Sur le Pont d’Avignon–8th September 2014

I hope that you enjoy reading my blog, I do tend to ramble on about thoughts and stuff as well as our travels, but I must admit that the thing I miss most about being on the road is people to talk to.  We do get on very well, which is  a must when you spend so much time just the two of you, but I do enjoy a good natter and when it’s just us it’s not the same.  I suppose that’s why I like being in one place for a while and meeting up with people.   My blog is my way of chatting, it’s also my diary (I don’t share everything though) and perhaps one day I’ll look back and read it all again.
We’re moving on today, heading south to Spain.  We’ll be arriving in Spain about a month before we had originally planned, but there are several reasons for that.  We had expected the weather in northern Europe in August to be much nicer than it was, August was a wash-out and looking at the weather forecasts there seemed to be no happy medium and we are fed up of feeling wet and cold.  It was either cool and rainy or further south very hot and sunny.  So we have settled for the very hot and sunny.  Also before we get back to Albir sometime in October I really need to get into some sort of fitness and diet regime.  I’m hoping that if I can get into the habit then I’ll keep it going when we get to our winter site, instead of getting full into the social scene and just slobbing around. 
I had a bit of a blood pressure scare before we left England and we spent the last few days running back and forward to the doctors.  It did get back to a reasonable level and I think the problem was mainly caused by the lies I was telling the doctor as to why I needed 6 months supply of HRT (actually I needed more but I wasn’t going to push my luck).  I had run out some 3 months before and had hoped that I could stop taking it, but it was fast becoming apparent that I should not stop!!!! So there I was thinking that if the doctor said no, it would be a whole year before I could get any more and neither of us wanted to face that. Not much wonder that pushed up my blood pressure. So losing weight and getting fitter should help.
I had intended to do that last winter, but we were late arriving in Spain,  not getting there until the new year, it was all new and unusual and still felt like a holiday. The first 2 months were messed up with trips back to England and then we both had flu.  Added to that I started smoking again.  It was all just too easy, sitting outside instead of inside bars with everyone smoking, the temptation was just too great.  I had been struggling to resist for a while and Iain had been particularly obnoxious one night and had gone to bed – well I wasn’t going to say anything to him, we had just come back from his daughter’s funeral and I was feeling pretty low too.  It was just too easy to roll a cigarette (not very successfully)  and smoke it.  And for anyone who has given up smoking that once was all it needed.  I know that I can do it again, I’ve done it loads of times before, however I do think that I’ll never be a non-smoker, just a smoker who doesn’t for long periods of time.  In my early 30’s I gave up for 6 years and then started again for 10.  Then I gave up for 5 years and started again for 1, then the last time I managed 14 months and I’ve been smoking for the last 7 so I really do need to make the effort.  I don’t even like it very much, the thought of a cigarette is much nicer than the smoking of it.  So now I’ve admitted it on my blog then perhaps that will give me the drive I need to try again.  So the fitness regime has to begin, and begin it will next week soon.
So we’ve got a stop over for a few days in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Blanca and then we’re moving onto Peniscola where I’ve chosen a luxury site for my “holiday”. Or is that a boot camp? I said to Iain it has a swimming pool and gym, it’s only a mile from town and the town has a castle for him to enjoy so that’s ok. Now we’re in the heat, a swimming pool is a must and we don’t want to get to Albir too early because the campsite doesn’t have a pool. It’s a fairly basic site but the main attraction is the location, location, location.
Before I move on to tell you about Avignon, which is worth a visit I must say, my darling husband had been perplexed about why he sounds such an ogre in my blog posts. I am a bit unfair on him I suppose.  He is actually the most intelligent, caring, thoughtful and considerate person I know, then of course he is organised, decisive, tidy and oh I forgot – always right.  The problem is that he expects everyone to be the same, except they always have to be wrong.  He must be almost perfect, we’ve been married 10 years this December and neither of my other two husbands got to two years before I’d had enough. I do have to aquiesce a lot so that I don’t wreak the wrath of Iain so I  vent my angst in my blog. 

Avignon

The campsite we stayed on was on an island in the Rhone and very close to town.  The campsite was very very basic and could do with a massive make-over.  The shower blocks were very tired and dated, but they were clean.  The pitches were a good size but we only just manage to get on in length and had a bit of an overhang.  We were certainly concerned when a coach reversed up the roadway and thought we might lose some of our lovely chrome on the front of our van.  The worst thing about the campsite was the dust.  There was not even an attempt at any flooring to the pitches and the dust got everywhere. 

Lovely old gnarled trees all over the campsite

We only just fitted on

I would stay there again and there’s nothing wrong with the site but for me it’s just a passing through place and I’m glad we didn’t stay there more than 3 nights. As I say it’s location, location, location.
The view of the city from just outside the campsite was pretty amazing.  The city is a World Heritage Site so you would expect it to be good.  Just a short walk across the bridge and you are there in about 10 minutes. We had a walk around, up to the Pope’s Palace and the cathedral, through what must have been the original town square with impressive buildings such as the theatre and then took a walk down to the infamous bridge.

Just a short 10 minute walk into town

The Cathedral which can be seen from afar

19th Century addition of the Madonna on the top of the Cathedral – Iain said “Somewhat gaudy, a show of ostentation and wealth” – but it was still pretty impressive

The gold was stunning, but I rather liked the view with the sun directly behind her

The Pope’s palace, from the days when there were 2 Popes, one in the Vatican and one in Avignon

You have to look up the alleyways to see some of the splendour at the back of the buildings

The Theatre in the town square

Did we go “sur le pont”? No we didn’t.  We did want to see the dog go “tout arond” as she is inclined to do but 1.  No dogs allowed and 2. it was 5 Euros each.  Iain said there was no way he was going to pay 5 Euros to walk on an old bridge that doesn’t even go all the way across.  So we had to settle for some pictures from below instead.  Of course there was one of those photo moments, there is a fantastic view of the bridge from the other side which would have made a lovely photo but 1. I forgot my camera, 2. I would go back when the light was right and 3.  I forgot, so these were the only ones we got.

Must remember not to go that way when we leave.  It’s only a 3m clearance

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

Avignon was well worth the visit, but not quite “up there” for me compared to Toledo

Unusual outfits

Before I leave Avignon, there were a couple of outfits worth a photo.  If you want to see more from our travels click the tab above “Unusual outfits”.

This one was more “old” than unusual – it had wood panelling inside – I don’t think it goes very far though.

Now this was really cool, the complete tent enclosed in a top box, it just seems to pop out.  Still only a tent though

The LPG saga continues

When we arrived in Avignon we were desperate for LPG, the red reserve light had gone out and all the green lights were now flashing, so yet again we needed to get LPG as our first priority.  We had two choices fairly nearby in Avignon, but both took us out of our way in opposite directions.  We settled on Carrefour as we also needed to get “stocking up” shopping and it was only about 3 miles away and didn’t take us through Avignon.  So off we go, down some narrow lanes and following the signs we found that Carrefour was on the top of a hill.  But never mind we got there ok having actually run out of LPG on the way, only to find a notice on the LPG pump that they no longer do LPG and will not do so in the future.  Mmmmm my stress levels were starting to rise, I was fed up of this stupid van that’s too big for small lanes and runs on LPG, why couldn’t we have got a smaller, diesel one?  Our van is definitely one for living in not for touring in.  We needed shopping so we moved out of the gas station towards the supermarket.  I asked Iain if this was the right way to go as I, as usual, was concentrating on the narrow, bumpy, roadway I was on and not the way that I need to go.  As you can imagine, the clever response of “I don’t know darling, I’ve never been here before.” did not go down well.  “I’ve never bloody well been here before either and that wasn’t being very helpful” was my response.    I was not a happy bunny, I was cross at this clever-dick statement.  I do love living in the van but I just hate the travelling bit.  Even as a kid I used to hate “going out for the day” as it meant an hour or more drive to somewhere, 20 minutes running around and then the drive back.  I used to think that I could have gone to my local park or beach and had all afternoon running around.  Flying, I’ve been as far as the States, South Africa and China and to me the travelling is always just a means of getting somewhere and something to be endured.  Of course this lifestyle has a lot of “endurance” for me, which is why I like staying put so much. But at least it gives me something to write about.
So having re-vittled we then headed off to the motorway to see if we could get fuel.  There it was, only about 10 miles from Carrefour and on the motorway – an Esso garage, with LPG and NO height barrier.  I finally cheered up and we laughed at our good providence, until, of course we could not connect.  For those of you who don’t know about LPG, you have to get an air-tight connection to be able to get gas.  Any gap and the gas just wooshes out and more is wasted than goes into the tank.  That of course, apart from a waste of money, LPG being a combustible gas is not very safe.  Anyway I went in to seek assistance.  This time with a little better French – “Bonjour madam, aides moi pour l’Autogas s’il vous plait?”  When she looked at me blankly I said “Autogas, woosh, woosh, woosh” and she seemed to get the message this time.  A very nice young girl came out to aides moi and she tried both nozzles and neither would connect so there we were off again in search.
The next fuel station was about 15 miles away and we pulled in to find yet another height barrier.  I had posted on motorhome365 about the height barriers and one kind person had replied that their experience was the same and as long as the barrier check system doesn’t look too solid they just drive through, very slowly and all they had ever experienced was the tinkling of the hanging poles on the roof and no damage was ever caused.  So I thought I’d give it a go.  I drove very slowly through the barrier and we didn’t hear anything – great I thought.  Then I discovered that in my eagerness to try out this new found confidence, I’d actually gone through the wrong height barrier and we were now in the service station, not the fuel station.  So I had to go out again and come back in through the RIGHT height barrier.  Again no tinkling so we knew there was no damage.  Lesson learned – the height barrier checkers seem to be higher than stated on the signs.
Ok we were now at the fuel pump and lo and behold we failed yet again to get a tight connection.  This time Iain just told me to reverse up and we filled up with Petrol.  Iain had had enough of this game and we were to run the 200 miles or so into Spain on petrol.  A vast expense I know but we were both pretty fed up with the problem by then and we weren’t about to stop at every fuel station to try again and end up moving on.
The sat nag told me that there was LPG to be found only about 10 miles over the Spanish border although it did mean coming off the motorway.  It’s also 20 euro cents a litre cheaper in Spain so that would save us about £30 on a fill up anyway. Sorry to all you diesel people we know as diesel is actually more expensive in Spain than it is in France right now.
Hooray, finally across the border into Spain we headed off to find the LPG filling station and guess what – yep you guessed it – a height barrier.  This time it looked pretty solid, a thick steel bar hanging horizontally from a gantry.  I think the comment started with a B and ended with an S and had 6 letters in between.  We drove around a bit looking for another way in and Iain said, ok let’s go, but I was being a bit more determined and wasn’t going to give in that easily.  I finally saw a little gap with some bollards that had been lowered and I wriggled (not easy when you are over 8m long) my way through and there I was safely in the fuel station.  I remarked that Iain was a defeatist and he then went into an immediate sulk.  But yes, the Spanish connector fitted perfectly.  Refuelled we were on our way south. 
Just before I go, I thought I’d mention that at the filling station there was a big lorry park.  We supposed that this is because there is a ban on lorry movements in France on a Sunday and as this is the last turn-off of the motorway before the border for those going into France, the lorry drivers park up on a Saturday night and wait until they can move off on a Monday morning.  Well nearby there was a sex shop and wandering around was the most blatant prostitute I have ever seen.  She was literally wandering around in the road plying her trade in shoes that must have had 6 inch high clear plastic platform soles and heels.  Although she was having trouble walking in them she actually looked like she was floating (very disgracefully in both senses) above the road.  Funny, I was looking at her shoes, but there were a lot of other people looking at more than that.
Onward and southwards – next stop Lloret de Mar …………………………………………….

France–4th September 2014– Life’s so much better in shorts

We have now arrived in Mersault, just south of Dijon for a couple of nights stay. At last we are back in shorts and sandals after what can only be described as a miserable August, weather wise. We only chose this as a stop over on our way south and I must say we are not disappointed. This morning we walked about 10 minutes into town and it is very picturesque. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera and regretted it so much that we are going back into town later this afternoon to take some pictures.The view from the campsite which is slightly raised from the town and terraced is beautiful. We couldn't believe it when we arrived yesterday afternoon and the site was nearly full, with about 6 vans pulling in immediately behind us. This morning it is empty and we are the only van on our terrace.

Was it something we said?

I've decided to write my notes more regularly as I forget to write down some of the strange and funny things that we come across when I'm on catch-up. 

So a couple of things dog related that I forgot to mention before.When we were in Ermelo and Meerke and Nol were taking us out, Connie came with us, she sat in the back of the hatch-back but wouldn't lie on the floor, she just had to lie on the top of the spare wheel where she often fell off, I do love my dog but she's pretty stupid at times. On the first day I thought she was a really stinky dog and was embarrassed at the smell, she's just a dog, she hadn't been rolling in anything nasty, but wet dogs can be pretty smelly; so when she accompanied us on our second day out she went out smothered in Calvin Klein. It did the trick.

Another dog related item I forgot about when we were in Oberwessel and one evening we went out to a pizzeria for dinner and there was a man there with an enormous dog. Now this dog was the size of a shetland pony. He said it was a turkish sheep dog and was only a puppy – an 80kg puppy. He said it would grow to approximately 120kg and currently he ate 6kg of food a day. This thing stood up to my hips at the shoulder, much larger and heavier than a great dane. He explained that there are two types of sheepdog, one which runs around the flock barking at anything threatening and this type which doesn't bark, but is just a silent killer and when alerted by the barking one, stealthily hunts down the intruder and goes for the kill, whether it be a wolf or a bear. Our dog weighs 10kg so he eats 3/5 th of our princess' weight per day. Now I don't like to be crude but think of all the poo it would create and you would have to pick up, and imagine travelling with that in a motorhome, especially with the old dutch woman who screamed at me “Off the Camping, Off the Camping” when my dog did what dogs do in the road. Yes of course I removed the offending c**p.

Kangal – Turkish sheep minder

Back onto our current travels. We are back on the road again and I'd forgotten just how much fun it can be finding LPG. We were on 4 flashing lights at this time, which means that you have used up all the gas, and the reserve and now it is just gasping for breath so this was to be our first priority of the day. Actually in this case we had no trouble finding it, we just couldn't get to it. We left our campsite in Nancy and the nearest lpg was just over a mile away, so that was our first destination to Le Clerc. 

The satnag directions seemed a bit higgledy piggledy and of course we went the wrong way, but only once that was enough. Then we wanted to turn left but it was nothing over 3.5 tonnes except buses. Iain then suggested that we do a “U” turn on the dual carriageway and as I was already half way across the road and there didn't seem much of an alternative, I thought it might be a good idea. Well it might have been, but it wasn't. I got stuck half-way across the road and had to do a bit of a 3 point turn to get round. Great! traffic coming at me from all directions.Back in the right direction, as soon as we found Le Clerc, we headed towards it. Just as I was about to go into the entrance, Iain shrieked, “STOP” and it was then that I saw the 2.3 m height barrier. Luckily I wasn't past the point of no return so pulled into a car park on the retail park to re-assess. 

This was the wrong Le Clerc, we could see the right one so we then headed towards it only to find when we drove in that there was another height restriction of 3 m this time. Still not enough to get under. A quick drive around the petrol station and we were off again to our next choice.Fantastic, here we were, no height barrier, in a town with lpg available. It's much cheaper in towns than on motorways by about 15 euro cents and with a 200 litre tank completely empty that makes quite a difference on the fill cost. Plus we needed petrol as well. But NO, the connector wouldn't connect and Iain in exasperation said lets go, we'll get some on the motorway. That was the third failed attempt to get lpg, in hindsight we should have sought assistance as you will find out. Now these connectors are different in all countries so you have to carry all the types you will need, it can be a real pain. We have only ever had problems connecting in France, everywhere else seems to be ok.

As we approached the motorway, on the slip road I put my foot down to get onto the motorway before a huge lorry and there was an alarm going off and the momentary splutter and mis-fire as the van goes over to petrol. At least this time it was only a momentary splutter, not like the time when we were going up the 7% incline and hair-pin bend in Zarultz in Spain. So anyway, with a quarter of a tank of petrol we knew we could get about 70 miles – if only we could find a petrol station without a height barrier in time.

Our first services were about 15 miles away and we pulled in only to find a 3.4m height barrier, so I followed the lorry signs. This was my first mistake – the lorry refuelling stations only have diesel – the one thing we didn't need. I reversed about 100m back to the entrance of the petrol station. We know we can get under 3.5 m, we did that in Spain too. So I inched forward to the barrier checkpoint and Iain walked ahead looking at the roof. It wasn't long before he gesticulated wildly that there was no way that we would fit. So I had to reverse back from that entrance and of course by this time I had someone right up my backside.We drove off through the lorry refuelling station and back onto the motorway. 

By now this was getting serious. As long as we've got petrol it doesn't matter if we don't have gas, but we only had a quarter of a tank and these height barriers were fast becoming a problem. This was the fourth aborted attempt to get gas.The satnag said there was another lpg fuel station about 15 and then 45 miles further, but of course we didn't know if we would come upon the same problem so we set off in hope, me driving as economically as possible and keeping an eye on how much petrol we were consuming.

So 11 miles later we pulled into the next service station – oh look there's another height barrier, this time 3.35m, even lower. A four letter expletive was heard to come out of my mouth, preceded by an “oh” . But I was determined. The height of the area of the pumps looked plenty high enough to accommodate us and I had spotted a gap in the wall. Iain said I'd never get through there and I said “Just watch me”. So I inched my way through, having to do a bit of manipulation and reversing back and forth and hey we were through.
 

Height restriction barriers everywhere

 

Just watch me!!!!

Guess what – the connector wouldn't connect – again. This time I marched into the service station and I said “Bonjour madame, assistance por l'autogas s'il vous plait”. I must have been desperate as normally even though I know the words, when I open my mouth it still comes out in English. I know this isn’t good French, but it was enough. 

Out trots the swaggering male attendant to show the stupid Englishman how to do it and low and behold, he mimed the instructions and connected the gas and woosh woosh woosh, it was doing the same thing. Houston we had a problem. So he promptly wiped out the inside of our connector and tried again. Eureka no wooshing and we had connected, we would soon be happily on the road again. The attendant then stood there holding the button for Iain, very kind of him as we were refuelling the engine tank and not the habitation tank – which meant he had to stand there for about 20 minutes – poor guy I felt really sorry for him.

So lpg topped up, petrol to half a tank and we left the garage 250 euros lighter. What with shopping, campsite fees and payage to pay and the fuel this was to be an expensive day. I always have fun at the payage, I have to get as close as possible, minding my wing mirror, then have to put the van in park, take off my seatbelt, open the door and then and only then if I'm lucky I can reach the slot to put my ticket in, and then of course the credit card. So I did all this and put in the Caxton card, knowing that it may be rejected (it's not always accepted at toll booths), and the machine spat it out immediately. I then put in our visa credit card and this was also spat out immediately. What next? Suddenly Iain noticed that we had a green light and the barrier was up so I hurredly went through. I just hope that at 40 euros we weren't charged twice.

Anyway as I said earlier we arrived at a very pretty campsite in Mersault. This seems to be a mainly transitional site, probably the time of year but the town is well worth the visit. Having walked into town in the morning, the sun was shining and it was pretty warm, for the first day in ages, so we just sat around all afternoon chatting and enjoying the warmth. We laughed when we realised that we had managed to while away half an hour on the topic of “What is the best time of the day to have a shower?” But it is important. Shower blocks can be a bit chilly in the mornings. By the afternoon you are getting pretty hot so it's a case of timing it correctly, not too early or you will be all sweaty again soon after, but don't leave it too late or it is getting cool again in the shower block. Oh joy of joys, is that all we have to worry about these days? Sometimes we really struggle to know what day of the week it is and I have to check on the computer calendar.

So showers had we walked into town again, just to get some photos which I'll share with you here. It was a shame that the sun was by now in the wrong place as it rather ruined some of the lovely photos I would have got in the morning. But these give you an idea of how pretty the town is. We would certainly recommend Grappe d'or in Mersault as a great stop-over or even a couple of days. It is also right on the Grand Cru Route if you want to visit the region.

Town Hall, I’m just sorry I didn’t get the morning picture with the sun on the roof

So here’s a bit with the sun on – it was striking

You might just make out the painting of the old lady in the window

 

How about this for a county retreat?

And then there were the views from the campsite:-We spent a very pleasant evening with a couple next door to us called Pat and Raymond who live in France and had just come back from touring the Czech Republic. They were also fans of touring Croatia and it's a shame that we couldn't be around longer to find out more as those are a couple of places that we intend to visit. They were a sprightly couple and it turned out that Pat's daughter was only a year younger than us. As I've said before, these older people we meet are truly inspirational. This was the first time since Somerset that we'd actually been able to sit out in the evening, albeit that we did need jumpers. 

Who put that tree there overnight?

So this morning it's a quick update before we pack up again and set off. A longer journey today of about 250 miles to Avignon, so we want to get an early start. I won't be posting until we get some internet, I absolutely refused to pay 13 euros for just two days internet – and that was the best deal. The previous campsite had been 6 euros a day, but they gave it free if you stayed more than one night. But 13 euros – that's just taking the ****. So hopefully no one has been frantically trying to get hold of us over the last couple of days.

When we are travelling, I like to take photos of different and unusual campers and caravans that we come across.  I’ll set up a separate page for them but here’s a couple that took my interest on this campsite:-

This was really cool – a Knaus with a young single German man – He was quite tasty too

 

Another Knaus but nowhere near as cool

It's nice this year, although we are doing long trips, at least unlike last year, I'm not frantically trying to pick up email every morning, just in case we have already been called back to the UK, which as you may know, the call actually came just 5 days after we arrived in Spain.

Somehow we actually managed to get off before 9.30 which is quite an achievement for us. I like to have the bulk of the journey completed by lunchtime, saving no more than 100 miles for the afternoon.Actually our journey didn't bring any trauma for a change. We found more of those height barriers and Iain checked each motorway services as we went past and they all had those dreaded height barriers. Of course with a journey of 250 miles we would need to refuel the LPG, but at least we had half a tank of petrol just in case. I think sometimes there is a sneaky way in and sometimes there are barriers that can be lifted, but we just made the decision to keep going and if we ran out then so be it. We haven't experienced this problem before – does anyone know if it's a new thing in France or just in this region?We'd just have to get some lpg in Avignon, before getting back on the motorway. We thought by the time we had pulled into every service station on the way just to check, we'd probably use up 20 miles of gas just doing so. The amazing thing is we got to Avignon and although the tank was gasping for gas and all the lights were flashing, we actually didn't run out.

We're staying in Avignon for 3 nights, this morning, when I've finished "playing" with the computer (as Iain puts it) we're going to have a walk into town.  It's forecast to be 31C this afternoon so we don't want to be walking the dog around in that heat.  Of course by staying 3 nights that will give us a chance to do the same walk tomorrow to take the photos - because I'm always forgetting the camera.

Sorry about the jumpy pictures. I've just discovered Microsoft Live Writer which means that I can do all my blogging off-line including pictures and then post in one go.  I have always known I could do off-line blogging with my tablet, but I prefer a proper keyboard and do it all on the laptop. So I'm experimenting with it at the moment and it's not exactly perfect - but practice might make it better.

The Romantic Rhine - 2nd time lucky - 27th August – and still raining

Currently we're in France and yet again the weather isn't that great so I'm having an afternoon confined to barracks catching up with my blog and a few other “me” things.

Firstly, I've been saying that it will be nice when we no longer have a TV signal so that we don't waste our time indoors distracted by the gogglebox. Yesterday it happened. To give us something to watch, back in the UK I bought the full collection of Benidorm series 1 to 6. We've previously seen a few but not all and not in order so we thought that would fill a few evening hours (22 to be precise) when we have no TV. How awful you might say, but actually it is very funny and very close to the mark on some occasions, we're only really interested because we spent last winter only 5 miles away and it is actually a very beautiful place, if only you could take away the high-rise buildings and the brits-abroad. It has however been responsible for a boom in the holiday business in Benidorm – I would have thought it would put most people off. I was told that I couldn't watch it until we had no TV so we got it out and settled down to some viewing. We'd already seen the first series another night and put on the second series disc one and the disc failed! Bummer, we'd even bought it from the BBC website and not e-bay so we did expect better quality than that.

We saw the last few episodes of Series 2 on the second disc, but it just wasn't the same. Then I put on Series 3 disc 1 and that failed too but disc 2 was ok. Now we would not be happy losing the first 3 or 4 episodes of each series, it rather misses the point of buying the complete set. It also means that we would not be able to flog it when we have seen it. By now I'm not amused. So this afternoon I decided to check all the discs to see if I needed to send it back to the BBC.

In order I put all of the discs into the computer and the failure rate was 50%. I wrote down all the disc failures. I was not impressed, I get really frustrated when things that should work don't. So I decided to google the problem to see if there was anything I could try. One suggestion was that it could be dust in the laser beam – so I though hey, give the DVD player a “blow-job”.

And would you believe it blow and behold it worked. Result! Good old Google.

So what have we been up to since my last post:-

The Romantic Rhine

The journey from Burgen on the Mosel to Oberwessel on the Rhine was pretty uneventful for a change and a welcome change at that. The only comment was that on the way back up the Mosel to Koblenz I said, “This is pretty, I don't remember any of this on the way down” to which the reply was “Well you were very cross at the time”. And that was putting it mildly, I was almost in tears.

We arrived at Oberwessel to a small but very friendly campsite. It was a good job we arrived early as we had one of the last pitches and we were quite happy with it as we had a river view, the only pitches in front of us were the tent pitches which were empty.

Views from our pitch

Evening Sunshine

Morning Sunshine

 

Paddle cruiser

One hell of a big boat

The weather had picked up and although we had a bit of rain it was nothing like we'd had for the rest of August.

The following day we got the bikes and buggy out and peddled off to St Goar and Loreley. I had a thing about going to Loreley because I had a school friend of that name and if I remember rightly she was named after Loreley the siren who sits on the rock and lures sailors to their death by her irresistable. We went on holiday together to Spain when we were 19 and although we lost contact some time ago, I have recently found her on “In your facebook”. She's currently living in Gibraltar and maybe we might meet up when we do our southern Spain journey next Spring.

There is a very nice and big campsite in St. Goar for anyone wanting to go to the Romantic Rhine (but it's not in ACSI). You can walk into St. Goar from there and cross the river on the ferry to Loreley.

We hopped on the ferry across the river to Loreley and had a walk around. Some of the side streets were typically German and very old. This house was about 400 years old, it's a shame they built it so close to the railway line!!!!!!

Look for the car transporter train going past (middle right)

Even the ferry is called Loreley

View from Loreley across to St Goar

Typical street

No day out would be complete without the pink bag!

Loreley

And here's a picture of Loreley (the siren). It's a bit blurred because unless we wanted to walk another mile (we'd already done enough walking and cycling) we couldn't get any closer.

We actually met some English people on our campsite. They were the first English we had met since we left Ypres, some 3 weeks ago. Actually whilst I'm mentioning nationalities I think the Dutch are the champions of camping. Wherever we go the campsites are filled with Dutch people. They must make up 75% of all the campsites we have visited with only the exception of Ypres which was nearly all British. I don't know why but you can usually tell the Dutch because they seem to love the colour red. Yes red not orange as you might expect. I asked Meerke about this and she hadn't noticed before, but looking around they nearly always wear red and have red accessories, like bike panniers, bags etc. I must take some photos to prove my point.

Also we have met some inspirational people on our travels. I'm sure I have mentioned before that we feel younger for spending the winter with so many inspirational older people but we met a couple on this site that really were the kings of the road. This older couple (I think they were Dutch because of the red stuff) arrived on their bikes, pitched their tent and stayed just one night. Iain went off to the loo and by the time he got back I could tell him that the man was 80 and they had cycled 13,500 km in less than 4 years. That's nearly 8,500 miles. WOW good on him. He'd had a heart attack some 6 years before and his doctor told him that he should stop his sinful life of sitting around reading books (I thought he was going to say smoking and drinking) and get some exercise. He did say that he had an electric bike so that it takes some of the strain but anyway that's still a fantastic achievement. I think I'm doing well if I cycle 10 miles in a day – but then I'm normally towing the buggy and Iain says I can't have an electric bike until I can't peddle anymore. I think it's actually because he's not that keen on cycling and doesn't want to encourage me. Iain asked me how I had learned all the man's life story in less than the time it took him to go for a pee. Well that's what happens when you only have the company of one person for a long time. You pounce on anyone that will talk to you.

One of the good things about the campsite in Oberwessel is that there are a couple of supermarkets just across the road, so we were able to get supplies easily and managed to stock up again for a few days travelling.

The following day the weather was good and we took a walk into Oberwessel and it's quite a pretty old town with lots of towers, some old town walls and a castle on top of the hill.

We did walk half-way up to the castle and then gave up.  An elderly couple had walked it the day before so that really showed us up.

This man just happened to be behind us!!!

Having had a fair walk around the town walls which were quite precarious to get down from, especially when you are trying to get a dog down with you, we were in need of some refreshment so we stopped in the main market square at a hotel for a drink at about 3pm and we were told that they were closed.

Closed on a Friday afternoon in August

And Iain was looking forward to filling this one

We had planned to cycle to Baccarach which was further up the river on the Saturday but the weather forecast was for thunder storms so we just had a relaxing day. Of course it didn't rain, did it. Except for when we decided that we'd better take the dog for a walk before dinner and as soon as we got out the heavens opened, which cut short that walk.

Our pitch was at the end of the campsite and there was a little track down to the river so it was great to be able to let the dog off the lead and have a paddle in the Rhine. The Rhine could be added to her list of “Rivers I have paddled” but then I realised that she has been in the Rhine before when we went to Cologne a few years ago and I enjoyed a week by the river while Iain went to work at the airport. The taxi driver thought it was very strange when he picked Iain up at the campsite, dressed in business suit, destination the airport and no luggage.

Moving on, and I've nearly caught up now. We left Oberwessel on Sunday (31^st August) with a plan to go to an Aire in Port du Mousson on the Moselle (yes we're in France now) which Steve and Claire had stayed at and as it said it wasn't suitable for big motorhomes (although looked perfectly suitable in the picture) we actually made a back-up plan to go to Nancy. However looking at the map, Iain noticed there was a 3.5 tonne limit through the town so we decided that there was little point in going there. Shame it looked lovely.

So we travelled some 185 miles to Nancy in France. Great little campsite, with good and FREE wifi. We like FREE. The weather still isn't very warm and we've had a little rain.

August in Nancy

We would have liked to have gone into Nancy to have a look around but as always we are restricted with the dog and not sure if we can go on a bus with her. Cycling was not an option as although it is only 4 miles into town from the campsite, the town sits in the bottom of a big bowl and if we go down there, we've got to get back up. 4 miles uphill walking for me would be gruelling and pushing my bike with the buggy on the back would have been impossible. So we settled on a good walk around a lovely park next door to the campsite and then catch-up afternoon with my blog and sort out the DVD failures as I mentioned above.

View of Nancy from the park

Nancy is beyond the bushes at the end of the park

So there we are – uptodate again, well I'm writing this at 6.30 am and I should be getting some sleep as we're on the road again today (2^nd Sept) we are heading south to Dijon where we are hoping for some more appropriate weather.

Change of plan again - not going until tomorrow.  Partly because I was up in the middle of the night and so am tired today and don't fancy the 200 mile drive and partly because we've got good and free internet here so it will give me a chance to get everything posted and do some banking etc.

Having decided to stay an extra night, we had enough food but I'm afraid that the essential supplies were lacking. So having got ourselves organised this morning we took a walk to the supermarket for some beer. There are two from the campsite, one turn left for about 2 miles and one turn right and take the second left and this seemed to be the nearer one so we took this.  Having walked for about 15 minutes we came across the 1 in 10 descent towards town and we'd only just come across the first left so I said that I didn't mind if it meant a lot further walk, but I'd rather go to the other supermarket that was left out of the campsite.

So we did this, we walked back to the campsite and some 2 miles to the supermarket, only to find that 5 minutes before we arrived it had closed for lunch - for 2 hours.  So we ended up coming back empty handed.  What no beer????????

We're on the move tomorrow so we'll just have to make do.

Be back soon............................................................

Through France and Back to Blighty

Many people who know me thought that I’d be bored not working, absolutely no chance of that! The problem with moving on is that you spend a lot of your time just travelling, so there’s no time to get bored, after all we’re “Busy doing nothing” and thoroughly enjoying all of it.

Time to leave Spain - again

Thursday morning and it was drizzling.  I really wasn’t looking forward to getting back down that hill with the drop on our side so we took it very steadily.  I think it was about 10 mph.  Iain spent the journey concentrating on setting up the sat nag but did say that he took a peek once.

The motorway wasn’t far away so only the first bit to worry about.  LPG filled up and we were on our way to Angouleme about 230 miles, our first day of driving home.

We’d allowed 4 days to get to Calais, one night in each stop-over with a spare one to get the dog to the vets.  We’d also still not booked the ferry in case we had to wait until Monday to get the dog sorted and that would have meant that we could not come back until Tuesday at least.

An aire just south of Angouleme at Roullet St Estephe sufficed for an overnight stop.  We took a walk into the village and all was shut with no sign of a vet.  The aire itself was very pleasant and not too far from the motorway.  The only downside was what appeared to be a campsite about 250 metres away.  We gave the dog a walk around the lake and approached the campsite which was a bit higgly-piggly with white vans everywhere.  I said to Iain “Iain is that” to which I was cut short with a “Yes it is”, no more needed to be said.  There were about 5 other vans that turned up after us so the feeling of safety in numbers sprung to mind.  Must remember – don’t drive head on into a space, or use chocks unless absolutely necessary; always reverse park when possible, then if anything happens in the night, you can always drive out forward.

Sees - Normandy

A good night’s sleep anyway and in the morning we were off – towards Sees, about 230 miles.  There was an aire at the Intermarche supermarket and whilst the directions in the aires book were good, we of course followed the sat nag (again) and it was virtually impossible to find the place.  There were several motorhomes driving around who seemed to have the same problem.  

The problem with Sees is that it’s a lovely old French town but it has very narrow streets and every road towards the centre says nothing over 3.5 tonnes, and of course we are over 7. So as we were travelling around the ring-road around Sees the dulcet tones of the sat nag repeated over and over again “Turn left” but every turning  said nothing over 3.5 tonnes.  All this time we were only half a mile from the aire. We ended up heading out towards Alencon which was totally in the wrong direction and then pulling over into a parking area to re-assess the situation and to use the tried and tested method – read a map!!!!  We were by then out the south east side of the town heading south and we should have been on the north east side of the town, heading east into the town.  We realised then that we had to go almost back to the motorway and turn right to get onto the correct road. So if anyone is trying to find the aire in Sees you have to follow the directions, go well out of your way and come back into the town to get onto the aire, don’t go through the middle it is VERY narrow.  

Was it worth it?  Well yes it was.  The aire was in the Intermarche car park which had 4 motorhome parking spaces clearly defined and we were the only van there.  It was really handy for picking up some of the essential shopping that we needed.  As we needed to find a vet we took a walk into the town. By now it was late Friday afternoon  and we weren’t holding out much hope to keep to our plan of taking a ferry on Monday.  But lo and behold a quick 15 minute walk into the town centre and there was a vet on our right.  The assistant was very friendly and although they couldn’t fit us in on the Friday evening she offered us an appointment for 8.30 the following morning.  That was great as we could get the dog done, stock up with shopping and be away for a reasonably early start.

As we had had a good result on finding a vet we then continued into town for a nice relaxed stroll.  Now I had been thinking so much about finding a vet that I had forgotten to take my camera and boy, did I regret it.

Sees is a small town in southern Normandy with a population of about 5,000 which seems to be split into 4 quarters and according to an Irish man we met who lived there, each quarter still regards the others as being “Foreigners”.  There is a “Historic walk” that is way-marked around the town and it is a very pleasant walk with some interesting buildings to have a look at including a cathedral which for such a small town was unexpected.

We had a pleasant quiet night alone in the car park and didn’t feel any need to be nervous, however I had a horrible dream that night.

I dreamed that we heard noise outside and when I looked out there were a load of young people who had hooked up our van to what can only be described as a Ford KA and were towing us away, laughing and joking.  Now our brains are terrible, as if a Ford KA would be able to tow us anywhere. We were taken on a long journey, under some low bridges and we were swinging around from side to side.  Now what were we doing all this time in my dream, sitting in the cab seats trying to get the phone charged so that we could call the police (Iain’s always moaning at me because my phone is never charged when it is needed).  Anyway, eventually we were taken to some sort of housing estate where there were several burned-out motorhomes and once we stopped, someone resembling Gene Hunt from Life on Mars in a camel coat swaggered up to my window.   Somewhere deep in my memory I plucked out that I should take flash photographs as that often makes “bandits” run away, but as my door opened and “Gene” looked in, I pointed my camera at him and all that came out was a squirt of water right into his face.  At this point he sneered at me and said “Just what do you think you are going to do with that?” By now I was glad that I am quite a lucid dreamer and I decided that I’d had enough of that dream and woke myself up.  

The rest of the night I spent stressing about what I would actually do if anyone did try anything during the night. That dream was however not conducive to a sound night’s sleep before a long drive – oh well I could always have a nap in the afternoon.

Actually it was a very nice spot and at least we didn’t have to go very far for our shopping. I would recommend the aire to fellow travellers.

Vet info for pet passport travellers:

Clinique Veterinarian – 31 Rue Argentre, Sees. A lovely lady vet who spoke pretty good English.  She charged us just a total of £40 for the examination and worm pill which is necessary and including 3 month’s supply of flea and tick treatment (not compulsory these days) . Compared to previous vets we thought this was a good price.

The morning after the dream, we were off to the Boulogne area about 220 miles which would only leave us a short drive to Calais for the ferry.

We had decided as always to only have short drive on our last day to Calais, just in case there are any problems and hold-ups.  This had worked well for us before when our van had failed to start as we were leaving for the ferry.  So we thought we’d have a look at Wimereux just outside Boulogne which would leave us just over 20 miles on the final day.  We had also not had to use up our spare day with the vet, so we could relax at a nice campsite for a couple of nights – Saturday and Sunday. What we hadn’t bargained for was that this was the last weekend of the Bank-holiday week and there was just no room at the inn.

We usually travel outside the peak weeks and had never booked a campsite but had been successful everywhere we chose with just “dropping in”.  However having driven some 230 miles and tried two campsites we were thinking that we would be spending our last nights on an aire.  So we quickly checked the ACSI book and headed of inland to Guines. This was on the way to Calais (almost) and if we couldn’t get in there then it would be Calais docks for us.

Luckily we were able to get a pitch on a very nice campsite for us to relax before our trip of England visiting family and friends for the next two months.

Guines itself is not much to write about, about a half-hour walk around the town and there was very little to see, so we walked back to the campsite.

What really surprised me is the number of British people who go to France for a week’s holiday, only to drive 12 miles from Calais and stay there for the entire holiday.  Personally I would rather take a drive a bit further south, maybe further into southern Normandy.

Anyway, a full day and two night’s R&R and we were off to Calais. I had waited until the last minute to book our ferry and just for a change P&O proved to be the cheapest.  The only problem was that their website was not that easy and one mistake and you have to enter the whole booking again, and I was doing this on my tablet so didn’t have proper keyboard.  I’m sorry but I’m just not keen on touch-screens and pre-emptive text and after much frustration I must have got something wrong, probably my email address – so sod’s law said that we didn’t get the confirmation of the booking!!!!!

Well after my hissy-fit at the booking I must have been feeling very chilled because we left for the ferry and totally unlike me (mrs worry pants) I just had this attitude of “Well we’ll sort it out at the port and get on one ferry today, and even if we don’t it doesn’t really matter”.  I must have been really chilled. But then when you don’t have work to return to, why worry?

We left in plenty of time and all was sorted at the port, we even got on an earlier ferry.  So now it was:-

Back to Blighty – 2^nd June 2014

By this time we had been out of the country for 158 days (except for our brief return to England by air), had travelled some 3000 miles, all of course on the “wrong” side of the road and been up to an altitude of 738m at Granada, but I'm sure we saw a higher signpost on one of the roads.  I’m also very proud of myself as I’d driven every one of those miles!!!!!!! Even though they proved to be pretty scary at times.