Having got my British passport a few weeks ago, we decided to celebrate by going to Continental Europe for a few days. My idea was to see as many new countries as we sensibly could in the time.
On Saturday, we took the car through the Channel Tunnel (the car is loaded onto a train for the journey through the tunnel, then you drive off at the other end). We drove through the peaceful French countryside towards Reims. On the way we saw a marvellous old walled town with a large cathedral on top of a hill. We got off the motorway, at which point we discovered why it was so peaceful: the toll was 13 Euros! This was another shock for me; in France they drive on the wrong side of the road, so I had to pay the toll (after understanding what `treize dix' meant). The old town was Laon, and was astonishing because of its emptiness and lack of tourist infrastructure, desipte its great antiquity and beautiful architecture. After Laon, we took quiet back roads to Reims. Being in the centre of the Champagne region, we had to have a bottle with dinner.
On Sunday, we went to the Cathedral in Reims, though we couldn't understand much of the service. The cathedral is very grand and imposing, well worth a visit. We then drove out, past the big Champagne producers, and took another quiet road towards Luxembourg via Verdun. I was struck by the number of derelict properties in the French country villages, and the obvious lack of recent building; it is obvious that people are moving away from the countryside, a big difference from England where people are increasingly moving away from towns to get a better quality of life. The other obvious thing is the number of cemeteries, marking the battlefields of the First World War; the biggest, obviously, was in Verdun. We stopped for a few hours in Luxembourg, a tiny country and a big city with a lovely centre, built around a river gorge. Charles just liked the playground in the main square! From Luxembourg, we drove into Germany and reached Trier where we spent the night.
We spent Monday walking round the marvellous city of Trier. The Cathedral is the best I've ever seen, with sumptuous fittings and a breathtaking baroque organ. The Elector's Palace is superb, and the city is graced with some of he best preserved Roman buildings outside Italy, including a huge basilica built at the command of the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. We also saw the amphitheatre; the cages where they kept the lions are still there, but but at the time of our visit the fiercest thing there was a Charles.
On Tuesday, we paid a quick visit to St Matthias' Church, the site of the tomb of the apostle Matthias. Incredibly this just looks like a normal parish church; the only guide book is in German. It deserves wider publicity - if it were in England, people would flock there from hundreds of miles around all year long. Then we drove out along the valley of the River Mosel. The countryside is stunning; covered in vineyards the whole way, climbing up the banks of the hills to either side, with the occasional grand houses or ruined castles dominating the scene. We also tried to visit Burg Eltz, a fairytale castle set among deep woods, but sadly it was closed. There were numerous birds of prey around, especially buzzards, which weren't even scared off by a Charles shouting at the top of his voice as we walked through the forest. We stayed the night in Koblenz, where the Mosel flows into the huge River Rhine. David had said he knew nothing about it, but it turned out to have a fine historic centre and a nice Chinese restaurant which Charles tried to destroy.
Wednesday was almost exclusively spent on motorways. We started with a lovely drive over the hills to the East of Koblenz to get onto the motorway, during which we saw a black woodpecker, a merganser, one red kite and loads more buzzards! I was glad David was driving, because most of the drivers on the German autobahn were behaving like complete maniacs, with no concept of safe separation and no courtesy at all. We stopped after lunch in Munster (which I wickedly told Charles was called Monster), where we spent almost all our time running around in the playground. The centre looked nice, but just as we were beginning to enjoy it David noticed that our parking ticket had almost expired so we had to run back to the car. We carried on to Schortens, where we were to meet up with my friend Lenette and her husband Luz. On the way we saw huge numbers of buzzards and of deer. Just as we got into Schortens the battery on my mobile ran out! So, even though Lenette and Luz saw us drive past, we missed them, and carried on to find a hotel in Jever a few miles away. Almost all the hotels were shut, being out of season, but we were lucky enough to find a very nice one. So we checked in and changed then went back to Schortens where Lenette and Luz gave us a lovely supper.
Charles began Thursday by feeding the ducks, geese and swans on the ponds in Jever. In one o the ponds there is an old ducking cage, where minor criminals in the past would have been locked in and ducked in and out of the water. It was enough to put Charles on his best behaviour! Luz then very kindly drove us to the Museum of Rural Life in Cloppenburg. This was a fascinating insight into how people have lived and farmed in this part of Germany over the past few hundred years. Charles was bursting with energy the whole time, and had us running about constantly for several hours. He even insisted on climbing all the way up to the top of a windmill and back down again, much to David's terror as he climbed below him fearing a fall! Luz then drove us to Oldenburg, the local centre, for some shopping (my favourite part!). We went back to their house and enjoyed eating and talking until the small hours.
On Friday the swans got their rations again - they seemed even to recognise Charles and swam eagerly across to meet him! Then we set off for Holland. It was a long drive and a miserable day, cloudy and raining the whole way. We tried to stop in Utrecht, but Charles was asleep so we didn't get out of the car. But we found a lovely quiet road from Utrecht to Gouda along a small branch of the Rhine (still an enormous river) where we saw loads of wildlife. Gouda is a nice old town but we were very unlucky with the hotel, which was awful (David's fault!). By now it had stopped raining so we walked around the town centre and had supper in a restaurant there before going back for the worst night's sleep of the tour.
We woke early on Saturday and fled the hotel, stopping for breakfast on the motorway. We went to Breda, a nice old town with more shops! After an enjoyable (for me) couple of hours in the shops, we pressed on to Belgium and stopped in Gent. This is a superb town, with loads of baroque architecture, two castles, a cathedral and a magnificent Catholic church. Our headaches from the morning were swiftly dispelled and we found a lovely hotel in the centre. Charles seemed to be most interested in chasing the pigeons, until we got him a small disposable camera; this kept him occupied for a whole hour until he had used up all the film (at the developer's as I am writing this!). The buttons on the lift were also at the right height for little hands to operate .....
Our last day was Sunday. We drove out to Kortrijk for lunch, another Flemish merchant town with a very nice centre. We had a quiet lunch while watching a carousel being put up in the market square, but unfortunately it was nowhere near ready by the time we had to leave. We drove through Ypres, past more wartime battlefields, and along the French coast back to the tunnel and home.
In nine days we visited five countries, drove over 1,500 miles and visited some really lovely places. I caught up with an old friend and we saw loads of interesting wildlife. It was a truly unforgettable experience.
I hope you will enjoy reading this entry. To see some of the photographs please visit
www.davidandivy.co.uk/france_12.htm.
Europe Tour with Pics
Originally Posted by DutcheD
Whoa, thats a lot of places in just... how many days? Next time come over here in Mainland/continental Europe and spend at least 3 days in each city
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