The first quarter of 2018 has been rather cold, with a couple of days of snow causing problems and forcing me to take a day off work. Thankfully, we’re in to April now, and hopefully past the worst of the cold weather!
As the weather warms up my thoughts turn to where I’d like to go on holiday. I won’t have time for my normal 2 week break in Greece this year – thanks to my decision to drive to my cousin’s wedding in Norway (taking a week to travel there, and another week to travel back) – but I will have time for a week in Germany at the end of May.
I normally find that by mid-late May the weather in Germany is warm and Sunny – perhaps the odd thunderstorm. I was lucky last year to get temperatures of 30°c down in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. This year I won’t be that far South so I don’t think I’ll get quite that! But I hope that, in travelling the last weekend in May, I will get some decent weather.
A return to Cirencester’s twin town – Itzehoe – is on the card for the next German visit. But for a change, I will be driving. I’ll take 3 days there, 3 days back (need to be back at work!) I’ll sort of be zig-zagging my way around Europe and Germany, with overnight stops planned for De Panne (Belgium), Cologne, Wolfsburg (VW’s home), Itzehoe, Erfurt in Thüringen, Cochem (in Rheinland-Pfalz), and finally, Calais.
Add in to that a number of tourist attractions and other places to visit, and de-tour to, during the day, factor in the hours of driving (anything from 4 to 7 hours a day) and my week in Germany will really be extremely busy: Perhaps I should take a week off afterwards to recover!
Budget wise, the acommodation I’ve booked comes to about €500, add petrol – then add in money for meals and anything I might buy while I’m out there, and the cost could well be over €1000. Despite the costs, driving everywhere is so much more enjoyable than flying! Last May I spent just over €300 on petrol, but the distances to get to Mainz, Hockenheim and Trier, were far less than going up beyond Hamburg. I’ll be travelling much further in Germany than I did last year so I will use quite a bit more than that this year – possibly double? In many ways it depends how much I choose to put my foot down on the Autobahn…
With just over 6 weeks before I go I’ve not got time to get to excited about my upcoming travels just yet – plenty going on at work, and some interesting things happening at the radio station as well.
Gute Nacht.
FH.
