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In the queue for the ferry at Newcastle

I must apologise as I wrote this as a train of thought type epic. At some point I will edit it into something slightly more flowing :o)

We had originally decided on a trip just to Wolfsburg to the Autostadt and VW Museum but decided to make it a trek round Northern Germany and take in a few sights - but where to go, hmmmmm!

From door to door we covered about 1700 miles on our trip by road, plus the trip on the ferry return Newcastle-Ijmuiden of which I have no idea of the distance.

DAY 1 Wednesday

Newcastle to Amsterdam

Set off from Nottingham at around lunchtime heading to Newcastle to catch the ferry. Board the DFDS Seaways ferry, the Duke of Scandinavia, at around 4pm. We have a 16-hour overnight crossing to look forward to, leaving Newcastle at 5pm and due to arrive at Ijmuiden at 9am the next morning.

We have only booked an economy cabin which is more like a bunk bed in a little section seperated from the other bunks by partition. It's OK though and serves it's purpose but next time I think I'd like to spend a bit more money and go for a proper cabin. The cost of the ferry (cabin plus breakfast on both crossings and dinner on the return crossing) is £210 total.

Explore the ferry for a while, have a drink in the bar and then sunbathe on the deck for a couple of hours. When it gets a bit chilly we go back inside to have another wander around. We decide to see what's on at the cinema and get tickets to see Shaun of the Dead. For some reason they don't show the films until quite late and we both doze off and miss the last 15minutes of the film :o(

The crossing is nice and gentle and we're up early for breakfast which I have to say is totally fantastic. Dock at Ijmuiden bang on time.

DAY 2 Thursday

Amsterdam into Wesel, Germany

Spend the morning having a drive around Amsterdam. We find somewhere to park up by the canal and go for a stroll. By early afternoon we're a bit hungry and thankfully happen upon Als Plaice chippy (see my tip on my Amsterdam page).

Leave Amsterdam on the A2, then join the A12 at Utrecht, through Arnhem and into Germany. I bought the AA European campsite guide before we left so we don't have to worry about not finding a site any time. We toward Kleve and then on to find the first campsite we have chosen at Wesel. It's very pretty round here, which is fortunate bacause we're having terrible trouble locating the campsite so at least we've got some nice scenery to look at while we're driving round in circles!
I can't ask for directions as I haven't had anywhere near enough practice with my German :o( Eventually we find it by total chance through a little back gate. The site is very clean and quiet with good facilities.

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Lake Mohnesee

DAY 3 Friday

Wesel to Castrop Rauxel to Mohnetalsperre

Leave Wesel and join the A3, then the A42 down to Essen. We have planned the trip to coincide with a Volkswagen show at Castrop Rauxel - VWForum. We decide to check out the town and find out where we have to go for the show tomorrow. We find the location easily thanks to the German practice of having everything really well signposted and then set about trying to find a supermarket for supplies.

We find the REAL Hypermarket and pull in. The place is massive and has everything you could want - apart from the thing I want which can't find on any shelves....we need matches for the campstove in the bus and I have no clue as to the German word for matches. I engage in a very embarrassing exchange with a young girl in the tobacconists in the hypermarket while I try desperately to ask for matches :o(
Eventually we come to some sort of understanding and I buy some matches. I can only apologise for my ignorance and now have the German word for matches etched onto my brain for all eternity! After doing the shopping we get back on the A40 to Dortmund.

We carry on through Dortmund, which seems very nice, on the A44 and out toward the Mohne dam which I really want to see. We turn right on the 229 at Soest and down towards Mohnetalsperre. We have a drive round some of the villages and round the lake then find our next campsite. We ask if they have a space and can't believe our luck when they lead us to a spot at the very front looking out on the lake. We park up for the night and spend the evening having a stroll and feeding the ducks.

As dusk descends we have some dinner, go for a shower and get to bed. We have a good routine now.....Steve puts the table and stove etc away and gets all the bed out in the bus while I go and have a shower, and then he goes for a shower while I faff about getting ready for bed and hey presto!

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What have they done to this poor Beetle?!

DAY 4 Saturday

Sorpe Dam, Mohne Dam and then back to Castrop Rauxel and VW Forum

Head down toward Arnsberg and the Sorpesee and Sorpe Dam. Have a walk round one side of the lake and stand on the dam to take photographs.

Then we head back up to the Mohne Dam and park in the cafe car park and walk back onto the dam to take pictures. We pop into the cafe to go to the loo and find a series of pictures explaining what happened to the dam in WWII when the bouncing bomb struck the dam.

Then we head back to Castrop Rauxel to camp for the night at the show. The bus attracts quite a lot of attention being an old right hand drive model (most of the VWs at the show were newer models and I don't recall there being any campers). Spend the evening walking round the show looking at cars and venture a little way into the town.

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Me missing the train on Mount Brocken

DAY 5 Sunday

To the Harz Mountains

We spend the morning at the show having a good look round the cars in daylight. Steve meets some people he knows which is quite amusing - as the Disney song goes, "It's a small, small world".

We leave Castrop Rauxel at around lunchtime and head out on the A44 towards the Harz Mountains and up the A33 toward Paderborn. At some point along this journey we're going down a hill and lost all power. Steve rubs his chin and decides he knows exactly what's the matter so out comes the toolbox and away he goes under the bus. The bus couldn't have chosen a better place to pack up; just on the outskirts of a pretty little town at the foot of some hills and a view out over the fields.

All power restored (something to do with a wire coming off something??) and back on the move we follow minor roads out towards the Harz Mountains so we can see some better scenery than n the main road.

We have picked a site in Clausthal Zellerfeld. We have a drive round the town which seems to be a university town and then head out to Prahljust campsite. It is soooo beautiful and yet again we are given a superb pitch overlooking lake Pixhaier. We are surrounded by pine forests and mountain meadows and all seems right with the world :o)

We have our usual stroll around the campsite, have dinner, a shower.......you know how the evening goes by now.

See my tip on the campsite

DAY 6 Monday

Clausthal Zellerfeld to Goslar, up Mount Brocken and out towards Wolfsburg

We leave quite early the next morning and have a drive round the Harz Mountains. We drive by the Oker Dam which is really pretty and make a point to return after we have been to Goslar. We get to the marketplace just in the nick of time to see the glockenspiel in action at noon. After a brief walk round Goslar we go back to the bus and head back out towards the Oker dam. I take a few pictures and we press on towards the Harz narrow gauge steam railway. We board the train at Schierke station for a trip up Mount Brocken.

The trip on the railway is fantastic. We are the only people in our carriage. The views from the train are wonderful as are the views from the summit itself, although it is f-f-f-f-freezing cold on top of the mountain. I decide to spin round and round like Julie Andrews singing "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music" and consequently we miss the train back down resulting uin a 30-minute wait for the next one :o( It is so cold that we decide to forgo the views and go into the restaurant for a nice hot cup of tea. When we get back down to the station we head out of the mountains through Wernigerode and up toward Wolfsburg. We haven't decided where to stay for the night and want somewhere near enough to Wolfsburg to be able to get to Autostadt early so we pick a site in Helmstedt. Since it was quite late by the time we arrived I think the lady at the site was just glad to have some more business and only chagred us 10 Euros for the night - although I have to say that since it is nowhere near as well equipped as the other campsites we have been to the price is probably correct. Again, we have a nice stroll around the site in the evening after dinner.

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Autostadt in the distance, Wolfsburg

DAY 7 Tuesday

From Helmstedt to Wolfsburg to see Autostadt and the VW Museum

We leave Helmstedt (on the A2 then the A39) fairly early and arrive at Wolfsburg with enough time to have a full day touring the Autostadt and have time to visit the VW museum.

As you drive into Wolfsburg you can see the two towers of Autostadt clearly on the horizon, which is good as you can see what direction you need to be going without even looking for signs. The towers are storage units for new VWs. The chaps on the gate in the carpark look quite impressed when we turn up in a 30 year old right hand drive VW campervan.....

The Autostadt is a strange affair with some odd pavillions dedicated to the different brands under the Volkswagen Auto Group. There are restaurants on site and we have lunch at an American type diner which is nice but a bit expensive for what it was.

The main building is really interesting with a big exhibition charting the progression of VW from its formation and has a massive collection of cars on display.

We join a tour of the factory and end up on a little train going round the Touran section. Unfortunately the commentary is all in German so we can't understand most of what is being said which is a shame. I'd like to go back when I'm a bit more fluent.

We leave a trip to the museum until late afternoon and catch the complimentary minibus from Autostadt to the museum. We arre the only people using the service and it's a bit like having our own chauffeur who opened and closed doors for us to get in and out - cool!

The museum is really interesting but I'm preoccupied by the fact that the batteries have run out in my digital camera after only a couple of photos and I haven't got anymore with me :o(

We head back to Autostadt at about 5pm (picked up by our chauffeur!)and after having another quick stroll round and a drink we decide to check out the Autostadt campsite, Campingplatz Allersee. Steve goes to start up the bus but the cool box has run the battery flat so Steve whips out the battery pack (just for situations such as these) and the horrible realisation dawns that the light switch on it has been knocked while we were driving at some point and that it too is flat as a pancake. The poor bus has to suffer the embarrassment of being push started outside the VW factory after having made it all the way here with little or no drama. Steve is mortified.

it isn't difficult to find and we are given a little spot under the tree opposite the entrance. We park up, get organised and head off to explore the area n foot. We walk up the road a short way to a large bridge which crosses the Mittelandkanal and if you look back towards Autostadt you can see the 4 chimneys on the old factory. Then we walk back down the road along the end of the campsite and along down the banks of the lake Allersee. We go back to the bus to have some supper and sit watching a rabbit running round on the grass, and the evening unfolds in it's usual manner.

See my Wolfsburg page for tips.

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The miserable weather

DAY 8 Wednesday

From Wolfsburg to Osnabruck

It's all homeward bound from here-on-in :o(

I had wanted to go and see Wolfsburg castle yesterday but we had decided we would come back and look round today. Unfortunately the weather is atrocious and taking pictures would be a fruitless exercise so I leave disappointed.

We take the 188 over towards Hannover and joined the E30 to make our way to Osnabruck where we have decided to stop overnight. All fairly uneventful, the rain eases off by the time we reach Hannover. I would have liked to explore as it looks very nice but we have a lot of miles to cover in a short time to get back to the ferry.

We find a campsite in the trusty AA guidebook (see my tip on the Campsite here) and get a space for the night. I've discovered on this trip that Germany seems to have more rabbits than anywhere else in the world. Admittedly the campsite is surrounded by fields but still, there must be hundreds on this site alone. As day turns to dusk everywhere you look there were bunnies chasing each other around and as we stroll round the campsite before having supper they are darting out between caravans and running in and out of bushes....and as many as there are I am unable to get a picture of even one of them. They appear to have a camera-sensing-device which makes them hurtle off at a million miles an hour the second you remove lens cap :o(

The campsite has a small animal paddock to one side and Steve lingers by the goats and chickens doing his usual Dr Doolittle impression and conversing with any animal that will stand near him and listen!

The night progresses in it's usual way. We haven't been asleep long when we are awoken by the sound of torrential rain sounding like hailstones as it hits the top of the bus.

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Steve goat-whispering (or something!)

DAY 9 Thursday

From Osnabruck back into Holland to Andijk

The weather doesn't improve and as we drive through Osnabruck the sky turns black and rain falls unlike any I have ever seen.

We press on and head towards Holland on the E30. The weather improves the further we go and by the time we reach Holland the sun is out again.

We are both disappointed by the lack of pomp and ceremony that affords you when you cross the border. The only way of knowing is that the words on the signs change. Ausfahrt in Germany becomes Uit in Holland and that's how we know we're no longer in Germany. We want big signs that say Welcome to Holland or Goodbye from Germany but it's all a bit of a non-event.

The E30 becomes the A1 and whilst looking at the map Steve decides that we should cross a curious looking road that appears to go straight across the water. So we turn off the A1 and head up the N302 towards Harderwijk and the Lelystadt. It's all very pretty and very flat with lots of little canals and it's only since I've returned that I've learned about the area and the creation of the dikes.

By the time we cross the Houtribdijk (as I've snce learned it's called) the weather turns again, the wind picks up and I feel sure we'll be blown into the sea..... The Houtribdijk turns into the Markerwaarddijk and we eventually and thankfully arrive at the other end in Enkhuizen. I had found a campsite in Andijk so we head off in that direction and find signs for Het Grootslag.

I love the scenery round here and wish I'd had longer to explore some of the towns a bit more.

To our surprise (and Steve's delight) we come across a little shop front right on the coast road - the Dijkweg I think - with an old VW Beetle in the window in a bit of a wartime display and it looks like the attached building might be used for the restoration of VWs.

We get to Vakantiedorp Het Grootslag in the afternoon and organise a pitch for the night. This is a great place and has the great idea of providing each camping pitch with it's own loo/shower room. Unfortunately when we unlock the door the smell knocks us back and I assume that something's caught in the drain, so we wedge the door open with a screwdriver and hope the fresh air will improve things - it does, but not much and we decide to abandon using the shower as the site has a swimming pool and we can cunningly have a shower there and go for a swim - yay!

More rabbits descend upon us but they look like domestic rabbits and not the usual brown wild ones. We nickname them Scaredy-Bunny (the one who kept running off), Choco-Bunny (the dark brown fluffy one) and Stealth-Bunny (on account of the way it would try and hide by dropping to the ground commando style and flattening itself into a small fluffy rug). The bunnies provide us and our Dutch neighbours in their caravan with much amusement before they hop of to entertain someone else.

We go for a walk round the site to explore and find more animals; a small group of goats in a little enslosure across a stream. Steve does some goat whispering with a little black goat who appears to have taken a shine to him after he rubbed it's ear and now everytime Steve gets up to walk away the little goat follows him round the edge of the enclosure.

Further on we find two little ponies wandering round freely. This is such a great place! We fuss the horses for a bit and carry on our merry way for a walk. The site is really pretty and has lots of little streams, grass banks and pathways.

Once again, as dusk descends we settle in for the night and have some dinner. A flock of sparrows must have smelled the bread we were eating and we gradually coax a couple of them to grab little piece of the bread from our fingers.

We craftily try to watch the England football match on TV through next doors caravan window along with commentary on our radio. As the penalty shoot out draws near, they shut the curtains! We are gutted. I phone my Mum for a blow by blow account. I think we won - I can't remember now?

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Leaving Ijmuiden

DAY 10 Friday

Andijk to Amsterdam

We decide to make use of the on-site facilities - and get a shower - before leaving and head to the indoor pool for a swim. The pool has a jet stream function which is great and sweeps you off your feet and off round the edge of the pool. After having a swim we head back to the bus and pack up ready to go on the last leg of our journey.

We head south, back to Amsterdam (can't remeber the route) and park up for a bit to go and have a last wander around and buy a couple of presents for folks back home.

We have prebooked dinner on the ferry so we don't have to forage for food and decide we should get back and try to find the ferry port as we have to be there well before we sail at 5pm.

We get a bit lost but find the way eventually. The DFDS Seaways entrance at Ijmuiden ferry port is a bit ambiguous and we drive backwards and forwards for a bit until we decide that we are actually in the right place: and there it is again, the Duke of Scandinavia and here we are again sat in a queue waiting to be loaded on. Seemingly the whole of Holland should be bereft of flowers if the amount of flower lorries on the ferry is anything to go by.

Once we have our bags and everything out of the car and into the cabin we head up to the rear of the ship again to watch the remainder of the loading up process. We set sail and Ijmuiden gets smaller and smaller behind us as we leave Germany and Holland behind us.

We go for a drink and hit the shops to get the last gifts for family, friends and workmates then we go and buy tickets for the cinema; we decide to see The Day After Tomorrow. which doesn't start until very late so we go and sit up on deck for a while.

The crossing is very rough and Steve starts to feel ill quite early on. I have tremendous fun watching the horizon go up and down and side to side and Steve goes to the cabin to have a sleep while I sit up on deck with a drink and a book.

With Steve feeling a bit better we decide to go and have dinner which is fantastic. The catering on board is fabulous and the staff are constantly replenishing stocks on the buffet.

Eventually we get to the small cinema and the film starts - for anyone who hasn't seen it, the opening scenes are shot from the air, slowly flying over the ocean and ice floes, and with the boat rocking a bit I notice out of the corner of my eye that Steve is starting to look a bit peaky and starts fanning himself furiously. After a while he jumps up and leaves the cinema so I follow. We go and get some fresh air and he says he feels well enough to go back in. We get back to the cinema and the door is locked so we embarrassingly have to bang on the door until someone lets us back in. We get almost to the end of the film and Steve is sufferng again but bravely stays put until the end.

We get back to the cabin and go to bed. I read for a while (although it's a bit of a challenge as the ferry is pitching from side to side and front to back all at the same time) and eventually drop off to sleep. When I wake up Steve is groaning and says he hasn't a wink of sleep all night. I'm looking forward to a fantastic breakfast which we've paid for in advance but feel a bit of a traitor leaving Steve to suffer so I decide not to go and I must say that even I start to feel a bit sick as it's now quite hot below decks :o(

The announcement tells everyone to make their way back to their vehicles and we go back to the bus to prepare for docking at Newcastle. On the way out of the City we realise that the Tyne tunnel has a toll fee and I can't remember where I put the good old English Sterling when we left the country 10 days ago. Mercifully I find a couple of pound coins and away we go.....I don't actually remember having to pay the toll and wonder if this is a cruel trick.

It's dark and raining on the long drive home, not much else to report really. I miss Germany and hope to return soon.