Twist to Rodenkirchen

Occasionally it is nice (or necessary) to stay on a camp site rather than an aire but it can be rather expensive – the site we stayed on at Exloo was lovely and included many extras including free ‘do it yourself’ pancakes but it was rather expensive. We found the site in the Bordatlas directory which is written in German. We thought the price was going to be around 16 Euro a night but had not realised that that was per person. In the end, with tax it worked out at 37 Euro (£30.00) for the night. Whilst this is rather more that we would expect to pay we don’t regret staying at such a friendly campsite especially as we have had so many nights in Holland at very little cost. The average cost for an overnight stay on this trip works out at only £4.20 per night over the 15 nights we have been travelling. 

We are now in Twist in Germany, staying on our first Stellplatz (free parking place for motorhomes) and it is very attractive. We are parked up under some trees near a lake and have been planning tomorrow’s drive whilst sitting on a stainless steel bench and table provided for our use. The Germans, French and Dutch all seem to encourage motorhomers to stay in their villages. Wake up Cornwall County Council (and many other British councils) – your ‘no staying overnight’ policy is deterring motorhome owners from visiting Cornwall. Why not remove the height barriers, restrict stays to one or two days, and charge say £5.00 per night?  This will make some extra income and encourage some relatively wealthy visitors to spend money in your villages and towns. 

Enough of my rant!  Thanks France, Holland and Germany for your generosity. The sun has just popped out so I think I will sit outside and read my book. Tomorrow we head for Brake.

Graham

Parked up in the north of Germany after a night in Twist –Twist by name but not by nature as it was very quiet and the highlight was a trip to Lidl to purchase some rather gorgeous German bread. We had next planned to stay in Brake but Kerriann didn’t like the stellplatz which was along side a rather industrial canal. I think I would have been happy watching the large barges doing their thing but K was worried that the adjacent Esso refinery might explode - aren’t women funny?  We moved on to another stellplatz in Stadland which wasn’t where it was meant to be but have ended up on a large market square in Rodenkirchen. As the name suggests there is an interesting old, red church here with a rather beautiful, painted interior.

Twist 

Twist chemical toilet emptying area..aaaah the thrill

We cycled the 3k to the Bronzezeithaus, a reconstruction of a Bronze age house but the automated turnstile accepted our two euro entrance fee but wouldn’t let us in – never mind, it was a nice ride and good exercise. Could not get on line yesterday or today and the local bar/hotel would not let us use their password unless we stayed there so we are not finding Germany quite as friendly as Belgium or The Netherlands – but their lawns are particularly well manicured! The quietness of the small towns seems slightly odd – there are parking spaces for a hundred cars here but there are only 5 or 6 parked up. It must be said that we are enjoying the differences especially as the sun is shining!

Dickie alone in Rodenkirchen carpark

Graham

Well my face is slowly de-swelling. Methinks my body took the ‘Michelin man’ fashion reference a bit too far. I now only have two large ledges of interstitial fluid at the top of my cheek bones giving me an ever so slight Cro-Magnon appearance. I have been make-up free for two days……unheard of!!

lovely eye shot

Today we are off to Heide and that should be our final German destination before we cross over into Denmark. We will bid farewell to perfect lawns, no wee fee (we hope) and sleepy towns and welcome the drama and excitement of Danish pastries and……..