Germany
April 2019Bad Bentheim, Loxstedt and Schobüll
Duration: 5 days, 4 nights
Budget spent: €228.82
Kilometres travelled: 454
As far as we experienced it, northern Germany is extremely camper friendly. I say northern because we haven’t visited the south yet. We crossed the border from the Netherlands into Germany at Bad Bentheim and drove up to Süderlügum where we entered Denmark.
We had no problems finding Aires, or Stellplatzen as they are called in Germany. We were there in April, which is before the peak season so it might be different during summer.
We often saw road signs depicting a camper. Twice, we decided to follow these signs and both times we ended up by a lake where there was parking designated to campers. These free spots have a 24-hour limit.
All-in-all, we didn’t stay in Germany long enough to give an extensive overview, but what we did experience was extremely positive for people who don’t necessarily want to stay at campsites and have all their own facilities.
Bringing your dog along to Germany is permitted as long as you meet all EU regulations for importing a pet. All dogs must be kept on a leash unless stated otherwise. You are expected to buckle or secure your dog while driving.
Lake Speichersee Geeste
We selected this location using our usual method; pinpointing a lake on the map and driving there. When we arrived, it turned out to be the cooling water reservoir for a nuclear power station, which is also used as a recreational area. We decided to take a closer look and drove up to the entrance when we noticed four or five campers parked across from the regular parking lot. Turns out there is a large 24-hour Stellplatz.
This Stellplatz is free of charge and the toilets are clean and open to the public at specified times. From the parking
Next to Lake Speichersee Geeste is a
Stoteler See
At Stoteler See (Lake Stoteler) there are three parking spots for campers to the left of the hotel. These spots have a 24-hour limit and there are no facilities. The spots are fine for a one night stop-over. The lake is ideal for dog walking and the area is okay. The parking lot is close to the neighbouring residential area and the surroundings seem to be a prime walking location as there was a constant flow of people arriving to go for walks. The lake was created during the construction of the nearby motorway, which you can hear constantly but we didn’t lose any sleep over.
There were a lot of people fishing, which makes sense because it is home to eel, perch, pike, carp, roach, rudd, tench and zander. The area also provides a habitat for waterfowl such as mallard, teal, greylag goose, water rail and coot.
Swimming is only permitted at the beach across from the hotel and I can imagine it being great to be able to have a refreshing dip in the lake. The beach has a beach volleyball court and there are changing and toilet facilities. The lake is also the starting point for its own hiking trail, but we wanted to push on, so we didn’t try that out.
Exploratory missions
We also keep account of our exploratory missions throughout Europe. If you want to know how we are doing, what we are doing or if one of us got eaten by a bear, make sure to check out our blog posts.
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