THE NEC Motorhome Show

The gates open!

 Out of all of the many exciting destinations we go in Europe, you can't beat Birmingham! To be more specific, the NEC in Birmingham during the Motorhome Show. It would be fair to say that the Caravan Club Temporary Site is not the best campsite we have ever stayed on, but the real highlight is the show itself.

Many of you will have visited the show so know what it's all about. We have the benefit of exhibitor's badges, which gets you into the show before it starts - and that really is fascinating.

We arrived on the Monday afternoon before the show expecting it to all be ready. There was no carpet down and all you could see was a sea of hi-viz jackets, with people beavering away.

Before the gates open

The logistical operation of getting all of the vans, caravans and accessories is mind-blowing. Our set-up is nice and quick so we were gone by 4pm leaving everyone hard at it. When we arrived at 9am the following morning the transformation was complete. All the stalls were ready, the carpet was down and the show was ready to open.

The busiest day is the Saturday when 25,000 people attend. The atmosphere among the exhibitors was palpable as we could see thousands of people arriving and queuing to get in from early in the morning. Nearly 100,000 people attended the show over the 6 days!

On Sunday at 6pm there was a massive cheer from the exhibitors when the announcement came over that the show was closed for 2016. For most that meant another 3-4 hours of taking down the stands before they could go home. 

The sea of hi-vis re-appeared and by the time we left the sparkies had unwired the electrics, the carpets were being taken up and the car parks were near empty. They all get a few days off now before they do it all over again for the Cat Show!

Lake Garda

Sunset on Lake Garda

We have recently returned from an amazing trip down to Lake Garda. Our route took us down through the Somme and Burgundy regions of France, before spending a night nestled under the majestic Mont Blanc. It was then a trip through the famous tunnel and into the rain in Italy. Bizarrely, it was sunny one side and then chucking it down when we drove out the other side.

Thankfully this soon passed as we got closer to our destination of Peschiera Del Garda on the southern shore of Lake Garda, where the sun was out and the temperature was in the high 20s. As the week progress, it actually got hotter!

If you just wanted a lazy week in the Autumn sun then this would be a good place to pitch up. Many of our fellow motorhomers and caravanners on the site were clearly staying up for a considerable period.

Rush hour in Venice

Our site provided direct access to the lake and within a short distance we could be in the town itself, catching a boat to any one of about 10 destinations on the lake, or picking up a train to any of Italy's famous northern towns and cities.

The highlights for us had to be a bike ride across to Sirmione, just around the south shore of the lake, with the impressive Scaligera Castle. The town is also accessible by boat from Peschiera as is Garda, Bardolino, Riva del Garda and malcesine (with the cable car).

Also, Venice, Verona, Venecia, Padua and Mantua and not far away by train. In fact, you could get almost anywhere in Italy from the train station!

Dogs on motorhome tours

We have just returned from a short trip to Northern France with our Dog-Friendly France tour. We were interested to find out what the implications of travelling with pets were. We were pleasantly surprised to find that there were very few restrictions placed on pets, particularly in France, where they really are a nation of dog-lovers.

Bertangles chateau

 Obviously there are some places that dogs are not allowed, such as in the Bayeux Tapestry, but we did find that they were accepted in most other places including cathedrals, restaurants and campsite bars. Campsites in general are vets welcoming of dogs and there were locals motorhoming and caravanning with dogs.


The main things to be aware of when travelling with dogs are:
1. They must have an up-to-date pet passport.
2. They must be treated for tapeworm not less than 1 day and not more than 5 days before they re-enter the UK.
3. The pet passport must be date and time-stamped when the treatment is given.
4. You must take your pet to the pet reception centre at the dock or tunnel before you take the return crossing.

Finding a vet was not difficult and the tapeworm procedure only takes a few minutes and costs around 40 euros per dog. You also have to pay around £15-£17 each way extra on your crossing, which covers the cost of checking the dogs on the return leg of the journey.

Overall, we had a great time in France and the camaraderie among the dog-owners was excellent. We look forward to welcoming dogs on our France tous next year.

Stockholm

It's been quite a while since we last posted as we have been away for an amazing 25-day tour of Sweden. It would be no exaggeration to say that we had 23 days of glorious sunshine in that time, with the temperature up in the 20s on most days. That is perhaps not what you would expect when you around the Baltic!

Bridges across the Stockholm islands

The highlight of the trip for many of us were the days we spent in the capital, Stockholm. It is quite an unusual city in that it is spread across 14 islands connected by bridges and a flotilla of ferries and hop-on hop-off taxis. 

Despite being a popular destination, it is actually very easy to get away from the crowds, which mainly flock around the Gamla Stan (old town) and the modern shopping streets.

This is our third year in a row in Stockholm and our favourite activities are usually cycling around the network of cycle paths on the islands, or ascending the Kaknas Tower for a panoramic view.

The Opera House in Stockholm

This year, we finally got to visit the Vasa Museum housing the simply stunning Vasa ship that sank just a few minutes into its maiden voyage in Stockholm harbour in 1628. Salvaged in 1961 it has been painstakingly reconstructed and claims to be over 90% original. The musuem has literally been built around the ship and contains fascinating accounts of the life and times of the ship and the people that built it.

Slovenia

River frontage in Ljubljana

Our thoughts have turned to Slovenia recently as we will be visiting in 2016 as part of our combined tour with Croatia. We particularly enjoyed our trip to the capital Ljubljana as it has the feel of a large European capital, although it is in fact relatively compact. We enjoyed just walking around the streets. squares and waterways of the city, which had a very laid-back feel.  

The buildings have a real mixture of styles of the medieval through to the Baroque and into the modern era. In that sense, it is very typical of any other European capital and also has all of the modern amenities you would expect in terms of shopping and dining.

Ljubljana Caslte

Away from the capital, Slovenia has a small stretch of coastline that extends north into Italy and south into Croatia. Inland, perhaps its most notable attractions are the cave systems of Postojna and Skocjan, which are spectacular in both length and depth.

Another notable area is around Lake Bled in the Julian Alps. This is a a bit of a tourist hotspot with its attractive island in the middle of the lake and with the town and castle nearby. Slovenia is a largely mountainous country and is very popular as a destination for outdoor pursuits.

As a final thought, if you need any other excuses to visit, Slovenia also boasts a thriving wine industry although very little of it gets exported so it's generally not available in the UK!

The Moselle

Typical half-timbered houses

So first off is it Moselle or Mosel? The basic answer is that it's 'elle' in French and 'el' in German. As far as we can see either spelling will do, with the 'lle' version usually referring to the river itself and the 'el' version referring to the wine. Flowing through France, Luxembourg and Germany, at 545km it is much shorter than the Rhine. However, for many it is a much more attractive river.

The main reasons for this are the fact that it is less busy on the river itself, whereas the Rhine still has lots of trade barges. Also, the Moselle does not have the train line running all the way down the side, thus making it a bit quieter. Finally, it twists and turns a lot more than the Rhine in this area. It is also lined with castle after castle and pretty half-timbered towns.

The vines in the Moselle valley

Surprising Luxembourg City

Our favoured stretch is from German Corner at Koblenz, down to Mainz. Two of the touristy highlights are the castle at Cochem and the picturesque town of Bernkastel Kues. In fact, most of the towns on this stretch would be worth a visit, not least just to wander around the shops and take advantage of the cafes and restaurants.

There is cycle path all the way down this section and being flat in the valley, it is a haven for cyclists, with lots of places to stop off during your ride. Obviously, it is also a wine-lovers paradise and the food is typically German in the sense that it's good quality and there is always plenty of it!

We add a further dimension to our tour by following the Moselle into Luxembourg and staying just outside the city for a few days. It just adds a bit of dynamic before heading back north west through France and back to Calais.

A Taste of Provence

We have just returned from our Taste of Provence Tour. The tour includes a pleasant drive down through the Champagne and Ardeche regions before taking in a bit of everything that Provence has to offer.

Up in the Haute Provence Alps

We started with a 3-night stay at Avignon, staying on the island within view of the famous (unfinished) bridge. Avignon seemed to be a winner with everyone in the group as there is so much to see and do and plenty of great places for a meal out too.


After that we took the short drive to Aix-en-Provence with a chance to see stunning Gordes on the way. The lavender was starting to bloom and is particularly attractive around the Senanque Abbey. Aix itself is the old capital of the region and boasts some wonderful Parisians-style architecture and a massive market, full of flowers.

After that it was down to the coast where some of our guests just enjoyed the 30+ degrees sunshine, while some took the train down to Monaco to see how the other half live!

Around Sisteron

It was then up into the mountains to the Durance valley near Sisteron for a couple of days of breath-taking and stunning Alpine scenery, before starting the drive home via the Saone and Loire valleys.

16 days - 15 of which we spent in glorious sunshine to arrive home a bit tired, a bit sun-tanned and ready for the UK heatwave!

The Rhine

We have just returned from a very enjoyable fortnight's tour of the Rhine and Moselle. More the the Moselle in a later post. As for the Rhine, it stretches for over 1200km so we only did a bit of it! We travelled down what is considered to be one of the most attractive sections between Cologne and Mainz in Germany.

Camping at Rudesheim

Cologne itself is a great place to pick up the river with the option of two campsites or the aire both of which are close to the city and on the river. Cologne is a lively, cosmopolitan city most famous for its enormous cathedral. There are many other attractions to keep you busy for a few days.


From there we headed on down to Remagen, which made an ideal base for visiting Bonn, Andernach and several other towns and villages on the river. We then travelled through Koblenz past German Corner where the Rhine and Moselle meet.

Our next stop was the beautiful town of Rudesheim where we stayed on one of the best campsites we have ever been on. The toilet block was on a par with a five-star hotel! From here we were able to visit the lively city of Mainz with its mixture of old and new.

Cologne sunset

One of the problems with visiting the Rhine is knowing which side of the river to drive down. Many guests reported that the other side always looked better until they crossed the river only to think that the side they had just come from looked better! Luckily there are lots of opportunities to cross on bridges or ferries all down this stretch.

Finally a mention on the food and wine. Simply put, there is lots of it, it's relatively inexpensive and it all tastes great.

Paris again!

We are just on the final day of our Springtime in Paris tour. We have had a great week despite some slightly dodgy weather towards the end of the week.

Another photo of the Eiffel Tower!

We stayed on the site on the outskirts of Versailles, set in a forest yet only 5 minutes walk from the RER station into Paris (20 minutes away) and 10 minutes on a bike to the Palace at Versailles.


We can report on very heavy queues to get into Versailles with the recommendation being to do the gardens in the morning and the house in the afternoon, when the crowds have thinned out a bit. Similar queues are to be expected for the Eiffel Tower though pre-booking your tickets will reduce the queuing time for minutes rather than hours!

We personally spent quite a bit of time down in Les Halles and St Germain, which are the shopping areas - somewhere we don't normally go to. They still have C&A on the Rue de Rivoli so you can go in there and buy sensibly prices clothes and then boast that you do your clothes shopping in Paris!

Hotel de Ville

We have had a fantastic group of people on this tour, which made the two rainy days go really quickly.

Keukenhof Gardens by motorhome

This is a really easy blog entry to write as I am just going to post up some photos and let them do the talking! We have just returned from out Taste of Holland Tour and have had a superb week, blessed by wonderful weather and great company.

Springtime and snow in Scotland

The Kelpies.

Just before we embark on our touring season we decided to take a short break up in Scotland to give the van a run out. We just went up as far as the Caravan Club site at Edinburgh, which is perfectly situated just across the road from the Firth of Forth near Leith and only 20 minutes by bus to the city centre.

We spent five days up here with our friends from Aberdeen and had a superb time despite some slightly unfavourable weather. Highlights of the trip for us included: 

• The three National Galleries of Scotland (all free) and all easily accessible.
• The Royal Mile and Castle.
• The Forth Railway Bridge at Queensferry South where we spent a glorious evening at the Railbridge restaurant.
• The royal Yacht Brittania docked at Oceana at Leith.
• The Kelpies - two massive horse-head sculptures on the road to Falkirk.
• The Falkirk Wheel - a spectacular lock where you sit in a boat and literally get scooped up about 100 feet in a giant gondola.



Snow storm on the border

• The snow - yes it was 31st March and we got caught in a snow storm on the border. 

Looking forward to some proper Spring weather in the Netherlands!

Croatia

It's been a while since we last went to Croatia and we are planning a trip down towards the end of the year. We are hoping to offer a tour there in September 2016, which will also take in Slovenia.

Night-time on the Croatian coast.

Croatia for use seemed to fall into three main sections: coast, city and lakes. I like to keep the blogs short and sweet so I will limit myself to the coast for this post and look at the cities and lakes in future weeks!


We limited our trip on this occasion to the Istrian Peninsula on the north west coast going down as far as Pula. As a matter of interest, to get right down to Dubrovnik (popular with the Brits) you need another 8-9 hours of driving including a 10km jaunt through Bosnia! We decided to save that for another trip.

The coastline down as far a Pula is beautiful and very reminiscent of Italy and even boasts some Roman remains to rival them. For example, the coliseum at Pula is more complete and probably more spectacular that the one in Rome! The coast itself is dotted with pretty villages, multi-coloured houses, sandy beaches and a warm Adriatic sea.

Pula Coliseum.

There is plenty of coastline and campsites to go at here with many of the sites providing direct access to the beach. We would avoid July and August as it gets very busy, with May and September providing plenty of heat but much smaller crowds.

We stayed a few kilometres north of Pula at the large, but well-located and well-equipped Bi-village, just a short walk from Fazana:  http://bivillage.com/en/

More information: http://www.pulainfo.hr/en/

Austrian Alps

Massive panorama and mist on the Alps.

Our interest in the Alps was revived at the NEC Motorhome Show when we got chatting to a couple of site owners who had stands at the show. It's been over three years since we last went down and we are hoping to offer a tour there next year, to go a little further afield into Austria, to include Switzerland (and squeeze in a quick stop off in Lichstenstein.

This part of the Alps is commonly referred to as the Austrian Alps or the Central Eastern Alps, that extend into Switzerland and into Italy and Slovenia. We don't ski so our interest is in visiting to hike, bike or generally just take in the amazing views, quaint local towns and fresh air.

The highest peak is the Glosslockner, which is drive-able on an amazing High Alpine Road. For the active there is the option of a cable car and then hiking trails part way up the 3,900 metre mountain: www.grossglockner.at/en/. 

The waterfall in Malta, Austria.

The area is characterised by dramatic peaks, lush valleys and glacial lakes. For a bit more hustle and bustle, popular towns to the west of the country include Innsbruck and Salzburg, both highly recommended. www.tyrol.com/innsbruck 
http://www.salzburg.info/en/

The capital Vienna is probably on most people's bucket list but it considerably further east - around 500km in fact. Vienna is so far west you are almost in Slovakia. Bratislava (Slovakia's capital) and Vienna are actually Europe's closest capital cities (just 50 miles apart). http://www.wien.info/en

The Alps - France/Italy border

Wendy at 3000 metres.

The first year we started motorhoming we took the van down to the bottom of France, with a view to nipping across the border into Italy. This was in May. We figured that we would just pop across the Alps and take in a bit of scenery on the way. The satnav said we would be there comfortably within a few hours.

Three days later we arrived in Italy after an unexpected mini-break at 3000 metres! To our surprise, even though the temperature was well into the 20s, and even though we were in shorts and t-shirts, most of the passes were still closed due to snow. We've come on a bit since those days and have learnt to be much more respectful of the mountains. 

Alpine campsite on the Italian side.

Driving in the Alps is as amazing as you might suspect, with narrow winding roads, very steep inclines and declines and dramatic drops over the side. Our old van was getting very hot as we reached the top of various peaks, and the brakes were burning very hot at the bottom. It's certainly not for the faint-hearted.

The one advantage of our unexpected delay there was that there weren't many people around and we got the aires pretty much to ourselves. We also had a priceless moment when we went for a walk at over 3000 metres (still in shorts and t-shirts) and scared the living daylights out of three local skiers who clearly didn't expect to see anyone on the footpaths.

We steered on the side of caution and limited our walk to the way-marked paths where the snow had cleared. We stopped at the point where the thick layers of icy snow have fairly large streams running beneath them!

Our route took us through via Briancon, Vars, Montegenevra (on the border where we spent a couple of nights in the aire) and ultimately into the beautiful Italian city of Cuneo.

More information: www.montgenevre.com, www.vars.com and 

www.italia.it/en/discover-italy/piedmont/cuneo.html

Peschiera Del Garda and Lake Garda

Peschiera Del Garda at night.

One of our favourite haunts in Italy is Peschiera Del Garda. As the name suggests it is slap bang on the shores of Lake Garda. In fact it is right at the bottom of the Lake and is the site of a sixteenth century island fortress. It's a very relaxed place for shopping, eating and general pottering around. At night all the cafes and restaurants light up to magical effect.


More information on the town: www.lakegarda.com/peschiera.php

We like it for its close proximity to some of Italy's finest cities including Verona and even Venice. It is also a fantastic place just to spend your time on a sunny day around the lake.

Lake Garda.

Lake Garda is the largest of the lakes in Italy being over 50km long at up to 17 kilometres wide. Although it's a really popular tourist hotspot, assuming you don't go in the height of August, there is plenty of room to enjoy the lake and to find a pitch on numerous campsites that actually border the lake.

More information on Lake Garda can be found at:
http://www.visitgarda.com/en/lake-garda-data/?s=313

We can recommend either of these campsites close to the town and train station and on the shores of the lake: www.campingdelgarda.it/ and http://www.campingbutterfly.it/EN/Default.aspx

The E6 in Norway

The Arctic Circle Visitor Centre.

It's not often that I write a blog entry about a road, but my thoughts have turned again to the Arctic Circle, which we hope to visit again soon.

One of the most amazing things about Norway is that once you get up past Trondheim, it really is pretty much the only road left! The E6 in fact starts down at the ferry port in Trelleborg, Sweden and goes nearly 2000 miles right up to Kirkenes in the north of Norway. 



Following the E6 is a bit like the European equivalent of following Route 66. Well maybe not but you get the idea. It's pretty epic. En route you take in some major cities including Malmo and Gothenburg in Sweden and then Norway's capital Oslo.

A typical fjord - the rainbow was a bonus!

The real excitement for us started after Trondheim when the traffic thins out and there are just a few locals, truckers and fellow motorhomers left. Road repairs are done while the road is open as there is no other way of doing it. That means that for certain stretches you are driving on dirt road! 

The scenery is absolutely phenomenal with ever-present fjords and hills. We said 'wow' on every turn. The small towns you come across tend to be pretty and have everything you need to continue your journey although it is advisable to get diesel whenever you see it.

Overnight stops are plentiful and free as there are many lay-bys and 'aires' by the side of the road, including a great one at the Arctic Circle itself. It's a mammoth trip - but it stays in the memory for years.

Central Paris by motorhome!

Priority motorhome parking outside the Louvre!

We have never driven into the centre of Paris although plenty of people do with motorhomes and even caravans. We have never felt the need as there are quite a few decent sites on the outskirts that are very easy to get to and you can then just use the train to get in. Options include sites at Versailles (with the added advantage of visiting the palace), Melun ( a nice little town in its own right) or the slightly more urban Paris Est site at Champigny. 

The Champs Elysees

Versailles is probably the nicest as it's set in a wooded area and only 5 mins from the RER, which then takes you straight along the Seine. You can be at the Eiffel Tower in 20 mins! Melun is the easiest to get to and is on the Seine, not too far from Fountaineblue. It does take a little longer to get in to Paris though than the other sites. Paris Est is probably the most difficult to get to simply due to the weight of traffic, but is one of the nearest sites to the centre as it's only a few minutes on the train.

The last time we went on our way back from a Germany trip in November, we stood and watched the traffic around the Arce de Triomphe for a while and pondered driving in some time just for the hell of it. A little later we walked back to the Louvre and were amazed to find a motorhomer parked right out the front! It did have a disability badge on it otherwise I think he would have been moved on pretty quick.