Summary
Thursday was a longer than anticipated drive due to adverse weather conditions. 255 miles (@37.2 mpg) and we arrived at Knaus camping, Meppen in the late afternoon for a two night stay.
Saturday we drove to the Hook of Holland via Campercentrum Amersfoort. 178 miles at 46.3 mpg. The mileage rate reflecting the very flat Dutch terrain and preserving fuel to avoid paying not far short of 3 Euros per litre!
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Our original plan was to skirt around Hamburg and then camp at the Stellplatz near Heidenau, which we had used on the outbound journey. However, amidst another heatwave, temperatures around Hamburg were 37 C so we decided a long day in the air-conditioned Cali would be better than parking up.
We headed to our next planned stop, the Knaus Camperpark at Meppen. At £35 a night without electricity it was expensive but we figured a riverside location and top-notch facilities would be good for our final nights on the mainland. We weren’t disappointed. The facilities were absolutely 5* although the pitches themselves perhaps lacked a little TLC. This campsite is in a great location close to the centre of town so there was some road noise at nighttime.
Meppen is a lovely town. The centre appears to be quite modern but beautifully maintained with lots of outside bars, cafes and restaurants.
On our first night we ate at the Schmidt Markt, a fine recommendation from the campsite.
On Friday, we hiked 5 miles around the town which is at the confluence of several rivers and a canal. The rivers Ems, Hase and Nordradde meet with the Ems – Dortmund canal. Meppen is at the centre of the Emsland region and actually boasts 12 centuries of history.
After our hike around Meppen we had lunch at the Rathaus (town hall). Another stunning building put to great use!
Moe’s attempt to order an extra spoon for her desert backfired. Instead of two spoons we got to cakes. Fortunately there are no bounds to how much cake Moe can eat. It was very nice though.
Saturday we drove the final stage to the Hook Of Holland via Campercentrum in Amersfoort. Our Stena Line ferry to Harwich is scheduled to depart at 10pm, later tonight.
Campercentrum gets a lot of rave reviews but we were rather underwhelmed. We were expecting a much larger accessory shop and whilst there was an extensive display of new Californias, that was not of particular interest to us.