enfin la France!

We are now at a great "Stellplatz" (German word, there is no English word, but the Danes call it QuickStop - for RV:s only, very simple camping, quite often smack in the middle of a town, or in someones's back yard. Sometimes with electricity, water etc, sometimes w/o any kind of service - but since we're travelling with our home, who cares?) in the French town of Mouzon, quite close to the borders to Belgioum and Luxembourg. Here we only paid Euro 8:40 including electricity, water, WC and shower. Who could ask for more?

Not so hot today, a bit hazy, which made travelling so much easier. Ivan always travels on my lap, and when the sun shines through the wind shield he is VERY uncomfortable. I actually spray him with water all the time, and yesterday I fanned him constantly for several hours that's how hot it was.

Filling up gas in Germany is sometimes a bit troublesome since ordinary credit cards don't always work there. Cash is still king in many European countries! It turned out it's even more difficult in France. We couldn't even figure out how to work the darn machine, so ended up having to pre-pay (cash, not credit card) at the cashier. Incredibly cumbersome, that's one chain of gas stations (Totale) we won't visit again.

Finally some photos! It was latish when we came here, and even later when we took our after-dinner-walk, so the place looks a bit dark and very empty - but believe me, it's lovely!

Tomorrow it's on to a Stellplatz/QuickStop in Rouen, and the day after tomorrow it's Nantes and the Loire Valley.

Jens and Ivan waiting for dinner!

The view to the left... 

 ... and to the right

 Quite an impressive church, once part of a monastery

The city hall

Delmenhorst, Germany

We are now just south of Bremen in a small town called Delmenhorst. We were totally exhausted when we came here - we have simply done too much driving these five days. And we still have two days before we're in the Loire Valley. I just hope the heat wave will have cooled down a bit by then. It is simply hot enough as it is up here in northern Germany!

Believe it or not, but there was no customs between Denmark and Germany either. We now are in the possession of a smuggled dog. He has all the necessary immunizations - and the passport to prove it! - but we have had no way of legally registering him at the border. Why on earth are there laws when it is impossible to abide them???

Sorry, but no photos. All we do now is drive, eat and sleep. Oh, and drink beer and wine, too! But no sightseeing. We're just anxious to get down to the Loire.

Finally!

We have finally managed to leave Sweden! Found the spare part we needed yesterday - after a 4 hour detour - and reached Middelfart in Denmark last night. Didn't take any photos last night - think I was too tired - but I probably took enough photos of this pretty town last year!

Today we're heading towards Bremen, a quaint medieval town where I spent two weeks on a German teachers' class maybe five years ago. But first I need to buy a new shell for my cell phone since the old one is broken.

We seem to break or lose somethin every day. One of the shelves in the fridge broke yesterday, but we think we can manage. Don't feel like buying a new one since we have a spare shelf in our garage - at home!

This certainly is a trip of mishaps. When traveling between EU countries with a pet, you must notify customs when entering a new country. We had difficulties last year - oftentimes the borders are not marked, we travelled on back roads, etc. However, we had decided to do things the right way this year. To our dismay, we realised there is no customs check when entering Denmark via the bridge. We have no idea how we should have gone about doing this, but we are now in Denmark, and Ivan's presence has not been notified properly. I do not like this one bit, I just hope all goes well when entering Germany in a few hours.

Karin and Tommy have such a beautiful, turn of the century home with a pretty garden

The bridge to Denmark is looong...

...and it ends in a tunnel. The border is actually at the tallest part of the bridge

Bumpy road!

This truly is a bumpy road we're on. Turns out, the handle to the grey water tank must have somehow come undone, which we realised this morning when we tried to empty it. We thought it could easily be replaced, but it turns out every single make of RV has their own system. We tried a couple of dealers today, but they did not sell Dreamer/Rapido. We found one 120 kilometres from here (75 miles). Doesn't sound so bad - but it's north of here, which means an extra 3 hours of driving tomorrow. This is so frustrating!

Anyway, we are now in Malmö with our friends Karin and Tommy. Yummy dinner (fish straight from the sea and then strawberries), and lots of laughter.

Chipped windscreen

Did you think our troubles and tribulations were all over? Not so! Yesterday our windscreen was chipped in three places, one of them really badly. So after checking in last night we found a place that could fix it for us today. Thank goodness for online booking!

After that supply shopping, and then off to Jens's mom. Long nice afternoon at her place and now we're back at the camping site. Tomorrow we're off to Malmoe and our friends Karin and Tommy. and then over the bridge to Denmark!

What a day...

Just before falling asleep last night, I realised that Ivan's passport was still at home. Without passport, no proof of immunizations - rabies for instance. Which is the reason it is illegal to travel with a pet between EU Countries without one. We had just congratulated ourselves on the good start of our vacation, saying we could sleep in late... Heck no!

So up early, very little breakfast and back home. Where we grabbed the other things we'd also forgotten. Plus had lunch and a shower. Plus we had to explain to our dear neighbours, who were quite concerned to see us back home again.

Back on the road, for a six hour plus drive to my cousin in Mollösund. So nice to catch up, but we still had a 90 minute drive to our campsite, so didn't stay very long.

All in all, 11 hours of driving today, instead of the 5 hours we had planned on.

The first two photos are taken through our very dirty car window, as we are approaching Mollösund. The last photo is from Mollösund. A charming little town!

Norrqvarn, Monday, June 24

We got started way later than we wanted, so it took some time to find a place to stay. Every RV owner in Sweden seems to be on the move right now, and they all want a nice place to spend the night.
Norrqvarn (North Mill) is just about half way to Gothenburg. It is one of the many locks on the Göta Kanal/Channel.
Tomorrow we will see my cousin MariHelen and her family. They have rented a cottage at Mollösund, on an island north of Gothenburg. And then down to Gothenburg to jens's mother for a couple of days.

La vie en rose

We've been packing and preparing like crazy this past week. And we cleaned and polished the car last Wednesday. Our little gem is shining like a pearl! Only a few more things to do before we're off.

 I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow - want a specialist to look at something that looks very much like the (benign) cancer that was removed last year, so we won't leave until tomorrow afternoon. Had planned to reach the West Coast in the afternoon, but we won't get there until Tuesday. Travelling fast with an RV is a bit of an ordeal. Shaken, not stirred...

The route this year is approximately

Gothenburg (relatives)
Malmoe (friends)
The bridge to Denmark, stay the night at Middelfart (I kid you not, don't know what it means but I'm sure it doesn't mean what you think!)
Transit through northern Germany and the Netherlands
The Loire Valley (castles and wine!)
Home via Bernkastel in the Moselle Valley in Germany and our favourite Riesling wines, Lauerburg
Hope to stay two nights in Koblenz, great camping site and this time I want to explore the town and the castle on top of the cliff

And, as usual, Viktor is "house-sitting" and taking care of plants, lawn and burglars.

This year, I hope to do all my updates on my old little laptop. I wrote everything on my cell phone last year and it almost drove me crazy. am keeping my fingers crossed that this will work...

Ready to go!

Raindrops keep falling on my head

Friday was such a lovely day,  but Saturday was terrible. It rained the whole day, and it was pretty cold, too. We did go to Askersund however, took a spin around town - and then headed home.

A bit disappointing, but now we're looking forward to the Loire Valley in July. Should have brushed up my French, but I simply could not find the time or energy for it!