2016/5 Return to NZ via the UK and US.

Heading westward towards Calais we spent a couple of days  in pleasant German town of Schwerin set beside a series of lakes which made cycling interesting (and flat).  Then Maastricht in the South of Holland – an interesting, attractive town but too busy with too many tourists. Thence some very pleasant days in France in the Department of the Aisne and the Oise which we chose as they are not too far from Calais. This was very relaxing with visits to several towns on the two rivers including Laon cathedral, and we were very impressed with Soissons which included a parking beside the canal/river with some cycling and perhaps the best Saturday market we have been to in France for a long time. All good things to an end we headed North though gale force winds, visiting lots of fortified churches en route and the extraordinary Familistere de Guise domestic iron works now owned by Le Creuset. Back  to Calais for our traditional ‘moules frites’ and overnight park on the quays before returning to ‘Old Blighty”.

Returned to the UK and immediately set of for a week in Cornwall with some of the English family. Don’t recommend taking motorhomes on the lanes of Cornwall. Heart attack stuff, but we parked the van for a week and moved into a house.

Had a great time in Gorran Haven. A typical Cornish fishing village which is now a holiday place, but not overly commercialised and still charming. We walked, sat on the beach, watched as the Brits brought all sots of chairs, set up the wind breaks,built sand castles, floated on all sorts of blow up or more solid kayaks, dinghy's etc as the youth jumped off the sea wall into the cold water.

We consumed lots of wine and fine food and managed to fit in a few local landmarks walking along the coastline. Swimming wasn’t high on the agenda – freezing, but we managed one. Joanna’s first ever swim in England after many summers there! We had a lovely time with family and are very grateful to Jonathon and Feralyn for giving us the opportunity and teaching us how to make Cornish pasties! Spent another week exploring parts of Cornwall and visiting friends and family on the way back. A few days enjoying Hastings and also wedding drinks in Essex where we managed to catch up with all of David’s UK family.

The last part of this year’s trip was set up by Joanna as a tour through San Francisco, drive to Yosemite National Park, on up to Reno via Lake Tahoe, where the kids have all spent a ski season, fly to Las Vegas and drive to the Grand Canyon. 

This all worked out as planned and in their own way, all these places (perhaps excepting San Fran) are amazing. San Fran for 3 days allowed us see all we wanted, based in a simple but very good hotel, right in the centre, a stone’s throw from Union Square. It was a holiday weekend so a very cosmopolitan  crowd everywhere especially places like the local Starbucks for the noisy bustling breakfast coffee, in fact we have converted to coffee for all our time in the US. Anyway over the Golden Gate Bridge, lunch in Sausalito, with the crowds on Fisherman’s Wharf and a night bus tour to se the beautiful lit up Bay Bridges. Surprised at the the number of beggars and homeless which is part – I suppose, of the American dream.

A hire car (Jeep Compass) and a drive to Yosemite for a three night stay at Camp Curry, a  permanent tent camp. Pretty basic with no facilities,(but not cheap!). It was all that could be booked in the park last November. Didn’t realise it was a long weekend. Quite an experience getting to know the organisation of the place, but we enjoyed it so much and didn’t see any bears or mountain lions in our night walks to the loo!

Managed a walk around the Mirror Lake (dry) and up to the Vernal Falls (tiring), all the time admiring the fantastic granite rock faces that David has read so much about. Really relaxing to drink on the veranda of the lounge hut watching the little ground squirrels scurry about and absorbing the atmosphere. Climbers, walkers, daytrippers. The organisation of a park like this is really a credit to the US. Next we drove through the high part of Yosemite – Tuolumne meadows – on the way to Lake Tahoe where Thomas, Nick and Katie have all spent winters ski instructing. Such fine wide roads everywhere make driving so easy even in the mountains, unlike Europe's mountain roads.  Magnificent scenery.

Flight from Reno to Las Vegas where we met up with Thomas and Rachel who flew down from Vancouver. A long drive via Lake Mead and the Hoover dam to the Grand Canyon. Incredibly hot - 40 plus. We have had to endure large and rapid temperature changes here in a couple of days, from 0 at Yosemite at night to 40 plus in Vegas! Driving here is so easy - just setting the car on ‘cruise’ and keeping awake. The Grand Canyon is another amazing place – Joanna was here some 35 years ago, and managed to book an overnight trip to the bottom on the day she arrived. It aint like that anymore.

It is a huge operation but another American example of how to organise a natural site with 4 to 5 million visitors a year.  We were unable to book a camp site or lodge down at the base of the canyon, even a year ago. So the only option was a walk from the top (down and back up the same day in the heat).  Thomas managed it in record time (40km trip, 1500m elevation change) Rachel made it most of the way down, Joanna and David 2 km down only). We were all well pleased with our efforts. Joanna also booked a day tour involving a flight around the whole canyon, a visit to the remarkable Antelope Canyon and finally a 16 mile raft down the Colorado river from Glen Canyon Dam and bus back to the lodge – a fine day to complete our experience of the Grand Canyon – one of the wonders of the natural world. We had never heard of Antelope ‘slot’ canyon but were blown away with the  magnificent rock sculptures. We were lucky to have a great guide who used Rachel’s cell phone to take the amazing photo below (known as the Dancing Flame) and also we managed to miss the several busloads of tourists that came in after us!

Saw lots of wildlife – deer, elk, squirrels, chipmunks. All used to humans so they mill around the place. However not tame, and you are constantly warned not to go near them. A ground squirrel did its best to make off with Joanna’s daypack.

Back to Las Vegas to hit the town. It was great to have Tom and Rachel. Tom’s 4th visit so he is becoming a bit of an expert and whisked us around the place. We had a great night out with them and even managed to wake up in reasonable health the next morning, if a little late. It is indeed an remarkable place with all the imitation world landmarks.  One of the best is the Venetian Hotel where Joanna who failed to fulfil a desire for a gondola on our visits to Venice achieved it inside the hotel – so realistic. Managed to go up the Stratosphere tower, the High Roller Ferris wheel etc. Vegas is an amazing US signature in the middle of a virtual desert.

As is obvious we are now back in Auckland where we, Joanna in particular, are in great demand as her birthday was two days after arriving and two of her other sisters also within a week. This year the house was rented out and so all our personal belongings were stored away and have had to be re –located. Met the very pleasant ‘renters’ who were very happy supervising the repairs to a 23m catamaran which nearly sank close (luckily) to Fiji when the battery fumes exploded punching a hole in the hull and lots of expensive other damage.

So that’s all for 2016. However we have problems next year in obtaining insurance for us to drive Stan after the beginning of May 2017, so perhaps an early ski season perhaps the end of our travels in Stan ……watch this space.

David & Joanna

4/ 2016 The 2 Islands Bornholm and Rugen

Across the long Oresund Bridge to Malmo,Sweden. Almost becoming a bit hohum, all these long bridges. Rapid drive along the South coast of Sweden to Ystad.  Arrived at the port to find a ferry leaving in a couple of hours, space for us and even better, an oldie’s discount - 50%!! On the ferry for an hour and a half – time enough for all the passengers, male and female,  to get a 400mm plastic glass of beer. (Not Joanna!) We would see, and consume, many more of these plastic cups of beer on Bornholm.(This is David speaking!)

We made a “No language” friendship with the people next to us. We changed our seating arrangements to accommodate them. Spent the rest of the trip with them offering us food, smiling, waving etc. We couldn’t come up with any common language except ‘Tak’. Most unusual.

Bornholm is only a relatively small island, 104km all the way round. Anticipated only a few days on the island, but much cheaper mid week ferry fares convinced us to stay longer and in the event we enjoyed Bornholm a lot. Probably the highlight of this year’s travels. It is Danish, although much closer to Sweden.  It has changed hands many times in the past, but now thanks to the EU it has stability– it doesn't seem to matter (much anyway- they seem to be a happy bunch). We stopped at Ronne, then Hasle where we settled into a camp ground for a couple of days and cycled up the West coast past a series of charming little fishing harbours. This was probably one of the best cycling trips that we have done on our travels. So pretty and all the history, mostly about catching and smoking herrings, well described on info boards in each little hamlet. For the first time of cycling on this trip we met “A Hill”, but not any old hill, it was 22% of hill. Quite steep.

It is  a great place for smoked fish with ‘smoke houses’ complete with a tall chimney at various small places. We overdosed twice on buffet spreads including all sorts of smoked fish. Yum! Joanna heaven.

 

Wild produce was in abundance – cherries, apples, blackberries, raspberries. We kept picking the cherries, but I have to be honest, the supermarket ones are better. And of course Joanna was still trying to get the best wallflower photo.

Thence to the town of Allinge in the North of the island starting with a walk around the headland in strong, strong winds, with a diversion down to Hammerhavn(Harbour).  However back at Allinge we struck gold in arriving just at the start of their annual Jazz festival, with groups from all over Scandinavia. So we stopped and enjoyed  three days of listening to jazz, in the morning outside a coffee bar, afternoons in a garden and always down by the harbour with a big tent for the evening. Of course we had to consume the 0.4l glasses of beer at regular intervals just to look part of the scene! We each had our favorites – David the group including a piano accordion and a violinist who were wonderful together.  For Joanna it was a 17 year old electric guitarist and  a very attractive pianist – both of which she is sure will be famous one day.   The festivities ended well into the night (ie morning), each night, with a ‘jam’ session on the Saturday night.

 

We also included a visit to the unique round churches of which there are 4 on the Island.They served not only as a place of worship but also for defense, everybody huddled upstairs during times of attack.  With their bright white paint, and internal frescoes, they are very photogenic.

Completed the week with a couple of bike rides and a tour of the East and South coasts which are popular beach places but with a stiff wind and long uninteresting beach – not our scene. The sand is very very fine – apparently often used in hour glasses (that’s an interesting bit of information isn’t it).

However it was the north of the island that we really loved. The little harbours, smoke houses, rocky coves, sandy bays. Not too many people but enough to make it interesting.

Another plus for Bornholm, or all of Denmark for that matter are the number of free, clean, public toilets, good for us old folk and they are very solidly built with a door capable of withstanding a ram-raid (but who would want to ram-raid a toilet!)

A much longer ferry ride from Bornholm to Rugen Island in Germany,(and no discount!) but on a painted ocean. Apparently it is hardly ever like a millpond, but it was that day. Lovely!!

Arrived in Rugen and for us, summer arrived. For the first time on this trip we could go out without a raincoat. A bit of a shock, with temperature changes from mid teens to mid 20’s. Really had no idea what to do on Rugen but headed for the big smoke – Binz on the East coast and found overnight parking right in the town. We got on our bikes and cruised around,  but really the best bit was strolling along the promenade admiring all the elegant buildings which thankfully survived WW2 and the rigours of  the Cold War years. We marvel at the crowded beaches with their unusual wicker beach chairs, and even had our first swims of this trip. Great little beach bars to enjoy a beer at too.

Did a day trip on the Rasender Roland steam train from Binz to the South coast, which included a ferry ride to make it into a round trip. Was fun especially the bit in an open carriage. A good way to see the countryside.

Spent a day exploring the top of the island with it’s very long beaches and lines of cars parked along the road. More swims – we were a bit startled to find that many of the beach population were nude and very brown! All shapes and sizes. Nobody cares. It is great. It saddens me to think of the huge body issues that many NZers have.

Attempted to cross our last big bridge (only 4kms) to Stralsund, but the satnav organised us over the old causeway instead. Never mind. Stralsund is one of the Hanseatic towns in the North, controlled by a bunch of merchants in the Middle Ages. Wonderful red brick buildings with gables, turrets, archways, including some huge high churches (how did they keep the bricks vertical. Once again we had timed our arrival with the local annual festival celebrating some medieval victory and the plague. It is often hard to find the details of these things when you don’t speak the language. It was fun, lively, loads of medieval stalls, pottery, ironwork, tin soldiers amongst the usual stuff and a myriad of food stalls, largely based around meat and bread and of course beer (this time in ‘flower pots’ with a deposit on them, but David has invested in one to keep his beer cool). It was a bit like Oktoberfest over again. The intoxication level was rising rapidly as we left on our bikes about 10pm, wanting to get back to the van before dark.

And so now for the long road back to Calais. About 1000 kms, but 2 weeks to do it, so no rush.

Cheers from Germany David & Joanna.