Monday 26th October – Augsburg, Germany

 We were given a leaflet at the museum that showed the extent of the Celtic walls and points of note. However, we were warned that there was nothing to see, only information boards. We decided to take a walk from the stellplatz to see what we could find. I have to say that it was a poor map as it was difficult to establish the difference between roads and paths. Major landmarks were not noted, such as the large Airbus factory and Messerschmitt Museum that were right next to the oppidum bank. We managed to find a mock-up of one of the oppidum gates and the bank itself but decided to leave it at that.
We wanted to visit Augsburg but the stellplatz options were limited and there were no campsites. We chose a stellplatz at the TSG sports club that was well placed but only had four places. On the drive we passed through an important area for hops with fields of those vertical wires used for hop cultivation. We haven’t seen much evidence of hops up to now but, given the volume of beer that they brew, we knew that there had to be large areas where they grew them.
When we arrived at the stellplatz, we found a pitch and plugged into the electric supply paid for by the kilowatt hour.
Photos: The mock-up of the eastern gate of the Manching Oppidum.

Sunday 25th October – Manching, Germany

A relaxed start this morning and then we set off in the rain for Manching. We had this on our ‘must do’ list from a long time ago as it is a very important Celtic site and has an important Celtic and Roman Museum.
We parked in the museum car park, had a quick lunch and headed into the museum. An English language audio guide was provided for €1 in addition to the entrance fee and every display case was described in detail, sometimes a little too much detail even for us. The Celtic Oppidum was huge, about 3.8 square kilometres enclosed in a 7.2 km defensive wall, and it would have had 5,000 to 10,000 residents. It is one of the best researched Iron Age sites in Europe.
There is nothing to see above ground apart from stretches of the bank upon which wall was built. As it is in an area where there is no available stone, all of the stone of the ancient walls has been robbed over the centuries. However, the excavations that started in 1955 have produced a large haul of impressive artefacts and they have been very well displayed and explained in the museum.
In the Roman era there was a stunning exhibit that we weren’t expecting – the remains of two Roman ships. The Roman fort of Oberstimm is very close to the Manching Oppidum and there was a Roman landing stage in a stream that was a tributary of the Danube. These boats were found embedded there in the silt, preserved in the anaerobic conditions.
We spent a very enjoyable three hours in the museum and then drove two minutes to the stellplatz. Then we hit a problem. The stellplatz was free until this summer when they started charging €10 per night. The machine did not accept cash but contactless cards were okay, except that it wouldn’t accept ours. We have come across this before where machines only accepted German cards but that was on old installations – there was no excuse for this on such a recently installed machine. Fortunately, a German man was just dumping grey water from his campervan. He spoke excellent English and we were able to give him €10 in cash whilst he paid for our pitch using his card. He explained that he had been on holiday in Scotland in the summer and had only used his card, absolutely no cash – he was very impressed! Unfortunately, he said, that is not possible in Germany. That is quite true as we have found many places that only accept cash.
Photos: A model showing how the centre of the oppidum would have appeared; A magnificent Celtic pot; In the centre is what they described as a Celtic Swiss penknife as it has a number of tools for everyday use; The Roman shipwrecks; And a model showing what they would have looked like; Model showing the building of a Roman bridge crossing the Danube at Stepperg, approximately 30km west of Manching.