Diary for The Filthy Lucre Tour


Terrasencamping Sonnenberg - best campsite we`ve been to, and here`s why

2006-05-28

This may not be of much interest to you if you don`t go to campsites.

This place is great. WiFi is a superb idea for campsites - it means that if any of your residents happen to be writing some sort of journal, they`re pretty much bound to log in and say nice things about you. However, it`s not just the WiFi that makes this such a fine campsite. Being embarassingly monolingual, it`s a huge benefit to me that they speak perfect English. This was particularly handy when I`d loaded all of my clothes into the tumble drier along with a dispenser full of washing liquid and was about to hit the green button on what appeared to be the "standard programme", and they kindly proposed that I use the washing machine instead, and helped me translate the instructions. That evening, the female half of the junior Dünsers (the site is family-run) approached me in the utility room waving the German tumble drier instructions and humbly asking for some help in translating it into English. No problem, I thought, it can`t take more than ten minutes to suss out between us what everything is. But, umm, it turned out that the only part she was stuck on was that she didn`t know the English word for the fluff that accumulates on the drier filter. Ah hum. How embarassing. I didn`t have the heart to explain that I didn`t know the German word for "yes".

Some other reasons this campsite is so good. The loos are so gloriously clean I`d eat off them. The pitches are stepped such that you get a splendid raised view over the mountains from the front of your caravan, unless you go to the bizarre effort of pointing your caravan such that you can`t see the view any more, which almost everyone else seems to have done. All of the water/waste/bin facilities are easy to find without everything being covered by silly little signposts. I had a ponder about all of this, and I think what makes this place different is that the owners actually care about doing the whole thing properly. The waste water connectors were covered by little steel plates - when Herr Dünser lifted the plate to show us where the connectors were, the thing was full of ants and maggots. "Hmm", he said as he shovelled them out, "I think they like the heat from the steel plate. I might have to think of something else".

They have their own web site, at www.camping-sonnenberg.com. If you end up there, tell them you were sent by the Brits with two laptops.