We made the right decision to take the funicular railway up to the high point of the castle first thing whilst the sun was shining and the sky was blue and we were rewarded with stunning views of mountains to the north, east and south and the rooftops of the city to the west. The castle, home in centuries past to a succession of ruling bishops, was a stunning reminder of the former power of the church.  Of course in those days it was the government as well and behaved in much the same way as present “democratic” governments with the dispensing of patronage, waging of wars of principle and raising ever higher taxes on the population to undertake amongst other things vanity projects.

Weather quickly reverted to normal and the clouds rolled in and the wind came up.  Time to go back down to the city and find a nice warm, dry museum or two.  Visited the famous Salzburg museum where the history of the city and the myth of Salzburg are explained in great detail.  From there we repaired to the Irish Bar for lunch and shelter from the rain.  For the record the Guinness isn’t bad.

Quick tour of the Residence Museum and saturation Mozart at his house followed.  On the way booked for boat trip but by the time we had worked through most of the Mozart sonatas it was p***ing down.  Ran to boat, got drenched.  River was flowing at least 10 knots so an interesting trip but at least dry in the boat.

What a difference a day makes! We were woken by the torrential rain and it was not about to let up and with the rain came a significant temperature drop. We wanted to stay in bed but Salzburg was beckoning.

Fiona had trouble with the first part of our journey  as it involved a ferry crossing right across the middle of Lake Konstanz. This would save us many miles circumnavigating the lake and ended up being a highly efficient and low cost experience. To travel this distance, a little further than crossing the Solent from Portsmouth to Ryde,  the cost was less than £7 with the car!  Oh! for nationalised transport systems, keeping communities connected.

It was pretty well all motorway via Munich to Salzburg and the German motorway experience was something else.  No speed limit, no services and very little spray free tarmac. The outside lane was like a firing range with cars, like bullets, racing past in a blur of spray. The rest stops, which consisted of just a layby, were frequent, had no loos, just a line of trees that substituted for loos, and were therefore very unsavoury to walk near.

The rain did relent just as we approached Salzburg, thank goodness. The unfolding Austrian countryside was picture book stuff with the snow capped mountains encircling undulating green fields and budding woods.  So here we are for a 3 night stay. We won’t be sorry to leave the car for a couple of days and just hope the thunderstorms and rain forecast will hold off for a couple of days.

Fiona excelled herself and we have made her a permanent member of the team, but only on the understanding that her proposals are vetted before we set off and she does a bit more training with postcodes, not her strength, but we can’t be good at everything. She usually puts forward three options for the overall route and it is vital to check up on her choosing the option we want. With this new understanding, we are all very happy.

It was just a three hour drive today, on motorways. crossing into Switzerland, skirting around Zurich, crossing into Germany and heading up to Lake Konstanz. With temperatures now creeping up to 20 C, it is all very civilised, and the blue sky, puffy white clouds, glassy lake flanked with snow clad mountains and sporting a few sailing yachts was indeed a sight to behold.

We walked round the lake to the old town of Konstanz and admired stunning architecture from a range of periods 1500 onwards but with the magnificent buildings of circa 1900 dominating the skyline.

We have found another treasure of a place to stay. Waldhaus Jakob stands overlooking the lake and is full of character.+49 7531 8100 or look it up on http://www.waldhaus-jakob.de

We left the champagne region with a few bottles on board and headed to Alsace, but rather than revisit the Colmar area we headed up into the mountains and stayed in a very rustic auberge high above the village of St Amarin, just north of Mulhouse. The drive across beautiful rural France was a delight. We decided to personify our sat nav, and Fiona, on probation, took us off piste through charming villages with the most elaborate and elegant lamp posts, past acres of rape fields, tree lined roads and stunning scenery,  possibly looking for a branch of Harvey Nicks (as she does sound very posh). We had to take control after a couple of hours and seek a motorway to eat a few miles, but she did well again later on to find our destination, which was a blessing, as we had no detailed map!  The scenery was breathtaking and all we heard was birdsong and cow bells – the cow shed adjoined the hotel! No English spoken here, so we practiced our best French. It seemed to work very well.

An early start on a cold grey November, no sorry, May morning, with a ferry to catch from Dover at 1015. Alas it was not meant to be and we found ourselves gridlocked on the M26 just behind a blazing lorry full of burning bananas. We kid you not – the M26 was closed and after an hour we were allowed to turn around and drive the wrong way back on the hard shoulder to the A21 exit.  We made the 1205 crossing and happily arrived in France, where it was equally grey and then very wet. Driving was effortless as there was little traffic on the major routes and we discovered our hotel, in spite of the sat nav trying to deposit us in a field some few miles from the actual location of Hotel Bristol. What a charming proprietor. Never before have we had a guided tour of the room to the extent of a lesson in how the massage facility on the shower worked.

We managed a walk around the delightful old medieval parts of town

before fetching up in a delightfully French restaurant:  Les Ardennes run by the Family Bouffanais since 1959, in the Place Republique. We recommend you visit: 03 26 68 21 42 for a reservation. The wine was excellent.