The final chateau

We are sitting in the van on a very rainy day in Pornichet, Brittany, but at least and at last we have a decent WiFi connection. We can't complain about the weather either, as this is the first daytime rain we have had since day 2 on this trip.

The last post was from Loches, a beautiful town, with a lovely camp site and hot sunny weather. But we needed to move on if we were to reach the end of the Loire as planned.  Next stop was Villandry, famous for its gardens set out in renaissance style. It really is spectacular, with huge areas of flowers and vegetables planted in intricate patterns and raised walkways to view them from.

That evening we stopped at an aire at Azay le Rideau, which also has a chateau (where hasn't) - this time famous for its mirror garden, or the reflection of the chateau in the moat.

The aire was just a car park, but it was so hot that all the motorhomers  got our chairs out and sat outside till bed time.

Our next chateau was at Breze.  Some of us were a little chateau-weary by now, but this was one with a difference as it was built on top of a series of troglodyte caves which had clearly been inhabited by people and their livestock.  The chateau had the deepest dry moat in France and there was a real warren of workshops, bakery, winery etc built into the rock under the outer castle wall.

We stopped for a couple of days at Saumur, on another camp site on an island in the Loire. We could see the chateau from the site, so didn't feel the need to visit! We went for a bike ride along the river instead, which was lovely.  The river is very shallow in summer and there are lots of herons and egrets and cormorants. Surprisingly you are not allowed to swim in the river, we think because of sinking sands and odd currents.

After Saumur, we stopped for a night at Chalons sur Loire, at an aire with a lovely view.

Then on to Nantes - a very nice city campsite where we were lucky to get the last pitch.  We enjoyed Nantes, which seems to be a go-ahead sort of city, with an excellent tram system and lots of interesting things to see, including what will be our last chateau of this trip, a very imaginative botanic gardens and a moving memorial to the abolition of the slave trade (Nantes being a slave ship port). The highlight though, was the Ile de Machines, some extraordinary mechanical works of art, including a 'flying' heron which carried people in baskets under its wings, an enormous metal branch, populated with plants, which you could walk up and down, and best of all an elephant which strolled around the concourse spraying people with water.  You had to be there!

Five chateaux and counting

We are now on chateau number five - there are so many in this area that we are spoilt for choice.  We drove from Gien to Chambord, a huge, very impressive moated chateau in

a vast area of parkland.  Apart from paying to park the van, you could wander around outside for free, lovely on a sunny day.

Chambord

 We then spent a couple of days at Amboise, in a campsite on an island in the Loire.  Amboise is a pretty town, the chateau there is more like a castle than a country house, but in a stunning location.

Amboise

 A highlight here was going to see the house where Leonardo da Vinci lived for the last three years of his life. It is a lovely house and there are beautiful models of his inventions in the house and garden, which were fascinating - we spent most of the day there.  Our next chateau was Chenonceau, not far from Amboise.  This one you had to pay to see anything at all, as the building isn't visible from the car park, but it was worth it, a really beautiful setting for a slightly more homely castle.  It had been home to Henry 2nd's favourite lady as it said in the guide book, and later his widow, who both made stunning gardens.  We have now diverted south a little to visit  a  town called Loches, which is probably my favourite stop so far, despite being some way from the Loire. We were lucky to be here on market day so this morning enjoyed buying cheese and special cake.  The weather has been superb for a few days, hot and sunny, no clouds in sight.  Long may it last!

Chenonceau

We have made it to the river Loire and have seen our first chateau!  We started this trip about a week ago, making our way slowly via St Omer, Epernay, Chablis and Nevers.  Now we are at Gien, on a camp-site looking out over the Loire - I think there may be a few of those along the way.

We have been to Epernay before, but stopped there again to see the exceptional son et lumiere that they project onto one of the champagne houses after dark.  Epernay is totally about champagne - so what's not to like - and in a very pretty setting, but the town centre looks a bit run down and short of fizz.  Anyway, it is a useful stopover on the way south.

From there we drove on through the Chablis region, and stopped overnight at a France Passion site where we were treated to a wine tasting at 3 in the afternoon, as the owner was going out.  He gave us half a bottle as a welcome present and we bought two more bottles as his wine was so delicious and spent a quiet night parked among the vines.

We hit the Loire at Nevers, an interesting town big enough to have a cathedral and a ducal palace.  The cathedral has amazingly colourful modern stained glass, the most recent being fitted in the 1990s.  We walked miles round the town - it has two walking routes for tourists marked out with blue lines painted on the pavement, with occasional notice boards at points of interest - much easier that following a map.  The whole of this area is famous for pottery and highly decorated faience ware, hugely expensive, so no Christmas present ideas there!

Dukes Palace at Nevers

So we are continuing along the Loire river, very wide and shallow at the moment.  Briare made a good visit, a very pretty town with a church decorated inside and out with mosaic panels.  Sounds awful, but the panels were lovely and set out in very well thought out design.  The main attraction in Briare though, is a section of canal over 600 metres long which is carried over the river Loire on a bridge.  Difficult to describe but very impressive.

 

Pont du canal at Briare

Yesterday we went for a long cycle ride to Sully sure Loire and our first chateau.  We rode for 56 km or 35 miles, further than we have been for years on the bikes, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  and the chateau was very impressive too.

Chateau Sully sure Loire

River Loire at Gien

 

 

The way home

This will be the last post this trip, as we have just finished dinner on our last night in France, and will be back home tomorrow.
After Luneberg, we drove to Celle, in order to visit the cemetery where Ray's uncle Raymond Holmewood is buried.  He was killed in May 1945 at the age of 19, very close to the end of the war.  Of course Ray was born nine years later, so never knew his uncle, but it was a moving experience nonetheless.  We were pleased to see that the cemetery was immaculately kept, very peaceful and respectful.
Celle is a pretty town, but the stellplatz where we expected to stay had been taken over by a circus (they were washing the elephants when we arrived). So we drove on past Hannover to Mardorf, and a nice camping place by a huge lake.  Next day we travelled a long way west into Holland and arrived at Wolfhaze, near Arnhem.  This turned out to be the area where the troops and equipment for operation Market Garden landed in 1944 by glider and parachute.  The purpose was to attack the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem - an operation which eventually failed, with huge losses, but was a very brave attempt. We visited a little glider museum and cycled round some of the monuments - a very interesting day.
So after another long drive across Holland and Belgium, we are near St Omer, and, I think, ready to come home after an amazing and sometimes challenging trip!

Street scene in Celle

Back in the west

We reluctantly left Rugen  last Friday - it may well prove to be the highlight of the trip, beautiful scenery, perfect weather, quiet campsite with its own little beach, what more could you want?  We have since made a short tour of several picture

sque towns - all of them formerly belonging to the Hanseatic league - a mediaeval trading association/cartel, so very wealthy. Kings Lynn was once a member too. We spent another night at Stralsund, which improved no end once we weren't expecting anything interesting and knew how to avoid the major building works.  A beer, followed by fish and chips overlooking the harbour, all in warm evening sunshine gave us quite a rosy glow.
Next up was Wismar, really beautiful with street upon street of restored and painted gabled houses.  Then Schwerin, with its amazing castle on the lake but otherwise a bit drab and, you've guessed it, major relaying of the tram system. But we later found one of our best 'stellplatz' for the night, a quiet little 10 pitch site overlooking the lake, just outside the town.  Finally we spent a day in Luneberg, again very pretty. To get there we had to cross the river Elbe, which is still running very high and with lots of flooding in the fields.
Now we are in the middle of nowhere on the Luneberg Heath - at a village called Muden/Ortze. We have had two days cycling - its a bit like a bigger and slightly more natural looking Thetford Forest.  Yesterday en route we found a small museum about the Berlin Airlift, at the former RAF base at Fassberg.  Today we saw some special Luneberg sheep - only sheep, but we were quite pleased to see them as there aren't that many. Also lots of red squirrels about - why are they so much more attractive than the grey sort?
And the weather? The temperature has dropped by about 12 degrees (so it is cold for the end of June!) but it is still OK with some sun.  Tomorrow we are moving on to Celle, only about 30 miles away, then some longer driving days to get to St Omer on Monday.

At Stralsund

Schwerin castle

Site with a lake view

An island in the sun

Here we are in very sunny Rugen,  a large island on the north coast of Germany.  After our busy days in Berlin, we decided to move north for some R&R.  We stopped over near Furstenberg/Havel on the way, which turned out to be very close to the memorial and museum on the site of the Ravensbruck concentration camp.  There are a lot of such sites in this area, which feels somewhat at odds with the main industry nowadays being tourism.  Well, we went to have a look, and it is as sobering as one might expect.  We were shocked that the site was so near to the town, clearly visible across the lake and not exactly hidden away.  Benefice book club members might remember that this is where Corrie ten Boom and her sister (who died here) were interned.
On a more positive note, we moved on to the island of Usedom, which had been recommended by some Dutch campers we met in Berlin.  Possibly looking for a campsite by the sea on a Friday afternoon in the only sunny bit of Germany wasn't the best idea, but they were all full - a shock as we have never had a problem before.  It turned out for the best though, as we were able to blag some fresh water from one site and park up on a beach carpark for the night, with the beach and the Baltic sea only about 100 yards away. Next day we moved on to a lovely seaside 'stellplatz', just behind the dunes. Bits of Usedom were very nice, somewhat reminiscent of the North Norfolk coast  with long sandy beaches backed by pine forests. But it was a bit more Great Yarmouth/Margate than Gorleston/Broadstairs though with very unusual deckchairs. We also visited the museum at Peenemunde, which was the research centre where development of the V2 rockets used to bomb London took place.
On route to Rugen, we stopped at Stralsund, according to our trusty guidebook the second most interesting Hanseatic town on the German coast.  Not sure we would bother with the third most interesting, but it is a pleasant place and a good source of smoked fish in bread rolls, a local fast food,  served from converted fishing boats in the harbour. We are also becoming experts in 'back stein gothic' or 'brick Gothic' architecture, many churches and public buildings in the area were built with very fancy decorative brick features.
We have ended up in a lovely wooded campsite on Rugen, in a very quiet undeveloped area of the island.  We have been walking, cycling and bird watching for a few days and enjoying really warm sunny weather.  We will be here till Friday and then move on again, with less than two weeks left we will point the van west and slowly start the journey towards Calais.

Smoked fish roll boat

Wild flowers on Rugen

Deckchairs and Baltic sea on Usedom

Ich bin ein Berliner

At least that's what I think President Kennedy said.  Apparently it really means I am a small bun, but German grammar makes fools of us all, and his meaning was clear.  Alles klar, as we say here.
We have had an excellent couple of days sightseeing in Berlin, a very interesting place indeed.  As well as all the iconic monuments like the Brandenburg gate, Checkpoint Charlie, the Reichstag (complete with Norman Foster dome) etc we visited an interactive museum about daily  life in East Germany - you could pretend to drive a Trabant, for example, and various remnants of the wall. Like many places we have visited, Berlin is undergoing major reconstruction, we wonder if it is all to do with stimulating the economy or just a drive for continuous improvement.
We are camping at a site technically in Berlin, but practically not - it involves a bus, tram and two trains to reach the city centre. But it is all interesting and travel is cheap - about £5 for a day travel card on any form of public transport.
The site has a lakeside bar - see pic below, where we watched a heron gobble an enormous fish.  Also had pied flycatcher fledge from nest box onto the van!

Weather has been perfect for over a week now, and forecast is good, so we are going to try the Baltic coast - seems very odd heading north to find the sun!

OK so we weren't exaggerating about the rain. We left our partly flooded campsite and continued north on the 'romantic road' to Wurzburg, luckily the campsite there was on top of a hill. Despite the diversions everywhere we didn't realise how bad it all was till we reached Bamberg and bought a paper. Only to discover that a lot of south and east Germany and the Czech republic was under water.  So it began to look foolhardy to continue to Prague - besides we didn't want to see it with the worst flooding for 100 - 400 years depending on who you talk to.
Therefore we decided to move considerably further north, to Berlin in fact, where there was an indication of sunshine, or at least less rain. Like most of our plans on this trip, this didn't quite work, but this time in a good way.  Driving up, we were stuck for a couple of hours in a huge traffic jam caused by, you guessed it, flooding on the motorway, so we stopped earlier than planned at a place called Ferch, just outside Potsdam.  The weather has been perfect, the camping is by a large and lovely lake and it is an easy bus ride to Potsdam. So we have been here for 5 nights, drying out, sightseeing, cycling round the lake and generally having a holiday!
Next stop, Berlin - almost certainly.

News from the ark!

We have hit a spot of extreme rain and beginning to feel like the Noah's. We are travelling north up the 'romantic road' from about Augsburg to Wurzburg visiting the 'impossibly beautiful' towns and villages in route.  They really are very lovely with mediaeval fairytale centres - all half timbered houses, tiny streets and yards, town walls and towers. Now at Rothenburg on der Tauber, perhaps the best preserved, but also the most touristy.
Much excitement about 11 last night after several hours of torrential rain as the site owners began to move caravans to higher ground and rescue people from tents! We are OK as on a hard standing, but got ready to evacuate as a siren went off in the village - nothing happened so don't know what that was.
Still raining today but we will continue with the plan - as our Dutch camping neighbours said the other day 'it is too late to think now of Spain!'

More from Alsace

We have made our way here - just outside Colmar - via Lac due Der, Nancy and Kayserberg.  Lots of lovely things to see, do, eat and drink! Today enjoyed long walk through vineyards and forest in more or less sunshine.  Pretty villages along wine route - half timbered houses painted in bright colours, storks nesting on high buildings.
Weather so far has been very mixed - a lot of cold and wet, but better today, only one jumper and no gloves.  Tomorrow off to Germany towards Ulm and the 'romantic road'. Ray's lap top is very sick so am tapping this out on my tablet, hoping the WiFi connection doesn't drop out.  More later from Deutschland.

Greetings from Alsace

Here in cool and showery Alsace near Colmar.  All fine - except for terrible WiFi and problems with technology. Hope to post more later with pics.  Storks have arrived but where is summer?