Germany & Denmark

Page: 2 of 2

Next morning I only had €17 in my pocket. The fees were €22 and they did not take credit cards—very embarrassing! However, the kindly owner accepted my €17 and said all was OK. Recommend another visit and will remember to take enough cash next time!

Today was a long drive north on the autobahns to visit our friends, Peter and Carol in Kaltenkirchen (north of Hamburg). The autobahns were absolutely packed and there were three long delays when nothing was moving. It took an additional three hours to complete the journey— arrrgh!  Got so fed up during the third delay that I exited the motorway to find a route around. The GPS was desperately telling me to get back on the motorway so I switched it off.  Followed my instinct for half an hour and then switched GPS back on again. I was within a couple of kilometres from the motorway but this time the other side of the blockage and just south of the Elbe tunnel at Hamburg. Hamburg is a huge port and everywhere there are giant gantry cranes moving containers around and railway tracks going in all directions and bustling with goods trains.

Eventually, I arrived, exhausted, in Kaltenkirchen after a navigational error by my GPS which took me west out of Hamburg when I really needed to go north!! Stopped at the very nice stellplatz by the swimming baths and called Peter and Carol.  Peter was sure that he had space for me beside their flat  and he was right but it was a bit of a tight squeeze!

Peter and Carol were very fine hosts and it was nice not to be travelling for a while but to have a walk around the town, to and be fed and watered and to be able to chat to English speakers after some intensive struggling in German!

From Kaltenkirchen my route was north into Denmark to be within easy reach of the ferry. As you get nearer to Denmark the traffic eases considerably.  Motorhomes over 3.5 tonnes are restricted to 70 kmh (45 mph) which seemed very slow after being on German autobahns for the last few days.  My night stop was at a campsite in Ribe. In Denmark they speak perfect English and it felt a bit like being home already!  The campsite was lovely and the showers and loos were just fantastic.

Walked around Ribe town (the oldest own in Denmark). Very pleasant, quite small and as everywhere in Denmark, very tidy. Prices were considerably higher than in Germany and as I didn’t have any Danish Kroner in my pocket it was a very low cost town tour!

 

Apart from the hall shown on the previous page there were a further 3 main halls with amazing layouts. One of these depicted the route of the Orient Express from London to Venice. This layout was so extensive that a camera could not capture the size or the detail.

After spending nearly 3 hours at MOWI world I set off for Bad Harzburg for an overnight stop. The Harz mountains reminded me of South Wales. The mountains were gentle but there was a huge amount of industry tucked away in the valleys and old industrial railways wandering around the area.

It had been raining heavily all day and continued through the night. However, Bad Harzburg was a very pleasant site with generous sized pitches and had an excellent restaurant.  Very welcome as there was now no chef on board!  

No photos here as too wet to take the camera out!

The Kirche of Kaltenkirchen

Kirchenstrasse

Lady in waiting outside the Vets—I think she had been there a while!

Fortunately. Peter and Carol have a large parking area beside their apartment.

The following day I had time to spare as the ferry check in was not until 16:15. Used the day tidying up for inspection when I got home!  Emptied out the perishables and frozen food as Priscilla would be without electric or gas for 20 hours or more. Short drive to Esbjerg and checked in. There were not that many passengers on the ferry it was mostly freight, articulated trailers. The food on board was very expensive £23 for dinner and £9 for breakfast!  Cabin was very comfortable but gale force winds made it rather a bumpy night!

Docked in Harwich at midday and back home in just over 2 hours.

 

Time to catch up with all the administration tasks which had accumulated since we left and time to catch up with friends and family before our next trip!

The town quay at Ribe

Hotel Dagmar—Denmark’s oldest hotel

Ribe— side street

One of the many rivers that flow under the main street. Note the fish ladder.

Ribe campsite—very friendly, spotlessly clean loos & showers.

Small chalets (background) can be rented and to the right is a partially enclosed barbeque area where you can gather on rainy days and use the ready installed barbeques. The campsite hold a party here every Friday evening.

Ideal stop over if you use the Esbjerg—Harwich ferry.