Travel Musings

 It was a three hour drive from Epernay across the border into Germany, to the quite simply stunning town of Saarburg. The route we  wanted to take (one without motorway tolls) unfortunately cut through Luxembourg, and I'm currently not allowed in there . So it was motorway and tolls for most of the journey, but it was quite pleasant and smooth. Let me get the paperwork out of the way first. Signing in at the campsite on the edge of Saarburg was done through an app - no other way seemed possible. Unlike France we are not required to log in at bars and restaurants, and around town only a minority were wearing masks. However they are required in supermarkets, and I made the security guard's day by daring to enter the supermarket wearing a cloth mask - nein, das ist verboten! It had to be a paper one. We, or at least I, came across a potential problem when we cycled up to the local TUV office to get an emmissions sticker for my van. This is needed to drive into low emissions zone...

 We went for a bike ride in the morning, cycling high into the hills surrounding Epernay. Lord, the last bit was really steep, and even though I was on an electric bike the last 100 metres was just too much to pedal. At the top we were rewarded with a beautiful little village, and in the abbey was the final resting place of the monk who started the whole champagne ball rolling - Dom Perignon. As is always the case in France there was a café nearby, and a steaming bidet of coffee fortified us for the journey back down. In the afternoon a visit to a Champagne House had been organised, in this case Champagne Albert Gratien. This little known brand is apparently quite exclusive, and mainly supplies only top end restaurants - you are not going to find it in Aldi! The cellars were 80 metres underground, dug into the limestone rocks, and surprisingly cool.  Was there a tasting session after the tour (which by the way was excellent) - of course there was! And, yes, I can report that t...

 In retrospect I made the very correct decision to stay overnight at a site in Folkestone before the early morning Shuttle Train. As is always the case though, sleep was light and I was awake at about 3am and raring to go. The train was due to depart at 0920, and I had to be there before 0820 - in fact I was there three hours early and elected to get on the one leaving at 0720. All well and good. Customs and immigration control was so laid back and easy, it really made me wonder why there were so few other motorhomes about.  The first office was UK control who scanned my passport, the next office was French control who also scanned my passport and asked if I had been vaccinated. A simple yes was all he wanted - no checking of Covid Certificate. The third office just asked me to confirm my gas had been switched off, and that was that. There was no checking of foodstuffs (annoying as all the info I had said it was going to be checked), no Covid testing, no locator forms, no...an...

 Good morning/afternoon/evening, It's been a while since I've done a travel blog. It goes without saying that my loss of Ann last November, and the accursed Covid have contributed greatly to this. I have been through my contacts list to see if there was anyone who might be even slightly interested in my upcoming travels (or even my past travels), and added a few. If you don't want to be on the list please let me know, or just simply ignore my emails telling you of a new post. They will only be for the next few months. Back in the early part of the year I decided that I had to get out in my motorhome and continue where I left off. I saw an advert from a newly set up website called Motorhome Tours - www.motorhometours.co.uk   and liked the look of their proposed tour of northern Spain, Portugal, and then southern Spain across to, eventually, Granada.  The tour was being run by a couple called Giles and Linda Downer, and I have had a lot of contact with them, including ...

 Saturday night at Hexham Racecourse was....exposed. That fantastic view, out of our main window, of the rolling hills also meant there was no shelter from the wind. And Lord did it blow!. That old phrase of "If the van's arockin', don't come aknockin'" took on a totally different meaning. The wind continued to blow throughout Sunday, but all the time there was no hint of rain, and out of the wind it was reasonably warm. We had booked ourselves a visit to Falconry Days, a Bird of Prey visitor centre about half an hour drive away down some very narrow lanes. Had we wanted to we could have paid extra and practiced a bit of falconry ourselves, but as the wind was so strong they were reluctant to fly the bigger birds. However we were allowed to watch another couple who flew Plop the Barn Owl in a sheltered open barn, and Henry the Harris Hawk who was strong (and hungry) enough to fly outside. The rest of the birds were in their cages, which obviously had mesh in f...

 You have to be of a certain age to know: 1. Alnwick is pronounced Annick 2 The title references a song from the Singing Nun, way back in 1963 - All very tenuous I know, but you try a think of something humorous about Alnwick! On the way from Durham to Alnwick we stopped at the very imposing Angel of the North, constructed by Anthony Gormley in 1998. Gormley also made the enigmatic Another Place - a load of identical statues spread out across Crosby beach, near Liverpool. That is Ann underneath it! Alnwick Rugby club should be studied by all sports clubs around the country. They have some spare ground available and have turned it into somewhere for (mainly but not exclusively) motor homes to park up for a night or two. There were at least 50 vans there, all paying £10 per night (£15 if you wanted a mains supply). That is some serious income, especially as sport is curtailed at the moment. This includes access to the club's toilets and showers, and the clubhouse bar is open every ni...

   Roger Whittaker knew what he was talking about with those lyrics, for Durham is a very pleasant place and we shall be sorry to move on tomorrow.   Amazon had done everything they promised, and a new water pump was waiting for us on arrival at the Durham Amateur Rowing Club. Half an hour fiddling around and all was well with the world again. The site here is compact, but tidy. We are right on the river's edge, and have access to the club facilities - unfortunately not the bar as it is too long and narrow to allow for social distancing. The first night we took a stroll along the riverside path to the edge of the city centre and back, mainly just to gauge Ann's ability to do it. She managed but would not have been able to do any more, which meant we would need a taxi for our visit to the cathedral the next day. The taxi driver gave us a great overview of the town on the way in this morning, which made up for the fact that the main bridge into the centre was closed - it ha...