Author: braysabroad

Black volcanic beach, crash landed planes and a waterfall

Yesterday’s plan involved a 2.5 hour drive to see the remains of the American Airforce plane that crash landed on the black sand beach at Solheimasandur in 1973. This was top of Matt’s wish list and took us out along the south coast, past lava fields, sulphur pools and the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. This volcano brought European flights to a halt when it last erupted in 2010, much to the amusement of locals – they weren’t particularly affected by the dust because it all blew south!

Back to the DC10, it crashed when the pilot switched to wrong fuel tank, everyone on board survived and Iceland gained an unusual tourist attraction. It was a 40 minute walk across a very grey, barren landscape to the plane and it was quite an eerie sight when we finally found it.

The first stop, on our route back, was the Skogafoss waterfall. It was spectacular but, more importantly, it came with a visitor centre with a cafe attached. It was after 3pm and lunch was most welcome although we seem to be living on fries at the moment.

The waterfall was impressive and the challenging walk up 527 steps to the top was well worth the effort.


 

As we headed back to Reykjavik, we encountered the strong smell of sulphur, saw lots of steam rising from the side of the road and decided to investigate. Matt reluctantly left the car, complaining loudly about the smell but was then off exploring. There is something rather compelling about holes in the ground that spit hot mud at you, definitely something you don’t see at home.

 

Our last stop was dinner at the Bike Cave in south Reykjavik. It was recommend as the best place for a budget meal. Our meal could not be classed as healthy but it was certainly budget, by Icelandic standards, and was accompanied by a live jazz pianist in a very quirky bike repair shop.

The day ended with another trip to try and see the Northern Lights. We’d settled down for the evening when Matt suddenly announced there was a strong chance of seeing them, we may need to take his internet access away! Back to the car we went. At least this time we were only chasing a clear sky in Reykjavik. We went down to the thermal beach at Nautholsvik where we got carried away until we realised we were looking at laser beams. Then we drove out to the Grotta lighthouse where we waited patiently for half an hour or so before giving up in despair.

Northern Lights, woohoo?!?!

Last night was a good night for seeing the Northern Lights, the sky was clear so what could stop us?

Our evening started with dinner at 73 on Laugauvegur. The meal was delicious but £70 for two burgers, grilled chicken and three cokes came as a shock. Saying that, we’d eat there again, the atmosphere and staff were lovely.

At 9pm we packed the car and set out of the city towards Hvalfordjut, a fjord just north of Reykjavik where the light pollution would be less and tourists fewer. Neither John or I like driving in the dark and adding Matt to the car insurance is money well spent. He doesn’t stop complaining about the little Hyundai but it seems ok to us.

We spent three hours in and out of the car on a freezing hillside watching the sky. We lost count of the number of shooting stars we saw and how many times we said ‘did you see that? I think something’s happening over there but itcould be my eyes going funny’.


On balance, we can say we’ve seen the Northern Lights but they weren’t as spectacular as you see on tv and we got blooming cold doing it.

Finally to bed at 1am!

Reykjavik, the world’s most northerly capital city

A big thank you to Diane for getting up unreasonably early to take us to Luton Airport for 5:15.

Flying into Keflavik Airport gave us some fantastic views of the Icelandic coastline which is very different from anything we’ve seen before. The volcanos dominate and are surrounded by flat lava fields with the occasional plume of steam rising from the ground.

Matt drove us into Reykjavik, his first experience of driving on the wrong side of the road, and we arrived at our apartment in under an hour. The roads were fairly quiet and the drive into the capital was easy, unsurprising for a country with a population of less than 500k.

Our home for the next few days is a lovely modern apartment about 20 minutes walk from the city centre along the main shopping street – Stakkur Apartments are recommended if anyone is planning a trip!

Our late breakfast tested out Reykjavik Roasters, voted best coffeehouse in Reykjavik 2017 and conveniently just across the road from us.

Next was a visit to Hallsgrimskirkja which is the largest church in Iceland and one of the biggest structures, constructed from white stone its designed to look like a volcano.

It is named after Poet Hallgrimur Petursson, a 17th century Icelandic poet and clergyman. It took over 40 years to build and was finished in 1986. We’re still not sure why it took 300 years to honour him!

The inside of this Lutheran church is beautifully simple and a calming place to be. The views from the top of the tower were fairly special too.

Next stop was a Citywalk walking tour led by Tomas, a local with an unusual accent courtesy of his Chicago born father.

We were treated to a whistle stop history of settlers in Iceland (Vikings in 870ish who probably landed here because they were poor navigators) and the story of independence from Denmark (Siggtryggur Jonasson led the dissent against the Danish in the mid 19th Century before Iceland finally declared their independence in 1944 while Denmark was distracted by Nazi occupation!) We also learned some Icelandic and it is the most complicated language ever.


We treated ourselves to a late lunch before heading back to the apartment for a rest before dinner and a trip up the coast to try and see the Northern Lights.

Can you tell which one is the troll?

Rain stops play

It’s raining, no cycling for us today. Can you hear Kim cheering?

The year we came here for Christmas, we spent some time in the small town of Daun and bought a wooden Christmas decoration from a lovely little department store. It is one of only a few items at home that Kim has put her name in the event of divorce proceedings! The store is still there and full of things you didn’t know you needed, a great place to browse while it’s raining heavily outside.
From there we tried to find Hit Markt for John’s supermarket hit…… sorry about the pun. You would not have thought it could be so hard but the satnav packed up and the phones had limited internet access. Tempers were frayed and many circular miles were driven to find a supermarket which had been within 500m at one point. John spent a happy 30 minutes pottering around looking at German Dinkel biscuits before we decided to drive back to the Mosel for some wine tasting.

We headed towards Koblenz and stopped at Klotten to admire the neatly planted vineyards which appear to be mainly on the South slope. Obviously more research is required to understand why or if we’ve just made that up,


We’ve not had great weather today but the rain stopped long enough for us to have beer overlooking the Mosel before venturing into a small shop for a wine tasting. Our latest favourite is a dry Rivaner and the Beetle has a boot full.


We have an early start for Dunkirk tomorrow so no more from us other than to say, we understand the Tour de France started in Germany today. If you see a couple of Bromptons taking part, please be clear it isn’t us!

A day on the Mosel

The breakfast here is lovely and quite unlike any we’ve come across anywhere else, John is always captivated by the array of homemade preserves

Today, we drove into Cochem for more cycling. Our bottoms were sore but we’re heroes! The plan was to cycle down to Beilstein and catch the ferry back. As we set off, John asked ‘are you sure we’re on the right side of the river?’, Kim assured him we were.

We had a flat 7 mile cycle alongside the river and arrived to find Beilstein and the ferry on the other side. John had comments to make! We fortified ourselves with a cuppa at a campsite and all was not lost, there was a small passenger ferry to take us across the river.



We managed to catch the 12 o’clock Kolb Passenger Ferry back to Cochem.


The Bromptons caused a bit of confusion, should we be charged for them? There was some debate amongst staff before they were pronounced ‘really very small bikes’ and travelled free. They attract attention wherever they go and curious people are usually treated to a demonstration of how small they fold. Kim thinks John must be working on commission from Brompton.

The ferry ride was relaxing and the boat travelled slower than even Kim cycles which you wouldn’t have thought possible. We were treated to a commentary in German along the way, the only part that was translated into English was the historic and technical data of the Frankl lock we had to negotiate.

             
Finally, we rounded a bend and Cochem came into view


Back in Cochem, the bikes were stowed in the car (but not before a demonstration for a couple from Leicestershire) and we walked into town. Our target was the Sesselbahn, the cable car up to Klotten leisure park which has views across the town and river as well as looking down on the castle


We stopped at the top for a quick cuppa before descending back down.


Next stop, Nordschliefe. John has done really well to resist going before now. A visit to the Nordschliefe brought us here over 10 years ago. It may have 6 or 7 years since he drove a car round it but he is still drawn back. The car park was full of cars from around Europe, from family VWs with local plates to McLarens from the UK and Nissan GTRs from Spain – its an interesting place to sit and watch. At one point Kim was worried, John had disappeared and had the Beetle key with him…….

55 kilometres and counting….

Photos have been added to yesterday’s instalment.

Today started early, for us. If we were to cycle 55kms from Daun to Bernkastel-Kues, we had to be in Bernkastel by 10 to take the bus up to Daun – there was no way Kim could be persuaded to do the round trip, particularly as one way is all uphill.


We were parked in Bernkastel by 9:45, we’d paid for three days parking and found out where to get the bus from, how smug were we feeling? The bus journey takes 2 hours mainly because the driver has to get out and load more bikes onto the trailer he’s towing. Negotiating a bus and trailer round hairpin bends deserves a medal!

The cycle route, Maar Mosel Radweg, starts from a disused railway station in Daun and goes along the old track to Wittlich before following the Maar river down to the Mosel.


Helpfully, the cycle route has the distance written on it in 0.5km intervals. This is fantastic when you’re on a downhill section and kms fly by. However, the first 2-3 km from Daun are uphill and knowing you have another 40+km to go is not helpful. We arrived at Wittlich, for lunch, just before 3 and having cycled 35km. We then discovered it was another 20 to Bernkastel!! By the time we reached the Mosel bottoms were sore and we’d been caught in a couple of torrential downpours. Luckily after each one, the sun came out and we dried off nicely before getting soaked again. We couldn’t help but be impressed by Schloss Lieser as we cycled past. It was built for the Puricelli family in 1880s and has its own Wikipedia page…

Finally, 6.5 hours after we’d left, the castle at Bernkastel came into view. We’d last visited when we spent Christmas here with Ken and Diane. We couldn’t remember what had possessed us to walk all the way up but think it was probably Ken and Matthew egging each other on. Kim did remember that Diane gave up at the cafe halfway up and settled down for a coffee while the rest of us carried on!

Germany, here we come!

It was a long drive to Auderath, 200 miles and 3 hours, most of which was on motorways and rather boring. For the last 30 miles we resorted to our 15 year old map of Europe and recklessly ingnored the satnav. The drive through the Eifel region is glorious.

Our new route took us on familiar roads, past Altenahr and into Adenau where we stopped for a late lunch. We sat outside, under a parasol, in the rain watching the world go by before heading onwards via the Nurburgring. We stopped briefly on an access road to the Nordschliefe and watched a few cars go past. Interestingly, they were all very quiet, apart from the Aston Martins. There was a debate as to whether or the Beetle should have a quick run round the circuit..


Six hours after leaving Etten-Leur, we reached Hotel Wilhelmshoehe where we’ll stay for the next 4 nights. It’s been 6 or 7 years since we were last here. On that occasion John and Matthew took our Honda Civic for several laps of the Nordschliefe while Kim drank tea at the hotel and tried not to worry that they wouldn’t come back alive!


We were met by Jacqueline and Ulrich’s daughter who is the spitting image of her mother.

The rest of the afternoon was spent planning our cycling trips for the next few days. Suddenly a couple of 7 mile rides have turned into a 35 mile marathon. We’re assured that it’s all downhill!

John’s experience in Etten-Leur

During my five mile drive to site each morning it’s very noticable how cars give way to bikes, there are cycle paths everywhere, an absence of hills, all bikes have luggage racks and lots of secure covered cycle parking is available……… the UK has a very long way to go.

Cycle parking at the hotel.

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Initial concerns about running a training course in a foreign country quickly evaporated, everyone speaks excellent English and seems to understand every word – occasionally the group reverts to speaking Dutch to discuss some detail points but then take the trouble to summarise that discussion in English, probably because I’m looking blankly at them.  Of course the only Dutch words I can remember are ‘Circuit Zandvoort’ and “Arnhem a Bridge to Far”.  Although everyone speaks English they pointed out that they do struggle with a Newcastle accent and for some reason phrases such as “Yer gannin’ proper radgie, man. Caln doon, al mek a cuppa.” seem to cause difficulty.

At lunchtime, everything stops as we briskly head to the site canteen, the idea is to get there early enough to make sure some Kroketten are still available. Dutch Kroketten are about ten times larger than croquettes found in the U.K. and seem to consist of potato together with some unidentified meat in a savoury béchamel sauce rolled in breadcrumbs. This sought after delicacy is then enthusiastically mashed onto a slice of rye bread before being eaten with a sliced boiled egg on top.

Kroket

Having skilfully avoided Kroketten yesterday, my hosts encouraged me to try them today. As fast food goes it was fine but its unlikely they will feature on our menu at home.
Soup also seems very popular and my hosts were rather surprised when I declined soup to go with the Kroquettes they had acquired for me. Even the hotel has six different soups on the menu, one of which is courgette and we’re tempted to take some home for Matt!

 

A day in Etten-Leur

Today’s challenge was a two mile walk into Etten-Lear, there was no way I could sit on a bike again!

I do like such easy walking, the pavements are wide and it really is very flat. The main road has a series of watercourses running alongside it, I assume for drainage. They’re neatly planted with lilies, reed’s and bamboo and home to a wide range of waterfowl and amphibians. Obviously I had to stop and check out each one on my way!


The town itself felt very modern with a shiny, new shopping centre surrounded by shopping streets. Everywhere seems very clean and well cared for. I managed to find the main square where I sat opposite ‘Van Gogh’s Kerk’. Van Gogh’s father was the vicar at this church and Vincent grew up in Etten. There is a small museum, disappointingly, it only opens afternoons and not on Tuesdays so I feel I’ve missed the cultural heart of the town.


Intrepid explorer that I am, I decided to take a different route back to the hotel which took me past some interesting sights..


As far as I can work out, the stijloren is a jester and carnivals are held in his honour. If anyone can find a site that translates into English, please let me know, I’d like to know more about this weird looking man.
I walked through many different types of housing, most of which would have me searching Rightmove with a view to living here but I also saw some run down, poorly maintained housing which was a reality check. Until then, everything I’d indicated a country with high standards for everyone. The award for the most unexpected sight goes to what, in the U.K., would have been a poorly maintained grassed roundabout in the middle of a housing estate. Here it had been fenced and was an unusual wildlife haven with a small herd of fallow deer, a turkey, a peacock and a selection of geese. The picture isn’t great but at least I remembered to take one….


To help you remember that John is here with me, here’s his highlight of the trip so far…. Last night we ventured out of the hotel to find a big DIY shop next door, John loves foreign shops and this could only have been bettered by a supermarket! He’s always on the look out for the things you wouldn’t see at home, I’m not sure that we’ll get home without one….

Kim’s cycle trip to Breda

While John was working hard, I decided to cycle the  6-7 miles to Breda.

According to the receptionist, the cycle routes are great and clearly signposted, what could possibly go wrong? As it turned out, not much.  The cycle network is fantastic and, having priority over cars, takes some getting used to but makes for a easy, safe cycling. I would challenge that signage is clear but my new Cycleways app came to the rescue and a few u-turns all added to the excitement.

Breda was very pretty and I’m sorry there aren’t many photos, I was too busy looking at scenery and buildings to think about taking pictures to share. Anyway, here is one of the bike which is typical of those here. I found it very heavy and it took a while for me to realise it had gears.


Despite spending most of the day on my adventure, this is the only other photo of Breda. The cathedral was a stunning and I’m sitting with my back against it!.


I’m not sure what tomorrow’s adventure will be while John is working but I’ll try for better photos!

Our next trip starts here…..

We are heading for the Mosel, for some cycling, via Holland. John has truly become an international Health and Safety Consultant!  He’s training in Holland for a couple of days before we head back to our favourite hotel in Auderath for a few days of cycling, boat trips and walking. Kim, obviously, is hoping for more boat trips and less cycling and walking.

The Beetle was packed to bursting and, for a car that struggles to hold the weekly shop, it has been fantastic. Everything fitted! Admittedly, the only way we can get the Bromptons in is to put the roof down….

We had an effortless drive, via Eurotunnel, and the hotel is very shiny and grand unlike the train……

Botanic Gardens and most easterly point on Jersey

Before we start, what is this?


Our final morning started with a trip to the Botanic Garden at Samares Manor.

The Japanese Garden was lovely and, according to Kim, we definitely need a pond with two bridges across.


We were just in time for a tour of the Herb Garden, led by an enthusiast cook. We now need some black peppermint and Lemon Verbena, he was very persuasive on the benefits of herbal tea….

Our final destination of the day was Gorey and Mont Orguil Castle, courtesy of Ken Jordan Tours.


We gave the castle a miss and opted for a walk along the bay trying to decide which house we need to buy.

We drove back to the hotel, via the coast road, for afternoon tea to while away a couple of hours before heading to the airport for our 9pm flight.

We’d like to do this trip again. Now that we have done most of the main sights, there’s a lot of walking still to do.

Almost forgot, the first picture is an oyster boat. They are made in France from aluminium, not in someone’s back garden! This one was sailed back from France and can go out to the Oyster beds at high and low tides for harvesting and maintains the oysters.

St Helier and ?

Guess where we’ve been…

Back to that later. We took the bus to St Helier and met Ned (Edward Malet de Carteret) for our tour of the town. Ned’s family have been on the island for 800 years plus and have played influential roles through the centuries. We learned about the history of the Island becoming ‘English’ and, interestingly, French was the main language until 1900s. There was some reference to how the islanders suffered during the Occupation but award for ‘Story of the Day’ goes to the tale of Anthony Trollope implementing Post Boxes which were first trialled in Jersey before being rolled out across the UK.

A tour would not have  been complete without meeting some Jersey cows..


After a much needed cuppa we abandoned Ken and Jacky and headed to the Zoo. By accident, we ended up on the slow bus which took 45 minutes but meant that we saw more of the towns and villages on the east coast.

The zoo was fantastic and most of the animals happily entertained us. We could hear the Blue Stork, it was a blooming noisy bird, but we couldn’t see it! Gerald Durrell is Kim’s hero and the zoo really brings to life what an amazing and enlightened person he was.

Homeward bound

We left Kompass Camping just after six, it was pitch black and freezing. The good news was that we arrived in Calais before 8 and were able to get on an earlier ferry. The van was searched twice. We weren’t allowed near border control until armed French soldiers had given it a once over followed by Border Control themselves. Everyone was polite and cheerful but they did all have muddy boots. The was a sigh of relief when the Olive tree and Jacky’s Lemon weren’t confiscated.

We queued for the ferry with time to spare for last minute cleaning.

The last challenge when we hit Dover is refilling the gas bottle. We’ve mastered fresh water, grey water and the toilet cassette!

Would we do this again? Absolutely!

Westende, Belgium

Last night Kim decided we won’t be buying a motorhome because John doesn’t think heating is necessary. She also hates communal showers (you couldn’t wash a mouse in the one in the van) and that Belgium is very windy. In other words, she was a tired, stroppy madam!

However, she woke up this morning, put the heating on (!) and the world was a different place! We had a leisurely start and took the Tram to Oostende. The sun was shining and we were at the seaside, yesterday’s tiring trip long forgotten.


Yesterday Matt accused us of being wimps because we couldn’t keep up with the Porsches and Mercedes racing along the German autobahn, today we found his next car….


A running race had just finished on the seafront and were greeted by a band playing JJ Cales’ ‘Cocaine’. I know you’re unlikely to believe us, but John won a prize for singing along! As you can see from the photo, there wasn’t huge competition.


We had a windy walk along the front followed by tea and Belgian waffles in a local cafe which had the most unusual decor.


Ken and Jacky decided to head north on the tram while we headed back towards Westende via the art gallery…

        
For anyone who’s read our original Llafranc blog, as a special treat for Kim, John took her to the site of Ken’s pop up toilet…


We returned to Westende just in time to catch the carnival which was fantastic. There were many floats winding their slow way through town, the aim of which seemed to be to have the loudest sound system, throw the most sweets out and make the most mess. The photo really can’t bring this to life but we arrived back at the campsite covered in confetti


Our final afternoon was spent chilling at the van and packing ahead of our early start back to Blighty early tomorrow.

Finally, happy Mother’s Day to Dot and Diane x

Ediger to Westende, Belgium

We survived the night in the high roof bed but won’t be doing that again! It’s far more comfortable than the fixed rear bed but the rest of the van was completely unusable once it was lowered.

We woke to the sound of something with a very large engine going past on the river but were too cold to get up and see what it was. There’s frost on the ground so the heating went on for a while. We’re not being weedy – we like to think we’re giving the van’s heating system a good test on behalf of the owners JustGo!

It was a beautiful morning and the Mosel obliged with the sight of an incredibly long, coal carrying, freight barge cruising past just as we were getting ready to leave.


A brief stop in the town to pick up last nights purchases from the vineyard…..Did we really buy that much wine?


It took over 8 hours to do the 260 mile journey to Middlekerke and Westende which was far longer than anticipated. Luckily Ken and Jacky arrived at the campsite just as reception was closing and booked us all in before it closed. We were lost in Westende! Colin’s satnav has been brilliant but, today, it just couldn’t cope.  First, we ignored an instruction because ‘Ken probably knows where the supermarket is’. Next, the satnav really wasn’t convinced that the main road through Westende was impassable, even though there was a big hole in the middle of it, so we drove round in circles. Finally, a lovely Belgian man, who’d seen us go past several times as well as reversing back from dead ends,  flagged us down and gave us directions!

We parked up with a huge sigh of relief and treated ourselves to a beer on the campsite before heading out for dinner. We’re about 150m from the beach and its very windy and sandy. It was too much for us to head into town so we ended up at the nearest restaurant. The highlight was when the bill was presented in a stylish box, almost like being given a gift.


We’ve earned a leisurely start tomorrow and plan to take a tram ride

Ediger Eller

It was a long journey through Germany to the Mosel. Motorway most of the way with some very fast driving  by German drivers on the unrestricted sections but a lack of beautiful scenery, unlike Switzerland.

After about five hours driving, and losing Jacky and Ken along the way, we finally arrived at the Mosel.


We took full advantage of being campers – set out our picnic chairs, made a cuppa and ate lunch overlooking the river in the sunshine.

We have a lovely campsite, right on the banks of the river. The only problem is the cold wind and long walk to the shower block. We may never work out how Ken and Jacky arrived before us when they were several miles behind for the last part of the journey. The afternoon was spent wandering around Ediger, which is beautiful. We had forgotten just how lovely the Mosel is. John was particularly taken with the quality of copper guttering and lightning conductor on the church

          

We stumbled upon an opportunity for a wine tasting which was too good to pass up. Jenny (from London!) and her German husband run a small vineyard and guesthouse. We were treated to a tasting of seven of their wines and tomorrow morning we will be driving back to pick up several cases of wine!


Dinner was in a traditional German restaurant with wiener schnitzel all round.


We’re trying our drop down bed for the first time tonight. John has already bumped his head and it’ll be interesting to see if either of us fall out in the night