It feels a very long time ago now, however, leaving Dinkelsbuhl we headed North to one of our favourite little wine stop overs, Sommerach. It is one of those places where the town itself is small, but full of individual producers, mostly of white wine, but a handful of rose and reds thrown in too. This year we returned to two old favourites buying a couple of cases of white wine, and then tried to expand our selection by incorporating another vineyard, sadly their wine didn’t quite hit the mark…. the other two however are still firm favourites, we will just have to keep trying!

Moving on, we stopped for one night at Asbach, where we had stopped previously by a lake and forest – this time having enough time to do a lovely circular walk and find a local bee keeper selling some of their honey.

Then, another hop, skip and a jump, and we arrived at Aarchen (Stellplatz Bad Aachen 23 euro p/n), where we thankfully managed to get one of the last spaces as it was full and they just kept on coming.

After lunch, we decided to stretch our legs and head into the town for a little recky as the Stellplatz was only 2.5km outside the center. Most of the town was flattened in the war, so although the cathederal was pretty impressive and a small part of the old town had some pretty little streets, the rest was really just a ‘shopping center’ full of high street ‘chain’ shops. Although some of the cafe’s had a beautiful range of pastries that would have given France’s best patisseries a good run for their money!

With the deadline of a the Eurotunnel in sight and the temperature warming up, we decided to venture into completely new territory for a few nights of tranquility, arriving in Middelburg in the Zeelander province of the Netherlands (Stadscamping Zeelander, Middelburg €38.30 pn inc).

Once parked up on the rather empty campsite, we headed out to check out our new neighbourhood and were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the immediate area. Netherlands at its best, offering us windmills, canals and lakes…. all with an impressive number of rather luxurious duck houses that most MPs would have been jealous of!

As Zeelander is made up of lots of Islands it is an area that attracts lots of cyclists, walkers and people wanting to do watersports. We were only in Middelburg for 3 nights but managed to make the most of it, getting a good taste of the area by not only explore the town, which was pretty unique in itself, but also venture out into the surrounding area both on the bikes and on foot.

We walked round the outside of Middelburg on the first afternoon, taking in the network of the canals and waterways along with the beautiful architecture.

Then, as it was market day on the Saturday, we headed in to the main square to find it bustling with people in the market as well as making the most of the cafes and restaurants. The market was full of fresh local produce with everything ranging from cheese, fish, meat and fruit and vegetables – probably one of the best markets we have seen for a long time, and the town itself had a great variety of independent shops and restaurants too…. one to come back and re-visit.

The whole area was beautiful and obviously set up for cycling and walking, but what we hadn’t appreciated was the number of small local dairy farms which enabled us to buy local milk and cheese direct from the producers, some of which even had small campsites attached to them… one to look into next time. We did pop open one of the bottles of Champagne that we bought at the beginning of this trip to go with a BBQ as it was my birthday. It was as good, if not better, than we remembered… or perhaps that was because we had the bottle this time instead of multiple tastings!

It was however, all too quickly time to move on and head back to the UK. So after one night back in Berguez – where we started this trip – this time it was full and we got the last spot on the Aire, we took the tunnel back to the UK.

We were back at the farm for a week before we headed off again…. but before we did so, I had booked an afternoon and evening out with my mum to celebrate her 80th Birthday (from earlier this year) to see Abba Voyage. My first time back to the ‘Olympic Village’ since 2012…. it is fair to say that it was slightly quieter this time than my last visit but, that it still had that mesmorisingly tranquil effect as we walked towards the Arena.

A lovely evening which although couldn’t ever bring together the 80 years (and 6 months now) of ‘life’ that my mother has enjoyed… gave her another memory for the journey!

It was a busy week catching up with family and hence we didn’t quite have time to catch up on the blog… so it is an ‘extra’ extended version this time…. like most!

After a quick stop over at SAP to get our jacks serviced, we did a little hop, skip and a jump over towards Bradford as we had wanted to try out Prashad, a vegetarian Indian restaurant which looked exceptionally good when The Hairy Bikers visited it a couple of years ago.

We found a small CL (The Old Packing Station CL £15 p/n inc) that was just 2 miles from the restaurant which worked a treat for a couple of nights. I can’t say that it was completely quiet as it is only half a mile from the motorway, but it was pretty tranquil, down a quiet lane looking out onto green rolling hills… interspersed with pylons and houses!

The food was exceptionally good and although the hills provided for a challenging morning run, we will be back. The combination of flavour and texture along with ambience and service left us wanting to try more – if you are in the area, we highly recommend it.

We had wanted to head back up to Yorkshire for a while, so decided to try and find another small campsite between Whitby and Robin Hood Bay so we could go back to a pub we visited a couple of years ago. Netherless, as always we had left it too late to book the sites I had selected, although fell upon another which although the website said 8m length maximum, they had a couple of pitches that were plenty big enough for a 9m, and there was one left…bingo.

So after leaving Bradford, we headed North to Hawsker which is about 2 miles outside Whitby for 3 nights (Long Meadow Farm Campsite £20 p/n). What we hadn’t allowed for however, was the gale force wind and torrential rain…. and when it rains in Whitby, it really rains!

The Fish and chips were lovely though, as were the slightly wet walks and runs we had… certainly helped give you a clear head for the day…and it just meant we had a good excuse to eat delicious food!

With the sun shining again, we moved on to another new area in Yorkshire, this time on the Wolds. We had found a CL a couple of miles East of Pocklington (Martindale Farm CL, £25 p/n) which was lovely and tranquil, giving us ample of walking and cycling opportunities.

After a couple of walks both into the town itslef which had a market and up into the hills, we headed out for a little cycle ride over to Market Weighton, a small market town which we have passed through previously in the motorhome but not stopped. It is famous for William Bradley – the Yorkshire Giant, and the tallest ever Briton – who stood at 7ft 9inch (2.36m) when he was 20 years old.

A beautiful cycle ride but the town itself unfortunately doesn’t have a huge amount left on its high street, although to be fair to it, it does still have an independent butchers, greengrocer and fishmonger…. alongside the large Tesco.

The following morning we headed out on another little ride, this time a circular route through Pocklington and up into the Yorkshire Wolds, very tranquil.

We hadn’t been out on the bikes for a while so it was nice to stretch the legs in a different way… and it was reasonably hilly at points.

Another hop, skip and a jump and we arrived in Louth, a pretty little market town in Lincolnshire on the Wolds where we had found another little CL (Happyford CL, Louth £25 p/n) to stop at where the views were beautiful and they kept bees and sold honey…. perfect!

Once again, we had talked about coming here on a previous trip but didn’t quite make it for one reason or another, possibly working out in our favour as just a few months ago Gareth Bartrem, a chef whom we had seen previously on The Great British Menu, had opened a small bistro ‘The Auction House‘ in the market place focussing on local, seasonal products….and we couldn’t pass the opportunity by to pay a visit!

The food was delicious. Delicate flavours and textures bringing together unusual dishes – another to add to the list to return to! Lincolnshire has once again proved its place on the excellent produce list, just highlights how lucky we are in the UK with the produce we produce in our fields and on our coastline.

We headed into Louth on Saturday morning to the market and to hunt down the cheese shop as its reputation proceeds it. The market was typical of a local weekly set up, with everything from fruit and veg to some beautifully carved wood bread boards and furniture. We took the opportunity to stock up on local veg from the greengrocers, and couldn’t not try out some of the extra mature ‘Poacher’ and ‘Creamy Blue’ cheese – both were delicious.

The area was beautiful, with rolling hills in all directions – although we didn’t have enough time to explore too far a field, but got a good taste of what the area offered and will be back to see more.

The last stop of the trip before we headed back to the farm for the summer holidays was a CL (Skybarn £25p/n) just outside Lincoln. Another place that I had been eyeing up for a while – nothing to do with the fact that I had seen that they made cream teas and brought them to you in your motorhome / caravan – but I had always fancied going to Lincoln.

Sadly though, they had stopped making the cream teas and oddly, none of the reviews mention the fact that it is very close to the A46 and the road noise is pretty loud. Apart from that the site is impeccable and it was pretty easy to get to Lincoln by bike as well as Doddington Hall.

We walked over to the Nature Reserve which was really well set up with a lovely looking cafe, cycled to Doddington Hall to walk round the grounds and sample some of the products grown in their garden as well as the cake baked in their kitchen.

We met with Paul and Carly (Keiths brother and wife) in a wonderfully quirky local pub and finally, ventured into Lincoln for the day where we found the dragons in the castle as well as a fairly unexpectedly steep hill for Lincolnshire.

The old town at the top of the hill is really pretty with lots of quirky shops, the cathedral and castle and the newer area along the river has been completely renovated to incorporate the university as well as a reasonably sized shopping center closer to the station. It seemed a good balance.

It has been a busy 6 weeks since the last blog, covering a fair amount of distance and five countries… not too bad considering we travel like snails! Although to be fair three of those countries were probably covered in just as many days!

A few new recipes that we have cooked up along the way…
– Curried Brocolli Quinoa – A lovely light, flavoursom dish that could be eaten hot or cold
– Anti Pesto Pasta Bake – just a twist on our normal pasta bake
– Butter bean, pesto, sundried tomato and brocolli salad – full of flavour dish as a side, breakfast or lunch

… and finally the map!