Our Germany trip - the campsites...

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TwentyOneThirtyFive

TwentyOneThirtyFive

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Hi,

We just spent a couple of weeks touring the north west of Germany. We had no real plan, other than our ferry bookings. The weather looked rough in the south, which is why we went north.

We used the Bord Atlas and the ACSI guide to find campsites and motorhome parking spots. Our cheapest nights were free, our most expensive €16. We stopped in places that had toilet facilities :)

Here are our campsite pictures while we sort out the hundreds of photos we took.

We took an evening ferry from Dover to Dunkirk, so our first evening was spent in the romantic surroundings of Dunkirk ferry terminal. It's free and they are quite happy for you to park up here. There are bathrooms in the ticket office.

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Spent the evening wondering what the beeping noise was.

From there, we headed to Xantern. The motorhome stopover is a couple of minutes walk from the town. Think we paid €10 a night, which included water, but not electricity. Showers were a euro. Xantern is a lovely town, which lots of Roman history and also a working windmill that still produces flour. We spent a couple of nights here.

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By now we'd worked out the beeping noise was the fridge failing.

From here we followed a route of moated Castles to a campsite in Greven, in a marina. It was about €9 I think, but did not include any other services. Showers were €1.

We stopped here to give us easy access to Münster (warning - has an Umwelt zone/LEZ).

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Münster is lovely, with lots of bikes. We'd had enough of towns now, so headed for some hills. Northern Germany is quite flat, so hills is relative :) Our next stop was an ACSI site near Bielefeld which had Kangaroos and Monkeys. And a bar, with free wifi. So we spent some time looking for a fridge repair shop.

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We spent the next morning visiting VW dealers and motorhome repair centres. No one could help us with our fridge. We got a lead on a place near Kassel, so we headed in that direction next, via the stunningly beautiful town of Detmold. We only stopped there by chance, but were blown away by the Ye Olde Worlde charm of the place.

Our next campsite choice was full, but this was lucky as our second choice in Bad Pyrmont was superb and we stayed there a couple of nights. €10 a night which included everything.

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We couldn't get the fridge fixed, so gave up and started north again. Holdorf was our next stop, a campsite attached to a sports/lake centre. Think it was €8 a night excluding services. €1 for a shower.

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After visiting Cloppenburg, we headed towards Norden, but stopped a little way short in Großefehn where we camped a the Marina. €6.50 for the night including water. The pub in the Marina was doing a Grill night which was tasty :p

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We stayed a couple of nights in Norden, which was our base for visiting the Fresian Islands and Bremen (has am Umwelt zone/LEZ - train station/statium car park is just outside it). The campsite was €15 a night, which included everything but showers (€2). The campsite dogs were entertaining.

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Yes, that is a Killer Whale stalking us.

Next stop was an ACSI site near Bremerhaven. This was our base for getting to Helgoland and also Bremerhaven (great maritime museum). €16 a night, included everything. washing machine and tumble dryer were €1 each. Almost missed the ferry to Helgoland after getting lost. Had to run the length of the dock, much to the enjoyment of those on the deck...

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We had lots of space for flying kites here :clap and a Unesco herritege site in the distance (the lighthouse).

Then it was back across to Emden, for another attempt to get to the island of Borkum (did I mention we missed the ferry on our first attempt...by a couple of days). We stayed in a a restaurant car park at Moormerland, which was free. Forgot to take photos, food was great though.

Our final stop was an ACSI site in Meerbush, on the banks of the Rhine and near Düssuldorf. This was our base for getting to Köln and we took the train in as it had a confusing Umwelt zone/LEZ. Campsite was €16 a night, including services and showers, but not rubbish!

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Anyway, great trip, 2000 miles or there about. One broken fridge, one bee sting, one oil leak and a gazillion strawberries eaten. Lots of campsites around, we had no problems finding somewhere to stay each night. People were friendly and English is widely spoken. My German was not widely understood :D Campsites generally had fresh bread for sale in the mornings, German bread is good stuff :thumb

dan
 

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Great pictures and write up. Love the sunset pic :thumb
 
As above
Thanks for sharing some great pictures :thumb
 
That was a particularly spectacular sunset :p

Can't help thinking I should have taken the bags of food (our solution to the broken fridge) off the bikes before getting the camera out though... :oops:
 
Really enjoyed reading your post Dan.
Felt like I was sharing your adventure while I'm siting in the armchair with my glass of Wine.
Thats Just how I like to travell,choose a place of interest and leave the rest to chance.

Great stuff.. :clap

Alan
 
Cheers, it is a nice way to travel and a campervan makes it easy. Today I should be cleaning the van and trying to work out what is wrong with the fridge (think it's the electronic bit, should be easy to fix). Instead...

...I'm making bread with flour milled by the windmill in Xanten :clap
 
I can only say - wauuww..
Thats what it is all about..
You just made my evening nice, after spending yet another day looking after my ever vanished control unit.. :headbang
 
Thanks, hope a control until turns up soon.

Still haven't sorted out the other photos.
 

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