Europe 2007
Europe 2007
From there we made our way to our campsite in the grounds of a beautiful chateau (14 euro) at Martragny just to the east of Bayeux. Very friendly people. Their fist night of the season and our first night under the tent for the trip. The usual stuff about getting the tent up for the first time.
From there, after plat du jour, we found the lace-making display. A room with women making lace. Each with a collection of tiny bodkins and pins. Fascinating. Could have watched it all day. A real highlight. They had some marvellous examples on the walls along with photos of some of their work on catwalks from some of the well known Paris fashion houses.
Then to Caen to see the peace memorial. Expensive at 15.50 euro each. However, this is a very impressive museum that tries to tell of the spiral into ww2, the horrors of war, occupation, collaboration (it is French), bombed cities, the possibilities of peace. Unfortunately, again the Americans took over the exhibit and apparently fought ww2 themselves. We were there 4 hours and saw about an eighth of it. A long day. Our ticket allowed us to return the next day but museums can be hard work and very tiring when you try to read and understand most things.
3/5 Drove from Martragny to Sailly-le-sec. On beautiful roads. Tolls were 20.60 euro. The French know how to build a good road. Some magnificent viaducts. Sailly-le-sec is just to the east of Villiers Bretonneax, scene of significant Australian fighting in 1918 that halted the German advance of March 1918 and turned the tide of ww1. We have beautiful campsite beside the Somme. Caught up on buying another lot of camping gear - a second chair that will save the now dented esky and airbeds to save the backs.
Immediately after leaving the tour, back in our own car, looking for cash machines, Geoff drove up over a cannonball that line the streets on Albert. (Stupid things just below vision) and ruptured something under the car. Some liquid came out. Bugger. We hope it is the windscreen washer. Helen is done in with the long day and a very loose stomach. To top it off it started to rain quite heavily so it tested out the tent and our patience by the end of the evening.
5/5 Very overcast this morning but not raining. The tent kept out the water and we learned some lessons about pitching it in bad weather for next time. Today was scheduled as R&R. Rose late after listening to the village church bells that ring every hour and the village donkey also added his two bits in the early hours. Helen is still keeping an eye open for toilets but much more settled that yesterday. Decided to chance it and went to a slightly larger village down the road for lunch. We are just getting used to the fact that everything closes at 12.30 for lunch and reopens at 2. We thought we would be safe (language wise) ordering the set "plat de jour". The bloody French have now taken up the American system of choice and the very obliging waitresses have kindly slowed down - at least for the first sentence - while Helen picks up about 40% and Geoff about 10%. Our detailed knowledge of culinary vocabulary is sadly lacking. Thank heavens we eat just about everything. We try to order different things and share. So far, we have enjoyed all food. The delis are just amazing. Finding things in supermarkets is like a treasure hunt. We have an on going list. We finally found sugar today after several days searching. Milk is not usually stored in the fridges but in an entirely different area. Apparently there is a lot of uht milk. It definitely makes it easier for us to carry. Every switch, every washing machine and every tap is different. So far, we have only encountered one of the old style French flushing floor style loos. It was at a rest stop on a motorway so made sense for cleaning. However, the flushing was triggered by the door opening and closing so as you entered you were greeted by the whole floor being flushed in preparation for your visit. Somewhat disconcerting to a stranger who hovered over the footprints waiting to leap into action and escape before being caught in the next flush not knowing that it was triggered by the door. This afternoon is lovely warm shine again. The washing is dry and we have food supplies for tomorrow, so ready to hit the road again.
7/5 It rained overnight and for most of the day - severely testing our ability to take the tent down in the rain and our driving on autobahn in the rain. A day of autobahns and trucks. Have never seen so many trucks - all in a line driving at 90-100kph. A difficult drive. Not the distance or the cars driving past at 150kph. (We mainly drive at 105 on cruise control.) It is the wall of trucks that take up all of one lane. At one point, we drove passing a continuous line of trucks at 120-130kph for about 15 mins. That means (taking the differential as 30kph) we passed the equivalent of a stationary line of trucks that was 7.5 km long - nose to tail. That is a lot of trucks. Overall, due to hold-ups in the traffic, we lost 2 hours to the traffic. Mainly because of road works and merging lanes. The campground at Hamburg is excellent - friendly owner, very good amenities. Raining. Had an excellent Greek meal. Went very well until Helen asked the olive skinned girl who looked to part of the ownership if she ‘had Greek relatives'. ‘No I am German, not Greek'. Almost go thrown out.
8/5 A longish day driving from Hamburg to Kopenhaven - 450km. Not so much traffic. Over a fantastic bridge (with a $40 toll) linking the main peninsular of Denmark with the island that Kopenhaven is on. Lots of farmland with canola in brilliant yellow flower contrasting with green shoots of a grain crop. We expected to see cows out in the fields but they are kept in the huge barns that surround every farm house. A French car passed us as we approached Kopenhaven and gave us a friendly toot in recognition of the "F" on the back of the car. We happily waved back, laughing merrily at our disguise. Anders (one of the guys that Geoff came to meet with) came to see us as we were putting up the tent. He took a look of horror at our small abode and immediately took us off for a coffee in the hope of warming us. We actually slept very well and kept warm. The weather cleared during the night but started to rain again early in the morning.
Bayeux, Caen, Albert
Tuesday, 8 May 2007