Road trip 2025 — Gladrags & Bags

This site has been very unstable today.

So I’ve lost a lot of my work. And please be patient with the photos loading. It’s on a go slow.

We’re home from a mini road trip adventure.

Our original plan to visit Neuschwanstein Castle was booked for June 2020, and that didn’t play out the way we had hoped.

The pandemic swept in and everyone was grounded and sent to their rooms.

That original trip was going to be about 10 days of holiday.

I really wanted to reinstate the plan, but we have very fortunately had a lot of holidays already this year, so it left us with a quandary.

Do we go for a reduced amount of time away or do we just sit life out and not make the most of the time available?

I think you can see where this is going. I’m not a life sitter outer.

Not because I’m fun ~ full of energy and enthusiasm, no, in fact, I’m not fun at all, and my energy levels are that of an insomniac of the last 16 years.

(I don’t smoke, drink or do drugs, I don’t even consume caffeine, I am the most stone cold sober human alive. I don’t like loud places and dancing, I don’t like crowds. Basically all the things everyone else seems to find fun I’m repelled by, so fun isn’t a word I’d use to describe myself. I’m funny, but not classically fun).

The one thing that saves me daily is my enthusiasm, and thank god for that.

I’m un-fun and exhausted, but I refuse to sit life out, mainly because I had to during my cancer treatment, and Sam’s cancer treatment, and I found it awful, absolutely awful.

Apart from all the pain and trauma of a cancer diagnosis I found being robbed of our ability to plan things, to do things on a whim, to go off and have an adventure, was as bad as the rest of the awfulness that treatment brings.

Anyone who has someone with a serious illness will attest, time is no longer your own to do with as you wish.

You are governed by a new system, a timetable of treatment, and it’s horrible.

So now if I get any chance at all to fit an adventure in I will.

So it was a reduced trip or no trip so we chose the mini version.

We knew where we wanted to head to, we knew the amount of time we had available, so Chris rather cleverly put it all into ChatGPT and asked it to make an itinerary for us.

And with some tweaking and extra information it created a fabulous route, including things like quick stops along the way to take in the scenery and have a snack.

5 days - 7 different countries

France

Belgium

Luxembourg

Germany

Austria

Germany

Lichtenstein

Switzerland

France

(We skipped the Rhine Falls and Lichtenstein, but other than that we pretty much stuck to the plan).

Road trips are always a good idea for those who don’t want to fly. I totally understand why someone who has a stoma wouldn’t feel comfortable flying. Actually I understand why anyone wouldn’t feel comfortable flying, I do it because I am so pig headed I don’t want to miss out on anything, but I’m no fan of flying at all.

This trip took a lot of planning:

The route and accommodation = Chris (he worked so hard on this).

Packing = Me.

We have a few cars to choose to do a road trip in.

Chris has a big 4x4 with loads of room to bring everything you’d need and more, but it is fully electric and we weren’t sure how well mainland Europe is set up for long distances.

I have two cars myself, I have a Fiat 500, which although small has quite good storage with the back seats down, but it’s really really slow. And let’s face it we were already on a tight schedule.

And I also have a Porsche 911 Carrera 4s.

Why do I have two cars and Chris only has one, well, I have one I love to drive, and one I love to park and they are not the same car 😂.

Storage wise, my Porsche was the worst of the options, but fun wise, she was the best.

I packed so meticulously for the trip, and now having been and come back, I can class it as very successful. We had everything we needed. Including picnic equipment, which we did actually need to use a few times.

Life on the road is more fun if you pack well for it.

Lists upon lists, were needed to pack without missing something off.

Lists, lists, and more lists…and even more importantly, actually looking at the lists and ticking it all off (This part is not my strong suit. I make lists no problem at all, but I usually forget to check them).

The day before the trip I couldn’t really think straight. I was so determined to not forget something (I usually do) that my brain wasn’t braining. ;)

I could just about manage to get washed and dressed but I couldn’t focus on anything but getting the packing right.

Dress from Gap.

The handy thing is for most road trips, with cars with plenty of storage space, you can take everything you need plus the kitchen sink if you fancied it, but not so with limited space available.

The most important things were my stoma supplies, and clothing. I like to take plenty of clothing options because I don’t know what I’d feel like wearing until the day itself, plus there were weather variations to deal with. Also, I like to take my own hair dryer because some hotels can’t be trusted to supply a nice one.

I packed that car like a jigsaw puzzle and it worked perfectly well for us. Not one thing forgotten, no panic buying, no emergency shopping. I think this is the first time that’s ever happened.

This trip was going to be such an interesting adventure. There were countries on route that I had never visited before.

She’s such a beauty, and perfect for life on the open road.

The main aim of the trip was to finally visit Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany.

It’s a castle that most humans on the planet will have seen before I’m sure, it’s probably one of the most famous, without its name being widely known.

If you’ve ever watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, you’ve seen the castle before…

Seeing as I am Dick Van Dyke’s biggest fan, since childhood, and still to this day, I have definitely seen the castle many times.

It was also the inspiration Walt Disney used for his Sleeping Beauty castle. It’s famous, without being well known.

The day started super early, we headed for the channel tunnel train, because Chris and I are not sea farers, so why risk the sea.

We are very very lucky to live in Europe, because we have the opportunity to visit so many different beautiful places, all through a magic tunnel.

35 minutes and you can go anywhere.

A very casual travel set from a little boutique in Halstead, Shoes from Hermes, Bag from Goyard.

It’s always the quickest, easiest way to travel to the mainland, my only disappointment is that the tunnel isn’t made of clear glass like at a large aquarium, and I really feel they missed a trick there 😂…

Sadly it isn’t like this, it’s just blackness out of the windows.

But I will always settle for a plain walled boring view over a sea crossing any day though.

We drove through France, and made our way to Bruges in Belgium. This was our first stop for a bit of a look around, some lunch and some souvenir shopping.

We decided to buy souvenirs from every stop we made on our trip, and we decided that as we love Christmas, and don’t need any more other sort of tut, we’d make Christmas decoration collecting our travel thing.

It’s not very expensive, but full of memories of our adventures.

We have decorations from Bruges, Germany and France to add to our collection.

So many treasures to be found. I was very taken with cuckoo clocks, but I think it’s safe to say the boys would hate it, so it’d be €700 just to be put in a skip at some point in the future.

They are beautiful though.

We’d visited Bruges before, so I knew there were good Christmas shops and more than that, some great places to eat and drink.

Obviously in Bruges you need to have frites and beer, and very fortunately for us, most of mainland Europe caters for non alcohol drinking people. We’ve had some really good 0.0 beers on this trip.

Back on the road and on to Namur in Belgium to visit the citadel there…via a cable car (what the F ?!. I’m not fun, and I’m perfectly happy with that)

(I’m neurotic about germs and vomiting, and very very scared of heights), but Chris had developed this trip, and he’d worked so hard on it I thought I’d lean in.

It’s not my usual way to travel, but I was really quite impressed by how brave I was. I only did about 3 swears, so that’s pretty good going. ;)

I didn’t do any screams! 🥰

Our final stop of the day was in Luxembourg, a country neither of us had visited before, but we were intrigued to see what it’s like.

Chris booked a really nice hotel, and we had a very nice evening meal there. And a quick walk round after in the dark. We didn’t get a chance to see it fully or in day light hours, so maybe that’s one to revisit and see it properly.

From Luxembourg to Germany…

Outfit from River Island, comfy clothes are essential.

From Luxembourg it was a long shlep to Schwangau for the castle, with stops built in along the way.

We had intended on stopping at a restaurant along the route, but although the previous night’s meal was utterly delicious, it was very spenny and sat really heavily on me, I had trouble sleeping I was so full.

So we decided to stop and sample the local delicious wares of…well, Lidl actually! 🤩

We bought a variety of breads and pastries, and cheese and butter and stopped for a roadside picnic. It was €10.50 well spent.

10/10 would recommend.

We had a couple of other stops for wees and drinks along the way, which were also lovely.

Germany was new to me, Chris had been before on family holidays as a child, so he was re-walking those steps. It’s really lovely and very beautiful.

The roads in France, Belgium and Luxembourg had been really smooth and well maintained, the roads in Germany were rougher and more like the ones we’re used to in the uk.

It’s interesting to go through so many different parts of the world in a short time span and directly compare and contrast in real time.

We had the best time travelling around. It helps that Chris is my happy place, so anywhere with him is always my favourite place to be.

Oh she’s so fancy 😍

With her fancy lunch…

Mainland Europe has lots of lovely places to stop for picnics and to stretch your legs at the side of the road. Most have toilets too.

I took a scarf to wear because I assumed we’d have the roof down a lot, but unfortunately the weather wasn’t always on our side.

I usually wear baseball caps with the roof down, but it does leave marks on my hair, so I opted for something else.

The only problem is, I want an Audrey Hepburn vibe, but often end up with a Queen Elizabeth II look instead, but at least my hair was under control and not squished.

This was a great little stop, but always remember to take euros in coins as most of the toilets were coin operated.

I saw this sign and it made me laugh…the way I was pronouncing it (probably incorrectly) made me giggle anyway, and I kept saying it every time I saw it, and I saw it a lot. 😂

It’s been 15 years since I personally had any! 🫣🥰

…And then we arrived at the reason for our trip…

We finally arrived in the village of schwangau, and the sight of the castle made me scream with joy! (Lucky Chris! I’m not your stereotypical fun, but I am loud!).

Chris had booked us into a darling little hotel, nothing fancy, not expensive, but located in the village (which we assumed would cut out a lot of the walking involved in visiting this attraction…reader, it did not).

The whole village is was super homely and quaint, the hotel was really sweet, the staff were friendly and really helpful too.

We arrived at dinner time so we booked into the restaurant straight away, and had a great meal.

We got chatting to the waitress and I said I was so excited to get up to the castle, she said “well go now, once you finish dinner head on up”

I said “won’t it get dark soon?” And she explained that it would, but promised it would be just as wonderful in the dark, as waiting till daylight.

Now Chris and I are not hikers, we’re barely walkers at all, preferring long romantic walks to Harrods over countryside ambles.

But we finished dinner, and I was just so excited I said “Let’s do it, I mean, What’s the worst that could happen?”

Well, loads of bad stuff probably, but my over excitement blurred all the down sides out.

We headed up, up up up and more up, it’s far (for us), it’s very uphill (for us), it was exhausting (for us).

We finally arrived at the base of the castle, it was spectacular. It was just as dusk was moving in.

The local fire brigade were on site doing some tests and maintenance. We didn’t like to get in the way so we just stood back and took in the sight of the castle.

A man approached us, and I assumed he’d tell us to go away, as it was getting dark now and the castle was closed.

But as he approached us he smiled and said “why are you standing so far back? Follow the path up and go the bridge, you’ll get amazing views from there!”

I was a bit surprised to be honest.

There were lockable gates, so I did enquire if they’d be closed at some point.

Yes, I desperately wanted to see the castle but I didn’t fancy getting looked in.

He assured us they wouldn’t be closed even, and definitely not locked.

So up we went further, by this time I was crippled with shin splint pain, but I’m incredibly determined when I went to be. So on we pushed.

And oh my god was it worth the effort. The scenery is spectacular, the castle in the dark is sensational, nothing short of spectacular.

And we had it to ourselves for ages, Yes!! Just us and the castle! Talk about magical.

A while later a lone woman turned up, but that wasn’t a problem, I was happy to share the experience, and for someone else to see how beautiful it is in the dark.

The views down to the village, and the other castle there were incredible, but the main event, Neuschwanstein Castle was far beyond my expectations.

We had a great meal, with more alcohol free beers, and strudel, there should always be strudel.

And then we headed up…

The path up is really steep, and the short cut the waitress recommended was even more steep than the road way.

Nothing could have prepared me for this view…

Magical!

If it were possible for me to physically shit my pants, I most definitely would have done on this bridge.

It’s high, it’s super exposed to the elements, and the wooden boards are very bouncy feeling. If it wasn’t for the fact I’d waited 47 years to go there I would not have been on it at all.

The only thing that would have made it better would have been to go there with my dream boat, Dick Van Dyke…but being there with Chris was a pretty decent second choice. 🫣😍😂

Coming back down the mountain was fun, it was now pitch black, and we weren’t terribly familiar with the area.

Torchlight from our phones were all we had to guide us.

But for the most part it was like this photo below, yes, that is a photo, not just a blank screen…

The following day we headed up to the castle again to see the inside, by bus this time. As my shins were still burning.

Top from Maje, Trousers from Ralph Lauren, Shoes from Hermes.

I’d recommend booking tickets to the castle online, well in advance.

It is equally as magical in the day time too.

Look at her, braving the bridge yet again.

There is a coffee shop at the top by the castle.

They do a very clever, very eco conscious thing here. You pay for a mug of coffee or hot chocolate as in this case, and if you want to keep the mug you can, or return them and get your deposit back.

Photography isn’t allowed inside the castle itself, I don’t know why.

Anyway, these photos below are from the guidebook.

It’s beautiful inside, it’s been done in a medieval revival style.

This castle is relatively new, as castles go, built in the late 1800s.

The owner was a beautiful young prince, who grew up in the castle across the valley. He became king when his father died, and he wanted to make his mark in the world.

So he decided to create Neuschwanstein castle, it was his life’s work.

He never married, or had children, and he died in fairly odd circumstances, leaving no direct heirs (his brother had been institutionalised, for what we’d now call PTSD, from fighting in two separate wars).

The owner of this castle, king Ludwig, only got to live in it for 6 months, before he died, and it was then taken into government custody, and opened almost immediately as a tourist attraction.

*Neuschwanstein Castle is a historicist 19th-century palace in the foothills of the German Alps, built for the reclusive King Ludwig II of Bavaria and completed after his death. Inspired by the operas of Richard Wagner and medieval legends, the castle served as a retreat for the king into a romantic dream world rather than a functional fortress. Though never fully completed, its romanticized medieval design was equipped with modern technology and it opened to the public as a museum shortly after Ludwig II's passing.

Construction Began in September 1869, but the castle remained unfinished at the time of Ludwig II's death in 1886.

The only thing that could make it even more magical, would be to see it in the snow.

The yellow castle in the distance, below, was the castle he grew up in.

Apparently he wasn’t satisfied with just the one.

So if you visit Neuschwanstein, you really do have to visit Hohenschwangau as well. It completes the set.

The bridge we originally viewed the castle from is the one in these photos below.

If it’s possible, it’s even more terrifying in the daytime.

But I crossed that bridge when I came to it. Proud doesn’t even begin to cover it. 🥰

I clearly was very motivated to see the castle in all its glory, and it really is best viewed from the bridge.

We had booked a ticket to get the bus back down to the village, but we decided to walk down instead, I know, very outdoorsy aren’t we! :)

We then had time for lunch (with strudel) before we went to our booking for the other castle in the village.

With my very own Prince Charming 🥰

Again, there is no photography allowed inside the castle, but plenty of photogenic areas outside.

Although, they do allow you to take one photo in there, looking out of this beautiful window to the lake below.

If you look closely at this photo below you can see a bride and groom. What a sensational setting for a wedding!

There is a 5 km walk around the lake.

Did we do it? Come on now, seriously, what do you think!?

It was very nice to see it from this spot, then we headed back to the hotel for even more strudel, and no, that’s not a euphemism. 🤩

The following day was meant to be a very early start, but we adjusted our plans to suit the fact that we were achey and pained from all the hill walking.

We had planned to visit the Rhine Falls, but we cut it out, so we could have a small lie in, and then head to Switzerland.

I had never been there before, Chris had been to Zurich once before and wanted me to see it for myself, he said he knew I’d enjoy it.

And he was correct. :)

Top from Intimissimi, joggers from The White Company (they were very expensive for a pair of casual trousers. I really wanted them but I felt they were a bit too much when I tried them on in the shop. So I went home and searched for a voucher code and found a 10% off one, so I bought them online.

It’s definitely worth looking into vouchers online if you see something you like.

They are pure silk and so comfortable on. Great for travelling in.

Jumper from The White Company.

Zürich did not disappoint. I’m more about city breaks than countryside ones.

Chris very kindly took me to Hermes for a pair of souvenir shoes, but sadly they didn’t have my size in stock of the ones I was looking at.

Plus I did remember in time that Chris and a guest (me 🙋🏼‍♀️), had been invited to two different events by Hermes in Bond Street this week, so it made more sense saving my (his) money to spend at those instead.

The universe works in mysterious ways. 🤩🥰😂

There was a vintage market in the city centre, which really tickled my fancy.

Slightly different from other second hand markets I’ve ever been to before.

The weather had really brightened up so it was roof down and on to our final overnight destination.

Colmar, in France.

Colmar is such a treat. I had assumed it was the whole city that looked like this, but it is one part.

It is utterly gorgeous, just like stepping into a fairy tale land.

I’d definitely recommend a visit if you are passing nearby, and most definitely recommend a little boat trip.

Our hotel was about 15 minutes walk from the historic beautiful part.

They gave us a list of restaurant recommendations, and Chris worked his way down the list until he found one with availability. He chose well, because it was really good. And felt very special with its central location.

We were sat next to a couple who were on their first date in the flesh, and I have never been more disturbed by the quality of the dating scene these days ever.

God help them 😬🫣😂

She said she’d used AI to make a romantic picture of them from their individual photos (A little sad, but cute and harmless enough).

He immediately replied that he’d used AI to turn a photo of a coworker into a “insert old fashioned & now offensive word to describe someone who has an extra chromosome”. That, combined with the description of his job he gave (one of the darkest career choices I’ve ever heard) made me want to beg this woman to run, run for the hills.

But who am I to judge…actually, scrap that, I did judge. I judged the fuck out of him.

It was hard to focus on our meal with this going on in our ear shot.

But the food was delicious. Chris had snails, when in Rome and all that, although when in France in this case.

I sat the snails out, and just had baguette with garlic butter.

And some fish for main course, and then finished off with a crème Brûlée, oh how very French! 🇫🇷

Colmar at night might even be more beautiful than Colmar by day.

We were shattered after such a fun packed itinerary. We headed back to the hotel, and an exceedingly comfortable bed.

We gave ourselves a longer lie in in the morning, a moment to repair before heading off on the 7 hour drive back to Calais.

I saw this T shirt in a shop in Germany and it cracked me up.

I’d been saying Arse Fart in an attempted German accent the whole trip. So to get it printed on a T shirt for posterity, what a find!

Will I ever wear it again? I very much doubt it. Was it worth it anyway? It definitely was!! 🤩😂

Top from a souvenir shop up a mountain, Jeans from M&S, Shoes from Hermes.

The town of Colmar was liberated by the Americans in 1945, and there were definitely signs that they had, if you had been in any doubt. 🤩

We had another really long drive back to the train station.

But we had time to stop and stretch our legs in Arras.

Unfortunately we missed the Sunday market, I had hoped to buy a wicker basket and some leafy vegetables, like celery and leeks, and carrots and have them over spilling over from my basket. In my head this looked adorable.

Sadly it wasn’t to be. No market, no basket, no veg.