Ending Up Anywhere

There's a better option for saving on campsite fees and that's the Best Deal Camping Card. While booking a campsite in Germany this week their booking form asked if I had a discount card and in the drop-down menu, alongside the usual ACSI card, I noticed something called the Best Deal Camping Card. Before I completed the booking I opened a new browser window to investigate and found I could sign up for free and have use of the card immediately in my email inbox. There's an app you can download showing the 500 sites across Europe at which the card is valid and the app doubles as the card to show at the site reception (or print the card that was emailed to you). Benefits over the ACSI card seem to be that no annual fee is payable, you don't have to wait to receive your card in the post, it's not restricted to off-season camping and it guarantees you electric hookup and no additional charges for showers or an awning. Checking in at our German campsi

The day started out misty so we made it an exploring-by-bike day. It's quite useful to get the lay of the land on the first day. The whole peninsula is a cyclist's paradise with a plethora of cycle paths crisscrossing the flat terrain. We cycled to Prerow and loved it's cute thatched houses. We walked along the pier and then enjoyed fat bratwurst in a bread bun from a beachside vendor. We carried on cycling to the National Park on the north-western tip where the lighthouse was just visible in the mist. As we started heading back towards our campsite the sun started to peep through the clouds and so we ventured from the cycleway, over the dune to the beach where we dozed for an hour or so. Our final pit stop was Netto to replenish the stocks of wine and beer with as much as we could carry between us in our rucksacks. I'd say we've earned a few beers for all of today's peddling as we sit in dappled sunlight under the trees next to Cleopatra

It's May half term and for several weeks our plan was to visit the small island of Noirmoutier off the Vendee cost of France.  As our holiday got closer and we began looking at the long-range weather forecast we were disappointed to discover we'd have a whole week of thunderstorms. The rest of France was expecting the same. Fortunately we hadn't booked the campsite and so our plans could be changed. We carefully checked the weather many times and I even started researching Denmark or considering the possibility to write off our Eurotunnel crossings and go to Scotland. On Thursday, the evening before we were due to travel, we decided the south of France was worth a risk. We'd have rainy portions of a couple of days but otherwise the forecast had improved somewhat, and so we planned to drive to Provence. On Friday morning I looked once more at the weather outlook to find it was back to five days of rain. It was back to the drawing board. By about 9am I