Where's Bertie? He's in another riverside Stellplatz, this time alongside the Elbe, just outside of Wischhafen. There are no facilities here, but it is another freebie, albeit with a requested €3 donation towards the upkeep.
We didn't achieve much today. After a bit of a dither as to whether to stay put or move on, we moved initially to the town of Itzehoe. I have no idea what the town has to offer, as the Stellplatz had been taken over by the fair, which was just setting up. So, after locating the service point (which proved tricky) and visiting Lidl* we continued on towards the Elbe.
Given the options of: a) following the motorway and sitting in heavy traffic around Hamburg; or b) sticking to minor roads, crossing the river Elbe via a ferry and taking a more northerly route towards the Netherlands; we plumped for b. It wasn't the most cost effective choice (€15.50 of ferry fare versus around 75km of driving via Hamburg), but worthwhile, we thought.
What we hadn't anticipated was how many other people would be doing the same thing. We hit the back of the queue 2km out and over the next hour and a half we shuffled forwards 200m every 10 minutes or so. The only silver lining was that moving once every 10 minutes is less annoying than the stop start nature of a busy motorway, and thus we managed to have both elevenses and lunch whilst queuing (it was gone 1pm by this time; we were running a bit late today). The impulse buy of sushi for lunch turned out to be perfect, saving me the trouble of having to make anything within a ten minute window of being stationary.
Our night stop was only 350m after the ferry (and the queue this side was about 360m long) and once Bertie was installed we wasted no time in getting out for a strollette on one of the many cycle paths (which can also be walked) hereabouts. Rain is forecast later and having been a muggy 28 degrees today we're expecting it to be heavy.
Seeing this whitewashed thatched cottage sitting in an orchard with a manicured lawn I reckoned that if I had been abducted by aliens and abandoned in this spot, I would assume I was in the Home Counties.
My final observation of the day is about a notable contrast between Norway and Germany. Today we found a cheap petrol station and filled up only to then find they didn't accept credit cards (panic! Oh, it's okay, we have enough cash). When was the last time you encountered a petrol station that didn't accept plastic?! So different from Norway where plastic rules and most petrol stations are unmanned, making cards the only option. After that it was only a semi surprise to find that the ferry operated on a cash only basis too.
(* Supermarkets in Germany are soooo cheap! For the first time since we left Germany 10 weeks ago, we filled a trolley with gay abandon. Most notable was that Mick's entire six pack of beer cost half of one can of the cheapest beer we saw in Norway! Needless to say, we didn't buy any beer in Norway.)
We didn't achieve much today. After a bit of a dither as to whether to stay put or move on, we moved initially to the town of Itzehoe. I have no idea what the town has to offer, as the Stellplatz had been taken over by the fair, which was just setting up. So, after locating the service point (which proved tricky) and visiting Lidl* we continued on towards the Elbe.
Given the options of: a) following the motorway and sitting in heavy traffic around Hamburg; or b) sticking to minor roads, crossing the river Elbe via a ferry and taking a more northerly route towards the Netherlands; we plumped for b. It wasn't the most cost effective choice (€15.50 of ferry fare versus around 75km of driving via Hamburg), but worthwhile, we thought.
What we hadn't anticipated was how many other people would be doing the same thing. We hit the back of the queue 2km out and over the next hour and a half we shuffled forwards 200m every 10 minutes or so. The only silver lining was that moving once every 10 minutes is less annoying than the stop start nature of a busy motorway, and thus we managed to have both elevenses and lunch whilst queuing (it was gone 1pm by this time; we were running a bit late today). The impulse buy of sushi for lunch turned out to be perfect, saving me the trouble of having to make anything within a ten minute window of being stationary.
Our night stop was only 350m after the ferry (and the queue this side was about 360m long) and once Bertie was installed we wasted no time in getting out for a strollette on one of the many cycle paths (which can also be walked) hereabouts. Rain is forecast later and having been a muggy 28 degrees today we're expecting it to be heavy.
Seeing this whitewashed thatched cottage sitting in an orchard with a manicured lawn I reckoned that if I had been abducted by aliens and abandoned in this spot, I would assume I was in the Home Counties.
My final observation of the day is about a notable contrast between Norway and Germany. Today we found a cheap petrol station and filled up only to then find they didn't accept credit cards (panic! Oh, it's okay, we have enough cash). When was the last time you encountered a petrol station that didn't accept plastic?! So different from Norway where plastic rules and most petrol stations are unmanned, making cards the only option. After that it was only a semi surprise to find that the ferry operated on a cash only basis too.
(* Supermarkets in Germany are soooo cheap! For the first time since we left Germany 10 weeks ago, we filled a trolley with gay abandon. Most notable was that Mick's entire six pack of beer cost half of one can of the cheapest beer we saw in Norway! Needless to say, we didn't buy any beer in Norway.)
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