Achtung!!!! baby

So we crossed the border into Germany without really meaning to it just happened all of a sudden, this whole no borders EU thing is kinda weird. We still haven't got a stamp saying we have left the UK or arrived on the continent, oh well.

We decided that what we probably needed was a road map so we exited at the first town across the border to buy one. We got the map but it turns out this particular town was some sort of black hole that just kept sucking us back in. After a frustrating 20 minutes we were back on the road again and heading in the general direction of Bremen. We weren't sure how we'd do for time but there were loads of camping grounds marked on our map so we figured we could stop anywhere along the way.

Turns out we made good time and pulled into Bremen in the afternoon at another really nice campground, these guys have got camping down to a fine art.

The next day was time for a bit a sightseeing so into the centre we went, aaah, we never knew how much missed town squares like these ones. Big hulking town hall in one corner, massive looming cathedral in the other and lots of pretty little shopfronts and cafes in between. Not to mention a massive statue of the towns protector, a knight called Roland (ha!) smack bang in the middle.

The old fishing/redlight district was cobbled, windy and cute and a slightly different sight was an Art Deco alleyway commissioned by the creator of decaffinated coffee. We capped off our wandering with looking at some mummified human remains in the cathedral, all in all a pretty good day.

Back to the campsite and we have found that we are cooking more now than we have in the last year since we left home. Can't say we've lost the skills either which is nice. We haven't found camping or cooking a drag yet, it is actually nicer than looking for somewhere to lay your head and then trying not to blow your budget while filling your stomach.

From Bremen we took a scenic tour through Lüneburg, a wonky old Hanseatic town where we had some type of wurst for lunch (one of many) in the market square and moved on to Hamburg that arvo.

Hamburg is the third largest town in Germany so we were not knowing what to expect with regards to traffic, pollution, hustle and bustle and whatnot. The traffic was not too big a headache and the city centre was really lovely to get around on foot with a lot of canals to walk along and a promenade from where we could watch the huge shipping port (the largest in Europe) at work. We climbed our first church tower just to remind ourselves how unfit we are and munched on pickled herring rolls and, of course, sausage.

We kept tracking north and ended up in Lübeck for a night. It was a little, chilled out village, ringed by a river and with the patchy old and new architecture that crops up in a lot of these towns that were bombed in the war.

As we walked in to town we observed a rather nasty looking roundabout and commented that we would be staying well away from anything like that for a little while, sounds ominous no? Sure enough the next day Eva decides she is going to drive for the first time on the right side of the road(and she hasn't done a lot of driving in the last year) with Adam navigating. Through no fault from either party we took the wrong turn and ended up smack bang in the middle of town going around this bloody roundabout! Baptism by fire.

We were beginning to think about heading to Berlin to check out the nations capital but decided a night in the middle of nowhere would be pleasant first so chose a campground on the edge of a little lake. It turns out the campground was a trailerpark but it was a very neat, tidy, German trailer park and the no motors rule on the lake made walking about it so peaceful. Eva managed to spot and catch a frog in distress of course. As we were cooking our dinner (a very tasty Thai green curry) we heard a knocking and looked up to find a woodpecker bashing its brains out against a tree. Adam had a smile on his face for the next hour.

So now we are in Berlin, catching up on our blog. We have scored accommodation on a hostel boat right by the largest remaining section of the Berlin wall. Tonight we are in a double room and then we are camping on the deck for the next few nights - random!

Photos: Enjoying our lakeside retreat, The gates of Lübeck, These bells were left where they fell in a bombing raid at a church in Lübeck, A leaning church tower in Lüneburg, The view across to the docks in Hamburg, Blue skies in Bremen, Eva enjoying some fine wine from a plastic cup in Bremen