Dublin to Copenhagen

August 01st 2009

European Leg of the world tour

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31405705@N08/

Dublin to Copenhagen

15th July After 8 weeks of preparation and the van finally ready, I set off from Galway at 10pm bound for Dublin. I arrived in Lucan Co. Dublin (Home of Eilis, my first travel buddy). Whilst driving slowly through her estate after dark looking for her house the local Gardai spotted me in a white unmarked van acting in a suspicious manner after midnight. They pulled me over. After a long chat about my name being similar to a jockey and about living in Galway, the Garda did one last Giraffe neck impression trying to smell my breath as he had me talking, they eventually sent me on my way. Hoping this was not a start to a series of rendezvous with the Law and order of Europe, I pulled in to the side of the road and went to sleep.

16th July I knocked on Eilis door at 6.00am and after a quick shower we were on the road at 6.40. We arrived at Irish ferries and the check in lad gave me an ear full for booking the van as a car online in an attempt to save a €100. I gave a feeble defence about vehicle height and weight and it being my first time so he let me go ahead on the promise I wouldn’t do it again. Arriving in Holyhead later on, we drove another 300 miles to my sister Louise’s flat in Putney, London. We got there after 7pm having battled the London rush hour traffic. Fair play to Louise, she had beds made up & dinner and dessert on the ready. She was a great host and despite being dragged into a couple of DIY jobs we had a lovely evening.

17th July After a great nights sleep we left Louise’s after 10.30am. I was greeted by a parking ticket on my van which I responsibly rolled up into a ball and put into the first recycling bin I could find. We headed for Dover, it was a lovely day and after a couple of hours were joining the queue to board the ferry. Dover is a very busy ferry port and by the time we got through the queue we had missed our ferry. We were put on the next one and despite the delay arrived in Calais at 5.30pm without incident. My biggest concern at this point was driving on the right with a right hand drive vehicle but it was fine and got used to it quickly.
We drove onto Brugge which was quiet easy thanks to the clear directions given by Mary my sat nav. We found our campsite and settled in for the night after a quick trip to the supermarket. We watched the movie ‘In Brugge’ on the laptop as a preview to our exploration of the town tomorrow. Sleeping beside a stranger that night for the first time was going to be more difficult for Eilis than me (as I had done this camper-vanning in Australia before) but with a little assurance and preparation, both agreed all went well.

18th July Up and out at a respectable 11am and off into Brugge city centre by foot by a fairly direct 2.5km walk. One thing is for sure, Brugge is beautiful. One old period building is more impressive than the next. We saw fabulously ornate churches, religious art and went to the Basilica of Blood where a few coagulated drops of Jesus’ blood on his shroud are on display. I queued up and went up to the altar where this woman was overseeing the proceedings, touched the glass container it was in and pretended I was having an amazing experience. Eilis was going on about feeling ‘Energy’ in the place but all I felt was a bit hungry. We went to another church to see a Michelangelo statue of the mother and child (only one outside Italy) and enjoyed seeing the scenes from the Colin Farrell ‘In Brugge’ movie. After a long day walking we went to this nice little Belgian bar and had a few lovely Belgian brews and a meal for under €17 each.

19th July Up and out at 10.30am and set off for Ghent. It’s a beautiful town with amazing buildings, cathedrals and canals and like Brugge in many ways albeit on a smaller scale. There seemed to be a festival being prepared for that evening so we were treated to warm up acts of traditional singing and dancing in full dress rehearsal and an excellent Scottish police band with drums and bagpipes.
That afternoon we headed for Brussels and was a nightmare to navigate around despite the sat nav, and proved all too much for Mary who was more confused than I was. We abandoned the van and got on the Hop on Hop off tour bus and saw the sights that way. Brussels is incredibly beautiful with palaces, cathedrals, museums and Boulevards galore. We saw the EU HQs and it must contribute hugely to the local economy. That evening after dinner we headed to Antwerp and arrived at a full campsite. The lady in charge suggested we park in the car park across the road and walk over whenever we wanted to use the facilities. She wouldn’t take any money… great Belgian hospitality.

20th July In order to get into Antwerp city centre as a pedestrian one must cross the Shelde river, but there were no bridges. They had tunnels! There were also tunnels for cars and trams too. The history on why they went down the tunnels route rather than a bridge was on display with photos of its construction but sadly only in French and Dutch. I gathered it was to do with bombing of vital links during the war and that was a way around the problem. Antwerp had a lovely town square but was business as usual after that. We left Antwerp later that afternoon and headed 2 hours south to the Ardennes, a hilly countryside region with picturesque villages and scenery in the Walloon region. We set up at a campsite in a village called La Rochelle en Ardenne and it was a lovely village set in a valley on a river. There was a festival of some sort ongoing and enjoyed a great fireworks display that night.

21st July We hung around La Roche en Ardenne for the morning and that afternoon headed for Maastricht in Holland though the Ardenne forest. On arrival in Maastricht there was a load of road layout changes and Mary sat nav got all confused again. Getting frustrated we decided to get out of the town and take the bus in. Our first accommodation choice no longer existed and was gone for the last 4 years (was listed in the latest Lonely planet guide to Europe) and we headed a little further out to a campsite. It was getting late in the day so postponed Maastricht until tomorrow.

22nd July We got the bus into Maastricht this morning and had a good look around. It’s a lovely town with great cobbled streets and nice upmarket shops. That afternoon we visited the towns of Aachens and Vals. In Vals there is an Obelisk in the middle of the town marking the meeting of the borders of Belgium, Holland and Germany where we posed for the essential photos whilst being in the 3 counties at once. That evening we showered and changed at our campsite and headed for Monshau over the border in Germany. We stopped at a motorway service station along the way and camped for the night for free amongst the trucks.

23rd July Up and out at 7am we started our journey from the service station en route to Monshau. Along the way it was lashing rain so we pulled into a national park car park along the way and climbed in the back for a snooze while waiting for the rain to pass. A couple of hours later we made coffee on the gas stove and we were on our way again into Monshau. It’s a beautiful quirky little town that has been caught up in a time warp. It has lovely little shops selling little bits and pieces with no multinational influence. Apparently during WW2, retreating German soldiers refused a direct order from Hitler to occupy the town as they felt that it was such a magical little place that it would be destroyed by the advancing allies if they did. Lucky Monshau. After that we headed for Venlo in Holland, a town near where my friends Stephanie and Maiike live. We arrived there that evening and Maiike had put on a wonderful dinner and filled us with wine. We had a great night and a call to Fiachra (my brother whom they had met in South America) was a highlight for the 2 girls. We slept in the van in their driveway that night refusing their kind offer of a bed for the night.