September 2017

We’ve come to the end of our trip – 6 months 10 days on the road, over 12,000 km driven, 11 different countries (and one island) visited, 29 campsites, 7 ferries (including four overnight and two river crossings) and we’ve made ourselves understood in 8 different foreign languages. A big part of the trip has been selecting the different campsites that we’ve stayed on.  ACSI – a Dutch version of the Caravan Club who vet all their sites, has been really helpful as they have an App which includes customer ratings which is brilliant.  However, we haven’t aways had the luxury of being able toRead More →

The weather was terrible for the rest of the morning with high winds, thunder storms and lots of rain.  We were glad that we’d packed most of our ‘outside’ stuff away the day before, but we still had to venture out in the rain to carry out the last of the ‘breaking camp’ tasks.  Fortunately the rain eased off in the afternoon, but by now everything was once again very muddy, so I ended up hosing everything off at the motorhome washing point so we wouldn’t have to take all the mud home with us! At 4 p.m. we were all set – Karol nippedRead More →

It continued to rain all Friday night and most of Saturday morning, so our pitch is like a mud bath – the carpet is definitely for the bin once we leave! However, as forecast it brightened up after lunch, so we cycled to Middleburg once more to finish off our sightseeing.  As much as anything it was great to simply get out of the caravan for a few hours and into the fresh air! This time we didn’t get lost, and having parked our bikes we headed for the market square in glorious sunshine. Whilst there was no market, the square was full of vintageRead More →

We decided to have a less active day on Wednesday, so after a leisurely start we spent quite a while bringing the blog up to date, and then walked the 2km into Zoutelande mid afternoon. We’d read about a restaurant here which looks really good so we thought we’d do a recce. The restaurant found (not hard as Zoutelande isn’t a big place) we stopped for some alcoholic refreshments and then we walked back again! What’s struck me about Zeeland is that they seem to cater for the Dutch and the Germans, and no one else.  I’d expected English to be the second language here,Read More →

We woke up to gorgeous sunshine on Sunday so headed for the beach for a relaxing morning. However, it wasn’t as warm as it looked, with a stiff breeze ensuring we kept our shirts on!   We almost had the place to ourselves, very few other people were sitting although quite a few were walking along the shore. Batteries recharged by the sea air, we caught up on a few tasks in the afternoon before taking a walk on the sand dunes towards Zoutelande, about 2 km up the coast.  After a sustaining beer we walked back along the beach and back up the stepsRead More →

As we’d just had a hectic couple of days we decided that on Monday we’d explore back down the Mosel away from Koblenz on our bikes.  We had a lazy morning and then after lunch set off on the northern side of the river to Winningen, about 10 km away (sounds like Vinegar – let’s hope the wine tastes better than that!)  The ride was lovely as we found a path alongside the vines away from the road, and it was a warm and pleasant day too which added to the relaxed journey. However, once we arrived at Winningen we realised that it was rightRead More →

As we approach the end of our trip, I’ve been contemplating the differences between the various EU countries when it comes to driving and towing, and the Schengen area countries in particular.  Are the rules of the road harmonious and joined up?  Not at all is my conclusion! In no particular order therefore: In Spain, you are restricted to 90 kph when towing on a motorway, whilst in Portugal it’s 100 kph.  Italy restrict you to 80 kph, along with all wagons, but they take no notice of the speed limit, and frankly neither do the car drivers.  All three countries have tolls for theirRead More →