Hamburg and the rest of Germany

 The next morning we were up early but we didn’t have a run planned as the aim was to drive into Hamburg and cycle around to see some sites. We have done sop much driving that it was nice to have a day exploring and relaxing. We got to the a stop where we planned to leave Jeff all day and headed of into the city on the bikes.  We cycled through the centre to a little vegan café for some breakfast and a tea/coffee before we went sight seeing. First we went to Elbphilharmonie which is a concert hall and was the tallest building in Hamburg in 2017 and has a great viewing platform you can walk around on level 6 and look out over some of Hamburg and the river Elbe. While on the platform looking at the lovely views Rich also spotted a beluga plane which he did get very excited about, having never seen one flying before and it being so close.

After that excitement we headed off to the next place which was the river Elbe tunnel which is 24 meters under the river and you can cycle through it. We made a little mistake in our navigation and ended up at the boat crossing (which was about 10 mins further away so after cycling back those 10 minutes we queued up for the elevators and descended to the tunnel. It was lovely and cool underground and we quickly (too quickly) cycled the 425 meters across the tunnel and got into the elevator the other side. After admiring the views from this side of the river we again went into the tunnel and crossed over to continue our tour of Hamburg.

Next we headed to Speicherstadt which is an area of warehouses but it is slowly being transformed into an up and coming area of apartments and attractions. We managed to find a little ice cream shop with some vegan options while we were walking around so we stopped and admired the views with some ice cream before continuing to walk around the area.

Once we had finished here we decided to head to a vegan hamburger joint, as when in Hamburg you have to eat a hamburger! So we went and ordered some huge hamburgers for dinner before taking a slow cycle back to Jeff and driving north to a camper stop for the evening.

The camper stop we chose was near some football fields and was quite the hive of activity until fairly late, this could partially be due to a small fire which occurred in the woods behind the football fields (something we only figured out the next day on our run) and there were lots of sirens coming and going until the late hours.

The next morning we went for a run around the lake and managed to not get lost and then we need to head to the supermarket to get any last minute things before heading north to Denmark. The crossing to Denmark was easy, as most of the European boarders are, and we managed to find a free service point in order to service Jeff before heading into some woods near Kolding for the afternoon/evening. Once we set the van up we went for a short walk in the forest and found a lovely looking lake which you may or may not be allowed to swim in, we just aren’t sure, before returning to Jeff to do some admin and have dinner.

Inside the tunnel under the Elbe

The escalator to the viewing platform in the Elbphilharmonie 

 

Mural hunting as normal

A vegan croissant for brekkie, our first meal out 

The view down the Elbe from the Elbphilharmonie  platform

The elevator down to the tunnel

Speicherstadt warehouses

A vegan Hamburger, as when in Hamburg its what you have to do

The church that can be seen all around Hamburg

Three days five countries

 So we managed to get off the ferry and then we quickly realised my mobile was not switching to roaming, despite all the setting being in place. I switched contracts a couple of months before we came out for the reason that we could have it roaming for more than 3 months so we were annoyed it wouldn’t work. We pulled into the first supermarket we found were we continued to play with the settings until we ended up phoning the company to get it resolved (we started the roaming services on Rich’s phone in order to make the call). They had to apply some settings and told us the normal IT bumph of turn it off and on again and in less than 5 minutes it should work. While this was going on I went and found a French baguette which turned out to be out breakfast and lunch as we headed north.

 We were soon out of France and into Belgium and continued north towards Eindhoven but because of the traffic (with it being a Friday afternoon) it took longer than planned and we didn’t get to the planned stop until around 4pm. The stop was in the Hoogstaten district which was a chocolate box type of region with cute houses and lovely places and the stop itself was in a lovely park/forest. We decided to go for a walk and within this park you can walk into a small section of the Netherlands, which of course we did. The park had some of the longest names for its footpaths/locations which we stood no chance of saying! We did enjoy the short walk and managed to see a couple of deer in the field along with some lovely looking horses. It hit a high of 30 degrees during our drive today and the heat hasn’t really let up so its been a bit of a shock to the system. We then headed back to Jeff for dinner and an early night as we had been up since about 5.30 and we knew we were in for a warm night, as the predicted low was due to be 19 degrees, the fan in the van worked well but it was still warm.

 The next morning Rich thought it would be a good idea to go for our first run when we got up in the morning, I really wasn’t sold on the idea, especially as it was already in the mid 20s but I went along with it anyway and I survived it. We then both enjoyed cold showers before heading off north. We drove for 3 hours 45 crossing the rest of Belgium and the Netherlands to get into Germany where we planned to stay for the night in a town near Osnabruck. As we were driving to the stop we saw a pick your own strawberry place so once we parked up we got on the bikes and cycled there to pick some lovely strawberries. We did struggle with the process as it was very complicated but we were quickly shown by the workers were we could pick and we quickly picked just under a kilo for 4 euros and put them in our bag before cycling to the supermarket for some supplies and back to the van.

We chilled for the evening and got up early the next morning for a run. This run wasn’t as successful as the last one as we were trying to follow the cherry trail that is a loop around the area but we got a little lost and ended up running a portion of it in the wrong direction (and this bit was all uphill – which is my most hated type of running!). Once back at the van we did a load of washing in my new little washing machine (mostly to test it out) and then packed up the van and continued north towards Hamburg.

 We stopped about an hour south of Hamburg in the middle of some farms and woods for the evening which had a stunning view and sunset.

And we made it to Belguim

our first camper stop for the night, it was bloody hot

our neighbours on the first night

Rich in Netherlands while I am in Belgium

One of the well named paths in the forest, I have no idea how to pronounce all of those As

look at these strawberries

Lots of yummy strawberries for us to eat for the next few days

Our view for the evening in the fields/forest camperstop

A new adventure!

So we are finally on our way after a couple of delays and today we managed to get an early morning ferry from Dover to Dunkirk. The plan is a short drive up to Eindhoven with a stop at a bakery for some true French bread to keep us going. 

 So you might be asking why its taken us sooo long to get going again and this is due to a few different things. Firstly I submitted an application for Irish descendent citizenship and this was submitted in May 2022 with an expected 2 year turn around but this was actually awarded in March 2023 so its kicked off lots of changes. I applied for my Irish (EU) passport and knew this would take at least a month and to also take full advantage of this status Rich and I got married (I mean we have been together for 13 years so it was about time). All of this means that we can both now travel together as EU citizens and are not restricted to 3 months. The passport took a little longer than expected so we took a little holiday to Norfolk to see some friends before returning to Somerset and enjoying some of the weather and preparing for the longer trip. 

When we got to the ferry this morning we did confuse passport control as Rich had to hand over the two passports and our marriage certificate and explain as his wife is Irish he shouldn't receive a stamp in his passport and there was a few moments of worry for us while he worked it all out and then he handed us back the passports and certificate and we were off!

 The longer plan is to drive to Denmark and cross the bridge into Sweden to explore Sweden, Norway and Finland before coming back to Denmark and exploring that properly and exploring more of northern Europe before returning back to the UK in late November/early December.

below are some pictures from the wedding which took place in Barnstaple, which gave us all the excuse of a nice long weekend away for the coronation. 

The beautiful EU passport

The last view of the UK, the white cliffs of Dover - we are off!

Last couple of days and back to the UK

 

So bright and early on Monday morning we got up and headed inland towards the capital of Basque country Vitoria-Gasteiz which was the first Spanish city to receive the award of European Green Capital in 2012 and has a green ring around it giving the ability to cycle around the whole city. It was, again due to rain today so we decided to do one of my new favourite things and go mural finding as Vitoria-Gasteiz has lots of them. They were started in 2007 and now there are over 30 different ones dotted about the city and not only is it great to walk around and find them it means we can explore the city.  We spent a good few hours walking around the old and new sides of the city to find as many as we could, luckily we had found a google map locator for several but we found some that were not on the map and we couldn’t find all the ones on the map. What we did learn quickly is that you have to look all around for them, including up as some were on buildings high up, some were behind gates and some were behind trees. After a long walk we decided to head to a café for some lunch to warm us up and as usual we headed to a little vegan place where we were the only customers and we had a really good and interesting chat with the owner while having a three course late lunch. After filling up on lunch we headed back to the van, grabbing some shopping on the way to plan our cycle for tomorrow

The next day we planned to cycle around the green ring which was an easy 30km cycle but we obviously didn’t plan it well enough. The App we were using wasn’t great and the signs for the green ring and the directions on our app were different and the app wouldn’t stay alight while cycling meaning we kept having to stop to look at it so we thought stuff that and we would just follow the signs. That was fine until we got into a loop at a park that essentially went around the park in a circle and having done one loop we got the other App out and decided to try that and with Rich directing us we soon ended up back near the van having done a third of the route so we tried again with the second app and this time had a route that went around the whole green ring and completed the 30km (but we were cold, muddy and a little wet by the end). Once the bikes were loaded in the van and we had a hot cup of tea to warm us back up we got ready to head onto the next town where we planned to spend the night, charge the van before heading to Santander tomorrow for the 30 hour ferry back to the UK. We spent the evening packing for the ferry (arguing over what was overkill – Rich wanted to take the slow cooker!!!- and what was needed)

The next morning we got up very early as it was a couple of hours drive to the ferry. We had a dilemma on route though as the toll road was faster (if you could do the speeds it says, which Jeff does not do) and a few KM more but the other route could be mountainous or have lots of roundabouts so its always difficult to decide but as we had enough time we thought we would take the other route and boy were we glad we did. The route did take us through a valley and up and over a gentle mountain but the whole route was stunning, made even better by the fact that the sun was still rising as we drove. Having had a lovely final journey we got to the ferry port, checked in (easier than expected) and parked up. We had a bit of time so we popped to the shops to get some final food for the ship and waited to be called on. It wasn’t long before we boarded and we parked up, remembering the door colour and floor number, this time, and headed up to find out cabin. While the price of the journey included a three course dinner that was all it included so we had bought a kettle so I could drink tea, some food (which was a great idea as the range of vegan food was extremely limited) and lots of films downloaded (there was only 1 hour of internet per device and limited ability to stream or do anything on it). However there was lots of films on their in ship entertainment service so we binge watched movies mostly in the room, interspersed with walks around after each film and ate lots. As our room was en-suite we also took full advantage of the shower and had very long hot showers which was lovely. It was weird not sleeping in Jeff (and having single beds) but we soon got rocked to sleep by the waves. After 30 hours we docked in Portsmouth and headed back through the fog to Somerset ready to return to real life and prepare for Christmas!

The murals of Vitoria-Gasteiz

Told you there were lots of them

Dont worry this is only a sample of them, there were many more!

The wide sea on the way back to the UK

Walking in Spain - Santander photos

 So these photos missed it off the walking in Spain blog post and how Santander. 

We haven't been posting as much recently I know but that is because we have very limited data and so most of these will be posted when back home and on wifi!

The cute old town of Santillana del Mar 

The village of Santillana del Mar was very quaint and in the early morning we were there it was very quiet with only the baker out delivering  

A ram statue in Santillana del Mar 

One of the old buildings in Santander - there arent a lot of them left. This is the post office

Santander Cathedral

Palace of Magdelana - which is now a hotel

The rough sea in Magdelana park

It was great to watch the waves 

The sea lions in the Magdelana park, they didn't seem to mind the waves that would crash down on their section of the park