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Published: July 11th 2009
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Poitiers
A day-out at Futuroscope, a view from the top of the revolving tower. Its been a few months since our last blog and we have managed to put a few thousand kilometres on the clock in between updates. Whilst we don’t have an exact travel plan, we had a vague notion of heading towards Eastern Europe before heading up to Scandinavia for the summer. However, our extended visit to Portugal combined with our vehicle battery problems made us alter this rough route. We decided to head directly north with a quick detour back to the UK to pick up new batteries, stock up on a few favourites and a new supply of books.
Heading straight across Northern Spain, we took a scenic route across the Pyrenees crossing them between Pamplona and St.Jean Pied-de-Port, driving through wooded river valleys, one side Spain, the other France. Picking the fastest route possible, we headed up through the centre of France and made a brief stop-off at Poitiers and Paris before the final run to Calais to catch the ferry back to England. With the return booked for two weeks later, we headed straight down to Devon for some checks on the Van, then back to Essex for Hello’s, catch-ups, parcel collections and a de-clutter of the
Van’s unused items - this time the awning, motorbikes and a goodbye to the Moroccan lamps we’ve been carrying with us for 4 months stored in the bottom of our shower.
As usual, time flew and with not everything running to schedue, we collected the Van from the Garage with its new MOT at 6pm and two hour later, we headed back to Dover for the midnight crossing back to France.
Not lingering, we headed straight through Belgium and into Holland, stopping off in Rotterdam for a few days, revisiting this lovely town. Leaving Rotterdam coincided with a Dutch public holiday and not realising, we headed out to spend the weekend at the coastal scrub dunes of the Zuid-Kennemerland National Park. Caught out by the inflated prices and packed campsites, we got on our bikes and made the most of the hot but windy weather. Heading eastwards through the forested Heuge Voluwe National Park, we managed to hit another Dutch public holiday a few days later when we arrived in Giethoorn - another popular Dutch holiday destination with its quaint canal layout attracting crowds on a scorching weekend and we were packed in like sardines at the Marina
campsite.
Our last stop in Holland was at Groningen, the largest town in the North, very vibrant and scenic with its huge traditional houses lining the canal sides. Unfortunately the hot weather came to an end and as we moved on into Northern Germany, the heavy Gothic architecture of Bremen, half-timbered houses of Stade and industrial Hamburg added to the lousy weather and made for dour sightseeing. We had a wet afternoon’s cruise around the Harbour area in Hamburg, through the historic port and customs areas then moving onto the massive modern commercial areas and watched the huge cranes loading the container ships docked from around the globe.
With the weather little improved, we left windy Hamburg and headed north, stopping overnight at the eastern entrance to the Kiel Canal, parked right at the waters edge and watched the huge ships travelling through on their way to the North Sea. The final hundred kilometres through Germany ended with an overnight stop in Flensburg and the next morning we drive past the blue European sign which tells us we are now in Denmark.
Where is everyone ? The roads are so quiet and after pulling up in Ribe,
Bremen's town symbol
available on tea towels, mugs, fridge magnets, t-shirts, ashtrays ... we walked around an almost deserted town - all the shops are closed and just a few tourists were milling around the river and church. Considering we are supposed to be in Denmark’s oldest town which is very picturesque, it’s very quiet for a nice sunny afternoon. Then it clicks, we’ve arrived after the Saturday lunchtime shutdown which everyone strictly observes. Nothing is now open until Monday morning. Rather civilised really.
The flat landscapes of Holland thro Northern Germany and into Southern Denmark have now started to change into rolling green hills and as we approached Aarhus, the scorching weather returned so we decided to drop anchor, stopping for a week here. The coastal dune-backed areas at Ajstrup Strand to the south of the city, are littered with the Dane's second homes and we cycled through little communities of jaw-dropping modern glass, concrete and steel structures mixed amongst chocolate box wooden chalets. Midsummer’s night was marked by bonfires visible along the coast.
Ready to move on again and with our ferry to Norway arranged, we drove up to Skagen at the tip of Jutland where the Baltic and North Sea’s come together at the end of a white
sand peninsula. One side green and warm, the other blue and cold - both sea’s were full of jelly fish so the water testing didn’t progress beyond a paddle.
Driving the coastal road towards the ferry port, we made a final overnight stop at the beach in Uggersby strand, where you are able to drive onto the sand. However weighing in at 6 tonnes and not fancying the potential humiliation of having to be towed out of the sand, we plumped for the best view at the car parks edge, ignored the no camping signs (we're "parked" - not camped) and once the daytrippers had gone, we were left in sole appreciation of the endless white sand and glowing sunset backed by fragrant pine dunes behind us. What more could you want ?
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Cheryle
non-member comment
wow
Everything sounds so amazing - my cousin has been tracing our family tree and my grandad apparently comes from Northern Spain she has unearthed all sorts of skeletons in the cupboard !!! keep the blogs coming and carry on enjoying xxx