Amelinghausen

It’s just over 6 weeks since the Dora adventure began and we’ve averaged around 100 miles each weekend, which is bang on target for the kind of mileage we’ll want to be doing when we set off on our travels (around 50 or 60 miles a day).  Any more than that and we’d just end up missing too much and spending too much on fuel.  It also takes a lot longer to get anywhere in a motorhome so slow and steady is the way we roll!

The first weekend after Dora’s arrival in Germany saw us travelling north east to Amelinghausen, to a Stellplatz by the Waldbad (outdoor pool in the woods), on the edge of the town.  At €8 a night, it was a bit on the steep side, but electricity was included, so we took the half mile wander to the Shell garage to collect our berechtigungs karte (authority card) and pay the €16 for the weekend; had we not known the language and been more unscrupulous than we are, we’d have got free parking and electric as no one checked on us over the whole weekend!  On our return to Dora, it took 3 plug in attempts for us to realise that having the heating on with the water heater at the same time was too much for the power supply, with the limit being around 1400kw...oops.  Luckily there were plenty of spare hook ups as there were only 2 other motorhomes there.  First lesson learned for the motorhome newbies.  Although we could hook up in the campervan, we never needed to due to the comparatively miniscule power drain.

The next day, we found out that services were unavailable in the winter, which in hindsight, makes perfect sense and we’ve since noticed that it’s the norm, but it’s not what you want to see when you need to empty your black and grey tanks!  Newbie lesson number 2 noted.   It also made us wish we hadn’t bothered to be so honest about payment, but having already paid, we turned up the fridge and charged some things instead!

Empty Stellplatz

Aside from a 10 minute donuts and J turns interlude from the local youths early on Saturday evening, it was lovely and quiet on the stellplatz.  With it being February, there was still quite a chill in the air, but we managed to get out for a bike ride with Powell and had a wander around the nearby lake.  We were already aware of how seasonal a lot of rural areas are in Germany and it’s safe to say things definitely only start to come alive in April.  On the plus side, it makes for quiet weekends and we haven’t struggled to get a parking space, yet.
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