Netherlands - Hoping there's a finger in the Dyke!
I am sitting on a campsite in a forest beside a lake not far from Arnhem in the Netherlands. It rained pretty well non stop on our journey today, from Bremen in Germany, and it has increased in intensity since we arrived at the campsite! I guess we can't complain as it's the first real rain we have had in nearly 7 weeks of traveling, but the noise is a bit intense on Helga's roof and I just hope that the pumps are all working that maintain the Netherlands as dry land!
After a day visiting Copenhagen, by bus from the campsite that we eventually found north of the city, we moved over onto Fyn, the middle island of Denmark. This involved crossing yet another bridge, (and paying yet another toll). The Storebaelt Bridge is smaller than the Oresund, but in many ways it is a more attractive bridge to cross, as it affords better views. We found a nice campsite about 4km out of the town of Odense, the capital of Fyn and the home of Hans Christian Anderson, of fairy-tale fame. There was a cycle path into the centre of the town from the site. We last visited Odense in about 1990. and we remembered the quaint old streets of cottages with souvenirs and the little old house where HC Anderson had lived. We were anticipating a few changes, but weren't quite prepared for what we saw! I guess it will all be ok when it is finished but at present Odense has an enormous crater in the middle, with fencing all round it and large scale building works going on inside. They are busy installing underground car parking, before redeveloping the top. Unfortunately this massive building project lies between the town centre and the Hans Christian Anderson house and museum, so all the visitors have to be directed around the crater! However, we enjoyed the cycle ride through the park!
We moved on, via another waterside site in southern Denmark just above the German border, and then decided to stop near Bremen, Germany, mainly because it happened to be about 3.5 hrs away according to the sat nav, and that seems to be a comfortable distance for us to achieve in a day. (It actually became 5.5 hrs due to extensive rebuilding of the autobahn to the north and south of Hamburg.) The decision to call at Bremen turned out to be quite a serendipitous coincidence as, when we were in Riga a few weeks ago, we saw a statue outside a church in the city centre, of four animals, a donkey, a dog a cat and a rooster standing on each others backs. It meant nothing to me but Edith recalled a childrens story about these four characters as the Musicians of Bremen, and the plaque beside the statue, although in Latvian, did mention musicians and Bremen. So here we were, arriving at a campsite on the outskirts of Bremen, only to find that almost everything we saw had a picture of these animals on it, including a replica statue in the foyer of the very grand wash room facilities on the campsite! The story is a tale by the Brothers Grim and is actually called, in its English translation, 'The Town Musicians of Bremen'. In the Market Place, there is the original bronze statue, from 1951, of the four animals who, in the story, ironically, never actually got to Bremen!. Bremen has been twinned with Riga since 1985 and, in 1991 they presented Riga with a new interpretation of the statue, produced by a local artist.
We were able to get into the city centre by bus and tram and Bremen turned out to be quite a fascinating city, with a strong history, as an Independent Hanseatic Free City State, an attractive centre, much rebuilt after WW2 bombing, and an old historical quarter, Schnoor, which fortunately avoided bomb damage. The adopted fictional animals have proved to be a very useful marketing device for the town.
And so today we made our way across another border into the Netherlands and to this site near Arnhem. The rain stopped for a while, earlier, whilst we had our meal, but it has now started again less intensely. Tomorrow we hope to get over to a campsite, we stayed at once before, a few kilometers from the Rotterdam ferry port, to spend a couple of restful days before catching the ferry back to Hull on Monday evening.
After a day visiting Copenhagen, by bus from the campsite that we eventually found north of the city, we moved over onto Fyn, the middle island of Denmark. This involved crossing yet another bridge, (and paying yet another toll). The Storebaelt Bridge is smaller than the Oresund, but in many ways it is a more attractive bridge to cross, as it affords better views. We found a nice campsite about 4km out of the town of Odense, the capital of Fyn and the home of Hans Christian Anderson, of fairy-tale fame. There was a cycle path into the centre of the town from the site. We last visited Odense in about 1990. and we remembered the quaint old streets of cottages with souvenirs and the little old house where HC Anderson had lived. We were anticipating a few changes, but weren't quite prepared for what we saw! I guess it will all be ok when it is finished but at present Odense has an enormous crater in the middle, with fencing all round it and large scale building works going on inside. They are busy installing underground car parking, before redeveloping the top. Unfortunately this massive building project lies between the town centre and the Hans Christian Anderson house and museum, so all the visitors have to be directed around the crater! However, we enjoyed the cycle ride through the park!
We moved on, via another waterside site in southern Denmark just above the German border, and then decided to stop near Bremen, Germany, mainly because it happened to be about 3.5 hrs away according to the sat nav, and that seems to be a comfortable distance for us to achieve in a day. (It actually became 5.5 hrs due to extensive rebuilding of the autobahn to the north and south of Hamburg.) The decision to call at Bremen turned out to be quite a serendipitous coincidence as, when we were in Riga a few weeks ago, we saw a statue outside a church in the city centre, of four animals, a donkey, a dog a cat and a rooster standing on each others backs. It meant nothing to me but Edith recalled a childrens story about these four characters as the Musicians of Bremen, and the plaque beside the statue, although in Latvian, did mention musicians and Bremen. So here we were, arriving at a campsite on the outskirts of Bremen, only to find that almost everything we saw had a picture of these animals on it, including a replica statue in the foyer of the very grand wash room facilities on the campsite! The story is a tale by the Brothers Grim and is actually called, in its English translation, 'The Town Musicians of Bremen'. In the Market Place, there is the original bronze statue, from 1951, of the four animals who, in the story, ironically, never actually got to Bremen!. Bremen has been twinned with Riga since 1985 and, in 1991 they presented Riga with a new interpretation of the statue, produced by a local artist.
We were able to get into the city centre by bus and tram and Bremen turned out to be quite a fascinating city, with a strong history, as an Independent Hanseatic Free City State, an attractive centre, much rebuilt after WW2 bombing, and an old historical quarter, Schnoor, which fortunately avoided bomb damage. The adopted fictional animals have proved to be a very useful marketing device for the town.
And so today we made our way across another border into the Netherlands and to this site near Arnhem. The rain stopped for a while, earlier, whilst we had our meal, but it has now started again less intensely. Tomorrow we hope to get over to a campsite, we stayed at once before, a few kilometers from the Rotterdam ferry port, to spend a couple of restful days before catching the ferry back to Hull on Monday evening.
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