This trip was planned before we decided to live in the van and sell our house, so we thought it was a great test for a week to see how all our stuff fits in the van and how we get on living on a small budget. In 36 hours we got from Manchester to Denmark, with a quick pit stop to visit my sister in The Netherlands.
Friday just draaaaaaged as I had to work so as soon as the clock hit hometime we were outta there..!! We’d packed up everything ready to go, coop was at the kennels and we’d had a big lunch just in case we didn’t want to stop.. haha, important things sorted you see.. off we went to Folkestone.
We (John..) have a habit of saying “ooh.. we’ll drive down and stay near the coast” but get too excited and end up at the terminal before we should be.. Turns out this wouldn’t be that much different.
The last time we went to France we decided to set up an Auto Pay account on the Dartford Crossing which is such a time saver as the ANPR picks you up and takes the charge with no messing. So we sailed on down and ended up at the Eurotunnel terminal at about 10pm. I’d had a quick google on the way down to see if they let you stay there overnight and a lot of the posts I’d read said either no or that it’s hit and miss so we figured we’d try there first then go to the Park4night stop that we’d earmarked if we couldn’t get in. We pulled up to the screen and without any fuss it offered us a 1.30am crossing for an extra £15 (tempting, but no..) or a 7.20am crossing for free – we chose this and they let us in – yay..!! So we parked up and searched for food to find it was all closed up for the night..! C’mon Eurotunnel peeps, hungry people still arrive after 10..! We sulked back to the van and ate some soreen (go to emergency stodge) and went to sleep to the sound of trains and polish gangster rap.
After a surprisingly OK nights sleep we jumped out of bed and packed up ready for the off, I’d cut it a little fine for coffee at Starbucks as there was a massive queue, so with a promise of a stop to make coffee on the other side at the Auchan in Dunkirk we boarded the train in the tunnel sur la manche.
I absolutely adore french supermarkets, you just don’t see the variety anywhere else. We walked in past a bakery, burger joint, hairdressers, jewellers, toy shop, clothes shop (not including the clothes in the actual store..!) it’s brill 🙂 We bought some food for the next few days, croissants with cheese and ham, chicken cordon bleu, pancakes with ham and cheese (we like ham and cheese dontchaknow) and the more-ish, crunchy cheesy emmental crisps we love, like nik-naks but mega cheesy..!! Coffee was made while food was put away and off we set for our first stop – The Netherlands to see Johns sister, Jeanie with her hubby Eugene and girls which was about 3 and a half hours away. The satnav took us on one of its wonderful magical mystery tours down single track roads crammed with cyclists, up and down some of the rare hills in the country to get there with the promise of lunch and freshly baked Dutch apple cake (Which Jeanie knows is Johns absolute favourite pie..!) as we’d gotten dressed early morning in the uk, I quickly figured I had on the wrong clothes – jeans and my lovely mustard star jumper, and it was 31 degrees out..! Quick change and out of the van we jumped, to much missed hugs and kisses (or kusjes en knuffels – I love that.!) Jeanie fed us well and we ate apple pie in the garden which I burned off playing a bit of footie with the kids. All too soon it was time for us to leave as we were hoping to get to Bremen that night which was another 400km away. More hugs and kisses and we were on our way.
We didn’t get as far as Bremen as we were feeling the need for a bit of food and a rest from driving so at about 8 o’clock we arrived at our park4night spot in Ladbergen in Germany. Absolutely gorgeous village square with a pizza place and an ice cream shop which we headed straight to and tried my first speaking German to an actual German person – we walked out with the ice cream we wanted which was a bonus and we sat in the door of the van and enjoyed our surroundings. We slept well apart from the church bells bonging every 15 mins (once for quarter past, twice for half past, 3 times for quarter to and 4 pre bongs with a smaller bell as a prequel to the big hourly bongs.. haha) oh, and as it was Sunday when we woke up we found they also bong for 5 mins solid at 7 and 8am – it was lovely though.. Up and off to Denmark we go, Only 7 more hours to get to Copenhagen..!!
German roads are fab to drive on, easy to follow with the satnav as the junctions are really clear and if they slow down in the middle or outside lanes they move to the outside of the lane to make a gap for emergency services, it’s cool how it just happens as if by magic.. haha..
We finally got to an actual actual border (first since leaving the uk) we were all herded into 1 lane and slowly made our way through, van gets through, bike is waved through.. and of course, we were pulled over..
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https://www.johnandmandy.uk/filmmaking-gear/
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