Week 5 – 2nd to 8th July

Denmark

Well as luck would have it, or perhaps Andrew adopting the ‘just give it a little hit and it should be fine technique’ the sat nav worked this morning, it will likely be a short reprieve but a better start to Scandinavia than we anticipated! This is especially since Andrew didn’t sleep a wink with worry – he’s very fond of NavMan bless him.

A fairly long drive and we arrive in Denmark; chosen camp site is just a convenient stop over and we may be thankful for that since it appears there are some ‘meetings’ going on in the site and after a little further investigation we notice the lights in front of the ‘meeting tent’ do appear to be in the shape of a cross…waiting for the action to kick off as we speak! Its not a bad spot though

and it did give chance to rekindle ones childhood



but just look at the price of fuel – they did say Scandinavia was expensive!

Arus

A nice little town to spend a few hours, stroll the pretty cobbled streets

and get soaking wet

It was the start of the tall ships race the next day so there were a few about

and we got to go on a Mexican one and have a nose about.

Copenhagan

It was raining a fair bit so we decided to opt for the open top bus tour – we should have just got wet and walked! However, nice city

and when the sun did come out in the afternoon the canal area is a nice place to chill out, especially since this was jazz festival week.


We considered travelling more of Denmark, it sounds nice enough, but we just know there is better ahead where we could spend our time – namely Norway. We have also seen enough cities, too many really, we are not really city people but its just panned out that way recently.

Sweden

Gothenburg

Crossed the border into Sweden and headed to Gothenburg – ahh another city! Its still raining and that’s partly the reason. Its just another city so nothing to report, although it did give Andrew chance to wheel this cute little trolley around the supermarket

and we realised the Swedes are as fond of their ‘farts’ as the Germans, they even grade their fairground rides in them!

Orust

Heading north, just an hour from Gothenburg we at last start to see some better scenary along the Swedish fjords

and stay at a nice camp site on the bay, far too cold to swim but fun hiking up the pancake rocks in the gales.

Week 6 – 9th to 15th July

Lake Vanern

Inland from Orust we made a stop at Lacko castle, said to be a typical fairytale castle and the sun shone!

We camped at the tip of Lake Vanern, one humungous lake that we just couldn’t see the other side of which apparently means it’s at least 8 miles long according to Andrew.

The Gota canal is some hundreds of km long, a 4 day boat trip apparently, and we cycled 7 of them – there and back if you please!

We were going to head over to Stockholm and then back through a little northern/central Sweden to Norway, but have decided to give that all a miss as we feel the need to see the beauty of the Norwegian fjords. Heading for the border we make a nights stop on a lake at Arjang that allowed for this.

Next blog - Norway xx

Cologne and Bremen

Cologne

Friday night and since Cologne is known to have decent nightlife we thought a night out was in order. Donning the hair straighteners and a little slap for only the 2nd time in a month – ah the joys of grass roots travelling (and that’s just Andrew) we hit the town, well hit it as hard as we seem able these days! Of course it was raining, playing havoc with the frizz, but after a little perseverance we found a great little bar serving good cocktails and finished off with a Thai. As we headed home about 1am the city was buzzing, we are blaming the resourcefulness of travel fund on our early departure but if we’re honest we were just done for…

The next day we cycled the 5km into Cologne for a more cultural experience. We got it with the famous Dom (cathedral) and other attractions but what was more apparent than anything else is that this town is popular with hens and stags, along with other random groups of people sporting kilts, Mexican poncho’s and other matching outfits…they were all over the place and in full form throughout the day. Popular activity for hens seems to be that they carry a price list, not sure if its fortunate or not that we don’t understand enough of the language to know what they are selling but can of course imagine! Andrew has banned me from coming here should I be in the requirement of a hen do location in the future!

There was a wedding taking place here and we have no idea what the 'uniform' was representing, but the little boy looked cute...

Bremen

Bremen is our next destination but there is an important detour on the way; one last war cemetery to visit near the German/Netherlands border. My brother asked me to go, since this is where our granddad is buried as he lost his life during the 2nd world war; as such we of course never had an opportunity to meet him and indeed my father was only 2 years old at the time. I’ll keep reference brief since it’s a personal thing and I found the experience far more emotional than I ever expected it would be, but I am very pleased to say that the cemetery, like those we saw in France, is beautiful, peaceful and very well maintained.

So the last stop on the German map, at least for a while, is Bremen, partly because it’s a convenient stop and partly because it reads like a decent place. Having just spent the day there we can confirm it’s a very lovely town and a pleasant place to spend a day; small and compact, many beautiful old buildings and quant streets. We took a look at a place under the cathedral which housed several mummified corpses in open coffins – well it seemed too weird to miss really but we didn’t hang around too long.

Scandinavia is calling and tomorrow we head for Denmark. We have one problem, and I suppose the first real problem of the tour, the sat nav appears to have given up. One day it was working fine, the next it simply doesn’t and is dishing out nasty internal memory errors. Eventually we will find somewhere to have it repaired, and in the meantime will have to resort to the traditional map – oh dear, what was that I was saying about us not yet having argued! We are going with the theory that we believe Scandinavia would be the best area not to have sat nav since the roads seem less numerous and we can wing it…time will tell.

The Rhine, Mosel and Bonn

Week 4 – 25th June to 1st July

The Rhine

The next day the rain is back, clearing only in the late afternoon meant we didnt cycle along the Romantic Rhine as planned. Surely the rain must stop soon!! We decide we will do our cycle the next day, whatever the weather and yes, of course it bloody rains! Donning the waterproofs we head out anyway, it isn’t pouring at least. It’s a 15km cycle to the town of Bopart which takes us along the Rhine. Indeed the Rhine banks us to the right side but to the left it feels like we are cycling down the side of the A1!

Feel a bit of a philistine for saying this, but we don’t think the Rhine is all its cracked up to be. It’s raining of course which does always tend to blur opinion, but honestly looking through the weather, its certainly pretty with some lovely little towns but wouldn’t say stunning.

The Mosel

Next stop on the tour is the Mosel River; according to some travellers we encountered this is more attractive than the Rhine. We decide on the town of Cochem and as we drive through it does look lovely.

Actually our campsite turns out to be in a rather smaller town some 10km on and a little later on we are thankful for that. Camp is lovely and right on the river, the local little town offering some lovely scenery and sweet little restaurants.

Heading back into Cochem for the afternoon, as soon as we scratch the surface, we realise that behind the initial lovely appearance of narrow streets and half timbered houses with the fairy tale castle looming above, is actually a very touristy ambience with the kind of markets you would expect to find down Hessle Road (for the Northerners) and Kilburn High Street (for the Southerners). Initially we were concerned there wouldn’t be enough time in the 2 hours we had before the last bus, as it turns out we were done in about 40 minutes and only through determination that there must be more did we make ourselves stay; there wasn’t but there is of course always beer to pass the time.

Back in the village the next day we set off on a hike which took us through the vineyards and up through the forest.

Weather is still a bit wet but the sun does keep intermittently shining. Nordic walking seems to be all the rage out here, perhaps it is at home as well but it just wasn’t our scene (most likely) but here they have boards dotted all over the walking routes with stretches and exercises, impressive service. We walk very little back in London, unless its trawling the city streets or on the golf course; its reminded me how much I enjoy getting out there in the countryside and wouldn’t it be good to continue when we get back…hmm, we will take wagers! Even Andrew is starting to enjoy the walks, well he prefers them to cycling at least; before the trip he thought when people referred to the great outdoors they meant drinking in a beer garden! Now he takes his compass everywhere and is even known to do a little off roading! If he tells the story that will mean him climbing steep rock faces and traversing ferocious rivers whilst combating wild animals and still managing to protect the damsel in distress…ill leave it to your imagination.

After the hike – about 12km I reckon, we cycled to a town we had passed which looked very pretty, about 5km away. So a round trip of 22km, no wonder it ended in this…

So the Mosel vs the Rhine…the Mosel doesn’t have such sheer mountain face but we do think it prettier.

Bonn

Since this used to be the capital and Lonely Planet gave a good write up, we thought it worth a visit and perhaps even a night out but we were wrong! The outskirts of many cities are not particularly enticing but Bonn especially so and Andrew had an uneasy feel from the moment we parked up a few kms out. Walking into the centre didn’t help to alleviate that and it seemed we heard more sirens on that walk into town than we have heard the whole time we have been away.

Perhaps its one of those towns that you grow to love if you stay or are prepared to dig around a little, but we weren’t. After 90 minutes we were back in the van and that included a 30 min walk each way and lunch…well we decided a shitty city deserved a shitty lunch so we hit Maccy D’s.

Stuttgart to The Rhine

Stuttgart

Popped into the office in Stuttgart to pick up the lonely planet for Germany, which we had to get sent (thank you Ant!) since this was one of those important items we knew we needed but didn’t quite get around to buying before leaving the UK; winging it for a few days is fine but throughout Germany would have been a little tricky! Since Stuttgart has fairly decent shopping it also gave Andrew a chance to birthday present buy…


Heidelberg

Its still raining, actually chucking it down as we arrive in Heidelberg. Our camp is a little way out of the town but in a little village that turns out to have a decent boozer with great grub, so we were happy. The next day we head into the town and chance upon a local little festival, men dressed in quirky costume, a classical band which later lapsed into the ABBA repertoire (no complaints from me, cant beat a bit of ABBA!), sausage and beer – perfect!

The rest of the town was lovely, quant streets, great bars and plenty of them, lovely old buildings and far too many steps up to the ruins of a lovely old castle.

The day before my birthday and we were deliberating whether to have a good meal out tonight (it being Saturday) or tomorrow (actual birthday). We decide on tonight and head back to camp to change etc. As with all the best plans, we get back, have a kip, cant be arsed and end up eating a dodgy kebab (fondly termed Kebaps out here) which is all we can find open locally. Tomorrow it is then...

St Goar – The Rhine

After a special birthday breakfast cooked by my delightful fella we move on. I am not sure how he managed it, but after days of rain it seems Andrew managed to buy me the sun for my birthday; a girl can’t ask for more than that!

We are now heading further North via the Rhine. We decide to head for St Goar, which is in a section known as the Romantic Rhine. It’s a sweet little town and today it turns out they have closed the whole 120KM section of the Romantic Rhine to allow cyclers and roller bladers the freedom of the road, and they are out in force.

There is an old castle, very traditionally restored as a hotel and restaurant so we head there for my birthday dinner.

It’s posh but not pretentious, has fantastic views over the Rhine and the food was excellent. Far from being a lover of German wine, with only terrible teenage memories of Leibframilch or similar, decide we should try local since we are in the region of the Reisling grape after all. Opting for a medium dry from the local town of Bacharac, we are rewarded with the best bottle of white tasted in a long long time. Sadly we will never have the chance to taste such wine back in England, since around here most of the wineries are very small and don’t export; the only ones which do are the large producers who combine several grapes together to make mass, hence the vinegar we receive at home (of course not meaning to offend any fans of German wine!)

A beautiful birthday, thank you honey.