Dancing Down the Lidl Aisles! Flensburg, Germany

Zagan the motorhome’s in Germany! Yeah baby, we’ve left the Nordic countries after what seems like months, ahem, and are back in the land of the Teutonic Knights, parked in a free stellplatz overlooking the Baltic at Flensburg (N54.80458, E9.44355). We’ve calmed down a bit now, but earlier on I was literally dancing down the aisles in Lidl here, it feels so incredible cheap after all that time in Scandinavia. About 2300 Danes live here too, so I suspect we’re not the only ones enjoying the relatively low costs here in Germany.

Free motorhome parking about 1km from town at Flensburg

Yesterday up in Ribe, we were hoping to meet a British couple on a tour up into Scandinavia but we missed ’em, and spent an hour or two looking around the thousand year-old town instead, followed by me supping my last five beers as the rain re-gained control of the skies and bombed Zagan as the darkness fell.

Ribe Cathedral

Now THAT’S a door handle – Ribe cathedral!

Inside Ribe Cathedral. I can’t read the text, but I assume the meaning to be: Get Your Stuff Done Folks, Time is Ticking’

Modern artwork in Ribe cathedral – not really my thing, but its always interesting to see the modern and traditional intertwine

A backstreet in Ribe

A Ribe waterway – this way to the North Sea folks!

Denmark, like a fair few countries across Europe, add a deposit to bottles and cans, so I took one for Team Zagan by drinking the lot in one go so we could get the 60p back before heading into Germany!

60p being reclaimed in Ribe, where we attempted to spend every last Danish coin we had, accidentally ending up with about 60p worth, whoops!

This morning we ate our last Danish bacon, serviced Zagan, and drove south across a farming plain to Germany. The border popped up just a few miles north of Flensburg in a mass of roadworks, a tumble of mud and diversion barriers where a large roundabout’s being built. Quite why you’d need a roundabout at a border post is an unknown to me, but as we stared at it we almost missed the Bundesrepublik Deutschland sign at the cross-over point. The deep blue of the EU, surrounded by those golden stars, is looking just a little less powerful and permanent to me than it has these past few years.

First stop in Germany: Lidl. In we rushed, giddy with joy as we surveyed the prices and mentally compared them with the outrageously expensive Norway. Lowest cost lager here: 58c a litre, about 30p a pint. WOOOOHOOOOOO!!! Yep, the pound might be losing value but we have the antidote: a couple of months up in Norway. Ju picked up a few bottles of wine, including a Barolo for a whole €8.99, about £8, we couldn’t get it that cheap in the beautiful hills of the region it was grown in Italy! I on the other hand eagerly snaffled some boxes of wine for a whole €1 a litre, 68p a bottle. Is it drinkable? Oh yeah, I’m living proof, I’ve been enjoying it more than a Saint Emilion Grand Cru for the past five years.

30p a pint lager! I got some schwartzbier too to try for the same price – it’s in the fridge  <<giddy laughter>>

After driving through Flensburg, which was the centre of German government for a few days as WW2 came to a final conclusion, motorhome silhouettes on signs directed us here. We’re feeling a shared sense of relaxation and enjoyment today, which must at least be partly down to us entering one of Europe’s easiest countries to motorhome though. Germany vies for France for the sheer number of low cost, high quality and official places to park your motorhome overnight, and we’ve sampled a fair few of them over our time on the road. Neither of us speak German, but we can make out words and we’ve an array of phrases we can use. There are zero tolls on the smooth and fast motorways. Although I’ve noticed an immediate sensation that the unparalleled feeling of safety we had in the Nordic countries isn’t quite the same here in Germany, I have to remind myself we’re in a port city, and port cities are often a bit on the grungy side.

An armoured vehicle on the road as we entered Flensburg

I’m looking out of our side windows at the enormous Fali, whose cargo of coal is being craned off her. A short walk away there’s a pleasure marina while looks much plusher

Top-end housing at the marina around the corner from us

The feeling in Team Zagan at the moment’s a good one folks, we’re riding high. The plan’s to head south to see old friends in Germany, then turn west and nail it through the Netherlands to the Hook of Holland for the ferry to Harwich on Halloween. Ju’s already mentally steeling herself for the ferry, she’s never been a good sea traveller and is already nervous about the sea sickness. We opted for the longer route to cut down on driving, and we’ll inadvertently miss any chaos created by the removal of the Jungle camp at Calais too. I strongly suspect though, given the choice again, Ju would go for the much shorter Calais (or Dunkirk) to Dover route!

Cheers, Jay