Friday 5th May 2017

It rained a lot today. After servicing the van at Hude we headed north. Our plan was to avoid Hamburg by crossing the Elbe by ferry well to the west of the city.

The soil is dark and peaty around here - derived perhaps from the original heath land which covered this area prior to cultivation by humans,

The Wischafen to Gluckstadt ferry across the Elbe works on a first come first served basis and we had to queue for about an hour before we got on,

It was well worth the wait and a bargain - 15.50 euros. We passed close by this large ship on the way over.

As we approached the north shore of the Elbe we could see the aire in Gluckstadt which we were heading to but after we landed we found that the road leading to it was closed and our sat nav didn't seem to be able to find an alternative route to it.

We reluctantly abandoned the idea of staying in Gluckstadt and instead moved on a short distance north west along the shore of the Elbe to Brokdorf. Our guide book said that the aire here is free but when we arrived I was collared by the Guardian of the aire who extracted 10 euros from me for an overnight stay! To add injury to insult if you want electricity, water or waste disposal that will cost you more on top! Our van is seen here third from the right in the back row.

We took a walk down to the shore. There was plenty of evidence of recent flooding. 

Nearby is what looks like a nuclear power station.

There are really big flood defences all along the riverbank.

Today we traveled 95 miles (153 kilometres) (excluding the Elbe ferry crossing). We are at N53.86401 E9.31717