It's almost over ......

The journey from Switzerland to Germany took us through the St Gotthard tunnel which is 16.5 kilometres long, it's so long it felt like there was never going to be light at the end of the tunnel! But there was light and before long we were on the German autobahn heading for Freiburg. We arrived at Camping Tunisee near Freiburg at 2.35pm and the entrance barrier was down, we were told we had to wait until 3pm when 'silent time' was over. So we sat and waited as a traffic queue built up behind us and the receptionist sat quietly in her office. On the pip of 3pm the barrier lifted and we were allowed in to register - it just seemed so crazy that we had to sit and wait at the closed barrier whilst the staff sat in the office doing nothing. Just what was that all about? It's a good job we didn't arrive at 1.01pm - we would have had a long wait then!!!
Here's a photo taken at 2.55pm the next day - we counted 7 cars just waiting to come onto the site!

Anyway crazy rules aside, the site was situated around a lake and quite pretty with good facilities. On Tuesday we cycled 8 miles into the city centre of Freiburg along the cycle lanes.

The city centre was mostly large stores, pretty much like any UK city centre except that C&A is still on the High street in Europe. There were a few interesting old buildings and we found a nice cafe by the river to have a coffee and croissant. Later the sun was warm enough for us to have lunch outside, which was a pleasant surprise.

The following day we were on the road again, continuing north west to Saarland and a pretty rural site just north of Saarbruken, Roy the Dutch owner made us very welcome. After a nights sleep we headed out on a well way marked walk starting at the site which took us through forests with burbling streams. The autumn colours were beautiful and in the depth of the woods the silence made your ears ring.

The next day we were on the move again - four countries in a day! Our journey did not start too well as in Luxembourg once again the motorway we were travelling on was closed by an accident. This time rather than just sitting stuck in a jam we were diverted off the motorway but had to find our way in the main roads which were gridlocked with all the traffic off the motorway, fortunately we eventually were able to get back on route and we were able to continue our journey from Germany, through Luxembourg and Belgium eventually arriving at a campsite near Lille, France in the late afternoon. We stopped near to our destination at a Carrefour supermarket to stock up on some good quality fruit and veg as well as some French cheese, biscuits etc. I love French supermarkets almost as much as Lidl, no, I think they are the best! Tell me why is the fruit and veg so much better than we get in the UK?
So, at Lille we are only 100 km from Calais and the Eurotunnel. For our last day of our holiday we took our bikes out for a cycle along the quiet French lanes and found a cafe, a seat outside in the sunshine and a cafe grand creme - wonderful!
Of all the time we spend touring it really is the simple things we most enjoy.