Another
year another trip
into Europe whilst we are fit and able to enjoy, and afford,
travelling!
We decided to head for the North German west and east coasts via
Keukenhof gardens, in the Netherlands, at their best in late April.We
planned a few days in Southern Denmark and a short detour into
Poland. Our return route would take us to Dresden, then across central
Germany to Venlo, back in the Netherlands, to visit the Floriade garden
festival, held once every ten years.
Our route through Northern Germany 2012
Rather
than enduring the awful drive down to Dover, we took the overnight
P&O ferry
from Hull to Rotterdam which was far more convenient, if somewhat more
expensive. Booking through the Camping &
Caravanning
Club
Carefree service gave us a small discount and included a free
ACSI discount camping card. We upgraded to an outside
cabin for
the return journey as we didn't like the inside cabin, not that there
was much to look at across the North Sea.
After negotiating the
Rotterdam ring road, we headed via Delft, to a pre-booked campsite at
Noordwijk on the Dutch coast, to see the spectacular annual
flower
parade, before visiting the colourful Keukenhof Gardens which were
rather crowded but still enjoyable.
Our route then took us
across the 30km Afsluitdijk separating Ijsselmeer from the Noordzee, and
through the flat landscape of Friesland to enter Germany near Papenburg,
where massive cruise ships are built 35km inland! We then meandered
east to Lüneburg Heath, then to the pretty Altes Land, south of the
Elbe near Hamburg, where the orchards were just in bloom. Turning north,
we reached the Wattenmeer coast visiting Büsum, St
Peter-Ording and Husum, and into
Denmark, diverting to the interesting island of Rømø,
(highest point 19 metres), and then on to Ribe, Denmark's
oldest
town. We crossed the peninsular to Kolding and the
Design
Museum, and then turned south once more, stopping at
Christiansfeld, a
Moravian town, before re-entering Germany at Flensburg and
along
the Ostsee (Baltic) coast. After an interesting night parked at a new
stellplatz near Rendsburg near Keil, almost touching the ships
on the
Nord-Ostsee Kanal, we drove via the flat Holsteinische Schweiz lakeland
area to Lübeck, another old city and its resort of Travemünde.
Continuing
along the coast to the old Hanseatic city of Wismar, we enjoyed sunny
weather as we took the ferry at Warnemünde, near Rostock where
passengers were
embarking on huge cruise ships, and detoured along the Darß
peninsula before crossing the new bridge to the isle of Rügen. We
spent a few days visiting Saßnitz, fascinating Prora (Hitler's 5 km
long "holiday" camp), and Sellin.
We then decided to head inland to Müritz,
Germany's
largest natural lake which was extremely busy, but we found a small
stellplatz a few kilometres away from the main town of Waren. After a
morning in
the pretty lakeside town of Röbel, it was an easy
drive via Schloss Rheinsberg and Neuruppin to Potsdam
and the amazing
Sanssouci Park and Palaces.
We decided to miss out Berlin so
continued south east to Lübben, in the Spreewald, another lake district
where the Sorb people still live. It's also home of the gherkin,
evident in the many giftshops. A local tourist leaflet led us to detour
to a new visitor centre for the massive open cast Lignite (brown coal)
mines at Welzow, before we reached Bad Muskau on the Polish border, where
there was a German/Polish festival in the Unesco listed Fürst-Pückler Park,
which straddles the border here, so we spent just a couple of hours in
Poland. We also came across
another local event, with an Oldtimers vehicles display, at nearby Kromlau, famous for its rhododendron and
azealea park.
From there we headed, via Bautzen, to the Bastei Rocks, another
busy attraction overlooking the Elbe in the Saxon Switzerland National
Park, and the first real hills we came across after five weeks of
touring! After a river trip on a paddle steamer, we headed for
Dresden and found a space at the stellplatz right in the centre of the
city. We spent a day sightseeing in the rebuilt city
then headed
southwest through the wooded Erzgebirge region, ending up at the small
spa
town of Bad Brambach on the Czech border. The next morning we drove
through the Czech
Republic for about twenty minutes and got caught in a police check
along with many German drivers just near the tacky market stalls at the
border. Luckily we were waved on once our paperwork had been
inspected, and returned to the German autobahn for a few miles,
stopping at Hof, and on to Kronach. Passing through the wooded uplands
of the Thüringerwald, we reached the attractive old town of Arnstadt,
then continued northwest to Fritzlar with its many timber framed
buildings, Edersee (one of the Dambusters dams), and the pleasant spa town of Bad
Wildungen.
Passing through more wooded and hilly countryside and the interesting
town of Freudenberg, near Siegen, we reached the Rhine just south of Bonn
at the pretty
riverside village of Unkel. We were treated to an unexpected late night
firework display,
followed by a peaceful night at the free stellplatz. We continued
around the Bonn bypass and on to Brühl to look at the
Unesco World Heritage listed Augustusburg Palace. After reaching the Dutch border
and a detour to the whitewashed village of Thorn, near Roermond, we took
the motorway to Venlo for the Floriade staying at an ACSI campsite
fairly near. After a wet day at the festival, we had a tedious
drive west, mostly on motorways which became busier as we neared Rotterdam,
to board the overnight ferry to Hull and an easy morning drive home.
Costs
Ferry :
Hull to Rotterdam P & O
£310
+ €15 cabin upgrade on return leg, booked
through Camping & Caravanning Club and including free ACSI
discount campingcard
Fuel : £674 for 3299 miles about
29 mpg.
Gas: Gaslow LPG £38 total : Initial fill
in UK
15 Litres £11.24; three top-ups in Germany 40 litres €33 at €0.83/L
Sites fees
€548 total:
Campsites 19 nights
€12.30 to €23.60
average €16 (12 using ACSI discount Camping Card mostly €14 +tax)
Stellplätze and
freecamping 35 nights: €2.50 (no services) to €16.00
inc services average €7; 8 nights free
Lübeck
Wismar "Alter Schwede"
