Day 32 - bridges, a ferry and Tunnel

#3 daughter accompanied Luke to his hospital appointment yesterday. Unfortunately they can’t say yet which type of MS he has, so they can’t give him any treatment till it is established whether he has intermittent recurring MS or progressive. They did say the last scan had shown 2 new spots on the brain which doesn’t sound good. He is being assigned an MS specialist nurse to contact when symptoms occur or change and he’ll see the consultant again in 4 months.

Our route today was complicated by a main road closure so we had to take a very narrow minor road. Luckily we found opportunities to pull over when large lorries bore down on us.

We wanted to see the Kiel Canal so stopped near its western end where a little ferry was plying to and fro. There was a good crop of mushrooms growing nearby so that’ll help out with the food rations tonight.

Soon we crossed the canal by a huge bridge and headed for the Gluckstadt Ferry across the Elbe. We joined the long queue, waiting 45 minutes for our turn. There seemed to be 3 ferries running. They were flat-bottomed - the water was shallow and slow-moving between the point we got on and an island so we had to head further out till we reached a suitable place to cross to the other side of this wide river.

A tunnel took us under the river Weber. We were in Lower Saxony, a very flat area with lots of drainage ditches and Friesian cows. In addition to at least 2 nuclear power stations a lot of land was covered in wind farms. Despite this Germany relied on Russian power till Putin cut it off so they are going to be rationing heating etc this winter.

Another road closure meant another few miles of gasping intakes of breath when we met wide oncoming vehicles.

Mid afternoon saw us stopping in Varel to decide how we’d proceed. I fancied going a few miles up to Jever, a historic place which even had a museum dedicated to Bismark. I’d have enjoyed that, having done the reunification of Germany for Higher History but Mr C preferred to carry on to get us into the Netherlands. He’ll be in good time for the ferry tomorrow night!

Eventually we pitched up at a bird reserve near Groningen and managed a 2.5 mile stroll along by the water, admiring geese flying off, a heron stalking a fish, swans and either swallows or swifts - too swift for me to see which - before the rain started. I chose this area for the blip.

As for the Truss budget - the crash of the £1 says it all. Marina Hyde puts it beautifully - they have eliminated the boom from the boom and bust. An even bigger mess for the next government to try to clear up.