Greetings from Germany. It means a new sticker on the side of the truck because we’ve never been here before. Its finally summer and we actually quite enjoyed the heat wave Europe has had because it hasn’t been raining, the skies are blue and we’re in shorts!!!!! Plus, we managed to avoid the hottest parts.
Backing up from when I last wrote something here, we continued our circuit of Ireland by leaving the Wild Atlantic Way and entering Northern Ireland which is part of the UK. The town of Londonderry where we crossed into felt initially different, like not as polished but then once out of the city, the coastal areas returned to the kind of pace and beauty that we most love. The Giant’s Causeway is a really neat area with crazy volcanic formations in interesting hexagonal patterns right at the seashore. There’s a beautiful path that runs the whole coast where you can walk for miles. We did an afternoon looking at the formations in particular, then moved up the coast to hike back to it on a long day hike to cover more of the area. It was great because we could catch the local bus back to our trucks at the end of the day. We got especially lucky when we found out that we caught the last bus of the day because they were shutting down early due to riots in Belfast the night before. Rioters had burned up a city bus. It loosely had to do with immigrants. Like invasive plants, we always wonder where is the line between something being native vs invasive? I find the whole thing sick. We therefore didn’t spend any time in Belfast but simply drove through it.
Meanwhile, the areas south of Belfast have lots of castles, cute towns and plenty of parks. Castlewellan was one of them. Old castles become forest parks with beautiful gardens and special touches. The Peace Maze is the in the Guinness book of world records as being the largest permanent hedge maze in the world.
We’ve had our bikes out a lot. I can’t even remember all the places we’ve gone but I can say it’s been fun. The rail trails are nicely done and give you long views and a leisurely terrain but the eastern side of Ireland is full of mountain bike trails that are awesome! The Mourne Mountains are a real hot spot and I actually mourned having to leave them. Its kind of funny but we aren’t familiar with parks being named the such-n-such “Area of Outstanding Beauty”. There are several in Northern Ireland which we’ve noticed carry over to England.
I think probably the robotic lawn mowers are a sign of prosperity and Ireland was full of them. Even the park visitor center had one. They’ll even mow on multiple levels, traveling in between them if necessary.
We decided to go to a campground outside of Dublin and take the bus into the city for the day because there wasn’t a good place to leave the trucks parked in the city. We went to the art museum, Temple bar area, some of the neighborhoods and plazas, lunch, saw a replica of a famine ship and a unique but sad statue complex that represented the reality of the famine. Dinner was a bowl of seafood stew with something new to us on it- Samphire. It is a crispy, salty coastal succulent that is delicious on seafood. We never could find it in the grocery store. Dublin didn’t blow us away but it was nice to see it.
Then it was goodbye to Ireland and onto the ferry to Wales the next morning. We landed in Holyhead and took a neat coastal walk but unfortunately it was raining. The next day, we began an interesting series of visits with friends.
We sailed across the Pacific the same year as our friend Richard and his late wife Ali did, then did a lot of land travel together including backpacking in New Zealand and Tasmania. Because he lives in Wales, it meant we could go to his house and visit him. People were always cautioning us about the roads in Ireland but we’ve found the skinniest roads for us so far are indeed in Wales. Once we started up the road he lives on, it was full commitment through the hedges and trees on a path that was not as wide as our truck was!! It’s a stroke of luck that we didn’t meet anything head on during that stretch.
Seeing Richard again was great. We could hike right out his back door, then come back to have a shower and go to a pub. We saw some beautiful scenery and enjoyed catching up over a couple of days after something like 8 years since seeing him. We can’t wait to get together again.
Friends Neil and Pat built out an expedition truck in England where they’re from and were inspirational to us because they did such a fine job and also documented the build on their website Cloud 9 on Tour. We exchanged many emails, stayed in touch for a few years and finally met up in Nicaragua. And now again in Wales. It was funny because once again, we were literally driving right past them. We shared some fine meals together including a real summer BBQ and the place where they were staying had a beautiful deck with a view. Because we are weird hiking fanatics, they put us in touch with their friends Sandie & Karsten a few years back, who we have a lot in common with and we met them first in Baja Mexico a few years ago. While hanging out with them in Baja, we joined them when they were meeting up with Ivan, who they met on the RORO ship heading from Germany to Halifax. On that same night that we met Ivan for the first time, he brought Liesbet & Mark to the dinner too, so we met them. We’ve since traveled with Mark & Liesbet 3 times in South America, once in Algarve and now as of a few days ago, in Netherlands. We also discovered one night that we actually transited the Panama Canal together by crazy coicidence because they used to sail and somehow we ended up at the same place same time but of course we didn’t know each other then. And Ivan, well, we’ve traveled together for years now. And now Sandie & Karsten are coming to meet us tomorrow from their hometown not to far from where we are in Germany. We’ve enjoyed all of these friends we’ve made in our travels and it is so fun to meet up on different continents and make some new memories.
Wales really impressed me and we’re so hoping to go back to explore more carefully next Spring. Jon and I did some fantastic biking there on carefully planned single track trails and we also climbed Cadair Idris mountain. It was perfect weather and I swam in the lake and then we soaked in the stream near the bottom a couple of times to cool off. It was a perfect day.
After a few days, it was time to cross England and get the ferry to Holland. Because we’re heading to Scandinavia this summer, we have to hurry and get up there before its over! On the hottest day, we were on the ferry for 8 hours so we were cool on the ocean! It was our first time seeing offshore windfarms. We had no traffic getting through Rotterdam because the city essentially shut down everything because of the heat. I guess they aren’t prepared for those temps.
We stayed at a pretty farm stay campground that was owned by 2 veterinarians. Consequently, they had rescued ducks, a calf with a lung issue and an alpaca with a leg fracture who was the cutest ever. We so enjoyed hanging out together with Mark & Liesbet and talking about all of our respective plans.
We parted ways and Jon & I headed first to Widebird to get our roof hatch replaced. The glass had shattered for some strange reason while we were in Ireland, but only on the inside layer, not the outside. Johan, the owner, was so kind to us, fixing the hatch, giving us some swag, buying us fresh cherries and then we went to lunch together. He also received a package for us- a new radiator for the truck. The original new one was cracked in shipping so Jon patched it so we could install it. But recently, it had started dripping from the patch. Good product, great guy.
On the same day, we had to get my phone repaired because it fell out of my pocket and a rock put a hole in the camera glass. What service we got! Then it was off to the border with Germany so that we could get to Marquart the following morning for some new shock absorbers. We were in dire need of replacements and while these are expensive and the first set didn’t really last as well as we’d hoped, they are the best shocks Jon has found for the truck and we were driving right past them so it was a no brainer. It was sort of an annoying day though trying to get the washers needed for the shocks, find the antifreeze and engine oil that we needed, now that everything is in German and we truly can’t speak the language.
Yesterday, we took a day to replace the shocks and then Jon installed the new radiator. Ivan met us to give us a hand and make a store run for different antifreeze. But it is now done and hopefully will function as it should.
We’ve got a ferry booked to Norway next week and that leaves a few days to see something of Denmark too. But first, a meet-up with Sandie & Karsten to complete the circle of friends.
