Today we went to Château de la Napoule, the home of Henry Clews Jr. and the famously beautiful Elsie Whelan Goelet Clews, a rich couple dedicated to the arts. He was a sculptor.
What is it and I wonder what Henry and Marie would have thought of it?
Leaping recycled dogs just Gerhild’s taste.
What a profile!
Gerhild was very happy to see this sign!
Today we ate breakfast to the surprising sound of 1940’s music echoing charmingly through the trees. Thinking it might be a funfair we walked over to find that, amazingly, it was a Victory Europe (VE) day celebration with loads of carefully looked after military vehicles – even including a period BMW motorbike. A memorial site had been set up around a landing craft in which colonel R. D. Parker landed with 190 men at 8 o’clock in the morning on 15 August 1944 on the beach which we can see from our camper. Today is apparently a national holiday in France, known as ‘Victoire 1945’ or ‘La Fête de la Victoire’.
Camping Domaine la Cigaliere €20 
super showers.
Standing above the village of Flassans-sur-Isole, in the heart of the hills of the Var, the Commanderie Peyrassol was founded in the 13th century by the Knights Templar. It was a popular staging post and a place of rest for large numbers of pilgrims setting off for the Holy Land. In 2001 Philippe Austruy, a French man who made a fortune from private clinics and retirement homes, purchased the property and gave it a new lease of life adding loads of contemporary art.
Breakfast !
Camping les Ruisses
DIY sculptures in the front garden.
Looking for lunch
Lac de Sainte-Croix
This delicious fish and potatoe dish is called “marmite”, no not marmite 
, but marmite, French [maʁmit] for a large, covered earthenware or metal cooking pot. British Marmite was originally supplied in earthenware pots, but since the 1920s has been sold in glass jars shaped like the French cooking pot. You learn something new every day!
Everyone is welcome in Provence, whatever the shape of your camper.
Camping Notre Dame Castellane €? Kim’s ACSI review
Lac de Sainte-Croix is filled up by
le Verdon
Take a paddle boat to inspect the gorge.
Gorgeous
Let’s pop up and see the church of Notre Dame, up on that rock
A few monks doing the same walk as we did, in their case to celebrate the end of a cholera epidemic.
First impressions of Aix – cheap and cheerful café for lunch
Back to the 18th century in Hotel de Caumont, un hôtel particulier.
18th century man holding up the roof
20th century Hitchcock holding up the local cinema
Chinese figure striking the hours
Today we had a private guided tour of old Aix (we were the only ones who turned up).
Pavillion de Vendome
Oh no, it’s them again!
The Granet museum likes goats …
Mirabeau showing the way
Cezanne’s bathing women, apparently painted from pictures as he found real naked women too distracting.
Work by Kosta Alex, new to us.
Tromp l’oeuil used to cut your window taxes, now it’s just for fun.
Busy day today, we had a guided tour through the quarry where Cezanne liked to paint, visited Fondation Vasarely and went to Pavilion Noir to see Akram Khan.
Bibémus quarry
This lovely, warm orange-brown iron oxide colour was what they liked for the buildings in Aix, so they quarried stone here until the mid 19th century. When it was closed Cezanne had himself taken up here on a horse-drawn cart to paint.
Cezanne
The original over 100 years later
Cezanne
Original
Fondation Vasarely
Each picture is the full height of the building – a group of hexagons like a honeycomb. Slightly different style to Cezanne.
Akram Khan – Chotto Desh
One of Cezanne’s favourite subjects was a mountain ridge including a peak called Mont Sainte Victoire. Apart from climbing up it, the best view is from the D17 now glorying in its new rebranded name of “Route de Cezanne”.
In the foothills there’s a good collection of vineyards.
Château La Coste, a really beautiful location with some nice art, again paid for by a rich hotelier who dropped in via helicopter during our visit. The Villa La Costa hotel on the hill offers rooms at about €1000 per night.
Andy Goldsworthy again – an oak room.
Tracey Emin’s self portrait – a cat inside a hard oak barrel!
A drop!
https://youtu.be/09dQPWfcke0
Depart Marseille 20:30
Arrive Schönefeld 22:45
We drove a total of 1156 km which is about 45 km per day. Renting the camper cost about €100 per day and the campsite fees were about €20 per day. Eating out (usually good food) was expensive compared to Berlin.
Edit map.
576 km 5 h 39 m => 8-12 Seeheim-Jugenheim
218 km 2 h 30 m => 12-15 Schwäbisch-Alb
406 km 4 h 35 m => 15-22 Bozen
208 km 2 h 30 m => 22-29 Wilder Kaiser
694 km 6 h 53 m => Home
Choose one day from the list to see just that day. Otherwise use this link to see everything on a very long page.
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
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.
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.
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”
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
