The sleep may have been good, but the awakening certainly wasn’t – 7am brought a loud bing-bong over the tannoy right into our cabin and a very annoying wake-up call, and of course, 7am Dutch time was 6am body time! We managed to drag ourselves awake & eventually made our way to the Brasserie for breakfast; £7 for a “small English breakfast” + £2.10 for a cup of tea....Still, it set us up for the day I suppose. We docked at 09.00 and were on our way out of Europoort by 09.20 – very civilised, this ferry!





We had obviously brought the British weather with us as it was raining for most of the way across Holland – our impression there was of flat, grey & wet countryside. It cheered up a bit later as we used the A15 to escape Rotterdam then the A3 to go south; we stopped on a Rastplatz for a break where we chatted with a couple from N Yorks who were going to Austria to stay at Camping Grubhof, the site at Lofer which had so impressed us in 2014.


The autobahns were quite busy, but not as busy as the main rest stops which were wall-to-wall lorries parked up for the weekend as they are not allowed to travel unless they are carrying fresh produce. The rain stopped and the temperature warmed up nicely – it was 24°C as we approached Bonn. Our original intention had been to stay just off the autobahn at Girod, but when R discovered it had no wifi, we rerouted ourselves to one that did.




Camping Oranienstein at Diez near Limburg fitted the bill and they had room for us to stay hitched up so we installed ourselves on a nice flat grassy pitch close to the Lahn River. Its part of the ACSI scheme and cost €17 for the night although showers are €1 a time. Wifi cost €3 for 24 hours but it was worth it to keep R happy! The shower block is fine, quite spacious and with separate cubicles with washbasins and there is a small restaurant serving a variety of German sausage and schnitzels. Frau & Herr owners speak quite good English (which is handy as my German is minimal at best) & you can order bread/pastries/cakes for the morning. Very satisfied so far.




We treated ourselves to a meal in the restaurant where we both had Jager Schnitzels (pork schnitzel with mushroom sauce) & frites washed down with Pils beer. It was a good sized portion & quite tasty so we didn’t begrudge the €20 it cost. After a brief walk on the riverbank to see nesting swans, we spent the evening chatting with our neighbours from Scotland before turning in.