Stats so far

Belgium Statics

Km traveled by car: 1,023
€ spent on fuel: 130.20
€ spent on camping: 103.50
€ spent on groceries: 174.88
€ spent on takeout/Restaurant: 49
€ spent on misc. items: 276.90
€ spent on tourist sites: 134.70
# of showers had: 4
# of days spent in Belgium: 15

Luxembourg Statics

Km traveled by car: 286
€ spent on fuel: 54.83
€ spent on camping: 47.30
€ spent on groceries: 58.62
€ spent on takeout/Restaurant: 3.00
€ spent on misc. items: 31.00
€ spent on tourist sites: 23.00
# of showers had: 2
# of days spent in Luxembourg: 6

Kampen

Not wishing to drive through the city of Amsterdam we deselected the “avoid highways” box on our GPS unit and took off. No black smoke and the gears appear to be working better for now. It was a long drive, about 300 km, the longest yet for us, but we needed to get a move on and this Stellplatz was free and along the way to Bremen, our destination. With Julie still being sick and keeping me up at night we spent two days in Kampen. We headed into town on the second day and I tried to convince Julie to purchase a leather jacket, as she is always complaining about the cold. On a side note we are north now, and will be for at least another month, so we won’t be in warmer weather until then. However, with the price being 65 euros and Julie being a tough Northern girl, she didn’t buy it. Oh and Julie fed more ducks again.

Amsterdam (Take 2)

We remember why we left the Netherlands in the first place. The roads suck and the drivers honk at you because of the black smoke ‘Old blue’ (my name for her) makes. Free camping is illegal in the Benelux region and fines are on the spot. Campsites are over priced and to us are just parking lots with drinking fountains, because you have to pay extra for what other campsites or stellplatz (in Germany and we read France too) include in their fee. It’s also very flat, we did however see a floating farm so that was kind of cool, and ferries cost money (why can’t they just make a bridge?). After we dropped off our rig at BW’s we wondered around and found a JYSK. We purchased some bed sheets for 13 euro, mainly because it can get pretty hot in the van, and the duvet is too much. After that we discovered that the only way to Amsterdam’s center was by bus. We skipped this idea and went to Mc Donald’s for lunch. This is the first such stop we have made. I tried a new burger and Julie pointed out that shrimp was available (we did not try it though). When it came time to pay, they told us that all McDonalds in the Netherlands do not allow foreign cards to be used for payment. So we pulled out all the cash we had and turned out to be 0.30 cents short and the manager let us off. Like I said, we now understand why we left so early in the first place. We decided to head back to the van, another walk through the sketchy area, and see if we could head out. It turns out she was missing a screw and too much gas was getting into the engine, and the gears they just greased up, which I doubt will solve my problem but figured if the black smoke was gone I would be good with that. Go to Amsterdam if you have money and a place to stay for the night in town.

Oh, and we got to see one of these this time too.

Zeedervoot

I chose the campsite in Zeedervoot because of its 20km drive to Amsterdam; it is amongst sand dunes and only 200 meters from the beach on the North Sea. However, we did not stay at any of the campsites (there were at least 5) due to the huge fee. 32 euros for one night stay without showers or electricity is ridiculous. I also want to point out that sand dunes need to be made of sand, not long grass. So, I got to see the North Sea from the road, many people were paragliding and I know we will see it again anyway, when we head over to England next spring (is it always that cold). This left us with only one option, to head back to Amsterdam and stay at one of their campsites. We stayed at Gaaspar Camping again; it turns out to be the cheapest and cleanest of the lot. The reason we are heading back to Amsterdam is because of the van. A month into our trip I sent an email to BW’s to let them know about a few of the concerns we have about our rig and if we needed to come in to get it fixed or if she (Old Blue, Papa Smurf, Big Bertha Blue, The Blue Rock…pick a name) is good and not to worry. The van and its components (fridge etc) are supposed to be completely covered for one year. We are taking her in tomorrow morning, which Julie tells me is a Monday, and plan on revisiting Amsterdam while we wait. We decided to send the email because we were heading north in Germany and it was now or never as once we are done Germany, we plan to head south to warmer weather. We both hoped the van was fine (though we would like to have it work properly too) as this curbs our travels and puts us in a race now to get to Regensburg for Anna’s birthday party.

Maastricht and Gorinchem

The drive to this town was simple, but getting to a parking spot proved to be difficult. Much to Julie’s dismay (she thought the area looked sketchy); we parked under a highway overpass, along with many other cars. The town of Maastricht is famous for its thermal springs, just like Aachen is; it’s also famous for its man made caves, which sounded a lot like Luxembourg’s casements. Julie also points out that there aren’t many differences between Europe and Canada. The “similarity” is annoying to Julie and at times makes her wish to not visit some towns or cities. This was the case for Maastricht, when we arrived, it looked like Toronto and made Julie not wish to head into town to explore, it took much convincing on my part to at least head to the tourist office. It’s simple to please me; whenever we head into town I enjoy seeing different buildings, the markets, the people and any visits to the many patios. The “similarity” to Luxembourg City is also why we opted out of visiting the cave system, which were made by the Romans as well (we came to Maastrict for the caves), Julie and I did take a walk around in the huge town square though. The town square was buzzing with people shopping, eating, drinking and just wandering around. We walked into a concert of sorts and left because the music being sung was for people in retirement homes (you could tell by the audience and the choir of people in their 70-80’s). It wasn’t long afterwards that we made our way back to the car and decided to almost complete our drive back to Amsterdam. The drive was about 4 hours due to us not using the highways, but we passed through many small towns and even took 2 ferries. The stellplatz in Gorinchem we stayed at only ever has two spots available, and it looked like both were in use, so we parked in front of them and hoped for the best.

Aachen

We arrived in Aachen late, actually we haven’t entered a destination this late since Bruges. It was getting dark and we had found the Stellplatz we were planning on staying at. We had been rationing water up until we left St Goar, we officially ran out in Koln and bought two bottles of water (and more food) on the way to Aachen. We didn’t do the laundry at our last campsite stop so I was officially out of clothes to wear too. The stellplatz looked more like a campsite but we decided that we shouldn’t pay for one night when it was so late and we didn’t have the time to do everything we needed to. We generally use the campsites to charge our batteries/laptop, wash our clothes, fill up on water and do any dishes we neglected to do…oh and shower. Conveniently, there was a parking lot right next door to the stellplatz so we freecamped. The next morning we decided to visit the tourist office in hopes of finding a campsite with free water, showers and a dump station for our toilet. We learnt that the place we parked next to the night before was the only site and was considered a campsite/stellplatz with a 5 star ADAC rating and was 12 euros per night. The other stellplatz’s up to this point had 80L of water for 1 euro (we only need about 10L so we couldn’t fill up), a place to dump your toilet and electrical hookups. This stellplatz was very convenient. It’s about a 2km walk to the town center; electricity was included in the price, as well as water and a dump station. Hot showers were extra. We spent the morning getting our stuff together and reading about our next destinations. While we were getting ready to head into town, two RV’s from GB pulled up trying to find side by side spots and were thinking of squeezing between our van and the hedge, I walked up to one of the guys and told him that we were leaving later that day, so it wouldn’t be a problem for them to park so close to us. They took our offer happily. The town of Aachen is known for its thermal spa’s. Charlemagne lived here because of it. It was 9.50/person to use the spa for 2.5 hrs, and we decided that money could be spent better elsewhere. They also love their fountains. The first fountain you see is called Elisenbrunnen and smells of rotting eggs (sulfur actually and they say you can drink from it but not the other non-smelling fountains they have). The next fountain we saw is the Geldbrunnen, which represents the circulation of money, and the center drain is jokingly referred to as “the tax man”. After that we strolled along the street next to the mall to come across another fountain, this one called Bahkauv, our personal favorite. The story behind this one is fun too; it’s a monstrous looking mythical creature that apparently jumps on you when you’re stumbling home from the bar late at night demanding a piggy back ride home. The next fountain is located in the Huhnermarkt where you can start to see the town’s dom. The fountain is called Huhnerdiebbrunnen and is a Chicken thief about to be unmasked by a rooster. The second to last fountain we came to visit was Charlemagne. We then walked through the market, stumbled across a wine market, and finally reached our last fountain which consisted of bronze figurines that you could move around. This one is popular with the kids, they managed to make one of the figures pick her nose, and it was pretty funny. Still traveling south on the pedestrian street, we proceeded towards the Dom to see (or touch) the devil’s thumb. It is said that when the Dom was being constructed, money was tight; Lucifer came disguised and offered the town’s people money to help finish the Dom. The town’s people were smart though, and saw through the Devil’s disguise (his hooves gave him away). When the Dom was finished, Lucifer asked for the first soul that entered it. The towns’ people agreed and sent in a wolf, Lucifer in his frustration slammed the door shut, catching his thumb in the door where it still is today. Inside the Dom, you can see a statue of the wolf with a hole in its chest where its soul was ripped out. Behind the altar, in the Dom, you can see where Charlemagne lies (gold casket). There was really nothing else to see here so we made our way back to our van and had a conversation with the two English men from earlier. They gave us plenty of information on camping for cheap around France and England; they also told us to attend a meeting of one of the caravanning clubs in England (once we get there) because we could significantly reduce fees for camp grounds. It was too bad we were leaving, as we would have stayed and had some drinks with them.

Koln

Trying to avoid the highways in Germany keeps proving to be a difficulty for us. We rely on the guidance of our GPS unit and ask it to avoid highways. The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg never once put us on the highway. So we once again had to navigate the old fashioned way (using the map on the computer). The road we took into Cologne provided us with a spectacular view of their industrial area. With Julie already feeling sick, she didn’t care to see the rest of the city after that drive. In her defense the area we saw looked worse than Hamilton and was much larger. We rested again in the van at another stellplatz with the full intention of viewing Colognes massive cathedral and city center. Cold rain and Julie’s sickness sidelined us for another day. The only highlight for us was seeing an identical Blue LT28 in the same car park. We left Cologne without seeing any of the sights. We both left this town miserable, me because we didn’t stay to see anything and Julie because of the schedule we needed to keep.

St. Goar

We had already driven past this town along the way to Bacharach, so we knew of the impressive castle overlooking the town. It was 4pm and we had driven past the place we intended to park but stumbled upon another stellplatz along the Rhine. It was more expensive then the one in Bacharach, however we parked right along the bank, had electricity for 1 euro and unlimited internet for 2 euros. This was a different kind of stellplatz, as it was called Fun Boat Marina. So yes, there were plenty of boats. We had to go out onto the dock to use the bathrooms that were filled with spiders. For me, this was an awesome place to stay. Across the river we had a view of a small town and another castle high up on the valley walls. Next to us was the boat marina and I told Julie at least 3 times that we could be docked there too if we got a boat instead. The (small) marina had bathrooms, showers and a bar. If you were to turn your back on the river, you would see a very steep valley wall with St. Goar’s Castle perched up to the right. I imagine Julie liked it too (read North Bay’s entry to see why she might disagree), unfortunately Julie wasn’t feeling great at all so it was hard for her to show my enthusiasm for the place. When we arrived in Bacharach, our original plan was to spend one night see the sights there then take off for St Goar and Cologne the following day. Instead we stayed 1 day in Bacharach and 2 in St Goar before leaving for Cologne. The drive from to Bacharach was pleasant and quick, it is only 15 km away, so when we arrived in St Goar we knew it was too late for us to make Cologne too which is why we stayed at this stellplatz. The walk up to the castle is extremely exhausting, especially after a day of walking up to another castle earlier that day. Once we reached the top, we learnt that we were too late to gain access to the castle, so this meant we needed to head back down and see it the next day. By this point, Julie was in rough shape. She couldn’t stand, sit up or talk with out making herself feel worse. That evening, Julie and I used the internet to upload all our pictures, update all of the blogs and spend the time to get everything we needed to in order. It took 9 ½ hrs to upload all the pictures and update the blogs. So by midnight I suggested for Julie to get some sleep, and she did. I stayed up to 3 am to get everything uploaded because we were leaving for Cologne the next day. We got up very late the next day and I managed to get Julie up to the castle a second time. The castle itself was pretty cool. It’s the largest we have been too, and they had a huge cave system to explore as well, if you brought a flashlight……So we didn’t see the caves. The castle itself had many dark passageways, at times we felt they should have provided flashlights. We were hopping to get into town to buy some much needed bread, but Julie’s condition was getting worse and after an argument, I convinced her to stay another night in St Goar. It was around 4pm when we got back to the van after visiting the castle and once we paid for the spot (cheaper this time because we didn’t need the access code for the internet, as we got it the night before) I spoke to the guys to find out how to get the electricity going again. It was 1 euro for 12 hrs of use, and that’s about average. That night we watched movies online, The Bourne Ultimatum (Good movie, but again, nothing like the book), The Simpson’s Movie (Good movie, lots of laughs), and finally Rush Hour 3 (Funny, just like the first 2). It was a much needed break and we hope to do it again soon, but only when we can find unlimited wireless internet access.

Bacharach

The initial drive caused some concern as, one we learnt that we were about 1 ½ hr further north then we wanted to be and second, the GPS kept putting us on Highways. The van only goes 110 KM/H if it’s going down hill, in a straight line and has been on the highway for about 10mins. Everyone knows why Germany’s Autobahns are famous. So, once we got off and made the directions clear (the old fashioned way), we had a lovely drive next to the Rhine on the B9. On the route we passed St. Goar, Boppard and finally stopped in Bacharach. This small town of 2500 does not look like it’s changed since it became a town. That is probably why Julie and I loved it so much. This town also happens to be the best place in Germany to have wine, which had no impact on why we stopped here. We stayed in another Stallplatz for 6 euros; it was along the Rhine with the town and valley walls behind us. It was really cool being right by the water (Julie agrees but in the weather way). Like all the towns along the Rhine River, the castles are perched high up, on top of the valley walls. There are not many bridges, in fact the only one I have seen was in Koblenz and I think it was for Trains. A boat ride to St Goar (15km down the road) is 28 euro, one way and we didn’t bother looking into ferries. So we think we got a great view of the towns on the other side of the river, from the side we were on. Since we arrived in Bacharach early, we got into town to have a look around and grab some cash. This didn’t take very long, and we ran into so many tourists. Oddly, this has been the first place we have heard English speaking tourists and it’s a nice treat to actually understand them (somewhat). Julie picked up some money at the bank and we headed back to our Van for dinner. We hung out for a bit and we had hoped to skip paying for our parking spot, but the guy came knocking on our door anyway. I convinced Julie to head back into town at night for Ice Cream, we were both craving it for some reason. Man did this little town change. Besides seeing a few tourists and some lights on in bars it was a dead town. We meant to take pictures of the ice cream sundae’s we got at the Ice Cream shop, but we forgot only to remember once we were done. We tried an Amaretto and a Caramel one, caramel won out as the better sundae. The next morning we got started late, but were out of the van by 10. We walked back into town and visited the tourist office but before that we headed up to the castle. The castle is now a youth hostel and it offers great views of the town below and of the Rhine River, its only 17 euro for a night, not too bad. On our way down we passed a different route and decided to take it. This time we passed by an old church, it is left in ruins because it’s a monument as a reminder to the bigotry that once happened here many years ago. Basically a boy was killed and the church said that the Jews killed him and used his blood in a sacrifice, not true but you can imagine it caused some ongoing problems. We then went into the tourist office to see if they had any information on the surrounding towns along the Rhine all of our guide books only mention it as a lovely place to visit and the towns you should stop in at. The tourist office turned out to be a bust, the only info they had cost money. I did however stumble across a news paper written by the tourist board of Bacharach, so I grabbed this as it was in English and Julie and I went back to our van and read the articles in it, but not before calling home. It took Julie 30 mins to add money to the calling card so she wasn’t impressed. The news paper had many stories from Mainz to Koblenz, about the history and quirky traditions they have. Too much to get into here, but above I have mentioned some of what we learnt.

Koblenz

We are off to see the cities and towns along the Rhine River, heading north towards Dusseldorf. I’m going to put these all under one entry as they are very small towns with not much to do, but offer great views and lots of charm. Koblenz is our first stop, as it has a Stellplatz (cheap parking). We drove to one that had a grocery store, showers and bathrooms. However, it turned out to be an Esso parking lot that reminded me of the Fifth Wheel in Milton because of all the transport trucks. It was 5 euros to stay, but we didn’t see anyone to pay, so we camped for free. We were woken up that morning at 6:30am because the trucker parked in front of us decided to start his day. Back to bed, and we were off at 9am to a campsite in the area. We needed to charge our batteries, shower, fill up on water and do laundry. We did all, but the laundry which will put us in a bind in the coming days. The campsite has a spectacular view of the Rhine and there is a huge statue of someone riding a horse with wings. We went for walk-about and found an internet café, we didn’t however head for the town square, though I think if we can we will stop by on our way back up north. You see our lovely GPS showed us all the Cities we wanted to see, and we thought that Koblenz was close to Trier and the most south. It’s the complete opposite.