Our overnight stop today was in the village of Sittensen. The Stellplatze is right next to the river and this lovely mill
One of the local barns…….
This is worth an entry in it’s own right! A couple of weeks ago we bought an Omnia Oven. This is a small round ‘oven’ which sits on the gas ring and is intended for baking and roasting. It consists of three parts, a stainless steel ‘heating’ base, an aluminium food container with a vent in the middle, and a lid. We tried it while at the ferry terminal in Harwich and the results were impressive and tasty.
A slice of Apple cake
As it was in the oven
Nice red lid!
A few bread rolls (a little pale but still tasty)
We also cooked Sticky Chicken in the oven (no photos) and that too was a success. As it happened we cooked extra so we kept some in the fridge and used the oven last night to re heat the food, it did this perfectly!
When I bought the oven I read as many reviews as I could and one chap said that when he received the oven in the post and opened the box he was disappointed, but after using it he was completely won over. I agree with him, it’s great!
On Monday morning we awoke to blue skies and set off towards Amsterdam. On the way we stopped in Lisse to have a quick look at Keukenhof. This is a massive flower park (like Chelsea flower show) and this year the theme was ‘Tulips’. We parked the van in a lay-by and cycled around the periphery as all we really wanted to see were some tulip fields.
First Phoon of the trip (it had to be done!)
After this we continued our journey towards Amsterdam with the intention to park up, cycle in and have a look around. This didn’t happen! We could not find anywhere to park so we decided to leave it for the return trip in a few months time. With plenty of daytime left we got back on the motorway and next thing we know, we are in Germany!
We stopped overnight in Schüttorf in a Stellplatz (German Aire). This one is well placed near the centre of town. It is clean, tidy and has the most impressive toilet and water facilities we have yet seen on any ‘Aire’ anywhere. And all free!
The trip to Harwich was easy and uneventful although mostly in the rain. We stopped overnight on the seafront in Harwich (Harbour Crescent), this was free, convenient and surprisingly very quiet!
On Saturday, after some last minute shopping for food and diesel we drove to the ferry terminal and stayed overnight there to be ready for 10:00 ferry on Sunday morning. In the morning we were able to re-position Wolfy to the ‘entry lanes’ for the ferry (as you can see we were the first!).
The Stena Line superferry Britannica’ is one of the largest car ferry’s in the world. It has more of a cruise liner feel than a ferry and is only 4 years old. The crossing to Holland took 7 hours and was smooth and sunny. After clearing customs we drove 6 miles to a private camperstop in Poeldijk to stop for the night. This was very basic (in a boatyard) but cheap (€5) and convenient.
