Smurfy Semaine Quatorze: Germany, Luxembourg & Belguim

Biers in Germany, Frost in Luxemburg & Hilly Belguim

As we had extended our trip and our old flatties were a month behind our van tour we were able to cross paths again a month down the track in Munchen. They were catching up with an old German friend and were enjoying a normal bed in the city so we pulled up to the only campsite (which would have been horrible during Octoberfest as it wasn't that much better when we were there). You have to pay for hot water?! Toilets without seats?! Lucky we were only staying a night and were hardly there! We had just enough time to have a quick beer before the beer hall, oh and the 6km bike ride into town before that.

It was quite a lovely ride into town, the thought did cross my mind how an earth are we going to find out way home again but that could wait until later after a few beers. We arrived outside the Hofbrauhaus just as the rain started and entered the haus of beer to meet Cath, Si and their German friend Tom (2). Since I had learnt from last time we were in the beer haus that I can't lift a stein with one hand, I stuck to a pint size, as did Cath, but the boys went all out with large steins.

The night continued on from the bier hall to a nice restaurant, Tom (2) had booked for us which was great, not to mention his translations until we were given the English version menus! Tom managed four different types of meat and I enjoyed half a duck. But the night didn't end there! We first enjoyed a few cocktail drinks which were good and may have had cointreau in them? There we met Tom (2)'s sister and her girlfriend. After a few further cocktails we left and tried but failed to get into a party in the inner city (I think it was the 4 campers letting the team down) so we caught a few taxi's to an over thirties party - why of course! I was a little put out as I wasn't yet thirty and holding strong but once we walked through the door and they were playing all the songs we grew up with, I felt like I was 16 again. With 50 odd year olds we all felt very young, the two Toms, Cath & Si were just 18 and the two German girls and I underage at 16, who managed to slip in past the bouncers. Oh to be young again. The night ended and we can't really say how we got home as the memory isn't as good as it once was but we did cycle and both ended up at Smurf in one piece.

I wish I could say the same about our brains the next morning. First hangover in a while took its toll but we managed to get on the road around midday. With our van tour nearing its end we thought it was high time we got the side window fixed and since we were in Germany, where Smurf was born, who could ask for a better place?! We pulled up to Stuttgart, southwest Germany and rocked up to the flash VW service complex early in the morning with the naive intention of having the window fixed in a jiffy. We also had Ivan the German mechanic have a look at Smurf's engine as he was dripping again. They seemed to think the dripping was from the oil dipstick hole which they didn't have a replacement for and the window would take 2 weeks to order in as it was a classic style. So we thought we could wait and maybe pre-order with Jack's garage in London instead.

Cath and Si were heading on from Munchen and were keen to catch up again in the black forest so we started on the road to meet up in Triberg, the land of cuckoo clocks and where fairytale forests were made. Roughly 40 minutes into our journey we noticed a bit of smoke so we pulled over and discovered Smurf was having a diarrhea outburst of about 2 litres of oil. Damn it. Double damn. We headed back to the VW workshop in Stuttgart and booked Smurf in for early the next morning. For the rest of the day Tom listened to broken engine sounds on youtube and read manual and article's about VWs and their problems but nothing came up about oil explosions, it would seem Smurf was a one of a kind.

We made arrangements to meet the flatties without Smurf by train the next day and enjoyed a pancake dinner with tuna cous cous salad, one of the 10 meals we had on our whiteboard to use up all our Smurf supplies. So we dropped off Smurf at the mechanics (which we were getting pretty good at!) and caught the train smoothly all the way to Schiltach with one change across a platform to another waiting train - got to love the German train system. It was a quick wander to the town centre where we met up with the others for a warm coffee, a brief wander through the cute town and into Poo for a driving experience to Triberg. We managed to stop to check out a few cuckoo clocks which we managed to get the others on board to buy as well but could only set our sights on the really expensive ones so we moved on in the hope that the town centre of Triberg would have others.

After a cheap lunch, followed by black forest cake we resumed our clock search and finally found a clock shop which was producing a slightly different type of cuckoo than the rest. The shop had mushroom houses made from real mushrooms with troll figurines which wasn't your average pretty music playing chicken for a cuckoo bird clock. The carver was at times a little intense but his points were valid. Once we saw that most clocks in the other shops had chickens instead of Cuckoos the deal was closed. We both chose a classic old style clock based from an early 1800's clock with dark stain and an medieval airy feel to it. After we decided we could pull the chain daily for an extra 300 euros off the price the deal was done. Two cuckoo clocks were in the post bound for the pacific.

After a few hours of clock shopping we were pooped so we headed for a campsite which had dorms as well. After much debate we instead checked into a B&B style house for the four of us and enjoyed a home cooked meal from Cath & Si and a few giggles after the old German man left the kitchen with a funny and slightly creepy uncontrolled chuckle every few steps up the stairs. It was a goodnight sleep in a big bed for the same price as camping so we were ready to tackle Smurf in the morning.

After hitching a lift back to Stuttgart from Cath and Si to the VW mechanic, we were told yet again that Smurf needed a new engine but they didn't know what was wrong with this engine - in fact they hadn't even opened him up. They strongly recommended us not to drive him as he was dripping oil at a fairly consistent rate. We knew a new engine was out of the question as he wasn't worth that much to begin with and our emotional attachment was slowly unraveling with each problem. So Tom started each sentence with the mechanic 'IF' I was to drive it for example… would keeping it at a low speed help?…. would topping it up with oil constantly help? ….. try to keep to the flat roads help? … would stopping every hour to rest the engine help? So with the nods we took to the road with Poo at the rear heading for Strasbourg in France, a three hour drive which took us closer to five. But we made it.

We were able to return the hospitality to Cath and Si with mushroom Risotto, followed by porridge in the morning. We decided the best course of action was to head north to Luxembourg as road in France were a little chaotic with strikes and no petrol!, which was another stressful 3 to 4 hour drive to a little town called Echternach. It boasted a lovely cycle route along the river to nearby town Diekirch, which would take our minds off our troubles. We decided to wild camp in what we now think was a school car park (shame) but it was free and had toilets so we acted like the gypsies we had become. We managed a food shop and cooked up in the smurf for four. Pancakes all round and tuna cous cous from the house of Poo. It was yum and so much fun in a small van full of people, as everything is always an arm reach away - Smurf did us proud.

As the school kids started to trickle into the grounds and few stopped to stare we locked up our vans and headed to the river on our bikes to start the 28km ride to Diekirch. It was a little chilly to say the least. My hands were frozen, Cath couldn't feel her feet so we soon pulled over to do some jogging up and down a bridge to get the blood pumping.

As we passed a few cows, a lot of orange dead leaves, a few rotting apples we started to warm a little but at the first sight of a cafe, we pulled over and enjoyed the best hot chocolate I have ever had. We continued on and eventually warmed up. We rewarded ourselves with a hot soupy lunch and ignored our sandwiches in the backpacks. The ride back was lovely until the last 5km wouldn't end but it was great to get out for some exercise and forget our worries with company.

Back in London when we were both planning our separate van tours, Cath and Si bought 'Cool Camping' as a book of reference and we the AA camping guide & a pretty VW picture book. The AA guide was the most useless group of sheeted paper I have ever bought. It found its home in the recycling bin many campsites ago. Their camping book however came out with some gems so we headed for the only one mentioned for Luxembourg, an hour or more drive away in a pretty valley.

It was a nice camping ground with a cute wooden bridge over a stream, it had comical hot water dongles and it was below freezing over night. We did manage to cook up a yummy hot curry with flash Uncle Ben's rice and wraps all round. It was fun having a dinner party in Smurf, we started thinking if we didn't sell him, we could invite friends around for dinner before we left London.

The next morning with a little heater action as it was chilly to the bone, we all packed up, washed up (even with frozen drips coming out of the taps!) and slowly rolled off the lovely soft green grass and bid Cath, Si and Poo farewell as they had a ferry to catch the next day. We were on our own with hundreds of kilometers between us and London. But Tom was onto it with the oil, every few hours he would be out the back of Smurf drip feeding him fresh oil, we think we must have gone through 15 litres of oil once Smurf begun to get sick. Which is a lot.

We stuck to the motorways through Belguim as they were free and boy did they look and feel free! Potholes on a motorway! We did however enjoy the friteries along the way but didn't enjoy the huge straight hills, up and then down, up and then down, at any moment Smurf may be Smurf no longer but he prevailed and we stopped for the night in Namur. Even got to the supermarket for a few Belgium beers, mussel pot and light supplies.

In the morning we had made the decision to get back to London as we were no longer enjoying Smurf driving with a sick engine. So my Champagne finale in France was postponed until our next time in France. We got to Calais and enjoyed our last supper and last night with Smurf. We even enjoyed our last cleaning of the dishes (then I knew we had lost it!) Our last stop before the midday ferry was to pick up some champagne to ease my blow. I have never seen so many bottles of bubbles under one roof before, there is a heaven after all.

There was a sign of relief as we saw the Dover white cliffs in the distance and once Tom mastered the right left side of the road and we even spotted a few AA rescue vehicles so we knew we were nearly home. Even the building architecture was pleasantly familiar and we could read and speak the language, it was the simple things we missed it would seem.

The last drive came and went and we arrived at Highbury New Park (Paul & Lauren's flat) and got to say our first hello to our second Alex nephew and first for the Turner family. We quickly stripped Smurf bare and Tom drove him back to Mountgrove Road where he was valid to park and we enjoyed baby time with Ali over tea.

Our week in London went far too quickly, with most moments just enjoying watching and cuddling Ali. We did get things done but it was hard with such a cute distraction. Smurf was cleaned from head to foot and was posted on GumTree along with my bike. We managed to sell them both but with a large loss from Smurf. (We were too honest as bad Karma is never a good thing). We boxed all the remaining things and had them shipped back to New Zealand. Said our last goodbyes to friends and family and enjoyed a few of our favourite restaurants. We finally managed to book a few nights accommodation in Rio de Janeiro and our internal flight from Buenos Aries to Lima and pick up a few American dollars for good measure.

So with only our packs which we arrived in London with some three and half years ago we left London with a one way ticket to our home land, passing through South America!

G