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OWL Tour 2010 – Day 2: In the morning we got up early and were back on the road while most other people were still sleeping in their motorhomes. We wanted to visit two gardens in Bielefeld and one in Bad Salzuflen to get some ideas for our own public garden which we are planning.

When you drive through Bielefeld you don’t really think of gardens, but Bielefeld is not only situated beautifully in the Teutoburg Forest nature park, it also has some gardens which are worth a visit. To start with we went to the botanical garden. The botanical garden of Bielefeld is a municipal botanical garden of 4 hectares located on the hillside of the Kahler Berg near the town center and is open to the public for free.

The garden offers an extensive plant collections and a wide variety of landscaped gardens. Highlights are the traditional Westphalian farmhouse from the year 1823, the rhododendron and azalea displays, and the presentation of different natural settings such as rock gardens, alpine beds, medicinal and herb plantings, heather gardens and beech wood flora.

Next we went to the Japanese Garden, which was opened 2003. The Japanese garden in Bielefeld-Bethel is a traditional Japanese rock garden according to ‘Kare san sui’ principles.

Visitors experience the garden with their eyes only, they do not walk through this idealized representation of the natural world. Next to a series of photos we also created a short video of this special garden.

Japanese Garden Bielefeld from Harald Walker on Vimeo.

OWL Tour 2010 – Day 1: In the middle of July we wanted to go back and visit the Lippe region again, including Ostwestfalen which is on the way. Ostwestfalen-Lippe is a region in the federal state North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The area of Ostwestfalen-Lippe is congruent with the area of the administrative region Detmold and includes major cities such as Bielefeld and Paderborn.

We left late on Thursday to avoid the Dutch traffic jams and stopped for the night at the camper park of Bad Bentheim, just a few kilometers behind the German border. While the camper park at the foot of the castle officially has room for 22 campers, also the parking ground next to it was occupied by a large amount of campers already. Since we only wanted to spend the night here, we picked a place and went to bed, trying not to make too much noise.

Spring Tour 2009 – Day 3: For lunch we stopped at the Grande Forge de Buffon, the integrated ironworks near Montbard, established in 1768-72 by Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707-82). The Forge can be visited from April until the end of September from 10-12am and 2-6pm. Next to the forge one can see the Canal de Bourgogne, which is 242 kilometers long and links the river Yonne with the Saône.

We didn’t want to wait until 2pm but used the break to check the air filter of our Mercedes-Benz. Occasionally on this and the previous tours the motor had problems accelerating. On the 3rd day of this tour it was worse than ever and we wouldn’t have been able to continue our trip like this
Previously I had checked all oil levels and got the better more expensive fuel but the air filter was something I hadn’t done yet. According the manual there should be a meter notifying us if it has to be replaced or not, but that specific meter didn’t exist in our model. So I found the air filter and took it out. Mercedes obviously believes that a car owner doesn’t do this, so there were no instructions in the manual and it was more difficult than necessary to get the filter out. After cleaning everything as good as possible and putting it all together again, the motor ran smoothly again and didn’t have any more problems for the rest of the trip. What a relief!

Spring Tour 2009 – Day 3: This day felt like our vacation had really started now. Instead of driving all day again, we decided to visit interesting places in the area, as we were moving south. First destination was the wash-house at the Fosse Dionne, a deep water source with a mysterious blue green color below the Sankt-Pierre church in Tonnerre.

Unfortunately the town with just 5322 inhabitants (2006) is a town in decay. Many houses are in a bad condition and on the edge of collapsing. It could be a charming French countryside town. With the Fosse Dionne, the Sankt-Pierre church high above the town (not open to the public), the Hôpital Notre-Dame and some small stores and cafes it could be popular among tourists.

On our way to Tonnerre we drove through the vineyards of the Chablis, the northernmost wine district of the Burgundy region. In April there isn’t much to see yet but it is always nice to see where some products come from.

Spring Tour 2009 – Day 2: From Bouillon it was just a short drive until we reached France. Originally we had considered stopping in Reims on our way South, but as it started raining we kept on driving. As far as we could see, the famous cathedral of Reims was also obscured with scaffolding, so we will come back another time.
Leaving Reims behind we drove through the wines fields, were Champagne comes from and soon reached Burgundy. The further we got South, the more trees and bushes were flowering already. Unfortunately this also meant that my allergies were getting stronger.

For the night we stopped in Gurgy, which is a small town north of Auxerre. Here there is a lovely camper park directly next to the Yonne river. We arrived early enough to enjoy the warm weather outside and went for a walk along the river and through the village.

Spring Tour 2009 – Day 2: In the morning we visited Bouillon, not a broth but a Belgian town located in a sharp meander of the river Semois. The massive Castle of Bouillon (first mentioned in 988) sits high above the town center and is a popular tourist attraction. In town there was a medieval market with knights and traditional products. We were lucky to have some sun, when we walked around Bouillon.