Holiday Time

Life is one long holiday for me, but I crave variety and as the van disappeared into the distance last week I decided I'd have to get some dates in the diary, but I didn't expect I would end up booking a break overseas. I was on the Megabus website this morning researching their routes from Norwich. If you're unfamiliar with this company they operate a bargain basement coach service. Well, one thing lead to another. They were charging £1.00 to get from Norwich to Bristol (plus 50p booking fee) and with such a low fare I decided to see where else I could go and how much it would cost. Their only destination in Germany was Cologne and a return trip from Norwich would set me back £54.50. No prizes for guessing who is now on their way for a mini-break in Cologne. I suspect that after 2 overnight trips on a bus in the space of five days I'll wonder what on earth I was thinking, but what a bargain! 

The photograph on the left was taken at the airport, shortly after I arrived in Malta to spend the school summer holidays, circa 1976. 
I'm going to try to remember to smile like this when I arrive in Cologne after my journey next week. 

Meanwhile, Mike continues his solo adventures. His first stop after filling up with fuel in Calais was in  Hondschoote, where he spent three nights. He then headed east to potter around Belgium and the Netherlands. This didn't last long because he couldn't find anywhere he liked the look of in either country and so he had a couple of nights in Linnich, then arrived in Paffendorf     this morning. The locations are on the map above and he took national roads rather than the motorway. Linnich has a large free Stellplatz       and is located on the Rur River. Mike had some nice walks along the river and spent quite a lot of time trying to get Wi-Fi using our new Fon set up. Last week I wrote that we were hoping to shout off the rooftops about this, but unfortunately it's a 'no go' so far. I don't know if it's us or them but I'm liaising with their customer service as it didn't look this difficult on their website. 

The overnight parking in Paffendorf      is free and you can stay for 48 hours, but there are no facilities. There's space for 8 motorhomes and it's on a tarmac car park lined with trees.  There's a castle next door and a walk alongside a canal. Plenty of cycle paths as you'd expect in Germany.

Lord Mayor's procession tonight in Norwich and the Tour de France in Cambridge on Monday. Pictures to follow.
Have a great week,
Ali