Day 31 - a Danish Hill and a curate’s egg of a day

Our quiet wild camp last night was in an area where locals park to take various walks in the heathland, so after breakfast we had a 3 mile circular walk. It was over open flat heathery land with views for miles. We even found a hill to go up which was maybe unusual in the flatlands of Jutland. Blipped.

We were intending to go to Styl which is a sandy island about to be engulfed by the North Sea if the climate crisis keeps progressing. I’d heard about it though I couldn’t remember from where - a 1960s hang-out for hippies or a film location perhaps? It is joined to the mainland by a causeway so Mr C set his google map to direct us there. We couldn’t understand why the google predicted arrival time was an hour longer than we thought possible given the distance and speed, but on we went, me planning to don the swimming costume and brave the North Sea. All of a sudden Ms Google announced “Turn left and in 200metres get on the train”! We stopped the van and collapsed in fits of laughter. Had we taken the trouble to look at the good old-fashioned paper map we’d have seen that the only route over the causeway was by rail.

Abandoning that plan, we crossed the border into Germany and immediately stopped where a lot of Danish cars and camper vans were parked up at a shop. Mr C dashed in for some milk and bread but soon arrived back - no bread or milk - it was an emporium selling German groceries and alcohol in bulk to the Danes who would have had to pay more at home.

We drove on to Friedrichstadt where we parked at Lidl’s and got some supplies before walking into town. It was a very pretty little place, like a mini Bruges. We wandered round the streets admiring the old houses by the waterways. People were puttering along in pedalos. There were pretty pedestrianised streets where ice creams and coffees were being had. I realised that in a month we’d not once had a coffee, ice cream or a drink, much less a meal, out. I suppose that’s the price we have to pay for the cost of fuel, ferries and road tolls to do the trip - no cafe food or drink and wild camping only. One house had a shelf with some secondhand books saying to put €1 per book in their letterbox. I got #2 daughter a Ruth Rendall in German, so someone local did benefit from our visit.

Germany isn’t as much into freedom parking as Scandinavia so we struggled to find a place for tonight. The first one was by a busy intersection and had no internet connectivity. We drove on and found a nice spot but again no internet - that’s no good for me as I need to Blip! Eventually around 6pm I found a place not too far from our route to the Elbe Ferry - it’s even got 3 designated places for vans. It’s quiet, on the outskirts of Wesselburen, by the local Netto. How the mighty have fallen!