Month: August 2022

The Silver Machine has landed at Camping Knockelscheuer, on the outskirts of Luxembourg. We’re here because it is the nearest campsite to centre of the city and you can catch the number 18 bus, only a short walk away, all the way there. It turns out that all buses are free inLuxembourg so that’s a bonus. If only all countries were like this!

It’s a big campsite, with 161 pitches, on the edge of extensive woodlands, and excellent value at 23€. We would recommend it both for visiting the city of Luxembourg or, as it’s just off the motorway, an overnight stop if you’re on your way somewhere else. As a bonus there are miles of tracks in the woods for walking and cycling. It’s been full every night so book a couple of days ahead.

The pitches are large and well maintained, the toilet block is modern and clean, and the site has its own shop, restaurant and bar. There seems to be a lot of Dutch people here although interestingly there are more Brits than we are used to seeing. Everyone seems in a holiday mood and keen to chat.

It took us almost 3 hours of motorway driving to get here from Douchy Le Mines. The road passed though Belgium for much of the way, returning only briefly into France before arriving in Luxembourg. Since leaving Calais, we have not paid any tolls, which is unusual for this part of the world. We would recommended this route when travelling east from from the ferry port.

As we sped through Belgium past some very pretty looking towns it occurred to us that we really should have split the journey and stayed in one of them. We were obviously in a hurry to get to Germany when planning this route.

With a population of just over 600K, Luxembourg is a relatively small city and with excellent free bus and tram networks, getting round is fairly easy. The local language is French, German or Luxembourger, which apparently is a mixture of French and German. We were thoroughly confused initially, but it seems that, at least in the city, French is the predominant language so we tended to stick with that. Of course most people speak English anyway which takes the pressure off a fair bit.

The historic centre is built between two deep gorges, created by the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers, and form the basis of a formidable defence. The terrain was further exploited in medieval times with the building of ramparts around the city and 17 kms of tunnels known as the Bock Casemates. The Chemin de la Corniche promenade follows part of the ramparts and offers dramatic views over the River Alzette and the best views of the defences.

Luxembourg is a beautiful, compact city and best explored on foot. It has enough galleries, museums, churches, delightful squares and pubs, cafes and restaurants to keep you occupied for days. What really strikes you is that it is very clean and all the buildings are exceptionally well maintained. If Disney had created a city, just maybe it would have looked a lot like Luxemburgh.

First rain…..

Diesel price 1.96€ or at the time £1.63

We’ve finally managed to clear the decks and set the controls of the Silver Machine towards Europe and for the first time this year we’re off for more than just a couple of weeks.

The Silver Machine is currently parked up at an Aire in Douchy les Mines, nope we’d never heard of it either. The town is about almost 3 hours drive from Calais, in a fairly rural setting, with little in the way of interest or excitement…..and we’ve been here for two nights.

The reason we’re here is the town is slap bang in the middle of the route of the Paris Roubaix, probably the best one day cycling race anywhere in the world. Well that’s our view anyway…..and we planned to cycle at least some of it. What makes the race so special is that the mainly flat, 250km route, has over 50kms of cobbled roads, spread over 30 sectors. The race is described as the Hell of the North and after cycling 3 of the sectors today it is easy to see why. How these guys can race over this surface defies imagination.

The highlight of the bike run today was sector 19, the Troueé d’Arenburg or Arenburg Trench, it borders on uncyclable. During the race rowdy fans stand five deep along this section and it is a real spectacle. One year we really need to join that crowd!

We set off last Thursday 25th August, stayed at a campsite in Durham on the first night and Cambridge on the second before catching the ferry from Dover on Saturday.

We’d never been to Durham before and what a beautiful city it is. We only had an evening to explore but that was sufficient to know that we really must go back at some point.

We stayed at the Durham Grange Caravan and Motorhome Campsite on edge of the Durham and handily just off the A1(M). It’s a very pleasant 3 mile walk along the River Wear to right into the middle of the city.

The historic centre is divided by the river , and joined by the 15th century Framwellgate Bridge and overlooked by an 11th century cathedral and castle. Narrow Streets, often cobbled, spring off in all directions begging to be explored.

Durham is steeped in history. The cathedral is believed to be the final resting place of St Cuthbert and St Bede and was a centre of pilgrimage in medieval England. Of course Durham also played an important role in the defence of England against the quarrelsome Scots!!

Catching the ferry at Dover always had the potential to be problematic. Due largely to Brexit, to some extent COVID, and the increased traffic which school holidays inevitably bring there have been some extremely long queues at the French border control in recent weeks.

As it turned out the queues were longer that we have experienced in the past, they were nothing like those reported recently,and the port authorities had everything well organised and under control. Thirty minutes saw us through both border control and the ticket booth. Because we turned up early in case of problems, the bonus was, we were put on the earlier ferry.

Our first night in France, as it often is, was in Calais, on this occasion, at Camping Le Grand Gravlot. Although most people who disembark the ferry pass Calais by, it really is an excellent resort holiday destination in its own right and a great place to chill out and replenish the stores after the drive down through the UK.

The weather, since setting out from Insch, has been great. As I write the blog, we are sitting outside in the shade at a pleasant 21degrees. As we head off tomorrow for Luxembourg the good news is that forecast continues to look good, and we have some warm adventures ahead.