The Closing Days of Tour 4: Crossing Germany

Zagan the motorhome’s spent the past few days crossing Germany, and is currently sat close to the border with the Netherlands at the official wohnmobilstellplatz in the small village of Isselburg (N51.83453, E6.46429). It costs €5 per 24 hours to stay here, and electricity and water’s available for a bob or two more. We’ve opted to stay here to break up our journey across to the Hook of Holland, where we’ll get a ferry back to Harwich on Monday, the end of another fantastic European motorhome tour.

The wohnmobilstellplatz in Isselburg

Being in the final days of Tour Four, and as we’d already spent a fair bit of time in Germany on previous tours, we’ve chosen to spend our last few days on this trip on low-key stopovers, and meeting our friends who live in Paderborn. Germany’s free autobahn network’s played host to our tyres and although it’s been a few weeks since we left Norway, the difference between the slow roads there and the unlimited speeds here feels staggering. That said, the route south past Hamburg and past Hannover was in the process of having huge amounts of work carried out, and we spent hours creeping through queues of traffic at times.

The autobahn – not always that fast!

We’ve stopped over in three places on the way south, first at the Rupp Bräu micro brewery and restaurant in Lauenau (N52.27866, E9.36975). I had a craving for schweinshaxe, and this place looked rustic enough to sell it, despite the fact it’s more associated with the south of Germany. Dissapointed, I was not, as the baked pig knuckle landed with a thud on the table in front of me. Sat beneath a lantern shaded by a refurbed copper brewing urn, I chewed my way through the thing, watering myself with a litre glass of ‘doublebock’, a dark beer which later turned out to be stronger than me, requiring Ju to drive the following morning…

The Rupp Bräu micro brewery. In the end we slept in the car park around the back, which (Ju tells me, I got drunk) was noisy as staff left.

The next day Ju hammered down the motorway to the small town of Herford where we stayed in the town’s stellplatz opposite the H2O water centre and spa (N52.10745, E8.68594) for €5 a night. A one-time Hanseatic League town where we enjoyed a stroll along the river to the town. We took our time wandering around, eyeballing the intricate carvings in one of the churches and the colourful paintings brightening up otherwise dull boxes and walls.

The Stellplatz in Herford

From Herford we nipped to Paderborn to see our friends Bruce, Andrea and their three fantastic children, one of which I’m a proud (but pretty awful) godfather to. Andrea arranged for us to get into the vets for Charlie’s pet passport to be updated so we are all set to head home on Monday. We stayed on their drive as they pampered the hell out of us with a cracking Italian meal out, wine, beers, coffees, a lush breakfast, you name it. Their kid’s incredible talents almost had me in tears as I watched fingers dance over their piano in an impossible way. Last time Bruce and I met up we managed to stay up all night talking (and maybe a bit of whiskey supping) which incapacitated me the next day. This time we forced a 3am finish, and I avoided the generously-offered spirits, so managed to drive today. Bruce, Andrea, you guys are the best, and tell the kids, Charlie says ‘hello’.

Bruce, Andrea and their awesome family

A 2.5 hour stint brought us here, where we’ve quickly walked the town (it’s only a small place), bought a cake from the bakers and settled in for the evening. Tomorrow we’ll get into the Netherlands and then we’re on the ferry Monday morning. It feels very odd to again be this close to home (not as odd as it felt in 2013 though), but we’re really looking forwards to a bit of time in The Cooler with a log fire going, meeting family and friends, a nip to the pub, fish and chips, Fray Bentos, access to a washing machine and a decent, lengthy shower!

Isselburg

Cheers, Jay