My European Tour

[Benyon]

Hi guys, as promised here´s a few pics...

So far we left Leeds and headed to Dover via an Oasis gig in Cardiff. Dipped into Belgium from Calais, then headed back to Paris then over to St Malo then down the west coast, and we have just arrived in Spain and stopped in San Sebastien.

Pics are currently downloading but as they were taken on an SLR they are downloading quite slowly so these are all I have for now...

Will try to keep in touch as and when we can. If you want more details about the pics just ask.

Andy

 

[gninnam]

Nice pics - looks like you are both having a good time and the bus appears to be enjoying Europe too 8)

 

[mattd1984]

Looks lovelly, what campsite did you stay in around Paris?

Cheers

 

[cyberdyne systems]

Wow you are really living the dream! Great to see the pictures of it too, cant wait to see some more!

 

[Micko68]

Hey up Andy,

Great pictures so far mate, i'm not that jealous really!!!!
Keep us all posted on your progress.

Try and get to the pelloponese area of Greece if you can, best part of the mainland for sure, but some big old hills to climb though.

I know you're not thinking of heading home yet, but when you do my Mum lives in France not far from St Malo ( Cogles) and would let you park up with them for as long as you wanted before crossing the channel. My Mum's partner did the same as you when he was teenager with 3 mates in Samba many moons ago.
Drop me a pm when and if...

http://www.cogles.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have fun!!!

 

[ghop99]

Awesome!

 

[Ands1]

Superb, enjoy yourselves

 

[dubscum]

what the bay was made for ! thumbs up mate, looks really nice .... wish i was there

 

[Hilly_70]

Thats cool Andy ..

Good to see the bus in those surroundings too!

You all look like your having a good time ..

.. I particularly like your attempt at building a beach house!

.. Keep us informed the rest of the way ..

We'll have a beer when you get back..

Hilly

 

[Benyon]

Cheers guys, unfortunately no more pics as this computer doesnt have a memory card slot :roll:

Since my last installment we have been surfing in Biarritz, street camping in San Sabastien, running with bulls in Pamplona (such an experience!) n now we´re heading to Madrid. Have had a great time in and around the Pyrenees and other than being a little slower than the other traffic the van has performed faultlessly - tho an over eager pump attendant overfilled the tank in Bilbao and found a leak in one of the breather pipes, thank god it was to the side and not onto the hot engine/exhaust!! :shock:

Looks lovelly, what campsite did you stay in around Paris?

There is a campsite in Paris, well on the outskirts in Bois de Bolougne off the end of the Champs Elysee with bus/metro service into Paris. Everything you want there but no grass (or much privacy) but it served its purpose!

Cheers Micko for the offer, I will certainly bear it in mind when we are on our way back.

Will post some more pics soon.

 

[olance]

Another intrepid euro trecker - keep on keeping on dudes!

 

[Benyon]

Well, photo`s will now be limited... We got broken into yesterday - locks forced with screwdriver and our homemade safe forced and our camera was stolen along with over 600 of our photos :x absolutely gutted. I have a few limited photos on my phone but obv crap in comparison.

We had toured the south coast of Spain and were just approaching the border to France so had been to windy Tarifa, Gibraltar, Valencia, Barcelona and lots of smaller places in between and at the moment we're in Perpignon about to drop in on family friends in Carcassonne where we have ordered new locks to be delivered from Serial Kombi - thanx Trikky2 and others. From here we are heading to Venice to meet Nic's parents then exploring the rest of Italy before heading to Greece to a butchers in Thassos and to the pelloponese area - cheers for the recommendations!

Will update soon, hopefully with some photo's, even if they aren't quite as good as the others!

 

[mattd1984]

Well, photo`s will now be limited... We got broken into yesterday - locks forced with screwdriver and our homemade safe forced and our camera was stolen along with over 600 of our photos :x absolutely gutted. I have a few limited photos on my phone but obv crap in comparison.

We had toured the south coast of Spain and were just approaching the border to France so had been to windy Tarifa, Gibraltar, Valencia, Barcelona and lots of smaller places in between and at the moment we're in Perpignon about to drop in on family friends in Carcassonne where we have ordered new locks to be delivered from Serial Kombi - thanx Trikky2 and others. From here we are heading to Venice to meet Nic's parents then exploring the rest of Italy before heading to Greece to a butchers in Thassos and to the pelloponese area - cheers for the recommendations!

Will update soon, hopefully with some photo's, even if they aren't quite as good as the others!

Thats really bad news......how did it happen? Where was the van at the time?

 

[baron]

well, i was going to post that you guys look like the cats who got the cream, but i imagine the break in has put a bit of a dampener on those smiles though, really sorry to hear about that. it's my permanent worry when away in the van, they are so insecure and it's obvious they will be full of all manner of goodies :?

still, it's times like this when sharing pics with the folk back home via the web comes into it's own and really pays off

keep on truckin, and I'll be showing the missus your pics to persuade her we really do need to try again at that european tour :lol:

 

[Benyon]

Photos are proving to be a pain to upload, either slow computers that take ages, or firewalls preventing uploading/downloading.

Since our last update so much has happened.

Left France and did a tour of Spain, starting in San Sebastian and Santander befor visiting Pamplona for the running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival - a very drunk time! While in North Spain we went to Picos de Europa which is a gorgeous area and highly recommended, at the time the highest we drove at 1600 odd metres. From there we headed south stopping in Madrid with 40* temperatures, Cordoba, Toledo, Seville and Cadiz before reaching Tarifa (most southerly point of mainland Europe). From here driving through all the Costas wasnt something we were looking forward to as other the Valencia and Barcelona we didnt want to see anything. We did drive over the top of the Sierra Nevada mountains (our new highest peak at 2000 metres) but on a hot day so we stopped 3 times when the temperature guage reached 120* on the way up. Then in the north east corner of spain we got broekn into when the locks were forced then the safe was forced, obvoiusly someone was watching us putting our camera away - in retrospect we shouldnt have been in the safe in view of everyone!?

Back over into France and we went to Carcassonne where we stayed at a friends Gite for a couple of days while we waited for new locks to arrive, we visted Rennes le Chateux which has something to do with the Da Vinci Code (the church and priest behind the story I think). Across the south of France we blew a fuse which cut the headlights and engine going uphill in the dark with a car right behind us we still havent fixed this, we just dont drive at night anymore, the headlamps have been rewired at some point I would guess and both have been put on the same fuse. Shortly after leaving Montpellier the oil light came on so on checking we were a little low, the overheating had thinned the oil enough for excessive amounts to leak I guess, however since then the oil light has stopped working - I guess it might be the pressure switch (is there anyway to identify this?).

The rest of the south of France was a bit of a blurr as we were on a deadline to get to Venice to meet Nics parents, but Monaco was fun, we drove the grand prix circuit and parked up for a photo in front of the casino next to the Ferraris, Bentleys etc.

Immediately on entering Italy we were suprised at how mountainous it was which slowed progress a lot. We had been avoiding toll motorways as we are too slow to take full advantage and you dont see as much, but to speed up our path through the mountains we took a journey which cost E4.40 We camped near Venice for a few nights near Nics parents and took a day trip into Venice which was nice and didnt smell, tho we had driven thru a rain storm the previous evening so maybe the streets had been washed clean!?

From Venice we headed back across northern Italy and did a tour of the lakes, Garda, DIseo & Como and camped a night at each, at Garda we watched a busker get arrested, not really sure why but he got upset when they tried to confiscate his guitar so they bundle him into the back of a car and took him away! As we were leaving Como we tried to climb a hill to look over the lake near Bellagio (a gorgeous place and well worth a visit if your ever at Como) when the engine started struggling and lost power. With no spark plugs with us and no extension bar to reach round the carbs for the rear plugs we had to resort to calling for rescue. A tow truck took us in search of a VW garage but with no Italian in our vocabulary and no English spoken by the driver we couldnt get accross that any garage would do. We were put up in a hotel for the night by the RAC ;D as a garage couldnt be found until the following day, but after a change of spark plugs and 50 euros we were on our way.

Since then we have been through Milan, Parma, Pisa, Florence and Siena and now we are in Rome. Pisa is nothing but the tower so that visit was brief. Florence is very nice and would happily go there again and we were in Siena for the Palio which is a medieval tradition where the whole city dresses in their district colours and the festival climaxs with a horse race around the citys main square (not much bigger than a football pitch) then the winning district celebrates into the night.

From here we are heading to Naples, the Amalfi coast and Sicily where we are meeting my sister before we head over to Greece.

A poor selection of pictures but hopefully I will eventually find somewhere that I can upload them!

 

[easy]

That is one epic journey dood! good health and good luck for the rest of the trip 8)

 

[Haveacamper]

This brings back many memories of my trip around france and northern italy. I didnt have time to go as far south as you are managing. Looks like you are having an amazing time.

i'm looking forward to doing one of these epic journeys again soon, and possibly including some of the scandenavia.

good luck with the jouney mate and keep those pictures coming. it inspires me to get mine finished so i can enjoy it as much as you two are.

NaFe

 

[Benyon]

That is one epic journey dood! good health and good luck for the rest of the trip 8)

Cheers big man, we are now over the electrical issue that was preventing us from using our lights so now we can drive when its cooler instead of when its lighter

This brings back many memories of my trip around france and northern italy. I didnt have time to go as far south as you are managing. Looks like you are having an amazing time.
i'm looking forward to doing one of these epic journeys again soon, and possibly including some of the scandenavia.
good luck with the jouney mate and keep those pictures coming. it inspires me to get mine finished so i can enjoy it as much as you two are.
NaFe

Cheers fella

I kinda keep remembering your current position after your Euro trip and reminding myself that just cos things are going well at the minute there maybe nightmares yet to be discovered :shock:
I was hoping to start with Scandinavia but I could find any ferrys direct to Norway so knocked that idea on the head, would love to make the trip sometime tho...

Hope your van is comeing on well, I dont get time to keep up with others threads but will make for good reading when I get back with no job (before I maybe, perhaps, possibly in the pipeline head to Australia, far east & south America...)

Photos uploading as I write, will stick some up when there are a few there...

 

[Hilly_70]

Good to hear from you Andy .. Pants to hear about the break in ..

Im sure it will just become part of the story tho when you tell it your grandkids!

Looks an awesome trip .. enjoy the rest of it mate..

Hilly

 

[Benyon]

Well with some more pics uploaded, still loads to do, I'll share a few of em:

This was taken just before the lights went out driving from Caecassone to Marseille, a lovely seafood dinner cooked at thwe side of the road - the first time I've had snails...:

We didn't stay in Marseille for more than an afternoon but this foutain is at the end of an aquaduct, I forget what its called but it was an impressive building:

St Tropez was very busy and all the beaches are surrounded by private members car parks so we could get on one so just took pictures overlooking them:

Monaco was great, and I couldn't believe you could drive the route of the circuit unobsructed, well other than pedestrians and other road users:

and I'm pleased to say people turned and took our picture when we drove past these cars!!

Venice was nice to visit for the day and luckily there had been a downpour the previous day so the infamous 'stink of Venice' had been washed away:

The Amalfi coast, there's an EB on there somewhere:

Our campspot the morning we broke down, well needed to change sparkplugs anyway:

Luckily the garage at Lake Como didn't have bad surroundings:

The Amalfi coast, there's an EB on there somewhere:

Some pictures of the Palio in Siena, make of it what you will:

Went through Rome but you know what the Colloseum looks like, Pompeii tho was amazing, not brilliant pictures but an idea:

Naples was strange and not somewhere I'd want to go back even tho we only drove through but it wasn't hard to find picturesque setting for the night:

Got the ferry to Sicily to meet my sister and the 20 minute journey was a bit steep at 50Euros return. We had driven up Vesuvious (spelling not with me today) and then walked to the top, but was dissappointed that it didn't seem like a volcano, but went up Etna on Sicily and was please to find the lava fields from 2002:

The ferry to Greece was quite empty, but there were a great deal of Bulgarians in Transits that looked likew they had collapsed rear suspension. We camper on deck and even had our own balcony complete with bench:

Well I changed memory cards in Greece and have been to the Peloponnese - Thanks Micko, a thoroughly great recommendation and not what we expected but beautiful with such different landscapes in a small area of land. Have driven up through Athens and Delfi, through Thessoloniki to Halkidiki and are now looking at going to Thassos to say hi to Robins's sister than will be in Turkey by the end of the week. Unfortunately the weather changed last week and its now only mid 20's so jumpers have come out :shock: