We arrived in Belgium quite late after travelling the 240 miles from home. We stopped the night in the free car park near the canal with quite a few other Motorhome’s. We had everything we needed on board so we didn’t need to pay for a campsite. I even managed our first tea in our new kitchen. Salmon, veggies and cheese sauce yum!
The next day was spent with an old school friend. Sarah and her husband live in Gent so spent the day and evening with them, what a wonderful way to start our big adventure.
Wednesday we left Belgium behind and drove to Giethoorn in Holland. I love Holland, it’s so clean and tidy. Giethoorn is no exception. The Dutch are very friendly and their English puts us to shame. Even the 2 people sat on the other side of the canal waved to us as we walked by. It was still sunny and warm at 8:30pm and we were glad of the breeze. The Aire (camping spot) cost €11 for 1 night with toilets, showers, water, grey & black waste and free WiFi, with a view & a price like that, what’s not to love.
Our aim is to try and get to Denmark by the end of the weekend as June, July & August are good months to travel around Scandinavia. We had wanted to see more of Belgium & Holland but we set off later than planned and we know we can explore more when we get our annual leave from work. From where we live it’s quicker to get there than Scotland!
Thursday, still travelling north, we found a great little place to park in a public square in the centre of a lovely town in north Germany called Leer. There was no charge for parking and it had a machine for anyone to use that for €1 gives fresh water one side and a place the other side to empty your toilet. How amazing is that! We found it using the app ‘park4night’. Motorhoming is so easy in Germany! We loved the walk around the town and along the river and even managed to dodge the showers.
Friday was spent in Bremen. Another great place to visit in Germany. Parked just around the corner from a stellplatz (Campsite/Aire for Motorhome’s). We had enough water on board and the waste was only 50% full so we didn’t want to fork out €15 just to park on a piece of hard ground. The reviews on ‘park4night’ said the place where we decided to stay was safe and quiet. Which it was.It was only a 30 minute walk into the old square. Some of the beautiful buildings are part of UNESCO. Had to visit the Cathedral as we hadn’t been in one this month lol. The statue of animals is called Bremen Town Musicians - A fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It’s been used all over the town in one way or another.
So yesterday, as the weather wasn’t great, we trucked on to Friedrichstadt in the north. We didn’t want to drive through Hamburg so instead chose a route on google maps through the countryside and crossed the river Elbe by Ferry from Wischhafen to Gluckstadt. We followed the signs to the boat, joined the queue, drove on and sat in the Motorhome the whole journey. The guy came round and speaking perfect English told us (in his German way) it was cash only and even guessed the correct length of the van. €20 later we were crossing the river.
We needed to fill up with fresh water and empty the toilet so typed ‘stellplatz’ into google maps and found one in Brokdorf. Most places you can do your ablutions and pay the odd Euro at the machine without having to stop and pay for the night. We’re not tight, we’re trying to keep to a budget.
Now we’re in Friedrichstadt, it looks like a little version of Venice, so we’re off to explore in a moment ...
Harriet’s Hints
We found the fuel prices got cheaper the further north you travel in Germany.Delhaize is a lovely Belgium supermarket. Rewe is a nice German supermarket. You can pay by card but it’s closed on a Sunday. Edeka is another decent German shop, open for a few hours on a Sunday but they don’t accept card payments. (We found out the hard way). All much better (in our opinion) to Lidl.
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