Leaving Hunfield

Sun.18^th August :  Since leaving Hunfeld

 yesterday morning, we have driven through glorious patchwork farming country, a forest or two and countless villages.  Our first call yesterday was to Marburg, which was recommended by Karl and Manfred, but on arrival, we found the mobile home parking place was full and as we couldn’t find another suitable parking place to leave Boris while we explored the narrow, hilly, very busy streets and the impressive looking castle, we continued on to Bad Laasphe, about 35kms west.  A bike ride through the town revealed many of the old buildings, cobbled streets and cafes we’ve become used to.  After a quiet night, and coffee this morning at one of the cafes in town, we headed for our next destination, a journey which took longer than it should have.

 Less than 20kms after our departure, we came to a crossroad and found that we could go no further along our chosen road as it was open only to local traffic…don’t know why…so had to take an alternative route.  Unfortunately, there was no indication as to how this could be achieved so we consulted the map and our GPS “Kenny” and opted for a route, which though round about, would lead us to our destination.  We were travelling along “wriggly roads” nicely for a while, enjoying the mountain scenery 

until, on reaching the town of Kirchhundem we found another detour, this time due to a fair being held in the town, but there were directions which we could follow and we soon found ourselves back on track, eventually arriving at our overnight stopping place.  So, we are now in Warstein, east and slightly south of Dortmund. 

It has been raining on and off all afternoon but at 8.00pm, the sun came out!  All is good!

Mon.19th Aug:  We were woken through the night by ground shaking thunder, lightning and heavy, heavy rain which persisted until morning.  The power was off and visibility was practically nil, but by 9a.m. the rain had eased considerably and the sky had lightened, so we packed up and were on our way shortly after.  After about  a 20km drive north we reached the autobahn, turned west and headed for Osnabruck via Dortmund and Munster.  As the sun had now appeared, we thought we were in for a fine day (wrong) but before the rain began again, there was a major traffic jam on the autobahn…we crept along for a while until the truck ahead of us took the off ramp and thinking that the driver probably knew what he was doing, we followed, drove along a parallel road for a few kms and then returned to the autobahn, pleased with ourselves as we had avoided what we could see was a stand still.  From Dortmund we headed north again and through increasingly heavy rain, arrived in Osnabruck at midday.  The next couple of hours were spent watching a dvd as being ‘Boris’ bound there was little else to do…very decadent!  When the rain had eased to a drizzle, we donned rain jackets to walk the few hundred metres into the nearby suburb of Haste and back.  An early night was on the cards as we had an appointment at 7.30 in the morning and an early get up was required.

Tues.20^th August :  By 7a.m. we were up, showered and dressed, breakfasted and packed up ready for the 10 minute drive to the Osnabruck Iveco/Fiat Service Centre where Boris was booked in for a service, thanks to Karl, who made the phone booking for us last week as he is fluent in German, it being his native tongue.  Mike had scanned the English/German dictionary to find the correct translation for the jobs that needed doing but as it happened, the service advisor spoke English, had been to Australia and was very helpful.  Our day was spent in Osnabruck, a 15 minute bus ride from the service centre.  Thinking that it was going to be a long day, we were pleasantly surprised to find an interesting and vibrant city and happily wandered around, exploring a couple of churches.

(for heathens we sure do visit a lot of churches!), the extremely interesting town hall, a couple of cafes and before we knew it, it was time to collect Boris.  Once we’d picked ourselves up off the floor after receiving and paying the bill, we set off for Recke, about 35 kms away and home town of Ingrid and Willi, relations of relations.  We checked into the camp site, were getting ready to cycle the short distance to their home when Ingrid and her son Frank arrived to escort us there along the canal and across the bridge to meet the family and to partake of a bbq meal in the garden.  It’s four years since we last met up with Ingrid and Willi and nine since we saw Frank, his wife Connie and their delightful children, Elias and Lilith and we enjoyed their company immensely.  We spent much of yesterday, Wednesday, with the family

…there is a wonderful German word, “gemutlichkeit”, which roughly translates as ‘comfortable, cosy, goodnatured, easy going’ and is an accurate description of the hospitality we’ve received, not only with our ‘old’  German friends, but with our new friends too. 

Thurs.22^nd August :  We went for a short cycle ride around the Mitteland Canal before leaving Recke this morning at about 10.30, and have driven only about 50kms to Bad Bentheim.  We’re camped next to the lovely Schloss Park and down the hill from the castle which we visited this afternoon. 

 Since visiting the castle, we have done very little, having decided to take the rest of the afternoon off.  It started raining a couple of hours ago, nothing too serious as it’s not much more than a drizzle.  This is probably our last night in Germany, the Netherlands border is only about 10kms away so unless we decide to stay here a little longer, we will be in the land of windmills, tulips and clogs tomorrow.

Mon.26^th August :  We said “auf wiedersehn” to Germany about 10 minutes after leaving Bad Bentheim on Friday morning when we crossed the border into The Netherlands.  Our expectations were not high as we already knew that this country is as flat as a pancake, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the neat little houses in the neat little streets in the neat little towns that are dotted throughout the lush farming country and by the canals which criss cross the country.  Our first two nights were spent in a town called Meppel, a lovely canal town where we camped alongside one of the canals, enjoying sitting watching the many pleasure boats cruise up and down the waterways, through the lock and lift-up bridge.  Last night we stayed by another canal in the town of Wommels

and tonight we are in the suburbs of Amsterdam, having driven across the ZuiderZee, a thirty km marvel of engineering, a dike completed in 1933 to prevent The Netherlands from flooding. 

We rode our little motor bikes across in 1969, in the rain and cold so it was a welcome change for us to drive across in comfort, in bright sunshine…very impressive.

Tomorrow we will venture into the city of Amsterdam.