Trip report : Norway in the truck camper
Well, we had done a lot of stuff in our own country in our truck camper the past couple of years, and a lot of foreign travel in rented campers, so time to get our little camper on a ferry and oversea...
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Friday - North Sea to Baltic Sea
We were woken by a cheerful tune playing over the PA system announcing that breakfast was served.
Sally had packed some things into a bag for us to eat in the room but sent me down to see what breakfast options the ferry sold.
I had noticed that the ferry had a separate lounge for truck drivers - maybe they like to keep them separate from the vacationers :). But all the drivers had disappeared to there for their breakfast, which I suspect was included in their ticket price. Ours was not and it was soon clear the only breakfast venue for non-truck-drivers was the buffet restaurant at the bow on deck 9. It was around $15 per person. Since we don't usually have much for breakfast it didn't seem worth paying that much, so I bought a cup of coffee and took it back to the room.
The weather definitely hadn't improved. It was now raining and windy. At one point I asked Sally if we really should be heading north - maybe we should turn right out of the ferry port and head in the general direction of Spain.
But we stuck with the plan - as the man says "have a plan and stick to it".
So we headed for the highway and the German border. We reached the border after a few hours - Sally missed the border - there is nothing but a sign post there. But one thing did change - the weather. Clearly the British and Dutch haven't kept up their subscriptions for summer, and so summer weather had been withdrawn. Germans clearly had paid, and as we crossed the Elbe at Hamburg we had nothing but blue skies:
We drove through the German city of Kiel on the coast of the Baltic sea, and headed for the seaside resort of Leboe. A slightly sleepy place with a nice beach. I was planning on using a local campground, but found that the car park on the hill above the sea front allowed you to buy a ticket for overnight parking of an RV, and a load were already lined up.
Before anyone asks - that is not some fancy new solar or antenna array I have fitted to the top of the camper - it is something I am parked in front of :B
The automatic ticket machine stated that it was €12 for overnight parking, which seemed a lot since there weren't any facilities, but I guess it is a popular seaside location. But the problem was how to pay. Yes I have a large collection of Euro coins, but I save those for things like toilets, showers, general parking, and didn't fancy burning through 12 of them on one parking machine. I tried the credit card, but it didn't work. I tried asking German campers, but they didn't know and didn't speak English (the older generation in such locations often don't - I cannot criticise because I cannot speak German and it is their country).
I decided to risk it and not pay over night - maybe someone would come in the morning and I could pay him in notes (and get some more useful coins in change).
It was also very warm. This was a shock after Holland and England, and not what we were expecting. We also had limited warm weather clothing - Norway is north isn't it - so that means cold, surely, so we had plenty of clothing for that.
Stay tuned for Denmark ...
We were woken by a cheerful tune playing over the PA system announcing that breakfast was served.
Sally had packed some things into a bag for us to eat in the room but sent me down to see what breakfast options the ferry sold.
I had noticed that the ferry had a separate lounge for truck drivers - maybe they like to keep them separate from the vacationers :). But all the drivers had disappeared to there for their breakfast, which I suspect was included in their ticket price. Ours was not and it was soon clear the only breakfast venue for non-truck-drivers was the buffet restaurant at the bow on deck 9. It was around $15 per person. Since we don't usually have much for breakfast it didn't seem worth paying that much, so I bought a cup of coffee and took it back to the room.
The weather definitely hadn't improved. It was now raining and windy. At one point I asked Sally if we really should be heading north - maybe we should turn right out of the ferry port and head in the general direction of Spain.
But we stuck with the plan - as the man says "have a plan and stick to it".
So we headed for the highway and the German border. We reached the border after a few hours - Sally missed the border - there is nothing but a sign post there. But one thing did change - the weather. Clearly the British and Dutch haven't kept up their subscriptions for summer, and so summer weather had been withdrawn. Germans clearly had paid, and as we crossed the Elbe at Hamburg we had nothing but blue skies:
We drove through the German city of Kiel on the coast of the Baltic sea, and headed for the seaside resort of Leboe. A slightly sleepy place with a nice beach. I was planning on using a local campground, but found that the car park on the hill above the sea front allowed you to buy a ticket for overnight parking of an RV, and a load were already lined up.
Before anyone asks - that is not some fancy new solar or antenna array I have fitted to the top of the camper - it is something I am parked in front of :B
The automatic ticket machine stated that it was €12 for overnight parking, which seemed a lot since there weren't any facilities, but I guess it is a popular seaside location. But the problem was how to pay. Yes I have a large collection of Euro coins, but I save those for things like toilets, showers, general parking, and didn't fancy burning through 12 of them on one parking machine. I tried the credit card, but it didn't work. I tried asking German campers, but they didn't know and didn't speak English (the older generation in such locations often don't - I cannot criticise because I cannot speak German and it is their country).
I decided to risk it and not pay over night - maybe someone would come in the morning and I could pay him in notes (and get some more useful coins in change).
It was also very warm. This was a shock after Holland and England, and not what we were expecting. We also had limited warm weather clothing - Norway is north isn't it - so that means cold, surely, so we had plenty of clothing for that.
Stay tuned for Denmark ...
