Life In New Lanes

It was a good drive the 270 or so miles from Turckheim to a few kms south of Cologne, and by lucky chance I was doing it on a german bank holiday where most lorries are not allowed to be on the motorways. This meant that I could mostly drive at my preferred 58mph, well below any motorway speed limit in that country, on a two-lane road where legally the signs indicate lorries are not allowed to overtake. I had once or twice to use an exit slip lane to let a justifiably hacked-off lorry driver overtake, thereby getting him (it usually is) away from my van’s backside.

I had booked the Cologne City campsite as last year for Friday to Monday but it was fully booked for the Thursday. Park4Night happily had suggestions for road parking in a business park in the south of the city, so Blue found its place in front of a Volvo dealership and I cycled the 6km to my son & partner’s flat. The next day I did a first and rode pillion on my son’s Vespa, which he had gone to great bureaucratic lengths last year to import, to get back to the van to drive it to the campsite. The scooter, which he calls Terzaghi, has really found its purpose in the less rain, more conducive to vehicles and 2 wheels other than cars Manchester, Cologne. (I think I like this german method of more complex sentence construction). It’s used for all manner of quick journeys, which are longer than those done on his bikes. In the Netherlands, these can also be ridden on the bike paths! Car parking is the challenge in the city, so if you’ve managed to snaffle a space close by, you don’t want to move your car unless you really have to. And it’s honestly not necessary for anywhere within the city you might want to go – two legs, or two wheels get you everywhere, and if not, trams are fantastic. The flat is 10 mins walk to lovely parks, and to the Rhein river, as well as all the cafes/restaurants of a lively city. Bikes and scooters can be locked up and left in the tree-lined walkways in the middle of these old streets or many of the old apartment buildings have basement store rooms.

Having got the van happily ensconced in the campsite, I now cycled my e-bike with kid’s bike seat back to the flat to await the arrival of daughter and son-in-law plus granddaughter nearly 3, and grandson 6 months. I was also able to stay at the flat for the 3 nights on their sofa-bed with essential eye-mask, but had to be prepared for daddy to bring the baby into the living room from potentially 5am!! if he could not be settled, as is their usual modus operandi. Fortunately we had from around 5.30 – 7am across the 3 mornings, while the others slept on.

I had bought a child-seat for the Brompton, so the aim 🙄 was for us all to do a ‘lovely’ bike ride along the river on the Saturday. Whilst my granddaughter was perfectly happy now at her great age to sit on this and ride along, having been resistant at a younger age to the proper Thule bike seat, the 6-month old was also very frightened and unhappy to say the least, to sit on this latter for any length of time. Flexibility is the unavoidable name of the game. We ended up spending a couple of hours in the lovely nearby park, reassuring our little girl that there was nothing to be scared about by the man inconsiderately vacuuming up water and leaves out of the pedaloes near where we were sitting in the cafe for some lunch! Gardening equipment noise is also added to that of toilet hand-dryers on the list of threats.

Sunday’s nicer weather replacing changeable 17deg, the heatwave having been and gone, rewarded the risk taken in booking a few weeks prior quite an expensive trip to the nearby Phantasienland – Cologne’s Alton Towers equivalent. Would the children be ok for this with loud noise, lots of people etc etc, gulp? After a shaky start, things picked up. My granddaughter loved the toddler rides, the dragons walking round, the sun shone, queues not too long for the adult rides, and my primary job, not being a theme park fan, of looking after the baby, was just about managed. Not because he was unhappy, but because to keep him happy requires constant carrying, and he’s a bruiser. What he is most unhelpfully not happy about is for the most part sitting in the pram. I thought the park was absolutely fantastic – the set designs, rides, provision for toddlers, including a water park, plenty of staff keeping all of the place clean, lots of eateries with nice food. THANK GOODNESS a good time was had by all, given the money spent!

Monday was the grand depart with the hosts needing to be at their home-working desks for 8am virtual meetings. The logistics therefore involved first getting the spare bedroom vacated with all bags and gubbins moved into the living room, so that Jen’s working environment could be displaced from this into that, and Luke working in their bedroom for his early meetings. He then had time to  indispensably help with the great move of all stuff down the stairs to the pavement, as the flat is on the 3rd floor where the floors are double-height, no lift in these old buildings, and the car to be brought to as nearby as possible. I meanwhile had two bikes to get across the river to the campsite, with cycling obviating the need for a car journey to go right to the outskirts of the city so as to use one of the dual carriageway bridges over the Rhein.

A british person may have thought this preposterous and absolutely bonkers, but not a Cambodian or even particularly northern European city dweller.

Thanks & credit go to our wonderful hosts. They offered such welcoming hospitality to the invaders of their lovely dinky environment.

And so, off to the next stop with the family – a Eurocamp static on a campsite between the city of Leiden and the north sea.