Groningen

Almost our last stop in Germany we visit Jever, a small town famed for it Brauerie

Previous Brewery trips had proved quite successful 

But not this one as, despite several attached gift shops and brewery related cafes, they are geared up only to accept german visitors, and tours when booked are only available in German

My German speaking and comprehension has come on leaps and bounds this year but will not extend to the finer details of the brewing process so we gave it a miss

A cursory glance at the camperstop book, our new travelling bible, reveals a "Historische Landbrauerie mit Brauhaus near Hesel close to the Dutch border

Our kind of stop this;

Park at the back of the brauerie for the night and drift over in the evening for a great meal and plenty of that stunning Landbier

Not our personal selection, that was bigger and now weighs down the back of the van

Some to be gifted but mostly for our continuing travels

 Leaving Germany behind with very thick heads next day we re-enter Holland on the last leg of this trip and visit the university town of Groningen

We'd parked out of town and caught the bus in to discover they were preparing for the visit next day of Sinterklaas

There is much debate here in the Netherlands over the traditional celebrations involving "Black Peter" with expected protests the next day here in Groningen as he arrives

Expected large crowds and protestors meant we'd picked the right day today

Sort of sums it all up really…..

Girlie shops are in abundance

Clever - dumb balance restored….

Bikes…

After a full day dodging the thousands of cyclists you sort of lose your affection for the riders

OK its standard practise here and great to see them in preference to cars but….

There are no rules in the pedestrian areas with riders coming at you from all directions and I got quite fed up with being continually yanked back from probable collisions because I was merely looking around 'tourist style'

Good prep I suppose for our visit to Amsterdam

Home made pasta stand which provided our tasty dinner later

First view of an old favourite we quite miss but we passed on it ultimately...

In favour of this..

At least they obey the traffic signals..

Wilhelmshaven

Fun and games next at Varel where the flashing symbol on the dash says go check your oil

OK no worries, yes its strangely down on the dipstick, and a quick glance under the van reveals a convincing oil leak!

Fiat Camper Assistance, who were superb again, send out our German colleague with a large recovery vehicle (too small for us BTW)

The gist of it is they want to take me to a Fiat garage ready for monday morning (its late fri) and working on the van would invalidate the warranty apparently

So many calls later  from the Uk & Germany asking for the size of the van, I tell them to just come take a look as its not pouring out but "Is it safe to drive myself there on monday"?

(We are overnighting at the back of a Gasthaus and we intend eating there)

The guy arrives and then insists I take a look at how he's waggling the oil filter

Our heartfelt thanks go out to the Spanish mechanic who failed to tighten the filter properly at last oil change in Seville!

No harm done but we really did not need the stress

Wilhelmshaven and its impressive harbour appartments

The walk from the excellent stellplatz to the harbour is much less inspiring though

This surely has to be Germany's ugliest building

And yet they are big on sub station art…

Paul, can you spot the MK 2 Cortina gearbox?

Sea view luxury

Yes its a middle aged lunatic swimming and posing for her husband (we guess)

(We were very cold with clothes on)

Luftwaffe in action!

The Kaiser Wilhelm Brücke 

As its autumn and we are just passing through we note the several maritime museums and aquariums and add them to our summer Nordic trip list

The short cold days now are far removed from the sun of Berlin and Slovakia

Bremerhaven

With the weather showing signs of improvement we head off to the port of Bremerhaven

Industrial but with a very modern feel to it 

A girl interested in how a tugboat actually works….

This was annoying, a great opportunity to explore a U Boat thwarted by its closure for the winter just days earlier

There are numerous maritime museums here but as it was late afternoon and girls don't do shipping much we headed for the shops……..Tip Top

Deep joy, some shops 

Nina's face lit up but not as much as mine when I discovered a whisky shop that did tasters!

My attempt, Kaare, at 30 secs nightime exposures

Not a patch on your Hamburg shots I'm afraid

(Take a look at Kaare's stunning photos HERE, he says he's been in to photography for just 2 years and learnt by playing around with the settings on the camera. I guess thats lots of random fiddling for me then)