Author: deljones (Page 1 of 8)

2020. Rubbish! Good riddance.

We were very lucky to get out and about in our van into Europe but only just… Travel was very difficult for all of us in 2020, rule changes every five minutes, tests required, and on and on and on, but will it be any better in 2021 what with the continuation of COVID-19 and now brexit in the travel mix? We can only wish and hope for a better year ahead.

May we wish you all a happy and well travelled 2021.

Saturday 19th September 2020

We slept well last night, not surprising after such a long day yesterday. We open all the blinds of the van and have a lovely view of the Solent which we sit and admire over breakfast. We are home. Our last day, we are relieved though to be back and all above board.

Another long day today, van de-prep, laundry, and getting the house back up and running after 7weeks away. Hayley has today and part of tomorrow to get prepared to go back to work.

Once home its a massive job. Jess the van is stripped and completely deep cleaned. Hayley has found a home for all the stuff off the van which mainly consists of German food!?

By 3 pm Jess has been jet washed and looks brand new again. We put her back into storage with her cover on and wave her goodbye until the next time we all meet.

Thanks Jess…

And finally to you, dear reader MANY THANKS…

We would like to say many thanks to all our family, friends, and colleges who have followed us. We have appreciated all of the comments and emails. We were supposed to go to Scandinavia but the new rules that we are asked to follow stopped that from happening but our France trip, with the German bolt-on, was excellent. Should we have gone? Of course, we should. We could have put it off until next year but we feel that the same problems will probably be with us next year, we can’t put off living for an unspecified time.

We also know that many people have not been able to enjoy a holiday this year for other reasons as a result of the virus for which we feel sad, such a shame. The virus is with us for the foreseeable future now and we have to change some aspect of the way we live but don’t put anything off through your own choice. Avoiding the virus is straight forward, wash your hands a lot, don’t touch your face, and wear a mask when there is a bunch of you about and keep your distance.

Our very best wishes to each of you and we hope that we will be able to meet up again in the old fashioned, tried and tested way that we all know and love.

Del, H and Jess.

Friday 18th September 2020

It’s a nasty grating sound, an alarm going off at 6 am, the start of a very long day. We have filled in our Passenger Locator Forms online, we have proof of when we entered Germany and from where. We have everything and have done everything to comply with the rules of transit which are; we can travel transit through France (or Luxembourg and Belgium) and enter the United Kingdom without the need to quarantine. The conditions are that no one can get into our out of your vehicle. You can stop but must not mix with anyone else at the stop. You must NOT have been in France for the past two weeks. We have studied these rules over and over again and we have covered every single base and eventuality. We are good to go!

After a short breakfast, we leave our spot in Perl, Germany to start the 9-hour drive to the Isle of Wight and home. After only 3 minutes of driving, we cross the border into France, no fanfare, no announcement you’d have missed it if you weren’t looking. We take turns with the drive stopping twice in France for the loo without getting out of the van, we locked ourselves in.

It has been a long slog and we are getting a bit fatigued but finally, we are at the Eurotunnel station at Calais. We are ready with passports, PDFs of our Passenger Locator Form, masks, sanitisers, full-body protection, lie detectors ready for the Q&A that we could face… Nothing. Nothing happened. A very nice French customs lady briefly looked at our passports, then the UK border force (or is that farce?) took our passports.

“Just the two of you?” He says with a smile.

“Yes” we said, gulping.

“Thanks very much” he replies and that was it. Just like any other crossing on any normal day. We are not sure if we should be relieved or angry, it seems that the government are just using fear tactics to get people to comply. We had 48 hours of anxiety all for nothing. Or was it?

The Eurotunnel experience is brilliant. You just drive on and through the carriages until you’re told stop, once everyone is on we are off. No messing about and the journey is only 35 mins long. So time for a spot of lunch in Jess while we do 70mph on a train under the sea! Time to do the washing up.

Oh daylight, we have arrived.

On UK soil we trundle along the potholed M20, M26, M25, and the A3 to Portsmouth. Our ferry crossing to the Isle of Wight is not until 7 pm so we have a couple of hours to kill. Hayley suggests fish and chips by the sea at Southsea Espalande with a great view of our home island in the evening sun. Great Idea…

We arrive at the ferry port bang on time but the ferry is delayed for at least an hour, which means an hour and a half possibly two. We have come all the way from the German-French border, across France and the Eurotunnel without any problems, the only job they are supposed to do, provide a ferry across a small piece of water, is a challenge. Apparently its been like that on and off all summer?Whilst we have the delay we take advantage of the time and have a hot shower. That’s a first, a hot shower in the Wightlink queue while waiting for the ferry.

Hayley has another good idea. The plan is to try Firestone Copse which is a nice forest area on the Isle of Wight that by all accounts you can stay at. (All the campsites on the island are full and have been for weeks). So at 9pm when, at last, we get to the island we give it a go. The road is extremely narrow, anything coming the other way and we’ve had it. It’s dark, very dark, we approach the entrance. It’s empty, we are the only ones. We are not so sure now, it doesn’t look very inviting so we decide to circle the uneven car park to the exit only to get slightly stuck, a bit of wheel spinning and we are free and out of there.

Sticking to what we know best we head for Fort Victoia which is on the far west side of the island. It’s a challenge now and hard work for Hayley, we left at 6:45 (European time) this morning and it’s now 9.30 in the evening. We are tired.

Finally, we are in a breezy Fort Victoria, Well Del is outside making sure we are locked up and safe Hayley has converted the inside into a place of calm with lovely low lighting, curtains dropped and some gentle jazz on. It was like a little heaven. Wonderful.

Thursday 17th September 2020

After long and lengthy discussions last night we have decided to get back a day early – doesn’t sound much but the situation with the virus is changing so quickly and Hayley needs time to do a decent turn around before going back to work, work that we need, work that we can’t afford to jeopardise. It probably is time to go home?

We have breakfast, pack up, and make our move. It’s a lovely warm day, clear blue skies, perfect.

We have a place in mind and as usual, we have a back up just in case. We follow the road following the Mosel river passing the vineyards that grow steep on the banks. It really is beautiful.

We are turned away from our first place. It’s full. This whole area is busy. Along the flat banks of the Mosel, there are huge campsites that are capable of holding up to 150 plus vans or caravans. It’s busy. No matter, we set off for our second choice. That too is full. Oh, dear.

Our Eurotunnel train is at 14:20 on Friday and we need to do our run through France on a single tank of diesel to avoid stopping and breaking the transit rules, this means we need a place to stay close to the border and be able to leave the site at 07:00 in order to make good time. All of the German campsites have a barrier that is not open until 08:00 which is no good for us. They simply will not open the barrier before 08:00. We try two other sites, all have space but the opening of the barrier cannot be before 08:00. Unlike France, Germany does not have a lot of free overnight stops.

It is now late in the afternoon, we manage to fill up with gas and diesel but we still have nowhere to stay the night. Six long hours later we finally find a place in a town called Perl which is right in the corner of Germany and the border with Luxembourg and France. A rather uninteresting place but there is space, no barriers and it will only cost us 5 euros. Brilliant.

Tired and a bit fed up we get settled in and meet another English couple who have only just arrived in Germany from France doing exactly the same as us – doing the two-weeks of useless quarantine in Germany. We advise them that for some reason this area and the Mosel, in particular, is busy, very busy. Clearly the Germans are not going anywhere else for their holidays except their own country. Who can blame them, it does have some lovely bits to it.

A walk followed by dinner and an earlyish bed. Up at 06:00.

Wednesday 16th September 2020

We enjoyed Burgen. We have been here before, a nice peaceful quiet place, very nice and well worth the stop. Today we are going to a place called Wintrich, a small town right on the river Mosel, it’s a good hour plus so after our usual long breakfast we pack up, service the van and we are off. Germany is enjoying fantastic weather and most Germans are staying in their own country so it’s busy. It’s so, so busy. There are literally thousands of campervans, mobile homes, and caravans buzzing around the place, it’s mad.

We arrive in Wintrich at around 1 pm and sure enough, it’s packed, but we do get in and we do find a space, a nice space right under a nice shady tree.

We get set up and settle in for a lovely afternoon and watch as more vans flood into the site which eventually stops – a walk to the entrance shows that our site is closed, it’s full. Whew.

Hayley has an email confirming a penciled job from weeks ago. We are concerned that the numbers of virus infections are rising all over Europe and maybe we should cut our losses and go home a day or two early. Ther are some lengthy discussions and internet work to see what the latest changes are to the GOV.UK web site regarding transit etc. If ever there was a web site that contradicts itself and leads you down the garden path then this is the site to do it. We are alarmed that we have to quarantine after all, but after a good hour of searching and checking, we agree that the situation has not changed. We can transit through France to the Eurotunnel and as long as no one gets on or off we will not have to quarantine.

Hayley needs this job, being self-employed she cannot afford to lose the work, nobody is going to cover that loss of money. Also, she could probably do with a day in hand to re-adjust and do a decent turn around of clothes, etc before starting back to work on Monday. We finally make the decision to change our train time and go back a day early on Friday 18th rather than Saturday.

Satisfied with our decision we head into the small charming town of Wintrich and enjoy a slap-up feed of schnitzel, chips, and local wine.

Tomorrow will be our last full day in Germany and the holiday…

No!!!!!

Tuesday 15th September 2020

The decision has been made to stay another night in Burgen and do a bit more cycling. It very good here and we can do with the excersise, especially after the monster breakfast we have had.

Today Germany is hotting up and the temperature is expected to reach 32 degrees, not bad for mid September. After the breakfast clean up we are off and away on our bikes.

Our cycle takes us along the Mosel river and it’s hot, very hot but we manage 13 miles, not a Tour d’ France distance but good enough for a couple of Brits with a pair of knackered old bikes.

By early afternoon we are back at base, the inside of the van is baking and there is no shade in our little spot until after 4 pm so we have an hour or so until that happens. By now the temperature has reached 33 degrees. Which is nice.

Monday 14th September 2020

The rose went down rather well last night, too well. Today we are going to a small town that we stayed in two years ago called Burgen. A hotel there provides a very nice space with everything you need for 15 euros a night, which is far better than the crowded campsites down by the riverside that can charge up to 35 euros – mad.

It’s a nice drive today taking us through some lovely scenery.

On the way to Burgen, we fill up with diesel and do some shopping for basics. In Germany, they have a recycling system called “Pfand”. When you buy bottled water or cans of beer, not only do they charge for the item but they add a thing called a pfand (a deposit), sometimes the pfand is dearer than the drink itself. Once you consume the water the idea is that you can take the empties back to any supermarket that has a pfand machine, throw the bottle in the hole on the front of the machine, it makes some noise as it scans a bar code or whatever, it then disappears around the back somewhere.

There is a small screen telling you how many bottles or cans you have put in along with a running total that will come back to you. Once done you print out a ticket with the value on it, you take it to the till and they give you the money back. Good or bad? We can’t make our minds up. Its a high tech deposit scheme which is very popular here and has been going for a while now.

We arrive in Burgen to find two spaces remaining so we choose a nice shady spot right in the corner overlooking a dense forest and a small stream, very nice.

Our host is pleased to see us and very friendly, they just leave us to get on with it as we like. It’s nice here, with a ten-minute walk you are right on the Mosel river and on the other side of the river you can see the steep vineyards on the hill, it looks fabulous especially in the afternoon sunlight which is now 30 degrees with tomorrow promising to be even hotter.

The bikes are released off the back of the van and went off on a short bike ride along the river.

The Germans are very good at providing good bike lanes, you can cycle for miles and miles on one lane and are very well used by the locals and tourists alike.

We only manage 10k today but it’s better than none at all. It’s too hot so we get back for a cold drink and shower, setting us up for dinner tonight at a local restaurant which is owl mad. Everywhere you look there are ornaments of owls. There must be over a thousand “pot” owls. Very un-nerving.

After dinner, its back to the van for a nightcap or two wrapped up in the candlelight and the gentle gurgling of the stream below.

Sunday 13th September 2020

We didn’t do anything yesterday at Horb am Necker but Del fell in love with the campsite. It was a very calm and relaxing place, could have easily stayed there much longer. Today we are off and crossing into a new area, gone are the pine trees and the steep rolling hills. We have moved from pine trees to vineyards as we plan to stay at our first vineyard on this part of the German trip. It’s a longish drive today, 2 and a bit hours to a small town called Mettenhiem, southwest of Frankfurt. Thanks to the German motorway system it won’t cost us anything in tolls.

We set off after a rather large breakfast sharing the drive. Hayley brings us into a small field at the back of a large house. We are at the Weingut Seilheimerhof which is run by a couple of brothers, Eric and Bernd.

They run a nice place and are very welcoming to motorhomes by providing a nice flat grassy pitch, electricity, and a free bottle of wine. We shall see how that one goes later! They have a small shed with a fridge inside full of their wine, you take a bottle that you like and drop 5 euros in an honesty box.

We had to give it a go so we bought a rose which was surprisingly not bad at all. Excellent.

A nice stay here and an excellent dinner outside in the sunset amongst the vines. Smashing. Not bad for a Sunday.

Saturday 12th September 2020

It’s our last full weekend of our 7 and a bit week trip. It started out as 5 and a bit weeks but while we were out of the UK, the government put France on the quarantine hit list. If we had come home on time we would have had to do a 2-week quarantine. Two weeks of our lives that we will never get back! So as Germany is “cleaner” and not on the list, we opted to do two extra weeks in Germany as we are allowed, at the moment, to transit through France, get on the Eurotunnel and get back into the UK without quarantine, as long as we don’t stop and allow new people on and allow others to get off. Joke? Yes, if only!

Anyway, we are going with the rules, we started a folder of receipts to show when we entered Germany and we are collecting them during our extended trip just in case some smart Border Force person wants some kind of proof.

Today we are pushing north and this weekend we will spend the second and final week in Germany in the Mosel Valley. We only have 1 week left. Just 1 week, so we have to make the most of it.

Another lovely morning this morning in Waldkirch, the parking area is packed, there must be about 16 or 18 vans jammed into this small area. After a quick greywater drop and freshwater fill up we are off and on our way. It’s a warm sunny day today, as it is over most of Europe. We are heading for a site in a place called Horb am Necker as we push our way north.

The drive is about an hour and a half and Hayley is taking care of the drive. The scenery is wonderful, especially in the sunlight. Well, manicured rolling fields with tree-lined hills, very beautiful.

We arrive just before 2 pm and the very helpful staff have given us a full serviced pitch where we can fill up with fresh water, drop the grey water and electricity all for 22 euros. Laundry day today. How dull but even on a van you accumulate laundry that at some point has to be done. At this site, they have everything so Del is dispatched to do three loads of washing, courtesy of Ikea bags. Where would we be without them? Hayley is plotting our remaining days in Germany.

A very quiet and peaceful remaining day and night after a lovely dinner outdoors in the warm setting sun.

Friday 11th September 2020

Our second day in Waldkirch and it’s a smashing day. This good weather is to last until the start of next week. This weekend will be busy, it’s the last weekend of the summer holidays for the people of Baden-Wurttemberg and with the hot weather they will all be out in force, we have a place so we are staying put. Tomorrow might be a challenge, we shall see.

There is a small treetop walk near us, one of those things where they strap rope bridges across ravines between trees, etc. It’s a good 50-minute walk to the top but the way down is very novel. They have Europe’s longest tube slide. The idea is that once you do your treetop walk, you get a rug, jump in a steel tube, and at 40 – 50kph, and 20 seconds later you pop out at the bottom. We’ll see about that later.

A long breakfast today, we love those. On with the walking boots and off we go up the hill to “Baumkonenweg! (Tree Crown way?). 6 euros each later and we are tottering across rope bridges, planks of swinging wood, and so on.

It was a short event but good all the same made better by the fact that before we started we had an ice-cream!

To get down we opted for the slide, tube thing. Del goes first. Nervously and gingerly he edges himself into the tube waiting for gravity to take its turn and pull him down through the tube at 40 odd kilometres an hour starting with a 50-degree drop in the dark, to be spat out at the bottom. Fast? It was fast, very fast than about 10 meters from the end of a dead stop! So with some elbow and leg work, he had to ease his way out of the tube for the last 10 or so meters rather than the expected hi-speed ejection onto a coconut mat. With a watching crowed he pushes himself along on his arse to small applause. 2 minutes later Hayley appears performing the same task to get herself out of the last 5 or so meters. Good fun was had all the same.

Time for a coffee in the lakeside cafe. It’s a lovely day and there are plenty of people milling around enjoying the day, and why not.

Next up is a small zoo that they have here. Again a short walk and 6 euros each we are walking around Waldkirch Zoo. ( we are not sure what’s going on here but everything is six euros. Two beers six euros, museum, 6 euros, tree-walk, 6 euros. Everything is 6 euros.)

We enjoyed the zoo, it was rustic in parts but nice to walk around and you could feed and pet some of the animals.

All very nice and pleasant. All in all a nice day. There is everything here: treetops, tubes, and zoos. Oh and lovely weather.