Cycle Tours with Wolfram
We made our first cycle tour in 1995. We met in 1986, married in 1987, and got our first allotment on Christmas Day 1989. We hardly ever looked up from gardening, adding a second plot after the first year (a reward for good behaviour) and later a third. These kept us pretty busy, and it wasn't until Wolf's mother invited us to Germany for a visit that we thought of doing anything else. When Wolf told me I felt a cold clutch of fear in the stomach - an odd reaction! So I was not looking forward to it, but when one day in September 1994 he said, "Why don't we cycle to Germany?" my reaction was, "Yes, at least we'll enjoy the journey!"
That kind of kicked us off with cycling, and gave us the travel bug. We would have gone away more often if we could have afforded it, and if the allotments hadn't needed us so much! That journey wasn't just a holiday - for a start we took along a 'researcher' ie tv journalist, and later appeared on the Real Holiday Show - it was also a Vision Quest. I was told this by my Aztec guide, who appeared among the runner beans one summer evening, and like an idiot I said "Oh good!"
1996 we stayed home, but in 1997 set off with Bolero bus for Lake Como.
1998 saw us headed off with Bolero again for the Carcassonne region, and a gite at Lastours, possessed by an unhappy ghost.
In May 2000 we took a short trip to Normandy
We had not returned to Germany since our less than pleasant stay with Wolf's mother in 1995, and in 2001 it occurred to me that it was a pity that we never got to see the Black Forest proper - Wolf's home is near the banks of the Rhein. I put it to him that we could go to Germany without staying with his mother, and he agreed. Looking on the internet, we found Max and Erika's home in Neukirch, in the High Forest, and went there in June. I have never felt so at home in a place, and it became our spiritual home.
Later that year a blind person took the government to court to force them to give him the same allowance that disabled people were getting - the point being, in order to enjoy what others consider a normal life, he had to pay someone to help him, or go with him. And thus all blind people got disability allowance, and life became very much easier for us, we had really been on the breadline up to this point. Another holiday seemed to be a good idea, with the backlog of money we received, and we went back to Neukirch in September. We also spent three days in Hornberg, and then four days in Munchen with my brother, who was posted there.
In 2002 we returned to Neukirch, staying in one of the flats that Erika managed, nicer for us, with our own terrace overlooking the forest. There is nothing like the stillness
that falls in the village at night - the stars blaze out overhead, and if a person walks by, every footfall is heard. We spent the first part of our holiday there, and then went south to Bodensee (Lake Constance) where we stayed with Herr Franz.
And that was the last holiday we were to have together. We met for the last time in Killarney in December 2005. And the rest is silence.
That kind of kicked us off with cycling, and gave us the travel bug. We would have gone away more often if we could have afforded it, and if the allotments hadn't needed us so much! That journey wasn't just a holiday - for a start we took along a 'researcher' ie tv journalist, and later appeared on the Real Holiday Show - it was also a Vision Quest. I was told this by my Aztec guide, who appeared among the runner beans one summer evening, and like an idiot I said "Oh good!"
1996 we stayed home, but in 1997 set off with Bolero bus for Lake Como.
1998 saw us headed off with Bolero again for the Carcassonne region, and a gite at Lastours, possessed by an unhappy ghost.
In May 2000 we took a short trip to Normandy
We had not returned to Germany since our less than pleasant stay with Wolf's mother in 1995, and in 2001 it occurred to me that it was a pity that we never got to see the Black Forest proper - Wolf's home is near the banks of the Rhein. I put it to him that we could go to Germany without staying with his mother, and he agreed. Looking on the internet, we found Max and Erika's home in Neukirch, in the High Forest, and went there in June. I have never felt so at home in a place, and it became our spiritual home.
Later that year a blind person took the government to court to force them to give him the same allowance that disabled people were getting - the point being, in order to enjoy what others consider a normal life, he had to pay someone to help him, or go with him. And thus all blind people got disability allowance, and life became very much easier for us, we had really been on the breadline up to this point. Another holiday seemed to be a good idea, with the backlog of money we received, and we went back to Neukirch in September. We also spent three days in Hornberg, and then four days in Munchen with my brother, who was posted there.
In 2002 we returned to Neukirch, staying in one of the flats that Erika managed, nicer for us, with our own terrace overlooking the forest. There is nothing like the stillness
that falls in the village at night - the stars blaze out overhead, and if a person walks by, every footfall is heard. We spent the first part of our holiday there, and then went south to Bodensee (Lake Constance) where we stayed with Herr Franz.
And that was the last holiday we were to have together. We met for the last time in Killarney in December 2005. And the rest is silence.
