28th April and we’re off! Hopefully we’ll make it to Poland this time, which we had hoped to visit last year. Ferry booked for the next morning and loaded to the gunnels, as usual, we set off in the afternoon for an overnight stay on the motorhome section at the P&R at Canterbury,. We stopped off at Trumpington P&R too, to catch up with our friend Ylva over a cup of tea.
Next morn we made a very early start to Dover because there’s often a 2 hour hold up at customs these days, but we sailed through and got onto the earlier ferry, so rolled off in Calais at 10 a.m. We had a pleasant drive through Belgium, stopping overnight just over the Dutch border at Sas van Gent; we knew it well as we’d stayed there 3 years ago on the way up to Denmark. We made another early start on Sun morn, so by 10.30 we had parked up on the P&R (yes, another one!) at Eindhoven, where our friend Walter, who lives close by, met us to take us home with him to spend the day catching up and chatting to put the world to rights.
Monday morning saw a downturn in the weather so for 2 days we drove for longer than we normally do, as it seemed the best way to spend our time in the rain and Tues afternoon found us in Kassel in the Sachsen (Saxony) region. We took the tram into town next morning for a wander around then headed off to a pleasant camperstop, outside a campsite, on the lake at Kelbra. They had an advert in the reception window for a Fiat garage at Sondershausen, about 20 kms away so off we went on Thurs morn as John had become unhappy about the front brakes since we left home. Not only did the pads need replacing, but the mechanic found that the diesel filter was leaking, caused by the new insert being badly fitted (a common occurrence) when it was serviced about a month earlier, ready for this long trip! Fortunately he carries a complete new filter as a standby, because the garage didn’t have one and couldn’t get one quickly so had to fit the spare. All the staff were very helpful and we relaxed with coffee and our kindles while the work was going on. As some of you know, John needed to visit hospital in Budapest last June, then had a 4 day stay at Cartegena hospital in December so we’re hoping that this trip to the Fiat “hospital” will suffice for this holiday!
We carried on due East and spent a couple of nights on a camperstop in Leipzig, which I found online on the Camper Contact website; we’ve always relied on our Camperstop book, but now find that Camper Contact often have listings for places that the book doesn’t, or has some that are a better option. Leipzip was a good example, where we stayed on a small, tucked away, car park at €10 per 24 hours and only a 15mins walk into the centre of this beautiful old city which is well worth a visit. Before visiting the town our first job on Fri morn was to find DEKRA, which we think is the equivalent of a ministry MOT testing station, because we needed to get a new green “Euro 4” sticker to put in the ‘van windscreen. We bought one 3 years ago, but have had a new windscreen since then and it was impossible to prize it off the old screen; we’ve taken the precaution of fixing this one in with selotape, just in case.
John walks free from Colditz!
By yesterday lunchtime we were at Colditz and spent a couple of hours looking round the castle; fortunately they no longer hold Englanders prisoner there, so we didn’t need to make our escape by any of the means we’ve seen in the various films and TV series, we simply walked back through the gates! We had planned to stay in the town overnight, but found that what we had expected to be an overnight spot was simply a small parking place on the market square and very sloping to boot, so we had to move on.
We are now at Dobeln for a 2nd night and only a few miles West of Dresden now. This camperstop, like the one for Colditz, is listed in a booklet which we picked up at the tourist information office in Leipzig but, whereas Colditz was completely unsuited to an overnight stop, here it is excellent. We are a 15mins scenic walk away from the lovely old town, parked on hard standing amongst grass and trees, in the large car park of the town’s “WelWel” (Welcome Wellness) centre, on Fichtestrasse. The staff are extremely helpful and friendly and Anne speaks very good English, a great help as my one year’s school German is sadly lacking! If you are a sporty type there is a pool, gym, badminton, teenis and bowls available here; there’s also a restaurant. Overnight parking is free and for €5 we have electricity connected, access to fresh water and use of the centre’s toilets and showers; some forward planning is needed however, as many places don’t have facilities for emptying toilet cassettes.