We are amazed that hundreds of European campers don’t die of e-coli bacteria every year. We are very careful where and how we get water: we have dedicated fresh water hoses that are not used for anything else. But we regularly find people filling their fresh water tanks from the water hose provided at dump sites. True, these hoses are provided for filling fresh water tanks, but they are also used for rinsing dump sites and are left lying on the ground. We cringe when we see it.
The water we get has been consistently excellent, but getting it is often a bit of a challenge. We have been in only three campgrounds where water was available at each camp pitch. Generally there is a central water supply somewhere with a hose, and then there are usually additional water faucets around the campgrounds, often the push-button type that allow a litre or two at a time. Many of the faucets have no threading, and we frequently have to remove or add something in order to fasten our hose. We also had to purchase an attachment at one campground and haven’t used it since.
We also looked into buying an additional hose in France but discovered that all new hoses are sold without fittings on the ends: those are purchased separately and vary widely. So we gave up on that idea. Besides, they were frightfully expensive. At campgrounds, most people use the hose provided or get their water a litre at a time. One in a while we will find non-potable water--there was a lot of that in the campground in Italy--so we simply used none of their water. Fortunately we had arrived with our fresh water tank full.
We spent a couple of mostly rainy days in the city of Belfort, where a citadel overlooks the city, guarded by a massive stone lion created by the designer of the Statue of Liberty.
Rover in the shadow of the citadel
We stumbled upon what the town proudly claims is the biggest antique market in Eastern France. Even in the light rain it drew a big crowd. Market sellers work really hard for their money, setting up and repacking everything, whether it is antiques, clothing, vegetables or fish. Then they move on to another town the next day. Every town has a market day, and they are usually all over and done by 1 PM. We usually don’t buy too much in markets unless we are returning to Rover quite quickly and easily, because we would be carrying things around with us too much.
We continued on to Basel, Switzerland, returning to a campground we had visited last fall. (Here they tried to steer us to the fresh water hose that was located at the dump site and weren’t too happy when David instead got out the pliers and tapped the water supply by the reception office.) Basel is fun and easy to visit with its great transportation system. Last time we discovered a huge Monet exhibit at one of the two chief museums, and this time we hit on a Van Gogh landscape exhibit at the other: 70 paintings borrowed from public and private collections around the world. It was quite a show and was drawing a big crowd. We were glad we found out about it early as we had to buy time-specific (and expensive) entrance tickets for the following day. And then it rained on us, but we were able to take shelter in a Starbucks--Basel is only the third city we've visited this years that has them.
Then it was on to Freiburg, Germany, on the edge of the Black Forest region. The small campground where we stayed was on a terraced hillside under many trees. The owner runs up the hill with each unit as it comes in and helps to get it sited in its tight spot. Since the next day was going to be a holiday (Corpus Christi Day, of all things), he expected the campground could be crowded. Rover has never been tucked so neatly into a site. Two little permanent camping trailers were very close to us, one behind and one next to us, but neither had occupants while we were there. We rode our bikes into the city center and discovered literally hundreds of others biking. This is a university city and it seemed that all the students had bikes. It was a challenge trying to avoid bikes, trams, and cars on some streets. In the center of the old city there were fewer cars and many busy pedestrians streets: the challenge there was to avoid the town's centuries' old water-delivery system, yet another lawsuit-waiting-to-happen.
Bikes in the foreground...the middle ground...and the background
Again, no sign of any economic problems on the streets of Freiburg. And again we were having intermittent rain but it didn’t slow us down or keep us from the Munsterplatz, the Rathaus, or still another funicular that went only half way up the big hill. And once again we took refuge in still another Starbucks (this one right next to a Subway and a Burger King and just down the street from a McDonalds.) The rose gardens were in full bloom and the city is well kept and really very beautiful. The only problem is that we can’t understand anything and it makes us realize just how good our French is, at least by comparison to German.
While many campgrounds have restaurants that are really snack bars, the one in Freiburg had a real restaurant and beer garden right next door. It was doing a great business with large portions of reasonably priced meals. We ate there both nights, which is very unusual for us. The food was great: true, Susan did end up with batter fried mushrooms in “Knoblauch” (garlic) sauce one night, but they were pretty tasty.
We have ventured a bit further east into the Black Forest region: there are lots of high hills, pine trees, spectacular views and very twisty roads. This really is gorgeous country. The houses in the area are huge compared to France.
We stopped twice: once in an 800 year old town that looked too new and cute to us and once at the tallest waterfall in Germany. It is not a single free falling waterfall but a series of falls over rocks so that you can not see all of it at any one place. But it is tucked into the rock forest hill and it was a lovely cool walk to the overlooking bridge sites.
Today is the day we forgot to recharge our camera’s batteries so we will have very few pictures of the Black Forest and none of the falls. We arrived at our campground destination in the hills to find it is closed. But we were able to dump our tanks and are parked in their large parking lot, which is filling with motorhomes as the day goes on. We intend to just dry camp here tonight rather than face more winding roads today.