27 September 2009 We left home about lunchtime and arrived at the usual Caravan and Camping Club site we use in Folkestone at about 5 in glorious sunny weather. Apparently there has been very little rain in Kent this year. We had enough time for a short walk along the coast on old flood defence works beneath the white cliffs. [View Full Entry]

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After trips in the van this summer to our favourite campsite at Crantock in Cornwall, the Yorkshire Dales with the Cave and Crag and the Gower Peninsular with our grandchildren, we are off tomorrow on an autumn continental visit. Our plan is to explore Provence in the south of France. Another area we have not visited before. [View Full Entry]

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7th to 9th July 2009 We had the pleasure of joining Ralph Taylor for three days on his meet at the delightful campsite in the village of Broome just west of Craven Arms. The weather was blustery and wet when we arrived on the Tuesday morning but things cleared up by lunchtime and in the afternoon we had a pleasant walk to the English Heritage managed Stokesay Castle and back. One of the traditions of the meet is to take a ride on the pretty railway which runs through Broome to walk in another area. This was the first time we [View Full Entry]

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14 June 2009 The weather took a turn for the worse overnight and we woke to heavy rain. Undeterred we went back into Bruges and had breakfast at a very pleasant café recommended by Dorotee. We eventually got away to drive the last 100k to Calais. Unfortunately we were a few minutes late to catch our booked ferry but only had to wait 45 minutes for the next one. A smooth crossing was followed by the drive home where we arrived in mid afternoon to complete 3,700 miles and another superb odyssey. The abiding memories will probably be the many towns [View Full Entry]

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13 June 2009 After stocking up on wine at the local Aldi, we continued on our way, finally left Germany and drove across Holland to The Hague where we had lunch with one of Wendy’s genealogy colleagues, Chris Ewbank. Chris has not been well recently and it was good to see him. In the afternoon we drove to Bruges in Belgium and stayed on a camper stop right next to the tourist coach park. Although expensive it was in an excellent position being a short walk into the centre of the town. In the early evening we went into town, had [View Full Entry]

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12 June 2009 We had a very stormy night with strong winds and a lot of rain. In the morning there were branches and leaves lying all over the site. Today we started our journey westwards of over 1100k to Calais and stayed the night in an excellent camper stop just off the autobahn at Ibbenburen, close to the German / Dutch border. Fortunately the weather had improved by the time we stopped. [View Full Entry]

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11 June 2009 The lady who recommended the camper stop also said that the local bakery was next door and they served breakfast. We therefore repaired there first thing and had excellent scrambled eggs with mushrooms. It seemed strange that a bakery also had a restaurant but we assumed that as there was a port close by they got custom from the ferry passengers. When we got moving we were held up by a traffic jam for half an hour and then had to take quite a long detour but finally got to our planned destination, the Jasmund National Park which [View Full Entry]

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10 June 2009 Today we drove another 250k north to arrive at the final planned stop for this trip, the Baltic Coast and Rugen Island. Rugen is the largest island in the country and a favourite holiday destinations for the Germans. It is fairly flat and has quite a lot of wooded areas close to the mainly sandy beaches. We arrived at Gohren, a resort in the southwest corner and then spent an abortive two hours getting sore feet again looking for a restaurant recommended by the guide. Having failed, we retired to the local camper stop only to find it [View Full Entry]

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9 June 2009 We have used the Lonely Planet Guide as our main source of information for this trip and it came up trumps to ensure that we saw as much as possible during our day in Berlin. We bought a transport day ticket (at 6.80 each it was great value considering the amount we used it) at the local underground station and then took a tube and overground train to Bahnhoff Zoo where we caught double decker bus 100 which took us through the main park, Tiergaten, past the Reichstag and Brandenburger Tor and then along the main street of [View Full Entry]

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8 June 2009 The morning was spent strolling around Gorlitz and admiring many of its fine buildings, towers and squares. As we left we had a pleasant coffee and local speciality, poppy seed cake, sitting outside the main church in town, St Peter and St Paul. Then it was the 250k drive to Berlin and a very convenient camper stop 100m from an underground station and only 4 stops from the centre of the city. [View Full Entry]

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