Joys of European Caravanning

Well here we are back at Campsite Winkle-Landthal at Bishofswiesen. This is our, I believe , Fifth visit here.  It is an ACSI Camping Card site out of season, the campsite itself looks a little bit un kept by German standards, hard standings but grass not mowed surrounding them.  Toilet facilities, Toilets and Laundry are excellent modern and exceptionally clean.  Owner is a little stand offish when you first meet her but we find her very helpful.  The Camp site is well situated to visit, Berchtesgaden, Eagles Nest, Konigsee and Ramsau village in Germany plus Salzburg, Wolfgangsee, Mondsee and the Silent Night Chapel in Oberndorf all in nearby Austria. Handy for nipping over the bordert o get your cheaper fuel.  But keep to the minor roads if you have not got a Vingette.      

This Village is another favourite of ours as we visited it years ago on 3 occasions touring without caravan.  We stopped at the local Hotel Traube which is a lovely place to stay they have their own Campsite but luckily another opened a few years back by Herr Walch named Walch's Camping and Landhaus    This is our second visit here and can thoroughly recommend it.

This is an excellent site situated in the valley on a flat, grassed area that is well kept.  Pitches are of ample size, Electricity is metered,  WiFi excellent reception at €2.50 a day.  Showers, Toilets, Washing up Facilities and Laundry are excellent, modern and exceptionally clean as is the separate purpose built dog shower too.  Bread available for order the night before.  The area around is stunning as I put photo's on last year of the mountains and villages this year we went to small town of Feldkirch still in Austria, on the route to Lichtenstein.  Don't go to Lichtenstein for cheap fuel though as it is at Swiss prices and very expensive compared with Austria.   Bludenz the nearest town is very nice and home to a Milka Factory.  This is where we drove to the Tyre garage to get new spare for the caravan.  Excellent Service all done and dusted in 20 minutes from arriving telling them what we required at the garage and leaving.  Cost €50.

Well after 3 nights at Braz we moved onto another of our very favourite spots, back to Alisehof Camping right in the middle of the Black Forest in a rural village with a stream running by.  This is our 5th visit here and we are back on Platz 72 a nice corner pitch where we were last year.  Herr and Frau Bonath are so friendly and helpful. 

Well here we are back at Prumtal Camping,  such a welcome here and ready to relax for a few days before the last journey to Belgium, Guines and Home. Poured of rain while we set up and then it cleared the next day and was nice for the rest of the visit.  No visit here is complete without a meal or two up at the 5 Star Restaurant which is excellent value for such wonderful food and selection.

Quite busy here but mainly with Dutch two other Brit. outfits here one caravan and one motor home besides us.

We visited Bernkastel on the Mosel for Lunch one day to the Moselblumchen the Hotel in the middle of the town where we have often stopped when visiting the Christmas Markets in December.  It backs onto a square that runs off the road along the front of the river and has a terrace where you can eat inside or out. 

Of course we had to visit Vianden for Diesel to take us partly home at €1.197 per litre good value eh.  On the way home we called into Thiex the Interior Design and Furniture Shop which sells Gifts and Kitchen aids too.  Wonderful selection pity we cannot carry any more weight home.                                                              

It has been lovely over our stay here that Herr Kohler has been in the Office in the mornings for the collection of Bread Rolls and being able to chat to him again.  Such a lovely friendly Gentleman as all the family are too.     

Well we left Prumtal for one night half way to Guines near to Brussels.  There are no ACSI Camping Card Sites in the area so I plonked on ACSI Site from the 2012 Disc.  This was €17. per night so not bad.  The directions were that it was near Motorway 6 km, but we made it 7 miles.  This was through villages and fields with single track road.  I had emailed 3 days ahead but did not get a reply. When we got there, low and behold, the first sign we say said "No Twin Axle's" in Flemish.  When we stopped the owner came up to us and questioned us.  When he saw that we were bone fide Caravanners and not Travellers he was quite happy to site us on a Static Caravan pitch that was empty.   When we went into the house to sign in and pay both the owner and his wife were charming and spoke perfect English. We paid our dues and went back to the van.  The guy said he had not read my email as he gets so much spam.

I would not recommend the site to any one else as it is a difficult journey to get there with a car and caravan and it would be with a motor home too.  It is a shame as the people were so nice.  The Toilet and Showers were very basic so we used our own.  But the site was OK for 1 night.

I  have put 2 photo's on to show you.  The site was in trees but TV was fine. The pitch we had, as you can see was large and it had a lawned area at the back, same size belonging to it.  The tourers are usually put in a separate area. 

After leaving Belgium Campsite we made for Guines just over 140 miles away arriving at just past 1 pm it was 24 deg cent and very humid .  After setting up on a pitch next to the one we were on last year in the backfield, where I requested it started to thunder and lightning and we had a terrific storm.  When the rain stopped we went to local super market for diesel at €1.337 litre which was good.  After supper had another storm and then the sky was clear blue with a gale blowing making it quite chilly.  Still windy in the morning, and glad we are not catching a Ferry.  I do not have any photo's of here as the weather was bad.   All in all this is an excellent last night stop.  We used our own facilities and we do not the French shared male and female toilets, which were a bit run down.   Campsites here in France and Belgium not a patch on the German, Austrian and most of the Italian ones we have used in past years.