22.07.17

We are camped a couple of hours south of Berlin near Dessau in a small place called Mittelelbe. We head into Berlin tomorrow to see Sarah and to see her performance on Sunday. This campsite is build around a recreation area from the 1930's. It is beside a lake which was created when sand and rock was needed for the first autobahn. The lake has a strange structure built in the shallow part where you can walk around to different sandy spot to swim. It looks very Soviet. The weather is still very warm and the swimming is great.

Camping Adria @ Biospharenreservay Mittelelbe Dessau Lake 

Biospharenreservay Mittelelbe Dessau

Biospharenreservay Mittelelbe Dessau Lake

Biospharenreservay Mittelelbe Dessau Lake

Our last blog was still pre van and we were in Worchester. We travelled down to Bristol for a great catch up and meal with our nephew and partner, Tom and Katie and also spent a day in Oxfordshire visiting Blenheim Palace. The Palace was really fascinating and provided more of the Churchill story. We then headed to John and Anne's in Birmingham for a night. We had been slowly buying all the things we need for the van and we are very grateful to John for helping transport all of our stuff and us to Newark on Trent to pick up the van.

Us in Woodstock - Blenheim Palace

"Out the back" ... Blenheim Palace

Afternoon tea Blmn Pal

BP lake

Main Entrance!!

Banbury Tower near Solihull., see 8 counties from here!!

 The van is great with more seating than Peedie Charlie and more room in the bathroom. She is named Silver Annie which unfortunately already gets shortened to Annie the Vannie. The day after we took possession of the van was the Saturday of the last Lions - All Blacks test which we walked into town to see in a pub that was a converted post office. The van dealership has a 'campsite' where we stayed for a couple of days to continue to provision the van. We booked the ferry for 4 days later so we did not have much time to get everything. Thanks to Google and the Sat Nav we found the shops we needed as we drove south. For example we need to carry a breathalyser for France.

The caravan club we belong to not only has campsites but places called certified locations which cater for up to 5 vans or caravans. These are usually on farms. We stayed at one of these on the way south and found ourselves next to the Thames Path. We had a great evening walk for a couple of hours along the path watching a huge field of barley being harvested  and the straw being  baled as we walked. Next we stayed the night in Brighton before catching the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe

Marg and "Silver Annie" 7/7/17 at last!!

12. First night in Annie @ Whitney, Newbridge

Thames walk

 

"One Man an His Mower".....Waiting!

Gone!!

First French site

Sainte-Croix-sur-Aizier - Upper Normandy, 

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La belle France welcomed us with a lovely campsite at Martigny near Dieppe, croissants  and baguettes and with our first rain for while. Next day we drove west to visit Bayeau and found a campsite about 10kms north of the town. The camp was great with a large swimming pool much needed as the temperatures were back up to the high 20s. Five kms north of the camp is the coast of the D Day landings. Arromarche still has the caissons visible, these were used to build the temporary harbour. It was a beautiful day and it was great to see children paddling and chasing bubbles on a beach where so much death had occurred. Viewed a great 360 degree movie about the landings using footage from both German and Allied sources. The next village to the west is Longues sour Mer where the huge German gun emplacements are still standing. They look like something out of the first Star Wars movie and it was good to see that plants are growing through their cracks to reclaim them. Unfortunately the roads are narrow in this area and our wing mirror was clipped and is now taped up. We know this happens to a lot of vans but sad as Annie had only been on the road for less than a week.

Arromarches-les-Bains Lower Normandy D-day, Remains of Port Winston, Mulberry Harbour

Battteries de Longues, Longues-sur-Mare 5 Huge German gun emplacements range over 20km!

One of them, D-day guys over came them tho'!

The Bald @ Mousseaux-sur-Seine - Île-de-France

The next day was Colin's big 70 birthday so after an indulgent French breakfast we headed for Bayeau. This was Bastille Day so the town was deserted in the morning with all the families coming in the afternoon for the celebrations. We wandered around the historic part and being distracted by a couple of patisseries. After a lovely lunch we visited the Bayeau tapestry. This was so well presented with a great audio. We had not realised it was so big. Upstairs there was an exhibition explaining more background including all about the sewing. It is not a tapestry but hand-stiched on linen. It has had a rough life being used to cover a wagon load of armaments during the French Revolution.

21. Bayeux tapestry, Harold saves some Normans while captured there

22. Bayeux tapestry Python Original!!

23. Harold dies

3 Score and 10, Le Quartoze de Juiliet, Fitting as Mum's family name came from here! (D'Arc or Darke)

After the last few days looking at things related to invasions and war it was time for a change. We headed to the very south of Normandy to a campsite near Giverney so we could visit Monet's water lily garden. This village gets hundreds of visitors a day and we were impressed with how well organised they are. Great free parking, pedestrian areas and underpasses for easy access to everything. The gardens were amazing with areas organised by colour and height on one side of the road and then we went through the underpass to the pond and water lilies which were all in flower. It as comforting to realise that so many people from all over the world had made an effort to visit a Garden. The house was fascinating as well with walls lined with impressionist paintings.

Met a man in his garden here!!

27. @ Giverny & He Painted this!!

And Painted this @ Giverny

His maison

The next day we started the long drive east and spent the night at an aire de service at Pont Moussant on the Moselle River. These are great for traveling in France as you get a designated place to park a van and sometimes you can get electricity as well. This was a posh one and for 9 Euro we not only had electricity but hot showers and toilets. Not surprising that the place was packed. Our park was right by the river and we watched a squadron of swans make their way around the barges carrying coal etc.

Moselle, Neumagen-Dhron, Rhineland-Palatinate - Moselstraße,  

We needed a day off so we headed over to Germany and found a campsite right on the Mosel river at a place near Trittenheim It was really lovely but as the forecast was for temperatures in the 30s  we decided to only stay one night. The next day the temperature got up to 34 degrees and we felt good in our air conditioned van. We filled with diesel and afterwards there was a strong diesel smell. We put it down to the heat and maybe an over full tank. When we stopped at a stellplatze (German aire de service) in Tabarz we noticed that there was diesel on the back of the van. So the next morning we eventually found a Fiat dealer and nursed the van to get there. By now we were in the old East Germany and it is less likely to find people who speak English. This was the case with the guy at the Fiat dealer but with sign language and a few words of German we made ourselves understood. The service was excellent.  One of the fuel hoses had come undone and within 2.5 hours we were on our way again. We are lucky the whole van didn't explode!

Ronneburg, Thuringia - Am Kühlen Grund, Annie being repaired!! 

Here's Annie...on the left!!

We are looking forward to seeing Sarah tomorrow and she is able to travel with us for hopefully a couple of weeks.