Bertha's blog is moving!

So that I have more control over this blog and who can see it, I am moving it to a new location.

If you already subscribe, you don't need to do anything as I can see who you are and will transfer your subscription across to my new site.

If you don't subscribe but would like the address to my new blog then either:

• Enter your email address in the subscription box (if you're on a mobile then scroll down, click "View web version" and then you'll see the subscription box on the right hand side)

• Email me on skvincent8@hotmail.com and I'll let you know the address of the new blog.

A blog of surprises

 It’s been a couple of months since my last post. There have been no big adventures but plenty of little ones and Bertha has definitely not been neglected. I now have a diesel heater which is complete luxury and a shower. There will be a separate post about the shower but this blog entry has a few surprises.

Surprise 1 – The countdown has started to the next big adventure, 5 weeks to be precise.

When I came back in November I really struggled to know what to do next, and some of you will be under the impression that after I weighed up my priorities that I got a grown up, sensible, full time job. And you’d be right, I did. Sort of. I am lucky enough that my contract includes a block of time off each summer so that I can do a proper travelling trip, wander, have freedom, all the things I need to balance out the fact I now have to wear a suit, proper shoes and brush my hair most days. So maybe Surprise 1 isn’t a huge surprise, I think it was inevitable that I’d go away again before too long.

Surprise 2 – I’m turning my compass upside down and heading south.

The furthest south I went last year was Lands End but this year I’ve decided that I fancy waking up to blue sky every day, walking along beaches wearing fewer than 5 layers and not carrying full waterproofs wherever I go. There is also another reason for Surprise 2, and that’s Surprise 3….

Surprise 3 - I’m not going alone.

I recently met Rich and Ted, a van dweller and his dog who were planning a long trip to Europe this summer. They were planning on heading south to Spain and Portugal.

At the time I was going to be off to Scandinavia, I’d even bought the maps ready and although my heater wasn’t specifically for that trip, if I was going to get one it made sense to have it fitted before I went. It started off as a bit of a joke, Rich told me I wouldn’t be needing my heater in Portugal and I told him he wouldn’t be needing his sun canopy in Norway, but then the idea grew.

We talked a lot about the upsides and downsides of going together, would it be less adventurous? Would we wander less? Would it be more of an extended holiday rather than a travelling trip? We came to the conclusion that it might be all of those things, but that it would also be fun to have company, to share the things we see and to be honest, he offered to put my kayak on his roof-rack and I was sold by that idea.

We’re both going to be self reliant so that if we want to go and wander alone we can do but having spent some time together and read each other’s travel blogs to get an idea of how we travel I’m fairly sure that the Pilot and Bertha won’t ever be too far apart. 2 solo travellers in convoy for 3 months. What could possibly go wrong?!

The first of 2017

I realise Bertha’s Blog has been quiet for the last few months, mainly because there have been a lack of adventures to write about - don’t worry, that’s only temporary as there is another big one in the planning for this summer :-) I did go away to Dartmoor over new year but apart from that it’s just been the odd night here and there. So this weekend, 2.5 weeks into my new job I decided I wanted to get away and go somewhere new.

For Christmas I was given a book by my sister on Hygge – the Danish way to live happily which is a bit of a trend at the moment after the Danes were rated ones of the happiest nations in the world. Hygge, pronounced ‘hooga’ roughly translates as ‘cosiness’. It’s about friendship, home made goodies, nature, soft lighting, good citizenship – all things you can’t really measure but that make you feel warm and fuzzy. If something is Hygge it’s said to be Hyggelig. I’ve been to Denmark a couple of times and there’s something about it that I love, but it’s hard to say exactly what that is so the Hygge book has been an interesting read. One part of the book is about buying things not as soon as you want them or can afford them, but to wait until you have a good reason to associate your purchase with. The example the book gives is that the author had seen a chair they liked. They could afford it, but the Hygge way was to wait, so they waited until the day they got promoted at work and then went to get the chair, so that when they sat in it they would always associate it with the day they got promoted.

Now I’ve unpacked my kitchen stuff post-lodger, my rolling pin had disappeared (who knows, I didn’t ask..) It was on my mind that I needed to replace it at some point and whilst I was in Stow on the Wold on Saturday after a bike ride tour of the Cotswolds I saw rolling pins in a shop. I could have just gone to Tesco and bought one but each time I used it, it would just be a rolling pin from Tesco. As Hygge was on my mind I went into the shop and bought one. It’s just a rolling pin, hardly the biggest purchase I’ve ever made but every time I make pizza bases, bash biscuits or roll pastry I’ll think of my weekend away in the Cotswolds. A Hyggelig rolling pin, how Danish.

The disappearing posts

Those of you who subscribe to Bertha's blog received an email with an old blog on last week - my finger slipped as I was trying to delete it!

The reason for deleting it was that all of my JoGLE entries are now in my first e-book! It's only short, and those of you who have followed the blog all the time will have read the majority of it before, but it is now a complete version, with photos, and available on Amazon if you have a Kindle or the Kindle app.

At some point I will write up the rest of my time away into a full book, but in the meantime I wanted to publish this section. It might only be short but every copy purchased means another drop of fuel in Bertha's tank!

Link to e-Book on Amazon

An educating trip

A selection of things I’ve learnt during my trip.

Sea sickness is one of the worst feelings in the world. I have been very fortunate not to experience it fully before.

Washing is not a daily necessity. Nor is wearing clean pants. The world does not end if you do neither of these things.

My language skills are embarrassingly poor. After I’ve said my set phrase I rarely understand what is said back to me. This is something I’m going to change.

I’ve learnt how to crochet.

That cycling 1100 miles in 3 weeks is entirely possible.

That my favourite season is Autumn. I love the multi-coloured trees and crunching through the leaves.

However strong the wind feels, it is highly unlikely to topple my van over.

That the sock monster exists even in vans. It not only eats socks but also bags of foreign coins (that are particularly needed when you first arrive in a country and need to feed a parking meter)

Almost any meal can be cooked on a single hob ring camping stove. Often in one pot, using only that pot, one knife and one fork to both cook and eat with.

A cutlery drawer need only to consist of 5 items. A knife, fork, spoon, wooden spoon and sharp knife.

When you accidentally leave 40% of the items in your cutlery drawer at a campsite, as long as you have a Swiss army knife, you can survive for at least 3 weeks without replacing them.    

Breaking down in bad weather, in a remote place with no phone signal is not the end of the world. You deal with it.

Pre-trip vehicle checks should be taken seriously.

Washing up a full meal can be done with only one wet wipe.

Travelling alone means people talk to you far more than if you travel with someone else.

I don’t miss having things. I don’t miss buying things. I do miss people.

How unhealthy working in an office is. Since I left I’ve not had one cold, one bug or one headache.

That having a post-it note which says “lights” stuck on your dashboard is an adequate substitute for a lights left on warning buzzer.

That I have no idea where I think of as home.

When your toilet is in reach of everything in your home it is tempting to multi task. I’ve learnt it is important to maintain standards, even if no one else would ever know.

That not everyone understands why someone would want to live in a van for 7 months. And that other people think it’s the best idea ever.

That working for a company where ultimately you’re just a number is not something that I want to be a part of.

That having tried all brands of baby wipes, Aldi’s are my favourite. Washing with antibacterial kitchen wipes is not a good idea.

You can buy baked beans in Iceland and the Czech Republic but not Germany or Belgium.

That whether they get wet or not, within a short space of time any footwear I own which is in the van makes it smell like the home of a dead rat.

Sports world trainer tamer de-odour balls are magical.

That travelling in a van can be an attractive trait. I have been proposed to 3 times this year. I declined all offers.

Wherever I am, if I have phone signal I feel much safer than without it.

Having sampled many, the optimum temperature for a hot tub is 38 degrees.

I don’t miss tv. I do miss radio.

Punctures, both van and bike, will only happen in bad weather.

You shouldn't leave buying goodies for people until the last day of a trip. (Who knew the French and Belgians might have a bank holiday and everything be closed on a Tuesday?)

That many of the world’s most interesting people are accompanied by big backpacks.

Cheap bikes have saddles like sponges. I’ve learnt why people put plastic bags or covers over their saddles. I’m now one of those super cool people.

That leaving my job to travel is the best decision I have ever made.

                           

Cologne

After a good day of riding and another night at the same stopping place it was time to carry on. My aim for the night was Cologne - it would be my last big stop before the (still unbooked) ferry.

The drive was slow going, roadworks, traffic and the tricky part of not having enough power to overtake lorries on the dual carriageway motorways when you’ve got cars screaming past at 90mph, so I just plodded along. I stopped for a shower and a lunch break at a services, bit the bullet and booked a ferry home, and put in a drop of extortionately priced fuel as I hadn’t seen anywhere to top up at before I’d got onto the motorway, and eventually made it to the outskirts of Cologne.

Cologne has an Umwelt zone, a low emission dirty diesels unwelcome zone. An exception is made if you go straight to the Wohnmobilplatz (campervan park up) via a specific route and straight out again. I’m not sure how they police the zone but I had exact instructions of which route was allowed and I would be following it. I came to the motorway exit I needed – closed. I went past it and looked to see whether it was open in the other direction – also closed. After 5hrs of driving this isn’t what I particularly needed. I took the next junction and pulled in as soon as I could, it happened to be a Lidl car park so I went and got some food before deciding what to do. I’ve learnt a lot about calculated risks this year and I decided I’d just follow the route the satnav wanted to take me on and hope I didn’t get caught. Anyway, I think it was a justified reason to be deviating from the route (clearly my German language skills meant I'd be able explain this if needed)

With some slightly hairy driving through Cologne I made it to the Wohnmobilplaz. Even if you have a green light pedestrians have right of way, as do bikes and so do trams. Add in driving on the right, unfamiliar junctions and trying to look out for turnings when it’s starting to get dark, I find driving in cities here takes a huge amount of concentration.

I’d arrived later than planned and it didn’t wholly surprise me to find the wohnmobilplaz was full. The book said it had 60 places and it was the only one in the city. On a Saturday night with the campervan obsessed Germans that's probably not enough space. There was a car park by the entrance to it which had a no campervans sign, but there were a couple of vans parked up there. I took another calculated risk and decided I’d spend the night in the car park. A few more vans arrived to find the same problem as me and also parked up, with safety in numbers I stealth cooked my dinner and went to bed.

I woke up to noise outside, I looked at my clock – 0453. Are these people heading home or heading into the city at this time of night? Then I could hear an engine running behind my van, I could see flashing lights so I got up and looked out the window. There was a police van and two police cars! A bit extreme just for people who have overflowed from the wohnmobilplatz I thought. Then I looked out the other window, 3 fire engines. Phew, probably not campervan related then. After a while, not before my bike rack had been walked into a couple of times which always makes me jump a mile, they packed up and left and I went back to sleep, glad of the extra hour in bed.

Things like this would have used to have bothered me but I’ve realised it’s just part of the adventure and find it annoying rather than anything to get too worried about. Having a day of wandering and riding round Cologne was worth it, so much so that me and Bertha are flouting the rules again tonight and staying put, hoping for no more dramas.

Almost hometime

My finger hovers over the 'book now' button on the DFDS ferry website.

I'd had a great few days in the Czech Republic, sightseeing in Prague and then a day in Kutna Hora a sleepy town with an even sleepier chapel. I'd then driven back into Germany to Nuremburg, a beautiful medieval town. But then I got stuck - so many places to go and potential routes, but which one to take? I had no idea, nothing really grabbed me. Was I just trying to drag out the last 10 days of my trip? The 7th is an absolute insurance deadline, the 8th is Mums birthday, there's nothing to stop me booking a ferry for before that.

Maybe I was travelled out and it was time to go home. I Googled the shortest route and decided I'd head that way, having overnight stops where needed, and found somewhere an hour or so up the route for that night.

After a quick trip to the supermarket I got on the motorway and stopped at the first services I came to - I needed a shower. A long, untimed shower in the closest to a proper bathroom I've been in for 3 months, it was bliss.

I got to the campervan park up, and after some confusion with the man over whether they had much needed chemical waste disposal or not (the book said yes, he said nein, I said are you sure - chemikal? Nein he said, I walked away, then I went back to try again, he said he didn't understand, I played charades, ahhh chemikal he said...ja we have)  I paid for the night.

The park up was on a river and cycle paths so before it got dark I went out for a ride. I got back to my van with a renewed energy, suddenly I definitely wasn't travelled out and wanted to do some more exploring. I decided I'd stay there for the next day too so I could go out for a longer ride.

It turns out that all I needed was a shower and a bike ride. The 'book now' button is still unclicked,  I know it's got to be done, I just can't bring myself to do it quite yet.