2015 Christmas Trip, Day 3

Today is St Nicholas' Day, when children in many countries find little presents in their shoes given by the eponymous saint. We, however, are no longer children and our shoes contained nothing more exciting than our feet. 

We had directions to the Park & Ride, and found it at the second try (we went roaring past it the first time and had to turn round). Then we managed to buy an up-to-five-person day ticket with our hoarded coins once we were on the tram, only as nobody asked to see it, not once, I am not sure why we bothered! Still, we try to be honest.

The tram took us swiftly into Cologne, and we got off at the main station and explored the first of the Christmas Markets. I did buy some honey lip-balm, but that was all, although we enjoyed looking at the various stalls.

We then walked down to the Alter Market, where there was another market with since really quite good craft stalls, including a blacksmith. The Swan Whisperer bought me an olive wood risotto spoon as an oddment fur Christmas (at my request), and then we wandered down to the Heumarkt, and the third market. By this time I badly needed to sit down, so we went into a restaurant for lunch, which was a failure as the food - even the salad - was so salty you couldn't taste anything else. The beer was nice, though. The SW said his currywurst was nice, if salty.

After lunch, we looked at the very long and thin temporary ice rink, and the various stalls attached, and then took the tram up to the St Nicholas market at the Rudolfusplatz, where we has gluhwein, which was lovely. And looked at the "Christmas Avenue" across the road, which was dull.

The local public transport authority had been advertising that St Nicholas would be bringing little gifts to children during the afternoon and to look out for him on the trams and buses, and I am delighted to say we saw him as we waited for the tram to take us back to Neumarkt, although I couldn't get a photo. 

Then the market at the Neuplatz, where the SW bought me a skewer of chocolate-covered grapes, which were lovely. But what he wanted was some apfelstrudel, and the only market that sold that was the first one, by the Cathedral, so we went back there and bought him some.  They had some wonderful-looking cheesecake, too, but I was full.

By then we were Christmas Marketed out, and although there were at least two others in the city, we decided to give them a miss, and instead took a tour bus round the city, enjoying the comments of a farming couple from Derbyshire who sat next to us.  When that was over, it was dark and the shops were shutting. I  remember the days when shops in Germany firmly shut at lunchtime on Saturday and did not open again until Monday morning, but those appear to be long past, and everywhere was open and busy today.  We saw an old-fashioned tram several times, which I think was a Christmas Special, probably a charter or something you booked specially.

We caught a tram back to the P&R, and thence back to the camp site, where we are having a quiet evening after a lovely day.

2015 Christmas Trip Day 2

Blissful to wake up in the van this morning and to have a shower in a warm bathroom.  What had been penitential in October was lovely in December!  Actually, it was lovely being able to read in bed last night without having to use a book light. The new lights are much better - I couldn't actually see to read with the old one. 

After breakfast I needed to stretch my legs, so walked up to the visitor centre, now sadly closed until April, across the canal, and down the other side to the bridge and so back to the van.

Lovely. Then fell asleep - Belgium is not the most beautiful of countries, especially on the motorway. We went past Courcelles, and I could only think of Walter Blythe, who was fictionally killed there. And on past  Aachen, where there was a bad hold-up. We thought this was at the border so refused the sat-nav's kind offer to take us a marginally quicker way, but in fact it turned out to be road works - the border between Belgium and Germany is as unremarkable as ever.

We arrived in Rodenkirch easily enough, although too early for Reception, so we had a late lunch and checked in once it had opened. Then, when we had parked up and plugged in the electricity, we set off to see what we could see.

Bus driver singularly unhelpful about buying tickets, but we worked out how in the end, and arrived at the tram station. Disaster! You needed to pay either with coins or with a contactless card, and we didn't have enough of the former, and foreign machines don't read British contactless cards.

So we came away, and decided to do a bit of shopping and to get plenty of change and try again tomorrow. We also walked back to the campsite, to save money - a very pleasant walk but my shoes weren't the best for walking and I was glad to get back to the van and enjoy a glass of wine while cooking supper. We are here for two nights, and as tomorrow is Sunday and the buses, as in the UK, are infrequent then, we will drive to the Park & Ride and get the tram from there. The Christmas Markets are all open on a Sunday; I expect they will be very crowded, but that is all part of the fun. Also, it is St Nicholas Day....

2015 Christmas Trip, Day 1

There is no point in having a motor home if you don't use it. And the Swan Whisperer has changed the batteries, and put LED lights in instead of the old incandescent or fluorescent ones, so we are a lot more comfortable and can have light and heat in the evenings. 

So for what will probably be our last trip of 2015, we have decided to go to the Christmas Markets in Cologne. We couldn't set off last night as I was speaking at an event at the British Library and didn't get home until after 9, so we got up early this morning and crossed at about 10:30 or thereabouts. It said ominously that there were "Perturbations du Service", but if there were, they did not affect us. 

Our first stop was at the Auchan near Dunkerque for food, and then we had lunch before setting off. We told the Satnav to take us to Aachen, reckoning we could change plans en route, and it said there were bad hold-ups crossing the border that way and took us round via Lille, instead, also slow, and queues to come back into France. But they didn't ask to see our passports or anything, just waved us through. 

I then fell asleep, after two bad nights not surprising, and when I woke up, the Swan Whisperer suggested we park up by the Strépy-Thieux canal lift, which we both love, so we did.  And had a cup of tea and knitted and read (I knitted, the Swan Whisperer didn't, I should clarify) until time for supper. So lovely not to have to go to bed and read by torchlight!  And I can charge my phone overnight, too.  The heater is very efficient, it is almost too hot!

Eleanor, final day

By the time Carrefour opened its doors at 09:00 this morning, we were standing outside ready for our final shop of the holiday, the big one that included wine and coffee, and would have included bread mix if they'd had any particularly nice ones (they didn't), and another helping of rognons sauce madère (so nice of the French to have servings of this in the meat section - I had never really explored the meat section of French supermarkets before this holiday, so didn't realise), and stuffed tomatoes for tonight's supper.... and so on.  And then to Eurotunnel, and, after a short delay, back to the UK.  Where it was peeing it down with rain - we were tempted to turn round and head straight back to France.  Especially when we got home and found the main circuit had tripped and our freezer had been out for days..... yuck. 

We have taken everything out of the motor home, but it needs a good clean, which it will get tomorrow before being taken down to its UK home on Friday.  And I want to explore a place near Chichester which is supposed to be very good for servicing and mending motor homes, as there are a few things we need to do if we are to take it to the Cologne Christmas markets, which we would like to.

Meanwhile, having gone to bed at about 09:00 for the last 3 weeks - that's 08:00 UK time, of course - I am having trouble keeping awake.  I will sort out pictures and so on tomorrow.....

Eleanor, Day 20

And so the journey ends where it began, in the car park of Cité Europe. And tomorrow we will shop first thing and, assuming no delays in the tunnel, be home in time for a late lunch. 

We did not, however, retrace our steps much until we got to Abbeville. We drove to Rouen on the more sensible way, having learnt how to make the Satnav go the way we wanted it to.  We parked up in the designated camping-car parking, but it was rather a long way from the town centre, so we drove up and round it, and then on out to Dieppe, stopping en route for lunch in a supermarket car park. 

Then on to Eu, where William the Bastard got married, and so to Abbeville and the motorway.  We drove into Calais and stopped for a cup of tea where we could see the ferries go in and out, and then we said hello to the Bourgeois, as we always do (long story), and finally out here. I went and had a wander round the shops - there may have been some accidental buyage of a winter coat - and then back to the van for supper, and bed in a few minutes.

Eleanor, Day 19

So the penultimate night of our holiday finds us back at Les Andelys. The plan for today had been to drive to Giverny (no Eleanor connection, but just because), spend the night parked up there, and then visit Gisors tomorrow morning before heading back to the Calais area for the final night. However, for some reason we went straight to Gisors, and it seemed silly to go back on ourselves. So we didn't. After all, John's losing Château Gaillard to the French was pretty much the end of things, so it makes sense.

Gisors is lovely. The Castle is in ruins, but its grounds are now a public park, so you can have a good nose round and see the various towers that are still standing.

We had parked up about 5 minutes walk away, and had a quick cup of tea before heading on here.   Given that one car park was out of use as there was a funfair in it, and another was out of use for a market, we were rather pleased to have found a parking-space so near!

We had decided to eat out as it is so nearly the end of the holiday, and there was a very good restaurant only a few minutes' walk away from the camp site. A 4-course meal with wine for €12.50 per head is pretty good value, and it was a good meal, too. Am now stuffed!

Eleanor, Day 18

The antepenultimate night of our holiday finds us at Vouvray, where they make my favourite sparkling wine. And yes, we have has a tasting, and may have another in the morning if we're not away before they open.

Last night's parking, in Niort, was super. We were supposed to pay €7.70 for it, and would gladly have done so, as it included electricity as well as services, but nobody came and asked us for it. They are supposed to send people round, but.....

We came upon a supermarket that was open - unusually, as it turned out, because there was a half-marathon in the town, though quite why that meant it had to open I'm not sure. But I was glad it did, as it meant I could spend €0.86 on a baguette for lunch and a bottle of water. And the good citizens of Niort certainly appreciated it!  Very busy, it was.

Then we drove on N roads as far as Poitiers, and then on the motorway to Tours, where we parked up near the hotel we'd stayed at during the Coupe des Druides a couple of years ago. We had quite a pleasant walk, sad to see that a restaurant where we had enjoyed a meal was in the process of changing hands, but another one was still there and flourishing.

The Cathedral was a bit far away, though, so we went back to the van and headed off to Amboise, going on the South back of the Loire, which may have been a mistake as the best view of the Castle was as we were driving away, having investigated the aire, which was a bust as it wanted about €24 for the night, and for that price we'd want WiFi, at the very least.

So we drove on to Vouvray, and found the aire quite passable (free, but you pay for services, fair enough), and have parked up here. The wine merchants are all open on Sundays, so we bought half a dozen bottles of a nice one for my father for Christmas.  We should have bought some for us.... Maybe we will....