Deutschland ist voll.

We should have taken note of what the chap told us in New Dover Road park and ride last Monday evening. He was on his way home after a month or so touring the near continent. "We had a great time in France, Germany was rammed," he concluded.

It's true, it is. Really we should have been able to predict this given the news at home of campsites booked solid, people forced to wild camp on beaches and in National Parks. The millions who usually take their summer break abroad have opted to stay put and there is simply insufficient places to accommodate them. Why would it be any different in Germany, they migrate en-mass to the Costas, and so far as motorhoming goes, Germany is its homeland, more than four times the number of new ones are registered annually in the Bundersrepublik than in the UK.

The inevitable result was when we arrived at the large stellplatz in Heidelberg it was full. We had planned to spend two nights here and visit the old city. We felt a tad crestfallen, the autobahn had been busy and stressful; Gill had performed her usual geographical magic and guided us through Heidelberg's suburban back streets in the rush hour to ensure we avoided the low emission zone, now we were going to have to reverse the procedure to escape. 

 We needed to find somewhere nearby to stay and it was now after six. We parked temporarily in the adjacent Park and Ride and consulted the Campercontact App. This too proved tricky as recently it's had a makeover which rather than improving the app appears to have made it unstable and glitchy. The string of riverside sites on the Neckar upstream from Heidelberg were difficult to reach without entering the Lez. The only option was to head to a site in Sankt Leon - Rot, about 20km south of the city. We assumed they had room, but we're not entirely certain as the person we phoned spoke no English and our German is minimal. Thankfully when we arrived there was room on their stellplatz.

 It was a slightly strange place. The surly man on reception made an excellent job of making us feel entirely unwelcome. As for the site itself, it resembled one of those French outdoor activities/watersport sites you find by reservoirs and 'plan d'eau' - big, busy and charmless. Still, it was a whole lot better than sleeping in a car park which had been the only other option.

We agreed that our original plan to cross Germany and Switzerland using stellplatz was not tenable, given how busy places were.  We were going to have to book ahead and use campsites. After dinner we got out all of our maps, the ACSI books and summoned up every campsite app we had on our phones and made lists of possible places to stay - on the shores of Bodensee, the fringes of the Black Forest, and around Interlaken and Como. It was getting late. We'll phone around before we set off tomorrow, we decided.