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Our 4 Month Motorhome Tour Of Europe, Part 1
Left Perth 1.30pm arrived at services in Maidstone Kent 12 hours and 510 miles later, lot’s of roadwork’s, wind and torrential rain made it a slow journey. We both enjoyed a large drambuie before bed at 3am. Saturday 11/10/08 Wakened at 10am to glorious sunshine and a very small notice. “Maximum stay 2 hours. Please purchase ticket for longer stay [£14] Wheel clamps will be used and fine issued” After setting the alarm off 3 times my doubts about Gordon’s ability to sneak a 23ft motor home past the parking attendant were unfounded!!! Nice 30 min drive to Dover and got the 3.30 ferry to Calais, smooth 1 hour crossing. Drove 20 miles towards Dunkerque and stopped at free camper van parking at small harbour in Gravelines. Weather lovely 20°C Total mileage today- 50 NOTE – in France they provide free motor home parking in all the villages they are called Aires, they usually have fresh water and waste water dumping facilities for around 2€. They vary in size from 10 – 30 vans. Sunday 12/10/08 Bonjour, 8am. Wandered down over moat past fort to local boulangerie for fresh croissants for breakfast. Had a drive around Dunkerque, but not a lot to see, a very large town with a lot in industry. Drove into Belgium and had lunch at village called Le Panne. Decided to drive west back along the coast to Arromanches.[Normandy D Day Landings] Arrived 7pm camped up at Aire in village which had parking for 14 and we got the last space. Weather 24°C Mileage today – 320 Monday 13/10/08 Visited the D Day Museum at Arromanches. Then onto Omaha beach and the American Cemetery. This was unbelievable; you would think it had been built yesterday and not in1956. A huge modern display and information reception before going through to the gardens, memorials and 9400 graves with immaculate white marble headstone in perfect lines, only the Americans could have built a show piece like this in the middle of the Normandy countryside, well worth visiting, a very moving experience. Drove down to Aire at Utah beach to spend the night. Weather – Fair 16°C Mileage today – 51 Tuesday 14/10/08 Utah beach Museum – brilliant. Then onto Pointe Du Hoc. This is where 225 American rangers scaled the cliffs to take out the German guns. 90 survived. We are both a lot more knowledgeable about the D Day Landings. A very enjoyable and interesting 2 days on the Normandy coast. Drove to the east of Paris and stayed at motorway services. Sat Nav through the centre of Paris great, although it does take you onto the toll roads, did it in 30 mins. The roads aren’t nearly as busy as back home. Weather – Cloudy but fair 17°C Mileage today - 250 Wednesday 15/10/08 Drove through Champagne Country today. Stopped at another American war memorial at Chateau Thierry, sitting on a quiet country hill side it was 200ft high and 1000ft long. The Americans really like to make their mark and let everyone know their part in WWII. Lovely run on non toll quiet roads all the way to Germany. Arrived German border 8.30pm, staying at motorway services just outside Saarbrucken, when we arrived a young guy from Hungary came over, he had just bought a car in Germany and had broken down and “he did not know nothing why the diesel was pouring out the engine” Gordon spent the next 2 hours doing a temporary repair for him, he was extremely grateful as he had 1500km to travel back to Hungary! We hope he makes it. Weather – Cloudy 18°C just started raining this evening 10pm Mileage today - 250 Thursday 16/10/08 Left services in heavy rain which continued all the way to Nurnberg, a long drive with a few road works. Lovely countryside, arrived 6pm and booked into only campsite in Nurnberg {28€. For 1 night!!!} Drove into city to stock up on groceries (a lot cheaper than in France but diesel is more expensive 1.30€ a litre}.couldn’t get any satellite signal tonight so missed Emmerdale ! Watching DVD. Weather - 13°C Rain Mileage today – 260 Friday 17/10/08 Parked 2 miles from city centre and had a nice walk in. did the tourist sight seeing bit. Nurnberg is a lovely city, very clean. The only thing we have trouble with is the language ! ordered Riesenbratwurst, Bratkartoffeln & Sauerkraut for lunch. It tasted ok ! Roads are good and we haven’t had any difficulty navigating them. Travelled to Swickau and parked in motorway services tonight. Weather - 10°C Sunny but very cold Mileage today – 126 Saturday 18/10/08 Drove to Dresden and then onto Colditz, it wasn’t the easiest place to find, no signposts until you were within a mile of the town, located the castle, it sits in the centre of town surrounded by houses which surprised us, we then parked in lay-by just outside Colditz town. Weather - 10°C Sunny Mileage today 148 Sunday 19/10/08 Spend most of the day at Colditz Castle, brilliant, saw the escape tunnels dug by the POW’s. well worth visiting. All the information and photo’s are about failed escape attempts!!! Headed towards Poland and crossed border at 6pm. The difference compared to Germany, roads, cleanliness etc is instantly noticeable. First priority tomorrow is to get Polish money before we need fuel !! Stayed at service station at Boleslawecka, didn’t feel very safe. Weather 10°C Sunny Mileage today. 153 Monday 20/10/08 Early start today, on road by 8am. Travelled to Wraclow and onto Krakow arrived 3.30pm. We drive at 58mph, this makes driving easy as flow with lorries {which there is a lot of in Poland} Ave 23 MPG..Air suspension working well on the Polish Roads glad we got it fitted. Gordon was dreading driving in city centre with trams etc but found signs for campsite 2 miles from centre (great nice change from service stations and lorries) . Got bus, then tram with help of friendly Polish chap to city centre. Nice walk right round the old city, palace, river, churches & museums and then had traditional polish dumplings for tea (very good) outside in the market square, {largest market square in Europe} . Enjoyed watching the horse drawn taxis with a glass of wine as the sun went down over city. They have floodlights on all the building in the square at night. So far we have found Krakow lovely and the people very friendly and helpful. Thought we would have found the language more difficult, we found the local off licence ok. They call them “ ALKOHOLE” Weather 7am – 4C 3pm - 20°C Mileage today 235 Tuesday 21/10/08 Went to salt mines at Wieliczka just east of Krakow. An amazing place, 130m underground and there is a huge church with the alter etc carved out of salt. Stables for the horses and offices in the 300km of tunnels. The miners carved statues out of the rock salt to make it a visually pleasant place to work; it was a privilege to be a salt miner, very healthy environment. Travelled to Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and parked at the 24hr car park at the museum (12 Zlotys) We met an Australian couple in Krakow campside and bumped into them in Auschwitz we parked up together and had an interesting and funny night swapping tales about our adventures so far. (They flew to Germany end of august and bought camper van their to tour Europe for 10 Months) Weather 7am - 1°C 3pm - 24°C Mileage today 50 Wednesday 22/10/08 Auschwitz - visited the museum and concentration camp {formally the Polish Army base camp} then out to Brzezinka (Birkenau} Extermination camp. We couldn’t even try to explain the horror and unbelievable size of Birkenau it’s not till you actually walk round that the scale of the Germans extermination of a complete race hits home. We said earlier that Germany was a beautiful clean country we now recon this is where they learned about recycling, everything from the prisoners exterminated was recycled, artificial limbs, glasses, even hair. Total shocking experience. We left Poland 3pm and reached Chez Republic border at 4.30pm. Headed for Slovakia and crossed border at 5.25pm. Got some Slovak money 4000 Slovenskych korun for £100 and also Road pass {Wingett} for 7 days. (3 countries in an hour, what a rally crew !!) Parked in lorry lay-by with 24hr café just north of Trencin {tea for 2 with drinks £4). Weather 7°C - am 24°C - pm Mileage today 251 Thursday 23/10/08 Drove to Bratislava, had a drive round but no where to park near centre, drove into Hungary and had lunch, Slovakia & Hungary both lovely but not a lot to see decided to head for Austria and parked at services just outside Vienna. Weather 12°C cloudy & windy Mileage today 224 Friday 24/10/08 Found and booked into campsite for 2 nights - 20mins from Vienna Centre. Had washing machine & tumble dryer, spent the morning doing the last 2 weeks laundry. Gordon sat in laundry while I did the house work and set up our ‘my space’ on the computer (also watched a lot of rally footage on u tube I think!!} booked city tour at 1.30pm - 72€. Which turned out to be very expensive for what we got to see? it did give us our bearings round the city though which is very beautiful, had a lovely meal before catching tube (which is full of drunken vagrants) then bus back to camp site, didn’t pay for tube!! Bus 3€... Great day out. Weather -3°C am +7°C pm Mileage today 25 Saturday 25/10/08 Tube back into centre Vienna, had nice lunch, went to visit the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, [Mega] couldn’t get tickets for tour or show – fully booked. Walked around city sight seeing for 5 hours and a walk down beside the Danube. Got back to site at 6pm exhausted. As beautiful as Vienna is we’ve had enough of the cold. (the camper is really cosy, it’s walking round through the day that’s freezing] early night tonight as hope to be close to Venice tomorrow night. Weather - 6°C Mileage 0 Walked 10 miles Sunday 26/10/08 Left Vienna 10.30am Sunday is the best day for a long journey as no lorries on the road. Passed through PIBER, this is the Stud for the Lipizzaner for the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. Route VIENNA – GRAZ – KLAGENFURT – VILLACH – ITALIAN BORDER – UDINE – Crossed Italian Border 3.15pm. Came of the toll road and headed for coast, parked at camper stop in Caorle approx 25 miles east of Venice. The scenery through the north of Italy is some of the best we’ve seen so far. Austria is also lovely but we travelled through quite a lot of fog. Weather 0°C – am Vienna 22°C - pm Italy. Mileage today 362 Monday 27/10/08 Walked down to village centre, had morning coffee and walk along sea front, lovely holiday resort/fishing village. Drove to Lido di Jesolo then out to Punta Sabbioni, just across water from Venice. Parked at camper stop (17€) no free parking near Venice. Took the scooter on its maiden run, brilliant fun, had a run around all the local villages, went for groceries. Forgot the scooter didn’t have a very big boot!! Weather 18°C Mileage 60 Tuesday 28/10/08 Bought public transport ticket {this includes ferry & water busses) for 14€ each, and caught ferry over to Venice, 1/2hr crossing. Spent the day sight seeing in Venice, hopping on and of water buses. Brilliant place to see but we were both a bit taken aback how neglected all the buildings were. Back to camper and headed further down coast, started raining, lots of traffic and dark, pulled of main road and found place to park at Rosolina Mare, thought it was a derelict shopping centre, but there was a lot of rushing water noise, didn’t feel very safe, don’t like parking in the dark when you cant see what’s around you. Weather 20°C Overcast & heavy rain at night Mileage 95 Wednesday29/10/08 We needn’t have worried about being unsafe; when daylight came in we were parked at a lovely out of season beachfront with loud waves. Drove down to Rimini then into Republic of San Marino. This is a lovely country, 64K². Took the cable car up to castle at top 750m above sea level. Fantastic place, well worth visiting. Free camper parking just below cable car station. This is the best spot we have parked in so far. Views right over Rimini and the Adriatic, Enjoyed a bottle of very good San Marino wine, while enjoying the view. Weather 26°C windy Mileage 148 Thurs 30/10/08 Left San Mario (We both really enjoyed our stay) Headed South through Cattolice to Pesaro and onto Ancona, We were on the non toll coast road but slow going, decided to go on toll road to make better progress, €9.90 Parked in car park at Marina de Montenero right on beachfront. Lovely countryside all the way down the coast, vineyards, olive groves, canals and the sea. Stopped at roadside stall and bought fresh fruit and veg. Enjoying a bottle of their produce tonight ! Weather 22°C sun & windy Mileage 224 Friday 31/10/08 Headed further south today. Route: Vasto – Bari – Taranto – Wild camping on the beach at Montegiordano Marina, a small fishing village, enjoyed the run down, very quiet roads, countryside full of oranges, mandarins, grapes & olives all the way down coast road. Taranto is a huge industrial town with massive port and oil refineries, other than that it was all small villages we passed through, weather is great. Another bottle of grape juice with tea tonight all part of our 5 a day!! We have one night out a week at a good restaurant, usually Friday – no restaurants at this little village! It was like something out of the Bertoli Advert, you could see the locals looking and thinking “There are strangers in town” Weather 27°C Mileage 245 Saturday 1/11/08 Route Montegiordano – Sybaris then crossed to west coast Cosenza – Lamezia Terme – Villa S Giovanni – Ferry to Messina Sicily. This was a brilliant run through the mountains, awesome scenery and some scary mountainous roads. Headed south and parked at Camper Park at Giardini Naxos just below Mount Etna {which is smoking in the background!}Took scooter for a look round and had tea at one of the beach restaurants. Got lost in the dark on the scooter on the way back – all one way streets! Weather 29°C Mileage 284 Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com |
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