TRAVELS WITH DENNIS THE DORMOBILE by Linda Shuttleworth
Years ago, we had a trip to Picardy in northern France with our two boys; our first venture with Dennis overseas, and we thought at the time that was probably about as far as we could reasonably expect to go with the van. However, last year we ventured into northern Spain and Portugal for most of the month of May, covering around 1500 miles without any major problem (until we broke down near Rugby on the way home, and missed the Embsay T2 rally!). That gave us the taste for continental travel with Dennis (as well as Mateus Rose!)
This year, the inspiration was Hanseatic ports. The Hanseatic League was a powerful medieval trading network which began tentatively in the 12th century, and continued until the mid-19th century. Many of the Hanseatic port cities have retained some of the architecture and townscape built in their prosperous glory days. Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and Bremen and Lubeck in northwest Germany suggested themselves. Lubeck is so close to the Danish border, that it would have been rude not to take the opportunity…we planned to visit first the southern Danish island of Lolland, then Copenhagen, and Odense on Funen. With the return journey back by Leer in German Friesland, and a couple of nights near Rotterdam, that took care of August!
To relieve ourselves of unnecessary driving miles, we took the overnight ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. This comes with small and comfortable ensuite cabins, two restaurants, bars and entertainment, a good start.
From Rotterdam Europort, we drove to Nijmegen, and camped south of the city at Heumens Bos for the first four nights. This was about an hour’s cycle from the city, no chore in cycle-friendly Netherlands. It was actually lovely to be in an area of woods, smallholding farms and waterways. We had two days in Nijmegen itself, and a day around the villages and fens. There are memorials everywhere to the post D-Day Allied efforts to take the bridges and liberate Europe, which was an additional interest for us, as Stewart’s Dad had been in Nijmegen in 1944 with the Royal Artillery. The campsite was green and peaceful, broken up into smaller areas with trees and hedges, a small shop, bar and café, swimming pool – and an outdoor gym!
Then to the Hanse campsite by a lake in a massive park in the outskirts of the majestic city of Bremen, good facilities again including a lakeside restaurant, a shorter cycle into the old heart of the city. We also enjoyed exploring the river and the harbour area.
It was a short drive to our friendly Campingplatz on the edge of Lubeck, and near open countryside. Lubeck was stunning for its towers and spires, city walls and other buildings, a medieval cityscape on steroids! It was the cradle and most important city of the Hanseatic League. The historic old town, densely built on an island in the river, is Germany’s most extensive UNESCO World Heritage site.
It felt dramatic to cross to Denmark by ferry, something that will soon be a thing of the past, as a massive tunnel on the seabed is being constructed right now, section by section. We visited the exhibition centre about the tunnel, which was fascinating. We had a lovely campsite by woods and a lake, within a short walk of the small town of Maribo. We had the best spot by the edge of the trees, with the bonus of the first night of ‘My Fair Lady’ belting out from the outdoor theatre behind us! We were also lucky to be there at the time of the two-yearly international gathering of vintage vehicles with souped-up engines (hot rods), which paraded themselves in and out every day.
Tunnels and bridges between the islands (we hadn’t realised how many islands there are in Denmark) took us to Copenhagen, and the unique campsite tucked within the star shaped ramparts of the 19th century fort at Charlottenlund, complete with 1912 Howitzer guns still pointing at the sky. On the seaward side, the Baltic is fringed by a popular sandy beach, good for swimming. Even Linda got in and swam in the Baltic! The campsite information had mentioned the Morning Sing, slightly to our bemusement. And at 9 am, sure enough, there was a communal singing of Danish folksongs! We were impressed at how easy it was to cycle in and around this, the capital city of Denmark. We found being in the cycling rush hour at the end of the afternoon quite exhilarating. Of course, we had to go and find the Mermaid on the first day (she’s stunning, even with all the attention around her).
Odense was an unexpected joy, the third city of Denmark, and the centre is almost entirely traffic-free and green. Bikes and trams are the order of the day, both in the old quarters, and the twentieth century precincts. Hans Christian Andersen is perhaps the most celebrated son of the city. To drive there from Copenhagen takes you over a very familiar (to viewers of Scandi noir) and enormous Bridge in two distinct parts, 18km in total length. It was awe-inspiring, especially to be travelling over it in our old friend Dennis.
It was a relatively long drive from there to Leer, in German Friesland, which we had picked as a convenient break of the journey back to Rotterdam. The campsite is a little out of town, by a former marina (which is turning back into a wildlife wetland) on the river Ems. Leer turned out to be delightful, a historic town and harbour with equally historic boats, and the surrounding countryside blends into that of the Netherlands, with waterways, dykes and polders.
Finally, we crossed the border back into the Netherlands, and to the rather alarming outskirts of Rotterdam, at one point driving in the midst of two parallel motorways, twelve lanes of traffic and muttering ‘thought this was a cycling country!’ Having said that, it was well signed, and with one of us keeping an eye on navigation, we were fine. Suddenly we were driving along quiet narrow roads on top of dykes and through villages to our campsite southeast of the city, by the huge Oude Maas River. This site did have a functioning marina, and to our delight, some pitches on the banks of the river, very windy but with the most incredible amount of commercial traffic. Riverboats and barges were passing every few minutes, to Stewart’s unspeakable delight!
Rotterdam is a big city to take in on a day, and after walking our socks off, we had a lovely late afternoon trip on a heritage tram, which took us round both the old and the quirky modern aspects of the city. We spent our final day in Dordrecht, a few miles east of the campsite. Like Leer and Maribo, we had never heard of it before this trip, and like them, it took us by surprise. With the old heart of the city built on three islands, Dordrecht has Venice-like streets of houses built right into the water. We happily wandered around, taking it in, before treating the navigator to a large G&T and both to tiny poffertjes pancakes, and heading for the overnight ferry…and our first T2 rally at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway!
Linda and Stewart Shuttleworth, summer 2024.