It already feels like an age since we left Fallingbostel but it’s only actually been 5 days.
After an emotional farewell, we were on the road by late Wednesday morning. Our first overnight stop was approximately 150 miles away, at a motorhome stopover in Ruenthe, just outside Dortmund. There wasn’t a great deal around, but as it was only selected for convenience to the motorway, the lack of things to see / do didn’t bother us. However, it was here that we realised that in all of the commotion of leaving, packing, drinking etc, we had forgotten to get Powell to the vet for his fit to travel stamp and worming tablets! A minor panic ensued, followed by an internet search for vets in the local area; luckily there isn’t too much of a language barrier for us in Germany as we speak more than holiday German, but less then fluently. Unfortunately we couldn’t get an appointment with the local vet, but having already decided we would be heading to Bruges the next day, we tried there instead and managed to get an appointment with the lovely Mr Becue in St Kruis Bruges at midday the following day.
Appointment made and chocks away, we set off on day 2 of our final Fally Calais rally. The journey was uneventful, bar an emotional moment on leaving Germany (I cried!) and 4 hours later, we were in Bruges, booking in to Camping Memling. We had searched for a motorhome stopover in the centre of Bruges and found one just by the ring road for €22.50, but having found Camping Memling a little further from Bruges for the same price and better facilities (Showers and washing machines!), we opted to stay a little further out of town. I say out of town but it was still only a couple of miles.
On arriving in Camping Memling we used the rest of the afternoon to walk the very patient Powell who over the last few days had been somewhat bored by all of the travelling, and to do some laundry. We also had our first ever visit to a Belgian supermarket so that Pete could pick up some (well deserved) Belgian beer! Unfortunately because I don’t have grandfather rights, I’m not legally allowed to drive Dora. Great for me in some respects, but it means Pete is left to do all of the driving. It won’t be so bad when we’re on the road properly as our daily mileage will be much lower, but the drive to the UK is a bit of a slog. So anyway, Belgian beer...he discovered, is very very nice, but very, very strong, ranging from the ‘weaker’ 6% to almost wine strength; significantly stronger than the German ales he’s been used to! It was lucky we had already booked in for 2 nights so the next day was a no driving day. Happy days.
The next day, after the Belgian beer (and French wine for me), we had a lazy morning and headed over to Mr Becue’s at midday. 5 minutes later, Powell was legally allowed to re-enter the UK; phew! Now I don’t know what it costs in other places but Mr Becue charged us €26 and I’m pretty sure that it was less than our vet in Germany charged us. He was a very nice man and we would recommend him to anyone staying in Bruges needing to get their dog back to the UK. We spoke mostly German to him but he speaks good English too. He is also very conveniently placed (less than 2 miles away) if you happen to be staying at Camping Memling.
Important job done, we headed into town to see what Bruges had to offer and we discovered, much to our absolute delight that Bruges is a cycling Mecca!! I haven’t spent much time in Belgium or Holland, so there may well be other cities that match it, but I have so far never seen such a bike friendly city as Bruges. We had our own (very red!) lanes, lights, right of way, the lot! Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the cycleways, but they really are amazing!
Bruges itself is also rather lovely. Being a UNESCO world heritage sight, we figured it would be and it didn’t disappoint. I have to say though, we’re really not very good at being tourists so we didn’t take a huge array of photos and I’m sure we probably ended up missing a lot having not bought or been in possession of a guide book. That’s something we definitely need to work on and thankfully, we’ll have plenty of practice soon. The small number of photos we did take, need to be checked to see if they’re any good before I upload any. I did take a couple of panorama photos of the main market square and Rathaus (town hall) areas so if they’re any good, I’ll put them on soon, along with a photo of the obligatory Belgian chocolates we bought and promptly ate on our return ‘home’! Thankfully they were delicious and almost warranted the hefty price tag! It really did feel like we were on our proper travels for a couple of days and I almost forgot we were still en route to the UK.
So, a tick in the box for Bruges and a reality check for me and we were on our way again. We decided that although we weren’t due to get the Eurotunnel until Sunday morning, as we had made more headway than expected, we’d see if we could get on early. Despite it being Saturday, we managed to get on an early evening train instead, a good 12 hours earlier than our booked departure, arriving in the UK at around half 7 that evening.
As we were a good 200 odd miles from our booked campsite (and also a day early), I consulted our motorhome stopover guidebook to see if there was anywhere nearby to stay overnight. I found one not too far from the motorway and phoned up to check whether they still had spaces. Luckily we didn’t just turn up as it would appear they have stopped allowing motorhomes to park. We were rather disappointed as the book is only year old, but I was hardly surprised by the tone of the person at the other end of the phone; I may as well have asked if I could punch him in the face! Realising that we are now officially in the land of motorhome intolerance and no parking anywhere, I started ringing around campsites. Unfortunately out of the 7 or 8 campsites I phoned only one call was answered and they told us their reception would be closed before we would arrive; really nice of them to be so flexible.....we even tried just turning up at a campsite only to find it on lockdown and with no one around.
So after several failed phonecalls and a fruitless campsite visit, to save my darling husband from falling asleep at the wheel, we opted for the last and only choice available; motorway services. To say the £23.50 fee stung, would be an understatement and I would say that the inclusive £10 food voucher took the bitter taste away but I would be lying! It was however, a means to an end and fortunately for us, it was one of the quieter parking areas so we did sleep fairly well in amongst the HGVs; we won’t be doing it again in a hurry though. What a welcome back to the UK! After living in Germany we’re so used to just turning up at whatever time and being able to park and sleep for pennies, we forgot you have to do things like book into a campsite a month in advance and pay through the nose for the privilege in the UK.
We made the most of the food voucher, spending £9.97 on 2 paninis plus a Red Bull for Pete, before heading on up the road for the final 75 miles of the journey (well, this journey, at least), arriving at the campsite mid morning. As our pitch wasn’t ready, we had a look around the local area so that Pete could see where he needed to go for his course, in addition to picking up food supplies from Morrisons in Leek, before heading back to set up ‘home’ for the next month.
The campsite has all of the usual facilities, so we won’t struggle for power, water or anything else motorhome related while we’re here. It’s in quite a rural area but seems to lack any decent footpaths. There are also very few pavements and some very narrow country roads, which aren’t particularly conducive to a good or safe dog walk. However, there is a canal nearby, so most of Powell’s walks will be tow path related. I took him on the tow path this morning for a good 90 minute stroll and we discovered a conservation area, full of grouse. Needless to say, I won’t be letting him off the lead near there. I have never seen him go quite so beserk!! I was also slightly concerned about the noise from a bull as we passed a field full of cows on the way back. He sounded quite huffy and the fence between us didn’t look strong enough to keep him away if he charged; I’ve also read somewhere that they don’t like dogs...maybe I’ll walk the other way tomorrow.
So this is home for the next 4 weeks; well, Monday to Friday at least. It is a pleasant enough area, but I can see me getting bored as there really isn’t much here at all if you’ve no transport and Pete will be out for most of the day Monday to Friday. I never was one for my own company...oh and to top it off, there’s an annoying dashboard dog (definition to follow, in case you can’t work it out!) , correction, there are two of them...next door who seem to ‘bark’ if you can call it that, at anything and everything!
I apologise in advance if my posts start turning into idle observations of my campsite neighbours; it would appear that they may well be my only entertainment for the next few weeks!
On a brighter note though, my sister is coming down on Thursday evening and then it’s the weekend and we’re off to see my dad!
There go the dogs again...
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| Our home for the next 4 weeks - duck neighbours included! |
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