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