It seemed like only yesterday that we left the UK but our time away was coming to an end. We needed to start heading west from Würzburg on Friday, April 26. We had one last palace on our list to visit first and that was Heidelberg Schloss (Schloss is palace and Burg is castle). It was pretty tricky driving through the narrow streets up to the palace and we could see why people parked in the city and caught the funicular! We managed to get into the car park (P4N#161562) and walked down to the palace. We both thought that it would be less of a ruin than it was so we walked around the gardens and took in the views but didn’t bother to pay to go into the courtyard. It might have been that we were ‘castled’ out as well.

We then drove towards the village of Trittenheim on the Moselle river as it had several vineyards and was renowned for its wine. As we crossed the Rhine, the odometer registered 20,000 miles. Quite a milestone given that she had only done 2,000 miles when we bought her in September 2022.

As we arrived in Trittenheim around 17.00, we looked at various park ups at vineyards but none of them looked very inviting. We did find a spot right by the river that’s run by the local council, €14 per night including electricity and a two minute walk into town (P4N#9709). Brilliant. Once we had sorted ourselves out we went off in search of wine tastings but everywhere was shut up for the night and the restaurants weren’t open yet. Not to worry as we headed back to Dora and sat by the river with a drink in the sunshine watching the very large cargo boats go by.

We only found one restaurant open that evening so we got in before last orders at 20.30. The meal was okay and the wine passable but not quite what we expected! The next morning, we again tried to find somewhere open for tastings. The first place said we could buy wine but she didn’t have any bottles open for us to try! Funnily enough, we moved on. The next place was set up properly for tastings and was happy for us to try before we bought. We ended up buying 6 bottles of his wine although we were worried that our morning taste buds might not be the same as our evening ones!

As we had a long trip to just south of Calais for our park up, we had to say goodbye to this lovely area. It felt like every house in the village had a small winery and guest rooms. Quaint but a bit of a gamble as to the quality of the wine.

We left around noon and made our way north west along the motorways, crossing through Belgium and making our evening stop at Watten, by a canal for 18.25. Another local run motorhome park with just 12 places and only 30 minutes from the Channel Tunnel. Free if you don’t use the services (P4N#5987). Again, it was lashing down with rain so we weren’t able to wander into the village. We hunkered down and did a Ready, Steady Cook from the fridge.

Up relatively early so we could get fuel and check in at the Tunnel in plenty of time. All went smoothly and the train departed on time at 11.48. The weather was even more atrocious in Folkestone but the motorways weren’t too bad as we headed towards Jo’s cousin, Linda in Kent for lunch. We finally arrived back home around 17.00 and began to unload the van.

A fabulous adventure over six weeks covering over 5,300 miles and 12 countries, excluding the U.K.

Miles driven since last post: 650

Miles driven this trip: 5,358

Tolls: €2 plus Dartford Crossing of £2.50