Schloss seen from the town
We checked into the campsite and were told to just ‘find a spot’ to pitch on. It seems that our reservation meant very little or nothing but we found a spot and settled in. The campsite is on a strip of land running alongside the river with a road running its length through the centre. To the right the grass runs to the river’s edge but there is a deep drop to the water. The strip is only wide enough for caravans to pitch one deep along it’s length. The other side is slightly wider and can take two tents or caravans, one behind the other, along the length of the site but it’s not marked out and who parks where is all very haphazard and unmanaged.
Hoorah! The toilets smell positively floral.
Amenities are very basic but clean. There are washing up stations situated periodically throughout the site but only cold water to the sinks. This is our first campsite where the cost of showers was not included. There are male and female shower blocks with showers costing one euro by token for 5 minutes. It was therefore not surprising to find men in the ladies shower block and vice versa as couples shared showers to save money. I wondered how much we’d spend on showers in a year if we each paid a euro a time. The answer might be quite a lot but would more likely be embarrassingly little.
Just down the road, a five minute cycle, is an Aldi supermarket so we were able to stock up. The fridge in the caravan is, like everything else, quite small and my injections take up too much room but I was able to make space for some very drinkable local wine at 1.49 euros per litre – the cost of one seven and a half minute shower - bargain.
Whilst most of the site is occupied by tourers like us, there are also some strange old dilapidated caravans dotted throughout the site with various layers of tarpaulin and other coverings over them and their adjacent ramshackle extensions or add on ‘buildings’. They are shabby and moss covered and look as if they were abandoned long ago, except that they have new trailers or bicycles outside so were probably, or improbably, occupied. One such dilapidated construction was opposite our pitch. Away at the back was probably a caravan but so many other bits had been added and various roof coverings slung across that it was difficult to tell. From the front it looked as if it had once been a shop with a large, very dirty window and some weird and unrelated items on display; notably two model heads, one with an old woollen hat on and another with a wig. I found it all very spooky but strangely compelling to look at. I was staring into the abandoned shop window when the side door opened and a man came out and went to the washing up station. He frightened the life out of me. The next day he opened up the little trailer parked next to his encampment, pushed up the solar panel on its roof, dropped down a window at the front and pulled out a display shelf. The shelf, now suspended out of the trailer, had a think red velvet curtain that dropped to the floor forming a valance around the shelf with gold cord looping the front and a brass rod at the top. It was as if the whole thing had been reclaimed from a funeral parlour. The tiered shelving was full of lavender pouches of various designs which I presume he was selling. He then set up another desk with a sewing machine, iron and fan and set to work for the day, making more pouches. We never saw anyone buy anything whilst we were there but several of the children seemed to go in and play shop in the trailer which, due to our suspicious nature, we felt we needed to keep an eye on.
Wifi access is available outside the reception areas but there is no site shop. At some stage there had been a bar and beer garden which is still signed from the road but this too has ceased to operate.
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