Weather- showery but sunny and warm in late afternoon
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up on the banks of the Moselle River on the outskirts of Trier. It’s not the nicest campsite we’ve been on, but it is serving a purpose.
We were up early and drove 4 hours to Trier and its 110 space aire, arriving at 1.00. Annoyingly, the aire car park was completely taken over by the ADAC world championship rally, and there were rally cars, stewards all over the place and a big cross through the Motorhome sign. Not quite knowing what to do for the best, I pulled over and promptly got whistled at by a steward- turns out I had stopped in a pit stop!! 😂 Bluebell’s been officially everywhere now! Lol
On the exit road there was a sign for a campsite so we pulled in and luckily they had space, Keith wanted to see the Roman remains here and I could tell he was disappointed the aire was shut. They probably could have included a note in the Camperstop Book as I’m sure it would have been known about.
After a quick lunch we walked along the banks of the Mosel River to the old town. We saw the Roman bridge, the lower columns were 2000 years old!
We crossed the Roman bridge and went into town, the outskirts of town are awful, seedy and filthy, I was crossing everything that the historic centre would be nicer. Once we got into the Market Square, we relaxed, it was very pretty indeed and had a lovely character- high wooden building etc, lovely.
A short walk from the Market Square and we reached the most impressive of the sights in Trier, the Porto Nigra, which is the worlds largest preserved a Roman City Gate. What an amazing sight. Keith went inside whilst I had a cheeky wine, payment for dog sitting!
We then did a walking trail which included other Roman remains, including the amphitheatre, Roman baths and Basilica. My favourite was the amphitheatre, it was surrounded by banks of vineyards and was a bargain to go in, only €4 each. You could go underneath the arena and right around the top of it. It was very easy to reinact Russell Crowe’s Gladiator!
Roman sights visited, we headed back to the market square for some beverages, Keith was happy he found somewhere selling Kristellweissen (spelling!) I settled on the local wine. We moved onto a pop up wine stall also in the market square, I tried the local fizz which was delicious, and Keith had a pino noir white.
We then had a meal, only our second meal out of the trip- opting for a local restaurant also on the market square, we both had pork schnitzel and frites, which was delicious. Day 27– Sunday
Location – Oye Plage- municipal aire, free GPS: n50.977090, e2.039650 Miles driven – 280 Weather– showery but sunny and warm in late afternoon
Bluebell the motorhome is almost back where she began 3.5 weeks ago! We left Trier bright and early and did a full service fill/empty before checking out of our campsite.
We were on the road for 9am, and as a result we were filling up with ridiculously cheap fuel an hour later in Luxembourg- €0.92 per litre! After squeezing as much as possible in we were back on the road and soon in Belgium. Our toll free route took us through Belgium, round Brussels and back up to Calais. It was an easy journey and we were pulling into Gravelines aire at 2pm. Sadly the fair was in town opposite the aire, and we didn’t fancy a noisy night, especially at €7 for the night, no services, so we carried on to where we spent our first night on Oye Plage beach aire. You can imagine our shock when we arrived and there was a great big height barrier blocking the carpark- considering we had stayed there literally 3.5 weeks ago! Oh well, we trundled down the road to the municipal aire in the village and found a space alongside another Brit, shortly followed by several others!
We had a good chill, watching a couple of movies, and had an early night after prawn egg fried rice for tea.
Day 28- Monday Location – Home- Norfolk, UK Miles Driven 150 Weather – Sunny
Bluebell the motorhome is sat having a well earned rest having carted us and our mad dog around 2900 miles Europe for the last 28 days, with barely a problem -other than the tyre incident in Brugges and lack of power on hills!
We started this morning having had a lovely quiet night at Oye Plage, and having bit of a lay in. Once up, we decided to give ourselves a head start on packing up, stripping the sheets and loading up the washing bags- 2 huge Ikea bags full of dirty washing- oh joy!
After a thorough clean at the service point on site we head 30 minutes away towards Wissant, we were heading to one final WW2 site of our tour- the would have been launch site of the awful V3 guns set to bombard London with over 1600 bombs per day – Fortress de Mimoyecques (GPS n50.517 e1.4530)
It was only €5.50 to go in, and you got to explore right through the under ground tunnels, 600m of them. It was so eery in there, but so fascinating. Thank goodness for the French resistance who along with the RAF aerial surveillance noticed the site being built and therefore bombed it heavily so it never got completed.
After a very enjoyable visit (feels not quite the right word but I’m sure you understand!) we headed to Cite Europe, right next to the Eurotunnel Departure, for a chill, shop, and to give Bluebell a thorough clean – one less job to do when we get back. I had a good hour exploring the French supermarket- I’ve really missed the choice, sorry Germany but your supermarkets weren’t (in my opinion) as good as the French, before whipping us up an early tea. Keith got on with some bits of maintenance- we’d lost a few screws here and there. At 6pm we moved round to begin check in- a longer than normal process, not entirely sure why as the actual passport check was minimal, again! 8pm and we were on the train and by 11pm we were home and ready for bed!
We have had a brilliant tour- seen some absolutely amazing sights, eaten and drank some cracking food and drink. Our general opinion of Germany is we loved what we saw, but not sure we would rush back. We found some parts of it hard work- all outweighed in the end by the good stuff obviously, but we came back feeling satisfied but ready for home!
Thoughts now turn to our next adventure- lined up for October Half Term, and my birthday! We are thinking about visiting South Wales- but as ever, who knows till nearer the time!
Location- Aire Traunsee, Ebensee, A. €12 pn with services available extra GPS: n47.809070 e13.789990
Miles driven– 40 miles towards Prague, then 130 miles to a Lake in Austria!
Weather– dry, sunny and warm!
Bluebell the motorhome is parked with a beautiful lakeside view, surrounded by steep dramatic mountains.
She’s had quite a day. We were up fairly early, with the intention of our next destination being Prague. We hit a minor problem when we discovered my copilot app didn’t have the CZ maps downloaded on, so we couldn’t input the exact coordinates for the aire and the wifi wasn’t strong enough to download them. Not to worry we thought, we would use google maps. Fine, until we realised the coordinates took us about 40 miles out of Prague. Deciding to go for it using a good old fashioned map, we pootled along for roughly 30 miles, before the worry gene in me started thinking, hang on, are we mad?! We hadn’t researched CZ, had no idea about the language, currency, the list went on. Keith was so looking forward to going to Prague, so was I but I felt we may be trying to do too much. I made a comment about us staying in Austria seeing as we had the vignette and hadn’t seen much outside Salzburg and Vienna and to my surprise Keith said “pull off at the next junction, turn around and let’s do that”. That’s the short version anyway, haha, we may have had a civilised discussion about it but, in the end, we both decided we would head to a lake in Austria and hope that we could find a space. Keith was clearly disappointed but promised not to sulk and I was crapping my pants thinking God, please let there be a space, unlike last week when we tried to get a lakeside pitch and failed. Our number one rule when out on the road is we have to be both happy, whether it be a route plan, overnight stop location, whatever. Keith clearly sensed my apprehension- I was worried we would drive all that way and not get a space, Vienna was so busy and although it worked out well for us, it could have very easily gone the other way.
Roll on an hour and a half and the road descended into a glorious valley, complete with lake, and better still, we arrived to find not one space but plenty. And we got the best pitch going. The mood instantly lifted, we got the chairs out, cracked open some drinks and here we are 7 hours later, having enjoyed a fab view all afternoon sat outside chilling.
view from the stellplatz at Ebensee- can you see the mess someone made trying to get off the litch next to us! 😱
I even got my lake swim in, boy it was cold!
We had chicken and egg fried vegetable rice for tea, over which we discussed actually, it’s better to have done this as we could fly to Prague easy enough, but views like this are made for motorhomes right? Our previous plan was to drive back via Prague, Auschwitz, Kraków, Zagan (Great Escape location), Colditz Castle, Trier, Calais. Our new route is back through Austria, with stops at Lake Constance, Black Forest, Trier and Calais. Looks like I may get my Black Forest gateaux after all!
Day 22– Tuesday
Location– Aire Traunsee, Ebensee, A. €12 pn with services available extra GPS: n47.809070 e13.789990 Miles driven– 0 👍 Weather– dry, sunny and warm! ☀️
Bluebell hasn’t moved an inch, and neither have we!
We had a lazy morning, followed by a lazy afternoon, literally venturing as far as the lake for a paddle, it’s a bit cold for swimming! I read a whole book and Keefy skimmed through every magazine on board, we snoozed and we have eaten like kings. Keith sparked the BBQ up and we had fillet steak, bratwurst curly sausages and homemade chips. Absolutely yum. There’s been lots to keep us entertained, this small resort seems to be a popular kite skiing resort (not sure of the actual name) and we’ve watched with fascination. Looks like a lot of fun! Tomorrow we move onwards, heading for Lake Constance, to see if the water is warmer there!
last night in Austria- Lake Ebensee
Day 23- Wednesday Location– Camping Bankenhoff on Lake Titisee, Black Forest Germany GPS: n47.888290 e.8.128860 around €30pn
Miles Driven- 350 miles
Weather- dry with sunny spells
Bluebell the motorhome is hooked up on a pitch on a lovely campsite underneath a steep bank of tall Black Forest trees, on the edge of Lake Titisee in the heart of the Black Forest.
She’s having a well earned rest, she’s driven us 350 miles today, a fair chunk of the homeward bound journey.
During the night we had very heavy rainfall. This didn’t help the already mashed up ground (you can see it on the previous day panoramic picture) and we woke up a little nervous about our escape route. After some umming and aaring Keith decided he was going to be responsible for getting Bluebell off, fine by me, the wheels were in perhaps half an inch of water and mud, and there was a definite hill to get up. Fair play to him, after a couple of wheel spins and time for an audience to gather (why do people do this?!) he went for it and managed to get Bluebell to the safety of the hard standing road!
We relaxed into our journey, which was fairly smooth, in the direction of Lake Constance. We were having trouble deciding on which aire to head for, there are a few in this area, and none seemed to have on site lake access. We decided on one in Stetten, which we arrived at around 3pm. Im not sure what was wrong, but our faces just did not fit! It was a busy aire with a couple of free spaces and it was nicely laid out, overlooking some lovely orchards and behind a restaurant. From the minute we arrived, as I was parking us and Keith was guiding us in, a German (I think) lady walked past us doing a loud stage whisper to our neighbour clearing saying something about us. Whilst Keith was getting the levelling chocks out she went past again, with another loud stage whisper comment to same neighbour. Our neighbour then stormed off inside in a huff (we had left loads of space between us!). We wandered down to pay, passing perhaps 4 other sets of people sat outside their vans staring at us, no smiles despite ours to them. Luckily the place to pay wasn’t open til 5- by now we’d got a vibe that there wasn’t a lot to see so we decided to move on. Much to the delight of stage whisper lady who had found 3 others to join in with her gawping at us as we departed. They nearly ended up getting mooned at, but Keith restrained himself!
On the road again, we decided to head straight to the Black Forest. Lake Constance wasn’t grabbing us- we didn’t give it much of a go, maybe we were in the wrong bit. Keith keyed in the coordinates for an aire at Titisee, according to our Germany book it’s the most popular place to come in the Black Forest.
We didn’t hold out much hope for getting a place on the aire as it only had 8 places and we weren’t going to arrive til 6pm. As soon as we drove through the village we liked what we saw and decided even if the aire was full we’d try and get onto a campsite. Unsurprisingly the aire was full, but the campsite next door had space, and wasn’t extortionate. We’d had a problem with the fridge ignition earlier so thought the electric would be useful anyway. Actually it seems it was just cos we weren’t level! The campsite man was eager to hear our thoughts on Brexit before leaving us to pick our own pitch, so we’re on a spacious one, looking out to the trees and out with the chairs and table straight away!
our pitch in The Black Forest- camping Bakenhof
We have wifi although it is painfully slow, but the facilities here are spotless so we both have taken advantage of long hot showers tonight.
Salmon, new pots and carrots and sweet corn for tea tonight. Looking forward to a greater selection of fresh veg when we are home I must say! The Fire pit is out although I suspect we won’t have a late one after the journey today!
Day 24– Thursday
Location– Camping Bankenhoff on Lake Titisee, Black Forest Germany GPS: n47.888290 e.8.128860 around €30pn Miles Driven– 0 👍
Weather– dry with sunny spells this morning, rain in the afternoon
Bluebell the motorhome is putting her feet up after yesterday’s long journey and gearing up for the homeward stretch. We were up early this morning and seeing that the weather predicted rain this afternoon we decided to have an early cycle into the small town of Titisee.
Today I was finally going to eat Black Forest Gateaux in the Black Forest (I realise this makes me sound sad!!) Our campsite is handily located 3km from the town and has a pretty off road cycle path lakeside to get there. We really enjoyed a wander around town, despite it being very touristy, it retains charm and character- of which is totally different to other German towns we’ve visited. We found a cafe to try a piece of Black Forest Gatauex and a cake each – the waitress knew what we wanted before we said anything! It was huge, and although very nice, and very alcoholic, it was a bit too big for me, and although I ate it all, I felt sick afterwards!! A big tick for the holiday list though!
Feeling full to the brim of cake we had a wander in the souvenir shops, there are plenty here and all selling the same things- mainly cuckoo clocks!! We of course bought a cuckoo clock for our new house! Always ones for touristy souvenirs us!
We experienced the worst service EVER whilst buying some local schnapps which left me reeling and frankly close to driving all the way back home! We had a couple of drinks and tried to block out the appalling service, which worked! Phew!
My wine glass made me chuckle, as if BFG isn’t 70s enough, they serve me wine in one of these! 😂
I made the mistake of getting the cuckoo clock out of the bag in the bar, and I was met by lots of bikers singing Cuckoo to me! This went on until we left! Very funny!
We stocked up on all sorts of treats, including local meats, wine, beer, bread, butter- and as the rain arrived we cycled back to Bluebell for a long lunch followed by a longer nap!
Chicken and noodles for tea, before another early night I suspect!
Day 25- Friday
Location– Hausach, Black Forest Germany free aire no services GPS: n48.286233 e.8.165696 Miles Driven– 40
Weather– dry with sunny spells ☀️
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up alongside a German VW and two other motorhomes (and 3 caravan so!) in a free aire/stellplatz in the small town of Hausach. We’re by the local outdoor swimming pool and under a castle ruin!
We’ve had a a lovely day today despite a rocky start. Sadly some selfish you know what’s opposite us last night on the campsite decided to be entirely self centred and be stupidly loud until the week small hours. Around midnight I saw red and went over to ask them to shut up, which they ignored so I went to find a warden around 12:30 but to no avail- considering the amount of rules regarding noise there was no one around to “police it”- and as a result I woke up at 07:00 to a screaming baby next door feeling like I’d been run over by a train! Keith’s first words were “I’m ready to go home” and I was feeling the same!
A coffee and a pet talk later and we’d got a plan- it involved us getting Jazz seen by a local vet for his return to England appointment, and then a mooch up the B500 towards the worlds largest cuckoo clock. Keith knows me well- he knew that would cheer me up!
The campsite spoke to the local vet and arranged for us to visit between 10:00-11:00, we did our services, settled the bill(turned out at £27pn a bargain despite last night’s noise) and were on the road.
As Colin the copilot navigated us the 6km to the vet we were wondering where we going! It led us up a residential small street but sure enough the vet was located in her home! Keith nipped Jazz in- was out 10 mins later with his passport stamped, worm tablet and a flea and tick treatment- all for only €20! A bargain- it definitely pays to see vets a distance out of Calais.
We joined the B500 which turned out to be a beautiful route through the Black Forest and knocked the socks off the Romantic road in our opinion.
First stop off the day was the highest waterfall in Germany- on the outskirts of Trieburg- what a funny place, it was HEAVING with tourists- we wouldnt describe it as the most impressive waterfall we’ve been to, it’s 160m drop is spread over several mini waterfalls, but was a nice stop anyway- although we made the mistake of parking in the first car park which turned out to be the highest one- cue a 1km uphill walk on way back!
Next stop was the Largest Cuckoo clock in the world, also in Trieburg- handmade 50 times larger than the normal cuckoo clock and a real treat to the mechanics working “behind the scenes” – we were there in time for the 1pm cuckoo call which was a case of Blink and you’ll miss it, which made me and all the others giggle- still really great to see, perhaps just time it with a larger number hour!
A quick supply top up in Lidl before arriving at – an open air museum with lots of old traditional houses which you can go in. There was a great selection of houses to visit- including a dairy farmers, mill houses, the governers house, wood carvers etc. It reminded us of Hida Folk Village in Japan. Some of the houses dated from the 1600s and it was a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon, although I started to get tired after a while- our bad nights sleep catching up on us.
We’d wondered whether we could make it to Trier, but Colin copilot was saying 4 hours and it had gone 4:30pm, so we consulted the camperstop bible and luckily enough found two Aires 3 miles down the road- both free and plenty of space!
Time for a chill before dinner, tonight we’ve got chicken, mozzarella and tomato pasta
Until next time
Lx
PS you can follow our journey using a real time location tracker by following this link: https://track.gs/LXADWw
Location: DE. Private aire on Mount Wank (yes really!) Garmisch-Partenkirchen Full services €15/24hrs inc a very slow wifi GPS n47,50573 e.11,10802
Miles Driven: Rothenburg – Fussen 140 miles, Fussen to Mount Wank 40 miles
Weather: dry, warm and sunny at times, hurrah!
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up on the side of Mount Wank, on the edge of the Germany-Austria border. We are with 100 other vans on a super sized aire.
Today started were up and awake at 07:00 and on the road just after 08:00. We wanted to make a start on our 2.15 hour journey, we’d decided to say “auf weidersein” to the Romantic road, and hit the motorway with the destination “mountains, scenery… Neufweinstein Castle” nr to Fussen.
Annoyingly every other person seemed to pick today to visit as well, and our 2.15 hr journey ending up taking well over 4hrs,the last hour just to get through Fussen. My mood was questionable on arrival to the large carpark, and wasn’t improved when we were told “no room”. My midland stubborn streak protested out loud and suddenly they waved us through and we managed to be squeezed into one of two spare spaces. Make of that what you will.
Mood instantly lifted on first view of the beautiful castle, which was used in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and only soaredas we did the gentle 30 minute walk to the top. It really is phenomenally beautiful. We carried on beyond the castle up to Mary’s Bridge viewpoint where there is a wobbly viewpoint bridge going over a guage in front of the castle, my worst nightmare, I’m no good at these, but not wanting to miss out on the perfect selfie spot I did some deep breathing techniques I teach my students and manned the you know what up.
It cost us €8.50 to park for up to 6 hours but that’s it. We could have gone inside, although we weren’t bothered and it was so busy it’d delay us. The walk was pleasant and we were stunned the viewpoint bridge was free. Bravo Germany. Britain, take note.
After a really great visit we hit the highway once more, dipping our toe in to Austria for a few miles and back into Germany for our overnight stop. It’s a bit on the pricey side here however the view is breathaking. We are just below the highest mountain range in Germany and tomorrow we intend to go up it, not on foot though, by cable car.
Day 12- Sunday
Location: Mount Wank for night 2- we’re in the same spot as yesterday
Miles Driven: a big fat ZERO!
Weather: Sunny and hot ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Bluebell the motorhome is having a chill – she’s not moved an inch! We had a revelation when we discovered that we were in the same town as the departure station for the Zugspritze cable car late last night- this was pure fluke may I add! We got up bright and early, Keith marched off to find a bus timetable and I made some breakfast and a packed lunch. Next thing I know we were on the 08:49 bus to the station, €3.80 lighter and Jazz didn’t need to wear his muzzle, something I’d read that dogs needed to do on public transport here.
We alighted the bus at the main station with everyone else, followed signs under the subway and found ourselves at the main terminal to ascend the mountain. Tickets were pricey at €53 pp and Jazz cost €4, however I kept telling Keith it would be worth it. And oh, was I right. We ascended the mountain on the 09:45 cog wheel train as far as Eibsee, then changed into a cable car which made a 15 minute ridiculously steep journey up to the summit of just under 3000metres. The views were out of this world.
Having travelled across America last year, we kept saying nothing will compare- how wrong we were. We were lucky, visibility was good for us, just a few clouds lingering below us, adding to a mystical feel.
We made use of the summit bar and took the opportunity to try some local beers and even a schnapps “for the road”. The journey up was terrifyingly brilliant. I’m not going to lie though, I could probably do with some new pants!!😂😛
We took another cable car down to the glacier and spent some time there, having a go at sledging on the free sledges and sampling another couple of beers
We even got experience a Bavarian outdoor wedding ceremony! From there we nipped back up to the summit to have one last look – the view just never got old, before descending on the tunnel train and catching the 18:12 bus back to camp. Words can’t describe how much we both loved today. Absolutely epic. ❤️
Day 13– Monday
Location: Lake Königsee, unofficial aire behind the main car park. No services GPS:n 47.592230, e12.987270 Miles Driven: more than hoped- around 200!
Weather: Sunny and hot ☀️☀️☀️☀️
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up with several other vans enjoying the hospitality of the tourist board here at Lake Konigsee. Technically campers aren’t allowed to overnight in the main carpark, there are no motorhome between 19:00-07:00 signs however there is a portion of land with no signs and having spoke to the other campervans here they’ve had the OK from tourist info. As long as we don’t get chairs etc out. The reason they’re being permissive apparently is that the area is packed and all the other local campsites and Aires are chocker block. Having said that I’ve read of two other blogs that have stayed here and they both stayed here with no problems. You won’t find it listed in the Camperstop book. I got the gps coordinates from our bumble blog. Thanks guys.
So why did we drive this distance…? In the blazing heat too? Well, we set off from Garmish P a bit later today, we needed a food shop, and Keith needed some sinus tablets from the pharmacy. We didn’t get on the road til almost 12. We couldn’t decide where to head. I was craving a lake but didn’t want to travel too far. There weren’t an awful lot of choices in Camperstop book so we chose to take the scenic none motorway route to Lake Achinsee, where an aire was located lake side.
It took 2.5 hours and was vaguely in the direction of Salzburg. Of course, by the time we arrived there was no room, it was packed and only had 10 places. There was supposed to be a rule of 24hrs max, but judging by the set ups by all there I’d say they’d been there longer. The resort itself was heaving, the was barely room to swing a cat, let alone park a motorhome, so despite the lake being beautiful we retraced our steps to a layby over looking the lake for lunch and a regroup.
Plan B wasdrawn up, let’s carry on to Berchestgaden region, there were a number of Aires in the Camperstop book, including my coordinates for Lake Konigsee and we’d be close to The Eagles Nest, Hitler’s holiday home.
3 hours later, and we’d passed 3 full Aires and arrived to “no motorhome” signs. My heart was in my mouth but thankfully we spotted the group of campers and found a spare spot to slot in to. We are parked near enough underneath the Eagle’s Nest. Having had 6 hours on the road we marched down to the lake side and promptly found a bar and Keith had a litre of the local beer, me a local white wine.
We had chicken, homemade chips and sautéed courgette and mushrooms for tea which was delicious. The weather for tomorrow looks bad, let’s see what happens.
^the Eagle’s nest perched high on the cliff top above us- above the tower in the trees on top of cliff^
Day 14-Tuesday
Location: same place- Lake Königsee, unofficial aire behind the main car park. No services GPS:n 47.592230, e12.987270
Miles Driven: none! Weather: Rain, rain and more rain
Bluebell the motorhome is hoping she’s not taking the nick of the hospitality of the local tourist board, but we decided to stay another night here. The weather, as forecasted is grim. We decided to stay here and have a chill. There would be no view at The Eagles Nest, in fact we can’t even see it! Instead we chose to take a boat trip around the lake. It’s a very pretty area, steep gorges, lovely turquoise green water. The boat trip cost €17 each plus an extra €3.50 for Jazz. There was commentary on the boat but no English translation which was a shame and perhaps would have been nice at that price. It was a pleasant way to spend a few hours although I’m not sure if it was the weather that made us feel underwhelmed by it or the price.
Perhaps not something we would rush to recommend. The afternoon was spent snoozing and catching up on admin. A break in the rain around 6pm provided an opportunity for a wander to the bar before heading back for Spag Bol for tea.
Tomorrow we head to Salzburg to meet our friend Ian, who has a summer job doing Sound of Music bike tours so we are spending a couple of days with him, including a tour obviously!
PS you can follow our journey using a real time location tracker by following this link: https://track.gs/LXADWw Until next time
Location: Würzburg DE. Aire on River Main. No services €3/24hrs GPS n49.797080, e9.923020 Miles Driven: Bacharach- Würzburg 125 miles Weather: mainly wet- dry in afternoon
Bluebell the motorhome is parked right beside the river Maine, 500m walk from the small historical city of Wurzburg, at the northern end of the Romantic Road.
The weather gods are determined to follow us despite our best efforts at covering some miles today to try and find the sunshine. We woke up to rain, so had a lazier morning enjoying the free wifi at the aire at Bacharach. Spotting a break in the rain we had a quick leg stretch along the Rhine to find a geocache, before servicing Bluebell and hitting the road. We got stuck on today’s journey in roadworks after roadworks. Therefore our journey of 2 hours became a journey of 3 hours, however we were happy to arrive at our aire in Würzburg in time to bag the last spot overlooking the river. We are parked up next to a large Concorde motorhome and beside that is an interesting looking converted fire engine.
After a quick steak and stilton wrap, we had a wander into the city centre along the river. Thankfully the rain had stopped and so we picked up a copy of a town walk from the tourist info. It led us past some really old baroque style buildings with amazing facias and also a UNESCO world heritage palace- said to be the most important palace in Europe. It’s obviously based on the Palace of Versailles.
We enjoyed the walk but had worked up a thirst, obviously! We found our way back to the market square and got a seat in a bar right in front of our favourite building we had seen, now home to the Tourist Info. What a beautiful building.
I tried a local Riesling – the area is surrounded by vineyards, and Keith tried two locally brewed lagers. On our return to Bluebell we passed a Pandora shop, and Keith very sweetly treated me to a lovely charm for my bracelet with a windmill on like Kinderdilk- a present cos I’ve done all the driving so far- I’m not a great passenger and quite enjoy driving abroad so it’s not an issue but it was a nice gesture off Keith ❤️
Just as we crossed the river again to reach Bluebell the motorhome we had our final drink- we had noticed on our way in loads of people stood on the bridge with wine glasses drinking. It had made us chuckle until we realised it was a local wine seller/shop in a shack on the bridge. As it wasn’t raining we decided to have “one for the road”- Keith tried the Red and I had the Rose- both were delicious. The German wine we’ve tried isn’t as heavy as French wine but very fruity and refreshing. It was a really lovely atmosphere looking out over the river to the castle and vineyards, everyone chatting away.
We made it back to Bluebell as the heavens open, and had chicken Balti for tea. Tomorrow we will be travelling south on the Romantic Straße- hopefully with better weather! Day 10- Friday
Location: Rothenburg del Tough DE. Aire on edge of historical walled town. Water and drainage €10/24hrs GPS n49.797080, e9.923020
Miles Driven: Würzburg – Rothenburg miles – some along the Romantic Road
Weather: dry (hurrah!) and sunny this afternoon
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up on the edge of the town walls in the medieval town of Rothenburg, perhaps a third of the way down The Romantic Road. We’ve got a few Italian and Dutch vans for company, still no Brits- where are you all!
Today we had every intention of following the romantic road to Rothenburg. We spent time last night investigating how to get onto it as despite there being lots of info about the scenic tourist route, finding the starting location was tricky- or more accurately a guessing game as none of the literature included that part! We got up and on the road for 08:20 – unnaturally early for us, filled with fuel (€1.08pl) and followed the road out of town, hoping for the best. We were relieved to see a sign and by 08:40 were trundling along the Romantic Road.
The scenic route took us past miles of farmland with occasionally pretty fields of sunflowers, one of my favourites. Occasionally we passed through a pretty little village, but we both commented how incredibly quiet it was! Villages looked shut down for the summer, there were no other vehicles on the road, it was almost like being here in the winter! Despite this, the route was slow going, and we’d been going for an hour before we reached our first main town. Not far after this, the road ahead was closed due to roadworks and we were diverted off to a different road. We followed this, desperately hoping to see a diversion sign, but sadly no such luck- we must have missed it (although I think it was more likely not there!) after a quick discussion about what to next the mutual agreement was to put the coordinates of our aire into Colin our copilot and just get to Rothenburg, it looked like the highlight in our book, so we would sacrifice the romantic road in order to a)not get lost trying to refind it and b) not arrive too late and miss a space in the aire.
We were soon arriving at Rothenburg, surprised to see how empty the aire was. After a quick cuppa we wandered into to town, and from the minute we passed under the first town archway we were smitten. The only real way I can describe the town is imagine you are walking on your own pantomime set. The arcitecture is wonderfully old, wooden, colourful and lopsided, the streets are cobbled (would have preferred to be pedestrians only but hey ho) the market place is grand, there are grape vines everywhere, colourful window boxes, wine shops, chocolate shops, cafes, bars etc. It was beautiful and we had the most glorious of afternoons exploring every nook and cranny.
We picked up a town walk map from the tourist info and just followed our noses, stopping for a lunch on the market square- I had snitzel and Keith had bratwurst and saucrasen. Yummy.
I tried the local “snowball”pastry, a local sweet treat which was nice, and we bought some local cured sausage for later in the van.
We had a perfect day and at last the weather began to behave.
Around 6pm we made our way back to Bluebell for a chill out, it’s tiring all this exploring. We had chilli con carne for tea and now thoughts are turning to tomorrow. Do we carry on south on the romantic road, taking the much slower prettier route, or do we hit the motorway and find some mountains and scenery- in our hearts we wonder if we will find another German town that will be as nice as this, and are we feeling towned out? An advantage to holidaying in a motorhome in Europe, we can decide on the day what we fancy and point the wheels in whichever direction our heart fancies..!
Until next time
Lx
More pictures of the romantic road when we have a better wifi connection, until then you’re stuck with my iPhone pics!
Location: Alblasserdam, NL. Private aire €15 all services inc 100mb internet and toilets and showers GPS n51.86106, e4.65799 Miles Driven: Ronquieres – Alblasserdam 116m
Weather: cloudy with a couple of rain showers
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up alongside a harbour, just south of Rotterdam on a very swanky aire. The main reason for pointing Bluebell in this direction is the lure of the UNESCO Kinderdilk Windmill site, a collection of 19 picture perfect windmills/pumps sat upon waterways that rival our beloved Norfolk Broads.
We had a slightly disturbed sleep last night in our free aire in Ronquieres with boy racers making a racket into the early hours, although thankfully not doing wheel spins in our aire, they at least stuck to the roads, but their exhaust pipes blasting us out of our sleep too many times to count. We must have slept longer than thought though as we both woke at 07:30 feeling refreshed. Before heading off we took the walk up to the panoramic viewing platform and watched in fascination from our elevated position another boat making the journey down the incline slope. It really is amazing to watch this engineering in practice. It takes a boat only 40 minutes to make the complete journey- seeing as it took boats over 4 hours to get through Neptunes Staircase locks in Fort William, you can see the appeal- gawd knows the cost to travel on it though.
We hit the road by 10.30am and navigated our way round Brussels and Antwerp (with the biggest ring road I’ve come across- 7 lanes in one place going in 3 different directions!) Just before 1pm we arrived at our aire, filled up/emptied, had a sausage and onion baguette and by 2pm we’d made the desicion NOT to get the bikes off and cycle to Kinderdilk but instead to go by foot on the water bus. If we had cycled we’d have been treated to a 4km off road cycle path the whole way- I’ll tell you how I know this shortly…!
The journey on the water bus was SO EXCITING. Having not been on a catamerang I had no idea how fast we would go- it felt like a speed boat!! We got to Ridderkirk in 5 mins (it cost us €2 each (single fare) and Jazz was free) where we changed to a smaller slower boat to take us to Kinderdilk for €1.70 each. If we had bought our bikes.. ahem.. They would have been free.
Kinderdilk was absolutely breathtaking. I am so pleased we made it, the weather was a bit dull but it didn’t matter one bit. The sight of all these perfect windmills stood proudly alongside gorgeous waterways, with lily pads full in bloom and reeds rustling, was amazing. It’s free to visit if you aren’t fussed about going inside the museums etc, which we weren’t, instead preferring to enjoy a walk up the main avenue where you can enjoy the views. We picked up some local cheese from a local seller in the shop which was delicious.
It was soon time to try our first Netherlands beer, and what better to try than a local Heineken. We noticed a local geocache so went off to find it before attempting to get back. We saw our boat depart as we signed the log, not realising it was of course, the last of the day. Whoops. Because of the placement of the stops on the other side of the river we were stranded and so mustered up our last bit of energy to hike back 4km along the bike path. By the time we were back to the van, via Lidl for some bits and bobs including a very strange looking but tasty cooked sausage and some €0.33 bottles of lager, we were exhausted having worked up 8miles on foot today!
I rustled up sweet and sour chicken for tea and thoughts have turned to tomorrow. The fact that we don’t need to leave our aire until 5pm has opened up the possibility of visiting Holland’s oldest city, Dordrecht.
Day 5 – Sunday Location: Park and Ride Eindhoven NL. Motorhome aire €3/24hrs no services apart from grey waste empty GPS n51.435160 e5.424920
Miles Driven: Alblasserdam – Eindhoven 60m
Weather: cloudy with sunny intervals. The late afternoon was clear blue skies & sunshine
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up on the outskirts of Eindhoven in a Park and Ride site where they have space for 10 motorhomes to stay overnight. We are officially on “Project Market Garden” following the route that the 101st airborne and others took back in September 1944.
This morning we had a lazy ish morning as we wanted to visor Dordretch before leaving, but didn’t fancy the 20km round cycle, so waited for the first water bus, being Sunday this was 11:35. We did a couple of Geocaches and watched the world go by on the river, busy with cargo barges but also large, posh (by the looks of it!) River Cruise liners.
We arrived at Dordretch, Holland’s oldest city, just before 12 and enjoyed a self guided tour around the small city. The architecture here is lovely, the cobbled streets are lined with grand town houses dating back to the 1600s, and many are edged by waterways and boats, reminding us of Venice. We were somewhat surprised how quiet it seemed, I know it’s Sunday but it felt abnormally quiet.
We managed a couple of geocaches, one of which involved Keith dangling over a harbour wall in return for finding a dinky little coffee grinder cache. Goodness knows what passers by thought!
We chose a picturesque spot near to the Waterbus stop and had our packed lunch in the sunshine before making our way back to Bluebell, and hitting the road. Next stop was Eindhoven, less than an hour’s drive. We quickly located our night stop on the edge of town, CoPilot navigation app is a godsend allowing the option to input GPS Coordinates from the Camperstop book, we are coping well with the offline map feature, it’s brill.
After a quick cuppa and a cake, Keith had unloaded the bikes for the first time this trip- we were off for a short cycle of 5km into town to see if we could see anything left over from WW2. He had prewarned me that there may not be anything of interest as obviously this area was badly bombed. As we cycled in there was no sign of anything, in fact it was quite 60s, which made sense. We followed the Route Eindhoven, a well signed off road path- and as we got into the centre there seemed to be nothing to commemorate the war, other than the centre square being named 18 Septembre Plaza- a shame really considering how many died.
We made it to the river, and probably the point in which was secured during the war- a smallish stretch compared to the size of the river we were on earlier today. Keith looked on to check if we’d missed something but sadly not, Eindhoven seems to have made the decision to move forward without looking back. He was happy to have visited though, tomorrow we will go to Arnhem where there is lots to see (apparently), so we will be following the Route of Liberation – not sure if such a trail exists yet, if not it will be a DIY job!
We enjoyed Spagetti Carbonara for tea with an extra twist of some German cooked sausage which was yum. We had a chuckle at the name of Dutch double cream.
Day 6: Monday
Location: Arnhem, NL aire on the river Rhine just to the side of the John Frost bridge. €9 pn with electric. GPS n51.973000 e5.916220. Full service point 1.5 km down the road at Shell garage.
Miles Driven: Eindhoven – Arnhem 50 milesWeather: woke up to heavy rain, cleared up, sunny spells, a thundery downpour then clear!
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up beside the Rhine with a magnificent view of Arnhem bridge.
Today dawned wet and miserable but it didn’t matter as we were set to drive to Arnhem to visit but we had an hour’s drive first to get there, time for the rain to stop, which it did. We were making a quick stop at Nijmagen so Keith could experience the route that the allies made back in September 1944.
After a quick photo stop near the bridge in Nijmagen over the Rhine, we then drove over said bridge and onto Arnhem. Keith was especially excited when we drove over the John Frost bridge in Arnhem, the bridge that allied forces managed to hold for 9 nights, but went off the scale when he realised our stopover for the night was near enough underneath the bridge!
A quick lunch of bacon and egg baguettes after which we set off to explore the sites on our bikes. The aire is right by one of the main memorials, and also a small museum detailing the stories of those who lost their lives. Next year it looks like there will be a whole new centre being opened – something which is needed, as although we spent nearly 4 hours tying to find various memorials etc sadly there is a real lack of information points here and it made the day much harder work than we’d have both liked.
Highlights of the day were the location of the aire, seeing the bridge, cycling over the bridge, seeing some of the remaining pre war buildings (however there are very few of these obviously), enjoying a beer on the main square, seeing the British John Frost headquarters (despite it now being an awful 60s office block) and last but by no means least, in fact my personal favourite of the day, the most breathtaking sunset behind the bridge right from our motorhome window.
Steamed salmon, new potatoes and greens for tea in our room with a view, and as tonight is our last night in Holland thoughts are beginning to turn to Germany.
Don’t forget you can follow our journey in realtime on a map, using our tracker app by clicking here
Location: Ronquieres, BE. Free aire, no services GPS n50,60636, e4,22249 Miles Driven: Brugges – Waterloo 80m, Waterloo- Ronquieres 16m. Total 96m
Weather: rain overnight and a shower this morning, otherwise sunny
Bluebell the Motorhome is parked up alongside the river in a quiet village aire called Ronquieres. She’s got some French and Belgium neighbours and we can hear the river running through the trees to our side. Today has been a great day, despite a less than ideal start. Yesterday’s day in Brugges was a corker, and after a nice dinner of fish cakes and potatoes we hit the sack around 9pm, sleeping for 11 hours straight.
Our day in Brugges
This morning we were up bright and early ready for the off when Keith discovered we had a flat tyre on the rear drivers side. On closer inspection we noticed the culprit was a nasty nail wedged in, so out came the Jack, off came the wheel and on went the spare. Easy peasy we thought, until we realised that the spare wasn’t retaining the air we were pumping in from our portable 12v tyre inflator. We soon discovered why, the valve was split! How unlucky. We were faced with two options, ringing RAC and getting them to assist, which we assumed would only be a tow to a garage, or limp to a nearby garage ourselves (thank you google maps and Tesco mobile for letting K use his phone as normal over here!) we decided to take the second option given this garage was within 2 miles and our spare wasn’t flat as a pancake flat… yet.
A very careful, heart in my mouth, every limb possible crossed drive and we soon arrived on the forecourt of the amazing Puype Tyres, who were exptecting us. They really put us to shame, all being fluent in English, communication was a doddle. They soon set about repairing both tyres and within 30 mins later, only €30 lighter we were back on the road feeling extremely relieved and thankful.
Keith mid tyre change before we discovered the spare was a dudd
Ready for the off after our €30 tyre fix
An hour and a half later we were 80 miles down the road and south of Brusells arriving at The Battle of Waterloo site, Memorial 1815. First impressions blew us both away, there is a large mound (200+ steps high) with a big cast iron lion on as the main memorial site marking the centre of the line of Wellington’s Allied forces. After a quick lunch (we’d missed breakfast!) we were climbing breathlessly the large mound, and taking in the panoramic view from the top overlooking the battle site. Keith enjoyed the live 5D glasses (€3) – I thought he looked a bit daft, but he said they were worth it as he could see the battle through the glasses. Clever stuff.
The battle of Waterloo site
Inside the visitors centre (€17/£14pp) there was a fascinating large panoramic painting covering the battle, a very wordy museum, an amazing 4D film of the battle, and the opportunity to take a shuttle bus to Houogourmont. Access to the top of the mound was included in this price too.We walked down to see La Hayesaint Farm House, which was held by the allied left flank. This isn’t owned by the visitors centre, in fact is privately owned, but there were some plaques on the side, but had to cross a busy road to get there. La Hayesaint Farmhouse
We then took the short ride on the Shuttle bus to Hougourmont Farmhouse which was the most fascinating part as it is a real time capsule from the battle. We saw the gate which 6 British soldiers managed to keep closed during the attack and was a turning point within the battle as it protected the whole of the allied right flank.
Hougourmont Farmhouse
Keith was in his element, as a massive history enthusiast, this has been on his bucket list for a long time. I had a chat with the man behind the counter (I was dog sitting Jazz for some of it where he couldn’t go in) and he said sadly tourism has been hugely affected here following the recent attacks. He said usually this time of year they have up to 50 coaches visit daily, now they get a handful. We’ve noticed on our travels so far it’s very very quiet, almost has a feeling of off peak. Sad times.
After a great visit we set off towards our free stop over the night, filling with diesel en route (€1.09/£0.92pl). We took a short walk along the river (5 mins) to see the sloping loch, a rare example of a working boat lift, and we were lucky enough to see one in action. It basically looked like the boat was climbing the hill in a large bath! Interesting to see nonetheless. Tonight we’ve eaten a tasty Spag Bol, tomorrow Holland is calling!
Drone Pictures of Ronquieres Sloping Boat Loch
Until Next time
Lx
PS you can follow our journey using a real time location tracker by following this link: https://track.gs/LXADWw
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up on a nice small little Certified Location in West Norfolk, near to Kings Lynn, called The Old Appleyard.
On Thursday morning we reluctantly packed up Bluebell the motorhome and moved from our sea view pitch at The Flint House, travelling about an hour or so around the coast towards Kings Lynn. The reason for the change of direction was Castle Rising, one of the finest preserved 12C keeps in the country. This site is about 5 miles away, and our plan was to cycle there on Friday.
On arriving at The Old Appleyard we were greeted by the friendly owner and instructed to keep on the top of the field as the lower ground was still a bit wet. A small little stream runs to the bottom of the Caravan field and there are lovely field views to enjoy right from your pitch. Noticing that the entrance to the field was on a slight slope, and with no rough to grab onto at the entrance , it was with trepidation I attempted to get Bluebell up onto the pitch. After 3 attempts I managed it, but not without causing some damage to their wonderfully neat grass, which I felt pretty bad about, but I suppose if you’re going to open all year round and not have hard standing then it’s to be expected! 😕 Still, I felt bad!
We had a chill for the remainder of the day, watching the sun set and re charging our batteries. Keith was busy preparing our walk for tomorrow, realising that a walk we have already done from our AA box of walks was only a mile away from us, so the decision was made to walk from Bluebell to encorporate this walk rather than cycle. We had a tawny owl very close to us, and were sent to sleep hearing it’s call. Lovely.
Luck was on our side on Friday morning, the day dawned beautifully so we got up promptly and had an early start. We were on the walk just before 10am, a rarity for us! The walk took us along a small road from Grimston to Roydon, and luckily there was a footpath alongside the road for the whole walk down to Roydon. We picked up our route at Roydon and the next thing we knew we were at Castle Rising.
If you’ve not visited Castle Rising, we really recommend it, it’s fantastically preserved by English Heritage and costs only £4 to go in. We decided not to this time, as we’ve visited before and we still had lots of miles to walk. It seemed that actually the start of the walk was a little bit further than we’d anticipated, more like 2.5 miles than the 1.5 that we’d previously thought. This meant an extra 5 miles onto the already 7 mile circular! Gulp!
After a quick flask of soup we carried on with our best foot forward. Sadly, the rest of the walk was disappointing and not how we’d remembered it, the highlight definitely is Castle Rising, there wasn’t a massive amount to see on the remainder of the walk. Annoyingly, the walk was nearly all on small roads, so in actual fact it would have lent itself better to a cycle. Never mind, we will know for next time.
After exactly 12 miles we hobbled back into our Caravan field, feeling very tired, that was more than we had walked for a long time! Nevertheless, despite feeling a bit disappointed with the walk, we were proud we’d managed such a distance, and within 5 hours too. Plenty of time for a nap and a chill for the remainder of day/evening!
Today (Saturday) and it’s time to head home. Boo! Although the weather has conveniently decided to deteriorate, so we’re leaving feeling chuffed to bits with how much good weather we’ve had! We’re planning on stopping at nearby Castle Acre for a leg stretch, and that’s all it will be, as we are both aching after yesterday’s near half marathon!!
(Pics from Castle Acre below)
We had a nice stroll around the castle, which is free to explore, however were left reeling at the fact that there were many children using these walls as a playground, climbing all over them whilst their parents egged them on. We couldn’t believe it, it’s our 3rd visit here and this has happened every single time. We decided to take a wander up to the Priory where we knew English Heritage have a manned reception to mention this. The warden was horrified and came back to the castle, and of course they’d all gone! Hopefully it will get flagged up, as this is one of the best preserved Norman Motte and Bailey castle earthworks in the country, to think of the damage that is being done as people climb them, and not to mention what would happen to the site if someone fell of and got injured. …
On this visit we popped into the church to see the medieval 14th century wooden Pulpit and screen panels. Worth a look.
So that brings us back up to date, as after our morning at Castle Acre we travelled home, unloaded, washing on, hoovered and cleaned Bluebell etc- we’ve had a brill week, and been especially lucky with the weather. We’ve done only 230 miles, walked 40 miles, and spent less than £200.
We’ve come home to our new copy of our BritStops bible, so are hoping to get away for a mini adventure sometime in March. In April we are nipping to Japan, like you do(!) sans Bluebell obviously, to see the Cherry Blossom festival, but in May we will be out for another adventure in Bluebell, 10 days in Scotland then a month in Germany and Austria in August! All of which we’re looking forward to!
Bluebell the motorhome is parked up on her lonesome on the Caravan Club CL Deodara, a small 5 van site near to Burgh Castle on the outskirts of Great Yarmouth. Despite being close to the arcades and amusements of Great Yarmouth, we’ve gotten ourselves a slice of peace and tranquilly all to ourselves- it’s a large field with pleasant and quiet (kind of- more on this later!) outlook within walking distance of The Angles Way, Burgh Castle and Breydon Water.
Facilities here are basic, but that’s what we like and at £9 a night (electric hookup is on a metre, so far we’ve used about £3 amd had heater on lots!) it’s well priced. We arrived lunchtime on Saturday after an easy and short journey from home, with a stop at Norwich Camping and Leisure shop where we picked up a new couple of outdoor chairs (not that we will need them this time of year…brr!) and some sausages and eggs.
The weather was dull but dry so after a quick lunch we set off to find Burgh Castle Roman Fort, about 40 mins walk off road away from us, some of the route is on The Angles Way and follows the waters edge.
Burgh Castle Roman Fort is one of the best preserved Roman monuments in the country, and has 3 of its 4 walls still in tact.
It was pretty chilly but luckily despite forgetting my gloves, we’d remembered the hip flasks! Priorities! 😉 A quick walk back and we settled in in front of the television for the night!
❤️ St Valentines Day dawned an unusual one… We were woken abruptly to gun fire sounds, which was a bit frightening!
Turns out (after 2hrs of intermittent shots, then a full blown war zone type sounds I rang the owner of the site!) that we are 200 yards from a clay pigeon shooting range. Naughty of him to not pre warn us when we booked as they shoot every two weeks. Luckily Jazz wasn’t too freaked out with the noise from the guns, but I expect some dogs would be as it was similar to having our own firework display behind us.
Anyway, after a quick fill of water we headed for another walk up to Burgh Castle and beyond. I took my new drone with me yesterday but managed to switch the video off instead coming out with some fisheye shots, so I wanted another go today – plus the sky was a nicer colour!
Yesterday’s fisheye shots \/
Sunday Angles Way
We had a nice walk further up Breyton Water and a picnic sat at the view point.
Before returning back to Bluebell the motorhome in time for an afternoon nap! Having lots of luck with our motorhome wifi aerial here we have picked up a good BT Fon spot, so currently have some Spotify on and are about to cook a valentines steak and chatuneuf du pape dinner before watching the movie “Valentines Day”
Snowdrops are, in our household, considered a celebration, the first signs of spring emerging from a cold, gloomy winter. We are lucky to have a small display that grow wild in our local woods and it’s always a pleasure to see those white heads popping up out of the baron in the first weeks of January as we are trudging through on the early morning dog walk before work!
It’s always nice to plan a little outing to view larger displays, and gives us something to look forward to. This list of 3 places are places that we enjoyed visiting last year and that boast glorious carpets of snowdrops from mid January to end of February (although you may want to check with each place before visiting!)
1: Walsingham Abbey, Norfolk £5pp, woodland walks, dogs welcome on lead. Our favourite place to view snowdrops, absolutely spectacular displays within the grounds of a ruined Medieval Priory
2: National Trust Ickworth Hall NT members free, otherwise £4.50 winter price for gardens only, dogs welcome on leads
This weekend we are off to see the snowdrops at National Trust Anglesey Abbey – I have read great things about their displays so looking forward to it lots!
Have you got any favourite places to see snowdrops? Comment below!
Bluebell the motorhome is all settled into our home for the next three nights, Topley Head CL site (Caravan Club, £10pn w/electric and hard standing), near Buxton, Derbyshire. We arrived here as the sun was setting but our whistle has been wet, and we are looking forward to daylight as the view looks promising!
We had an uneventful journey up to the Peak District, arriving at Eyam just in time for our turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich and sausage roll lunch to be devoured! The weather was dry albeit notably chillier than down in Norfolk, and we set off with Jazz for a wander around this fascinating village- a village in which during the summer of 1665, a parcel of damp cloth from London changed the course of its future, sadly carrying plague infested fleas which spread and went on to kill 260 people in just one small, sleepy village.
It’s such a pretty little place, right in the middle of a valley with hills surrounding and the typical white peak brickwork on all the houses. Most of the houses in the village have a plaque outside depicting who within those walls were killed. Some has as many as 9 family members who died in that one house – whole generations wiped out. Keith noticed that in many families the wife appeared to survive over the men and the children.
and I found the road where I should live, Lydgate 🙂
What was amazing was that all of these properties are now inhabited and are looking very cosy. Bet there are some serious ghost stories told in the pub these days…
There is a national trust property here, Eyam Hall, that was unfortunately closed today, but we are going to try and come back later in the week.
A short drive from Eyam and we found our campsite for the the next 3 days. It’s right on the Monsal Trail, which we hope to cycle on tomorrow. The drive was through Millers Dale and reminded Keith of Lord of The Rings scenery!
We are surprisingly the only ones on this site – amazing as it’s hard standing with electric and only £10 a night! It’s across the road from Beech Croft Farm campsite where we stayed a couple of years ago, a lovely site, but twice the price and looking very full from what we could see from the road!
Tuesday
Dawned a bright winters day, perfect for a bike ride, so we were up and out by 10am after a lovely brew and some brekkie whilst enjoying this view from our window.
The start of the Monsal trail was found just down the road from the campsite- walkers have access to a steep path at the end of the farm entrance down to the trail, but on the bikes, we opted for half a mile down the A6 to the Wyedale car park (it’s downhill meaning a rather steep incline on our return!)
The Monsal trail is an old industrial railway trail that goes from Wye Bridge to Bakewell covering a distance of about 8.5 miles. It cuts through some magnificent countryside, passing serveral interesting sites along the way, including Lime Kilns and mills, through several tunnels and over the impressive Monsal Head Viaduct. It’s a lovely way to spend a day- and it seemed like the whole world was too, it was packed! Nice to see lots of people out and about in the fresh air, but sometimes a challenge navigating around those who thinks its ok to walk 5 a side, leave their bikes mid track etc! Never rang my bell so many times in a day!
On arriving at Bakewell we assumed we would find bike parking, and spent a considerable amount of time trying and failing to find somewhere safe and unobstructive to leave them. Bakewell is such a pretty little town, home to the Bakewell pudding AND Bakewell tart, so it seemed rude not to buy two of each for a tasting later! Bakewell was even busier than the Monsal Trail, it was heaving!
We rejoined the Monsal trail and headed back to Bluebell, the return journey was hard work on our unfit legs, but we really enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. I was pleased that I remembered to pack my hip flask – getting back up that hill to the campsite was haaaarrrrrddd!
We’ve battened down the hatches as the wind is picking up and more rain in the name of Storm Frank is on the way, so we’re bracing ourselves for a blustery evening! We are warm and cozy though inside our home on wheels
Wednesday
Storm Frank passed overnight and during today and although we didn’t get hit badly, in fact we both slept through it (!), a day out during high winds and thrashing down rain was unappealing to us, so it was declared as a motorhome duvet day, where we literally stayed in bed til lunchtime watching Shogun, ate the leftovers in the fridge up, watched crappy tele, watched more Shogun, I read a book, then we went back to bed! We very rarely do this, at home or away, but enjoyed the chill enormously, and felt very rested, which is what holidays are for aren’t they, so will probably try and do more of this on subsequent trips!
