Last fall we went out with the camper a few times. Below I will review two places where we ended up completely by chance.
Wimbachklamm
In the south of Germany we were on our way from the Königsee to Berchtesgaden and according to the camper guide there were nothing worth mentioning on that route. Yet out of the corner of my eye I suddenly saw a sign flash by, which I thought might be worth seeing: the Wimbach gorge.
A short climb over a paved road and well-maintained path brings you to a footbridge in this narrow gorge. From this footbridge you can enjoy the impressive force of the fast-flowing water that squeezes through this gorge and the various large and smaller waterfalls for about 200 meters.
When photographing flowing water, a longer shutter speed and therefore a tripod is essential. Because it is precisely the movement of the water, as you observe it, that you want to show in the photo as clearly as possible. Unfortunately, I couldn't use my tripod due to the railing of the walkway. But fortunately I was able to use the railing itself to keep my camera nice and still, making a shutter speed of up to one second possible.
A second piece of luck I had was that the sun showed itself well that day. This gave the photos below that little bit of extra appeal for me.
Houdain Lane
After a few pleasant days in and around our former hometown of Montigny sur Loing in France, it was time to go back home. And because we didn't want to do the return trip in one day, we looked for a place to stay overnight near the A1. The Park4Night app had already guided us to various beautiful places and this time we were not disappointed.
After a short drive on an unpaved road, where the extra ground clearance of the bus came in handy, we arrived at the small and well-maintained British military cemetery Houdain Lane. What a special place! In contrast to the enormous cemeteries in Normandy and Margraten, for example, with thousands of graves, only 76 deceased soldiers from the First World War are buried here, of which 67 have been identified. But this small scale certainly does not make the whole any less impressive. Moreover, the location itself is also fantastic. The cemetery is located slightly on a hill and is surrounded on all sides by fields and views for miles.
When I stroll through such cemeteries and take it all in, my thoughts inevitably turn to the sacrifices these people made so that we can live in freedom today. Especially in these times, with another war on our own continent and the threat from Russia, freedom is certainly not a given. And when, at the end of my tour, I arrive at the two higher graves next to the large cross, I spontaneously get goosebumps when I see that one of those two soldiers was only 17 years old (!) when he died. What did you and I actually do when we were 17...?
