Day #: 110-118

Date(s): 13AUG – 21AUG2025

Location(s) Visited: Calais & Dunkirk, France; Bruges, Belgium; Bonn, Koblenz, Bingen, St. Goar, Düren, Germany

Overall Impression of Location(s): Calais, France = 3, Dunkirk, France = 3, Bruges, Belgium = 2; Bonn, Germany = 4, Koblenz = 3, Bingen = 2, St. Goar = 2, Düren = 2, Germany

4 -added to our favorite list and we would return again
3 – a great place to visit
2 – OK for one visit, but we would not return again
1 – we wish we hadn’t wasted our time here  

Distance Driven on Leg/Trip (km): 665 km (but much of this on large highways)

Weather/Temperature (°F): Overall, the weather has been fantastic with daytime temperatures in the low 70’s and overnight temperatures in the low 60’s. We have had a few days of warmer temperatures with daytime temperatures rising until the low 80’s, which feels HOT inside a dark gray campervan but thankfully those were only single days and a couple of times. A few nights have been much cooler, so much that we have used our heat and worn our puffy coats for early morning or late evening walks. Compared to continued 100+ degree temperatures back in Arizona, we will take this weather anytime.

Road Conditions: The French roads are much bigger than the Wales and Irish roads, so we don’t know why we were calling them “skinny French roads”. They are still small by US comparison, but they feel almost palatial compared to Ireland. It took Tracey a couple of days to adjust back to driving on the right side of the road as she had gotten so used to left-hand driving. Next up were the lovely Belgian roads and then the big, beautiful German Autobahn with no speed limit. We took a tip from our friends Ron and Ton and did a longer transit on a Sunday when there were few (if any) semi-trucks on the road and it was driving bliss. We cruised at 130-135 kph and even used cruise control.

Chickpea Mechanical Status: We have not had any new issues with Chickpea, but the MB battery voltage continues to oscillate between 12.2 and 12.6V after long drives, although we have not gotten any more low voltage warnings. We have a Mercedes appointment in a week for a full 2-year check-up and oil change, so hopefully everything will be addressed then. We have a few minor Hymer warranty issues we are trying to get approved so we can get fixed before the warranty runs out and/or we return home, but they are slow to process our claim so we continue to wait. Fortunately, these issues are very very minor (i.e. rust on several hinges, missing stove lid bumpers, interior trim piece which needs reattachment, etc.).

Health Updates:

• Tony continues to make good progress in healing his fractured shoulder and he is committed to getting back 100% of strength and function. He faithfully does his exercises several times a day and has now added in some light strength training. At the 8-week mark from his accident, he can now do most ADLs except heavy lifting. He is not driving quite yet but is happy to continue to be chauffeured around by Tracey. Somehow, he dodged having to drive in Wales at all.
• Tracey‘s leg has healed nicely and she has days where she does not have any pain or think about her injury.  She is back to walking as far as she wants to go, but she has not attempted any harder hikes or anything with a lot of elevation and is just happy to continue like this until she gets home and can make certain it is completely healed.

Highlights:

• Overall, we have been getting lucky with traveling in August at the height of vacation season without any campsite reservations. We arrived early and each time we were able to get a pitch without any problems. The campgrounds/Aires are completely full by 10 AM, so getting there around 8-9 AM has worked well for us thus far. Traveling in August was our biggest concern for this trip, but it wasn’t as bad as we thought in terms of campgrounds; however, many of the towns and cities are packed once we get out and walk around. It’s totally fine, just an adjustment after spending 7 weeks in rural Wales where everybody knows everybody.
• After taking the Eurotunnel, we landed in Calais, France where we had pre-booked a Camping-Car pitch at a very busy 100+ Aire for several days. We heard so many negative things about Calais we weren’t sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised. We really liked Calais! We took several long beach walks and just readjusted to being back in the van after 7 weeks in Airbnb’s! We plan to return when we use the Eurotunnel next year and are excited to check out more of Calais including some museums.
• We made a stop in Dunkirk, France and stayed at another low amenity centrally located Aire. This place only had 28 spaces which were in high demand, but luckily, we were able to snag one just as someone was leaving. The location couldn’t have been any better as it was less than a 10-minute walk to the museums, park and beach. We walked through the lovely sculpture garden outside of the LAAC museum (Tracey loved the garden so much, we went back a 2^nd time!), spent the morning in LAAC (art) museum, visited a museum and learned about the 1940 Operation Dynamo evacuation and walked for several miles along a boardwalk and pier. The beach was large but we have never seen so many people on a beach before. Dunkirk was another surprise for us and we both decided we would return when we had the chance, preferably not in August.
• Bruges, Belgium has been named one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and the secret is out as it was the busiest place we have been to yet as it was the weekend of Assumption of Mary holiday. Our campsite was a local Aire parking lot perfectly located right outside of town. We again were able to get a parking spot, but only in the standard car-sized parking spaces. The motorhomes were packed so tightly together that our neighbor could not even open his habitation door without hitting our folded in mirrors. The demand for this Aire was unreal, with 5-8 motorhomes waiting for spots on the adjacent street and people walking around asking people if they are leaving. It was bonkers, but great people watching. For some reason, all the motorhomes in our immediate area were Italian, except for us. When they spoke Italian to us, Tony got mixed up and spoke Spanish back to them which caused lots of puzzled looks 😆.
• While in Bruges, we took a VoiceMap GPS audio tour of the town, went to the St. John Hospital Museum (which is also an art gallery), visited an old apothecary, ate local Belgian chocolate (it was awesome!), did some yoga in the park and Tony got on his first (non-doctor authorized) Brompton bike ride. The first day of our visit was quite hot with temperatures in the low 80’s, but the remainder of our visit the days were overcast and cool and therefore much more pleasant to be outside.
• Bonn, Germany was a delightful surprise how much we liked it and it will certainly be a place we return to again. Rick Steve’s Guidebook did us wrong again as he did not recommend Bonn and said it was on the section of the Rhine River, he calls the “Unromantic Rhine”. Yes, much of the city is new due to WWII destruction, but it had so many huge, beautiful parks, lovely flowers everywhere, amazing bicycling infrastructure, nice museums, lovely views of the Rhine and it is the birthplace of Beethoven, for gosh sakes. Sorry Rick, but you are just flat wrong on this one. We liked Bonn a lot.
• Our German Aire/Stellplatz was inside of a park and we were able to pitch up directly on the edge of the Rhine River. Tracey was in heaven as it allowed her unlimited barge watching opportunities. We took a long 6 mile walk which took us to both banks of the Rhine, did a VoiceMaps GPS audio tour of the city center, visited the very lovely Japanese Gardens and did yoga in the vast parks. We utilized the great dedicated cycling paths to do a grocery run on our Bromptons. Overall, we found people to be very friendly and we met a man and his young son who chatted politics with us for quite a while (they are not happy with German politics and are planning to move to the Netherlands) and also an older German lady who we chatted with about bikes as transportation, even in the winter, as she has no car.
• The beauty of traveling with no reservations or itinerary is that we can change plans on the fly. With plans to travel to Cologne that day, Tracey woke up and said let’s go to Koblenz instead. So, we did. We were lucky and took one of the last spots in the centrally located city Stellplatz, but the caveat was there was a nightly music and movie festival going on 30 feet from our van. This is on the part of the Rhine that Rick Steve’s calls the “Romantic Rhine” and it was indeed very nice with old castles dotting the shores and pastel-colored houses clustered in the small villages. We purchased Rhineland-Pfalz ticket pass which allowed us unlimited access to regional trains as well as free local bus/tram/train options for €39 for 2 people on a single day. This option was significantly cheaper than purchasing individual tickets and something we will certainly use again when in this region. We took a train to Bingen and then picked up a river boat going downstream for 2 hours through supposedly some of the most beautiful parts of the Rhine before we disembarked in St. Goar. We had a picnic lunch on the shores of the Rhine River and then toured the Rheinfeld Castle, which is currently undergoing extensive renovations but will be lovely when completed. Another 30-minute train ride and we were back in Koblenz just in time for the (free) music festival to begin. Music was Umsuka which was a mix of blues, reggae and bossa nova and we loved it! We also walked around the city of Koblenz and took a cable car across the Rhine to tour the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. It was quite hot outside with temperatures in the low 80’s, so we spent most of our visit to the Fortress seeking shade and cool interior rooms.

Lowlights:

• We accidentally got on the bus going in the wrong direction in Bonn. It only took a few stops for us to realize our mistake before getting off and catching the right bus. No real harm done other than feeling stupid.
• While waiting to board our boat in Bingen, a wasp or hornet got stuck under Tracey’s bag strap. She got 1 giant painful sting and at least 8 smaller stings on her side. The stinger broke off in her shirt and part in her purse strap so she had additional injury from this sharp bit rubbing on her before she realized parts of the stinger were still attached to her shirt/purse. With only 15 minutes to boarding, Tony ran 0.5 mile each way (yes, he can still run but did get an attack of plantar fasciitis the next morning) to the pharmacy to purchase a teeny tube of 0.5% cortisone for €11. Highway robbery, but you do what you got to do in a crisis. Tracey still has pain in this area and it looks red and raw.
• We took a bus up the steep road to Rheinfeld’s Castle. Our bus driver must have been a former Formula One Driver auditioning for the Speed Movie as we have never seen a bus being driven like this, it was wild to experience. He was also  quite aggressive with the oncoming traffic and forced a smaller bus to back uphill on a turn and the smaller bus backed directly into a solid stone wall crushing the back of the bumper and taillights of this smaller bus.
• We are back in countries where it is hard to have meaningful conversations with others and it does feel a bit isolating. On our train ride back to Koblenz, there were long winded announcements resulting in many people getting off the train, but we could not understand any of it and our Google Translate couldn’t detect the voice because of all the background noise. We find most people can speak some English, but they shouldn’t have to, and we really wish we each had at least 1 other language to fall back on.
• We have written off Revolution Laundry after another mishap. We love the convenience of these laundromats in the middle of parking lots, but our last 3 visits have resulted in broken machines or errors causing us to have to seek out other options. One time no soap was dispensed in the wash and twice the washers were fine, but the dryers were broken. Revolution has always refunded our $$ after Tony bird-dogs them, but it’s a hassle. Having to pack up wet clothing in grocery bags and find a different laundromat is not fun. This last spot had broken dryers, but we found a lovely laundromat in Duren, Germany with lots of working dryers. Parking in these smaller cities can be tough, but Chickpea is small enough to be paralleled parked on the street.

Up Next: Düsseldorf, Münster, Friesoythe, Bremen, Hamburg, Germany before heading to Denmark via ferry.

Onwards! Vorwärts immer, rückwärts nimmer! Allez on y va!