Three countries in one day.

We are parked this evening in a Motorhome park at the foot of a ski lift in Bovec, €9 a night including electricity and water. The campsite a mile away charges double that so it was no contest where we would be staying tonight. We left Gailberg this morning and followed the narrow, winding road up into the alps and down into Tolmezzo in Italy where we managed to get lost! Two Sat Navs, a map and an iPad and we drove around Tolmezzo until we thought we would be there for the rest of our lives. Eventually we found the road we wanted and on the final leg of today's journey were rewarded with some more stunning views.

The view at this morning's coffee stop:

Up to 2000 metres passing closed down ski resorts and then dropping down to skirt Lake Predil before crossing into Slovenia. We found our parking spot for the night and then drove back into the town for a beer. After skiing, rafting and canyoning seem to be the big tourist draws here and the town is full of tour guides and kayaks. This time of year it's quiet and again we have the parking space here to ourselves, with just goats, cuckoos and cicadas for company. There are fewer and fewer Motorhomes as we travel further south and east and we miss having a chat with other travellers

Lake Predil:

 

The beauty of taking the B roads is the lack of traffic and the stunning scenery. The disadvantage is the time it takes each day to get to our parking place for the night. Today we travelled 93 miles and drove for nearly three hours, up and down switchbacks certainly keeps the average speed down. But we're not in a hurry and it's worth keeping off the beaten track knowing that we'll wake up tomorrow to this view:

Parked up for the night:

Pat

 

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Here come the Alps

Tuesday 6th May.

We are parked this afternoon on the banks of a lake at Schwangau, a few kilometres north of Fussen. It's a campsite and although we are trying to avoid them due to cost, we've been away a week now so we needed a domestic day and a washing machine. I've strung a line out between a couple of trees on this pristine site and we are gradually turning our pitch into a Benidorm balcony. The site is at the foot of the alps where we can watch hang gliders throwing themselves of the nearby cliff and circling in the thermals before they land and catch the cable car back up to do it all over again. We can also watch cyclists and in-line skaters doing their thing round the lake while we sit in the sunshine with a beer and a fag. There are probably people swimming in the lake too but it really is too much effort to walk down and have a look. It's a hard life. The plan was to stop in Fussen and visit the two castles there, Schloss Neuschwanstein and Schloss Hohenschwangau, but as the cost would have been about £40 for each of us we decided to give it a miss this time.

We had a free nights parking last night in Nordlingen where we walked around the town on the old walls looking in folk's back gardens, another Medieval town on the Romantic Road but not so chocolate boxey as Rothenburg. We met our first English motorhomers since leaving England there yesterday, Peter and Gwen, who were bound for Italy and it was good to have a chat with them.

We've driven just over a hundred miles today and for the last thirty or so the alps came into view as we drove through some beautiful countryside with pine forests and wild flower meadows. Tomorrow we cross the alps toward Bolzano in Italy and rather than take the motorway (they're always pretty boring) I've found an interesting B road on the map which looks suitably wiggly and should take us up about 2500metres. I've checked with the folk here on site and they say it's fine for Motorhomes, where have I heard that before? Anyway we'll take the wiggly road, drive through Austria for a bit and then cross into Italy at a place called Timmelsjoch Pso del Rombo, irresistible.

So, the washings done, we've used the spotlessly clean and piping hot showers and now it's to to visit the bar to buy some WiFi and enjoy a well earned stein!

Our first day in Germany at Bad Honnef watching the ferry and barges.

The walls around the old town at Nordlingen:

Here come the Alps:

ps Office closed now, can't buy WiFi, no 3G Ho-Hum.

Wednesday 7th May

Not the best day.

After checking at the campsite yesterday that the B road we wanted to take across through Austria into Italy was ok, off we set this morning. We drove the few kilometres south and entered Austria and soon we were on the road to take us to Italy. The weather was pretty lousy, rain all the way but as we climbed up to nearly 2500 kilometres it cleared and we were in brilliant sunshine. We'd reached the snow line and as we drove through we laughed about what might happen if the 3m high snow banking the road suddenly thawed, whoosh and we'd have been rolled down the alps! We remarked upon the absence of vehicles in either direction but higher and higher we climbed. Then.......... The road was closed! That was it, we could go no further.

So, we'd been travelling a couple of hours and the only option was to turn round, and after an hour or so try and cut across via another B road to get south of Innsbruck and back on the road to Italy. Back down into the rain and then up and up again passing through ski resorts closed up at this time of the year full of locked up hotels, bars and shops. Spectacular scenery as we drove through tiny hamlets and villages but by now we were getting tired and just looking for somewhere to park up. Austria doesn't do "somewhere to park up"

We drove on and on, everywhere we could have parked was barriered off, we thought we'd stop at a bar, buy a drink or two and ask if we could park up for the night but all the bars and hotels were closed and their car parks chained up. By now I'd been driving for six hours or so and about had enough. Finally Phil spotted a bar that was open after we'd driven through a town, where every car park was inaccessible to Motorhomes, and we pulled in. I reversed in to a spot and clouted the rear end on a grassy bank!!! I got out and inspected the damage which is not inconsiderable. I could have cried, I possibly did. Then I swore a bit. We went into the bar which was full of truckers and workmen who either grinned or smiled sympathetically as we entered, having been told what had happened by the guy who was parked next to us when we "arrived". I ordered a couple of beers and asked if we could park for the night and I think the lass behind the bar felt so sorry for us that she didn't feel she could refuse.

So here we are at Matrei am Brenner, 160miles later, on a busy dual carriageway, 100metres from the railway line, feeling pretty sorry for ourselves. Hopefully it will stop raining tomorrow and I'll have a chance to see if I can repair the damage to the van. If I can't I suppose the good news is that we're parked 50m from a Renault garage which has a couple of sad looking Motorhomes in the back yard.

Some pics from today:

 

We have no WiFi here and there's no 3G. We've been quite surprised how hard it has been to get an internet connection in Germany and now in Austria but hey ho.

Tomorrow, or whenever the van is repaired, we are setting off for San Candido on the Austrian/Italy border. It's a campsite described as rural, comfortable, quiet. We'll settle for that.

Thursday 8th May.

We are parked up this afternoon on a Reisemobilstellplatz at Gailberg, Austria. It's attached to a very splendid hotel and has all the services we need. When we left last night's parking spot after carrying out some emergency body repairs we had intended to stop at San Candido in Italy but when we arrived it was on a main road, next to a railway line, €18 a night and we were told we couldn't use the waste bins as they were "private". This information was forthcoming from a most unpleasant lady who glared at us while we re-programmed the sat navs before we drove off giving her a cheery wave. We've had a sunny day today and a drive through Austria into Italy and back into Austria again and the scenery has been wonderful with the Alps to our south all the way. So far the Alps up to about 1500metres have been pine forests and every few miles there is a saw mill and timber yard, some of them very large enterprises, and all along the roads we have travelled there is logging activity. The results can be seen in some of the spectacular wooden chalets we have passed.

When we set off this morning I was looking for an opportunity to fill up with diesel but all the garages were showing prices round about the €1.50 per litre so I held off waiting for something cheaper. Suddenly we were in Italy with the cheapest at €1.70!! The tank was quite low when we re-entered Austria and the first garage, 50metres over the border, had diesel at €1.32 which was the cheapest we'd seen in a week. We now have a full tank.

We are at 1000 metres here and after lunch we set off up through the forest, climbing to about 1200 metres where we reached the start of the snow. It was warm and sunny and the air full of the smell of pine resin. As we turned a corner on the path we saw a couple of deer about 40 metres away. We stood still and watched them feeding for a minute or so, hardly daring to breathe and then one of them spotted us and they trotted away into the woods. So after a lousy day yesterday today has more than made up for it. The location here is possibly the best since we set off just over a week ago, we are surrounded by pine forests with the tops of the snow clad Alps just peeking over the tree tops. Our next stop will be in Slovenia which is only 80 kilometres from here and our stop for the night, hopefully, will be at the base of a ski station at about 2500 metres.

Still no WiFi or 3G. Strike that! We have come to the bar for a beer and they have free WiFi!

Some pics from today

We met Mr Toad on the path in the forest.

 

 

I think we might be crossing these tomorrow.

If you look really hard you can see our van.

 

Friday 9th May

We are still parked at Gailberg. We've driven every day for ten days so decided this morning that we'd have a break and stay here another day, it's so beautiful and peaceful here and we've had another hot and sunny day. After a few domestic chores and a hearty breakfast we packed a lunch and set off for a walk through the alpine meadows with the pine forest towering above us. All along the route were signs showing all the different flowers we could expect to see during the different seasons. We ended up at a lake of crystal clear water with frogs, toads and newts and although we didn't see any we did see another deer feeding nearby.

On our return somebody from the hotel came to see us and informed us that tomorrow they were expecting 200 motorcyclists on a charity ride who would be stopping for refreshments and we should not be alarmed by their arrival. Unfortunately they aren't expected until noon by which time we will be on our way to Slovenia. I've found another great little winding road over the alps for tomorrow and double checked with the hotel staff that it will be open. Apparently it definitely is although they advised me it was very steep and very narrow - bring it on.

Now, although the hotel has WiFi it's pretty weak and seemingly incapable of posting this blog but I'll try again this evening when we pop over for a stein or two.

 

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Romantic Road and a Crim Museum

We are parked tonight at Rothenburg ob der Tauber in a big car park with water & toilets next to a fire station, hoping they don't have any emergency call outs at silly o'clock. We travelled the 95 miles today avoiding, mostly, motorways taking country lanes and back roads with some pretty countryside and quaint villages. Not much traffic other than plenty of groups of motorcyclists on big throaty machines, quite a few Triumphs amongst them. One of the things we've noticed is that, generally, German drivers obey the speed limits so when it's 50kph that's what they do, 70kph and we all speed up, 100kph and I have a queue behind me! The other thing we've noticed is how clean Germany is. There seems to be a complete absence of litter both in the countryside and towns. I don't think this is because they have an army of litter pickers that come out at night and sweep the country clean, I think they just don't have a culture of dropping their rubbish wherever they like and it makes for an impressive environment. Of course, they may just have horrendous penalties for littering which brings us to the highlight of the day.

Rothenburg is near the start of the Romantic Road which was dreamt up in the 1950's to encourage tourism in Bavaria. It's a 300 kilometre route from Wurzburg to Fuesson taking in breathtaking scenery and picture postcard villages, churches and castles. After parking we set off to explore the old town of Rothenburg which is a bit too chocolate boxey we thought but it has a Kriminalmuseum! A museum exhibiting the laws, legal processes and punishments for criminals during the 15th to 17th centuries together with all the gruesome torture devices in use during these times. Seeing some of these instruments I'm hardly surprised at the number of "confessions" they obtained. The museum also held an impressive number of books and documents from that period, including highly ornate papers showing that apprentices to a variety of trades were now eligible to join their guild. A great little museum and well worth the €5 admittance.

No churches visited today though, we could see all the main features of the main one, which charged admission, from the entrance before we reached the kiosk and so like almost everybody else we wandered around for a bit and then wandered out. Besides, it didn't have a bell tower and so didn't present enough of a challenge to us!

Tomorrow we head for Nordlingen, another medieval town which has four museums.

Pat

 

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I'm not paying €19.50!!

Friday 2nd May.

We are parked up this evening in the village of St Goarshausen in a campsite on the banks of the Rhine, a little downriver from the Loreley rock. This was not our first choice overnight stopping place. After a Lidl top up this morning, where we discovered that they don't take credit cards in German Lidl and held the queue up until they reluctantly agreed to take a UK debit card, we had a pleasant drive following the Rhine on the B42. We headed for a campsite high above the river in Loreley with magnificent views. The campsite was packed with beautifully restored Ford Consuls, Zodiacs and Zephyrs, there for a rally, lots of tents and Motorhomes too. The guy in reception directed us to a great pitch overlooking the river, next to the bar and restaurant and we levelled the van before walking over to enquire the rates. The sign said €7.50 which we thought was reasonable but he said €19.50 and wouldn't budge. We've never paid that much so we rolled the van off the chocks, checked the books and iPad locations and drove another fifteen minutes to arrive here. Park anywhere you like said the nice owner so we did and then walked back to check the facilities and prices. Great facilities, great location, nice bar and restaurant, free showers and all for..............€25!!!!!!!! By this time we couldn't be bothered to look for another site so here we are. Lesson learnt. After a bit more research we've realised that you can "park" just about anywhere in Germany where parking is permitted but not "camp", ie no chairs, tables, awnings etc.... We have another three or four nights before we reach Austria so some free parking will put us back on budget.

We are amazed by the number of barges travelling up and down the Rhine, it's non stop in both directions and the ferries transporting cars and pedestrians across in the smaller towns sometimes have to wait a while before they can safely cross the river. It's fascinating watching the ferries cross, they use the strong currents and powerful engines to nip across about 120metres and drop the ramps in the right spot first time, every time.

Tomorrow we are heading for Aschaffenburg for a night's, hopefully, free parking before heading off on Sunday to join the "Romantic Road" which will take us down almost to the Austrian border.

Saturday 3rd May

We are parked up this afternoon in the town of Aschaffenburg on the banks of the river Main, we could be wrong but we don't think the town has a lot to recommend it to us other than the river where we can again watch barges and pleasure boats going up and down (bobbing?) There is a small Motorhome parking area with electricity for €3 per night and although it is advertised as having fresh water and disposal facilities, what it doesn't say is that you have to cross the river and drive 500 metres on the opposite bank to find them which is a bit odd.

Germany is Motorhome central, we've lost count of the numbers we see on the road and every campsite, parking spot and stellplatz is full of them. Despite this we haven't seen another GB plate yet which is a shame as we enjoy swopping tales with other like minded folk. I've read that a lot of British motorhomers come to Germany but maybe we are a little early in the season yet. The weather hasn't been much to shout about so far, we had a warmish day on Thursday but since then it's been chilly and overcast, good job we're heading south eh?

Tomorrow we set off for Rothenburh ob der Tauber, described as a well polished gem from the Middle Ages (insert your own Mother-in-Law joke). It has a 14th Century church and museums, both of which we have been missing lately so tomorrow we will immerse ourselves in German history and culture

Pat

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Do you have a reservation?

We are parked up tonight at a Wohnmobilstellplatz "Siebengebirgsblick" (phew) at Bad Honnef. This wasn't our first choice when we set off this morning. To be honest we didn't even know such words existed this morning! We were intending to stay at a campsite right on the Rhine a couple of miles away on the other side of the river. When we arrived the sun was shining and there was a lot of activity; food stalls, beer tents, green fields full of Motorhomes and lots of happy smiling people - just what we wanted. We found our way to the reception/registration desk which was an annexe of the beer tent and asked how much and where do we park? "Do you have a reservation?" was the response. Reservation? We're nomads, we don't make reservations. We're free spirits, currently exploring Western Europe. We only have a small Motorhome. None of these responses was correct so after a ten point turn we left all the happy smiling people to their food stalls and beer tent and drove down to the ferry to take us over the Rhine to a couple of sites we had as back up. These turned out to be fields containing lots of dead caravans. But we stumbled upon this place which is ok, clean and tidy,8 euros a night and a twenty minute walk back down to the river and a bar where we could watch the ferry tooing and froing and massive barges slicing up and down whilst we enjoyed a couple of steins of Germany's finest.

Today is a public holiday in most of Europe and they take these things seriously here, no queues for Ikea or the garden centre - they're all closed, as are all the shops and supermarkets. Excellent, just the way things should be on a public holiday. There are lots of river walks and cycle ways here and plenty of families taking advantage of them on a warm day which must be better for your health and your wallet than trudging round a retail park.

Bad Honnef I hear you ask? Well, I came here on a school trip when I was fifteen. That's all. Anyway it's good to be in Germany, after a day we like it but I'll save our impressions of Germany for a few more days.

Yesterday, to be honest, was not the most auspicious start to our trip. We had parked up the night before in a pub car park ten minutes from the Eurotunnel terminal and set the alarm clock for 6.30am to give us plenty of time to catch the 8.20 train. Unfortunately I set the alarm wrong so it woke us at 7.30!! Fortunately Eurotunnel give you a two hour window either side of your departure time so when we finally arrived they allocated us a departure time of 10.20 which would arrive in France at midday local time. On arrival at Calais we put the co-ordinates of our Belgium Aire into the SatNavs which gave us a journey time of three hours.

This would have been fine if we hadn't first been held up for an hour and a half by roadworks on the E40. Even that wouldn't have been too bad had the Brussels ring road not been one big car park! I've never seen so much traffic just stalled in all my life. All the slip roads had cars and lorries queuing to get on and off main roads and it was absolute chaos. We crawled around Brussels to get on the last leg of our journey only to be slowed down again by a minor accident.....Aaaaargh! It finally took us over six hours to get to our destination, a little under 200 miles. When we said to friends and family that we were in no hurry as we travelled across to Greece this wasn't really what we meant.

The Aire we stopped at was next to a very well equipped and expensive looking equestrian centre with cafe, bar, restaurant, gym, sports centre, dry ski slope and all manor of horsey buildings. We didn't take advantage of any of the facilities or explore the surrounding woodland within the national park location. We were too tired to be honest and after a beer and a snack tea we were about ready for our beds.

So our first impressions of Belgium were coloured by the fact that our journey took twice as long as anticipated and on my "personal scale of driving ability by nation" Belgians would score a 5. When you consider that I would give Moroccan drivers an 8 you get some idea of how rubbish these folk are at driving.

No pictures from yesterday, Belgium is not the most picturesque of places. No pictures from today either.

Pat

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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

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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!!

 

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