It never rains it pours!!!!!!±

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So we are now on the downward spiral of the holiday and went to Bremen. The campsite was great and has fantastic facilities and is close by a lake and, you guessed it, no I did not go paddle boarding as it was tooooo cold. However, would you believe it we are not far from a nudist beach and yes you guessed it on Saturday it was full and yes they were swimming - maybe it’s me but what is the attraction of a nudist beach - must be getting old.

So Mike was really annoyed with me as I have knocked the fly screen door off its rail at the bottom - so I have asked the motorhome group for advice and they say use brute force to get it back on the rail - well you can imagine what Mike said about that so I will have to book it into the local motorhome place I found in Clitheroe for the man to sort it.

We were going to cycle into Bremen but my tyres seemed a bit flat. Anyway we start walking and I think I don’t know the way at all and it was an hour’s walk if you knew where you were going. So we decide to get the number 28 bus to the University and then find our way from there. A nice student told us to get the number 6 tram into the centre as it was too difficult to explain and complicated to walk from there.

So into the centre of Bremen we get and what a picturesque city it is, probably some of the most amazing architecture I have ever seen in the main square - which is saying something being so well travelled, ha ha.

Bremen is also known for the town’s musicians which are a donkey, dog, cat and rooster from the brothers Grimm fairy tale. They have a bronze statue of the dog on top of the donkey, the cat on top of the dog and the rooster on top of the cat. It is supposed to be good luck if you rub the donkey’s legs but as the line to get to do this was so long I thought I would leave it to others to do this - I feel so lucky anyway so I think I should let other people rub the donkey’s legs.

We then went off to the Netherlands and back to Denekamp, the first campsite we visited with the en suite shower and toilet blocks!! This camping lark is not like it used to be when I was a kid with my 2 brothers and 2 sisters - dad used to give us all jobs to do and he loved to move on quickly. It felt like every day, so we used to put the tent up and the next day take it down - all 5 of us can put a tent up in the dark, wind and rain - there were no such things as en suite toilets and shower blocks in them there days. When I think about it, okay we lived in Hackney in London which in those days was not like it is today, with so many over million pound houses, then it was the real east end. Anyway as normal I am digressing. My mum and dad used to take us 5 kids every year without fail (or so my memory says - so don’t rely on it) over to France and we also went to Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and that was that long ago - how lucky were we - not many people my age (don’t ask a lady her age - and don’t be cheeky say lady!!) could say they went abroad every year for their holiday in the 60s.

So we were supposed to go to Kinderdijk to the Unesco site for windmills and then get the ferry, however, we developed a fault on the motorhome and had to wait for Fiat assistance. Well this was where it started to go wrong even though we told them we were in the Netherlands they sent the request to Germany and only noticed what they had done at 4pm when we had informed them at 10am that we had broken down. So now they have sent the request to the Netherlands so let’s hope we get this sorted as we have been informed whatever you do you must not stay where we have parked in the service station as motorhomes get broken into all the time - not filling me with much confidence - if we don’t get help soon I think we will need to get back and limp on the motorway to the next junction and find somewhere to park up.

Well we were lucky, well can you call that this after so many hours waiting for assistance. I can tell you I have seen so many truck drivers bums at the services we were in cos would you believe it had no toilets but a McDonald’s drive through - yes still no loos!!! - how can a service station have no toilets? Did you know there are so many different shapes and sizes of bums with some hairy and some not - not a good thing to see because they needed to wee so relieved themselves anywhere. Notice, women don’t figure in this at all.

So by this time of hours waiting I was totally bored so decided to read a book. I went to read my book and remember this service station is now full of HGVs with men only drivers and I was accosted probably thinking why was I there by Polish, German and more so I decide that I do not want to be here anymore. So I think do you know what, I will wait at the front of the service station for our breakdown vehicle and then realise now I am more of a target as I look like I am waiting to be picked up. So go back to the motorhome - but it is bleeding hot there and in a tin can or have I upset every motorhomer? I am a sweating like a pig but at least I do not have to worry about what I am going to charge, ha ha and which nationality!

The breakdown driver is so nice and decides there does not seem to be a problem but let’s see in the morning and he tells us of a lovely campsite owned by his brother-in-law - heard that sort of tale before! Well what a find, we would never have found this and now can chill until the morning when we decide if we do the Rotterdam to Hull crossing or the Hook of Holland to Harwich crossing. I think we will decide when we get close to either of them as they are not far apart and we will check crossing availability.

I now need to add one more day, lets hope only one, to my Schengen calculator - Gordon Bennet not even our fault! Tip here, make sure you have a couple of days spare and don’t sail too close to the wind - lesson 1.

We wake up today and wonder will the motorhome actually get us to the port (1), will we be able to get a ferry (2), which ferry will we be getting (3), Hook of Holland to Harwich (4) or Rotterdam to Hull (5) - so many ifs and buts.

Anyway we decide to get to a place called Utrecht and decide from there how we go about this - Utrecht is on the way to both ports. We stop at the services and sigh a big relief that the motorhome did not raise any faults and call P&O. Now yesterday when we rang them to explain the situation they said they did not have any spare capacity for today’s sailing but I said that online it was showing capacity so they said ring tomorrow. So not thinking we were going to get much luck here! However, as we are under warranty and any expenses can be claimed we thought we should try again as requested. I checked online and yes there was still availability but the price had doubled - so let’s see. Anyway P&O said no availability and when challenged Lucy the lady said leave it with me I will speak to my manager - she then came back and said they could get us on - the best bit is FOC - what FOC - amazing.

Now I am sitting hours early in the line for the ferry - but we both wanted to just get here so we could get on the ferry and if anything went wrong we would be back in the UK.

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Photos

Bremen Marktplatz
The Town Square and only one of the amazing buildings

Bottcherstrabwe
Is a street in the historic centre of Bremen

The Donkey, with the dog, cat and rooster
Not the real one could not get near!

Am Wall Windmill in Bremen
Well at least I saw one!