Heute waren wir im Puppentheater in Prag. Kim wollte mit den Puppen reden, aber sie konnten nur Tschechisch. Kim hat es mit Englisch versucht und die Puppen haben nur schelmisch gelacht. Mit Deutsch ging es auch nicht, also konnte er nur mit Händen und Füßen reden. Mit den Händen ging es am besten.
Liebe Grüße aus Tschechien!
Kim und Gerhild

Today we went to the puppet theatre in Prague. Kim wanted to talk to the puppets, but they could only speak Czech. Kim tried English and the puppets just laughed mischievously. German didn’t work either, so he could only talk with his hands and feet. It worked best with his hands.
Best wishes from the Czech Republic!
Kim and Gerhild

Jetzt sind wir in Wien, in Österreich. Die Leute hier sind lustig. Heute haben wir diese vier lustigen Kinder kennengelernt. Es sind die Holzkopf Geschwister: Walter Walnuss, Emil Eiche, Pippa Pappel und Theo Tanne. Pippa hat uns einen Witz erzählt.
Was kann schwimmen und sieht alles doppelt? Ein Schielpferd!
Liebe Grüße von Gerhild und von Kim

Now we are in Vienna, in Austria. The people here are funny. Today we met these four funny children. They are the woodentop children: Walter Walnut, Oscar Oak, Pippa Poplar and Fred Fir. Pippa told us a joke.
What can swim and sees double? A cross-eyed hippo!
Love from Gerhild and Kim

Eines Tages stand eine Ratte auf der Matte, mit zwei Freunden. Ich fragte, was sie vorhaben. „Wir sind die fantastischen Fotoratten und möchten ein Bild machen, ohne Schatten“ piepsten sie. „Nur wenn ihr uns zuerst einen guten Witz erzählst“ sagte Gerhild. „Abgemacht“ rief die erste Ratte. „Was macht eine Wolke, wenn sie einen Juckreiz spürt?“ – „Sie fliegt zum Wolkenkratzer.“ Wir haben alle laut gelacht und die Ratten haben eine Aufnahme gemacht.
Liebe Grüße aus Graz
Kim & Gerhild

One day, a rat was standing on the mat with two friends. I asked what they were up to. “We are the fantastic photo rats and we want to take a picture, without shadows” they squeaked. “Only if you tell us a good joke first” said Gerhild. “Deal” cried the first rat. “What does a cloud do when it feels an itch?” – “It flies to the skyscraper.” We all laughed out loud and the rats took a picture.
Kind regards from Graz
Kim & Gerhild

Heute sind wir in Salzburg, in Österreich. Hier haben wir ein wunderschönes weißes Einhorn im Garten getroffen. Ich habe höflich gefragt, ob wir ein Foto mit ihm machen dürfen, weil es so schön ist. Es war aber ein magisches Tier und es hat uns gleich Kronen auf den Kopf gezaubert. „Jetzt seht ihr königlich genug aus, um mit mir im Bild zu sein.“ Ein freundlicher Gartenzwerg hat dann ein Foto von uns drei gemacht. Wir haben uns bedankt und dann hat das Einhorn die Kronen gleich wieder weggezaubert.
Viele Grüße
Kim und Gerhild

Today we are in Salzburg, in Austria. Here we met a beautiful white unicorn in the garden. I politely asked if we could take a photo with it because it was so beautiful. But it was a magical animal and it immediately put crowns on our heads. “Now you look regal enough to be in the picture with me.” A friendly garden gnome then took a picture of the three of us. We said thank you and then the unicorn immediately whisked the crowns away.
Many greetings
Kim and Gerhild

Beautiful welcome on my desk.

We even found a parking space close to home. Now we take a 2 week break to recuperate and prepare for Norway.

The A9 was blocked heading north, forcing us off onto smaller country roads. We decided to make our last stop at heide-camp-schlaitz.de

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Some campers have been here a looong time.

The forest planted when the open-cast mining stopped is very tidy.

Time to wave goodbye to our Austria trip. Back to Berlin tomorrow.

The Wohnmobil Stellplatz Bamberg was full when we arrived around lunchtime, so we parked in a quiet street where we could walk into the town.

Bamberg is on the river Regnitz.

„Air-Earth“ by Jaume Plensa. Maybe this guy was worried about getting his feet wet?

UNESCO world heritage town.

She doesn’t seem to be ticklish.

Classy cat!

More cats.

Wang Shugang – Meeting.

https://www.bamberg.info/skulpturen/

Good breakfast with Felix at Schwabinger Wassermann.

We walked home, through the old olympic park.

A small surprise up in a tree.

Quiet street to park in, near to the olympic park.

Carola showed us this small church built in the chaos following the 2nd world war by the famous Väterchen Timofej.

Film from ARD Mediathek

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Väterchen Timofej.

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Very tasty Afghan meal for lunch www.nigin.de.

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https://www.kunsthalle-muc.de/flowers-forever/

RU XIAO FAN Ode an die Meditation.

According to the American environmentalist Paul Hawken, the average adult in the Western world knows over 1,000 brand names or logos, but fewer than ten local, native plants. Based on this, Tracey Bush began asking people which plants they could confidently identify. Using found packaging material from the streets of London, the artist created her collages, which combine the bright colors and shapes of the advertising industry with precise contours of flowers.

Electronic flowers.

Two sides of the same non-binary teapot!
This 1883 teapot is a mockery of so-called Aestheticism, an art movement in the second half of the 19th century. While the woman on the one side of the teapot is unknown, the man on the other is meant to represent homosexual writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), who was one of the most influential representatives of Aestheticism. The calla lily and sunflower adorning their chests were central motifs of the movement. Collecting porcelain was very popular in these circles, who strove to surround themselves solely with the most beautiful objects.

I hope that I never find this flower in the garden!

Delicious fragrance of honey in this room.

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Today we said goodbye to the bull washers and had a rainy drive to Munich.

Today we walked up to the fortress.

Part of Salzburg is glued to the mountainside.

Let’s hope the bridge can bear the weight of all those padlocks.

The Residenzplatz dedicated to us pedestrians.

Great sign for the beer cellar.

A view from the top.

The weather’s just right today.

What’s not to like about Erwin Wurm‘s gherkins?

We are in Mozart‘s Salzburg, so this could be the bird catcher (Vogelfänger), although they call it the „wild man“.

A “Clavier”. We enjoyed a cheerful harpsichord concert of Mozart music in the Fischbrunnensaal in the Alte Residenz, where they used to cool the fish before cooking them for the bishop. After the concert, the harpsichordist jumped on his bicycle and zoomed off.

With three tea timers to choose from, which one does Gerhild take? Afro cafe

Anselm Kiefer has some thorny subjects in his lead books…

No, it’s not Boris Johnson playing king of the world.

The entrance to Maxim‘s.

This work by Anselm Kiefer reminds me of Harry Potter owls.

I don‘t eggzactly know what this is, but it’s like a fairy tale.

That was a big piece of cake Kim scoffed today.

Nice, but who are they waiting for?

Just who is doing the driving here?

Reminds Kim of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, but I‘m sure the artist had something else in mind.

Today we took the bus to Schloss Hellbrunn https://www.hellbrunn.at/en/.

This place is loads of fun!

Looks so peaceful.

Appearances can be deceptive.

The bishop‘s two heraldic symbols.

This place was designed for people to have fun.

The grottoes are full of surprises too.

Part of a large water-powered automaton.

Some very wild pigs.

No chance of getting away dry.

This cheerful looking scene tells of a macabre story of a hunter magically turned into a deer to be torn to pieces by his own dogs.

A rather mixed up creature here.

Give us a kiss.

Today we moved to Salzburg. Reisemobilstellplatz Salzburg €33/night.

Meanwhile, over in London…

Kim‘s royal career would have failed at his first contact with a horse.

Nice his and hers hats.

While in Salzburg, Gerhild is cooking.

And Kim is checking the temperature of the wine.

Beautiful sunny day for a walk through the forest in the Gesäuse national park.

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The view from our shady picnic spot.

River Enns

Sunshine fun

Today we (accidentally) drove over a mountain pass on the way to Campingplatz Forstgarten €33/night.

Kim juggling with a snowball at Salzstiegl.

Beautiful spot to camp.

Tons of space.

Picnic tables too.

River Enns is next to the campsite.

Flashy information centre for the national park.

We went for a little walk today.

The Hirschegger Rundroas.

Gerhild‘s favourite swamp flower.

Who needs an electric train set!

Is my hair straight?

Fascinating, but what is it? A butterbur.
(Griechen und Römer schätzten die Pestwurz (lateinisch Petasites) im 1. Jahrhundert gegen bösartige Geschwüre ebenso wie die Menschen im Mittelalter, die sie gegen die Pest einsetzten.)

Bit steep this bit.

Thirsty work walking.

Kim.

Today is a rainy day so we left Graz after 6 days, did some food shopping, bought new windscreen wiper blades and drove up into the mountains to Hirschegg. Camping-Hirschegg about 900 m above sea level.

There are lots of walks around here Bergfex walks

They make space for everyone here –

Space for us.

Space for our insect pals.

Space for who?

Space for our feathered friends, and their family…

The first of May, so
Nothing on today
Hurray

Today we went by bus to the Austrian Sculpture Park.

Erwin Wurm‘s “Fat House”. When you go inside, the humour doesn’t stop.

Every fat house needs a fat car. Let’s not talk about what sort of driver it needs.

A couple of chips off the old block.

Werner Reiterer „gesture“. In the background Peter Weibel “our planet as a suitcase”

Fractal fun with cubes.

A ship which will eventually be made up of living trees!

Everything is green and luscious.

Who nests in that?

Nice old house which plays a merry tune occasionally with two twirling figures.

YouTube video of the glockenspiel

Quite human these lions.

Flying ploughs which enticed us into a friendly garden cafe. Gatto im Volksmuseum

Tricky drinking coffee when you’re swinging back & forth.

This guy was very quiet.

Interesting sculpture from just after the war. Wiki article.

Unkind to fish!

I‘m the king of the castle …

Today we looked inside the Friendly Alien aka the Kunsthaus Graz.

Why paint a picture if you can weave it?

Look at all of that work!

Nice work, but it will need mowing now and then.

Collage by Peter Kogler.

Indicating Apparent, True and Absent Colors by Lisa Truttmann.

Stupid artist, look what a big nose he gave me! Pity, no rain today.

Beautiful door.

The fantastic Dada Zirkus https://www.dadazirkus.at/

Good web site https://www.graztourismus.at/en

The entrance to our camp site.

They like gold leaf in Graz.

We climbed up the hill with the castle on top.

Graz is very proud of this clock, high up on the hill for everyone to see.

What is that black thing?

A „friendly alien“, designed by Peter Cook & Colin Fournier from London.

Coffee and cake here in the middle of the river Mur.

I think street corners in Berlin ought to have elephants too.

Gerhild likes this angel.

Kim prefers this one.

On the way to Graz we stopped at Gut Gasteil to stroll around their open air sculptures.

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Nice signs to tell you what’s what.

So what’s in the big white box?

Not just a free sit-down, but gratis books too!

We gratefully took one each.

What are the deer looking at?

Gerhild playing a wind harp.

The middle one isn’t a sculpture, it’s Kim.

Interesting.

Father & son.

The view is not bad even on a grey day like today.

Nice work. The trees are impatient for spring too, just like us.

Our camp site in Graz http://www.reisemobilstellplatz-graz.at/ €34 per night.

Today we went to the Kunstforum to discover Kiki Kogelnik.

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Nice shoes!

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Nice Turkish cavalry man decorating a street corner.

The weather forecast was quite right and it has rained today, so we had a domestic day. Did some washing, emptied the waste water tank, filled the fresh water tank, emptied our on board toilet cassette, wrote some messages and did a bit of reading.

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Beautiful day today.

How could we visit Vienna without Kim eating Wienerschnitzel? Meierei Diglas in the Türkenschanzpark was just perfect.
ZiegenKäse-WaffelBurger | Rucola | BalsamKarotten | BärlauchDip
ErdbeerTopfenKnödel | ButterBrösel | VanilleSauce
Unsere Selbstgemachten Ingwer-Limetten-Limonade und Basilikum-Lavendel-Limonade

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Next stop Karl-Marx-Hof and the Waschsalon

Viennese communism after they kicked the emperor out. Tax the rich to build for the poor.

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Great fish!

“So a boy borrows a book, sits down on the library steps, reads his book, and before the library closes, he has finished it and asks for a new one!”

Child labour in the Viennese architecture!

The Karlskirche

Friendly sculpture near the enormous Russian war memorial, but what’s it made of?

One million copper Euro coins. Friendship made of money? https://www.raisinghands.net/

Today we took the famous no. 71 tram to the Zentralfriedhof

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http://www.luegerkirche.at/

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Blessed disinfectant to keep evil at bay.

Today we went to the Belvedere, to see some Gustav Klimt. https://www.belvedere.at/ (6 videos)

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt

Not Gustav Klimt

Lion-hearted woman in the garden.

We came across the Ankeruhr just as it was starting its special 12 o’clock sequence.

The Ankeruhr.

This isn‘t the Secession is it?

Nope, something for tourists to play with.

Something‘s not quite right here.

The golden cabbage aka the Secession.

University library with huge owl.

Lovey-dovey traffic lights.

The renowned Café Sperl.

Place for a good chat.

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In the underground.

Paid €29 for 2 months on Austria‘s motorways. A nice Austrian policeman directed us to a weighbridge – 3.6 tonnes, which exceeds our 3.5 nominal weight. „Camper“ he said and waived us on…
Camping Neue Donau €30,60/night. A 15 min. Walk from Donaustadtbrücke U station.

Look at the decoration!

One hundred years later…

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Who needs house numbers if you’ve got these?

Heavy metal girl.

Next to the underground station.

We enjoyed the evening with Leah and Mirek.

Paul Spooner video

Fantastic pop-up books

Today we went to see an exhibition of Czech toys in Chvalský castle. http://www.chvalskyzamek.cz/.

Pavel Macek showed some „Twistoscopes“ and „Inspectacles“ – Boxes with a scene which the spectator can set in motion with a handle. A sort of free penny arcade machine, or an inside out automaton.

The boxes have been repurposed e.g. From an old sewing machine cover.

Peer inside and you might see this

Or this

Or this

All moving of course. In this case the rats fleeing Hamelin, following the pied piper.

DIY puppet show. Kim hasn’t learned to keep his head down yet.

There’s no strings on them!

Ironing the Czech way.

All of the best toys wear hats.

A pipe-smoking donkey riding a scooter, an everyday sight in Prague?

Kim as a Bohemian officer.

Coronavirus cake in the Legion Bank (Legionářská banka).

Very elegant way to keep the weather at bay.

Today we went for a walk along the Moldau. Then we visited Puppets in Prague.

We saw some women carrying baskets around covered with heavily embroidered cloths. All for Ukrainian Easter!

This inspires me to make my own version – passing the baby.

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Mirek‘s work is always an inspiration.

Today we popped in to the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague.

This fearsome feline guards the entrance.

We visited the poster exhibition.

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This is the way to go shopping!

This is how to sell chocolate.

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Well, who wouldn‘t prefer an adding machine to a big kiss?

Contemporary shop window for a very expensive shop.

Old Prague has some pretty flashy buildings.

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Palác Archa — Radiobeitrag über die Bank

Inside the bank.
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In the evening we went to see „Black Theatre“ in the srnec theatre

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It’s a rainy day today, so we moved to Prague.
€20 for È-toll for 10 days on Czech motorways.
Campsite €35,87/night
129, Trojská 357, 171 00 Praha-Troja, Czechia
+420 283 850 482
www.campdana.cz

🌧️ Too wet to walk about so get creative instead. 🌧️

Today we walked to the border between Germany & the Czech Republic.

This is a national park but no one told the bark beetles.

The trees are sad, but the tree fungus is happy.

Kim is happy too.

First sight of the border.

The left bank is Czech Republic, the right bank is Germany. The boat is for tired walkers.

Lots of rocky faces if you squint your eyes a bit.

Quite steep going up.

Almost home after 11 km.

Time to leave Berlin for Camping “Thorwaldblick” in Hinterhermsdorf.

Schandauer Str. 37, 01855 Sebnitz
+493597450648
www.thorwaldblick.de €31/night

Umgebindehaus!

Looks like a nice place to eat.

Parachuting Easter bunny

These baby sycamore trees who have made themselves at home on our camper obviously think that spring has arrived so it must be time to set off!