To Cardiff through the Shropshire Countryside

Thursday 22nd August

Today turned out pretty much as it was planned to do surprisingly, I must be getting better at it ?

We took the scenic route south through Shropshire, leaving all the M6 motorway madness to others in more of a rush than we are.

Shrewsbury, Church Stretton then Ludlow for lunch and a walk around the pretty market town.

Up to the castle we went, but we didn't go in. It seemed a bit expensive for what looked like a small castle, so we just peered through the fence and kept hold of our cash to spend somewhere else.

Next stop was Tintern, situated on the river Wye in Monmouthshire. 

This area was famous in the past for brass and iron smelting using the coal and iron ore which was mined locally during the nineteenth centuary and the whole area was quite industrialised.

It`s other claim to fame is Tintern Abbey, now a popular tourist attraction.

Whatsmore, it shares a carpark with the Anchor pub and motorhome overnight parking is permitted, I can even redeem the £3 parking fee at the bar, so a free beer for me tonight.

It is a lovely spot on the river and I think it will be very peaceful tonight.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the Abbey lit up after dark.

We ate in the Anchor restaurant and it was ok, and we were able to redeem our £3 parking charge !

Ludlow Castle

Ludlow Castle

Ludlow Castle

Ludlow Town

Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey at dusk

Tintern Abbey at dusk

Ed parked in the shadow of Tintern Abbey 

Tintern Abbey

A weekend Bank Holiday trip - Have I gone crazy ?

Ed is well rested now from our trip to Croatia and has passed the MOT with no advisories, in fact the testers comment was "minter mate"

I think that's a good thing.

So I'm all sorted for another year of travels and adventures on the road.

We'd though about going to Cardiff earlier in the year but couldn't get on the campsite which is conveniently situated next to the castle.

So I contacted them a few weeks ago and booked two nights for this weekend without even realising it was a Bank Holiday - doh

Since then August seems to have been a complete washout with rain, floods and more rain with strong winds as well !

However, it looks like the weather god's are smiling on us. The rain had stopped, the sky cleared and temperatures are on the up, woopie :o)

It's still a bank holiday though so we might yet end up sitting in a traffic jam somewhere.

To try and avoid that we're leaving Thursday morning and will stop for lunch in Ludlow, the lovely little market town in Shropshire, and have a wander down the river.

Next scheduled stop will be Tintern Abbey on the river Wye in Monmouthshire.

Research tells me there is a large car park shared by the Abbey and the pub where they allow motorhome overnight parking for a fee of £3 redeemable at the bar. 

That'll be like having a free beer !! Winner.

Online Reviews state it's a lovely spot with views of the Abbey and the river to wake up to.

On Friday it'll be a shortish hop into Cardiff where I hope it'll stay dry and we can see the sights of the Welsh capital city.

That's all for now, I got some packing / loading to do !

Back Home !

We got back home on Tuesday and have had a few days to re-adjust again to house living before I have to go back to work next week, I'm sure that'll be a bit of a shock to the system !

We've had a great trip this year, 39 nights, 7 countries, and great weather all the way. Looking Back it seems like it was warm and sunny every day !

Last year we seemed to follow the rain, or maybe it was following us, I'm not sure. 
It wasn't constant of course, but we did seem to get some wet weather at some point wherever we went, whilst the UK enjoyed sunny skies.

This year was totally different, glorious sunny weather almost every day.

The only real storm we had was on the way back in Lake Orta where it did chuck it down and caught us out un-prepared.

We returned to Ed to find it a bit wet inside as I`d left the roof vents open.

It felt like quite a long drive to Vienna, but worth it, a great city and I'm glad we were able to spend a few days there seeing the wonderful Architecture and sights of the city.  

I loved the architecture, fountains and sculptures, having acquired a taste for the baroque over the years. 

Croatia was a main destination and I thoroughly enjoyed the warm clear waters of the Adriatic Sea, swimming and kayaking along those rocky coastal bays was fantastic.

Kayaking down the Mreznica Waterfalls was also an unforgettable  experience.

Zadar is a lovely city with lots of interesting sights.

I was a little disappointed in Pag and Vir, islands off the coast near Zadar. 

There was nothing wrong with them, I just expected there to be a bit more of interest than there was. 

Perhaps we went to the wrong bits or were just expecting too much.

But I suppose I can't expect to be blown away by everywhere we go.

The Italian lakes were a pleasure as usual, Garda, Como, Iseo are all wonderful destinations.

I particularly enjoyed the north end of Garda which is quite different to the southern end.
Maybe next time we`ll try the middle bit ?

Cannero on Lake Maggorie was a great resort where I felt comfortable and could easily have stayed there indefinitely.

One of the reasons I love traveling in the motorhome is finding hidden gems and Lake Orta is definitely one of those we found having not previously had it on the radar. 

A beautiful lake and town.

We had a brief excursion into the Dolomites in Italy and they were also very scenic and somewhere if love to return to explore more.

Ed performed brilliantly, never missed a beat despite abuse from the Croatian tipper truck taking of the mirror and smashing it to pieces.

Last year a bulb blew, this year nothing, not even a fuse or bulb went wrong.

Very pleased with trouble free motoring.

We covered 3,644 miles and used 605 litres of diesel, so mpg worked out at 27.3 miles per gallon which is actually a little better than last year, I`m not sure why.

The only difference is I took the bike rack off this year, but I'd be surprised if that would account for it.

And what did it all cost ?  £63.79 per night all in.

That’s a little up on last year but accounted for I think in the Channel Tunnel costs being spread over fewer nights away.

Still great value for money in my opinion for the experience we had and the memories that will stay with me forever.

Here are a few pics.................

Mittenwald Bavaria Germany

Linderhof Palace Bavaria Germany (pity about the crane)

Vienna Austria

Vienna Austria

Vienna Austria

Kayaking on the Mreznica River Croatia

Kayaking on the Mreznica River Croatia

Beautiful village of Rastoke on the Mreznica River Croatia

Sunset in Starigrad Croatia

Kayaking in Starigrad Croatia

Our perfect beach pitch in Starigrad Croatia

Pag town Croatia

Zadar Croatia

Motovun Italy

Bellagio Lake Come Italy

Cannero Lake Maggorie Italy

Orta San Guilio Lake Orta Italy

Lucerne Switzerland

Eguisheim France

Thanks for reading !

Le Quesnoy to Calais and onward to home

Le Quesnoy to Calais

Monday 8th July

All change for today ............

After waking up to 13c this morning I realised we were no longer going to get 26c to wake up to, so the heating promptly got turned on for the first time !

Next, Sue didn't want to go to Bruges, so there was no point going there just for Louis vet check.

Google maps is excellent for finding services wherever you are, and a quick search last night revealed there to be a vets about a quarter of a mile from where we parked last night in the village of Le Quesnoy.

They opened at 8.30 this morning so I took a chance and was on the doorstep at opening time.

The vet didn't have a great mastery of the English language, but we managed to communicate sufficiently for her to understand I needed a check up for Louis, the worming tablet administered and the all important stamp in the pet passport for pet control at the terminal.

All done for a very reasonable 20 euro, which is what I paid last year in Bruges.

It seems the cost rises the closer to Calais you are, and I've heard of vets asking for 50 euro !

With that job done we headed for towards Calais but needed something to occupy us today, so we took a short detour into Lille for a look around.

I managed to park quite close to the centre and we took a wander.

Unfortunately, I'd done zero research, so had no idea what to expect or where to go, or the sights to look out for.

Lille is a medium sized city, big enough to be very busy but fairly manageable in terms of finding your way around.

We walked around the shopping areas then headed towards the river where it looked like there was a citadel on an island in the river which sounded interesting.

Unfortunately we never really found it, I'd expected a building on a hill occupying a dominant position, what we saw of the island was very flat and could see only the zoo.

I therefore presumed the citadel had gone, wrong again. It is there and quite a notable one apparently. But we managed to overlook it.

I must remember not to visit somewhere without doing research, my excuse is it was an impromptu visit !

Ah well, we enjoyed a couple of hours there and then we moved on towards Calais.

We're now parked at Cite Europe which is a large shopping complex next to the channel tunnel terminal and the local police station.

It's regarded as pretty safe to stay overnight as the police have the area covered with CCTV and patrol the area from time to time.

There are plenty of other British motorhomes here due to its convenience for the tunnel and it's free parking.

I've brought forward our crossing to tomorrow as we didn't fancy trying to find something to occupy us for another day, we'd prefer to get home now and get back to normal living again.

We've had a great trip, seen some fantastic places and sights, enjoyed beautiful weather, but I can't deny were looking forward getting home.

It`s true what they say, there`s no place like home !

I'll do a proper summary of the trip in a few days when I've got sorted out.

Thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed our travels as much as we have.

Here are some photographs of Lille

Thionville to Le Quesnoy

Sunday 7th July

We did rather more driving today than I originally planned to do.

Firstly Sue decided she needed electric hook up for the hair dryer, it's much too powerful for my batteries and would drain them in a few minutes.

So the stop I'd planned went out of the window.

I found another decent sounding stop at a Marina in Hautmont but when we arrived the whole place had been taken over by some petrol heads having a play with their cars.

So that was out too.

We also had trouble finding both of these sites, the GPS co-ordinates I had off the Camper Contact website were both incorrect. That`s the first time I can think of that`s happened, and then it happens twice on the same day !

Next we moved to Le Quesnoy about half an hour away.

It a really interesting little town with large fortifications and moats, a large lake and there seems to be lots going on in town today. 

I'll did some research on the town history and it`s long and varied and a bit heavy going to read when on holiday so I didn`t bother.

Surfice to say it`s a nice little town. 

There is a park adjoining the ramparts and there is a petting zoo with donkeys, goats, chickens and geese.

What`s more there is a vet in town so I`m going to contact them in the morning and see if we can get Louis check done there instead of going up to Bruges.

Le Quesnoy Lake

Le Quesnoy town ramparts

Le Quesnoy town ramparts

Le Quesnoy town ramparts

Le Quesnoy town ramparts

Le Quesnoy town 

Le Quesnoy town ramparts

Le Quesnoy town ramparts and gardens

Le Quesnoy town ramparts petting zoo

Le Quesnoy town ramparts petting zoo

Everyone loves a donkey picture !

Our route to Le Quesnoy

Eguisheim to Thionville

Saturday 6th July

Apologies for spelling Eguisheim about six different ways, Eguisheim is the correct way. I blame the Pinot Noir !

We`ve not got a great deal to report for today, it was an uneventful drive from Eguisheim to Thionville.

I recovered from yesterdays lunchtime tipple with no ill effects.

We are camped on a municipal site next to the town park and fronting onto the River Moselle.

The town is unremarkable really, quite nice in parts but nothing out of the ordinary. There was a rock band playing in the main square this afternoon to entertain the shoppers, or send them scurrying to the side streets with hands over ears, depending upon their age group.

It was loud.

I`ve just taken Louis for a walk along the river, it`s not the most picturesque stretch of the Moselle, but they have made an effort by setting up some temporary (for the summer I think) bars, restaurants, childrens entertainment, market stalls that kind of thing, so it makes quite a nice walk.

Tomorrow we`ll take another step north towards Calais.

We`re going to get Louis Vet check for the Pet Passport scheme done in Bruges on Monday so we`ll probably have a night there before reaching Calais on Tuesday for the Tunnel early Wednesday.

Sue is struggling with a rash on her arms and hands, it might be sun / heat related, we`re not sure. The Pharmisist `s English wasn`t that good.

It`s still very warm here, probably 32/33 c this afternoon. My phone said 30c but I think it was more when in the sun.

I`m sure as we get closer to home it`ll get cooler.

Thionville Town

Thionville Town

Thionville Town Park

River Moselle at Thionville 

River Moselle at Thionville 

Moselle River barge

Our route to Thionville