5/24/17 – Winterswijk, NL

Thursday we left Hoge Veluwe and made the drive to the Obelink store where we found the sought-after gas BBQ and all accessories to put it in working order. We also found a few other items we felt we couldn’t live without: a fly screen for the door, a washing pan for our dishes, an electric water kettle – that sort of thing. It was late afternoon by the time we left Obelink and we found a camping about 5 km away called het Weiskamp where we took a pitch for one night.
Bruce’ back has been causing him lots of pain since our arrival almost 3 weeks ago. It was progressively getting worse and we thought that perhaps Winterswijk, a smaller town, would be where we could find a chiropractor. The only problem was it was Friday and we would be unable to get an appointment until the following Monday. The hosts at the camping were gracious beyond belief, allowing us to extend our stay night after night as we realized Bruce’s pain was increasing daily.

I have to say a little bit about this camping: first and foremost it has private shower/toilet houses for each pitch. You cannot imagine what a treat it is to step out of your camper and 4 steps away is a shower and toilet there for your private use. If you have done any camping in your life at campgrounds (and you are not in a self contained 32’-43’ RV) you know what it is like to share a toilet and shower block with all the other campers – definitely doable but not much privacy. The camping is mostly rentable cabins (park models) with an area designated for caravans (trailers) and motorhomes (camper vans). It is a grassy site that is beautifully maintained. It is in a national landscape which offers plenty of walking and biking trails where you can commune with nature. We didn’t because Bruce had a busted back, but it was very restful just the same.

Monday, at 5:30pm, we got an appointment with a doctor who did wonders for Bruce but suggested – and we agreed – that he should take it easy for a while to let his back muscles unclench. So another night at Weiskamp and, what the hell, lets make it 2 nights. All together we spent 6 nights before we were confident that Bruce was well on the road to recovery.
Wednesday we finally got on the road with a target of Aachen, Germany where Charlemagne based his royal government in 800 AD. A cathedral, the Aachener Dom, was built by Charlemagne and he is buried there. It is exquisite and thank goodness we have seen it before because we won’t be seeing it this trip.
I have to interrupt the flow of the story here to relay a different train of thought.
As we have been working out our itinerary for this trip – pouring over maps, looking through travel books – we have realized we have seen a LOT of continental Europe during our past two trips. It is beginning to look like this will be a Greatest Hits trip. Along with new places: Croatia and Portugal specifically, we are going to revisit places our memories hold near and dear. Aachen was one but a holiday is happening this weekend – Ascension – and campsites are hard to find around the city. We were able to stay Wednesday night at Camping de Gastmolen in Vaals, NL but it was the only night available. Another camping in Aachen proper is in the “green zone” a low emission zone that our camper does not qualify to enter. It is probably full anyway.
Our real desire is to retrace our travels along the Mosel Valley stopping at Bernkastel-Kues a twin city famous for it Riesling wine (of which I hope to stock up on), so tomorrow we will forfeit our chance to see the exquisite cathedral of Charlemagne, perhaps catching it on our return from Croatia.
After almost a month we left the Netherlands Wednesday morning, driving all day through the countryside of Germany, only to spend the night back in the Netherlands Wednesday night, in the only available camping in the Aachen environs.