And so one midsummer morning I stepped out of my house and before I knew it had arrived in gay Paris. Actually Gare du Nord has to be one of the most unpleasant places to spend an afternoon and as my friend David Wilkinson would say I did not feel culturally enriched by the experience. luckily it was a short walk to Gare de l’est where I caught the train to Strasbourg.
Strasbourg was very pleasant. I can see why it was chosen as the seat of the European parliament. It is in some ways an ideal European city sandwiched between the rest of France and Germany with efficient trams and numerous cycle lanes. There is a very pretty old town along the river and some grand Victorian municipal buildings as well. I happily wandered about for a couple of days before catching the train to Colmar.
Colmar is very twee and has lots of tourists. Even in May the number of nauseating Americans and camera toting Japanese was a bit much. So after a day of Disneyworld surrealism I moved to Ingersheim( actually really only a surburb of Colmar) in order to explore the Voges mountains.
Ever since I had watched a performance of ‘Arnika’ at the Bridewell theatre in London I had been intrigued by the mystery of the woods in this borderland between France and Germany. They obviously held many sad tales of betrayal and collaboration from WW2. I caught the train down the valley and then walked up to Soultzbach where there was a signpost to Reid Ferme auberge.
As I walked through the woods I saw many interesting types of plant which had colonized the clearings and was lucky enough to see an eagle and a stag as well. The conifer woods themselves did have a claustrophobic stillness and was very relieved to reach the alpine meadow at the top which had been overrun with tiny yellow violas. Luckily despite it being 2.30 they were still serving lunch( if you don’t know the French as sticklers for punctuality at lunch-time!). So I sat down to a delicious lunch of pork pie and raw vegetables, ham and chanterelles with Savoyard potatoes and salad followed by cheese and apple tart with chantilly cream. Fantastic value for 20 Euro.
I then caught the bus and train through the Rhineland to Freiburg in Germany. I don’t have great fondness for Germany in general but Freiburg was a very beautiful university town. It was full of very clean streams and rivers that the locals swim in and it runs into the evocative landscape of the Black forest’s pine trees. It also has a cracking beer garden serving excellent beer overlooking the town (under some horse chestnut trees).Also, there was a charming restaurant ,under another horse chestnut near a gurgling brook that was the perfect spot for daydreaming as I lingered over a hot chocolate.
After a much delayed bus journey to Zurich (so much for German punctuality!) I spend the night in the little India area near Zurich station. In fact it was much too clean to resemble India but you get the idea. There was a huge variety of ethnic restaurants here and plenty of banking money around judging by the types of cars. It reminded me of the City of London for that reason. I did not have time to look round the old part of Zurich near the lake as I was heading for Vienna by train. But I did buy an excellent picnic of a roast beef sandwich, applesaft and milk chocolate bunnies after negotiating Zurich station so easily it could have been a provincial station. Why is this of note? Simply to point out that the Swiss seem to have an amazing attention to detail which is sadly lacking at British railway stations!
The journey to Vienna was full of stunning Alpine scenery and crystal clear lakes and my carriage was largely empty which made it even more enjoyable. When I arrived in Vienna I was slightly confused by the drawing of the station which looked a bit like a concentration camp sketch(who would of thought it?). Finally I made it to my B and B (which had the faded charm of an Austro-Hungarian aristocrat’s apartment) where there were many jokes made about the Royal wedding and indeed whether Ms Megan had already been rolled over on my bed there. I had an excellent Wiener schnitzel and the following morning had breakfast at a very stylish coffeehouse before catching the train from Vienna to Ljubljana. The journey was in some ways more stunning than the previous day from Zurich and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves alpine scenery.
After a slightly depressing evening in the suburbs of Ljubljana I caught the bus to Lake Bohinj via Lake Bled. Finally, I had arrived at the turquoise waters of the plantsmen’s paradise I had heard so much about and had done it overland. So far it had been more of a caper than a pickle!
A gardener out of this world 