The Lavender of Provence

For the last two years we have used a fantastic photo on the front over of our brochure. It is of a motorhome parked up next to swathes of lavender in full bloom. The photo was taken in Provence and we often get asked where the best place is to try and see the lavender.

Close to Nyons

In terms of timing, the lavender season runs from late June to the end of August. In theory the best time is late June and early July although it depends quite a lot of what the weather has been like. We have been in June for the last two years and have been lucky on both occasions with plenty of fields just coming into bloom.

The Abbeye de Senanque

The best region is the Luberon, which is a semi-mountainous areas with dramatic ridges and gorges. Our route took us from Valence, which is considered to be the official start point of the "the south of France" down to Avignon. Rather than going straight down the A7, head towards Nyons and then south towards Carpentras. If you go this way it is not ridiculsouly touristy and you get to see the fields up close.

A more trodden route is to head towards the picture-postcard hilltop town of Gordes and then up to the Abbeye to Senanque, where you can see the view that the Provence Tourist Board seem to use every year (as seen here)!

The High Alpine Road up the Grossglockner

A couple of the bends on the High Alpine Road

One of the highlights of our recent tours to the Swiss and Austrian Alps was a trip up the High Alpine Road, which winds its way up Austria's highest peak, the Grossglockner.

The mountain itself tops out just below 4000 metres and the road allows you to get up to around 2700 metres. There are various option for getting up it which include driving up yourself. It is a toll road so you will have to pay around 40 euros for the privilege, although it is worth it. 

A man with a tame marmot!

The alternative we took was to let someone else do the driving by taking a bus tour. During the summer months it is possible to go up on a scheduled bus, which costs around 30 euros per person.  As there were lots of us we were able to club together to hire a coach, which meant we could then have complete control over where we stopped.

Aside from the view, which can only be described as stunning, there are plenty of other stops along the way including a couple for interesting museums and no shortage of cafe and restaurants. Marmots can also be seen running wild.

There are 36 hairpin bends on the road, each one of which has a sign showing the name, number and height of the bend. Overall we all found the experience fantastic but strangely tiring. Perhaps it was the thin air!

Keukenhof Flower Parade

A classic bus at Nordwijk

Last year we went to the Keukenhof Gardens for the first time and were absolutely amazed by the scale of the event and the riot of colours and smells. This year, we made sure we were there for the Flower Parade Weekend.


The idea of the parade is that there are around 40 floats all decked out with different themes but all featuring thousands of flowers. The creations were incredible and it must have taken hours and hours to put them together.

This year the parade started in a small town called Noordwijkehout, near to the Keukenhof Gardens. The floats arrived in the town at 4pm and were parked on the main road, allowing everyone to get a really close look at them.

A classic car at Nordwijk

At 9pm the floats were illuminated and the procession started around the town. The route changes a bit each year but is published well in advance allowing you to pick your spot.

In the morning the floats were moved to nearby Noordwijk on the coast for another procession. They were joined by a selection of classic vehicles also draped in flowers. Over the course of the day, the floats make their way up to the Keukenhof Gardens.

All in all, it was a real spectacle with the whole event attracting thousands of visitors.

Preparing for the new season

Our latest recruit

So the touring season is nearly upon as and we cannot wait to get going. One of the consequences of running a tour business is that the van is in use all year. so we have not really had to winter-down the motorhome or bring it back to life - it just sits there on the drive ready to go!


Admittedly there has been a bit of "Autoglym" applied and we are training our youngest grandson how to apply "Simoniz Back to Black" on the bumper (see photo).


The closed season has seen quite a bit of ebay activity and we are looking forward to using the new low wattage kettle and toaster (Wendy's idea) and the new step ladders to get the bikes off (my idea).

Our first trip of the season is Springtime in France tour, which we will run every year even if we are the only people on it! We find that Springtime is a great time to motorhome generally. The weather is on the turn and the campsites are all still fairly quiet. Paris is particularly appealing (and dare I say Romantic) at this time of year and there should be plenty of activity (in terms of flowers rather than romance) in the Tuileries near the Louvre and a little further out in the Luxembourg Gardens, which are our favourite.

Daffs at Keukenhof

We have been keeping a close eye on the daffodil situation is Holland for our trip there later in the month. Apparently the first one popped out in February, so we are hopeful of another grand display this year.

2016 Starts Here

Well it's been ages since we last blogged. In fact we hadn't realised just how long ago it has been. 2015 to be precise! 

That's not to say that we have been doing nothing since then. After we had been to the NEC, we headed straight off to recce a few new sites for our Alps Tour and for our Croatia & Slovenia Tour. 

Lake Bled

Those of you who are coming with us to the Alps will be pleased to know that our two main sites in Austria exceeded all our expectations. Both and 5-star, amazingly well-equipped and both with superb restaurants. So much so that we have organised a group meal in each location!

It turns out that Croatia and Slovenia are very, very quiet in October and November. We literally had the place to ourselves and were often the only van on the some of the campsites we stayed on. We are really looking forward to getting back there in September when it will be a bit warmer and everything will be open!

The Austrian Alps

The thing that most struck us in Slovenia and Croatia is how much of a contrast you get when you move from town to city to coast to countryside. It really is a very varied experience including some mountain driving in the Julian Alps (though nothing to worry about).

So apologies for the long delay. We have been very busy booking up campsites and ferries, writing tour packs and doing lots of boring paperwork. We will be really pleased to get out and about doing what we love at the start of April.

We are now producing a newsletter every month and Wendy will be hammering Facebook once the season starts and we have lots of lovely to photos to share with the world.

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