Jane & Rog’s Eastwards Coddiwomple

Jane NotRog

Jane NotRog

LIFE MEMBER
Joined
Jan 19, 2019
Posts
2,111
Likes collected
13,273
Location
Ashford, Kent
Funster No
58,099
MH
Adria Twin 640 SGX
Exp
A few years
Coddiwomple - to travel purposefully towards an unknown destination. Our purposes being to finally relax after 9 months of bad stuff happening, to see interesting things and to eat good food.

IMG_8933.jpeg
 
Jane And Rog said:
Coddiwomple - to travel purposefully towards an unknown destination. Our purposes being to finally relax after 9 months of bad stuff happening, to see interesting things and to eat good food.

View attachment 907267
Click to expand...

Sign saying crossing the border in English and signs directing to France.

Where is this new England-France land border?

I note it is one-way. :LOL:
 
Happy coddiwomples! I hope it is restful and recuperative. I look forward to following your adventures …

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Coddiwompling day 1: Hamstreet to Hasselt

IMG_7443.jpeg

Flynn’s new chosen career if he can’t be a chicken farmer ​

Our luck ran true to form on Le Shuttle. About 20 minutes into the crossing the train lurched and Denby jumped forward a few inches into the rear of a minibus full of amateur golfers. Seems that when the Shuttle staff say “put the handbrake on” they mean all the way on not just “as if you’re parking at Waitrose on”. We exchanged details with the golfers (Jane’s overall handicap and strokes gained putting beat them) but it was all a bit too hasty, when they pulled away there was no damage and we set off unscathed into France without any need to inform the insurance.

We’re trying to get a hold on this Codiwomple thing and, in hindsight, deciding on a destination for our first stop before we’d even left the UK probably wasn’t the best start. Whatever, we drove a few hours through decidedly indifferent weather to Hasselt. We’d recently heard of Hasselt via the (now tedious) Our Tour blog. They visited the “food capital of Belgium” and ate a McDonald’s. We were insenced and would do no such thing. But first, check in:

IMG_7447.jpeg

Check in​

Flynn had a quick walk and we whiled away a lovely hour complaining to EE about data roaming not working before we set out for town. The Aire is super modern, close to town and part of a nice park made from ex-industrial wasteland.

IMG_8943.jpeg

Yeah! Ex industrial blight made good.​
15 minutes closely guided by Siri we were in town, actually in the Grosse market to be precise. Sadly, no one else was. Monday, it turns out, is half day closing.

We wandered around looking for chocolate shops for a while but eventually had to give into the call of Belgian beer and Gin. First a couple of sharpeners at Cambrinus - a great local bar on the edge of the old town then to Brasserie de Hertog where the owner proudly proclaimed his father used to be the town’s English teacher so he’d be glad to translate the menu. Sadly ChatGPT had already provided that service. We opted for steak tartare and frijits which is a bit like a McDonald’s but also a lot not like a McDonald’s.

IMG_8938.jpeg

Man drinks beer and avoids camera​
Codiwomple rating: nil
 
Last edited:
Riverbankannie said:
Great start. I thought they had chocks on the trains, metal things which they tuck into the handrails when not in use. ?
Click to expand...
Not that I’ve seen? Maybe they use them for some vehicles and not others?

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Last night’s map. Due to EE being so slow sorting my phone, we didn’t make it to the Gin Museum, or the chocolate shop and cake shops selling local delicacies. The brewery tap was closed because of it being Monday. We’re camping at the aire, top right, at wades.costumes.crazy.

IMG_0876.png
 
Have a lovely time!😃

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Riverbankannie said:
Great start. I thought they had chocks on the trains, metal things which they tuck into the handrails when not in use. ?
Click to expand...
I think they use the chocks when you are immediately behind the doors that close to compartmentalise the train when it is moving. They obviously don’t want you damaging their doors, but not worried about anything else!
 
Deadloss said:
I think they use the chocks when you are immediately behind the doors that close to compartmentalise the train when it is moving. They obviously don’t want you damaging their doors, but not worried about anything else!
Click to expand...
I suppose that also could be an area where people are standing. Makes sense.
 
Day 2: To Bad Karlshafen

Today started well, when Rog won the unusual breakfast bread products lottery with the Pizza Doughnut Flammkuchen. Three of Rog’s major food groups in one meal - vitamin B (bacon), vitamin C (cheese) and vitamin F (fat).

IMG_8955.jpeg



Skip the next bit if you’re not much into computers.

So, we drove on through the industrial Rhine hinterlands to the Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum (noon.accusing.slick), which began with the history of arithmetic through to computers of the last century.

IMG_8957.jpeg




Below is the first arithmetical error in “print”. Five bowls of beer went missing due to Sumerian book-keeping (see below if you want to check). I suspect five bowls of beer actually went missing due to Sumerian getting-a-bit-pissed-and-messing-up-the-bill, but who am I to say, after a few gins.


IMG_8958.jpeg



This is a Dictaphone, an early voice recording system.

IMG_8965.jpeg


It is also the subject of the first joke Rog ever told me and goes something like this.

A secretary walks into her boss’s office and asks “Can I use your Dictaphone?”

The boss replies, “No, just use your finger like everyone else.”

As you can see, this joke has lost none of its appeal in 30 years. To one of us, at least.

And this is the first home computer I ever programmed, in 1981. Blackjack - such a gift to the world.


IMG_8969.jpeg


We’ve recently signed up for a ChatGPT subscription, and this video is when we set our ChatGPT talking to the museum’s AI “robot”.

Quite appropriately, just after the museum visit we had a call with some German lawyers about some work for both of us, based on our time coding mobile operating systems in the 90s. Two days into our long awaited holiday, we didn’t want to do more than a couple of days’ hard labour, but did manage to find someone else who we hope can fill the gap.

Onwards to Bad Karlshafen, where we lucked out on a Stellplatz (vibrated.weakened.arrowed) right next to the River Weser for €20.

IMG_8985.jpeg



Bad Karlshafen had snippets of French about the place and the odd Huguenot reference - turns out it was founded by said Huguenots in 1699, fleeing from persecution in France. (At the same time, my Huguenot ancestors were fleeing to London - Sales is a French surname. If anyone can prove that I’m the rightful heir to Château de Sales, I’ll work out some sort of deal…)

The weather couldn’t make its mind up whether to be sunny or hail, so we were similarly indecisive and after dithering about dinner in town, ended up with a home-cooked bean stew in Denby. Bean stew is a great way to smuggle extra veg into a meal - a quick tip for those of you with young children, or husbands.

IMG_8958.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Watching this thread with avid interest as Eastern Europe is somewhere I'm trying to convince the misses we should explore. Hope all hoe's well for you both 👍
 
125BEER said:
The Heinz Nixdorf museum can be a "bit ramed" at times.
Free aire at Paderborn ?
Enjoy your trip

Cheers🍻
Click to expand...
Everything seems pretty empty so far - maybe it’s the weather, which seems more April than June.

We didn’t stay in Paderborn - we headed off to Bad Karlshafen instead, fancied the stop by the river.
 
nicholsong said:
Sign saying crossing the border in English and signs directing to France.

Where is this new England-France land border?

I note it is one-way. :LOL:
Click to expand...
You have to come back by dinghy.😁

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top