We had a short walk around Floreffe to have a coffee and check out things we had missed.

First of all we had to do the recycling. I think someone has had a party down here !

We checked out the old mill and the abbey – it all including the bricks looks very old.

We then wandered back along the canal and saw the parent geese getting the kids to eat their greens.

We then got on the road towards Schonenecken where I had found a good aire to stay at for 7 euro.

The scenery changed to being quite mountainous. We left the motorway and went up some windy roads leading into the hills. We soon arrived in Schonenecken, a pretty village with a ruined castle above it.

The aire is in the middle of the village as part of the carpark. 1 night is 7 euro and you can pay for water and electricity if you need it. It’s quite a pleasant quiet area – just with tractors coming through after harvesting the hay.

After a rest we went walking to get up to that castle. Google gave us a walking route. It was initially up some steep streets.

Soon we felt like we were walking through a building site as the road had been churned up by earthmovers. We couldn’t find the path so had to hack through long grass to get to find the upper road to continue – a bit of an adventure. We then walked along there to find the castle.

It was quite impress as it had been a huge castle. It had been built around 1200AD by Count Heinrich I to control the valley area. It had a large central residential area. In 1802 it burned down and the stones were sold off.

There are only a few walls remaining but it still looks impressive.

The views down to the village are impressive.

Glenn saw some Herons nesting in trees on the other side of the valley – an unusual place we thought. However there is a river running through the bottom of the valley.

We came down the hill on the much safer road route. It was still very steep though. It would be challenging to live up here walking down and then back up. There were a couple of religious sculptures that must have been related to the old abbey.

At last we got to the bottom and found an icecream shop for our reward. It’s quite a nice German village.

We enjoyed that then went back to Gus for a quiet night.

Glenn did have to wander down the lake to check out birds and is frustrated there is one he doesn’t know. That keeps him on his toes!