Folkestone

We are parked up tonight in the car park of The Nailbox pub just outside Folkestone and 10 minutes away from the Eurotunnel terminal. Excellent location with the added bonus of beer!

We left Bingley this morning and cruised down the A1 (we've sacked the M1) before stopping in Hertford to see an old friend Naz, his wife Selina and their lovely daughter Farrah. Eeeh, I remember Naz when he were just a lad with a bad haircut and terrible taste in shoes. Now he's a proper grown up with his own family and a house and all the trimmings!!

Tomorrow we catch the 8.20 Eurotunnel bound for, ultimately, Greece but before that we'll be spending a night on our new mattress. We ordered it as soon as we returned from our last trip, the one that came with the van was foam and a little tired and uncomfortable so we went for a top of the range sprung job on the basis that we'd be spending a lot of time on it and we deserved something comfy. Delivery was guaranteed for last week but that didn't happen however we were promised it would arrive yesterday by courier. We were panicking a bit and when I received a phone call yesterday morning to tell me they had missed the courier on Friday I was about to explode until they said that they had hired a van and the MD was bringing the mattress over personally. Sure enough a couple of hours later the mattress arrived and it fits perfectly, I think we'll have a good nights sleep tonight.

No pictures today but I'm sure we'll remedy that tomorrow when we drive through a little bit of France and on to our first stop in Belgium.

Pat

Posted with Blogsy

Counting the days.

We are parked up today at home in Bingley.

We've been back home in West Yorkshire for a few weeks now and have been far from idle. Well, only a little bit idle and just now and again.

We've had the van MOT'd and serviced, the leaking roof has also been repaired, hopefully. The engine has been re-mapped which should give us improved performance and fuel consumption. We've fitted a new floor, some LED strip lighting and we're waiting for the new mattress to be delivered. A few new gadgets have been purchased together with some maps and camping guides and a few items that we have never used have been dumped. Oh yes, you may have noticed that we've revamped this blog a bit and added a few features. So now we are counting down until we set off in nine days time to catch the early morning tunnel train from Folkestone on the 30th April.

Our provisional route will take us through France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. We're also hoping to take the ferry across to Crete. We are in no hurry and anticipate entering Greece at the end of May.

Here's a map showing our route and intended stopping points:

On our last couple of trips we had dates by which we had to be back in the UK. We came home for Christmas, and we had to come home in March to MOT the van but this time we have no return date which we are finding quite liberating. I guess we'll know when it's time to come back.

Just 10 more days!!

 

Posted with Blogsy