70th birthday trip, Tuesday 6 June. Travel day 1/15

Well, we should be en route to Stockholm now, but actually we are still sitting in Hamburg station. The train is here, and we are in bed in it, but it should have left 40 minutes ago.

We got up at sparrowfart this morning and arrived at St Pancras in plenty of time for our Eurostar. Compared to our Christmas trip, there was virtually no queue to check in and go through security and passport control. As we have first class passes, we could travel in Standard Premier, and got a complimentary breakfast, although the coffee tasted a bit burnt.

We got an earlier train to Cologne than we originally thought we would, and could have (perhaps should have) done a cross-platform change on to the next train to Hamburg, but decided to have lunch first and catch a mid-afternoon train.Which was a little late starting off and got later and later - at its worst it was about 45 minutes late, but it did catch up a little of that and was only 30 minutes late at Hamburg.

We went to a restaurant across the road from the station (and, 

 incidentally, next door to the hotel where we will be staying on our way back through the town) and had a lovely dinner including our first beer of the holiday.

And then back to wait for our train, which has still not gone  anywhere! Oh well. I'll watch some videos while I still have a signal!

10 minutes later: Apparently the delay, sadly, due to someone's having died on the train between Berlin and here. Attendant said he thought it wouldn't be much longer. Anyway, we are comfortable! 

Oberstdorf 2023, Tuesday 23 May

 I have never really liked the aire at Sangatte, as it is in the middle of nowhere and too far to get to a bakery before breakfast!  However, the one in Calais does not have this defect, so we had pains aux raisins for breakfast as well as a lovely fresh demi-baguette.  The pains aux raisins were definitely edible, but not, it has to be said, as nice as the ones you can get in Lidl!

Anyway, we left the aire at about 09:35 and made our way to the Shuttle, where we were given our booked crossing.  This gave us half an hour or so before we were called to the boarding area, so the Swan Whisperer had coffee and we finished the packing up in the bedroom and the clothes - the kitchen stuff had to wait until we arrived as it would have rattled and there isn't really room for the crates on the floor.  The crossing was on time, and then it was an easy run to No 6.  In fact, as my mother and sister were going to be out and it was lunchtime, we parked up by Patching Pond

to eat our lunch before going round to the house and packing up the rest of the stuff - groceries, etc.  My mother and sister came home briefly to let the dog out, and then went out again; we finished up everything except the fridge (that came last of all), and then made ourselves a cup of tea.  While we were drinking it, they returned, and we chatted for awhile before heading back to London.  

That was an easy run until we got to Mitcham, when we were held in a massive traffic jam at Figges Marsh, and we didn't get home until about 18:45.  Then we had to unload the car, unpack, and put on the first load of washing - but it is done, now, supper has been eaten, and we are home for the next two weeks!  

Oberstdorf 2023, Monday 22 May

I could have sworn, when I planned this trip, that our drive for today was to have been around 4 hours - quite long enough when you have to sit there, doing nothing except perhaps a bit of knitting! I can't really read in a moving car, and get both bored and tired.  And the Swan Whisperer swears that the route he took was a direct one - but it was nearly 7 hours travelling time!

First thing, he went for a run, and I walked up to the nearby bakery and got bread and croissants for breakfast (actually one croissant and one pain au chocolat). We set off about 09:30, and stopped at a Casino in Sedan for lunch and shopping, which I later regretted as it seemed far more expensive than Carrefour and didn't have such nice things.

Then it was a long, long, long drive to Cité Europe, as there were a couple of things I hadn't been able to get in Casino, including a ready meal for supper, and we needed diesel, which is cheaper here than in the UK. Supper was a frozen dish of potato, fish and scallops, and very good it was too.

However, when we got to Sangatte, where we had planned to spend the night, we found that the car park no longer accepts motor homes, so we came here to the one in Calais. Nothing wrong with it, except it isn't free, and services are extra. Not that we need them, having used them this morning in Dieue-sur-Meuse.

Oh, and apparently Oberstdorf was a super-spreader event, and an awful lot of people have now gone down with, or tested positive for Covid. Well, if I didn't get it again after spending a whole afternoon with my mother when she had it in March, I probably won't get it now. Hope not, anyway.

Haven't taken any photos today, so here is one from yesterday, some random poultry. 

Oberstdorf 2023, Sunday 21 May

Dieue-sur-Meuse, France

Today was a long, slow drive through Germany and into France. The Swan Whisperer went for a quick leg-stretch before breakfast, and said that Kircheim-unter-Teck was a very pretty little town, but unfortunately there was not enough time for me to confirm this. He also found a bakery!

As I said, it was a long, weary drive. The SW said that when we go past Pforzheim it either rains or there are road works. Today, it was the latter. 

We stopped in a random layby to watch our church service livestream, although it was not very easy to hear, and then have lunch, and then it was on and on, and we finally arrived in this little town, just south of Verdun, at about 4:00 pm. We had a quick cup of tea, and then I discovered there was a planned walking tour around the town with historical sites, so we went for a very pleasant, if rather hot, walk, basically down to the Meuse and back. We are parked up alongside a canal, which is rather lovely.

More photos on Facebook.

Then back to the WoMo to have supper and our monthly Zoom Bible study, and tomorrow we will be back in Calais, I hope, and ready to cross on Tuesday morning. 

Oberstdorf 2023, Saturday 20.May

Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany

Today was the final day of competition, and, as always on the last day, lots of great skating to watch.

After breakfast, we used the services and got the WoMo back into travelling condition, everything tidied up and put away. We returned our Kurkarte and filled drinking water containers and so on, and then headed to the rink for the final day. The weather, now that it is time to go home, was lovely, and even got positively hot later in the day! 

But we had to come away before the last few classes, as we need to get home fairly fast - no extended holiday for us this year - and we had two hours' driving ahead. Which we accomplished quickly and easily, calling in at ReWe en route to do a Last Shop in Germany, and are now parked up somewhere and eating supper. And I couldn't leave Bavaria without one of these, could I? 

Oberstdorf 2023, Friday 19 May

Started out today feeling much better, and was up at the rink in good time to cheer on friends in the two Bronze Women III classes. And chat to lots of other friends, too. Sadly, one told me she is hanging up her skates now, as her body is no longer coping well.

Then I went for a walk in town, basically out by one road and back by another,

and was back at the WoMo in time to get lunch. After which, it began clear to me that I was still rather running on empty, so I spent a quiet afternoon dozing and reading. Didn't want very much supper, although it was delicious - Bavarian liver dumplings in a vegetable stew/soup with rice. Not sure I got the seasoning quite right, though. 

Oberstdorf 2023, Thursday 18 May

I woke up at dawn to see this wonderful sunrise out of my bedroom window!

But it was a premature awakening - I fell asleep again and when I woke, realised that I was exhausted! So stayed in bed most of the morning while the Swan Whisperer went for a hike (up a mountain on Ascension Day!) - we had been going to go on what he promised me was a flat hike, but I couldn't do it, and spent most of the afternoon lying down too.

We had an early supper and then went to the rink in time to watch the pattern dances, which ranged from dire to excellent, and then back home for a cup of tea before bed!