France, Belgium, Luxembourg & Germany 3 - 26 May 18 - Week 1

"Just one bottle" we said

Thursday 3rd may. We were due to go out to Europe on the following Monday, but the weather forecast was good, we had nothing else on, the van was freshly serviced, habitation checked and MOT'd,  so we thought "lets go now" and so we did. A quick run down to the chunnel in warm sunshine, uneventful crossing, a quick whizz around carrefour in Cite Europe (albeit there were very few bargains to be had) and then off to bed safely parked up in the quite busy aire. We did note that France is becoming hideously expensive now. The fuel is certainly now dearer than the UK and this is not just attributable to the poor exchange rate.

Peruwelz

On Friday we drove down to the nice free aire in Peruwelz in Belgium (free if you don't have power and why would you have power when the sun is delivering masses of free leccy via the solar panel?). The Belgian roads still haven't improved and it was good to do some severe vibration testing of both ourselves and the van. It is hard to drive safely when one's eyeballs are rattling around in their sockets like marbles in a shaken can. We took a quick walk around the somewhat uninspiring town, decided that there wasn't much to see, and so we relaxed around the van in the pleasant aire.

Neufchateau

The following day we drove on through the Ardennes and stopped at a lovely little site in Neufchateau near Bastogne. The weather remained hot and sunny so we parked up, unwound the awning and unwound ourselves, enjoying watching the rabbits hop around our pitch and swearing at the Dutch speedsters who insist on driving through campsites at maximum speed, raising clouds of dust.

Landal-Warsburg

On Sunday morning it was out of Belgium and immediately onto lovely smooth roads in Luxembourg. We filled the fuel tank to overflowing at an expensive 1.08 euro per litre, then blinked and were out of Luxembourg and into Germany and onto the Landal Warsburg site at Saarburg. The site was very busy indeed. Trust us to pick the blooming Dutch school holidays. The Dutch are the noisiest people in Europe and we anticipated that a campsite full of them would be bedlam, but we found a lovely quiet corner and made the most of the warm weather by pulling out all our camping equipment, including the endless breeze fan, and sat outside drinking chilled bubbles. Bliss.

Peterborough Motorhome Show and Shropshire 19- 28 Apr 18

Summer has arrived! On a scorching hot Thursday morning we set off for the National Motorhome Show at Peterborough once again, fairly confident that the incessant soaking of the winter may now have eased enough to enable above-ground parking. We parked up after an early arrival with the Motorhome Fun crowd and opened all the windows and vents to give the van it's first full airing since the start of this longest ever winter. The seats came out, the chilled wine was opened, shorts were donned and we toasted our sunlight-deficient bodies for a while before heading around the near deserted showground.

On Friday night we had a birthday party to attend in Brighouse, so we caught the train from Peterborough in the morning. That is to say, we would have caught the train but of course, being a British railways system, the train was cancelled. Eventually we arrived and even west Yorkshire was warm and sunny! We partied until the early hours with our best friends, grabbed a few hours kip and , hungover and weary, made our way back to Peterborough, our hangovers not aided by the appalling sights, sounds and smells of the local population around the Peterborough bus station. Luckily, summer was still in full swing on the Saturday and we met up with our old friend Martin, who has decided to come ashore after years of living on a narrowboat, and join the motorhoming community. Finally, too exhausted to even think about watching the show, we went to bed.

Martin goes shopping

Sunday we had bacon rolls with the Motorhome Fun crowd, wandered around the show, helped with the dismantling of the Motorhome Fun tent just in time before we were hit by a heavy shower. So that was summer then. It was nice while it lasted.

The following day we drove across to the Severn Gorge Caravan Park for a 3 night visit to Ironbridge to cash in our museum voucher. It was cool but not raining, so we walked down to the Blists Hill Victorian Town for a wander around, then back to the van for dinner.

On Tuesday, despite the rain, we unloaded the bikes and cycled down to the Jackson Tile Museum, which is a very interesting place to visit, before heading into Ironbridge to see the work being done to restore the famous bridge and to enjoy a cream tea. Then it was on to the Coalport china museum where we spent a very happy hour watching some glassblowers produce an absolutely stunning glass vase. It was fascinating.

The Hay inclined plane

Detail on the Iron Bridge

On Wednesday we did a circular tour on the bikes, calling in to the Darby Houses, the Museum of Iron, Ingenuity and then down to Ironbridge, along the Severn valley way and then up the Silkin way before stopping at the pub for a delicious curry.

Bit muddy

On Thursday we were booked onto a small certified location ready for a vineyard tour on the Friday. It is a lovely little field, within the old Roman walls of Wroxeter, surrounded by stunning scenery. Unfortunately the soil and grass accumulated over the solid masonry of the city since the 7th century is not solid enough to support a 3.8 tonne motorhome. We tried - we sank - we just about managed to get ourselves out. We drove around to the vineyard and luckily they let us stay for 2 nights (you cannot drink and drive). Before we parked up for the first night, we drove around the local National Trust establishment, Attingham Park, for a very interesting mooch around, then returned to the vineyard.  The following day we enjoyed a very interesting and amusing tour of the vineyard, lunch and quite a bit of wine before having a good night's kip, hoping that the temperature would stay above freezing as the vines were starting to shoot and the damage could be nasty.

Attingham Park

Roman Villa at Wroxeter

Wroxeter Roman Vineyard

On Saturday we got up early, said goodbye to the lovely family that run the vineyard and, in heavy rain and a temperature of 7 degrees, we went home.

How was your summer? It was nice while it lasted, wasn't it? Anyway, annual habitation check, MOT and service this week. Bet it chucks it down all day. 

Low Countries 8-23 Mar 18

On Thurs 8 Mar  - somewhat later than planned due to the appalling weather and spending 5 days in London, we set out for Holland. The journey down to the tunnel terminal was the usual boring but uneventful affair. However, on check in at the tunnel, the plonker who tells you what lane to go in prior to loading sent us to the wrong loading line and we missed our assigned train. Half hour later, and seriously pee'd off with Eurotunnel, we travelled across, parked up in Cite Europe, bought a bit of shopping and then settled down for the night.

At Eurotunnel Folkestone

On Friday it was through Belgium without stopping, with a final destination of Middelburg, where we found a new camper platz near the town. The staff are very friendly and the site very nice, undoubtedly improving once it has settled down a bit and the planting has taken place. We wandered around this old town before heading back for dinner and bed. We decided to stay another night in the hope of finding the 6 nations on tv. We called into the unpronounceable  Manamana Rugby Club (Oemoemenoe), but they weren't showing it, we wandered through the town again, buying a 2 euro ice cream and searching every possible location for Rugby before giving up and heading back to the van, finding the rugby on an internet feed. It wasn't worth the hassle as England were appallingly bad. They were so bad that they must have been coached by Harlequins! Despondent we had dinner and went to bed.

Middelburg

Rugby Oemoemenoe 

Sunday we headed north to a lovely site camping Strandpark de Zeeuwse Kost, near Reenese, passing the impressive dams and barriers between the islands. The sun came out, we sat on the beach and got excited at the thought of summer and the end of this never ending winter. We enjoyed a pint in the lovely bar at the resort. Again we decided to stay another night and on Monday headed out for  10 mile bike ride along the excellent bike tracks, beating the rain back by minutes. It pissed- down all afternoon. So much for summer - winter was back with a vengeance.

Reenese

The following day we moved up to Alblasserdam, near Rotterdam, to an excellent aire near a boatyard. It rained, so we took the waterbus into Rotterdam for a mooch around. It's a modern city with not a lot to offer in the rain (except the excellent market).

It could be Rotterdam or anywhere..

Wednesday was bright and fair. We cycled to Kinderdyk to admire the windmills, cycled back for lunch, then took a water bus to Dordrecht and a wander around this charming town. Later it was back to the excellent supermarket in Ablasserdam to buy steak and chips for dinner.

Dordrecht

On Thursday we moved north again to Camperpark 205 near Haarlem. This is basically an open field next to an exhibition centre, very close to Schiphol airport and between Amsterdam, Haarlem and Leiden. It has superb transport links, albeit the Dutch system is now quite expensive, and is therefore an excellent spot to explore the area. We were met by the friendly owner, parked up and cycled (shuffled?)  into Haarlem, had a good look around, and then beat the rain back. The journey back was much nicer, following the canal and polders, than our route out where we got lost on the myriad of cycle tracks through the housing estates. The weather remained very cold indeed.

Haarlem

Friday saw an early start and, using a one day tourist card sold by the site owner, we took the very frequent bus into Haarlem, then the equally frequent train into Amsterdam. We made straight for Anne Frank's house, but, as with much of the whole of Europe, there are works underway and entry was by timed ticket booked online. Of course, there were no slots left for that day. We wandered about exploring the narrow streets of this lovely city, made unlovely by the hordes of maniac cyclists determined to kill you,  and vans parking wherever and wherever they pleased, pushing you into the path of the killer cyclists. As the day wore on the crowds started gathering. We had a light lunch in the oasis of the Amsterdam museum before braving the growing crowds of stag and hen parties, had a beer in the rugby pub, bought some cheese from a delightful lady on a stall and finally took to the trams to make the most of our travel card. Eventually we went back to the van before having a late night excursion on the bus to see Schiphol airport. We walked 16.75 miles that day.

Anne Frank's House

Amsterdam

Dancing Houses

The next day was bitterly cold. I mean it was absolutely arctic. A very strong wind blasted us direct from Siberia. The outside thermometer read -9 degrees. The water on the site, obviously, was turned off. The wind and stinging sleet took the skin off any exposed skin. Spring? Pah! In the high, buffeting winds we set out for Hoorn. Having eventually managed to find the entrance to the site, we parked up on the road next to the pitch as the grass was sodden. It was, in theory, an easy cycle ride into Hoorn so we attempted the journey in the 50kph arctic wind. It was miserable. Hoorn is probably very nice but not when you can't go out without getting the skin stripped from your face. We tried to find a bar showing the rugby, but there was only the ubiquitious plastic Irish bar, which we detest vehemently. Still we had a beer, watched a bit of the rugby, got fed up, went home and went to bed., trying to defrost from the cold of the day. The site would probably be very nice in warm weather but it is a bit of a rip-off. 20c for hot water, 75c for a shower, arm and a leg for Wi-Fi. Robbers! There was still no water to be had as everything was frozen.

Hoorn aka "brass monkeys"

Hoorn

On Sunday the weather was still bloody freezing, the reception at the site was closed for the day, there was no water to be had, so, completely fed-up, we cut our losses and made a dash for Belgium to get past Antwerp before every truck in Europe blatted through on the Monday. We pulled into the excellent aire at Bruges, hoping to fill our water tanks, but the pipe was marked as non-potable, so we walked around to the local Aldi to buy bottled water to keep us going for a while. Even on a Sunday evening, Bruges was very busy and the shops open, so we had a good wander around before dinner and bed. Monday we decided to stay over as the aire was so good and, once again, we wandered around Bruges enjoying a very nice lunch of Flemish stew in a local Bistro.

Bruges

Bruges at Night

Tuesday we had a leisurely morning before moving across to Cite Europe in preparation for our crossing the following day. As usual, there was the usual collection of motorhomes gathered there and we enjoyed a relaxing day, a peaceful night and a good crossing the following morning with no hiccups before parking up on Wednesday evening in the excellent Canterbury aire at the Dover Road park and ride. We wandered around Canterbury but refused flatly to pay the extortionate  £10.50 to go into the Cathedral. More robbers!  Canterbury was packed full of screeching foreign schoolkids, piercing one's eardrums and blocking every route. Tourists eh?

Canterbury

On Thursday Debs caught the train to meet her friends in Gravesend and I took the train for a good walk around Whitstable, lunching on a plate of local cockles, before heading back to Canterbury, meeting up and enjoying a nice meal in the local pub.

Whitstable

Peter Cushing's house

On Friday we headed home. A good trip in all, but the weather could have been kinder. The Netherlands is great for motorhomers, but I wouldn't say that the sites were particularly cheap, plus they love to load the cost with a local tourist tax, which can be up to 2euro per person per night.