Well our 5th week away is over, our second full week in Denmark.

Had a very busy week this week, seen and done far too much as usual.  Though now, sadly, hometime is on the horizon so maybe only 10 more days in Denmark,  a week in Germany then home. 

Denmark has been good to us this week, mainly dry and sunny, and some really nice places.  Even went to Legoland!

Diary for this trip is located here

We’ve survived our first week in Denmark, though a mix of lovely sunny days and windy & wet gales.  Its a shame a much of the enjoyment in Denmark is outdoor activities such as cycling.  In the wind everyone we’ve seen cycling looks to be hating in and in agony!  lol! 

Diary for this trip is located here

Enjoy!

Week 4 started with rain, which according to the forecast is set in for the week.  Amazing – we go away in August for 2 years in succession and get soaked both times (2009 – Scotland flooded!).  Tip 1 – don’t follow us if you want good weather. 

Our journey continued north and we stopped in Husum.  The outskirts of the town was a dump and we almost just drove through.  We did stop though and found the old town was pleasant enough and much better than Heide, but not good enough to justify getting soaked for.  So we thought we’d continue north and head into Denmark.  To be fair, the western side of the Schleswig-Holstein part of Germany is very rural and not outstanding enough to be memorable in our trip as a whole – though we didn’t touch the coast due to the weather.

Everyone told us Denmark is expensive for everything, so we filled up in Germany at 1.17 a litre and also filled up with LPG (rare in Denmark) and bought some wine and food.  So we crossed the “border” into Denmark, the usual European sign, and got to Tonder for a late lunch where we noticed diesel at 8.5 DKK which was about 1.15 euros.  Both less than £1 a litre so much cheaper than home, but as usual we bought in the wrong country.  Tip 2 – buy Diesel in the opposite country to us (except Luxemburg!)

Tonder was nice enough and we probably didn’t do it justice at all, but it was very wet so we decided just to give up and headed to an Aire in Ribe and chill waiting for the weather to pass.  And the rain came, followed by wind, followed by rain. Typical November storms (in August).  In a brief lull we ventured into RIbe (Denmarks oldest town) and it looked quite nice and definitely worth a longer tour.  As it started raining again we headed back to the van and battened down the hatches till the morning, good job too as the wind and rain got stronger and the van was rocking all night – nothing to do with Matt this time.

As we had access to fresh water we had a decent hot shower then went into Ribe in glorious sunshine.  Within minutes nature gave us another shower and the bizarre cycle continued.  Ribe is a lovely place to look around though and we can imagine in the summer sun it would be ideal for beers and food.  There is also a Viking museum which, we think, we have been to previously on a mini cruise to Denmark.

We decided to head to the coast to see if the skies were clear there, so we set off towards Oksby Denmarks most westerly point.  I mean – surely it won’t be as windy and wet there next to the North Sea…?!

As we headed west the roads became quieter and the views, though flat, became a nice mix of woodland and heather salt meadows, all rather pretty.  The roads appeared to give many a beautiful wild camping opportunity.  Oksby looked like just a tourist town filled with tourists in parker coats and mountain gear, and the lighthouse was there just about withstanding the wind.  So yep, windy, but no rain and it stayed rain free for the rest of the day.  Our next stop was to see the Blabjerg Klitplantag which is a 68m tall moving dune.  Despite our best efforts we never found it so assumed it had blown away completely.  Giving in we headed then to Nymindegab beach which was almost impossible to get to as the wind was funnelled into a walkway you had to fight through, though once there we were surprised to see still intact WW2 fortifications. 

Finally we headed towards Falen and Borkhaven to wildcamp for the night.  Here, there is the Ringkøbing Fjord which is perfect for windsurfing and kitesurfing, the windsurfers were really motoring along!  I enquired about some kite-surfing lessons to finish my course and was told it was too windy for lessons so all courses were cancelled.  Due to our proximity to the windy sea for the day the van was covered in salt and sand such that we can’t see out of the mirrors.  Where is the rain when you need it?!

After tea an evening stroll took us back to the Fjord and we watched the kite and wind surfers having fun, we then settled in for the night.  Well, I say settled, as about 3am the van was rocking and the wind was extreme to say the least – suffice to say we were kept awake so spent the day rather grumpy.  I blame those big fan things we keep seeing around.

First we went to Tarm where we’ve seen advertised a big and bustling market with loads of local produce and stalls.  So having arrived in quiet Tarm and walked around the town (twice in 15 mins) it took us ages to find this great spectacle.  When we did it was more of a small car-boot sale!  I think we need to get out of west London mentality on terms of scale!  From there we headed to Torsminde which is a “pretty gateway town” to Nissum Fjord according to our guide.  It was actually barron wind-swept and empty vilage.   Then to Struer (okay) and Holstebro which is a small modern city but they have placed lots of weird art around making it quite interesting.  We found somewhere quiet and sheltered to stay to ensure we had a good nights kip.

The following morning we ventured to Skive, quite an apt name our friends tell us, though surprisingly we didn’t live up to the namesake today as opposite the tourist information is a laundrette, so we did a load of washing.  Conveniently there was a carpark opposite with some open wifi giving us time to catch up on internet life.  Skive was okay to look around but nothing compared to Viborg where we went after.  Viborg has a lovely centre and 2 lakes at the bottom of the hill.  With no wind (they must’ve listened and turned the fans off) and hot sun it was almost beach weather as we explored and found a lovely wild-camping spot right on the lake.  Lovely place, well worth a visit, one of those nice finds that make random touring fun! 

After pigging out on a nice ice cream we decided to run around both lakes in the morning (6.5 miles) in windless glorious sunshine and then had a nice breakfast on the lakeside before a good hot shower.  Campervanning as it should be.

Leaving Viborg we were on a water hunt as our tank was low, so headed towards Aalborg where there was supposed to be some – however we opted to avoid the tap we found at it was grim.  Aalborg itself was fairly disappointing, a few okay to see bits, bit really didn’t find anything special.  Typical city which looked fairly modern without much old character left.  Moving on we headed towards Tars where our book said there was free motorhome services.  Great – so we got there, filled up and emptied waste, then noticed it was 7€ to stay the night.  (Honest – it was in that order, Your Honour), so we continued our journey and got to Hirtshals on the coast where we wild camped with a couple of other vans. 

Whilst Hirtshals is modern, there is a busy square late at night which had some live music that was, well, iffy but funny, but we had a lovely sunset over the beach.  In the morning we headed further north to the tip of Denmark, a place called Grenen just north of Skagen.  Here you can walk right to the end of a sand spur and be the furthest person north in Denmark and have a foot in two different seas.  The western sea (Skagerrak) was quite choppy whereas the eastern sea (Kattegat) was calm, so where they met was total confusion with waves in different directions. Weird.

After seeing the WW2 bunkers we headed back to Skagen which was a total surprise.  The place was absolutely packed ready for a music festival (of sorts) in the evening in the Marina. Pretty much every bar was packed and everyone was drunk and all the boats were full of playboys and blonds.  And this was around lunchtime!  We decided to head off on a bike ride to “Den Tilsandede Kirke” which is, according to the book, “an ancient church buried by a sand dune and only the tower remains”. We were expecting just the tip of the spire, but actually the entire tower remains and whilst the church is missing it was demolished and in effect the dunes hardly touch the building at all.  Someone was obviously desperate when they invented the attraction!  However the cycle ride through the dunes was nice and we headed to Højen on the opposite side of the spit which was a lot windier and quieter than Skagen.

Skagen is famed for its very pretty yellow/orange fishermans cottages which were really pretty and the roofs with white paint made them look quite something in the sunshine.

After heading back to the marina and listening to some ropy folk karaoke standard singing we decided to have a nap ready for the evening party.  Feeling refreshed we went back out and saw some more local music being played in the bars and the town must be the party capital of this part of Denmark – Mel described it as a meat market!!

The forecast for the next day was poor so we headed back to Hirtshals where there was a massive aquarium – the North Sea museum.  We went in and it was actually well worth a visit and quite impressive though a bit pricey at £16pp.  The main tank with shoals of fish and some quite ugly sun fish was stunning. 

We decided to stay there the night and finish our 4th week and first in Denmark with a meal in a restaurant we eyed up a few days earlier. The meal was okay but does show how expensive it is to eat out in Denmark!

Continue to week 5

Well what a change!  Had two lovely sunny days in Denmark and found two great wild camping spots.  Yesterday we were in Viborg which was a lovely place and we stayed by the lake and decided to run around it (6.5m) in the morning in order to burn off the large icecream we had the previous day.

Today we’re in Hirtshals overlooking the sea and some live music just starting which we’re going to go and enjoy.

We’re full of water, empty of waste, beer in fridge (and in hand) – this is how campervans should be!

Hi from Denmark.  Weather much better today – phew. 

Just in Skive and unlike its namesake we’re not skiving, we found a laundrette so sadly doing a huge batch of washing.  The good news is we moved the van to a convenient parking space where there is unsecured wifi in range and my long range aerial finds it well   So rather than watching the machine go round we can have a cuppa and some free internet time.

We are enjoying this trip despite the wind, and as you can see the beach isn’t quite bikini weather.  Heading north to the most northerly point over the next few days, then we’d have covered most of Jutland, then off to Fyn (Funen) and Zealand for Copenhagen in a week or so?  No idea really!

The Danish are very friendly and their English is perfect (fortunately)!

Thanks everyone for all the emails – nice to catch up with everyone.

R&M

Week 3 diary has been updated – see here for details

Rather annoying how windy and wet it is – if varies from very hot and sunny to absolute down pour.  Wouldn’t be so bad if it was predictable but it changes every 15 minutes.  Oh well – at least we know van is water tight!

Currently borrowing wifi on the western coast of Denmark where we’re about to get blown over, but if we survive this rocking-coffee we’ll check out the kite surfing on the beach….

There is some blue sky on the horizon….

We left quiet Bevern and discreetly (as we could) borrowed someones wifi to update this site then headed north following the river weiser.  We stopped at Hämelschenburg to look at the castle there which was okay but nothing else there to see, then headed off to the town of the Pied Piper – Hameln.  Surprisingly the town doesn’t match the fairy tail looks, and the Piper having got rid of the rats now has a following of American tourists.  Not all bad!

There is a marked footpath around the town which shows you some of the more interesting sites though in fairness nothing really mind blowing – though also in fairness, no rats in sight.  Continuing northward we stopped in Springe for an overnight stop, again a reasonable place, but similar to the last few places, we’d say “nice but not awesome” and a bit samey. 

So with our route up the Wiser taking us to Hanover, only just remembered we need an Umwelt sticker to enter the city.  These are based on the emissions type of the vehicle, and as ours is new it does comply with Euro IV emissions but a bit annoying as we don’t have an appropriate sticker and not sure I can be bothered to get one… 

As such, on arrival to Hannover we had to route to the outskirts and take a very efficient tram into the centre.  Hannover.  Hmmm.  We had expected to have to spend a couple of days here, but really there wasn’t enough to keep us here and entertained.  The city has reasonable shopping and an interesting tourist walk which shows some of the older and more interesting sights, but its astounding how Germany has mixed some superb architecture with drab concrete and really awful buildings.  OK they had to build a lot, and quickly, post WW2, but even so they have ruined many a nice place.

So on to Hildesheim, the Romanesque capital of Germany, where the story continues.  From the outskirts the town is a complete dump and worth avoiding, but sticking with it and getting into the old town shows of a completely different view.  OK the “old market place” is stunning, but some of it is a 1980’s rebuild.  That said, the “rose trail” is a tourist walk worth following and it takes you (via concrete trash) to some stunning and beautiful old buildings and some UNESCO sites.  This makes the place worth a visit.

It was late evening when we got back from our walk and it just started to dump down (again), so faced with trying to find somewhere to stay the night we opted just to hide in the corner of a supermarket carpark.  Oh my – what have we become!?

After a convenient stock replenishment we headed towards Celle which another old town with over 500 timber framed buildings.  Judging by the size of the car park, and perhaps 40 vans in various places the initial outlook looked promising…  Even so Celle was a pleasant surprise – the old town is quite large, the market bustling, and the buildings very pretty and almost fairytale.  The intricate detail of the buildings decoration is easily missed.  We would recommend visiting Celle – well worth a visit, and even plenty of free motorhome parking and facilities.

We actually enjoyed our walkabout in Celle, so decided to have another night there taking time to relax and enjoy the parks, coffee in the square, and enjoy wandering and actually seeing Celle in the sunshine.  To celebrate Mels birthday (21st again!) we decided to have some beers and meal out al fresco in the sunshine from the newly returned summer.  We chose the “Steak House” which was the most German place next to the Taj Mahal, Pizza, Pasta, and Indonesian, and in fact had a superb meal.  My pork steak from the “advice” menu was probably the best pork steak I’ve ever had, and Mel said her veggie mushroom thing was also top notch.  Neither of us could finish so recommended for around €10 for the main course (all you need, bar beer of course).

With some fresh bread bought from town we headed towards Bergen-Belsen which is where the Nazi concentration camp that killed Anne Frank was located, now a memorial and museum.  Interestingly, Mels mother used to look after a lady who was actually sent to Bergen-Belsen during the war but was one of the lucky survivors.  When the camp was liberated over 60,000 people were freed, but over 13,000 of those died within a few weeks due to the unrecoverable condition they were in.

We would recommend a visit to Belsen – get a guide from the information centre before walking around the grounds, and of course view the exhibition of films, photos and stories.  We spent a fair amount of time here – incredibly moving and very sad and emotional.  Interestingly I’m currently reading Kasztner’s Train, a factual story of how Kasztner saved Jews by bribing the SS, and unbeknown to me as I’ve not read that far yet, one of his trains ended up in Belsen.  I also recommend this book as it is even more graphic for me as it talks in details about places we’ve been on our tours.  Until you experience such a sight first hand it is hard to comprehend – and even then its shocking.

After Belsen we just made headway north overnighting in a small modernish town called Salzhausen.  Pleasant enough and the drive on all the back roads was superb with loads of dream country cottages (aka mansions!) with really neat outhouses and barns…

In the morning the sun was shining so we went on a run on one of the many marked paths, but boy -was it hot!  We had to turn back after a couple of miles as Mel started to get groin-strain pains.  I blame Matt Damon.  So after a 4 mile run and a decent shower, we then topped the tanks and decided to clear Hamburg on our northerly trip.

Beyond Hamburg Germany becomes decidedly Dutch like, so much so we started to see Dutch flags.  Slightly confused we checked TomTom to ensure we were still in the right country, and just continued to a place called Brunsbüttel where there is a massive double canal lock on the Kiel canal which enables ships to cut through Germany rather than go round Denmark.  Huge container ships were passing through and only half filling it – puts UK canals to shame!  No idea if it was one of the biggest around but there were viewing platforms and a fair few people watching.  Even Mel said it was interesting, now I fear her getting a notepad out and being a ship-spotter….

We saw a sign for a “fisch markt” the following morning, so the next day we got up and went to see what it was all about.  Only to find nothing there – so we reread the sign only to notice it was actually taking place in a town 30 miles away.  Oops.

The weather wasn’t beachy weather so we headed due north to Heide where they had a superb aire – better than a lot of campsites.  We walked into the town which wasn’t anything special, then after hearing a big thunder clap the skies turned dark so we headed back to the van quickly – but not quick enough….  We just about made it to a bus shelter when the rain came and caused flash floods!  Within minutes the sun was baking so we decided to go back to the van and actually look at the maps of Denmark and plan a rough idea about what we wanted to do there.  Once a rough plan was made I played some angry birds and, at last, managed to get 3 stars on all levels!  To all angry bird fans that is an achievement, if you’ve never heard of angry birds – don’t buy it – its the most addictive and annoying game I’ve seen and its a relief its over. 

Week 3 ends with the sun/thunder/sun repeating itself – at least the van is looking like it has been washed!

Continue to week 4

Currently in Celle, Germany, a rather nice and pleasant old town.  Really beautiful to look at and about to go into the park.

Tomorrow off to Bergen-Belson which is the site of an old concentration camp where Anne Frank was killed

Hi

In Germany in a place called Bevern and found some WiFi in town, so just uploaded Week 2 diary – CLICK HERE .

Weather still varies between “July” and “October”, currently “October”.  Following the river Weser northbound towards Hanover so will be in the city maybe tomorrow – just exploring all the small towns and villages en route. 

Hope all is well with everyone at home

R&M

After pretending to be Matt all night (yeah right) week two started well as we headed on slow roads to a place called Kampen which we thought was apt.  The town kindly provided a free motorhome parking area complete with superb facilities on par with a campsite.  Even a decent shower for 0.5€!  Kampen is based on the busy river Ijssel and the town itself has some historic buildings and an interesting town with decent square with lots of bars.  The motorhome area backs onto a quaint and busy park.  In the morning we had a 6 mile run on the banks of the Ijssel and the views back to Kampen were lovely and typically Dutch. 

We moved from Kampen via the slow roads to Aalten which is close to the German border.  The whole area seems motorhome friendly with around 4-5 different areas allocated for overnight parking including one next to a swimming lake.  The town is okay and the surrounding countryside is very rural and just good for exploring.

Leaving Holland we visited Bredevoort just outside Aalten which is a small village with a massive lake for swimming and wind surfing as well as a couple of allocated motorhome spots.  Our route took us via Winterswijk which had a massive camping and outdoor shop, Obelink, which is huge.  By huge I really mean huge, with for example, an area the size of a small Tesco just for chairs! Their spares and parts department could keep a man occupied for days!  (Women just don’t understand…)

On this trip, with more travel experience, we’ve found Holland to be fun, clean and reasonably interesting, but in fairness whilst we love the place it doesn’t have many “wow factors” compared to other counties.  On that note we looked at our Germany books and made some plans for the next week or so.

So into Germany where diesel prices are higher than Holland – isn’t hindsight wonderful!  Doh!  Amazingly we managed 567 miles and the tank was full on 68L – equating to 37.8mpg.  That, if correct, is awesome considering we’re fully laden so we’ll keep an eye on this (as well as check the oil!).

Our first stop in Germany is Dorsten where we’ve been on a previous trip.  The aire has been upgraded but the town unchanged, and as usual we went for a swim in the Atlantis pool which has quite a few slides and rides with no regard to Health & Safety – meaning a lot of fun (as well as a good bath!)

After a good nights kip we ventured back into town for the Dorsten market getting fresh supplies from a busy market before filling the van with water and heading off on slow roads simply meandering eastward, via Seppenrade and Lüdinghausen for lunch, then towards Sande on the Lipsee lake where there were half a dozen vans parked up.  Paderborn is around 8km away on easy cycle ways and this city gave us some impressive surprises.  There is a circular walk around it (well signed) which is interesting and shows you the most important sites with numerous signs with photos pre/post 1945 when the Allies flattened 85% the place.  This explains the mix of old and interesting vs. concrete dull around many waterways.  That said the city was interesting enough and they also provide permitted motorhome parking right inside the ring road convenient for a laundrette as well as the city restaurants!

The following morning we moved from the lake to the town to make use of the laundrette (see – our trip isn’t all fun fun fun!) – and in there we met a lady who was very friendly and could understand some English, so cue an impromptu German lesson for us that was a lot of fun and she did help us no end – shame we didn’t have more washing!

Popplng back into town we saw advertised a “Rock Philharmonic Orchestra plays Pink Floyd” concert in the nearby Schloss Neuhaus the following night, so as a birthday treat to Mel we booked some tickets (in German!) and hope the weather stays good as its an open air concert.  We stayed overnight in the parking in central Paderborn which was too noisy really, so in the morning we relocated back to the lake spot at Sande and set out on a nice morning run.

Our luck was in (as usual say some!) and the weather glorious, so after our run, haircut and shower we had a nice cycle ride followed by some German practice in the sun.  We headed to Schloss Neuhaus early for the gig and tried our newly learned German on the form of “Two large draught beers please, yes large” (Zwei große Biere vom fass bitte, ja groß) – which went down well with our waiter who responded in fluent English.  We decided to have dinner there too in the form of an authentic German-Itallian pizza.  Europe – tsk.

The gig was pretty good – the orchestra were most impressive though some of the singing accents were interesting. The conductor was more funny trying to be funny than actually being funny, if you get my drift. More Mels era of music (!) but overall a pretty good and long show, meaning the cycle ride home on unlit paths and getting lost seems to be par for the norm for us!

 In the morning I was looking forward to seeing the engineering feat at Minden – the Wasserstrassenkreuzung. Our plan was set to coincide this with our route on the Weser Renaissance trail up the Weser heading north towards Hanover.  So starting this, arriving and Munden (a very pleasant town, timber framed buildings, and a tuneful clock that after 5 minutes dinging the 3 o’clock chimes deserved a round of applause for stopping.  Makes the clock at Basal look even more amateurish.  Only when we finished looking around the town did I realise Minden isn’t Munden and thus Munden has actually been Missed-‘nden. 

The renaissance trail started interestingly through some pleasant small towns but the rain appeared set in so upon arrival at Bevern  (reasonable place, worth a view but don’t detour too much) we decided to stop for the evenings and watch a movie.  I wonder who I need to be tonight…?

Click here for week 3