MAY - off to Holland and Germany

Tuesday 29^th May

We left home about 5.00pm to drive 86miles to Harwich in order to catch the overnight ferry to Hook of Holland.  We made good time and even stopped at Tesco’s to tank up with our 5p off a litre voucher.  We sat and ate our rolls on the dock whilst waiting to board.  All went very smoothly and after a reasonable night’s sleep in our cabin we were woken at 6.30am ready to disembark at 7.45am.  We drove for about 1 hour and then stopped to have some breakfast. We arrived at Enschede (149 miles) at 12.15, only to find that the lunch hour was from 12.00 – 1.00 ! So we sat in the car park and waited until they re-opened.  de Twentse Es  campsite was quite suitable with showers, electric and a wash-up area.  As the weather was nice we sat outside for our evening meal.

The next morning we caught the bus in to the town and spent a few hours wandering around looking at all the sights. Back at the site we now had a couple of neighbours to chat to with hand signals and later on went in to the restaurant for a meal which was very nice and cost us 34 euros inc. drinks.  We had the restaurant completely to ourselves all the time…obviously not the peak season!

Friday 1^st June

We left about 10.00 to drive to Celle (184 miles) and after a couple of pitstops and lunch, and a complete circuit of the town in the wrong direction down the narrowest of one-way streets finally found the Stellplatz Schutzenplatz  at 2.30pm. It was basically a large patch of rough ground alongside a bit of river, but had a public toilet and water/waste  point. Very popular as there were at least 30 other vans there, probably as it was free of charge.

Celle Stellplatz

Next day we ambled in to the town and found a market, so bought some fruit and rolls and lovely ham for our lunch.  We investigated the church and the museum and walked around the outside of the Ducal Palace (couldn’t go inside) It rained a bit on and off but we did not get too wet. After dinner we went back in to town as there was a jazz band parade taking place that evening. We listenened to about 6 different bands from Belgium, Holland and Germany, marching along behind them as they went!  There were hordes of people about all drinking, singing and generally having fun – rather like New Orleans.

High Street in Celle

Sunday 3^rd June

What a rubbish day! We only had 97 miles to drive to Magdeburg, but all of it was in the pouring rain.  We found the Stellplatz Petriforder  fairly easily, but had to drive over cobbles and along tram lines. It was on the promenade along side the River Elbe, but unbeknown to us was used by the market on a Sunday and closed to motor homes until 6.00pm.  So….we sat in the car and waited, waited, waited, watching the rain chuck down thinking to ourselves ‘what are we doing?’  Anyway, by the time the gate was opened we had collected about 12 vans and we all played follow-my-leader down on to the quayside. Needless to say, dinner was late as I did not start cooking until after 7.00pm, then the whisky and brandy came out! Cost for our 2 nights was 5 euros.

On the quay at Magdeburg

Monday was at least dry, but still very overcast.  We walked up in to the town and found the Magdeburger Dom which is the main cathedral and very beautiful.  On the way we passed some really old buildings and right next to them some very modern quirky ones.  There is a lot of building work going on around the city  and one day it will probably be like any other western city.  We came back all along the promenade which runs for miles by the River Elbe.

River Elbe at Magdeburg

Quirky new apartment block at Magdeburg

Tuesday 5^th June

After a very wet night, we awoke to sunshine at last, so set off around 10.00 to drive 86 miles to Berlin, arriving in time for lunch.  We had found Marina Lanke on the internet before leaving home and it sounded a good spot for visiting Berlin. We would however not class it as a campsite, but more of a stellplatz and later found that it was in the stellplatz book.  It is a very busy boat marina, with yachts and motor boats moored up. The motorhome bit is just a fenced–off part of the car park, but does have electric hook-up points.  You would have to either be very brave or foolish to try to get a caravan in the spaces, even though they do accept them. They also have a new shower/toilet building and there is a lot more work going on

Wednesday…our first of 3 travelcard days in Berlin.  We caught a bus to Spandau (10 mins) then got on the S-bahn in to the city. That is a sort of above-ground underground and took about 35 minutes. Our Berlin Pass allowed us free entry to quite a few of the touristy places and after a fruitless task trying to find the ticket office for the city bus tour we went to the Berliner Dom, which is their equivalent of St. Paul’s Cathedral and luckily not too badly damaged during the war. It again was very ornate and  well restored.

Berliner Dom

 We walked down the Unter-den-Linden,  a lime tree-lined avenue to the Brandenburg Gate. It is such a shame that now a lot of the trees have been removed to make way for a better traffic system. At the moment most of it is road-works and we were somewhat disappointed.  By now we had sore feet, so spent the next 1hour or so sitting on a boat taking a trip around the city on the River Spree. After that we reversed our S-bahn and bus journey back to the marina, completely worn-out.

Thursday…was nice and sunny and then later very hot.  We decided to take a different route in to city by bus and U-bahn (that is underground). It still took us roughly 1 hour in total.  We went to Checkpoint Charlie and the Mauermuseum (WallMuseum) and saw where a lot of people had escaped from East Germany in varying strange ways. One was in a hot-air balloon, quite a few were curled up in the boots of cars, 2 went by micro-light.  It was quite an experience and the pictures of the wall and houses either side were quite grim.

We also had a look around the Humboldt Box Forum, which is an exhibition of the way in which they demolished the old Palace and are going to rebuild it on the same site.  From the 5^th top floor there are marvellous views across the whole city. 

We went back to the Marina the same way as we had travelled in the morning, again cream-crackered, but after a cuppa and a shower felt a lot better, so ate in the Bistro. Schnitzels with salad and drinks set us back 35euros.

Friday…again a hot sunny day.  We finally managed to track down the booth to collect our tickets for the city-tour bus, it was in the middle of all the road-works, but not where the buses stopped.  We spent a very enjoyable 1 and half  hours on the top deck, in the sun getting burnt going around and seeing a lot of places we would not have found ourselves.  After a picnic lunch on the grass in front of the Berliner Dom we caught the S-bahn out to the Olympic Stadium. I (Sue) lived in Olympische Strasse as a child and could see the old stadium from the windows of our flat. We also used to play around in it as children.  Now it has all been modernised and is quite different, even the street did not look the same. Then we caught the S-bahn and bus back to the Marina for the last time. 

We had bought the 3-day Berlin Pass via the internet before we left home and although it seemed quite expensive at the time, we worked out that we have had our money’s worth with all the travel around the city and entrance to all the places we went to, so could recommend it to anyone else thinking of doing anything similar.

Saturday…was a rest day.  We did some washing, both clothes and hair, tidied up and sat outside watching all the boats sailing around .

Sunday 10^th June

Dawned bright and sunny again. After waiting for our rolls to arrive at 9.00am and a leisurely breakfast we packed up and drove 16 miles via the scenic route to Potsdam.  We found Campingpark Sanssouci relatively easily after negotiating the tram lines once more. This is a very expensive all-singing, all-dancing campsite on the banks of the Havel (lake/sea) with it’s own beach. However we decided to stop for 3 nights so that we could visit both Potsdam itself as well as the Sansoucci Park and all it’s palaces. We had a wander around the site and found the bicycle route R1, which runs from Boulogne to St. Petersburg, goes right through the campsite. Needless to say we saw a great number of cyclists passing by. As well as yachts/boats/wind surfers/canoeists out on the water. It is a very pretty spot, but rather heavily covered with trees, so a bit on the dark side and very sandy underfoot.

Monday…we used the shuttle bus to take us to the nearest tram stop (No. 91 straight in to the centre of Potsdam) and spent all day having a look around the different shops, churches, markets, harbours. The newer buildings are very colourful, but the further away from the tourist spots you get everywhere is very dingy and run-down. We got back to the campsite around 6.00pm and had showers and then dinner outside. It is quite full here, with Germans, French, Dutch, Polish people, but we seem to be the only GB’s 

As I have been able to get on to the internet briefly here I am spending some time typing up the blog, but will put the photos on at a later date, as well as doing the links to the various sites.
 

We had intended to visit the palaces in Sanssouci park on Tuesday, but apart from the fact that it was p….ing down and the shuttle bus only left in the morning and earliest to come back was 5.30, our feet and legs were so sore and tired, that we opted to stay on site.