OFF TO DENMARK

Whilst we are now in Denmark I will recount the days we spent in Coevorden before moving on to our days of travel.

For the week we spent in Coevorden – well 8km outside at a place called Da Vlindas, which was a lovely peaceful low key camping ground with lovely owners – just our kind of camp.  This made it easier to make the decision to stay until Monday of the funeral.

So during this week, Scot borrowed a ladder which was great as he was able to silicon some of the areas still needing it on the van but that couldn’t be reached by either the van ladder or from the ground.  He also completely cleaned and scrubbed the mould off the top of the van and then polished/waxed the top and all the rest of the van so the rain will run off really well now.  He has just told me that I have to put that I love him so much for working so hard when he is meant to be on holiday, but I won’t say that at all J.  Amazing where you find loose screws when you clean the van, just like motorbikes.  So there are now screws that were coming out on the outside of the van that are now secure again.  Amazing how much comes loose with driving the van on the roads.

We did a bike ride one day into Emlichem in Germany – about a 10km bike ride each way from the camp ground.  It was quite a strange little town – no market place or central (centrum) area where all the cafes etc were – so it was a bit boring.  All shops (the few there were) were closed for lunch – 12-2 and it was deserted.  They don’t start work until 8.30/9.00 and have 2 hours closed for lunch and then finish at 5pm  Great day of work if you can get it!  Most supermarkets are like Aldi here and I am not a fan of this type of store.  In Netherlands they have an Albert Hein supermarket who have the best food.  They have great varieties of bakery breads etc, cheeses, meals, deli and I love them.  I will miss them a lot.

On the weekend we went into Coevorden as they had the Haven Dargen boat festival on canals.  The boats are all like old barge style wooden boats and are all beautifully kept and of different sizes.  They also had markets, static displays, music, fair ground rides etc.  It was a beautiful clear warm day and there was a huge crowd there.  At night they took people for free out on a moonlight tour but it didn’t leave until 10.30pm, so it would have been a really late night by the time we biked the 8km back to the camping ground, so we didn’t stay for it.

The lovely camping ground owners had 3 dogs – 2 albino Alsatians and a little jack russel who own the ground as well as chickens and a rooster plus a cat.  On our last night we had desert bought out to us at the van which was strawberries and ice cream and cream and was a real treat.

We managed to watch the live streaming of the funeral at 3am which was difficult but good considering the circumstances.  Not a lot of sleep was had before or after the funeral that night.

Tuesday morning 14^th July

We packed up and said goodbye to Da Vlindas and headed for the Germany/Denmark border.  It was a long day of travelling and the German highways were interesting.  We were travelling at 60 miles per hour in the slow lane with the trucks and these crazy Germans would scream past doing near on 120 mph – probably more.  They were almost a blur as they flew by.  We had to watch out for anyone coming up if we had to pass a truck as they got to you so fast it was frightening.  At one point we heard a not so pleasant knocking type of noise – a little like the tyre noise we heard when we had a flat spot in the tyre in Belgium so we ended up pulling up in a rest area and checked the van out.  We didn’t find anything wrong and figured out it was the way the road was made but due to being paranoid from having a previous problem it was prudent to check it out anyway.  We were very grateful there wasn’t any other issue.

Late in the afternoon we arrive in Flensburg which is right on the Danish border but still in Germany.  Very busy camping ground – which we believed were mostly transient campers on their way to or from Denmark as it was much cheaper than the Danish camping grounds just across the border.  We had been told we should buy bottles of Whisky in Germany as they were so cheap to take with us as payment if something had to be done to the van.  However we didn’t do that and found that the prices aren’t as bad as people make them out to be in Denmark.  Denmark prices are equivalent or maybe slightly cheaper than Australia, but as our dollar devalues it is making it seem more expensive than it really is.  When we left we were getting  0.72 euro to 1 aussie dollar and now we are getting 0.63 – so the dollar has dropped 10% against the euro in 3 months.  It was also about 6 Kroner to 1AUD but it now is 5 Kroner to 1AUD.  We still don’t feel the prices are expensive though when compared to Aussie.  We paid $1 for a litre of milk and diesel is the equivalent of $1.75 per litre now which is actually cheaper than we were paying in Netherlands and Germany.

We left Flensburg on Wednesday and finally crossed over the border into Denmark.  We drove up to an area on the West Coast of Denmark called Vejers Strand which is right on the beach – a camping ground that was essentially set amongst the sand dunes and was huge so you could park where ever you liked.  It was a short walk over the dunes to the beach which was a straight stretch and miles long.  The water was not that cold but the wind was a little chilly so we didn’t end up swimming – although others were swimming.  The beach was like one large carpark with people taking their cars and campervans down, parking and setting up for the day.  Most people parking were from Germany – it was obviously a popular spot for them – perhaps one of the closest beaches and holiday destinations for them.

As we were walking along the beach an army tank came flying past us as well as a armoured car.  We wondered if maybe no one had told Denmark the war was over????  They were actually from the local war museum and are all in working order and they have displays on the beach every month as well in the dunes where they do war exercises and re-enactments.  There are signs warning people not to go in as there could be unexploded shells.  Scot had a great talk to the guys and had a look inside the Leopard tank – he really should have asked for a ride.  We also saw two jet fighters fly right along the beach front very low and fast – this really made me think they didn’t know the war was over!

Thursday July 16^th

This would have been my Mother’s 84^th Birthday so we decided to stay here and do something special in honour of her.  It was a lovely day so we went for a walk along the beach and when we got back to camp we picked a whole lot of the wild flowers that were growing all around and I wove them into a lovely wreath.  We bought a bottle of bubbly and took this and the flowers down to the beach and toasted my Mothers birthday that she didn’t quite make.  Then I let the wreath float out on the waves at the beach as my way of saying goodbye.  The flowers floated out on the tide – free – like I know my Mother is now.  My mother loved the beach, sea and bubbly so was a very fitting tribute to her.  I didn’t think it was right for Scot to cook on this day either so we went into the little village and had a lovely dinner out which is a first in a while – I couldn’t even fit ice cream in at the end! (Though Scot said he could have forced another beer or two down :-))

Friday July 17^th

We got up early for us and went for a long walk along the beach – it was almost deserted surprisingly – compared to the last two days, but I guess it would have been quite busy by lunchtime.  We left and headed north to Toftum Bjerge.