Thursday 29th June 2017

Today we traveled back to our house in Devon passing Stonehenge as we came down the A303.

Stonehenge is just part of a wider prehistoric ceremonial landscape - it is surrounded by burial mounds and many other features.

There was quite a lot of military activity going on around Salisbury Plain - we saw several military vehicles on the road and this low flying transport aircraft.

When we arrived back home we found that the moles had been active under our lawn. The grass isn't really too long as our neighbour Steve kindly cut it for us while we were away.

There is a fair amount of pulling up bracken to get done.

Today we traveled 243 miles (391 kilometres). We live at N50.5 W3.8

Our journey lasted a total of 62 days. We visited France (twice), Belgium (twice), Netherlands (twice), Germany (twice), Denmark (twice), Norway, Finland and Sweden. We traveled 6404 miles (10310 kilometres) while driving our van. This distance figure excludes several ferry crossings, the main ones being Dover (England) to Calais (France), Hirtshals (Denmark) to Langesund (Norway), Naantali (Finland) to Kappelskar (Sweden), Rodbyhavn (Denmark) to Puttgarden (Germany) and Dunkerque (France) to Dover (England)

Many thanks to anyone who has taken an interest in our travels. Bye for now, Roger.

Wednesday 28th June 2017

It was raining off and on this morning at Dunkerque. We went through the most elaborate security checks before we were able to get on the ferry to Dover. Firstly we had to pass through a group of about five soldiers all carrying automatic weapons. Secondly another group of security people looked inside the back doors of our van. Thirdly we had our passports inspected by the French police. Fourthly we had our passports inspected by the British border force. Fifthly another group of security staff looked in the back doors, the gas locker, the side door, the toilet and under the rear passengers seats. 

The ferry got going at about 12.15 and before too long the white cliffs came into view.

We arrived at Dover about 13.15 local time.

We are staying the night at Ann's daughter Kerry's place in Kent. Kerry made us a really nice meal. Many thanks Kerry, Gareth and Henry for your hospitality once again!

Today we traveled 48 miles (77 kilometres). We are at N51.1 E0.5

Tuesday 27th June 2017

Ann was up comparatively early this morning and saw these geese in the fort moat right by our parking place

These two were just outside our van.

We stopped off to buy diesel soon after leaving the fort before taking to the motorways. We passed Antwerp, Ghent and Brugge before finally crossing over from Belgium into France. We parked in the town of Gravellines and got our bikes out. Here's the lighthouse.

We rode along past the beach huts - the weather was very warm.

We also cycled along the river frontage which is lined with flowers.

Gravellines is quite a nice little town.

We stopped for the day at the DFDS ferry terminal west of Dunkerque. The posh A class van next to ours belongs to a couple from the Netherlands who are about to visit Britain for the first time. I tried to talk them out of it citing how ridiculously expensive everything is, that you have to drive on the left, that distances and speeds are measured in miles and miles per hour and that about half the population are brainless euro-phobic idiots. I'm not sure I convinced them to cancel their ferry booking!.

Things have changed a lot here since we last visited. There is a brand new terminal building and check in plaza.

There is also a proliferation of razor wire topped anti migrant fencing. While in the rest of western Europe you can move freely across borders without even having to slow down, Britain's government has decided to retreat from civilisation behind these "defences".

There are quite a lot of vans here this evening. Mostly German registered.

Many thanks to Osen Fjordcamping for being the first to comment of this journey's blog. We visited you on 22nd May and you were kind enough to let us empty our toilet cassette and fill our fresh water tank without charge. Many thanks for following our journey. We have the stickers you gave us on the windowsill next to our table to remind us of your kindness.

Today we traveled 148 miles (238 kilometres). We are at N51.01571 E2.19781

Monday 26th June 2017

Today we came south and then west on motorways. We went through the Ruhr valley.

We crossed the Rhine on this bridge.

We traveled from Germany into the Netherlands passing close by the city of Eindhoven. However before too long we crossed from the  Netherlands into Belgium where we stopped briefly in the town of Lier, pictured here, to take on water.

From Lier we moved on the short distance to the town of Duffel and parked for the day on the banks of the moat of the world war one fort at Koningshooikt. Here's the view from the side door of our van.

We rode round the moat a couple of times on our bikes. There are some strange little huts on the waters edge. Possibly for fishing?

Ann is seen here zooming along on her bike! We couldn't go into the fort itself as the gate was locked. Apparently the fort had to be abandoned in 1914 when it came under attack from the Germans' super gun nicknamed "Big Bertha"!

A lot of geese and indeed other water foul frequent the moat ind its environs.

To day we traveled 155 miles (250 kilometres). We are at N51.08317 E4.56505

Sunday 25th June 2017

It rained heavily this morning in Diepholz. We decided to take to the motorways as we were entering the heavily populated areas of north west Europe. First we traveled south and then west and we stopped for the day at the town of Raesfeld.

Ann visited the castle while I watched TV. 

The castle is quite an impressive building.

There are a lot of geese around here.

More geese.

I'm not sure what these are. They're a bit out of focus!

The castle has a moat.

Back at the van we had a very nice tea washed down with a bottle of Lidl's 2 euro range which was very nice.

As we've now got access to our TV channels again we watched the final night of Glastonbury Festival on the Beeb. We are staying at the town's stellplatz. It cost 8 euros for 24 hours and 1 euro for electricity or water.

Today we traveled 115 miles (185 kilometres). We are at N51.76550 E6.83144

Saturday 24th June 2017

It was raining this morning. We had showers and serviced the van. We set off south and then turned west through rural Germany bypassing to the south both the cities of Hamburg and Bremen. Following the advice of our satnav Tomasina (the Tom Tom) we were at times traveling on quite small rural roads. On the section pictured here you had to drive on the left to keep on the tarmac!

Many of the roads around here are avenues, tree lined on both sides.

We saw a few interesting buildings along the way. It rained off and on all day.

We stopped for the day at the town of Diepholz. We are staying at the stellplatz (the German equivalent of a French aire). It is free to stay here but you have to pay for water and electricity. Our van is visible furthest to the left. When we put up our satellite dish we found that we could receive the full range of British TV programmes for the first time in a long time. We have been watching the BBC coverage of the Glastonbury Festival this evening.

Today we traveled 109 miles (175 kilometres). We are at N52.61202 E8.36932

Friday 23rd June 2017

There were some quite big puddles at our parking place this morning after last night's heavy rain. Ann went off to see the local police to express her concerns about some people who had turned up at our parking place last night and had stuck stickers saying hilfspolitzei (meaning  auxiliary police in German) onto the backs of their vans and then driven off.

I went for a walk. This picture clearly shows how enormous the locks are on the Elbe

Eventually we got going at about 15.30 and moved on to an official campervan parking place on the edge of Luneburg Heath. It cost 8 euros a night to stay here plus 1 euro for water.

It's a nice remote and rural spot. We saw this hare.

Today we traveled 21 miles (34 kilometres). We are at N53.23259 E10.21677

Thursday 22nd June 2017

This morning there was heavy rain at our parking place in the overpriced and overcrowded seaside aire. We moved on south passing the city of Lubeck by briefly resorting to the motorway. We came on to here which is an island in the middle of the river Elbe at Geesthact just to the east of Hamburg. We did a grocery and drinks shop at the local Lidl - if you think Lidl in Britain is good value you should try them here in Germany - even cheaper! There are enormous locks here to accommodate the huge cargo ships which travel along the Elbe.

Many of these ships are really big.

Ann went for a walk down this leafy path on the island. Our van can just be seen at the end of the path.

She saw some ducks along the way.

She also met this calf.

And she also saw this cormorant drying its wings with a duck looking on.

When Ann got back from here walk the weather was extremely close with a temperature of over 30C. Not long afterwards there was a violent storm with high winds, very heavy rain and thunder and lightning.

The weather soon calmed down,

There was a beautiful sunset.

We saw this nice cloudscape with a nearby wind generator in the foreground. The Germans are way ahead of the British in creating renewable energy.

Today we traveled 82 miles (132 kilometres). We are at N53.43154 E10.33545