Saxon Switzerland

This is my fourth night in the same place, Saxon Switzerland. No, I haven't done a mammoth drive, Saxon Switzerland is actually nowhere near Switzerland but a national park which spans the German/Czech border, recommended by Paul and Linda who I met in Iceland as it's where Linda comes from.

I've done some brilliant walking and biking whilst I've been here but have had one problem. Insects in the van. There are these little flying bugs, I have no idea what they are but it turns out they bite. I can tell which bits of me have been peeping out from the duvet in the night as I've been bitten on my forehead, hand and the soles of my feet.

Today my feet were really sore and itchy so I decided to go to the spa in the nearby town to have a soak.

The first issue was one that I've found over the last few days - the locals don't speak any English. My pigeon German is improving but at a very slow rate, and most questions asked of me are met with a completely blank look. Eventually I had managed to pay for entry and had been given a little yellow token which I had no idea what to do with. I tried to put it in a slot by the entry turnstile, it got returned to me and nothing happened. Tried again, nothing. I pushed the turnstile without putting the token in and it opened.

On to the changing rooms. Just a bank of closed doors. After a bit of confusion it turns out they were Narnia changing cubicles, in the front and out the back. Essential to remember to lock both the in and out doors. Then through to the lockers where it now became apparent what the yellow token was for - you put it into a slot, turn the dial and it locks the token into a wrist band, which then looks like a watch - the strangest lockers I've ever come across.

The pools were nice, but they were no Icelandic hot pots, all of them needed to be a bit hotter. The darkened salt water floating room with mood lighting, under water music and people being dragged around the pool by others, then flapping and spluttering when they've drifted off to sleep was just weird.

And then there was the sauna and spa zone. Linda had joked on the ferry about how Germans get naked far too readily which is why there were signs by the sauna on the ferry telling you to keep your towel on. No such signs here!

Getting dressed was uneventful and I went to catch the last vintage tram of the night back to the campsite, with the tram driver convinced that if he kept repeating himself I'd understand him (he'd carry on past the stop to drop me at the campsite gate...that had me worried for a few seconds) my mind well and truly distracted from my bites.