Week 13 and 14 - Heading home.

21st - 27th August 2017

This is always the sad part of a trip, the bit where you have turned around and are heading back. Often as in this case covering old ground. The only thing new this week was a trip to Potsdam. We did of course cover large parts of Potsdam area on our way out, spending a very pleasant day in the Park Sanssouci - a must for anyone travelling in these parts, but the town itself we missed.

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Brandenburg Gate - Potsdam

It is a very pleasant town although we made the mistake of following the walk suggested by the towns tourist department. It was overly long and between places of interest went through areas that held no interest. By the end we were tired and more than a little fed up with trapsing along dull and boring city streets. A great pity as there seems to be many sights tourists would want to see.

On Thursday we moved from Germany back into Holland, returning to Assen and Vakantiepark Witterzomer. We had allowed three days to see Dirkje, who when we rang to say we were popping in on our way back said “. . . oh come anytime as I rarely go out at this time of year with all my clubs closed and friends on holiday . . . “. She was out all day on Friday and all day on Saturday. Still it was pleasant to see her on Sunday and we finished the visit with a meal in the Chinese restaurant opposite her home.

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Potsdam - The Old City Hall

28th - 31st August 2017

From Assen we travelled south towards Hoek van Holland where we were to catch the ferry, staying a couple of nights on a site just a few kilometers away, Camping en Jachthaven De Meeuw in the small town of Brielle. The site is weighted heavily towards seasonal pitches and even in the smallish touring area many caravaners/motorhomers have set up fences around their palaces pitches.

We had time for just one day out this was to Scharendyke (I tried to find an information site to link here - zilch!!). It is a very pleasant area although very much geared towards the various forms of boating.

 All good things come to an end and today (Thursday) was ferry day. We had according to Google 50 odd kilometres to the Stena Line terminal so I was rather surprised when Mr Garmin reckoned there was less than 30 km to the terminal as Google is normally far more optimistic. After twenty minutes or so we found out why, despite having “No Ferries” ticked in the sat-nav avoidances there we were trying to figure out how to pay an auto toll for a small ferry across one of the very many waterways in the area.

We were on board the Stena Hollandica over an hour and twenty minutes before the departure time. Summer Adventure Number Eight was over.

For the sad among you a few statistics:-

Days away                            88

Distance travelled                8848 km (5498 miles)

Fuel used                            862 litres (190 gallons)

Economy                             10.26km/l (29 mpg)*

*  This may seem on the low side but many of those miles were covered towing the caravan, and that 1.8 tonne lump behind us consumption drops considerably.

© S W Ghost 2017