Trip of a life time
My wife and I have been touring using hotels & B&B's for years, driving all over the UK and Europe, as far as the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Germany and beyond, but this has become an increasingly expensive way to see the world. So now I have retired we looked at the possibility of buying a caravan and went to the Caravan & Camping exhibition at the NEC three years ago and by some slight of hand we came away with an order for a brand new Bailey Orion caravan, which we took delivery of in November 2011 after a few winter and spring outings we did a tour of the northern half of the UK for 4 weeks and were delighted and started planning for the rest of the year and a big tour of Europe the following year (2013).
Now totally hooked we decided the Orion didn't give us the comfort we would like so after seeing a Bailey Olympus 460-2 being offered at a huge discount at one of our local dealers we decided to part exchange and we are really pleased with the outfit. I was little concerned as we are now towing at 92% unless we change the car, but as it turns out the car is performing well above expectation.
The first trip was to Montreuil in northern France, a town we have visited many time before just to check out the procedures when towing, needn’t have worried, virtually the same as if one was just taking the car.
After a number of trips in the UK we started to plan a trip in Europe based on the same format we used on our pre caravan days. That is three or four long stop overs (up to a week) interspersed with one or two night stop-overs trying not to be driving for longer than 3 to 4 hours between stop-overs.
So on Monday 10th June we set off for Dover to catch the 1255 hrs ferry to Calais where we found a small site in Belgium for the first night, after setting up and a walk around the village, out came the ready meal and a beer a dose of UK TV and bed. Next morning after packing up we set off for Dortmund (German Autobahns can be a bit daunting during the week) and an other one nighter. I would say at this stage we had not booked any of the short stop-over sites, although we had taken the precaution of buying a Caravan Club version of the Snooper Sat Nav and this was invaluable throughout the trip. We had also worked on a short stop-over set up and long stop-over set up which speeds things up for the one nighters.
Arrived at a site on the out-skirts of Dortmund next to a restaurant in a quite location and the deal was, have a meal (which was very reasonably priced) in the restaurant and your pitch is at half price (6 Euro) and this included elec hook up. After packing up we made our way to Nienberg near Magdeborg (East Germany) to see friends. Unfortunately the site we were going to stay at was 2 meters under water, so we stayed in a neighbours garden for three nights this cost the princely sum of a case of beer.
Now we are heading for the Alps, a bit of long run so an overnight near Nuremberg, this was in the car park of a country hotel and was free if we had a meal at the hotel, this was a secure area opposite the hotel and included elec and water hook up. Up early the next morning and we are soon under way to Austria to what turned out to be one of the best sites we had to so far. For those who find them selves in the Innsbruck area it's called Camping Judenstein, Rinn. We stayed here for a week and walked in the mountains, walked round Innsbruck and had really smashing time, would certainly go back.
The next leg of the journey did worry me as we had to go through the Brenner pass into Italy, needn't have stressed it was no worse than the northern end of the M6. The only thing one must do is to ensure you have bought a Vignette (10 days worth) to use the Motorways in Austria. These are purchased at the first service station one comes to on crossing the border into to Austria. There is an additional toll to use the Brenner pass and some of the very long tunnels in Austria. Note there are no tolls to pay in Germany, but the tolls in Italy are very expensive.
Our site in Italy was on the banks of lake Garda in an olive grove, except for a bit of road noise this was lovely spot and we were able to visit Verona and Venice and enjoy the lake in the warm Italian sum. The week passed very quickly and it was soon time to move on. Our next main destination was the Black Forest and this would require a couple of one nighters to reduce the driving time to acceptable levels, therefore we decided to return to the site in Austria for one night and then on to Lake Constance, avoiding going through Switzerland. The reason for avoiding Switzerland is that to use there motorways you have to purchase a Vignette and the minimum period is 12 months at a cost of 33 Euro so unless you are going to do a lot travelling in Switzerland its poor value for money.
Finally arrive in the Black Forest, again a lovely rural spot and much site seeing, worth paying extra tourist tax here as you get unlimited local transport including the trains anywhere in the Black Forest region.
After a relaxing 5 days we start to make for home via Strasbourg and a one nighter near Rheims which turned out be interesting. It was getting to about 2pm and we were using the Snooper to look for a site on a farm and we arrived at what we thought was the site and knocked on the farm house door and a very friendly as it turned out, retired farmer came to door and assured us it was fine for us to stay on his farm for the night, he even arranged for water and electricity to be laid on, he then offered to provide us with dinner and breakfast which we declined as we had our own provisions. After our evening meal we were invited to look round their garden and orchard and it was then we discovered this wasn't a site at all, the site was actually a couple of km down the road. Unfriendly French I don’t think so and we had to force him to take 5 Euros for the electricity and water.
The last leg was to Calais and arriving home on Saturday 13th July. A trip of a life time, not bad for a novice caravanning couple and the cost was at least a third of what a hotel / B&B based tour would have been.
Now starting to plan next years trip to Spain and France.