Germany 2007, Day Eleven

Day eleven 13th June

Time to move on or we could end up in Bad Liebenzell for the rest of the holiday, we did only plan three days but ended up staying six, €112.80 total, €18.80 per night should have been €14.00 with the ACSI card but the electricity was extra although that did include free transport. The plan was to move further south in the Black Forest for three nights but we are now going to skip that and head straight for Strasbourg or we will have no time left for a visit to Trier and Bruges. The other change to the plan is to stay in Germany, on the opposite side of the Rhine from Strasbourg in Khel, we had had some bad reports on the campsite in Strasbourg and this site looked ok and only a little further from Strasbourg centre.

After getting the van setup for travel, the first stop was for diesel (petrol station opposite the site) and then Lidl for beer to take home. The price of diesel had risen steeply since we arrived in Bad Liebenzell it was €1.07 but was now €1.14, and it had actually come down from the previous day. In Lidl, the amount of deposit we got back form the hole in the wall, paid for another crate of plastic bottles of weissbier.
The easiest way out of the black forest from Bad Liebenzell is to follow the B463 back to the A8 the same way we came in and then to head for Strasbourg along the A5. From exit 54 we just followed the E52/B28 to Kehl and then the camping signs to the campsite right on the Rhine.

Kehl Campingpark Kehl Rheindammstraße 1, 77694 Kehl am Rhein Web Site

Reception was closed when we arrived at 13:45 and would not be open until 15:00, the restaurant was open so we asked if we can park up and have a beer while we wait. The answer is yes, park in the car park but the bar closes in ten minuets, I parked up very quickly.

After refreshments and with 50 mins to kill before reception is open, we wander over to have a look at the river, in the distance we can see the bridge we must cross over with the scooter to get to France and Strasbourg. We set off in that direction with the intention of walking away from the site for 25 mins and then turning back to check in. We reach the first bridge in less than 20 mins, its a new foot/cycle bridge, obviously a Millennium Bridge like the many many others around the world. This is a rather large, fine example of a Millennium Bridge, bit like the one in York but much bigger and with two spans, one for pedestrian / cycles and one just for pedestrian. Anyway I just want to turn around and head back but Dot reasons that as we are there, we may as well, at least walk part of the way over the bridge. The two spans join up in the middle with a seating area and after a short sit, we end up walking all the way over into France. The bridge enters France on an island at Le Jardin des Deux Rives, where there are a lot of workmen dismantling numerous marquees. It looked like their version of the Chelsea Flower Show had just finished, we walk round the gardens and they are nice enough anyway and the fountains are very good (we didn't have the camera with us as we didn't intend to go anywhere we only went to look at the river, we missed many opportunities for good pictures). Forgot to mention we passed a flying saucer on our walk parked up by the river.

The site owner didn't speak any English but made up for it by waving his arms about a lot and pointing at bits of paper, he gave us a bus timetable with bus No21 circled, along with a map of how to get to the bus stop in Kehl centre and a map of where to get the bus back from Strasbourg centre, all without asking for one.  He then took us to a hard standing pitch, between an older German couple with a larger motorhome (who were rather noisy, had the TV on fairly loud) and a Scottish couple with a camper. On the other side of the Scottish couples camper, is a couple with a large motorhome with trailer, attached to the trailer is a 30ft aerial, I never saw them outside, they seemed to spend all of their time talking on the radio, not my first choice for a holiday passtime.

That evening after another short walk we go to the bar but it is very busy and there are no seats outside so we have to sit inside the restaurant, we had missed the last seats outside by seconds to an American couple in lycra shorts, I assume they are on bikes. They where and with a tiny tent, how do they manage, I sometimes think the motorhome isn't big enough but mainly only during periods of poor weather.