First camping trip with the new Camper

Leaving Ontario in February is not easy: front after front brought snow and this year's unrelenting cold made us fear we would not make it. But we had a short lasting weather window and managed to "stuff" the van with camping gear, kayak gear and clothing. Not an easy task when it is the first time that you actually use a vehicle!

But as usual, we made it. 

 

Leaving Canada, we passed over the St. Lawrence River at the 1000 Island Bridge.  Winter still in effect!

 

 

 

Our goal was to make it to Scranton, PA and overnight on the Petro's trucks plaza.  The first night was definitely very chilly with a temperature of -7C! We hoped that our diesel  heater would keep us warm throughout the night...And it did! We cranked it to Level 3 (out of 6) in the early morning hours and it performed flawlessly! Congratulation Heiner!!!!

 Of course, when removing our window coverings, the windshield was iced over! 

Our next stop was in the area of the Blue Ridge parkway, in Afton,Virginia. The weather was nice but it got very windy. The camper shook until 2 am and then it became quieter. The area was badly damaged by the storm Helen in the fall of 2024 and parts of the Blue Mountain Parkway were closed. We had to choose an alternative road, along the valley, east of the Parkway, until South Carolina. We wanted to overnight on a Walmart in Cheraw, SC. However, the "No Overnight" parking signs made us to move on and to the area of Florence, SC, staying at a Cracker Barrel parking lot. This was our first experience of Cracker Barrel overnight parking and we loved it. This restaurant chain has parking spots for RV's at each of its locations! It was to become our favourite go-to overnight parking while on the road.

We finally made it to Beaufort, SC. Always pretty, and flowers were starting to bloom. 

In Georgia, we decided to overnight in Blufton at the Oyster Company! We were salivating at the thought of having fresh oysters...until we discovered that the fishery place was not a restaurant (or no more). The real (or new) restaurant was located a few blocks away from the waterfront, and, unfortunately, closed on Mondays! 

Blufton had a large and very pretty parking area where we were the only one to stay for the night. 

Further along the Georgia coastline, we spent 2 days in St Marys. There, one can park up to 36 hours at the waterfront ! A delightful place and very popular among the RVers. We enjoyed taking our bikes out and did a few kilometers in the oak lined streets of St Marys.

What we liked in St Marys is the serenity of the place. Beautiful sunsets over Georgia swamps...

In the past years, we stayed at campsites in Brunswick and Fort McAllister. But this year, we decided to be more autonomous and this was a very positive experience!!!

Before heading to our Donald MacDonald campsite, we had another free overnight in Titusville, Florida. Park4night indicated a possibility to overnight in the marina park of Titusville. It was a neat place and we were the only one to stay the night. We felt a bit unsure because a sign was mentioning the need of a permit for longer stays in the park. I wrote Titusville recreation department and they suggested I contact them by phone. However, as it was Friday and I got my response late in the afternoon, we decided to take a chance and to overnight without special permit!  No sheriff or security showed up. It was a mild and quiet night overlooking the Indian River lagoon.

Upon leaving Titusville, we went to Cocoa, Florida. Last time we were there, we had a great time with our sailing friends Ulrike and Thomas, and the place was alive with music and street merchants. This time, although it was Saturday mid-morning, the place was asleep! We sat down for a pizza lunch and drove on the waterfront road lined with beautiful houses and gardens. 

Next night, we pent in Sebastian Florida. Not at the campsite but at the Walmart parking lot. It is really a quaint space lined with trees, and we had a good night there.  In addition to other campers, there were also some locals who appear to live in their cards.  Next morning, instead of having our coffee in the camper, we drove to our favourite Atlantic beach at the Golden Sand Park, parked in a still empty parking lot, and took our freshly brewed coffee to the beach, enjoying a magnificent view of the ocean. 

The water was still a bit chilly given that the winter had been quite cold in Florida up until now. The sea was calm and we braved teh cold and had a nice swim in the Atlanic.  While walking, we had a bit of an unsettling sight: a young shark swam quite close to the beach (2 meters away)! Nevertheless, we took to the water, however, out of prudence, in the area monitored by life guards (and with other people in the water!!!). A few days later, we learned that only a few miles further south (Vero Beach), the beach had been closed for swimming due to the presence of fully grown sharks near the shore. 

For the next week, we returned to our favourite campsite in Sebastian Florida. We had site #17 and it was very private and ideal for our vehicle and the day tent. 

The campsite was not busy at all. Facilities were quite clean. And we enjoyed our kayaking, biking and beach activities during 8 full days, alternating our activities depending on weather, winds and physical condition!

Evenings were quiet and we never grew tired of sunsets on the Sebastian river.

Kayaking is never without excitement! This year, plenty of large alligators but the highlight was the number of manatees that we found on the river! We never saw so many...and never had them swim under our kayak! We were worried that they would tip our kayak when surfacing.  No pictures of manatees; alligators are easier to take pictures of...

On our other visits to the beach, we had most of the time settled weather which invited us for to go for a dip, except on one day where the winds were really strong and the red flags suggested we might be better off walking than swimming!

Our biking excursions were mostly at the Sebastian Reserve Park and in Sebastian itself, often ending at the Capt Hirams Sandbar restaurant for a refreshing beer.

On our way to Withlacoochee Campsite, we made two stops. The first one was in Deland, a small university town that we drove through last year. Maybe due to March break, there was very little activity in the town. Restaurants were closed...and there was really nothing stunning. Except sunflowers (!) and the garden alley ( one small lane) with older wooden houses and smart gardens.

That night, we overnighted again on a Cracker Barrel parking lot in Orange City. Very quiet and a very pleasant place to be. 

Next day, we explored Lake Apopka. That was a discovery! Heiner had learned about it on Youtube and we were enthusiastic! The weather was sunny, around 20C and we could not have asked for better conditions! What an experience! The photos don't really do justice to the experience. There were so many alligators close to the trail (we may have seen about 50 or so, sometimes a bit too close for comfort!)  and so many birds!!! We never can approach blue herons that close in such a way here. It would seem that these creatures have all got accustomed to cyclists... 

After such a beautiful drive, we went to Ocoee Planet Fitness ( excellent facility) for a refreshing shower and drove back to Orange city for overnighting.

From March 19 to March 24th, we revisited the Withlacoochee State forest campground, more precisely the Hog Island campsite. There again, we enjoyed biking on the Croome Trail and kayaking on the Withlacoochee river. 

The launching site for kayak on the Withlacoochee river is such a beautiful place. 

 

And the magic operates for the whole stretch of the river. 

With some interesting wildlife...

We then began our slow way north. After checking on the status of the Blue Mountain Ridge Highway (open!), we decided to take this drive through Virginia.

Despite the strong winds and a very cool temperature, it was sunny and we had great views of the mountain ranges, with a maximum height of 3700 feet above sea level.  When we started we had about 10C, reaching the top, it was just about the freezing mark.  We started in Roanoke Virginia and stopped in Afton, Virginia. The next part of the parkway belongs to the Shenandoah Valley Park and fees are $30.00 per RV to drive further up north to Port Royal.  We figured, this stretch will not be different to what we had just done and drove, instead, down into the valley along Country Road 340 and enjoyed the flowery trees and milder climate.

That night, we went to another Cracker Barrel (Front Royal): always welcoming, this chain of restaurants is really great for RVs because one is certain to be able to spend a night undisturbed. In the past, Walmart stores appeared to have invited RV travellers, which seems to be less and less the case over the last years. 

Forcast for the drive up north towards Kingston sounded good for the next day, but not so for the days after.  So, we decided to have an early start and drive through in one shot, i.e. 12h on the go.

 

Happy to be back home!

Ps.  We decided not to comment on our feelings as a Canadian traveller on this trip.  Thanks to the advice given by the Canadian government.

One more time ...exploring Europe in a camper.

We are liking the camper way of travelling more and more. This time, we gave it a try with the Roadsurfer company out of Germany. We chose a vehicle similar to the one we are currently converting here in Canada to get a feel for what we can expect when travelling in such a camper. 

On September 29th, we flew from Toronto to Frankfurt with Condor and took the train from airport to Freiburg train station. There was not much time between our landing and the train departure. And of course, it had to happen: for some reason, our plane was delayed upon arrival in Frankfurt's airport and was immobilized on the tarmac for nearly 30 minutes! We missed THE train for which we had booked tickets but managed to get on another train (S-Bahn) to get us in time to our transfer station on route to Freiburg. 

 We arrived in Freiburg under gray skies and made our way to our accommodation on Friedrichring (Freiburg Appartments). We liked it very much: spacious, clean and really close to the city. As usual, we met with our friends Erik and Sabine in the evening. During the daytime, we strolled through the city, and enjoyed food and drinks!

The weather being less than friendly, we searched for a "gemuetlich Atmosphere" and found it at the Feieling Brewery!

 

A nice surprise was our wine tasting in Der Markthalle: our host was a very knowledgeable man from Freiburg who was a connaisseur of Baden and Kaiserstuehler wines, and made sure that as Canadians, we learned everything about this region wine labels.

The following day, we picked up our campervan outside Freiburg (Ihringen) and spent the first night at a "Stellplatz/Aires" in Breisach. A lovely village on the Rhine river, and just across France! 

Breisach is an important stop for river cruiseships that travel along the Rhine.  The historical significance of this quiet village is noted since the 3rd century or so and in the 17th century, it even became the seat of the Elsass Parlement!

After a brief visit of the village, we continued to the area of Kaiserstuhl. Back in 2018, when we travelled with our own van in Europe, we did not have enough time to explore this area. So, this time, we decided to stay for 2 nights to enjoy the scenery and the wine. Weather was so, so ... unfortunately!

We happened to park in an area of the vineyard that was shaped like a bass (we had not noticed it...something that locals know!)! The wines grown in that area have a solid reputation! We met a winegrower who invited us to the local wine cooperative and gave us the opportunity to taste different wines. The wine in the bass shaped bottle was his creation and had amazing aromas!

After such a nice wine related experience, we were ready to dive into the region of Burgundy, famous for its wines (grapes of the same family as in the Kaiserstuhl). Vive le Pinot!

First destination was Dijon. 

The campsite was still open and had guests from all over northern Europe travelling back home.  The campsite was located near the river Ouche and the lac Kir. 

On Saturday morning, it was market day! Unlike in the Provence markets that we visited in the past, no samples were offered...But the crowd was such that it was difficult to walk among the stands. Nevertheless an amazing experience! Even the buvette was full!

Les Halles centrales replaced a former convent and its church, which already hosted a market in the 13th century!. But they needed to be demolished. The company of Gustave Eiffel (born in Dijon in 1832) proposed the layout of the new market structures. Luckily, it was saved from demolition in 1975 and has remained a major attraction for locals and tourists alike!

Dijon is a charming city: one must not forget that it was the seat of the Duchy of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th centuries, hence, it became a place of tremendous wealth and power, one of the great European centres of art, learning, and science. 

Here at the carroussel on one of its famous place, Place Francois Rude.

Dijon is of course well known for its mustard ! Times have changed: nowadays, only 2 companies make their mustard with French seeds in France (and Dijon). Otherwise, seeds are imported from Canada !
We loved the boutique of Fallot that offered mustard tasting! Our preferred one was with Cassis liquor!

And of course, wine boutiques! One becomes dizzy as there is so much choice! 

We left Dijon with a good feeling about the place and thought that it would be nice to come back on our return trip to Germany. 

Instead of driving the D974 and its endless vineyards (after a while, it get boring !), we drove to Beaune meandering along  the river Ouche.

 
On this Sunday morning, all was quiet along the canal de Bourgogne. We parked the van and walked along the canal.

At this time of the year, all campsites are closed in the region (Dijon was really an exception!). We were happy to find an Aires very close to the centre of Beaune. We enjoyed visiting the Musée of Burgundy wines, especially the exterior halls with a collection of antique wine presses!

The clou of our visit was the Hospices de Beaune or Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune which was founded in 1443 by the chancellor of Burgundy, as a hospital for the poor. The original hospital building, the Hôtel-Dieu, is one of the finest examples of fifteenth-century Burgundian architecture.

 

Beaune, despite the gray and rainy weather, has much charm: most of its 15th century battlements, ramparts, and moat survived in good condition. The central "old town" or "vieille ville" is  extensive. Since the 13th century, Beaune has been the seat of the Burgundy. Today, it is a key wine center in France, and the center of Burgundy wine production and business. 

Our Aires was quiet until the early evening when several camping cars of French retirees arrived! They all knew each other and soon, the parking resembled a large outside café! Next morning, many more arrived! Before they leave on foot for Beaune, one of the lady started the very well known (for French speakers) song CHEVALIERS DE LA TABLE RONDE!

I guess they went for wine tasting...after their breakfast!

We had breakfast on board our vehicle and then headed south towards Tournus on the river Saône (one of the most important tributary of the Rhone).

It was mid afternoon when we parked on the other side of the river overlooking Tournus.

 

We were a bit disappointed by Tournus...maybe the weather played a role, maybe the emptiness of the streets, the little town  (6000 inhabitants) felt barely alive.  We skipped visiting the Hospices of Tournus, just having visited those Hopices of Beaune; the office de tourisme told me however that the pieces of furniture in the Tournus office were original!

We visited the main attraction of Tournus at the end of the afternoon. The church of St Philibert (early 11th century), is the main surviving building of the former Benedictine abbey of Tournus, suppressed in 1785. It is in the Burgundian Romanesque style. The façade lacks one of the two flanking towers 

originally designed for it. 

  

The nave of the church is roofed with barrel vaulting, supported on tall cylindrical columns.

Notre-Dame la Brune, on cedar wood and dating 12th century was saved from an inquisitation ceremony by a Tournus inhabitant (she claimed that she wanted it as a toy for her daughter) and given 

 

back to the Church in 1802 when it reopened its doors. Interestingly, before it being covered in gold, this Virgin was black, hence its name la Brune. A side note: the child Jesus has an adult like face, which is unusual.

Both the choir and the 11th century crypt beneath it have an ambulatory and side chapels. It is truly a magnificent building! 

Tournus by night...

That night, it heavy rain fell non stop. The weather forecast was quite terrible and, instead of spending more time in Burgundy (as was our plan), we decided to head south of Lyon with the hopes of warmer and dryer weather. After 3 hours of driving on l'Autoroute du Soleil (under heavy rain), we finally arrived in Grignan: and yes!  The sun was shining and the beautiful Provence landscape was welcoming us!  Luckily, we had brought our WoMo guidebook for the provence with us!

The aire de camping was very pretty: some vehicles were already parked under the trees. We took our chairs out (finally!), the wine, and the only cigar that Marleyne brought with her. This beautiful moment was worth a celebration! 

It was a beautiful walk from our aire to Grignan. And then to the chateau from where we had a wonderful view on the surrounding areas! 

This large red feather on the tower is to honour the memory of Madame de Sévigné, a French aristocrat remembered for her letter-writing. 

Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness and gossipy details of the court in Versailles, were addressed to her daughter, Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné who married the Count of Grignan and left Paris (where Madame de Sévigné resided) for the Provence.  Madame de Sévigné died in Grignan castle in 1696. 

Another beautiful area is located in and around Vaison-la-Romaine, whose reputation centers around its well preserved roman ruins.  

 

Vaison's imposant cathedral is located in the medieval part of the city. 

 

We drove the smallest roads in the area and enjoyed the hilly vineyards and  typical Provence habitations hidden in lush vegetation. 

This map shows well how we travelled crisscrossing this small area. The red dot indicates the place called les Dentelles de Montmirail, designating mountain tops finely chiselled a bit like dentelles...

We hiked to the top and had a wonderful view of surrounding area including the Mont Ventoux.  A very wonderful area of the Provence!

Our time in der Provence was nearing the end. From the area of Séguret where the Dentelles de Montmirail are located, we had to drive an imposant 30km (!) to get to Chateauneuf du Pape. We found an amazing aire to park our Roadsurfer admiring the sunset over the Rhône. Only one other camper was parked beside us. The blissfull side of not going in the high season!

We would have liked to spend more time in Chateauneuf ...such a beautiful landscape!

On our way back north, we crossed another area of beautiful mountainscapes: the Vercors! Last year, we explored the Italian area of Piedmont and Turin, which is located on the other side of these Alp mountain range.. 

Shortly after our drive through this wonderful area, we arrived in the area of Grenoble and the rain started ... again!

However, by the time we passed through the region of Bresse, it had stopped and we were able to admire the rural beauty of this area. Bresse is wellknown for its "Poules", which are free roaming on  very large and very green pastures! What a strange sight to see fields with hundreds of white chicken instead of grazing cows!!! 

A short stop in Louhans, a significant place in the Bresse for its livestock market! It was Sunday so everything pretty quiet in this lovely town with arcades and old-fashioned restaurants. Louhan's market was voted the 3rd nicest one in France! The market takes place on Monday morning...next time we visit this area, we will make sure to visit....and buy a chicken or two ... or feast on a veal head???

Before Dijon, we drove to a small town to spend the night:Bey. When we left on Monday morning, it was market day! Another one we missed!

Dijon's museums are open on Monday (and are all free of charge!). Dijon's campsite had nice facilities and a heated shower, and we were looking forward to return to it.  Unfortunately, due to the extremely rainy weather of the last week, Dijon had closed its campsite! 

 

Luckily, I phoned a day before our arrival so we had time to look for an alternative. Place des Carrières Bacquin proved to be a well located aire, within walking distance to downtown. 

 

We enjoyed a long visit at the Muséee des Beaux-Arts: highlights were the Altarpieces of Saints and Martyrs. 

And the hall (which used to be the Great Banquet Hall of the palast) with the Ducs de Bourgogne "on display".

The weather was cool but sunny! What a pleasure to walk around in the city... Before a sit down on the place de la Libération (to enjoy the local invention: a Kir Royal), we visited the Eglise Notre-Dame. 

Next morning we were back to Breisach, Germany: we prepared the camper for the next day. We cleaned it and were able to be at 10am in Ihringen. The return of the vehicle was easy with the exception of the ADDBlue thing...we could have purchased it at the gas station in Ihringen but we were unsure whether it was for cars of trucks. To be on the safe side, we bought a 10 liter canister and gave it to the Roadsurfer manager!

Our friend Erik picked us up in Freiburg/Ihringen at the Roadsurfer station and drove us back to Freiburg, where we had booked another accommodation for our last night. We had invited them for a meal at a "Sause" (a temporary/seasonal type of restaurant, focusing on local cuisine). But before driving with us to the "Sause" he and Sabine  gave us a grand tour of Schwarzwald surroundings: amazing views! Such a nice gift! Unforgettable!  It really made our day!

Our meal was excellent and as can be seen on the menu, venison and pumpkin squash were in season!

Unfortunately our stay in Freiburg was coming to an end.  We had decided to spent the last night in Heidelberg, taking advantage (or so we thought) of the quick train connection from Heidelberg to Frankfurt Airport (Freiburg to FRA was not good, due to construction!).

A pleasant train ride from Freiburg (albeit with some stress due to delays ...) brought us to Heidelberg.  While we studied in Wuerzburg, a number of time we and friends packed sleeping bags, drove over to Heidelberg in our VW Bus, and together we enjoyed a big pan of "Bratkartoffeln und Spiegeleier" at the "Kupferpfanne"- a great meal when you are healthy - everything was deliciously floating in butter!

"Kupferpfanne" is no more, unfortunately!

 

 

Instead, we had one more - and our last German one along the main drag ...one plate would have been enough for 2! But to split meals is not usual in Europe! No need to say that we did not need a  supper that evening! But we had wine of course...

 

The perfect way to end another voyage in Europe!

Unfortunately, the train ride back to the airport was "complicated".  It started off well at the Heidelberg train station.  But about 10 min prior to arrival at the airport, we received an SMS from the German train authorities that the stop at the airport had been cancelled, without any further information.  We struggled to find alternatives, with the next stop (Darmstadt) just a few minutes ahead, and decided to disembark there and try our luck with the airport bus from there.  Buying tickets at the automated kiosk for the bus was not working for us - it did not accept non EU credit cards, nor did the bus driver ("don't you have normal credit cards?" he asked).  Fortunately, we had enough cash with us to buy the tickets and - an extremely fully packed bus - brought us finally to FRA.

 

In summary, it is the second time this year that the weather in Europe/Germany was cold and rainy.  From our perception, the weather patterns are changing and are difficult to predict. And using the German train system is becoming a gamble if you are on a schedule, at least, that is our experience from our last 2 visits.  We would have preferred to use Flixbus again, but the routes we needed to take had been modified or cancelled. Apart from these issues, we are bringing back good memories, and will most likely embark on another journey with a rented camper van in Europe in the coming spring.