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Location Date Africa 1428015600 Europe 
1414278000 North America 1222124400 -
Location Date UK 1414278000 Spain 1356307200 France Germany
Switzerland -
Location Date Hamburg-Mitte
Berlin Augsburg Bavarian Swabia
It was English literature taken to a new level of perfection. Newspapers vied with each other to print it, Nobel and Pulitzer awards were pending.
I am, of course, referring to my last Spanish blog, wittily entitled "Albir seeing you!" Perfection comes in many forms, and this blog was it!
Sadly, disaster has struck. The world has been denied a glimpse of this literary gem thanks to Fujitsu Siemens. My ageing laptop, survivor of Kalahari sandstorms, rutted roads from hell and Botswana swamps chose the relatively tame environment of my mother in law's lounge to experience an irretrievable hard drive failure!
Literary genius is a time consuming process, even for me, so you will not be surprised to learn that it took time to get the creative juices flowing again, this time on Angela's new Toshiba niblet (notebook). Hardly had the metaphoric ink dried on the page when the Toshiba, possibly overawed by the importance of the document, decided that it too would have a hard drive failure.
Fortunately, thanks to heroic efforts on the part of our Dutch friends Arjan & Patricia, our niblet hard drive has been repaired in Holland and the road to literary fame beckons again, though not with this blog I suspect!
The IT problems hopefully explain the time it has taken to add a new blog to our website. Another reason for the delay is that we have been on the road again, moving up from Spain to northern Germany via France, the UK, Belgium and Holland. After the coastal delights of Albir in Spain (belated thanks Anne) we free camped our way up France and back over to Blighty for a re-union with our storage unit in Reading.
Should any of you ever consider doing what we have done please heed only one piece of advice; downsize your personal possessions before you venture off. Despite sorting out our gear 3 times since 2006, we are still paying a ridiculous amount of money to store things we really don't need.
After a frenetic 3 weeks in the UK (during which time Yours Truly, ever the romantic fool, spared no expense for Angela's birthday……actually it was no expense…..a motorway services lodge and a KFC to go) we headed back to France in eager anticipation of lovely weather and an England triumph at the Euro 2012 football championship. Like second marriages, it was the triumph of hope over experience!
Mindful of England's past performances though, we decided to hedge our bets and also support the team of the countries we travelled through. This may explain why France, Germany and Holland (the latter with an unheard of 3 straight defeats) went the way of England.
So now we are in Hamburg, enjoying the hospitality of Jan Hendrik, Michaela, Carlotta and Carl Johann Pietsch, who made the mistake of saying hello to us in Namibia four years ago! Despite a birthday putting me the wrong side of 30, I did manage to last 90 minutes of front garden football and a couple of hours of a newish water sport craze, stand up paddling, on the Baltic coast.
You may be surprised to learn that Germany won the front garden football match but at least I mastered the art of stand-up paddling. This entails standing up (you guessed?) on a surf board and paddling. Not as easy as it sounds, especially when (a) the surf board is as manoeuvrable as the Queen Mary and (b) Jan Hendrik decided that a two metre surf was easy for beginners.
Anyway, back to the travel blog. All our preconceptions of Belgium, Holland and Germany have been wrong. Whilst we still can't name 10 famous Belgians the people are very friendly and the scenery lovely.
The Dutch scenery is even better, with an amazing amount of accessible countryside that has the added attraction of being flat! We even saw windmills and a workman wearing clogs (no Steve, the windmills were not wearing clogs!) The thing that stood out in Holland for us (apart from the fact that the Dutch speak better English than we do and the helpfulness of Arjan & Patricia) was the effort that people put in to their gardens. The British are garden lovers; the Dutch have taken it to another level.
We arrived in Germany with the motorhome laden with wine from Spain, only to find that alcohol, especially beer, was very cheap. We were also surprised to find food prices reasonable and in many cases better than France and Spain.
Besides our laptop woes our other big concern in recent months has been our UK house rental, as our incumbent tenants did an about turn and left unexpectedly. Luckily we now have a new couple in residence so after 5 weeks without income we are again able to buy bread and potatoes; it makes a change from axle oil and toothpaste!
Eating out is a rare treat so we have become masters of the bargain lunch. We order a large portion of Pommes Frites (very tasty in all of the above mentioned countries) and stick them in our pre-bought, pre-buttered and pre-ketchupped bread rolls to create that famous English delicacy "Chip Butty al Dental"
Now you may be thinking that using your own ketchup is taking frugality to the extreme, but when you get charged 60 cents (nearly 30% of the price of a portion of Frites) for a dollop of ketchup or mayonnaise it only happens once.
Being an aficionado of all things potato (as most of you will know from experience) a chip butty diet is right up my street, though the calorific consequences are beginning to show on our waistlines! Luckily, the Pietsch family are outdoor sports enthusiasts like us, so it is only a matter of time before I get the Olympic team call up!
Next stop Berlin and more of Germany.
As this blog is long overdue, so are the thanks to friends and family. Anne and Dad in Spain, Rob & Gill, Alan and Jane, Lesley & Bill and Jo in the UK, Arjan and Patricia in Holland and the Pietsch Family here in Germany. Advanced thanks to the Kutz family in Munich, our next victims…….I mean, privileged hosts.
Finally good luck to London and the Olympic games later this month. Here's hoping that the floods (which haven't stopped since the Government declared southern England a drought area 3 months ago) cease before they wheel out Elton John and a host of other Pop geriatrics for the Opening Ceremony.
- comments
Richard Burbage He's alive! Am currently watching Murray beat the Frenchman-Tsonga in the Wimbledon semi-finals. Hope this isn't tempting fate. As usual it's a sheer delight to read all about your adventures and travels Ralph! I do however wish you'd either get a bloody job or go to a country that rains the whole time. I worry that you'll get rose-tinted spectacles although at the moment you don't seem to have acquired any! Richard.
Tereza Hi Angela& Ralph, it is so lovely to read about your travels. I have not followed you for a while, but can see you are enjoying Europe now, so hopefully you will have a lot better weather! (anything must be better than this miserable continuous rain!:))Best regards
Cecile and Kaare wow, we almost crossed roads again. we decided to travel south of Norway to Denmark and took the west coast route for the first time. you have to do this. Blokhus was incredible. you could camp on the beach for free and you can even drive on the beach. Hardly no people and great biking lanes. Anyway, we came thru Hamburg on the way to Belgium were we are now. Wish I would have known you were there also. Love to read your blog
Mike & Sue Travel Lodge - you romantic old sod!! Good to hear from you again and glad you are enjoying bits of Europe that we can only dream about while stuck here in rainy England. Can`t wait to get back across the Channel in August. Safe travels, hope to meet up in the Winter.
Ralph Hi Richard Shouldn't have mentioned Murray winning....kiss of death time. Good to hear from you as well, we are more alive than our laptops have been......don't know how you manage to work with technology everyday of your life! Actually don't know how you manage to work...bit of an alien concept for me right now!
Angela Hi Tereza Angela here, shame about the weather in the UK, mind you Hamburg seems to be the land of thunderstorms at the moment! Good to hear from you, hope all well at E&Y
Ralph Hi Cecile & Kaare Sorry we missed you going to Belgium via Hamburg. Germany TV mentioned all the queues from the Danish border in to Germany, sounds like you took the best route. Will get the atlas out Enjoy your Belgian holidays
Ralph Hi Mike & Sue I think the Travelodge was a bit extravagant, don't you....love does that to you..... Have the caravan repairs started yet? See you somewhere south of the rain line next autumn
Heike Evans Hi Guys! Belated happy birthday to you Angela. We - that is Clint and I and Ricki and Dylan , have exchanged a rather cold Cape Town for a wonderfully hot Rome ! Off to the Amalfi Coat tomorrow. Can get used to this life ! Forerunner to the 2013 Gapyear. Hope that you'll enjoy the rest of Germany ......I think it is a rather fun place to visit ! Keep well .....and hope to meet up with you again some time soon. Love from the Evans
Bim and Lin Glad to hear you two are still alive and traveling. Sorry about your weather. As you can imagine, Santa Barbara is still as beautiful as ever. We have a flying trip to Oregon next week, and then leave for Russia and Mongolia and China via the Trans Siberian Railway. We'll post photos on Facebook. Glad to hear you are still having fun.
Lyn and Simon Hi there - Wondered what had happened to you! Sounds like you're making the most of your time in Europe and we are rather jealous. However, off to Botswana again on Friday so something to get us out of rainy Cape Town at least :-) Have fun!
Mike Garnham Ralph? Angela?..........Nope, sorry.........you're going to have to give me a clue
Kay and Dave hi you two good to hear you're rolling on, well and happy, creative juices well intact. We point our motorhome towards the Tunnel mid August. A little later this summer due to the big O (or is that OOOOO) as we have friends from Sweden coming over. Not sure how much more of this rain and cold we can take though but hey Murray is in the final! We're heading throgh Germany to Lake Constance but first a stop in the Moselle Valley cos we love it, recommend, brilliant for motorhomes (loads of places to stay) and cycling. Visited Germany for 3 months a few years ago so moving through swiftly heading for Tuscany and points south- sun and warmth! Keep an eye out for Sun Ti or email us where you are/will be. Happy travels
Ralph Hi Heike, Glad that somewhere in Europe is warm at the moment! We are enjoying Germany, going to the lakes area east of Hamburg next then Berlin to take in the sights before going south to Leipzig, Dresden and Munich. Let us know your gap year plans, may be able to meet up somewhere. Enjoy Italy and send the weather up this way please.
Ralph Hi Bin & Lin You guys certainly know how to take a holiday. Will keep an eye on Facebook for your Russia China trip but in the meantime enjoy Oregon, do you need a co-pilot?
Ralph Hi Lyn & Simon Enjoyed your last lot of photos, especially the wild dogs, that was a great sighting! Sounds like you are getting in to the camping life Lyn?
Ralph Hi Mike Yep, we've resurfaced! So how did it go with the pop up rooftop tent launch, have you got a name for it yet? Our internet opportunities have been limited recently so haven't had a chance to go on to the 4x4 forum. How was the SA conference?
Ralph Hi Kay & Dave Mosel is on our list after driving down the east side of Germany first, will be trying the Stellplatz around Berlin later next week then south towards Munich. Let's hope the rain and floods go before the big O. Maybe see you somewhere later in the year. Any other bits of Germany you'd recommend?
Charlie & Emma If it makes you feel any better, we're paying £3000 p.a. for storage and no tenants at present! WTH - just have to cut down on the biltong! In York for 2 weeks and then London for 3 weeks during the Olympics. After that Africa is calling (and this time I'll do a Blog) ................ the frosties will be waiting for you...............Africa misses you both :)
Ralph & Angela Hi Charlie & Emma Ouch, where are you storing it, Buckingham Palace???? Don't mention biltong, Angela is still having withdrawal symptoms...dry wors would be nice as well...Now near Berlin, trying to de-cipher the rail timetable for a trip in to the city. We are missing Africa too, saw some white storks today..