Many tastes of Germany

Following Denmark I spent a total of 4 days in Germany spent driving south. Every day was completely different with a change of scenery each day. I saw some truly beautiful countryside in a beautiful country.

After crossing the border I headed to a camping site on the north east coast. Unfortunately on arrival the camping site was closed and I had a last minute panic as to finding a place to stay for the night. Thanks to Trusty Tim the satnav I found a camping site several miles away right on the beach. It wasnt the nicest of campsites but I was happy with the prospect of staying on the beach and the dogs being able to have a good swim.

The stay turned out to be not so great Im afraid. After taking the dogs for a long run on the beach in the evening, they developed the squirts from drinking the seawater. At that point I valued my car too much to leave them in there, but couldnt let them just hang out around the tent as I usually would due as the camping site was absolutely overrun with rabbits which left me with 2 very excited vocal dogs.

Tooheys rabbit watching

While Hollie catches up

The following day saw us heading to Luneberger Heide (Lunerberg Heath) in the central north, a huge area of land that is open for hiking etc. We drove through some very quintessential german towns on the way which gave a real feel to the place. While I had every intention of taking the dogs out for a long hike, it was far too hot so we went for a much shorter walk instead.

From the Heide I stopped at the Belsen-Bergen concentration camp site. While the camp is no longer standing the site has been turned into a large memoral and is very eyeopening and sad.

That evening I went on a scenic drive further west, then staying at a picturesque campsite on the edge of the Rhone Valley, camping right on the river.

The next day I drove through Hamlin (of Pied Piper fame) and then down along the Deutsch Marchenstrasse (german fairy tale road) seeing some quaint old towns and stopping in Hanau, birthplace of the Brothers Grimm.

First thing the next morning I got on the autobahn and headed to Munich. Stopped at the old concentration camp just north of munich which was very sad..yep I knew it would be but just had to see.

As I was leaving the gorgeous hot weather that we had had all week changed suddenly and we received torrential rain as I headed into Munich itself. Not to matter, I spent a few hours wandering the steets of the city, but probably didnt see as much as I would have otherwise. Its a city I would very happily go back to as some stage anyway.

We then spent the night at a busy campground in the south of the city. I suprised myself as I was positive by this point of the trip I would be well and truly over camping and ready to stay at a hotel. Quite the oposite actually. It was so nice to spend the evenings sitting outside, Im definately coverted.

The streets of Kobenhavn

Upon leaving the Jorgensons I headed to Copenhagen for the day. The dogs got to spend the majority of the day in the car (in the shade of a parking garage of course) while I roamed the streets and explored the city. And a beautiful city it is. Very nice weather for wandering along the canals and soaking in the atmosphere.







That evening we wandered along the north harbour, and visited Das Lille Havrive (the little mermaid) statue, before heading to a very nice camping site on the northern edge of the city, and bordered with lots of woodland.





The following day we left Copenhagen and headed east across the Storebaeltsto bridge, stopping on the way at the city of Odense, Hans Christain Andersons birthplace, and explored there briefly.





And then visited the nearby Egeskov Slot. A castle and beautiful surrounding estate, it was definately worth the detour!!







Upon leaving Odense we headed back south crossing the border to Germany in time for night.

The cowdog is a cowgirl!

Now that Ive been back a couple weeks its about time I finished updating on our adventure

We spent the 24-28th june at the Jorgensons in Denmark working stock. The friday to sunday was a herding clinic taught by Henning on both sheep and cattle. I got to meet a lot of great people there all with a common interest and a variety of dogs. I think in total we had 8 cattle dogs, a kelpie, a bouv, 2 aussies, a terv, and a single border collie participating.

Hollie started the weekend off a little shaky, well rubbish actually, and after such a big break from working its only to be expected, though it doesnt stop it from being a little disappointing. However as the weekend went on she came back into her stride and did some nice work. We got the opportunity to introduce her (and me!) properly to cattle work after our crash course back at the nationals last year. She and did some nice work. The truly exciting part was on the day following the clinic. A group of us (myself and a few people from germany) were still around so we did some private sessions. I worked Hollie on cows and we put quite a fair bit of pressure on her, but she did some awesome work and best of all she really enjoyed it. I was so proud of how she did. It gave me goosebumps to see that combination of instinct and training come out and see this dog doing what shes meant to do.

Tooheys didnt do too badly, for him, either. He really showed improvement over the weekend and given me promise that theres hope for him yet.

It was a very hot weekend and it was nice to spend it outside doing what we enjoy. It was great to get to see different dogs with different levels of training working with different styles, and watch them all come on over the weekend.

And while we werent too far from the beach the dogs got to go for a swim in the sparkling ocean sunday night.