A Walk in the Autumn Woods

 

If you like Autumn (and I lurrve it), then you want to get out as much as possible during the season to soak up that gold into your eyeballs before the glitter fades.
Its a floriade of gigantic proportions, that goes all the way from gigantic trees carrying on like orange lava lamps, right down to dainty sprays of red berries, golden brown nuts and a rainbow of fungi at your feet.
Everywhere is the smell of woodsmoke, the odd bang of crackers and birds singing their hearts out while the going is still good and they haven't dropped frozen to the ground.
We are very lucky to be quite close to The New Forest in the south of Hamphire. It's a mixture of woodland and heath and boggy march and streams crisscrossed by hundreds of trails for the walker, cyclist or horserider.
The forest has all manner of wild animals including larger ones like deer and even its own breed of pony, native to the area.
 Pigs, cattle and donkeys also graze in a semi-feral situation, owned by locals whose families have been doing so for many centuries. Obviously a time-consuming job.
Through this semi-wilderness we set off on a walk very recently. We were folllowing a proper walking trail but decided to buy an ordinance survey map the size of a small country to 'help' us along our way. After being folded twenty two times and turned this way and that, it did indeed offer us a little help. I did my best to ignore teenage comments of -"Why don't you just use your phone Mum?!"
"No, not happening!"
 Firstly I wasn't going to admit I hadn't thought of it and secondly there is no romance nor education in GPS. A map is a magical thing I believe adds to the adventure. I keep my adventures small so it all works out mintily in the end.

The Pub- the real incentive for walkers

Our idyllic walk of course was circular- ending and beginning in a village green, AKA the pub.
But visiting must wait, and with that carrot  dangling, we diverted only to buy a piece of local cheddar and loaf of bread before we set off.
(Our fave walking picnic- bread, cheese and apples- that I can buy them now- fresh and local makes me want to do a little silly dance of smug happiness)
The course we took begins on an actual road- excitingly only one lane and between hedge,s so that you put out a hand to check the folliage for prickles for the time ahead you may have to throw yourself into them.
 Having run that guantlet, I am pleased when we reach actual forest and are walking off road.
I would like to impress you with them names of the trees we passed but aside from the obvious oak and maple and birch, I can only tell you they were very pretty. Every shade of gold from butter to bronze, citrus oranges and browns and reds.
Bracken dying off on the forest floor just added to the whole beauty of it. While the boys trailed behind us no doubt discussing xbox, I walked along saying repeatedly like a loon- "Ooh, isn't that beautiful!' every ten steps. Understandably Fil began to walk slightly ahead of me.

It's more fun to talk about Xbox in an outdoor setting.

Because I would pause and take pictures (Oh now she uses her phone!), I kept stopping and then running back to catch up, much like the labradors we saw people walking.
Dogs here are so polite, like most of the people. Owners say' "Come!" (if they even need to) and the dogs do it. Amazing!
Anyway, eventually we began to see more birch and then fir trees, which could only mean one thing (and that one thing wasn't that I had teleported to Norway), that we had moved to a higher, dryer area. It had been a cold morning so between the bracken steaming dry and the fir trees, I fully expected to see a tyranosaur emerge from the verge. Very exciting!
Up ahead the path got sort of shadowy and I said to Fil with enthusiasm- "What would you do if you saw a faun run across the path up there." (me pointing ahead). Fil raised his eyebrows-
"Well I probably wouldn't register it as a faun." (this isn't really true, if it looked like James McAvoy playing Mr Tumnus he would shoot it, considerably reducing the rsik of my running into him one day)
"Oh my God, how many mythological creatures have you possibly seen and not even registered?!" I almost yell at him.

Where IS James McAvoy?

Anyways. About halfway (it probably wasn't but whenever the kids start whinging we say it's 'halfway') we stopped for the aforementioned victuals. Of course we had already packed pear chutney, butter, apples and still water (tap water).
 Some toadstools kept us company as we kept an eye out for adders. Because the New Forest is on the warmer south coast, it has almost Australian sympathies and has a full arsenal of lizards and snakes, including England's one poisonish snake. I say poisonish because its generally not fatal. But still, any amount of venom injected into my body is wholly unwelcome, so we keep a good eye out for any slithering around our lunch table (pile of logs).
Lightly dusted with flour and cheese crumbs, we set off in seach of the heath we know is not far away. I identify "stone pines" in a loud voice. No-one cares, but I am impressed with myself especially as I cannot tell whether it is true knowledge or my subconscious making it up. Wacky and wily old brain!
The heath duly pops out before us, a mellee of browns with nowt but the odd  tree posing for effect. We have missed the heather flowering and the other flowers, butterflies and fairies of summer, but the heathland still  looks very lovely in it's scruffy coat of browns.
Wild pony backsides are visible everywhere once you start looking (because their heads are down grazing). Like a 'Wheres Filly?' sort of illustration.

'Wheres Filly?'

 Flynn wants to sneak up and hug them all one by one, but I don't know what preferred equine personal space is and I can't imagine being chased by ponies is very dignified.
It is a little bit like being out on the wild moors, but my Heathcliff has disappeared into a thicket of holly bushes up ahead. It's very exciting for me to see wild holly covered in red berries. Not only is it not plastic or on my front door, it is actually a facinating little tree with multiple trunks like a huddle of antelope with spiky hides. I shall gather some real stuff this year for Christmas. Brilliant!
Skipping on...Heathland makes way once more for forest and we wind down into some gullies where streams runneth over ground covered in nothing but a carpet of leaves. 'Tis very pretty but only I still thinketh so. The boys have had enough and Fil is no doubt halucinating pub oasis .
 Still, there a few last entertainments  to be had before we make it back there. Both involve ponies.
Firstly as we're heading down a lane, we see a pony coming towards us, followed by another and another and so on. They turn out to be the most adorable pick pockets that ever tried to eat your coat. We are lighter by two apples by the time they go on their way. Flynn attemts to hug each one, obviously hoping one will follow him home.

Pony highwaymen

And then we reached a VBP (very boggy paddock). It began innocently enough at a stile.
 You know: those wooden things you clamber over, throwing mud from your boot into your eye. Well, I like to think I actually have a bit of stile style. Country blood you know. But on the other side of said stile was a whole lot of muddy goop containing not a bit of animal excrement, due to it being an actual working paddock complete with staring livestock.
Well, of the four of us, let me say only two were wearing sensible foot attire. We all squelched and
skidded our way across this field, not swearing too much because there were two older folk walking behind us doing just fine.
At the far end of the paddock was the final stile,  locates of course at the boggiest spot of all. If that wasn't cause for pause, the pony standing in the way was.
 But wait, there's a second pony, who like an enthusiastic bouncer, pats you down for num-nums before you can even get near the 'stile pony'.
 I made it through alive, cleverly giving Fil my apple and escaping whilst he was being frisked. The boys, in their whimsical footwear stood way back, calling- "How do we get through?"
Now look, if I got some great amusement out of watching them mince their way through the quagmire whilst trying to direct ponies, I make no apologies. What I really wanted to do was video it, but I didn't. Because really I am a caring and thoughtful mother? No, probably more that I simply couldn't hold my phone up and slap my thighs laughing at the same time.
So, bespattered, tired and some of us squelching rhythmically, we did all eventually make it back for a pint at the pub.
Alex and Flynn collapsed their heads onto the beer-garden table while Fil and I went inside for drinks. The pub being busy, meant we didn't get served for at least ten minutes. We did have a good view to the garden from where we waited and we could see the boys didn't move an inch from their collapsed positions. They'd had a ball obviously: the worn-out little mud-skippers.

 

 

 And that's what its all about really: Autumn- fun, fresh air and a jolly good outdoorsy romp.
 Hurrah for Autumn!

Bavarian Holiday

Our next trip planned was Germany, and I for one was not so quietly terrified about the idea.
My father is German, specifically from Bavaria in the south. When I was a kid, I was put onto the phone to talk to my German grandmother. How I hated it! The poor woman and I could barely speak a word of each others language.No matter how many years went by we always had the same sort of conversation-
"Good morning/evening Nana/Natalie!"
"How are you?"
"Good."
LONG PAUSE.................................
Not much else,
"Okay, here's mum/dad...Goodbye/goodnight!"
And then relief mixed with terrible guilt. My Nana always sounded so happy to talk with me, but talk is not really what we did. I really dreaded those 'conversations' and then felt worse about feeling that way. All this had made me feel very nervous about revisiting the place. A few German lessons have not really improved my grasp of the language either and I haven't been back for 30 years.
Everyone wants to go, so it's top of our list, nervous or not. My grandmother is sadly no longer around, but we do tee up to meet with some relatives in one area, and I pick the other places for their ties to our family. If we're going to go, I want the boys to see where some of their ancestors come from.
Munich will be the beginning and end of our trip and is the only place not family related (well also the castle Neuschwanstein- I have been unable to trace my family tree back to King Ludwig, which is a shame because I would really like to inherit the place).
We check the weather forecast for the week we will be there.
 'Cold, freezing, freezing, cold.' We will be dropping down ten degrees from England. We  go out and buy extra clothes, especially in the thermals department.

Munich is indeed freezing when we arrive and is spitting icy rain. We rug up in a naive amount of clothes and go for a walk, grabbing fresh pretzels along the way. By the time we get back to our hotel we are half frozen and it is snowing in earnest. We are the only people jumping around in excitement about the idea.

 

In the morning both Fil and I jump out of bed as soon as possible to peer out the window like Santa has visited. We are not disappointed. Though we only look out on the train station over the road, snow has coated everything. It's popular to get around Munich by bike so there are hundreds of bikes parked round the station, all covered in snow.
We have a delicious breakfast and no matter where we stay during out holiday, breakfast never fails to please. The coffee is great and food to follow generally includes fresh breads, cake and pretzels, German sausages in various varieties, plus all the usual from a western style brekky both hot and cold. We pretty much waddle out each day.

 

Our first proper day of exploration, we whack on all accouterments for the cold. The boys in particular are dying to get out in the snow because its such a novelty. It fails to register with me that this could go on all day, and does. All the hours of walking, is at the speed by which two kids can also throw snowballs at each other or dump snow from a tree on each others head.

 

Munich is beautiful. We are staying in the old part of town and are amazed at the sheer size of it and the huge amount of incredible building and statues and general decorations about the place. Sadly when people think of Munich they tend to visualise the October Fest, but there is way more to the city. Way, way more.

 

The adornment of building with both sculpture and murals and tiles is magnificent and we probably catch a fair bit of snow in our open mouths. We walk all the way to the river in the north part of the old city. It is stunning too, though the last thing you would want to do is swim in it- it looks freezing. The snow falling now was in perfect snowflakes which none of had ever seen before. It was like having the finest white star confetti fall on you. Our dark clothes were covered in these perfect little sculptures. We stood there for ages like idiots remarking on them and trying to take pictures. Just magic.
We are absolutely worn out by days end of trooping in the snow but cake and coffee, followed by a traditional Bavarian dinner has us very happy in our exhaustion.
Next day we catch the train to Kempten, further south towards to Alps.

 Kempten is where my father grew up. Compared to Munich city it is much smaller. Our hotel is on the  road by the river with the old part of town just the other side of the bridge. There is snow everywhere here too, and it is still snowing lightly. We set off to explore straight away as we only have two days, and the next one would be visiting a castle some distance away.

 

There was a market winding itself through town so after having a look around we have a lunch of hot crepes. Yum. We had had the same meal in Paris five years ago and it is lovely to be travelling again in Europe having the same happy nutella smeared faces.

 

Once again we were impressed with the lovely building and fountains and churches. There is a sort of 'civic' pride that is really noticeable and impressive over here. The sort of decorations would just wouldn't really see much of in Australia. Of course, these places have been around for a lot longer, so plenty more time to decorate! In fact Kempten I found out is one of the oldest towns in Germany, founded around 752AD (Munich 1158), so plenty of time as I said to embellish.
Next day we set of a variety of transport modes to see Schloss Neuschwanstein. The story for this is far too long to tell here, but truly fascinating, right down to the King's eventual mysterious demise. I saw this place 30 years ago: I could remember two things- a room in the castle, and the horse cart we took up there- the horses farted all the way up the hill.

 

Although taking the horses up would have been great (wind or not), the queues were long and our legs quite capable, so we set off walking from the picturesque village up what turned out to be a very big hill. Peering out from the snowy trees beside the road (which regularly dumped slush onto people- amusing unless its you) we could see out to a winter wonderland valleys that stretched out for many miles.We could see lakes and little houses and everything dotted with beautiful snow-covered spruce.

 

 

Finally at the top we had a few minutes to snap the imposing outside of the castle before heading off on our allocated English-speaking tour. It is quite a process to see this place, but not expensive. It was busy despite the cold and I couldn't comprehend how busy it must be in the summertime.
 Once again, not enough time here to describe this place but I'll just say King Ludwig had been a  huge fan of Wagner and that every room we saw was a masterpiece of theatrical decoration like you have never seen. Just stunning. I immediately wanted to go back to mural painting. Even the boys were impressed, so you'll know it was truly amazing.

An incredible sunset on the alps was our view for the trip back and a fittingly picturesque end to our day.

Another train and we were off to our next destination. This time Lindau on Lake Constance ( Bodensee for the locals). Lake Constance is on the borders of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the Lindau area is the only slice from Germany (The town is in two parts, one of which is an Island and the other on the mainland and from which area my grandmother originally hailed.

 

Lindau Island is where we stayed and once again it had been three decades since I had seen it and had only a vague memory of the harbour foreshore. It really is a magical place. By now we had blue skys and snow was only visible of the distant mountains on the far side of the lake. Der Bodensee is a long lake so you can see across it in parts and in the other direction it looks endless like the sea.

The water is crystal clear and very lovely. The little harbour mouth has a lion statue on one side and a lighthouse on the other and is the spot some years ago one of my brothers proposed to his wife. Nice spot Mark!

We very much enjoyed our stay here. The streets are cobbled labyrinths of gorgeous buildings- residential and shops. Once again, thoughtful and beautiful decorating is everywhere and of course being on the shores of the lake just make it even more spectacular. The boys made friends with a cat called Sam in a park and I'm sure were planning to kidnap it. I know Fil even snuck out from brekky with some smoked salmon for the poor half-frozen animal.
Finally we set off to Ulm, further north, where we would visit some relatives and where my cousin Jurgen very kindly spent a few days off work, showing us his town, as only someone who has grown up in a place can. Jurgen happily for us speaks excellent English and having struggled at times over the last week in German, it was nice to have a proper conversation with someone both parties understood.

He gave us a great tour of the old town beginning with Ulm Munster (minster) an amazing gothic church (tallest in the world) ,at which we all thought it was a great idea to climb hundreds of steps in the tightest spiral staircase I have ever been in- and people were also trying to come down! My poor lungs and heart! I cannot say how pleased I was that the second (and longer) half of the steps was temporarily closed.The view from the top was of course fantastic. My cousin promised us on a good day you could see the North Sea. Turns out the Nordsee is a chain of fish and chip shops ( cue German laughter)  BUT we could certainly see far beyond that.
Once again on the ground we had a look inside the minster (which I learn took over 500 years to complete).It is certainly a triumph of vision,construction and beauty.

 

Over the next two days we got no only to see Ulm and surrounds but hear local stories and facts (often amusing), but I also got to see and understand how this branch of my family fitted into all of this and for that I am very grateful. Its one of the reasons we decided to live in England for a while- you just don't get to fully appreciate a place unless to have the time to look more deeply. I also got to hear about my grandmother from people who DID know her very well and loved her, stories that were both moving and healing for me.

 

From Jurgens bee-hives, to Blautopf, to Ulm and it's sister- Neu Ulm, we had a thoroughly enjoyable few days (including excellent food and ale, both bought and home-cooked) in great company so that by the time we returned to a now snow-free Munich, we felt we had experienced an admittedly small but very comprehensive view of Bavaria, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

 

For myself I had a great time, and though it would certainly be handy to know more of the language it was certainly no hindrance to enjoying this very beautiful place.
 I'll be back!