Where's Bertie? He's in a Stellplatz in the old town of Wachtendonk. It's €7 per night, including waste and wifi. Water and electricity are available for small extra fees. (Exact location: 51.40651, 6.33082)
Weather: Hot, sunny and humid. Thirty-three degrees on arrival.
A slightly painful early alarm allowed a run around the outside of the ramparts at Bergues before we hit the road. A worthwhile outing, not just for the exercise, as the scenery on the north side of the town is prettier than the woodland on the east side, where I'd explored on our last visit.
Unfortunately the heron flew off a moment before I took the bottom snap.
A quick breakfast and off we headed, with our first stop being Dunkirk for LPG (75c/litre; had a bit of a fight with the pump but it eventually obliged) and diesel (183c/litre = £1.54 - feels like a bargain!).
The itinerary then was to drive across Beglium and the Netherlands, into Germany. By luck we hit Antwerp at a time when there wasn't a massive traffic jam heading east. There were miles and miles of traffic heading west.
Once in Germany, a small detour took us to an Aldi, so that we would have something in for tea, then a short backtrack brought us to Bertie's home for the night. That last 2km wasn't entirely plain sailing when we completely missed the 'road closed' indication (it was subtle; there were no barriers) and Bertie found himself driving straight into the site of some roadworks. A workman waved frantically, Bertie made a retreat and the Stellplatz was reached.
Knowing there to be a charge to stay here, I expected there to be a Pay & Display sort of a machine. It's not that high tech: there's a metal cupboard, inside of which is a strongbox with a letter box slit, and a pile of envelopes asking for name, registration number and date.
We didn't immediately dash out to look at the town, as it was still a bit too warm for walking around to be enticing. The exploration then got delayed further when I confirmed that it's no longer possible to use OpenCycleMaps* via the ViewRanger App and fell down a rabbit hole trying to find an alternative. Some Googling and four downloaded Apps later and hopefully I have a solution that will work for this trip.
With that sorted(ish-maybe), I then looked at where we might go tomorrow. When I chose this location for tonight, I clicked on the first Stellplatz past the NL/German border that was near to our route, saw it had good reviews and was only a few Euro, and thought "That will do". If I'd just spent a few more minutes, there are a couple of better-looking (and free) places only 30km-ish further on. We may find ourselves going to one of those tomorrow, as we now only have 199km to drive to Bielefeld for their parkrun on Saturday morning, so can be quite leisurely over the next 3 days.
With tea time then upon us (salads rule in this weather), it was well into evening by the time we headed out for a little look around. Wachtendonk is an interesting enough old town, but not as visually striking as others we've visited.
Old Town, cobbled streets and plenty of half-timbered buildings, but only evident if you look down the alleys between them, as most had brick facades added in the 1800s.
Church (not wonky; made that way by my phone's camera in order to fit it in one snap)
A treadmill-powered scooter. Why?!
Weather: Hot, sunny and humid. Thirty-three degrees on arrival.
A slightly painful early alarm allowed a run around the outside of the ramparts at Bergues before we hit the road. A worthwhile outing, not just for the exercise, as the scenery on the north side of the town is prettier than the woodland on the east side, where I'd explored on our last visit.
A quick breakfast and off we headed, with our first stop being Dunkirk for LPG (75c/litre; had a bit of a fight with the pump but it eventually obliged) and diesel (183c/litre = £1.54 - feels like a bargain!).
The itinerary then was to drive across Beglium and the Netherlands, into Germany. By luck we hit Antwerp at a time when there wasn't a massive traffic jam heading east. There were miles and miles of traffic heading west.
Once in Germany, a small detour took us to an Aldi, so that we would have something in for tea, then a short backtrack brought us to Bertie's home for the night. That last 2km wasn't entirely plain sailing when we completely missed the 'road closed' indication (it was subtle; there were no barriers) and Bertie found himself driving straight into the site of some roadworks. A workman waved frantically, Bertie made a retreat and the Stellplatz was reached.
Knowing there to be a charge to stay here, I expected there to be a Pay & Display sort of a machine. It's not that high tech: there's a metal cupboard, inside of which is a strongbox with a letter box slit, and a pile of envelopes asking for name, registration number and date.
We didn't immediately dash out to look at the town, as it was still a bit too warm for walking around to be enticing. The exploration then got delayed further when I confirmed that it's no longer possible to use OpenCycleMaps* via the ViewRanger App and fell down a rabbit hole trying to find an alternative. Some Googling and four downloaded Apps later and hopefully I have a solution that will work for this trip.
With that sorted(ish-maybe), I then looked at where we might go tomorrow. When I chose this location for tonight, I clicked on the first Stellplatz past the NL/German border that was near to our route, saw it had good reviews and was only a few Euro, and thought "That will do". If I'd just spent a few more minutes, there are a couple of better-looking (and free) places only 30km-ish further on. We may find ourselves going to one of those tomorrow, as we now only have 199km to drive to Bielefeld for their parkrun on Saturday morning, so can be quite leisurely over the next 3 days.
With tea time then upon us (salads rule in this weather), it was well into evening by the time we headed out for a little look around. Wachtendonk is an interesting enough old town, but not as visually striking as others we've visited.
38.4mpg achieved over the 300km between Dunkirk and the German border. Not bad for a vehicle with the aerodynamics of a brick, that's lugging a whole house around.
(*I almost never cycle anywhere, but OpenCycleMaps is an excellent resource for not just finding cycle paths (handy for running and walking), but also for footpaths, toilets, and cafes. I use it daily when abroad.)
(*I almost never cycle anywhere, but OpenCycleMaps is an excellent resource for not just finding cycle paths (handy for running and walking), but also for footpaths, toilets, and cafes. I use it daily when abroad.)
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