Lower Saxony (Soltau) Pt 1

Thursday 7 Jun: Continued to settle in to the site, established IT and satellite communications (Linda happy that we will be able to watch the football – NOT) and recovered from the weather of Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Not as bad as the UK but some fairly heavy showers and it did drop down to 16C during the day. We have been fully accepted on site and now have a family of ducks that visit regularly – drives Daisy mad! Slowly getting back into the swing of German style living, especially the eating. The Luneburger Heide area of Lower Saxony area is much more picturesque when walking and driving around it whilst not on exercise/training; it certainly is more comfortable than being in the cupola of an armoured vehicle.

Friday 8 Jun: Nice weather, 22C, so one had to take the plunge and get the knotted hankie out, sat out in the sunshine watching the world go by - real lazy day after a quick visit to the shops to restock up on essentials, JP Chenet at £2.40 a bottle. Warm weather must keep up the liquid intake! Finished day with a visit to the site Rasthaus for a quick Zigeuner and Jager Schitzel with a few ‘tipples’ and the Pils is still the same – wonderful! The dogs over here are very clever and read; Daisy is having a bit of a problem with the reading bit but due to the dogs being bi-lingual is managing to just about understand. Managed to get my Umweltplakette (window sticker for access into low emmission zones - Hamburg, Hannover, Berlin etc) from the local Tuv station - a whole 5 Euros for all of Germany and for the life of the vehicle take note London  

Saturday 9 Jun: A walk into Soltau for a visit to the shops and the local market, the asparagus season is in full swing so every second stall was veggies. The town has been really smartened up and is now full of things to do and tourist attractions with the Toy Museum very worth a visit. Neil even found some new friends, well the only ones that would listen to him.

Stocked up on crisps, Pils and wine for the football, had to persuade Linda that the football was on the agenda with a larger portion of crisps than normal. Nice weather, still in the 20C’s but a cool wind and light showers a couple of times.

Sunday 10 Jun: On the road for 2 weeks, feels just like days. Travelled 496 miles and been in 3 countries already, thinks: may stick around Soltau a bit longer (enjoying the place and still lots to do) this should enable us to well miss the football chaos in Poland after our Berlin visit. Lovely day, sun busting the sky – order of the day is a Daisy day, with walks through the woods to the lake over the other side of small river. Beautiful countryside, lots of wild life and very healthy farm fields as far as the eye can see - she loved it ! Finished the day with a slap up meal in the the RV and some phone calls home (house still standing so we have been told?).

Monday 11 Jun: Another nice start to the day, sat out and had breakfast in the morning sunshine before setting out on a visit to some old haunts and some restocking of supplies. Strange places look a bit different after 25 years or is it our minds going a bit fuzzy? Wondered where we would get some more fresh potatoes when we came upon this:

needless to say some fresh potatoes were procurred. Who needs to 'speak the lingo'. The spuds are spotless with no bits needing to be cut off and taste lovely.

We have checked with Childline and have been given permission to include a photo of pommes mit mayo just to torture our offspring - yum yum.

The good weather is bringing out all the bugs so we are having to keep an eye on Daisy for ticks, will have to take advantage of the dog shower room here - yes thier own shower room. It has a tiled ramp up to a wash area that is about level with ones chest - right posh, like.