We left the car park in Cologne at 12.30 p.m. It would have been much earlier but we were held up by the Cologne Marathon which we knew was going on but had no idea it would go right past the exit from the car park. There were barriers across so no one could leave. We sat reading whilst waiting. The weather had changed noticeably since yesterday when we were basking in warm sunshine. Today it had rained heavily in the early hours waking us both and as we waited to leave it was cold and windy, probably ideal conditions for the runners in the marathon. As we sat waiting we saw another motorhome leave which had been parked at the exit for almost two hours so thinking the barriers were now gone we walked over to say goodbye to Alan and Gail first. We said our goodbyes and wished them well for their trip to the UK at which point they told us they only go to Dover to get the motorhome MOT’d and then return to Europe. Sounds great to me, we’re on the verge of returning home this week and not looking forward to it at all. After saying our goodbyes we drove to the exit only to find the barriers up again. There was a police car on the other side of the road with his blue lights flashing and they totally ignored us. At this stage there were absolutely no runners coming through so it was difficult to see why we were having to wait. I’d say we, but it was me who was impatient knowing only too well that I was never going to get into an argument with the police when I don’t even speak their language! We waited about 30 minutes and all of a sudden a small group of young girls came and moved the barriers at the same moment that the police drove away. At no time in the process did any one of them as much as give us a glance or a thumbs up to say thanks for waiting, you can go now. It was as if we must have been invisible!
Anyway, we headed off and made our way out of Cologne on the way back to Bruges. We stopped on the way to try to fill up with LPG. The petrol station we stopped at was actually in Holland and the adaptor for LPG was different to any that I’d used previously and it took a moment or two to work out how to use it. Half way through filling up it suddenly started to piss out the sides so I assumed that meant it was full. It cost €5.58 which I thought couldn’t possibly be enough. I looked later and the gauge was showing it needed another 1/4 tank to be full. I have no idea what I did wrong whilst filling up. Woa! This is so boring!! Who on earth cares?
We got to Bruges after another boring motorway drive of about four hours. When we got to Memling Camping we checked in and went to our pitch which was about ten meters from where we stayed last time. We didn’t go out at all and just stayed in and relaxed for the evening. A pretty boring day really with just two days left before returning home.
Wandering Wildman 