Slept like a log despite the Pupster hogging most of the bed. Woke up at 6:30, but laid in for another hour.
We got up to bright sunshine, showered and decided to walk back into town for breakfast. Found a different route to avoid the roadworks of last night, but still popped out by the river. So much easier.
We found a cafe overlooking the square, almost opposite to the restaurant we ate at last night and ordered breakfast and coffees. The square was full of parked cars with other vehicles circling the periphery including lots of bikes being ridden by everyone from young kids, teenagers, ladies in dresses, families and elderly people. It was fabulous to see so many people on bikes, joining the cars, vans and buses in the seemingly organised chaos of the town square traffic.
From our vantage point, we could also study the beautiful buildings and architecture, wondering how old it all was, considering it was one of the central battlefields of the World War One. After a bit of Googling, we discovered that Ieper was basically flattened during the First World War and then rebuilt within 10 years, exactly as it was before the hostilities. Everything was replicated including the intricate stone carvings, plaques, towers of the original medieval town. How amazing is that? It was stunning and anyone not knowing the history, would have thought it was just very well preserved. It wouldn’t happen today.
https://www.discoveringbelgium.com/the-reconstruction-of-ypres/
We waddled back to the campsite after finding yet another route through the woods, packed the van and hit the motorway towards Germany under the mistaken belief that it would be quicker ……….
We had 300 miles to cover through Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, across a fairly flat landscape with corridors of industry with new modern buildings. Agriculture passed over to woodlands and back to fields as we skirted big cities, only to get caught up traffic queues around their ring roads – it must of added up to over an hour of lost time. The outside temperature hit 29 degrees.
The German autobahn proved interesting as we hurtled along at 70mph and felt that we were doing 40 as German motorists shot past us. We noted that with all the long delays we had encountered today, not one involved a collision which seemed amazing – it was just either roadworks or sheer volume of traffic.
After 6 hours of driving we were glad to find Campingplatz am Furlbach, get checked in and make a strong cup of Yorkshire tea. Think we were the only British vehicle there and with every sign written in German only, figured that Brits rarely visited. My appalling classroom German went completely AWOL so we either asked ChatGPT or used Google Translate to work out all the signs. I did manage a “Danke” and said good day instead of goodbye but felt accomplished. Thanks to Google, I also refreshed or learnt a few more basic words and phrases. It’s pretty shameful really, but thank goodness for technology!
Our plan today, as of yesterday too, was to stop at a supermarket before we arrived at the campsites and get some food in. Alas, we failed yet again to visit such a place and today relied on the few packets of crisps and biscuits we had on board. Tonight’s campsite did have a tiny shop and I came out feeling flushed having supplemented our meagre rations with two bottles of beer and a packet of plastic cheese.
We set up the van, met the couple next door from the Netherlands who were heading to Italy and settled down outside to eat the cheese. Afterward we walked the Pupster around the campsite and to have a nose. It was quite a big campsite with the pitches around the periphery having private enclosed areas which some had turned into proper little gardens. It seemed one of those places that catered for long term residents as well as tourers.
We returned to the reception area where on the large grassed area, there seemed a congregation of people listening to a speaker. They had food and drink laid on too. It was intriguing and we wanted to find out more, but my splattering of German wouldn’t stretch that far and we might be signed up for some organisation. We smiled and returned to our campervan, happy to listen to the person playing the accordion.
We sat outside until we felt a bit of rain which in turn, turned into an unexpected shower lasting a good 30 minutes. We retreated indoors and had to close the door as the rain was coming in (we couldn’t be bothered with our awning).
So we prepared for bed. The Pupster has been brilliant. She’s always been a great traveller, but at nearly 3 (hardly a pup I know) she just sleeps on her mat between us and barely moves. She’s now slept through 4 countries and Le Shuttle……..
Sorry there’s not many photos – motorway driving isn’t really conducive for such activity.
apathtosomewhere 