Our 2023 Tour

Day 2

We had a day on the beach and a look around the town. Lowestoft is a Lovely place with a great beach and plenty of parking, where overnight stops seem to be tolerate. It has a lovely museum with a room dedicated to Lowestoft porcelain. We also found where the original porcelain factory was. Lowestoft even have its own real Banksy painted on a bridge in the park by the museum! We boarded the overnight ferry and had the luxury of our own dog friendly cabin for the 7 hour crossing. We arrived at the Hook of Holland first thing in the morning and had no problem through customs with the dogs. Our first stop was the cube houses of Rotterdam, not quite sure how you live in a house like this? But they were an interesting concept. From Rotterdam we drove up to our only pre booked camper site, Camping Vliegenbos, a great, but expensive camp site about a mile from the centre of Amsterdam. 

Day 1

So we had booked a Stenna line ferry from Warwick to the Hook of Holland, we thought this would give us the opportunity to start our tour in Holland and save a days driving down to Dover and back up again from Calais. We started our summer tour driving down to Lowestoft in the evening and spending our first night parked up at the of a residential street overlooking the sea.

Once we had sorted our parking at the camp site we walked to the free ferry that crosses the river north of the city and drops you right in the city centre. We did the usual city tour, but If you want to get into anywhere like the Anne Frank museum or the Van Gogh museum you would have to pre book. With us having the dogs we couldn't go in anyway so had to be satisfied with a selfie outside the front door and a walk around the main sites, with the obligatory nosey around the red light district and the hemp shops.

Day 3

On day three of our tour we left Amsterdam behind and headed east as we had pre-booked tickets for Auschwitz and realised ours were for the 9th (six days time), so we had to get a shifty on towards Poland. The day was manly spent paying our respect to our war heros. This was the Airborne war cemetery in Oosterbeek, a beautiful place tended to by local children. There are mixed graves of mainly British troops but along side them lay polish and other allied men. A lovely dog walk through the surrounding woodland, then on to Arnhem and the Airborne memorial by the bridge so many lives were lost trying to hold. Rain was torrential at times and came without warning, but luckily this was mainly whilst we were driving and had dry breaks in-between. We finished the day up in a search for sites spot near Rubbenbruchsee lake, again a great spot and lovely walk for the dogs.

Day 4

On day 4 we mainly spent today walking in the forests with the dogs. The first a walk was in the wood around where we stayed the previous night, then we had a drive to Weser Uplands Nature Park, a beautiful forest with many trails for all abilities. Finally we drove on to Magdeburg where we are parked up on a “park for nights” spot right in the middle of a lovely city park with the plan to drive on to Berlin the following morning to grab an early parking spot.

Day 5

Day five saw a 6:00am start to drive into Berlin to make sure we got a parking spot. We got there shortly after 8:00am and parking by the Brandenburg gate was empty so grabbed a space for all day (and night if you want it) FREE! Spent the whole day seeing the sights, Brandenburg gate, checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish dead memorial, the cathedral, the Reishtag, the Berlin Wall memorial, the soviet war memorial, the east side gallery and lots more. We couldn't believe what a beautiful city Berlin was! We walked a total of 14miles! However we decided to leave around 6pm after a demo for peace was nearing its end and we drove south for about an hour or so to stay on a really nice free aire beside a leisure centre in Dahme/Mark before we left Germany for Poland!

Day 6

On day six we had a lazy start after the long day in Berlin the day before then we had a drive down to Colditz, the famous prisoner of war camp used in WW2. The building is impressive however you only get to see a small amount of it as a visitor and it has a small and a bit of a rubbish museum. The good thing was that they allowed dogs in all areas including the museum. We finally took another drive and parked up in Poland, just the other side of the boarder where diesel suddenly dropped by 30p a litre!

Day 7

On day seven the first thing we did was filled the van up with Polish diesel at £1.23 a litre! Then drove into Warclaw and wandered the city thinking what a small capital (as we thought we were in Warsaw), but it was a lovely city none the less. We also discovered you can buy flick knives, knuckle dusters and throwing stars in the shopping mall! We also had the chance whilst we were in Warclaw to visit the family of friends we have back in England, a lovely family in a lovely little village called Rogow Sobocki. We left in true polish style with gifts of bottles of vodka and home brew. A big thank you to the Pocalun family for their welcome and generosity! And also a big thank you Jolanta Pocałuń for encouraging us to call. We finally ended up staying somewhere in the woods on the way to Oswiecimand Auschwitz the following day!

Day 8

Day eight started with another lazy morning followed by a lovely walk through the Lesisko nature reserve. There is a large Soviet style monument remembering the Polish Silesian uprising, a huge amphitheater there and also plenty of deer and red squirrels bobbing about. We then drove to Oswiecim, as we had booked dog sitters for our visit to Auschwitz the following day, so we went to find them and check them out to make sure we were comfortable with them. They were great, and only 10 minutes from the museum. We parked up for the night on the park car park on the opposite side of the river to Auschwitz.

Day 9

Day eight was an early start so that we could drip our dogs off at dog sitters then over to Auschwitz. The Auschwitz tour is approximately 4 hours long and gives you a great insight into such a terrible place. A solemn day but a place that I have always wanted to visit, to pay my respects to the 1.5 million people that were exterminated at this place alone, not just Jews, but political prisoners, the disabled, gypsies and many other minority groups! Auschwitz museum is doing a remarkable job of marking sure that history remembers. Some people may think photographs are not appropriate, but "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it!” I hope my photographs help all that see them remember. Finally we drove down to our second paid site as it was right by the lake at Miedzybrodzie Bialskie. A lovely spot in a small camp site and our last night in Poland!

Day 10

Following a nice and quiet night at the lakeside at Miedzybrodzie Bialskie we drove to the Slovakian/ Polish border and had a fantastic walk up through the forest to the summit of Mt Plisko at 5109ft part of which is a large nature reserve. The walk to the summit starts off in Poland and ends up in Slovakia. We got back to the camper and decided to stay where we were for the night 100m inside the Polish side of the Boarder

Day 11

On day eleven We drove into Slovakia to the Namestovo district to see the statue of Jesus. It was a lovely place (but not quite Rio!) with a steep walk up to the statue and onto the large forest walk behind. It offered a stunning view of the Carpathian Mountains in the distance. Through the forest there were lots of wildlife including frogs, lizards and we also saw a snake! Then we drove over to Liptovsky Mikulas and finally we parked up by the lake for the night at Bobrovnik.

Day 12

We woke up next to the lake at Liptovsky Mikulás and had a short walk up the hills and then a drive over to Hrad Somoska, a castle ruin on the Hungarian/ Slovakian border. This is a lovely place with a basalt waterfall (an old lava flow), a derelict castle and a nice woodland walk. We decided to move straight on to Hungary the following day as there are not many places to fill up and empty in Slovakia or many places where you are welcome to wild camp. One huge chap came over to where we had parked up at Hrad Somoska and said “you no stay here!” We took the hint and moved on!

Day 13

We woke up on the Hungarian/ Slovakian border on the truck stop as we didn’t want to drive into Hungary the previous night as our camper vignette did not start until midnight. We drove 10 mins to a lovely broad leaf forest and walked up to Salgo castle, a great 16th century ruin with views of the Slovak castle we visited the day before. It also started getting hotter for the first time this trip, getting up to 33 degrees C, but understandable as we had been moving south so starting to get too hot for dog walk in the midday heat. We then drove down to Budapest to park up in a secure car park in the city centre and waited until about 7pm to have a wander through this beautiful old city full of magnificent buildings. Staying in a camper parked right in the middle of the city. Parking all night in a security controlled parking area for just £10!

Day 14

We left Budapest about 10:30 and drove to another beautiful mixed oak forest to walk the dogs whilst it was hot (33c again today) Then we drove down to Révfülöp, a small town next to Belaton lake, a massive beautiful blue lake. For a change we decided to have a couple of days chilling so managed to get a place on a traditional camper site. As it was so busy we had to stay on one pitch the first night and then have to move to another pitch the following day as places were that hard to get hold of. We had a swim to cool off in the lake and so did the dogs. Looking forward to a day off from driving the following day.

Day 15

There was absolutely nothing to report for day 15, apart from not moving, more sunshine, more swimming, dossing about a lot and a bit of beer, a relaxing day ready to move on again the following day!

Day 16

So we left lake Balaton behind, but not before we had a walk up through the local village and the woods into the hills to a tower viewpoint that stood in a clearing in the woods allowing us to see the lake in all her glory. Then a couple of hours drive down through to Croatia to another stunning lake, Lake Dubrava, a man made lake made to to feed a hydroelectric power station. This was a beautiful spot, but we were hesitant to stay here as wild camping in Croatia is forbidden, however we were told that the local police tolerate it by lake so we decided to risk it, especially as we could park up right by the waters edge.

Day 17

It was such a nice spot at lake Dubrava we moved a total of about 25ft, literally to the other side of the tree for more shade as we decided we’d stay an extra night! We also had a walk around the nearby town, a very clean, well appointed town with a small high street. We ended the day with a general doss by the lake.

Day 18

We decided we had had enough of the lake so we took my Croatian sun burn over to the boarder to the Slovenian rain. We weren't sure if we should cut through Slovenia as they had just suffered their worst flooding in history, but many sites were saying most places were now ok and open for tourism again and luckily where we were heading was still ok. So we rocked up to lake Bled. A stunning lake with the “Church of the mother of god on the lake” on an island in the middle and the impenetrable fortresses of Bled castle on the rocky outcrop overlooking the valley. Simply a stunning place straight out of the picture post card book!

Day 19

So we explored Bled, we walked around the lake which is around 6km for the circuit but at the opposite end there is a very steep hill where a trail through the woodland takes up to some stunning views of the lake and island.The woodland is full of life and we even had a red squirrel en route. After the rain the day before we had beautiful sunshine and temperatures of around 31C. After bled we moved along a little to the lovely village of Kranjska Gora, right at the foot of the Julian Alps. A town mainly set up for winter Skiing and access to the high mountains. When we got there we explored the town, staying on a camper spot only a few hundred meters away.

Day 20

This morning we were up early to drive up into the Julian Alps along the winding Vrsic Pass. This super windy and steep pass quickly gets you up to 5285ft. Even though we set out early we struggled to find a parking space for our camper and had to park around a mile away from the top as the parking was full of climbers. We still had a great morning up in the mountains, stunning peaks but very busy. We had a nice short walk along a trail at the foot of the high peaks and then on the way back down visited the Russian chapel, Ruska kapelica, a wooden memorial chapel dedicated to Russian POWs who died building the Russian Road in 1916. We returned  to Kranjska Gora to the same parking as the previous night as our parking was still valid and watched England in the Womens World Cup final. After the game we moved on driving over the Worzenpass into Austria, the drop into Austria was so steep I had to tip water onto the breaks as they were actually on fire! We did not plan on anything other than an overnight stop in Austria as we had been there previously and they are also dead against wild camping 

Day 21

So we had had a lazy start and a bimble round the woods for the dogs in the morning then a long drive through Austria and over the Alberg pass @ 5882ft. We had planned on using the tunnel but it was closed for maintenance when we passing tough into Switzerland and Lichtenstein. We walked across the only wooden bridge left on the Rhine into Switzerland from Lichtenstein and back again. We then drove back up the twisting roads of Lichtenstein into the mountains and parked up for the night at 5000ft. Wow what a sun set and brilliant view of the Swiss valley below. After the Alberg Pass we were worried about the brakes the following day on the way back down.

Day 22

After a lovely walk through the mountain paths with stunning views over Switzerland we drove down off the mountain very slowly but managed not to set fire to the breaks again! We crossed the river back into Switzerland and then on over to Rhine downfall. It was so hot at 36/37c that we struggled with the dogs, so we were forced to wait until the evening to take them out. I popped down to the falls in the day to get some picks, but even out in the sun for a short time made you sweat! It was the first day we had struggled with the heat, a long hot sticky night in the camper followed! The falls are lit up at night and it was a little cooler for a walk around.

Day 23

We decided to escape the Swiss heat and drove up into the hills of the Black Forest and back into Germany, at 3500ft it was a lot cooler and the dogs enjoyed a good walk in the forest and swim in the lake to cool themselves down at the end. We stayed in the Black Forest tonight in a small town called Hilpertsau.

Day 24

We had another lovely walk in the woods of the black forest with the dogs this morning then moved on for a couple of hours north to a lovely little village called schiersfeld right next to another forest. We had a big thunderstorm followed by a beautiful sunset in the evening and then an unsettled night of more storms.

Day 25

Woke up first thing after a night of thunderstorms we took the dogs for a walk around the woods in the cool for a change then we took a drive up to Rhine gorge and it’s castles, We only took a slow drive through, stopping briefly to take photos with a quick stop at one of its castles before finally taking a drive over to Belgium with another forest walk stop en-route and a stop by the circuit de spa - Francorchamps, before staying near there for the night.

Day 26

Unfortunately we had to have a quick trip to the local vets in the morning as Bruno had a sore eye, he seemed to have got a cut in it from running through grass, anyhow Tracey was €57 lighter for her troubles! After the vets we took a drive through Brussels and on to De Haan. We decided it was finally time for a bit of beach! We were treated to a brilliant sunset, there was a naked chick on the beach and we were  not sure if ice cream on chips was a local delicacy. We parked up on the roadside in the middle of town and settled there for the night.

Day 27

We walked the dogs along the beach again in the morning as they had to be off the beach before 10am, then we had a walk around the town and settled back into the camper to watch the Dutch Grand Prix, finally finished the day off with another lovely sunset along the beach deciding to stay put in the same place as we did the last night.

Day 28

Again we had a nice walk along the beach to start the day then the customary visit to the vets for worming tablets before returning to Blighty. Then we had a drive up to Zeeland in Holland. Zeeland is a stunning place but not camper friendly, you have to stay on a camping site or risk €150 fine! As it was the hight of summer we struggled a little to find a site, but finally found a great site just 10 mins from the beach if you cut through a small woodland, and wow what a lovely beach!

Day 29

Sadly this was our last day in the EU so again we started it with a great walk along the beach. We had a look around a couple of scrap yards on route to the Hook of Holland and found Herbies final resting place, then walked the dogs by one of the Zeeland Islands many dams before finally boarding the ferry and awaiting our departure back home! Even though it was a cabin bunk, that night was the first night in a proper bed in a month (if you can call bunk beds on a ferry a proper bed!) and our opportunity to stock up on duty free!

Day 30

We left the ferry and stopped off at a local beach in Harwich before driving back to Newcastle-under-Lyme and home, with just a quick stop en-route for the dogs to stretch their legs. Finally ending our summer 2023 tour!