Doktorsee, Rinteln

 Tuesday 11/06/24

We left Hirschhorn on Monday morning and headed north to get closer to our house-sit.  We broke the journey into two day's travel and spent last night in a camp outside Hünfeld, hitting the road again early this morning.  

Although the traffic on our side was heavy, at least it was moving, unlike the other side!

It's a relief to get away from the hustle and bustle of the motorway.

The landscape has changed from the very hilly, wooded South.

We're finding the German roads very busy, especially as our allowable speed is restricted so we spend most of our time in the trucking lane.  There also seem to be an extraordinary amount of road works, so a lot of narrowing lanes and slow moving traffic.  We didn't cover a huge distance, but broke the journeys into smaller chunks with long breaks - the advantage of having your bed and kitchen behind your car.

Our lovely view of Doktorsee

We're now staying in a holiday park based around a series of lakes, and, although quiet at the moment, it looks like it must be hugely popular in the summer holidays.  There are loads of static caravans of all shapes and sizes as well as touring sites, glamping pods and bungalows on site.  

I like to book ahead the day before just to make sure we get into the site we have chosen, but clearly needn't have bothered here.  We were the only campers when we arrived, and so far only three cyclists with tents and one other motorhome have joined us for the night.

Me, realising I probably didn't need to book ahead...

We should have a quiet night. 😄

There are hundreds of caravans, most will never see a road again.

We'll spend two nights here and then head off to meet our house-sit hosts on Thursday, when we get to be in a house again for 5 weeks or so.

Bonus pic:-

Our happy place - walking in the woods.

Heidelberg visit

 Saturday 08/06/24

We've settled into the gentle rhythm of camp-life very easily and it has been really nice to spend a longer time in one place, something we rarely did in Bokkie.  Although we find ourselves constantly comparing Orthos to Bokkie, it's a completely different type of travel for us and better suited for our current needs. 

Walking in the woods above Hirschorn

Hirschorn castle

As a birthday treat for me,  we took the train into Heidelberg yesterday. A 20 minute walk to the station and half an hour on the train saw us deposited near the Altstadt section of this beautiful town.  Although we arrived fairly early, the town was already bustling with tourists.

Heidelberg castle providing a dramatic backdrop to the town.

Beer time!

We spent a lovely day walking around marvelling at the wonderful architecture and, of course, stopping to sample the local beer and have some lunch.  A lovely day out.

This unusual church caught our eye, quite different to the usual stone façade, this one was pink on the outside and white on the inside.

This rather strange life size model was above the entrance

Today we're getting our washing done because it is a beautiful, sunny day - and also doing some general camping jobs - it's not holiday every day! 😉

Germany at last - in Hirschorn

 Wednesday 05/06/24

Happily set up in Odenwald campsite

We had made a booking for a campsite on the Neckar river, so when we became aware of the flooding in Southern Germany I sent them an e-mail to find out the status but never got a reply.  Undaunted, we headed out of France and into Germany, the roads getting busier as we progressed.  

Our planned route took us through Heidelberg, but as soon as we got into the centre of town our route was blocked because the roads along the river had flooded.  The re-routed traffic caused a massive jam back through the old town - it was a bit stressful trying to tow the caravan through the chaos.  We managed to get through eventually but were then met with another blockage when trying to get to the campsite.

Hirschorn

Workmen clearing up after the flood.  Luckily these houses are high enough to escape damage but 
not everyone was so lucky. 

Our calls to the campsite went unanswered, so we needed to make another plan. Murphy's Law, however dictated that mobile signal was very weak in the area we were stuck in, but eventually we managed to find  a campsite on Google Maps  away from the river (most others were along the bank and we were concerned with the flood situation at this stage).  

We phoned but were disappointed to find the lady answering did not speak any English, however Toni suddenly jumped in with fluent school German and arranged for us to go this new location - we were saved by Frau Schmidt, Toni's high school German teacher of long ago!

The campsite is huge, it must have been quite something in it's heyday.

We can imagine this meadow filed with tents in the summer.

We managed to negotiate further road closures and are now happily camping in a wooded area in a valley near Hirschorn.  We took a walk into town this afternoon and, although the worst of the flooding has passed (for now) the clean-up operation shows just how serious it was.  We're happy to be on higher ground.

Toni always manages to make a feline friend.

Hirschorn Castle looming over the town

We'll spend some time here until it's time for us to head north for our next house-sit.

Video of the Neckar

In Bulgnéville

 Monday 03/06/24

After a week of looking after Jasper and Lily and preparing Orthos, our caravan, for a trip, we set off on Saturday.  We're heading to Germany where we have a house-sit near Hanover later this month and then want to explore more of the country.  It's a trip we've been planning for a few years now but other priorities kept scuppering our plans so we're very pleased to finally be on our way.

The weather has been grim over Europe for a few weeks now and our travels so far have been blighted by rain, low cloud and wind.  We found the wind made a massive difference to our fuel consumption and we had to fill Dassie up before our first destination, making barely 400km on a tank of diesel.

Orthos and Dassie resting after two day's travel across France

It was raining when we arrived at our first stop, Jargeau, on the banks of the Loire and we were grateful for Dassie's 4-wheel drive when pulling Orthos across the sodden grass area.  It's not much fun camping in the rain and we were feeling a bit sorry for ourselves until we spotted a cyclist sitting next to his tiny tent in the rain, seemingly unfussed.  It made the luxury of our caravan seem very decadent - it's all about perspective!

We were going to stay there two nights and explore nearby Orléans but with the rain continuing, we decided to push on and are now another step closer to Germany.

Bulgnéville

We are in a packed campsite in France, but are the only French vehicles here.  This is apparently the ideal stop-over for Dutch, Belgian and German campers on their way to the South of France and Spain so it swells every afternoon and empties again in the morning as travellers hit the road.  We'll stay another night so that we can stretch our legs a bit and get some shopping done before heading onward.

We were marvelling at the roses growing in town and spotted this beauty!

We were amazed again last night how, in a packed campsite with more than 120 stands, there isn't a peep after 9pm; we slept like babies. Onwards to Germany!

Bordeaux, Lisbon and a UK trip

 Sunday 05/05/24

Once we had handed the cats and tortoise back to the owners in St Puy, we headed off to Bordeaux for an overnight stop before flying to Lisbon.  

We arrived in the city during afternoon rush-hour and had to navigate through the traffic to a parking garage near the hotel.  A short walk later we found I had made a faux-pas with the booking and booked the room in February instead of April - and all the hotels in the city centre were fully booked!  Luckily we managed to get into an Ibis near the airport - not where we would have chosen to stay, but mistakes do happen...even to seasoned travellers 😉. At least we were close to the airport for our flight the next day.

Praça do Comércio in Lisbon

A very busy Time-Out food market

My parents were disembarking from the Queen Mary in Lisbon the day before we arrived but Charmaine flew across from London to meet them.  It was really special for us all to get together and spend some time catching up in Lisbon before going our separate ways again.

Three generations together in Portugal.

Coming in to land in Bordeaux

After the airport farewells, we flew back to Bordeaux to pick up Dassie and drive to Calais.  Along the way we stayed at a small hotel in Vivonne, a small town we had stayed in with Bokkie before - and we found it as charming as ever.  

We travelled most of the way on toll roads, a rare luxury for us and, although expensive in France, they are not usually very busy and are well serviced so make covering large distances quite easy.

It was a race between our ferry and the Dunkirk one to get to Dover first.  We won!

We crossed over on a very empty DFDS ferry, spent a night in Canterbury and are now spending the bank-holiday weekend looking after Ralph in London.  What he lacks in appearance, he more than makes up for in personality so he's keeping us busy.

Even putting up the laundry line turns into a game.

It's been a hard day!

Just enough time to find our feet in the UK, get a bit of shopping done and then it will be time to move on so that Toni can have her first dental appointment - the main objective of this trip. 

Visiting Auch

 Wednesday 17/04/24

Yesterday we visited Auch, although we had stopped off briefly on our way here, we had not driven all the way into the centre and felt it was worth another visit.  Travelling without Bokkie has made us much more mobile and we re determined to properly explore each area we stay in.

Although is was quite a grey and drizzly day, we had a lovely walk around the old town.  The 15th century cathedral (which was apparently built over two centuries) is quite awe-inspiring; the sense of history is overwhelming and the scale of the building project is unbelievably grand .  The level of planning that must have gone into a construction project spanning multiple centuries is staggering.

Cathédrale Sainte-Marie

Bonus pics:

Bath time for Anna.

I haven't found an animal that doesn't like a good chin-scratch!

Anna loves a warm bath when it's cold out.