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Monday 9th September 2019 – Day 8

This morning Michelle and I walked back into Rothenburg for an hour especially because Michelle wanted to visit the Christmas shop and museum we had missed the evening before.

Not longer after we left Rothenburg we spotted an “Aldi Sud”, too good to miss as it was our first ever, so we popped in to buy a few basics, I was amused by the dispensing machine for bread, you pressed a button next to a picture of your choice and the bread appeared in a slot at the bottom.

We only drove a short distance today to Dinkelsbuhl and tonight’s stopover is free we are just paying 50cents per KW hour for the electricity, and are sited about 400m from the town entrance.

The weather today has been a little mixed with weak sunshine and showers and it has been cooler than any day before. After lunch we walked into Dinkelsbuhl which is a town dating back 800 years with much of the architecture being 400 years old, and is described as ” one of the most closely packed and best preserved medieval towns in Germany.”

Whilst walking around I spotted a shop selling men’s caps and was rather taken by one or two especially a “Stetson” brand, after trying on numerous types, colours, sizes etc with the help of a very patient and pleasant lady I purchased one having haggled the price down from 59 euros to 35 euros.

The weather was on the cool side as we walked around but the sun is shining now and we intend to go back this evening and walk around again.

Sunday 8th September 2019 – Day 7

Yesterday evening we walked along the river and crossed the old bridge into Wurzburg, the streets were packed with hundreds of people celebrating a music festival where on every street at least one and sometimes more, musicians were performing, from folk to classic, individuals to small groups. The atmosphere was great virtually everyone was carrying a drink and the food of the day seemed to be enormous pizzas, we restricted ourselves to one bottle of beer each.

This morning we went back into town, an 800m walk from our over night stop, costing 12 euros, to site-see in what is a very old university town, the difference 12 hours makes!

After lunch we drove for one hour further south to tonight’s stopover, again 12 euros, at Rothenburg, this time its only 100m to the town entrance, and what a town. It has been in existence since 960 AD and has had a turbulent history over the centuries. It has massive stone town walls with 42 towers that you can walk along, timbered houses and stone buildings and fortunately for us in September they turn the clock back to medieval times and the streets are thronged with people in costume, with pipe and drum bands and people singing national songs, it was a great atmosphere and all completely free.

We were watching one re-enactment with music when deliberately, a display was set on fire and firemen dressed in old costume came along to put it out, unfortunately as they turned on the hose the end next to us on the fire hydrant shot off, it squirted on Layla who wasn’t amused and the crowd enjoyed a good laugh when only a dribble came out of the hose.

Friday/Saturday 6th&7th Sept 2019 Days 5&6.

Yesterday we drove to Gahlen, home of our friends Wolfgang, Arzu and Bedia, our parking for the night was at a Stellplatz called Cafe Holtkamp about 1km from their apartment and cost 10 euros per night with all facilities.

Firstly we had to greet Bedia off the school bus so she could enjoy being greeted by Layla and we left the 2 of them playing whilst we went back to Homer to sort out a few things and ready ourselves for the next journey. Then back at the apartment they treated us to a selection of cakes and coffee/ tea then Peter,Alison, Wolfgang, Bedia, Michelle and I went for a walk around the country lanes stopping for a beer to refresh the legs and feet.

Back at the apartment Michelle and I cheekily took advantage of their shower to refresh and their washing machine to do our first weeks laundry.

Arzu prepared a Turkish meal for us that was predominately vegetarian followed by beautiful sticky Turkish cakes all washed down with wine, raki and finally Turkish coffee.

Bedia enjoyed spending the evening playing with Layla.

This morning we walked back to their apartment for breakfast and fond farewells with promises to return soon.

Then we began what we knew would be a long journey to take us to Wurzburg the northern start of the “Romantic Route” of castles and ancient towns, it was a 250 mile blast down the motorway system with only the last 10 miles on normal roads.

Thursday 5th Sept 2019

Tonight Homer has rested his wheels near the small village of Bergen in The Maasduinen National Park a few kilometres from the German border. We are close to the Rover Maas and there is a lake nearby called Reinders Mere but I don’t think it’s anything to do with reindeer. Where we are staying on the edge of the forest is a site on a farm especially for motor homes and costs 10 euros a night, the first time we have paid for accommodation so far. The area has many kilometres of walks and cycle tracks and Peter and Alison enjoyed a few hours going off on their bikes.

Yesterday we experienced extreme heavy rain and unfortunately we had two small leaks next to the roof vents at the rear of Homer. So this afternoon after we had walked to Bergen and back about 5 miles in all I borrowed a ladder from the site owners and went on Homers roof and sealed all around the vents, so fingers crossed.

Whilst walking towards Bergen we walked along a residential street where every house was different. Outside one, was a woman sweeping her drive, she called us over and made a fuss of Layla, she went into her house and got a dog biscuit for her, we spent at least 20 minutes chatting about Layla and the woman’s visits to the UK, it’s great meeting friendly people.

Wed 4th Sept 2019 Day 3

This morning we walked into Ghent about 30 minutes away from the aire, what a beautiful city, I’m not going to describe anything let the photos speak for themselves. It was an easy city to walk round very flat and not so full of tourists as Bruge and yet in our opinion it is equally as good.

As we walked back to Homer it began to spot with rain and as we sat and had some lunch the rain got heavier and heavier, we had to queue to drive out of Ghent and as we hit the motorway the rain got worse and the spray was awful the 56 mile drive around Antwerp to tonight’s stop was horrendous.

Homer’s wheels are resting tonight in a small Belgium village called Grobbendonk, the aire is again free but we have to pay for electricity. Before the evening meal we walked into the village and Peter treated himself to some Belgian chips and we bought a loaf of bread out of a vending machine. Whilst Peter was in the chip shop an elderly lady emerged from her house and offered Layla a biscuit, when Layla wouldn’t eat it she went back inside and came out with a chewy and a denti stick and said let her eat them later. What a kind person.

Tuesday 3rd September 2019 – Day 2

This morning we left the previous nights aire and drove to Bruge, we parked on the ring road and shortly afterwards our motorhome buddies Peter and Alison joined us. Following some warm greetings we walked into Bruge and marvelled at its historical buildings. We took the opportunity to take a boat ride around the city on its canals and see a different perspective to that of walking the busy tourist packed streets where the smell of waffles and chocolate hangs heavily in the air.

After leaving Bruge we drove to Ghent where we are parked up for the evening in an aire next to an arm of the wide canal used by the rowing club and canoe club, tomorrow we will explore Ghent.

Sat/Sun August 31st/ September 1st 2019

From Friday onwards members of our extended family began arriving from north, south, east and west. My cousin organises the annual event and selects a Caravan and Motorhome site for us to meet up at and hold the annual bbq, this is our 3rd time at Ferry Meadows in Homer and we have stayed as do many of the family members in the local Premier Inn.

This year we were slightly down on numbers and had 23 in attendance ranging from 7 years old to my mother who is almost 97 years old, so many generations were represented.

The weather has been reasonably kind to us it has been dry with occasionally a cool breeze, this enable us to spend most of our time outdoors only retiring indoors to my cousins caravan for a nightcap later in the evening. It’s always good to catch up on every ones news and listen to their plans for the future especially as other family members are beginning to express an interest in motorhoming and envisage a future gathering where we circle the vans and motorhomes like a Western waggon train.

The site here at Ferry Meadows is as you would expect from a Caravan and Motorhome site, meticulously kept with good shower and toilet facilities and this afternoon Michelle has used the washing machine and tumble drier so that we start off tomorrow’s trip without any backlog of washing.

We are now about to tidy up and pack away this we have been using for the weekend so we can get off swiftly in the morning.

Monday 2nd Sept 2019 – Day 1

We left Peterborough this morning via Tesco’s where we stocked up with a few more provisions including more bras for Michelle!

It wasn’t too long on our journey south that we ground to a halt and spent the next 45minutes moving a few car lengths at a time, when we got to the point of the holdup there had been a horrific accident. A new Range Rover had been damaged almost beyond recognition it was just a battered wreck, if the driver survived that they would have been lucky, there was also a delivery van that had lost its rear end and two lorries that I couldn’t see the damage they’d suffered. It put the 45 minute delay into perspective.

We continued south and used the Dartford Crossing on our way to the tunnel, we arrived there at 1.30 pm and we were given the option to board the 2.50 pm train instead of the 4.20pm one were booked on, we were more than happy to take the opportunity.Boarding and passport control went smoothly and quickly and after a 35 min trip we were in France. Unfortunately another accident on our route held us up and we took a long convoluted diversion to our stopover tonight at Bergues, a free aire, there are about 20 vans here for the night.

Bergues is a commune in the Nord Dept of northern France about 15k from the Belgian border. It has a history going back over a 1,000 years and a famous belfry that was started in the 13C rebuilt in 1383, again in the 16C and restored in the 19C, it was destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt in 1961. It has a carillon of 50 bells which ring every 15 minutes which we can hear quite clearly from where we are parked. The ramparts around the town are 5,300 metres long and it has a defensive canal running along side the walls.

August 30th 2019

Homer’s wheels are resting at the Caravan and Motorhome site at Ferry Meadows near Peterborough after a stop start journey of 100 miles crawling through road works with a 50 mile limit and enduring two lengthy stops for accidents.

We are here for the annual family gathering where we travel from near and far to meet up and exchange news and catch up on gossip.

I mentioned in a previous blog how we had emptied every cupboard and locker in Homer, examined the contents and discarded everything we thought we could leave behind for our trip to Europe. For the past two days we have been refilling every nook and cranny with what we feel are essentials for the journey plus a few luxury items. Clothes and shoes are packed, paper backs from the charity shop, maps and guide books have all been stowed away. Food basics to make up meals are under a seat locker enough to last several weeks and the fridge is groaning and bulging, mainly with food for Layla.

We are here in Peterborough until Monday morning and this has added an extra dimension to our planning to be away.

August 24th-26th 2019

We took Homer to north Shropshire to our daughter Steph and her partner Will’s home. When they got engaged in June we didn’t have the opportunity to have a get together to celebrate the happy news.

So the August Bank Holiday weekend was selected for a get together and luckily the weather was superb.

Michelle and I arrived on Saturday and we helped to get everything set up including building 2 settees out of pallets, these became great talking points during the celebration as people suggested improvements/ developments.

During Sunday the guests, family and friends arrived at varying times and Will aided by Matt produced a very enjoyable bbq. accompanied by salad from Steph’s vege patch. Sophie and Michelle had both been baking and there were a range of desserts for afterwards.

Monday we helped tidy up and pack away, Homer is now on our drive slowly being filled with clothes, maps, guide books and other essentials for our trip which commences on Friday.