Week 1: The road to Enzklösterle
We arrived in the Black Forest in a fine mist-rain and a thick fog hanging over the roads and the forest. It is clear where the forest got its name from and we can see how the place inspired the Brothers Grimm to write Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, and Rapunzel. It is beautiful and it is easy to believe forest creatures might be hiding in the black shadows of the tall conifers.
Up to know we’ve been unlucky with the weather. England offered her usual mixed bag of weather goodies, but we arrived in Belgium in full sunshine and high temperatures. It wasn’t to last and for the following 4 days it’s been raining really hard almost all the time. Nora, the camper, became a damp shelter, but we quickly learned how to keep her rainproof and a car is definitely a dryer option than a tent. It’s been a shock to “downsize” from a house to a small van – although at the moment it still feels like a short holiday and like we’ll be back in our house. The camper is really comfortable once you’ve practiced turning it from the day-time mode to the night-time mode.
Finding good campsites haven’t been too tricky yet as we’ve booked in advance up to Brugge. There are some really good sites and guides on the internet and we’ll post a blog entry about finding sites later, once we’ve got more experience doing it.
Highlights of the week
We drove just under 700 miles during week 1 (Google’s calculation below is slightly out). We spent a couple of nights near Ivinghoe to familiarise ourselves with the camper, another night in Dover before an early morning ferry to Dunkirk and then onwards to Brugge our first key stop.
Ivinghoe
Town Farm Camping near Tring and the Pitstone Mill is highly recommended. We had such a good stay there and we had one field completely to ourselves. It’s hard to believe such a gem is so close to London.
Ieper
The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 near Ieper is a fascinating glimpse into the challenges and horrors faced by Allied Soldiers at Pascendale during the First World War. You always here about the mud and the dampness, but we were there on a really hot day and being in a trench in the blistering sun I can’t imagine is any better. It’s interesting though to see how the nineteenth and twentieth centuries met up.
Brugge
It’s been nearly ten years since the last time we were in Brugge and the last time we didn’t get an opportunity to climb the Belfry. So, this time we got in line and climbed all 366 steps to the top. The views over Brugge are breathtaking. To make up for all the calories lost on those steps, we’ve had waffles, cream and strawberries. And beer off course, lots of beer.
Luxembourg
En route to Germany we made a quick stop in Luxembourg City. As it was a public holiday the city was really quiet. We parked in the middle of town and wandered around the old city for a few hours before heading back off on the road.
Germany
The first night’s camping in Germany was a real surprise, Alter Bahnhoff Camping. We only camped here as the campsites en route through Luxembourg were all full. It’s a friendly site right on the Sûre River, the border between Germany and Luxembourg. There were a few weird aspects to the campsite, like walking up 80 steps to the top of a hill to have a shower whilst the whole campsite’s watching you (or so it felt) and needing to bring your own toilet paper (oops), but all in all a great location in the middle of the Eifel wine region. We could even order brötchens for breakfast and the campsite host seem genuinely surprised that we only wanted to stay one night.
The next morning we headed a little north to Eltz Castle in a green valley between the Moselle and the Rhine Rivers. From there we jumped on the Autobahn where we invented a new driving game, called Ausfahrt! The one who sees the ‘Ausfahrt’ (exit) sign first, needs to shout ‘Ausfahrt’ to gain one point. Highest score wins. It’s probably only applicable to the Autobahn, but we’ll see what the score is by the time we’ve left Switzerland and Austria.
So far my broken German got us a long way in Germany (surprisingly) and we’ve managed to be understood without much English. Away from the cities the people are really friendly and if you look a bit lost or confused, there’s always someone that’ll stop and ask if you need help.
Our final stop for the week is in the Black Forest in a tiny little place called Enzklösterle. We’ve set up camp at Müllerweise Camping, which is a great location to explore the northern parts of the forest from and there are several great hiking trails that start right at the campsite. From here we’re off to the southern towns of the forest and on to Switzerland.
Trip stats:
- Current location: Northern Black Forest, Germany
- Days on the road: 8
- Distance travelled: 1090 km
- Countries visited: Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany
- Cups of coffee: 14 (a bit disappointing yes, but we’re on two a day at the moment)
- Pitched the tent 0 times.
- Pitched the camper awning 4 times.
- Number of campsites: 5
- Number of hotels: 0
- Euros spent on fuel: 54.00
- Ausfahrt score: Petrus 26 / Sarah 19
