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.

A little bit of Serbia

Every day now seems to start of with misty mornings & hopefully through the day the sun manages to get through at some time. We drove through Arbanasi which meant we only really saw the views overlooking Veliko Tarnovo & not stopping to see the other buildings as we had many other places to get to today. 

We drove up the Shipka Pass in sunshine through golden late autumn forests & no sign of snow. We then headed East making good progress along well surfaced roads with little traffic. It was getting later in the day & we were enjoying the sunset when suddenly we seemed to approach a wall of cloud & the sunlight vanished. Quickly we were in fog & driving was becoming dangerous. We had to stop earlier than intended & found a small road off the highway where there were a few safe places off the road with not too much passing traffic. It was as place where a lot of trade type waste is dumped, probably including this old kiosk, but we feel no one will be bothered or probably know we are here.

In the morning the fog was a little clearer as it was now daylight, but it kept coming back in patches. It was all worth it though reaching one of the highlights of our trip at Belogradchik with it fortresses & a sea of rocks in todays mists. 

On another day I am sure it would look quite different but still stunning, but with the low winter sun & the mist in the valley it was one of the finest views we have encountered in our worldwide travels. Even better, looking at our photo's so many of them seem to have come out really well, now we just need an enormous panoramic screen to view them.

We were running out of Bulgaria now having driven West to East & had a choice to get back to Romania, either the Ferry over the Danube or a small diversion through Serbia. Of course we went for the Serbia option as it's another new country for us. There are more complications as Serbia is not an EC country, so different border formalities & currency & vehicle insurance though they only checked our vehicle reg. Document. Despite there only being about 6 vehicles in front of us it took over an hour waiting in the rubbish strewn queue (what a lovely introduction to your country) to get through all the border formalities. I think some big-wig type was visiting & everything stopped, we could tell this wasn't normal as all the local Bulgarian & Serbian drivers were getting agitated.

We only had about 40 miles to drive & no local currency so we didn't get much chance to see the country. First impressions were the houses were much larger & more modern & everywhere seemed 'richer' than Bulgaria. It may be because a lot of our route was following the Danube so many place had nice river front settings & 'beaches' There is a road bridge across the border to Romania which we crossed over in the failing light & found a small side road to park up on close to the river with the now almost obligatory railway line that seems to pass all the places we end up sleeping for the night.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Our vehicle documents were checked as we left the Romanian border, then a drive through some water I guess to cleanse our wheels then we were in Bulgaria with just a small office open to sell us yet anther vignette this time cost about 5 Euros for 7 days. Immediately we could see that they were putting this money to good use as there was a brand new road awaiting us & the one other car on the road for the first few miles. Our first stop was worth a visit, an unspoilt headland before getting to the tourist development further down the coast. Kaliakra Cape is mostly a nature reserve, important for migrating birds & there are the ruins of old fortresses. It was sunny at last so we had an hour pottering around alone as it was only 9am but the entry kiosk & museum were open so we happily paid our fee of just over a pound each.

Our first town, in search of an ATM was quite a different experience to the other countries we had just travelled through, mainly due to the Cyrillic writing, it's not easily decipherable like most Latin based languages. A bit like when we were in Taiwan, is it a sign for the bakers or the bookies? Most road signs have a translation but not all & my Garmin GPS Bulgaria map from openstreetmaps just shows ??????? for most town & street names. At least the ATM gave me a choice of English so we ended up with a handful of shiny new banknotes. Diesel seems to be about the same price as Romania but many service stations look quite old & you wonder if they have credit card technology. There seem to be many old industrial buildings & more square blocks of flats all covered in clothes washing & satellite dishes. Also a lot more older cars on the road, even Lada's! but not as much traffic as we have encountered in the previous countries.

We headed inland from Varna on a Motorway but were forced to divert off due to maintenance. It was noticeable that many of the roads bypass the villages so at least you get on at a reasonable speed & the small places are spared busy traffic passing through them. Madara Reserve sounded interesting & we arrived at dusk just as the site was closing. We stopped in the parking space in front and had a quiet night & were ready for the 8am opening. 

It is a sheer rock cliff face famous for an 8^th century carved horseman that is depicted on all the Bulgarian coins. There is a fortress up at the top, a 120m very steep climb with uneven steps but a secure handrails & superb views. At the base are some caves & a small chapel with many small religious icons.

We had contacted the owners of the highly recommended http://www.campingvelikotarnovo.com which was closed but they were happy for us to stay & park & had use of a toilet, electric, water, waste & WiFi all of which were a nice change from a car park area. It looks a lovely site, well laid out, good views & excellent facilities.

The owners were away but their caretaker Bev made us welcome & gave us lots of helpful advice & guides of local places to visit. Beautiful blue skies in the morning after another night when the temperature dropped below zero. We spent all day looking around Veliko Tarnovo , a very nice town set on hillsides divided by 2 rivers and with an enormous fortress. 

There is an interesting artisans area with potters, wood carvers & painters & above average interesting dust collectors to take home. We should have had an early warning about portion size after the cakes we had at morning coffee. Eating later at the recommended Ego Pizza & Grill we totally over ordered as the portions were so large & we even had to make up a small doggy bag to take away. All the food was superb & only cost 31 lev (about £13) for 5 dishes & 2 drinks.

Parking in the centre is by the hour for 1 lev, paid to one of the many ticket issuers. We wanted to park for 5 hours & were issued with 5 large tickets which we had to display on our windscreen. 

We could easily have spent more days here wandering around the town & the surrounding area but it is getting time to start the long route back towards home after now having driven just under 3000 miles.  

The Black Sea

Heading South trying to follow the coast or the inland lakes was very nice, had coffee overlooking a reed beds & out to the lake with lots of Cormorants, in Summer this area also has many Pelicans but they have now all gone. 

Eventually though all this natural environment disappears as you get closer to Constanta which has spread along the coast & is full of continual tourist development though at this time of year without the tourists. 

In Constanta itself suddenly there was a mass of traffic on wide highways & we quickly fled hoping to find some nicer coastline again. Below Constanta most places on the coast are on roads that only go down to the coast and do not link up along the coast with each other very much. There was the very strange area of Neptun-Olimp, pre-revolution elite Communist party resorts which at this time of year were completely deserted apart from a few loose dogs & the odd security guard. If you ever want to make deserted tourist complex, after an apocalpse, movie this is the place if you come in November. Luckily just further South Mangalia is more of a working town, there is a bit of beach not built on and a new smart marina. There was a large marked out parking area at one end of the beach where there was the only Motorhome we have seen anywhere for more than 2 weeks, but no sign of anyone in it & no other vehicles. 

As we drove in a security guard popped out of a small cabin and we asked/gestured if it was ok to park/sleep the night. He seemed ok about it & we also had 5 dogs to protect us as well! The whole area was floodlight all night but we couldn't work out what he was guarding. Even better we had good internet access from some local hotel which we couldn't even see. The change of shift guard in the morning seemed to want us to leave quickly in the morning so we moved further down on the firm sand closer to the beach for our breakfast. Soon after we were at the eerily empty Bulgarian border & our 5^th new country on this trip.