Friday May 12, Emmendingen

Another crossing of the Rhine today.

Woke to rain this morning which continued till mid morning, a little cooler so jeans back on. Left the campsite and called into Rewe to have a stock up for the next few days.

We are heading to France now. Had an issue with “French Passion”, a group we registered and paid our annual fee with before leaving NZ. When you are a member you are able to stay at many French farms and vineyards free of charge. The information was sent to England for us and was there when we arrived but have just been looking for the books etc and cannot find them anywhere…. whether they were left in UK or we (or I) have inadvertently put them in the rubbish, I don’t know. So, I contacted the company and they were very good and have posted another set to a town in the Alsace region of France for us to pick up at the local post office next Wednesday.

This is very convenient as it is not far across the border from a shoe outlet store we visited last year at Herblozheim …..and I needed (not wanted!) some new summer shoes. If anyone knows me and the issues I have with getting shoes they will understand. Last year I could not believe that I had so many choices that really fitted my large flat feet and the prices are amazingly cheap for really good quality named brands like Reiker.  We had visited many towns in this area last year so decided to get Jilly to guide us via the motorways and bypass some very densely populated area.

What a photographer does when she is on the motorway!

Impressive bike in the rain.

Unfortunately, it took a bit longer than anticipated as we got caught in heavy traffic around Karlsruhe with road works. Interesting to see so many different nationalities of vehicles on the road, especially the trucks. Also, the temperatures plummeted from 25 to 13 degrees as we hit a cold front with lightning and couldn’t believe our eyes when we caught some patches of sleet. Anyway, we arrived at the shoe outlet and I was a very happy girl – set for summer with three pairs of top quality shoes for the same price as I would have paid for one good pair of shoes in NZ.

Had found this Stellplatz nearby that offered all facilities (except electricity) and free wifi for no charge. It is very pleasant with quite a group of campers here. The only issues are that we are surrounded by trees full of crow’s nests! The noise is quite loud, and can well understand the saying …..”stone the crows”!!! Thankfully they do sleep when it gets dark, but guessing we might get an early morning wake up call.

"Stone the crows"!