A European Tour… with crochet along the way! (Part 1)

As some of you may remember from previous blog posts or if you follow me on Instagram, during the summer my family and I went on a 3 week tour of Europe in our campervan. And whenever I go on any travels I’m always on the look out for crochet along the way – I just can’t help myself! 🙂

It’s taken me a while to get this blog post written as I’ve had so many other crochet commitments which have taken priority. But I’m really happy to have finally got it together so I can share the surprisingly large amount of crochet I either saw (or did) – I’m always amazed how much there is out there! And there was so much to share that I’ll be doing two blog posts- here’s Part 1… 🙂

We visited 8 countries in 3 weeks: France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerlnd Austria, Czech Republic and The Netherlands. With all these countries to visit and using our little campervan as our home on wheels, there was an inevitable amount of driving involved and in total we drove over 2000 miles over the 3 weeks. Fotunately my husband is a happy driver so my daughter and I were able to use driving time as crochet time!

I had some Little Box of Crochet projects that I had not yet got round to making- taking them on holiday was a perfect opportunity to catch up and I finished this basket whilst driving across France and Belgium to get to Luxembourg…

Whilst my daughter crocheted the little donuts. 🙂

We stayed in Luxembourg for 3 nights in a delightful riverside campsite. It was very hot (remember that summer heatwave) and the river was the perfect place to cool down as well as provide beautiful photo opportunities…

Yes, our Salty came on our European tour with us, as did my Seaside Stash Busting Blanket!

When camping, I usually see other people enjoying crochet or knitting. Camping provides a slower and simpler outdoor way of life and these crafts go perfectly with simply sitting outside. I’m always happy to see crochet by fellow campers and these creations were hanging in a nearby tent…

From Luxembourg we drove south through Germany to Lake Konstanz (or the Bodensee) where we stayed for 4 nights. More travel time crochet and another Little Box of Crochet – this time a purse in the making…

The heatwave continued and by this time our air conditioning in the van had stopped working! But luckily our next campsite was right by the lake and yet again we cooled off in the water…

As we were driving long distances between campsites we had brought our bicycles with us and used these for our main transport to get around once we were at our campsite destinations. This campsite was very close to the Switzerland border and it was a real novelty cycling into another country…

We cycled to an exceptionally pretty town called Stein am Rhein and I saw these crocheted key rings in a shop…

And we found a spot by the river to cool down – we spent a lot of time in water during those first days!

I spotted these crocheted garments in a market back at the campsite – I’m always so inspired by the crochet I see…

I was sharing some photos on Instagram during our travels and I was asked to show what our camping setup was like, so I posted this photo and description at the time…

We loved this part of Germany and Europe very much… we caught a bus and train to the nearby city of Konstanz…

…and the lake provided some more stunning backdrops for my blanket!

Our next destination was Salzburg in Austria and we stopped off at the amazing Neuschwanstein castle en route…

Salzburg is a fabulous city and we happened to be there during the Salzburg Music Festival and saw some outdoor opera (I loved it but one of my sons was not too impressed!) It was fabulous to spot this crocheted caravan on the campsite reception desk when we arrived…

It was in Salzburg where I visited my first yarn shop on our travels. I always ‘Google’ for local yarn shops wherever we go and this one was well worth a visit…

It had some bargain yarns outside and the window display had a fabulous crab – perfect ‘Coastal Crochet’! 🙂

Whilst there another customer was chatting and she had travelled all the way from Iceland. She was describing the wet summer that they had been experiencing- a complete contrast to the heatwave that we were still in the midst of.

I always look out for local or unusual yarns and I was really happy to see some Austrian yarns which I couldn’t resist and the yellow and brown was for my daughter to make more donuts! 🙂

Salzburg is so beautiful and artistic… I felt so inspired cycling into the city along the river and walking the streets, both during the day and also at night when window shopping was a joy! The photo of my blanket at sunset has become one of my most popular ever over on Instagram…

And I couldn’t believe my luck when we stumbled across the most amazing yarn bombs down a side street in the city centre… They were amazing and for someone who adores crochet as much as I do and is always looking out for things to share on my blog, it was like striking gold! 🙂

Whilst staying in Salzburg we did drive back over the border to Germany to visit a salt mine and also see the Königssee – a beautiful lake and another opportunity to cool down…

And here is Salty in the bicycle basket which is how she got around with us whilst cycling…After 3 nights in Salzburg we headed north to the Czech Republic… I’ll share more about our crochet adventures there later this week…

Thanks so much for reading and Happy Crocheting! 🙂 🙂