1 Sep 2019

Nantes tourist info. – see & do https://www.nantes-tourisme.com/en/see-do

Online Nantes tourist guide in English https://fr.calameo.com/read/000106866637adca9d026

Lonely Plant online https://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/southwestern-france/nantes

Guardian online https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/apr/27/nantes-france-city-breaks-with-kids.

Le Voyage à Nantes – Follow the Green Line

The 2019 edition of Le Voyage à Nantes will take place from 6 July to 1 September!

Meandering around Nantes, you will notice a painted pea-green line snaking along the pavement, zipping up unexpected staircases, sneaking along backstreet alleys and prancing with purpose across cafe pavement terraces. This, ingeniously, is Le Voyage à Nantes(www.levoyageanantes.fr), an urban art trail that leads curious visitors to dozens of works of art – sculptures, contemporary art installations, stunning viewpoints, architectural works – all over the city. Many – such as sky-rise bar Le Nid or the slide built into the 15th-century ramparts of Château des Ducs de Bretagne – are amusingly playful and interactive. The trail is 12km long, but can be traced in sections too. Pick up a city map, marked with the trail, at the tourist office or simply follow the green line and see where it takes you.

Flights

Transavia flights on Thursdays & Sundays only. Web site

4 Jul SXF 15:35 -> Nantes 17:50
21 Jul Nantes 12:45 -> SXF 14:55

Flat in Nantes

https://www.tripadvisor.de/VacationRentalReview-g187198-d8307307-L_Erdream-Nantes_Loire_Atlantique_Pays_de_la_Loire.html

Do, 4. Jul 2019 – So, 21. Jul 2019, 17 Nächte/2 Gäste
Anzahlung € 666,23 €. Fällig zum: 19.06.19 € 1.155,13

Les Machines de l’île de Nantes

Galileo Fernsehbericht

https://www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/en/

Les Machines de l’île is a totally unprecedented project. A product of François Delaroziere and Pierre Orefice’s collective imagination, it is the only place where you’ll find Jules Verne’s “Invented Worlds,” the mechanical universe of Leonardo da Vinci, and Nantes’ industrial history, all on the exceptional site of the city’s former shipyards.

Some strange machines came to populate the Île de Nantes. After the Grand éléphant, this is now the turn of a Manta Ray, a Sea Snake and of all kinds of incredible boats to take possession of the banks of the Loire River in the Carrousel des Mondes Marins. These uncommon machines were born from the hands of the constructors of the company La Machine and came to life in between those of Les Machines de l’île before the public’s eyes. Their backwards and forwards between the building workshop and the Galerie des Machines give impetus to the movement at the heart of the former Dubigeon warehouses. They convey a mysterious reality to this island just like the time when vessels were launched there for all the trips of the world.

http://www.lamachine.fr/boutique/

La Loire à Vélo from Nantes to Le Pellerin

17.8 km
https://en.eurovelo6-france.com/etapes/la-loire-a-velo-nantes-le-pellerin
Contemporary art features large along the Loire’s long estuary and this stage shared by the Loire à Vélo and Velodyssey cyles routes. The installations are startling, set in unusual locations. They offer joyous surprises close to the city of Nantes.

DÉTOURS DE LOIRE

9h30-13h & 15h30-19h Monday to Saturday / 9h30-12h30 & 18h-19h Sunday and bank holidays

Classic bike for a half day : adults 10€ / Children 9€

https://detoursdeloire.com/en

Quai de Malakoff

02 55 10 11 74

BICLOO

THE SELF-SERVICE BIKE

123 stations and 1230 bikes are available in a wider area around the city center

For your short trips: Bicloo, self-service bike (the first half hour free). After subscription (on site or terminals) valid for 1 day,3days, or one year, you take your Bicloo and check it back in the stations available in the city center.

Open 7j / 7 and 24 hours a day, bicloo is a real complementary(additional) means of transportation in the bus, in the Navibus, in the stations and in the tram.

PRICE

Subscription from 1 to 3 days: 2 – 5 euros

The first half an hour : free
Then add : 0,50€ additional half an hour / 1€ : The extra half an hour / 2€ : additional half an hour
Further information at Maison Bicloo (6 rue Léon Maître) and Bicloo mobile application

CONTACT

http://www.bicloo.nantesmetropole.fr/

01 30 79 33 44

Seaside Day Trips

The city of Nantes is only 50km from the Atlantic Ocean, making a coastal day trip a must.

Pack your bucket and spade for the classic seaside town of Le Croisic (population 4036), a pretty, half-timbered fishing harbour where shrimps, lobsters, crabs, scallops and sea bass are sailed into shore and unloaded. Talking of fish, the town’s aquarium is well worth visiting. Trains head to Le Croisic (€16.80, 1½ hours) from Nantes.
Along the way, it’s worth stopping at St-Nazaire (population 68,513; €12.30, 45 minutes), where cruise ships – including the Queen Mary II – are built.
Also along this stretch of coast is the glamorous belle époque resort of La Baule (population 15,456; €15, one hour), boasting an enormous beach. Gare de Nantes TGV8917 “Le Croisic” 47 Min. to Gare de Pornichet.

Les 23 petits voyages

Online booklet in French https://fr.calameo.com/read/0001068665425523fa703

e.g. Lac de Grand-Lieu is a lake located 15 km to the south-west of Nantes

http://www.grandlieu-tourisme.fr/en

CHÂTEAUX

Cycle along the Loire? to CHÂTEAU MÉDIÉVAL D’OUDON

https://www.pays-ancenis-tourisme.com/accueil/

http://www.chateau-serrant.net

http://www.chateau-angers.fr/en/

Saumur by train, change in Anger

Clisson

Clisson is really easy to get to (30 minutes by train) and is a lovely little town. https://www.tripadvisor.de/Attractions-g1842343-Activities-Clisson_Loire_Atlantique_Pays_de_la_Loire.html

Directly from Nantes, you also have diferent cruises on the Loire or the Erdre River : en.nantes-tourisme.com/cruises-3813.html

Nantes is a very good railway hub and there are trains going to interesting and attractive towns in almost every point of the compass. Eastwards up the Loire alley you could visit either Angers or Saumur. That chateau at Saumur is one of the most picturesque and was, indirectly the model for Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Southeast of Nantes you could visit Clisson or continue southwards to La Rochelle. There is a regular service southwestwards to the pretty little port of Pornic. Another line heads westwards along the northern side of the Loire estuary goes to Le Croissic, another picturesque fishing port, and passes through the traditional seaside resort of La Baule. Going northwest you can get to Vannes, an attractie town from where you an take a boat trip on the Gulf of Morbihan. To get there you may hae to change at Redon which is worth spending an hour or two, particularly if you have any interest in canals. To the north there is Rennes, a city often seen as no more than a stage on the way to Mont St Michel but it is a city with a rich history. Finally, to complete the circle, you can get to Chateaybriand on the new tram train service. You may find you need a couple more weeks!

Sunday- Final assembly & painting

09:30 – 17:30 Final assembly.
Dinner at Leah and Mirek’s

A new base in the right size, with holes in the right place.

New levers in nice wood.

Take the hat out of its mould and iron the rim flat.

Take the glued together blocked up body which dried overnight and trim it roughly to shape.

Try the head and body together.

Add the jaw.

Paint the assembled base.

Glue the head to the body and screw it into the base and start fitting the mechanisms as used in the maquette. Zdar is a real star!

Elena’s mousemousemouse freshly painted.

Flavia painting.

Earthquake mechanism.

Whale in sight.

Show and tell.

Noa’s work https://www.noa-heyne.com/animation
Elena’s work https://www.instagram.com/alena.chitzi/
Kim’s work http://www.bbno.info/wordpress/?cat=29
Flavia’s Facebook page
Dylan’s Facebook page
Mirek’s work http://www.kidpraha.cz/sculptures/sculpturesindex.html
Article in the NY Times
Leah on Radio Praha in English https://www.radio.cz/en/section/arts/leah-gaffen-discusses-puppets-in-prague-celebrating-15-years
http://www.teatrotoc.eu
Mirek on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miroslav_Trejtnar

Monday

Package up the work.

Set off for home.

Saturday – Turning the marquette into the real thing

09:30 – 18:00 Project realization, cutting wood, carving, painting. Final assembly.

Cutting the left arm on the bandsaw from the marquette.

As finished from the bandsaw.

Same for the right arm.

The head’s a bit more complicated…

After carving.

Zdar making a hat from two layers of felt soaked in glue.

Trying the ears for size.

Earthquake 1

Earthquake 2

Friday – Back to work

09:30 – 17:30 Project realization, cutting wood, carving

Back to work

After a day off to see the marvellous sights away from Prague, today we return to the workshop, eerily quiet at the start of the day.

Kim’s maquette is finished enough with its 7 movements to get ready for the real thing.

Dylan is already beavering away at the real thing.

Elena is making good progress too.

There’s always a magically replenished supply of nibbles to go with your tea.

Busy hands everywhere you look.

Only two days left!

Thursday – Nativity museum in Trebechovice & and Martin Lhotak visit

Day off, out of the workshop.
Trip to Nativity museum in Trebechovice (GoogleMaps link) and to visit Renate and Martin Lhotak.

Probošt’s Mechanical Christmas Crib

Kim’s 1 minute video

The “official” (longer) video

Třebechovické muzeum betlémů
The Most Famous Nativity Scene in the World or the Ingenious Work of Master Josef Probošt of Třebechovice. Probošt’s mechanical Christmas nativity scene in Třebechovice pod Orebem has filled people with wonder for decades and will continue to do so long into the future. That is because TIME plays no role in the nativity scene …
Scénář: Andrea Žbodáková
Režie: Renata Pazderová

Lunch

Flavia & I ate a traditional Czech specialty, svíčková na smetaně in Restaurace na Roli.

Jilin Loggia

Town planning for children

Visit to Renata and Martin Lhotak

Renata was really welcoming and cooked a wonderful meal for us all!

Clothes peg bird

And Renata even gave us instructions on how to make one.

In a brochure made by one of Martin’s students.

Ballerina on horseback driven by the heat of cooking

Martin turning a pear spinner for each of his guests, pedal-powered!

The secrets in Martin’s magical workshop. In German this is called a “Hui Maschine“, and according to Wikipedia in English it’s called a Gee haw whammy diddle

Wednesday – Maquettes

09:30 – 17:30 Project realization, cutting wood, carving.
Demo: Robots.

Zdar building a base box to give Kim a quick start with his magician maquette.

The basic magician maquette, with seven levers and a simple outline of the figure.

Cut out parts in card, if they are OK, cut them in plywood.

Two mechanisms already proven on the maquette, he can politely raise his hat and wave his magic wand..

With a little help from your friends.

Noa’s maquette.

Flavia’s maquette.

Eeek, a mouse in the workshop!

Some electromechanical movement to end the day with something different.

Tuesday – Metalwork & technical drawing

09:30 – 17:30 Lecture: soldering, making screw thread
Finishing of Production of 2 basic mechanisms
Technical drawing of final project

Lecture: soldering, making screw thread

All ready for metalworking basics!

Brazing with Milan

(Soft) soldering

Time to try it yourself.

Three taps to cut one thread. One ring first, two rings second, no rings last.

First drill a hole in a metal plate.

Then tap a thread in the hole.

Now cut a thread on a metal rod.

Finishing of Production of 2 basic mechanisms

Cut out three cam templates.

Kim’s three cams in action.

What’s going on here?

The experts at work.

Technical drawing of final project

If everything’s moving, then start on a “technical” drawing of your project.

Visit to the theatre

19:30 Performance, Finale, Jatka78 theatre (GoogleMaps link) on the site of an old, abandoned abattoir.

Monday – Starting the course

10:00 Meet in workshop (GoogleMaps link)

Web site showing Mirek’s work.

Meet in the workshop
Introduction, payment.
Introduction to the mechanical movement of automata.
Materials and tools and basics of operations with tools and machines (cutting, drilling, lathe, glue, joints)
Production of 2 basic mechanisms

Here are the raw materials, so we must be in the right place.

One tidy workbench per student ready to get started.

Examples, for inspiration and to understand the basic mechanisms.

Mirek with some of his small friends hanging around behind him and some online inspiration.

Types of material and their quality.

Mechanisms, theory and practice.

The lathe ready to turn some wooden wheels.

How to use a bandsaw properly.

Chisels, sizes, shapes and their care.

The naming system for Pfeil chisels (see their web site)

Using a chisel.

Mirek has made plenty of base kits so that we can try out the mechanisms ourselves.

One of Mirek’s demonstration pieces.

Sunday – Prague and Palác Akropolis

One day for sightseeing before the course starts so today I went to the DOX museum of contemporary art, then walked via the metronome monument to Marionette Truhlář.

DOX museum for contemporary art

Tick tock

An enormous Stalin statue replaced by a metronome – work that one out! The popular name for this was apparently the queue for the butcher – referring to the shortages in shops under communism. Finished in 1955 it was eventually embarrassing enough to be dynamited in 1962.

Now the sprayers have taken over the remnants.

Nice view over Prague and its bridges over the Moldau.

Marionety Truhlář

www.marionety.com. Right next to Charles Bridge. (GoogleMaps link)

The puppet to the right was made by Sota Sakuma and was used in a film. The two puppets to the left are Don Quixote and his faithful horse, Rocinante.

These are nice, but €240 each, so I guess I will have to make one…

Puppets, puppets and more puppets.

The Palác Akropolis theatre

(GoogleMaps link)

Prokletí rodu Gordonů – premiéra (The Curse of the Gordons)

The plot
After years away from home, the hero returns to the family estate to solve the series of strange deaths that happened at the castle. He is gradually confronted with all his inhabitants and the distrustful commissioner in charge of the investigation. The story has a fixed beginning and end, but the course of the performance changes, depending on which variant the viewers are in.

Palác Akropolis

Fekete Seretlek ► Kar

This second show, Anna Kerenina, was very good. Even got a free glass of vodka during the performance!

29 Sept. Home

28 Sept. Appt. Seespitz – Hintersteiner See

Early start today.

What is he looking at?

In the blue depths of Hintersteiner See.

Look! A cloud.

27 Sept. Appt. Seespitz – Brandstadl

Blue sky today, all day.

Elevenses at 1630 m.

Look at that blue.

There are plenty of places to sit and have a rest, even if Austrians seem to be a bit taller than average.

Did I really order all that? (Tanzbodenalm)

26 Sept. Appt. Seespitz – Achleiten & Söll

Every morning is different.

Local walk today around Achleiten.

Magic forest.

Bit of culture in Söll this evening.

Nice meal in Auf Da Mühle with a glorious sunset.

25 Sept. Appt. Seespitz – On giant’s tracks

Nice start to the day.

We accidentally got on the wrong lift today and went right up to the peak of the mountain Hochsöll. It was pretty cold, so we had to wrap up warm for the walk down.

Someone put a nice little church right on the top.

Someone else scattered reservoirs over the mountain.

At the end of the walk the serious business of eating some delicious apricot crumble cake begins.

You know that feeling that the way back is much faster than the way out. This time it was really true.

24 Sept. Appt. Seespitz shopping & reading

I found this beautiful basket of bread in front of our door this morning and we watched the farmers harvest the plums yesterday. That’s the way to have breakfast!

It rained today, so apart from shopping we had a lazy, luxurious, literary day.

23 Sept. Appt. Seespitz – Walleralm

Atmospheric start to the day from our balcony.

Just like England.

If you go down to the woods today…

Lost in the mist?

No way! On top of the cloud we can see the sun.

A short while later.

Time for a glass of Almdudler.

22 Sept drive to Appt. Seespitz via St. Peter

Today we left Bozen for Hintersteiner See, stopping off in St. Peter to find somewhere to stay for next year.

This is the splendid view from our balcony. Quite a step up from the camp site.

Appartement Seespitz
Interaktive Karte
Wilder Kaiser Touristen Info
Panoramic path
Kaiserjet Bus

21 Sept Camping Steiner – Jenesien to Locher

Today the GPS route tried to send us up a nearly vertical rabbit hole so we turned it off and took another free cablecar ride up to Jenesien.

In the forest on route 32A we bumped into this war memorial.

No, not that one, but the “French” battle of 1797 and remembering the death of 7 soldiers and their captain in 1809.

This is Gerhild’s latest great idea – a shadow selfie! We take them around with us most of the time this week, so it’s only right that they get into the picture too.

Well she says it’s this way but SHE says its the other way.

Gerhild said she needed a sit-down!

Now that’s what I call a sit-down.

Schoolchildren in green T-shirts with rucksacks filled up the lift on the way down. A school trip, walking through the mountains with one pupil presenting a “mountain” book on its literary merits each evening. I can’t remember doing that in my schooldays… might have been quite a lark.

20 Sept Camping Steiner – Kohlern

Today we went on the “oldest aerial cablecar in the world” Kohlerer Seilbahn. Yes this replica is as they originally travelled in. These days you are unfortunately kept safe by milky panes of perspex.

This beautiful old wooden house in Kohlern is probably from the same period.

The mushrooms around here just grow and grow, AND, you are not allowed to pick them, even if your rucksack was big enough!

Look at this gorgeous Parasol! It was bigger than my head, and that is saying something!

We walked to Schneiderwiesen today. Wiese means meadow and a fantastic meadow it was too. After a nice lunch it was just right for a snooze…

…or to read a good book.

Or to just enjoy.

We chose a slippery (stoney) way down, but look at these!

19 Sept Camping Steiner – Der Labyrinthsteig

Today we drove for about an hour up into the mountains to the Karer pass at about 1900 m. These mountains have been in sight on all of our walks so far.

Our walk is to the “labyrinth”.

It must be up there somewhere.

Have to take a rest occasionally and this tree had nice seat-shaped roots.

OK, so labyrinth means is hard to get around.

Especially for some people, although this was actually an easy bit.

The rabbits are really tough around here.

Every now and then you have to take a break to enjoy the view…

…while taking care not to break your neck.

18 Sept Camping Steiner – Bozen

Today we had a good look around the camp site before we went to Bozen. They even have cylindrical “barrels” for the hermits amongst us who want to live Diogenes style. By contrast, the camper vans are squeezed together like sardines.

In Bozen we had elevenses in a small café. How they knew I was coming we will never know and what does that button do on Gerhild’s teapot?

This was my favourite in the graffiti contest.

Bozen’s old town is car-free so cycling is very popular.

This is the bendy bike bridge from the modern art museum.

As we are living in a tiny house, we went to look for Bozen’s tiny museum. On the way we found this old age pensioner of a tree, rescued from the compost heap by its neighbourhood friends. There is a carved hand at the bottom, holding tightly on to the chain.

The culinary speciality of the day was when we stopped for a break and Gerhild spoke English while I spoke German to an Asian-looking Italian-speaking waitress with the result that I got a hot cup of coffee with 2 balls of lemon ice cream floating in it. Gerhild insisted that it tasted delicious after I had swapped it for her expresso. Laughter makes things taste better!

17 Sept Camping Steiner – Ritten

Today we are doing a walk dedicated to Sigmund Freud.

First we had to take the lift up to Oberbozen. Amazing view, amazing price which is zero, due to the Bozen Card that you get when you book accommodation, which lets you do most touristy things for free and encourages you not to drive absolutely everywhere.

At regular intervals we found these skewy benches with an illustration from Freud’s life & work.

Inspired, Gerhild then had a go at Plato’s allegory of the cave. Are those two shadows on the floor really us, or is there more to see if we turn around?

Can’t complain about the view.

Rather nice porcini mushroom risotto at Babsi’s even if the waiter forgot to order half of the food. Then we took the ride back down to Bozen.

16 Sept Camping Steiner – Jenesien

This is the group of new cabins, each one unique. Ours is the one in the middle.

All of that light-coloured wood and those nice cubby holes in the kitchen.

Today we took the lift up to Jenesian and walked through the forest along route 32A. The small boy that you can see asked “papa, how old is this lift?”.

In the evening we walked through Leifers to Gelateria Monny for a delicious ice cream in “disposable” purple plastic pots, which Gerhild then collected following the motto “waste not want not” – especially when it’s purple.

15 Sept Camping Steiner

Long drive up to over 2509 m on the Timmelsjoch Hochalpenstraße, with a 2 hour wait in Austria for two different accidents to be cleared.

“Der Steg”

Well it is the world’s highest motorcycle museum.

“Der Schmuggler”

Camping Steiner

ArchiCabins – New after 60 camping-years

60 Jahre Camping-Park Steiner: Innovation trifft Tradition
Neues ArchiCabin-Ensemble

Wir eröffnen die Saison 2018 mit einer Überraschung: Anlässlich des 60. Jubiläums freuen wir uns Ihnen das neue Cabin-Ensemble zu präsentieren!
Aus bautechnischen Gründen müssen wir uns schweren Herzens von unseren Bungalows verabschieden. Die beliebten Holzhäuschen haben jahrzehntelang ihren Dienst erwiesen und unseren Gästen viele schöne und unvergessliche Momente beschert. Im Wissen um die Eigenart unseres Hauses haben wir im Architekturbüro und Künstlerkollektiv columbosnext aus Innsbruck den idealen Partner gefunden um unsere Ideen zu verwirklichen.

Der erste Teil dieses größeren Sanierungsprojektes umfasst den Bau eines neuen Cabin-Ensembles das unter den alten Lindenbäumen der landschaftlichen Eigenart des Camping-Park Steiner angepasst ist. Die Anzahl der Häuschen ist auf sieben reduziert worden um dadurch mehr (Lebens)Raum und (Lebens)Qualität zu schaffen. Egal ob nach einer Bergtour in den Dolomiten, einem Schwimmnachmittag am Kalterer See, einer Radtour ins Südtiroler Unterland oder einem Einkaufsbummel in Bozen. Die Cabins bieten außer Ihrem architektonisch-kreativem Charakter auch das 1-Raum-Gefühl, welches durch die verschiedenen Ebenen doch eine gewisse Privatsphäre erlaubt.

Die komplette Holz-Einrichtung soll im „Urlaubs-Häuschen“ ein wohliges Ambiente schaffen und aus dem Standard ausbrechen ohne auf Nachhaltigkeit zu verzichten. Eines der ArchiCabins verfügt auch über Bad/WC. Grundsätzlich wollten wir aber im Sinne der Einfachheit – Camping eben! – auch durch das Weglassen desselben an das Campingflair der letzten 60 Jahre anknüpfen, um nicht wie eine Ferienanlage zu wirken, welche es bereits zu Hauf gibt. Diese Einfachheit war auch in den letzten Jahrzehnten unser Begleiter und gehört zu unserer Philosophie.

Top: Wir freuen uns mit unseren Gästen seit Juli 2017 über die neue Bozen-Card die kostenlose Mobilität in ganz Südtirol (inkl. Zug bis Innsbruck und Trient) beinhaltet. Auch die Museen (Ötzi Museum, Reinholds Messner Mountain Museum,….) und einige Seilbahnen sind kostenfrei für alle CampingPark Steiner Gäste.

14 Sept Hofgut Hopfenburg – Buttenhausen

An atmospheric start to the day

Zopf for breakfast with quark and Claudia’s home-made apple jelly. Delicious!

The camp site’s reading room. Just in case you forgot your own book.

Today we had a look around Buttenhausen, home of the famous Gustav Messmer who wanted to cycle up into the sky.

Pessimistically, they called him the Icarus of Lautertal, so that’s what the cafe is called, with Superman crashing down into the garden.

There is even a short film here https://gustavmesmer.de/ which starts as soon as the page opens.

After some urgent refreshment with a Feuerwehrkuchen (recipe)

…we visted the Jewish cemetery overlooking the village.

13 Sept Walk Hofgut Hopfenburg to Seeburg

Today we walked from the camp site to Café Schlössle and back. About 18 km. We tried to take a bus, but the bus driver sold us a ticket, drove off and then turned around to say that he doesn’t go to Trailfingen, having just sold us 2 tickets to go there. Bizarre!

The goats were keen to follow us

The Trailfinger Schlucht

Music to the farmer’s ears

Café Schlössle – so what do they keep in the pond?

Hippopotamuses!

Without the manual, how do you sit on these?

For Swabian children who haven’t yet got the knack of walking.

12 Sept Hofgut Hopfenburg

Ferienanlage Hofgut Hopfenburg

The advertising

The cosy reality

Well, we are sleeping in a “Schäferwagen” – a shepherds waggon, so in case you can’t sleep…

What to drink if there’s no running water?

Time for a Schnäpsle

The shleep machine

As a 10 year old boy in in the sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, we sang Brahm’s lullaby (Wiegenelied) every night before the lights were turned out and we were supposed to sleep. Counting sheep is supposed to help you sleep too.

Sing along if you like.

Guten Abend, gut’ Nacht,
mit Rosen bedacht,
mit Näglein besteckt,
schlupf unter die Deck’:
Morgen früh, wenn Gott will,
wirst du wieder geweckt.

There’s even an English version, which is new to me

Lullaby and goodnight,
With roses bedight,
With lilies o’er spread
Is baby’s wee bed.
Lay thee down now and rest,
May thy slumber be blessed.

Even Bing Crosby had a go (link to Youtube)

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