A busy but frustrating week. We arrived at the boat expecting everything to be have been done that we had requested to find that many things had not been done. To top it off all of the yard's engineers had gone on holiday that day for 2 weeks. The weather had turned from the beautiful day the previous day and it was raining and cold. We unpacked our 4 suitcases and put pressure on the boatyard to get things done but not to much success. We bought a few things and on Wednesday headed 700 km south to Bavaria to meet Wendy's brother Nick and his wife Monika and children Leslie and Vivien.
The next day we went to a recreation of an old Mediaeval German Village in Bad Windesheim. It is a very pretty area of Germany with rolling green hills and woods everywhere.The village was scattered over a wide area and had original houses (but relocated) going back 700 years. We had a beer brewed at the village for lunch alongs with delicious sausages and snitzels in a roll. The next day we went in to Erlangen where David had an eye test and we spent the rest of the day shopping for kitchen items for the boat. Today we went for a walk in the Frankerische Sweitze area of Northern Bavaria which is called Mini Switzerland because of its rolling limestone wooded hills. We walked along the banks of a stream to a typical German village where we had half litre of beer and a piece or so of pizza.
Then a long walk back to the car and off to Grossweinland where there was a pilgramage to the local cathedral. We walked up to the castle at the top of the hill for sweeping views over the area. Feeling hungry and thirsty we headed off to a beer garden where we sat outside in the warm air drinking locally brewed beer ($4 for 500ml) and at pork shank with gravy and dumplings. It was delicious.The Germans may have a limited repertoire of food but what they have (beer, pork, sausages etc) they do extremely well with a huge number of variations.
Hopefully more will be acomplished on the boat this week as we are hoping to leave this Saturday.
