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Autumn Adventures
  • Beccy McCoy
  • Beccy McCoy

Autumn Adventures

Et 68-dagers eventyr av Beccy Les mer
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    5. september 2024
    Beccy McCoyAutumn AdventuresReisende

    Day 0 - Folkestone

    4.–5. sep. 2024, England ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    After a few stressful weeks (engine scares and a few motorhome pieces needed fixing), we have finally made it to Folkestone ready for our Shuttle across to France tomorrow.
    Wish us luck! We are planning a week at a time and going where the weather takes us.Les mer

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    Day 1 - Folkstone to Bruges

    5. september 2024, Belgia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Day 1 of our autumn adventures!
    The adventures began before we even got to Le Shuttle check in as we missed the turn off from the M20 (slight confusion on my part), thankfully I’d anticipated something like this and we still checked in with plenty of time to spare. Automated check in was fun as all the buttons on the screen were too low for me so I had to hop out the van to collect my paperwork. Then off to pet reception where I had to ask the lady to repeat everything twice, hard to hear over all the dogs barking! Paperwork all fine thanks to Anton Vets and we were given the all clear to wait for our boarding time. A couple of passport checks and we were boarding! 35 minutes later we popped out in France - it really was quite easy! Straight onto the main road to Belgium and after a little bit of scary town driving, we made it to camp in time for lunch and a beer to take the edge off! We’ve tried to relax a bit this afternoon, it’s warm and we have a nice little wood next to the site so we’ve been popping in there for little walks. A couple of Belgian beers have been sampled and we’re ready for a bit of TV and an early night ready for a very adventurous day tomorrow!Les mer

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    Day 2 - Bruges

    6. september 2024, Belgia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Our first full day in Bruges and we wanted to make the most of a cool weather forecast, so we braved the possibility of rain and walked the couple of miles into the centre of Bruges for a bit of sightseeing. It was quite busy and noisy, so we hit our ‘must see’ areas straight away. For me it was one of the best rated Chocolate shops in the town - Dumon, and Charlie wanted to have an authentic waffle and House of Waffles certainly hit the spot! We then walked back to camp for a McCoy favourite lunch - bread and cheese!
    We had a restful afternoon, Beccy wandered over to the closest pet shop to stock up on some meaty snacks for Marla (can’t believe we found hairy rabbit ears and chicken feet - Marla’s favourites!). We had a late afternoon appointment with a local vet who declared Marla a good girl and happily issued her with a Pet Passport to make future travel into the EU so much easier - you can see from the photos that Marla is thrilled by this 😂.
    Back to camp again for a van staple dinner of tomato pasta, we have a couple of Belgian beers to follow and an early night is on the cards after all this fresh air.    Les mer

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    Bruges - Day 3

    7. september 2024, Belgia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Our final full day here in Bruges was forecast to be a warm one, so we decided to get up early and head out for a run before it got too hot and humid. We were out just after 7am and we did a little exploration in the woods and then crossed a couple of roads that led to a nature reserve, which consisted of a lot of fields of cows (safely behind barbed wire and electric fences). It was quite misty this morning which made it look quite eerie. Back to camp for some breakfast, showers and to do our first load of washing.
    We’ve had quite a relaxing afternoon, it’s been warm and muggy so we got wound the awning out and put our chairs together so we could enjoy the fresh air from the shade. We didn’t fancy cooking a hot dinner in a hot van, so we treated ourselves to a Quick takeaway (apparently the French equivalent of McDonald’s), we had their Veggie burger and chips with a side of cheese balls!
    The campsite is getting quite busy now, so it’s a bit noisy and cramped - we’re looking forward to a change of pace and scenery tomorrow when we move on into the countryside and an adults only campsite.    Les mer

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    Day 4 - Camping au bout du monde

    8. september 2024, Belgia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We’ve made it to camp site number two. The trip here was straightforward (lots of dual carriageways) but we may have bought ourselves a ticket by not coming off the motorway during roadworks where vehicles over 3.5t had to leave (we didn’t leave and a very angry looking policeman took a few photo of us!).
    Anyhoo…. We made it to camp late afternoon and after setting up, we walked over to the bar / restaurant and ended up staying for quite a while longer than we expected…. We ended up staying for dinner and dessert which was very tasty indeed! Shame they only have one item on the menu as it would be great to take advantage of this restaurant for our trip.
    Back to the van to catch up on the season finale of Casualty!    Les mer

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    Day 5 - chill out day

    9. september 2024, Belgia ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    It’s been a pretty awful day weather wise, so after the excitement of a travelling day yesterday we decided to do absolutely nothing today but relax. We started the day collecting our pre-ordered bread rolls, you order the day before and it’s ready for collection from 8am - I love the cute little bag that was waiting for us!
    I’ve started a crochet project I bought with me and Charlie’s been playing on his Switch.
    Marla has had a lovely day catching up on a lot of sleep that she’s missed out on over the last 5 days. Charlie made us a super tasty dinner of Tuscan Bean Pasta, and we are going to have an early night ready for some hiking tomorrow.    Les mer

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    Day 6 - first hike day

    10. september 2024, Belgia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Today’s weather forecast was for day and overcast so we thought it would make a perfect day for hiking. The campsite owner recommended an out and back route to Achouffe, a small village with a famous brewery. The route was a nice mix of small country lanes and woodland, a bit muddy in places and not too technical.
    It was a 10 mile hike in total so we decided to stop for lunch at the village hotel / restaurant / bar - plus it’s our 19th Wedding Anniversary so it was nice to have a meal out.
    We had a Goats Cheese Croque and shared some vegan Bitterballen (no idea what they were but very tasty!). After a couple more beverages, we started the hike back stopping at the brewery shop to buy some presents. Charlie picked me up a shower cap - only it turns out it’s a bicycle seat cover! I did think it was a bit small for me…. We also had a slight run in with a pack of angry Boarder Collies - rather strange and a bit scary.
    Nothing else to report from the rest of the day, everyone’s quite tired out now from all the fresh air and sunshine!    Les mer

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    Day 7 - last full day in Belgium

    11. september 2024, Belgia ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Today has been our last full day in Belgium. We had intended to run / walk a 10km trail loop from camp today, but after yesterday’s 10 miles, Marla isn’t used to back to back long walks / runs so we had another fairly slow paced day today. It started off wet, windy and cold this morning. Charlie braved the conditions to do a workout around the van, and the sun soon popped out so Marla sat out with him to keep an eye on him 😂
    We had a nice lunch of cheese and crackers and a leisurely afternoon walk around the local paths. There are a lot of Corn fields, and one massive Christmas Tree field - it’s a bit hard to comprehend how many trees there here, they certainly go as far as we could see.
    Charlie made us a delicious Quorn curry for dinner, we bought some dehydrated onion with us to try out for when we can’t get any fresh and I’m pleased to say they worked out quite well!
    It’s getting chillier in the evenings now so another quiet night tucked up safe and warm in the van - I’m looking forward to heading a bit further south for warmer weather! Travelling day tomorrow - fingers crossed for no policemen taking photos of us this time!    Les mer

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    Day 8 - willkommen in Deutschland

    12. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    It was a chilly start to the day, 5 degrees! So the heating went on for the first time in a long time.
    We packed up and headed off from camp at a leisurely pace. We opted to go the straightest and quickest route to our next campsite, Aumühle (south of Cologne and west of Frankfurt). The drive was pretty straightforward and I didn’t make any wrong turns or exits, so no bonus miles! Once we crossed into Germany, we headed to a supermarket to stock up on all the essentials. Goodbye strong Belgian beers, hello more sensible German beers.
    The campsite is fairly small and quiet, it’s dog friendly but I’m not sure how friendly the pet chickens roaming free really are, we will find out in due course!
    Dinner tonight was a tomato and mozzarella salad followed by a mushroom pasta ready meal we picked up in Belgium. There wasn’t any instructions so we went with the standard 20 mins at 200, after about 10 mins I went to turn it round and found the container slowly melting away - oops! Maybe it was supposed to go in the microwave, we’ll never know….
    A bit of rain this afternoon meant we will save exploring the woodland next to the site for tomorrow.    Les mer

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    Day 9 - Camping Aumühle

    13. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Our first full day in Germany.
    We took it easy first thing and had a leisurely breakfast, put a feta and lentil salad together ready for lunchtime and then headed off for a run in the woodland behind our campsite. We are at the bottom of a valley, so the only way is up! It was tough going but we just took it steady and enjoyed the fact it was nice and warm outside and not raining! We did find a strange carving in the forest, Marla really didn’t know what to make of it, so I did the grown up thing and started to record her freaking out.
    Back to camp for showers and to set off our first load of washing. We took advantage of the campsite bread ordering service (every campsite should do this!) and had a couple of rolls with our salad, and also three different types of cake 😂 Apple, Cherry and Cheesecake - all very delicious!
    The afternoon was a lot cooler and breezy, so after hanging up all our washing and hoping that it doesn’t rain.
    We decided to treat ourselves to dinner out at the on site restaurant. We had the vegan Flammkuchen - I have no idea what it was, but it was pretty tasty. Sort of like a giant water biscuit, covered with a white sauce and tomato’s, asparagus and kale. Of course we also tried a couple of local beverages, all very tasty.
    Marla spent the entire time watching the camp’s pet chicken wandering around …. I think it was just winding her up 😂 Travelling day again tomorrow, so another early night on the cards.    Les mer

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    Day 10 Camping on the Neckar

    14. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    We are moving further into Germany now, slowly making our way down to the Black Forest. Today we have moved on to a campsite on the river Neckar. On our was down we stopped off at a supermarket and pet shop. Charlie went in to stock up on supplies for us, then I popped into the pet shop. I managed to find some Edgard Cooper dog food today, which is great because I know it’s a fairly good quality food that Marla likes. however I’m pretty sure she’s not tried the reindeer version before, let’s see how well that goes down. Todays driving was a bit more stressful than previous days, a mixture of some closed roads which I tried to drive though, roadworks on the motorway and my first head on close call certainly did not help. The close call was not my fault at all - someone in the oncoming traffic was overtaking where there really was no room or visibility.
    But we made it in one piece. This is the biggest and busiest site we’ve stayed at so far. All the pitches are taken so we’ve been given a space on the free for all meadow. Not ideal, and I couldn’t figure out the best place to park up, so we’ve taken a corner edge of the field in the hope that no one else arrives and tries to squeeze next to us. Dinner tonight was pasta and veggies - it’s becoming a van staple, but we have something very different on the menu for tomorrow now we’ve stocked up on vegan versions of German delicacies!    Les mer

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    Day 11 - Neckar

    15. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    Well… that was the worst nights sleep I think I’ve had so far. We are pitched across the road from a Church and the bells ring not only on the hour every hour, but also every 15 mins. I heard them from 3am to 5am…. Thankfully I wasn’t too grumpy when we got up at 7am. And I was in an even better mood after demolishing breakfast which consisted of coffee, bran flakes and a little bread roll whose direct translation is Chocolate Dwarf. All rather tasty!
    After breakfast had gone down, and many of our neighbours had left, Charlie and I did a pairs campsite workouts, it does make me chuckle seeing people’s bemused faces when they walk past and see us doing our exercises.
    After showers and a spot of lunch we took Marla for a walk in the other direction from camp, along the Neckar river and it was a beautiful day for a walk. We skirted the edge of some fields and the farmer came along and started to harvest the corn, it was a pretty impressive site. Back to camp for a well earned beer and pretzel and relax in the final warmth of the afternoon sun.
    Dinner tonight was a vegan schnitzel with spätzle and red cabbage - stodgy and delicious! Now time to settle in for the night, maybe do a bit of crochet, but it’s definitely time to put some more clothes on. We’ve been in shorts and t shirt all day as it’s been lovely and sunny today but we’ve definitely been in the minority, I’ve just seen someone in jeans, jumper, padded gillet and woolie hat - it’s really not that cold!
    I wasn’t sure at all about this site when we arrived yesterday, I didn’t get good vibes - mostly because of the road noise and lack of space on our little free for all meadow, but today has been a really nice day so I’m glad we stayed (very close to packing up first thing and finding somewhere else for today!)    Les mer

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    Day 12 - Black Forest

    16. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Another chilly start to the day - we’re heading further south where it’s going to get a bit colder still before it should warm up later in the week.
    It was a three hour trip today so we broke it up by using one of the many free rest areas off the autobahn - it was lovely until a car pulled in behind us and the chap got out and had a wee right by the side of the road, hopped back in his car and then hopped out for another straight away! Shame he didn’t park up near the actual toilets so he could go in private….
    We saw some castles on the drive too, and a tower which had been built especially to test elevators, it looked so random in the middle of nowhere.
    Our next stop was a supermarket a couple miles away from our next camp, and finally it was my turn to go and do the shopping. I had a very small list, but had been told I could go wild - and that I did! German supermarkets are the best, you can get almost anything! I’ve been amazed at the delicious vegan ‘sliced meats’ and picked up a few more packets.
    We then headed to Camping Bankenhof, our home for the next three nights. It seems really nice and quiet here - the weather was a bit rubbish when we arrived so we’ve not really been out for an explore yet, we’ll save that for tomorrow.    Les mer

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    Day 13 - Exlporing the Black Forest

    17. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ 🌫 10 °C

    Our first full day in the Black Forest, the weather has been cool and drizzly, so we thought best was to explore this morning would be to do a canicross around the lake. It’s just over 5km, starting on a gravel path, then you get into the town of Titisee. We walked through the town as it was quite busy with people and delivery trucks, then back to going around the lake but mostly next to the road on the pavement.
    Back to camp for showers - this camp has the best camping showers I’ve come across, actually designed so your things don’t get wet while the shower is on - amazing! Egg mayo sandwiches for lunch, and then back out for another little wander from site up into the woods.
    Poor Marla pooch is absolutely shattered from all this fresh air, so that’s all we’ve done today.
    We will head back into town tomorrow for a spot of shopping and hopefully find some Black Forest Gateaux!    Les mer

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    Day 14 - exploring Titisee

    18. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    It was a bit chilly this morning so I kept wrapped up inside this morning and made some progress on my crochet project while Charlie did a campsite workout. We put a wash on and the sun came out just as we started to hang it all up, and it’s been a lovely sunny day since then. We had lunch in the van, with some lovely fresh bread from the campsite shop. Then we hit the trail path around the lake and wandered into the little town of Titisee. We had a quick walk through yesterday on our run, but took our time today and popped into a few shops for a browse. Marla and me were loitering outside a sports shop while Charlie had a browse and a chap that works there said something to me in German - turns out he said the dog is allowed in but I’m not 🤣 A couple of tat shops later and we were ready to head back to camp. We decided to have dinner at the on site restaurant as the sun was shining and we could sit outside (Marla can get grumpy at restaurants, so we’re better off out the way). We had kasespatzle and pommes, with a side of croquettes…. I could barely breathe after consuming all of that. I might need to go for another run in the morning…..
    Back to the van for the cooler evening, catching up on a bit of Romesh and Rob! It’s moving day tomorrow and our next campsite has a special feature we’ve not found before, watch this space!!!    Les mer

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    Day 15 - camping among the apples

    19. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Day 15 and we are one sixth of the way through our trip! We have moved further east today, not a massive amount as we found a campsite we really wanted to visit. It was a late checkout this morning, we didn’t have to be off site until midday so we took it nice and easy. I made the most of the amazing showers, even though I wasn’t stinky yet! Then we packed the van up then headed out for a dog walk to make sure Marla was tired out for the short journey and supermarket stop.
    We have been spoilt with being able to walk from site on footpaths into the forest, so we took advance of this and did a good hour out and back. Then off to the supermarket, driving past a convoy of old school tractors!) where it was Charlie’s turn to go in. My only request was for sushi for lunch and some Black Forest gateaux as we’d not managed to have some so far - he did brilliantly. The cake was so light and airy, it was absolutely delicious! And the sushi was super tasty.
    Then off to find some diesel and LPG, this is where we hit our first problem of the trip. We had bought a pack of LPG adapters after doing our research, unfortunately none of these are actually any good for our van! They have the wrong diameter thread… so LPG refill was aborted and the right adapters (we hope!) have been purchased from Amazon and would arrive tomorrow.
    The new site is quite different from all others we’ve been to so far. It’s set among a huge orchard and is a bit smaller and fuller than we’ve stayed on so far. It’s nice, but I feel like we have been squeezed in a bit. There is a small enclosed dog field with a loads of equipment in, so we’ve had a few off lead blasts in there and Marla had the biggest of zoomies when another dog said hello to her through the fence. I think she’s missing regular interaction with other dogs….
    We had a nice light dinner this evening of cous cous, falafel and salad - which was lovely as it’s been a lot warmer this afternoon than we’ve been used to!
    After dinner we had a little stroll around some of the orchards and into the edge of the woods, where we let Marla have some more off lead time - and she promptly found a giant mud puddle 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ thankfully no face rolls, just some muddy paws to deal with.    Les mer

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    Day 16 - Hiking in the heat

    20. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Today we explored the trails and hills behind the campsite. From looking at different maps we could tell there were a lot of official footpaths and even some ruins of a castle to explore, so once breakfast had gone down, we set off. Up, up and up was how I would describe the first couple kms of the route. All the trails are very obvious within the forest and well signposted. There was no one else around so we let Marla off lead for a good chunk of the walk. It’s the first time since being away she’s had a proper off lead walk and she needed it! She did ruin it for herself when she found a stinky mud puddle to roll in, thankfully the camp has a warm dog shower and we bought doggy shampoo. We were trying to follow the trails to the ruins, unfortunately we came up against a blocked off path and lots of warning signs confirming the trail was closed. So we followed some other signs for a circular route to explore the woods a bit more before retracing our steps. All in all, a good couple of hours in the woods where it was lovely and cool! Back to camp for lunch and the sun was really starting to warm up, so the afternoon was spent hopping around the pitch trying to find some shade.
    Marla made a friend in the enclosed doggy fields a chocolate Labrador. I’ve no idea what his name was, the owner was very lovely but she didn’t speak English and I don’t speak German so we just smiled and watched the dogs chase each other around the field. With some sign language we managed to say how old the dogs were, they were both three - but the chocolate boy seemed a bit more playful than Marla, so I called time on them after 10 mins. The heat didn’t really ease off, so I treated Marla to a doggy ice cream from the camp shop. They also have a great selection of dog treats that I’m sure we’ll stock up on before leaving. Our dinner tonight was red cabbage, spätzle and frikadellen (vegan). That was super tasty, although we are having some issues with lighting the oven, so it all had to be cooked on the hob. Thank goodness we had enough pans! Our new LPG adapters arrived today, we have double checked and they will definitely work so we will try again and refill our tanks tomorrow while we are out and about or Sunday when we are moving camp.    Les mer

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    Day 17 - parkrun day!

    21. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Before we arrived at this site, I’d had a look and mentioned to Charlie there’s a parkrun less than 30 mins away. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to go for a nice, flat run so we made plans to head over to Hockgraben parkrun. We checked out the parking situation days ago, so last night in preparation we just did a double check on Google maps, and what do we see..:.. a 1.8m height restriction and we are almost 3m. We messaged the parkrun team who were super helpful and suggested a side road we should be ok to park on. Alarms went off at 5:45 (shock to the system!), Marla had an early breakfast and we packed the van up and off we went. The site owner flagged us down as we got to the exit, he bought our bread rolls to us so they wouldn’t have to sit around on our pitch waiting for us. Very kind of him. We found the area easily enough, and did find a space but there were a lot of signs about limited and restricted parking, with signs that you will be towed away. We couldn’t see anything else suitable so left the van and hopped over to the start to check with the RD - they said it should be fine…
    The volunteers were all very nice welcoming, the pre event brief was held in German then English by the Canadian RD, Gina. 3, 2, 1 and we were off. Charlie ran with Marla (handheld lead only) and I ran on my own - and I really was on my own. There was only 39 participants and finish times ranged from 20 mins to 50 mins, so we were al spread out. Charlie and Marla came 4th in just over 21 mins and I came 31st in 35 mins.
    We made a quick get away once I finished just in case there was any issue with where the van was parked, thankfully all fine!
    One cool thing we’ve noticed in Germany is they have some bridges they’ve built just for animals to cross, they look absolutely beautiful. Charlie managed to snap a photo as we went under one.
    Back to camp for showers and do a load of washing, then the rest of the afternoon was spent hiding from the sun - it’s boiling here! Marla enjoyed laying in the road in front of our pitch and sunbathing.
    Dinner tonight was supposed to have been a curry, but it was far too hot for that so we had some veggie bratwurst that I’d picked up.
    We’ve packed up most the van stuff tonight ready to move camp tomorrow.    Les mer

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    Day 18 - Mountains and Castles

    22. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Travel day again today and we are starting to get a good routine down of packing up the van, take Marla for a good stretch of the legs and lots of wee wees, then doing the final van bits (normally cleaning the loo and emptying the grey waste), then heading off. This morning we took advantage of an automated cleaning station for our toilet cassette, for a few euros of course. One of the other campers was absolutely fascinated and stayed to watch the whole show. Turned out the machine was a bit mean and toilet shamed us (see photo!). We headed straight to the closest petrol station with LPG to top up our tank, and our adapter nozzle worked perfectly! We now have an almost full tank, it wouldn’t let us fill it completely, no idea why not.
    Charlie also bought us some petrol station snackies of crisps and pretzels. They pretzels came in handy as we got caught in a bit of a traffic jam and had no where to stop when midday rolled around, and our tummies started to rumble. They were surprisingly delicious. We did manage to stop a while later in a random petrol station car park to have our packed lunch and let Marla out for a bit. Back on the road and the scenery sure is changing. We are now in the land of mountains and castles. It’s absolutely beautiful. We can see Neuschwanstein Castle from our new campsite and pitch. We are also on the shore of the Forggensee reservoir, which is the fifth-largest lake in Bavaria and the largest reservoir in Germany by area.
    Dinner tonight was a simple fare of pesto pasta and flageolet beans, the on site restaurant looks lovely but we weren’t that hungry so we’ll save that for another night.    Les mer

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    Day 19 - Walkies and pastries

    23. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Today was forecast to be the only dry day we have here so we took the opportunity to walk into the town of Füssen. The walk took us around the edge of the lake and then into town, mostly all using foot or cycle paths. It was a lovely little walk, albeit a little bit warm. The town itself has a lot of sweet little shops, we picked up a couple of pastries to enjoy. We headed back to camp in a slightly different route (shorter) as it was quite warm.
    We had taken a packed lunch with us so we stopped on a shaded bench on the way back and tucked in.
    Back at camp we met our fluffy neighbour (see photo!), Marla was not a fan and barked a lot. While we were inside eating dinner, we noticed this little chap having a wander around our pitch having escaped his awning. I hopped out to see if I could return him, but he just wanted to run away from me, so I used the power of sign language through their caravan door to let the owners know he’d done a runner. Cheeky beggar had to be tempted back in his house with a bowl of food.
    It’s just started to rain now, thankfully the afternoon forecast of thundery showers has not materialised. We had a few flashes of lightning when we took Marla out for her evening wander, but no thunder to go with it.    Les mer

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    Day 20 The rainy day that wasn’t

    24. september 2024, Tyskland ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We had a bit of a lay in this morning after a little bit of a stressful night. The forecast overnight was for rain but not much wind, so we had left the awning up (it’s much easier to deal with a damp dog when you have a bit of shelter outside the van). Shortly after going to sleep last night, I was rudely awoken by the van shaking in the wind…. I can hear the awning flapping about a bit and I’m trying to convince myself that it’s all fine but after 5 mins of being terrified that it’s going to get ripped to shreds, I woke up Charlie to say we need to go and wind the awning in. After a bit of discussion whether it really needed to happen, we chucked shoes and a coat on, bought in the chairs, got the winding stick from its using place in the back of the van safely wound it in (turns out some neighbours were doing the same!). Poor Marla was very confused….
    So - back to today! The forecast was for wet and miserable all day, so we decided to go shopping at a local outlet centre that we spotted on the drive in as well as a supermarket top up.
    At the supermarket we finally found the machines to feed drinks cans into to get back the €0.25 deposit we’ve had to pay each time we’ve bought a can. I thought it was quite a fun experience, I tried to video the process but my fat fingers got in the way - plus I’m pretty sure I’ll be the only person that found it exciting 😂.
    On to the outlet centre, they had a lot of wild flower areas in the car park which Marla loved having a sniff of. She was a superstar while we looked around the shops. There was only four shops, but they were big outlets with a lot of sportswear (Salomon, Vaude, Adidas etc)
    Charlie treated himself to a new pair of trainers and I picked up a new rain jacket and hat in case of chilly weather.
    We are lunch in the car park before heading back to camp, via a Rewe just round the corner to stick up on more Schwip Schwap (Coke and orange mix), sounds disgusting but is delicious!
    We spent the afternoon packing up the outside stuff, which was lovely and dry as the rain never arrived today! Charlie had picked us up some Radlers for the afternoon, a wasp loved mine so much that he jumped in to bathe in it.
    We also spent a while figuring out how to attach the red and while reflective board to the back of the cargo box as we’re heading to Italy tomorrow and it’s a legal requirement for anything sticking out. Dinner tonight was vegetarian bratwurst (when in Germany).
    We also opened the mini bottles of goodness knows what that we bought in Titisee, after one sip they got taken to the washing up area and safely disposed of, I’m sure they did a great job of cleaning the drains 😵
    We had a final wander around the lake just as the sun was setting. It’s beautiful round here, but I’m looking forward to new scenery tomorrow!    Les mer

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  • Beccy McCoyAutumn AdventuresReisende

    Day 21 - Germany to Italy

    25. september 2024, Italia ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    We decided a few days ago that we would not have time to explore Austria and do it justice, so we made the decision to drive straight through to Italy. To make things more interesting we also had to avoid all the motorways… being over 3.5t means we would have needed to hire a Go box for the tolls, which is a lot of hassle (€80 deposit, plus paying per km, then finding somewhere to return the box). Therefore we’ve had a day of significantly wiggledy woggledy roads to navigate.
    We started off quite early, leaving Camping Brunnen just after 9:30am (via a quick stop at the Rewe to top up our Schwip Schwap supply). Navigational wise, everything went perfectly - no wrong turns or sat nav malfunctions. We did have a slight timing issue, we thought check in was from midday - which was correct, but it closes between 1:30 and 3:30 for quiet time. Turns out we would arrive with an hour to kill…. so we stopped after 2 hours on the road for our sandwiches and a quick leg stretch, then carried on another hour to a big supermarket to pick up the things we’d forgotten to get. Marla fell pretty much straight to sleep as soon as we stopped and she was allowed up on the sofa. Poor dog still can’t relax and sleep while we are driving - although it was have been tough going today for her as we had a lot of acceleration noise, winding roads and noisy tunnels. Not to mention a fair amount of expletives from me every time I came up behind a cyclist on the mountain roads. They were all cycling really well, I’d have been absolutely terrified on those hills, it’s just a bit more difficult to overtake in Big Dave and we had a lot of impatient cars behind us.
    We made it to camp (Al Plan) just before 4pm and have been able to choose our own pitch, which we are glad about as the one they’d earmarked for us had a dog just like Marla tied up outside (as in it barked angrily if it thought you were going anywhere near it!).
    We took Marla for a super quick walk before our dinner, there’s some woods just over the road that I think we are going to have a lot of fun exploring! The camp toilets are a bit odd - there are showers over some of the hand basins - both Charlie and I took photos to show the other 😂 but everything is very clean, although I don’t think we’ll be doing any laundry here at €7 a go just for the washing machine.
    The views around here are very impressive, so we’ve just spent the rest of the evening recovering from the drive (about 240km) with the help of an Aperol Spritz) and soaking it all in.
    We do have one issue, our van wifi seems to have stopped working somewhere in the middle of Austria. I don’t know if it’s a fault or an issue with the Italian network, but for now the site has excellent wifi.    Les mer

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  • Beccy McCoyAutumn AdventuresReisende

    Day 22 The Dolomites

    26. september 2024, Italia ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Our first full day in the Dolomites started in a very relaxed fashion - with no alarm we woke up at just after 7:30am, that was a nice surprise!
    After breakfast had gone down, we wandered into the village in search of a bakery for our daily bread. Charlie found a Spar supermarket that was absolutely massive, he disappeared in there for a good 15 minutes while Marla and I chilled outside. He came out with a big bag of goodies including cheeses, bread, wasabi flavoured crisps and a Belgian beer for old times sake! Oh - and a spinach, feta pastry thing. Then I popped into the bakery / cafe for a slice of Black Forest cake and face biscuits!
    Back to camp for lunch, ciabattas with tomato, mozzarella and pesto with an assortment of goodies from this morning.
    We then went for a walk around the trails behind the campsite to work off some of millions of calories consumed at lunch. I’m sure I said this yesterday, it’s stunning around here! The rain was coming in, so it was rather cloudy and atmospheric, very different from the sunshine we arrived in yesterday.
    We just finished our walk and the rain came in pretty hard so the rest of the afternoon was spent sheltering. I have cracked on with my crochet blanket (with this weather I will need it soon).
    We had a table booked at the campsite restaurant for dinner, it’s open to everyone and was absolutely heaving by the time we left.
    We had pizza for dinner (had to be for our first meal out in Italy!) I went for 4 cheese, no idea what the cheeses were but it was delicious! Charlie went for a spicy, pizza with courgettes, tomato and more mozzarella and pesto 😂 We also had tiramisu for pudding, which was tasty but a bit heavy on the cocoa power.
    Marla did so well at dinner, we had a massive table for the 2 of us, so we tucked her in the corner on her blanket and she pretty much settled down and only gave a few barks when she was startled by people talking.
    Back to the safety of the van for the evening as it’s raining again and pretty chilly out now.
    (Camping Al Plan - Dolomites)    Les mer

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  • Beccy McCoyAutumn AdventuresReisende

    Day 23 - Dolomites

    27. september 2024, Italia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    What a day ….

    This morning started off like normal. It was my turn to take Marla for her first thing wee and poop, so we nipped up to the woods behind the campsite for privacy, she did her business and I walked her towards a dog poo bin I had spotted the previous afternoon. When I got almost to the bin, a random dog appeared in the road and looked at us. I couldn’t see anyone with it, so decided beat course of action was to turn and walk away. I looked back and it was following us, then Marla started to speed up; and I followed suit. Then Marla started to run, and I did the same. The dog followed. I’m pretty embarrassed about this - I know that running away will just make myself look very exciting - but I was alone and fight or flight kicked in. I’ve been wary or other dogs since we had a run in with a pack of collies in Belgium. The dog followed me and Marla all the way back to our van. He seemed to roam the camp site for the next couple of hours and I felt awful, what if he was now lost and it’s all my fault. So I went out with a lead in hand to see if I could find him, he popped out from among some caravans and looked at me, then turned off in the other direction. I followed at a distance and he left camp, went back up the hill and on to the road that I first saw him on. I followed for a bit, but didn’t want to spook him - my guilt about making him lost subsided as he trotted around the place looking like he owned the road, I now think he’s just a local dog that likes to wander around.
    I would love to say that if I’m in a similar situation again that I won’t panic, but I can’t guarantee that…. Thankfully the rest of the day was not as eventful (for me anyway!).
    Charlie went off for a run this morning, it’s so hilly around here that I didn’t think me and Marla would have a good time running too, so we stayed in, watched a bit of TV and did some crocheting.
    Charlie’s route was about 8km, just as he set off his watch told him he should be able to do the route in about 35 mins, knowing it was going to be hilly, he laughed at that.
    It actually took him an hour and 15min! It was more of a hike up and then a run down. It has been a cool, wet morning so he was literally steaming when he made it back to camp.
    After a shower and hand wash of some clothes to keep us going, it was time for lunch. We are still enjoying all of the very different vegan / vegetarian options that we are coming across. Today was vegan pate (liverwurst), it was a bit runnier than pate but the taste was pretty much spot on. I’d definitely buy it again.
    Today was forecast for rain pretty much all day, so after lunch we donned our wet weather gear and took Marla out for a hike, pretty much as soon as we left camp the clouds blew away and it was absolutely boiling! I ended up taking two layers off and I was still boiling. We found a fun river which Marla had a splash in, although she jumped in at the deepest part and scared herself a little bit. She also scared me and she was attached to me on our hiking belt.
    Charlie then took her off my hands so she could paddle more. We ended up following some of the same route as yesterday, but not before finding a ‘oasis garden’ and owl sanctuary on one of the paths.
    Back at basecamp we spent some time planning tomorrow’s journey to the next campsite, figuring out if we want to do toll roads or not, but keeping in mind as we can’t check in until 3pm so we aren’t in a big rush. We have a loose plan, let’s see how that goes tomorrow!
    Dinner tonight was red cabbage, vegan frikedelle and kaiserspätzle. We also finished off the Aperol spritzes and beers from the fridge - just to keep travel weight down, obviously….    Les mer

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  • Beccy McCoyAutumn AdventuresReisende

    Day 24 - Camp Miralago

    28. september 2024, Italia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Another chilly start to the day - but now I have figured out that if I leave the van heater on but in standby overnight, I can then turn on the van heating with my phone. We had a lot of rain and some thunder, the mountains around us had all disappeared into the clouds. A couple of hours later and everything had blown away leaving us with blue skies and it was starting to warm up. Once the clouds had moved on, we could see that the mountains all around us are covered with a fresh dusting of snow. Good job we are moving on today to a lake that’s at much lower altitude and a bit further south, we’re hoping for shorts and tshirt weather again. Not that this cold has stopped us wearing shorts and tshirt most days, but we have been layering up with jumpers and coats, and wishing we had gloves!
    We had a final walk around the dolomites with Marla to get some of her energy out.
    On to travelling, we decided to stop in the city of Bolzano as we’d seen a big pet shop with a Eurospar supermarket next door. Looking at the routes, we decided to stick to non toll roads as it wouldn’t make much difference to arrival time at our next came site.
    It was about an hour and a half to Bolzano. We ate lunch in the car park and then Marla and I had a wander around the pet shop while Charlie popped off to the supermarket.
    We managed to stock up on some Edgard Cooper dog food, something we’ve got Marla used to. She was also given some treats by the people working behind the till, even though she did a very angry big girl bark when they said hello to her.
    Back on the road and it was about 2 and a half hours of tunnels and wiggly woggly roads - including an epic set of switchbacks, which someone overtook me on!
    We did make it safe and sound to our next camp, Camping Miralago. Another very stunning location, although the lake has a strong smell of duck poop - but it’s very pretty. The campsite has a bar and restaurant on the waters edge that we took full advantage of while the sun was shining. Such a lovely place, they kept bring us little snacks with our drinks. Round one was some crisps and peanuts, round two was some pizza and round three was some tortilla chips. Charlie stuck with beers, I started with a beer but then switched to Aperol Spritz, which was cheaper than the beer! While we could still walk, we headed back to camp to make some dinner of Pesto Pasta and a bottle of red wine Charlie picked up for €5, and it was absolutely delicious (or that could have been the Aperol talking!). We’ve had a bit of thunder this evening, so we are holed up in the van listening to episodes of “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue”. Marla is absolutely shattered so we probably won’t do anything else this evening.    Les mer

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