Today we drove along a 5 km unpaved, bumpy road to visit the Dream Woods, a lifetime project by a German outsider artist (Manfredo) in a beautiful forest up in the Tuscan hills. He collects his stones & other stuff where he can find them and then relies on gravity to hold them together.

Grumpy lot

Old glass as well as old stone

A stone-faced tree with heart

Buddha in the sink

A Mandala

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High rise art

This was called „The gates to hell“. The devil‘s gatekeeper seems quite friendly.

Let me whisper in your ear

Dog?

Kim‘s lost in the big city

A handsome fellow

Today we drove down to a very nice campsite – Camping La Montagnola in Sovicille, near Siena.

There’s a pleasant walk through the woods leading to the village and its shop.

Loads of cyclamen growing wild around here.

The Gotthard pass as the day staggers to its feet

It’s a cheerful +1°C up here, but we are going down.

Can you find the horse?

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Guess what town we are visiting?

Convenient campsite but very muddy and you have to walk along an extremely unpleasant road tunnel to get into town €39

Today we left the Black Forest and drove up to the Gotthard Pass in Switzerland. We didn‘t use the road tunnel and went up the road full of hairpin bends. Eventually we left that road for the „old road“ with its cobblestones and regularly spaced lumps of rock to keep you on the straight & narrow. We had rejected the idea of spending over €60 to stay on a campsite in Zurich and chose instead to camp for free at 2600 m in the Alps next to the road.

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We put the heating on when it started to snow…

Today was quite a rainy day so we met Thomas for a pizza in Klein-Winterheim.

Then we drove through the rain down to the Black Forest – Wohnmobilstellplatz Kappelrodeck.

Löwentor – the Lion Gate. I wonder why they call it that?

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Well look at that. We skipped a visit to see Tony Cragg in Wuppertal and now here he is in Darmstadt‘s rose garden – Rosenhöhe.

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Looks nice next to the Grand Duke‘s buildings.

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What‘s going on in there?

Mirrors!

Look at that sky.

Two?

Three here?

Vera Röhm – Spiegelbaum (mirror tree), 2017, bronze and stainless steel

A rainy night in Eberstadt with rain drops drumming on the roof followed by a sunny atmosphere at breakfast with the boys!

Today we drove to Eberstadt and visited Birgit and then the Lindes.

Another fine day for a stroll through the forest to Hottenbacher Hof for a delicious fish lunch (salmon trout with potato salad – 😋 )

Gerhild calls this a Waldschrat (hobgoblin)

Dragonflies having fun at our breakfast table.

Autumn windfall apples line one of the paths out of the campsite.

Teriffic tree with tasty apples

There are loads on the ground and some are quite unspoiled!

Old school friends at the golf club.

All of the girls together.

All quiet as day breaks.

Sitting next to the pool in Odenwald Idyll.

Delicious apple jelly from Seeheim-Jugenheim

Today we drove into Frankfurt to visit the Michael Sowa exhibition in the Caricatura museum.

How the cow came to be on the ice.

Road Hog

The herring

Putin kills the gay jellyfish spy with the holy sword

Rather read a book

No-go area

Underwater stalkers

Taking the moth for a walk

Home made jam from a house near Schloß Lichtenberg

Odenwälder Latwerge

4 kg pitted plums
400 g sugar
4 star anise
2 medium cinnamon sticks
5 plum stones

1. Wash, stone and halve the plums. Put the sugar and the spices with the seeds and the halved plums with the cut surface down into a cast iron roaster and let it steep overnight.
2. Place the roaster in the oven for 4 hours at 180 °C and let the plums simmer. Stir once an hour. After 4 hours, remove the stones, the star anise and the cinnamon sticks.
3. Blend the latwerge with the blender and fill into clean and dry jars and seal them.

Today walked to Bonn’s Bundeskunsthalle to see a Wim Wenders exhibition.

An angel looking down at Gerhild.

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Wim Wenders painted too.

He experimented with different styles.

He experimented with video cameras.

Photos of Cuba from the filming of Buena Vista Social Club.

We enjoyed some street food for lunch and then visited the Bonn Kunst Museum to see some shadows.

What a load of rubbish…

Olafur Eliasson’s contribution

Who’s hand is that?

Hans-Peter Feldmann – ZWEI MÄDCHEN MIT SCHATTEN 1999

Today we had a fine breakfast in the Stift zum Heiligen Geist

And then we drove to Bonn – once at the steely centre of West Germany.

A dry toilet next to our camper parking spot!

Today we drove to Hanover and visited the Sprengel Museum

Takashi Murakami

Self portrait

Yayoi Kusama

Old school friends

Infinity mirrors

Nikki de Saint Phalle