Germany, Holland, Belgium & France in one day

Frozen Olive Oil from the cupboard, why do we bother running the fridge?

Border hopping is so easy in the E.U. & using the same currency is just so much easier. We parked for the night at the Stellplatz in Cologne where there were about 10 other vehicles. It is next to a useful park & ride to the city and quite a nice spot though all the motor home facilities were taped up & closed which didn't matter to us.

We managed to get across Germany without having to buy Diesel & after 560 miles on one tank we filled up in Belgium where it was cheaper. Light snow on & off until the French border where for once it was dry but quite windy. Used the free WiFi in Auchan to check the ferry prices & we are set to sail from Dunkirk at 8am tomorrow for £44 one way on DFDS. It was the first time we had stayed at the ferry terminal there, it was much quieter than Calais. We stopped in the parking area for the ticket office where there are more than 100 parking spaces & there were just a few cars & no other motor homes when we arrived at 7pm. Later on we gained a new neighbour for the night, were they trying to get some shelter from the wind for the night?

(sorry about the photo quality it was still dark at 7am)

Arriving home we had driven almost 5000 miles in less than 5 weeks, our winter tyres have had a good run in, hopefully they won't get too much more use this year. Now it's the big task of getting everything out of the van & aired as it's already so damp after weeks of cold weather travel. The house is cold but the gas meter hasn't moved in 5 weeks so that's some saving!

Christmas Market in Nuremberg

We have fond memories of Nuremberg from one of the last trips in our old van during the 2006 World Cup & we knew there was a convenient stellplattz overnight parking place. We found it easily & set off in to town to visit the Christmas Market. The temperature was plummeting it was minus 2 when we set off but in the centre of town squeezed in the crowds & under the stall lights we got slightly warmer. 

We had so many layers on but still the cold penetrated so we had to maintain our energy levels by sampling cakes & warmed wine & then appreciating the heated tram on our way back. In the night it snowed & we had the first real chance to test out Winter tyres. It was Sunday morning so little traffic & I think the snowfall of about an inch on most roads was unexpected. There were lots of mini snow ploughs getting going though, even clearing pavements.

On & off all day were light snow flurries, the countryside looked very pretty in the unspoilt snow and as it was Sunday traffic was lighter as all the trucks were parked up as most are not allowed to travel. As it was so cold we wondered if we would be able to get fresh water as our tanks were getting low, but we called in at a place we had stayed on our way out which was still working where we filled up with enough to last us to Dover if it doesn’t freeze. We have just found the olive oil in the cupboard in frozen, however the diesel heater still works great & wasn't affected by the fuel cock-up & we have now driven about a 1000 miles since Romania & the engine is running well & fuel efficiency is no different so hopefully we've not harmed it.  

Hungary to Austria

Working on the quickest & cheapest Toll free route home we headed for the Hungarian Motorway system which required another vignette which is controlled electronically. You can buy it online by credit card but the website didn't seem to be security enabled & we were using a public internet connection so didn't want to give out our details. Therefore we had to pay cash at the border & suffer the exchange rate rip off, paying in Euro's as we planned to get in & out of the country in one day without buying anything apart from 100% pure diesel.

Arriving at dusk in Austria our map showed a large lake not too far from the Motorway where we found a very quiet parking space close to the closed turnstiles for the 'beach' access. Leaving in the morning to explore the small town & get some shopping we saw a sign forbidding camping but it was probably just beyond where we had parked.

Getting into Austria meant we had to buy yet another vignette but this time we had the local currency Euro's so there was no extra charge. Now we were back in the 'rich' part of Europe & it was very noticeable. Better roads, buildings, sign-age, recycling & expensive prices. The cost of a Coffee on the Motorway had doubled (though we weren't buying any) but we were able to finally get a super clean shower at an OMV services for 2.20 Euro's which was welcome after going many days without campsites, and they also have free WiFi.

Wrong Fuel Ooops!!!!

It would be nice to say we had an undisturbed night, but after getting to sleep about 10.30 pm at 11.15pm we had a visit from the Romanian Border Police. They weren't bothered about us stopping there, just wanted to know who & why we were there & needed to check our passports. (perhaps they thought our van had evaded passport control on the bridge and swam across the huge Danube river!!?)

In the morning the plan was a steady 200km drive up to Timisoara, 24hr car parking in the city centre & time to look around & a meal out for a change.

The fuel tank was getting low, not enough to get all the way so we pulled into a large fuel station. Usually someone will be there to do the filling but I had to do it myself. 4 pumps 1, Green hose, 3 Black all different Euro 5 grade fuel. I am thinking ordinary Diesel, Super Diesel, Tractor Diesel & Unleaded. Put 66 litres in & drove off. 5 miles down the road the engine stopped and we rolled to a halt. No power but electrics still working but engine wouldn't restart. We were in a dangerous spot on a 2 lane main road up hill near a bend with lot's of heavy traffic. Here we started to use all the compulsory items you need to travel in Europe. Warning triangles front & rear & Yellow jackets whilst putting them out. Checked under the bonnet, nothing obviously wrong so time to call Safeguard for the European breakdown service. Just then a Yellow Mercedes Romanian van pulled up to see if he could help. He had seen our GB sticker & spoke English. Checking battery terminals & obvious things I said I had just refilled & showed him my receipt, he said “Oh my Jesus” you have put in Benzine instead of Motorina, which is what Romanians call Diesel. Firstly what we needed to do was get to a safer place off the highway & here another previously unused item, a tow rope came in handy once I had fitted the towing eye. Mikel got us safely up the hill to a wider area to stop then got on his phone calling up various contacts he knew & explaining what these stupid people had done! . He reckoned if we called our breakdown we probably would be stuck there a couple of days & no one in the village would help us as they didn't speak English. At this point if you are like us, you start to think is he trying to set up some rip off deal, but we felt he was being genuinely helpful. About 15 minutes later a car appears with 2 men & an assortment of plastic containers & tubes. We now had to try to remove 80 litres of fuel from our tank which was done firstly by the mechanic sucking the fuel through the hose until it flowed, and then filling up the containers. It flowed on & off & once he got a mouthful of Diesel & came close to throwing up, but he persevered. 

Being in the centre of the village everyone had to know what was going on & there was a constant referral to Benzine & Motorina (and probably stupid foreigners but those were the only words we understood). About 60 litres had been removed by the gravity method but the final bit was proving difficult. Then they worked out it could be pumped out by attaching a pipe to the diesel pump & turning the ignition on & off to pump it through. One of the by-standers was roped in to keep turning the key on and off for the next 15 mins or so. Eventually it was calculated almost all the fuel was out & they then drove off & brought back what they said was 50 litres of Motorina which was filtered into the tank through a stocking into a funnel. Then they carried on the pumping method and after about one more litre the Diesel started coming through. Starting the engine it fired up first time, no sooty exhaust or anything. In 3 hours from conking out it was all sorted & the total cost was 100Euros, 60 of which was the fuel! We were so relieved & grateful, everyone had been so helpful & friendly & we felt they weren't out to take advantage of us. They said drive steadily & fill the tank (ONLY with Motorina!) at the next fuel station, when we did we only had to put in 30 litres so the 50 litres they had brought was correct. This whole occurrence just confirmed what we had felt about our experiences in Romania that the people were genuinely friendly & helpful & it is a wonderful country to visit.

Arriving later than planned we found the city centre Parking Cu Taxa where we we directed to a coach parking space (40 Lei for 24 hours) & went out for an explore & a meal. They were busy setting up cabins for the Christmas markets & we quickly took in the sights & then found some great food in the Pinguin Lebanese Restaurant, were another helpful Romanian, lady advised us which dishes were good for vegetarians and stopped us over ordering! 

After a traumatic day we were ready for a good sleep & getting back to the van found we had company, a tiny Police car with a Blue light on top & a sign on the bonnet saying Jandarmerie was parked hiding away behind us. The car park has about 100 spaces, they were directly next to us & all night was coming & going, chatting & laughing, doors slamming & the engine running to get some heat. A few other Blue vehicles appeared through the night all parked up close to us. We think the next 2 days were national holidays which perhaps explained the extra security going on.