Sert Day 8

Little (Big) Cats

"Around and about Ingelheim"

Distance: Some Miles (On Foot), a very few miles (in car)

The day started as the previous one, with an ample, very tasty and leisurely breakfast. The plan for the day was to go for another walk.

Knowing from the previous day that our hosts had slightly different "afternoon nutritionaly requirements" to ours, a certain member of the party (who shall remain nameless) insisted that we didn't leave the flat without a substantial packed lunch in tow..

So, happy that my stomach was catered for, we set off into the vinyards behind and above Ingelheim. This photo looks out over old Ingelheim and for those of you who can be bothered looking closely, on the top of the hillside beyond, above and slightly to the left of the Church spire there's an old tower. That's where we were heading, not just a great view but also some Bengal Tiger cubs in the Tiger zoo beside it.

So, we ate our lunch, and headed past the church and into Old Ingelheim

before walking onwards up the other side and arriving just in time for "play time" when the Cubs were taken out into a seperate enclosure and pretty much left to get on with it. It was fantastic to get so close to these magnificent animals, and uncanny the similar behaviours with our own Bengals (albeit a little bigger!!)

The did at least look like they were even more trouble than our lot!!

After a quick "Shandy" and a trip up to the top of the tower we headed off back.

As it was blazing hot, we headed off to the local outdoor swimming complex, Boys in the car on the way down and girls on the way back! Spirits were high and we were all suitably adult to make the most of the slide and daft enough to jump of high diving platform... The boys got to ride the bikes back up the hill, and despite my worries for leaving the car in Mrs VL's unsupervised hands for the first time, it was infact me that broke Mrs GV's bike... Oops, sorry, I hope it's been fixed!!

More food and drink and a relatively early night, the GV's back to work and us back on the road the next day. Many thanks to the GV's for a wonderful weekend, our door is open, feel free to come and visit anytime.

Lost count.

Either we've got too many cats or the Bathroom heated floor's set too high (although it's doing a good job for the fermenting beer in the background)...



To see so many at one time is a rare sight, one of these is "only visiting" and the father and son don't really get on all that well...

The Office. Part 9 - Finally Finished

Well, this news is a couple of weeks old now. First I had to wait until our bi-weekly visit of our (cough) cleaner before the office was suitably photogenic and it's taken me another week to find time to blog about it...

Anyway, the office has been without drawers ever since Easter when we moved in. Finally, after a quick session with "partner in crimes" table saw and a bit of routing, sanding and varnishing I was able to build the drawers. It took a little bit of fiddling to get them to fit. I can't complain with the result though.

Sert Day 7

A "short" walk

Schloss Johannisberg - Eberbach Monastery - Schloss Johannisberg

Distance: 10+ Miles (On Foot)

The second and final day of the trip that the Spitfire didn't turn a wheel started with a more than ample breakfast after which, as I was determined to taste and purchase some local wine, we all headed on foot into Ingelheim.

Our local guides new exactly where to take us and we headed straight into "Weingut J. Mett's" open courtyard and shop. We were on the red side of the valley so we where immediately presented with three reds to taste. After a little swirlling, gargling, inhaling and all of that, me and Mrs VL agreed on the "2005 Dornfelder" as a bottom of the range, drink whenever alternative.. Wanting to add to the wine cellar, I also chose a "2004 Blauer Spatburgunder" which has won various prices. Obviously, given the space limitations in the car and the potential for more purchases during the day, two bottles was all we dared to take.

Back to the flat and onwards, in the car and across the Rhein towards Schloss (castle) Johannisberg. We had our lunch in the car, but as we were only going for a little stroll, we didn't take it with us.

The first thing we found at Schloss Johannisberg was more tractors, and again, the narrow version of another of the nieghbours vehicles as shown below.

After a breif stop to look at the fish, we headed onwards towards the destination of our walk, Kloster Eberbach. It quickly became apparent in my mind that this stroll was more of a walk, lunch time was approaching and passing and we were getting further from our food. I must confess to a degree of hungry consternation when we past a signpost stating that the mid point of our walk was 8Km away.

It wasn't long before spirits were raised as we came to this fantastic "Wine Fridge" open to all with a price list and an honesty box. This wouldn't work anywhere in the world, but it seemed to here on the "Rheinstig".

Refreshed, we headed onwards towards the 12 Century monestary of Eberbach. The journey was slow, not helped by the active model club at their airstrip, where yours truly had to stop and watch them flying their planes for a "little while".

When we finally arrived at our destination the question was asked if we should eat first (in the resturant) or have a look around. You can imagine the reply!! So with some local beer and very tasty grub in us we headed on for a look around the fantastic closters and grounds. Those of you who have seen the film "the name of the rose" have seen the inside of these buildings.

Not suprisingly they made wine here through the years (and still do), here are the incredible presses that they used. Just a note for "Partner in Crime", after our bumper crop of grapes this year, we might be needing one of these.... A couple of bits of Oak and a few evenings in the basement, i've got some more detailed shots!......???

More tasting and the purchase of a reisling before we set off on the quick stroll back to our Lunch (stopping at the fridge for refreshment), arriving early evening and back to the Vets flat where my inventive culinary skills were put to the test, making an acceptable Pasta sauce. Highly appropriate for the excellent red wine from the wine cellar....

Mechanised Farming.

Well, it's a first. I've successfully attach a piece of rotating farm machinery with specific purpose to the back of my tractor and used it for that purpose of which the machine is intended....

The extra few inches I needed were readily available at rediculous expense from our local farm machinery shop in the form of a power-take-off extension, and look like this...

and not really surprisingly attach here

So that you can connect up the drive shaft between the PTO and the Potato harvester like this.

That was the easy bit. It took a little while to work out which levers I needed to put where, how to keep it at the right depth (the grounds not exactly level so there's a fair amount of adjustment under way) but after a little practice on a row I had already dug I set to work on a half dug row, with considerable success as you can see.

As I have previously stated the harvest is a little on the low side due to complete lack of care and weeding during the growing season but after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing I manage to harvest the rest of the short (double) row that I had already started digging.

The other rows are longer and slightly flatter so I hope with a little adjustment and better technique it will go better and faster and there'll be a tick on the jobs board before you know it..

If only I had another couple of inches....

What a difference a couple of inches on you shaft makes (OK, I'l stop it now, but it's sooo tempting)....


But anyway, if it was a couple of inches longer then, maybe just maybe, I'd have harvested the rest of the potato crop by now. We've been eating our own spuds since we got back from the Sert. The meals per plant rate is a little dissapointing, but given the neglect and the amount of weeds it's not surprising.

This particularly old and evil looking piece of equipment is an old fanshioned potato harvester, and it's been lying around in the barn ever since we moved in.


Not surprisingly it would appear it's only ever been used on the David Brown, which regular readers will know has been seized solid ever since we got it (with the property) and is in bits.

I've filed it with oil, greased it, got it moving freely and as you can see, managed to hitch it up to the Zetor but the drive shaft is too short.

I hope to be able to find a not too permenant solution for this, as I hope to get the David brown working before next summer, and it fits best on that.

I really would like to try this now, if it works, it will impact future plans for the layout of the veg garden....

Sert Day 6

Verticle Vinyards in the Mosel Valley

Remich - Trittenheim - Marienburg - Ingelheim am Rhein

Distance: 159 Miles

The day started, as planned, with a trip to "Cactus" the local supermarket and drinks shop to take advantage of the incredibly low prices in Luxemboug. I came away with a bottle of Luxembourgs finest (hopefully!) pink sparkling and a medium range single malt, Glen Elgin.

I also purchased a small and very cheap rucksack for the tool kit to minimise the number of poly bags that we had to carry in and out of our accommodation each morning and evening.

By now we were expert at packing the boot and putting the hood down, so we were making our way up the Mosel valley in no time. Fortunately we were also expert at putting the hood up as not long before this picture was taken there was a sudden downpour, which was the last rain we saw until the 2nd last day on the way back to Kiel.We had an early and slightly extented stop at a gardening/DIY/motor shop to get some glue suitable to attach the Triumph Badge back on the back bumper (the 30 Year old glue had given up during the heavy rain duting the night in Bastonge), some screws and crimps to sort out the washer pump, which I had borrowed for the Landrovers test some weeks before.

We got the badge glued back on and Mrs VL polished some chrome while I got the washer pump mounted and wired back up.

Feeling ever more complete we continued up the fantastic Mosel Valley towards our lunch stop at Trittenheim with Mrs VL behind the wheel. "When in Rome", we enjoyed our very traditional lunch of Bratwurst and saurkraut with some very nice grape juice. During our short after lunch walk we spotted this tractor, which we had to get a photo of as it's identical to the Neighbours, only in minature. There were lots of these narrow tractors about, designed, obviously, to fit between the rows of grapevines.

It's amazing the steepness of some of the hillsides where they grow these grapes, almost everything apart from verticle rock was covered with rows of grapevines, a truly amazing sight, the photo doen't quite do justice, but it's the best one we got...

After a diversion away from the valley due to a closed road, and quick stop for ice creams at the very beautiful town of Marienburg we left the Mosel, and heady cross country through small villages and towns before finally plonking ourselves on the Autobahn towards Frankfurt. We arrived at our hosts, "The German Vets", fantastic appartment early evening, as planned. The day was capped off by a balcony bar-b-q, some good wine and local traditions and very good company...

New Toy...

You may well ask, why do I need a 1985 Suzuki SJ413, well, there's always a method in the madness, you know...

In my previous job, I had the options of bus, bike or car. Also the distance to work was sufficiently low that the days when I chose car the Landrover was an acceptable alternative. Now, sadly, the only alternative is Car, and the distance (about 35Km each way) is a little over that which one desires to drive a 1963 Landrover everyday. Also the fuel economy of the Landrover would make travelling to work an expensive business.

Many of you will know that we live at the top of a 2Km forest track and whilst the neighbour does a good job of ploughing there is likely to be the odd occasion that a normal car can't get out at 6a.m. when Mrs VL needs to drive down to the bus in the winter.

So, I needed something with 4wd, Ground clearance, Good Economy, acceptable for a 70Km daily winter commute, cheap (obviously, you know me) and fairly simple. These Suzuki's were the perfect candidate, it's taken a few months to get my hands on one that's half way decent and not 75% rust. It's not all plain sailing though but hopefully after I've spent this weekend underneath it it should be ready for daily use.

Some more pictures on More-power and a quick desciption in "The Fleet" section. If I get a chance on top of everything else, I may even do a little update on more-power for this weekends planned repair and servicing work.

Sert Day 5

Hills, at last and rain.

Bastogne-Bourscheid-Remich

Distance: 90 Miles

The day started just on the other side of Bastogne town at the war memorial and Bastogne Historical Centre. Just as well it wasn't so far away as I had to leave Mrs VL behind for 15 minutes to give back the keys to the room in the B&B which we had managed to take with us...

Anyway, Bastogne is, of course, the location of the battle of the Bulge during which cut off and under supplied American troops fought back the advances of the Germans in a crucial battle of the 2nd world war.

We had to run from the most impresive Memorial into the Museum to escape the pouring rain, which slowly eased up during the day and stopped in the mid afternoon. The Museum was well worth the visit, although not quite on the scale of the Normandy Beaches Museums which I visited with Blogs Brother in Law and London Son some years back.

We drove back into the town as Mrs VL wanted some Belgian Chocolate for the Journey and I, obviously, wanted to take this last oppurtunity to stock up on some Belgian beer. Before long we were over the border into Luxembourg, and almost as quickly the landscape changed from flat to distinctly hilly.

Rather dissapointingly, we found out how easily the front brakes over heated on the way down the hill to past this view point (we drove back up just to have another go at it (well, to have a look at the view actually)). Our journey onwards took us over the dam in the picture.

One of our guides, Lonely Planets "Europe on a shoe string" mentioned the Magnificent 1000 Year old hill side castle of Chateau De Bourscheid , and when we finally found it it was indeed, Magnificent, 1000 years old and on the side of a steep hill. Affording fantastic views from the top of the watch house, as you can see...

After a quick Cup-a-Soup Lunch, we stopped to take the photo used on the worlds most expensive postcard (shown below for those that didn't recieve one (apologies, but by the time we'd got them printed, bought a special pen, bought envelopes, bought siscors because the envelopes were to small (or were the photos to big?), and paid the rediculous German postal cost, we couldn't afford any more...))

Onward, carefully, with the gearbox screaming (as it does) in third or second down the steepest hills we headed through the elegant Luxembourg City towards our final destination Remich, in Luxembourgs small wine region on the Mosel Valley.

Lonely Planet reccomended Hotel Auberge with the Resturant de Cygnes, specialising in wood fire baked Pizzas. The Pizza was very good, albeit consumed a little late in the evening after our walk round town during which we enjoyed some Pasta with some local White wine, saw some fantastic fruit trees and did a bit of a shop at the Local Supermarket. Finding out in the process that beer and whiskey were very cheap in Luxembourg so we scheduled a quick trip there in the morning with the car.

New Week, New Life for Many

The 1st of september bought a big change not only for both Myself and Mrs VL but also for Our Parents who art in Cork and Mother in Law.

Tommorrow morning the day will start for us at the ungodly hour of 05:15 as Mrs VL readys herself for what will from now on be a daily bus commute to Oslo. Not being clever enough already, she is starting a 4 year PhD at the Veterinær Høyskole (Vet University) . It's a joint Scandanavian project researching the validity of farm animal health recording systems in the Nordic Countries. This fits perfectly with the Epidemiology Masters that she's already well underway with.

I had my last day at Scanship on Friday. It's been a tough and rewarding couple of years and whilst I will miss my work mates, the atmosphere and the exciment of daily life there I am ready for a change. Tommorrow morning I have to remember to turn right onto the E-18 and head towards Sandefjord and not Tønsberg. In the morning I begin at Flowtite Technology, the technology part of Amiantit group, a Saudi owned concern. I will be working with production facilities for large diameter Fibre Glass water and sewage pipe. These are in all sorts of weird and wonderful parts of the world and whilst it's not a specifically travelling job I'll still need to get out and about to see what's going on, seems like my first trip will be in October to India.

Our parents who art in Cork left the Cathedral and the organists house, our family home of 17+ years on Friday. After Our Fathers retirement from the position of Choir master and Organist of St.Finbarres hopefully they will both be able to enjoy a new and more relaxed life in the west wing attach to Beeston farm, the residence of Big Little Sis, Blogs Brother in Law and family.

MIL, a couple of weeks after her 70th Birthday, has finally had to accept that everyone has to retire at some point. So they did not leave the chalet at the end of this weekend as she won't be going to work on Monday either. Now they are both people of leisure and can do exactly as they please.

So, here's wishing everyone the best of luck, I hope it all works out well. I'm fairly sure I'l be alright, as long as we manage to get to bed early enough!!