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European Van Tour
  • Andy Powell
  • Sara Hunt
  • Andy Powell
  • Sara Hunt

European Van Tour

Our first 2-month trip to Europe in the van. We are planning to visit France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and maybe a few other countries. Crossing to Cherbourg on April 29 2024. Read more
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  • European Van Tour

    Lago delle Fate

    June 15, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Woke up to rain, more rain, then a few small breaks in the cloud, then more rain. That’s been the story of the day really.

    I bumped into a woman called Rachel (originally from Crickhowell) who was running a Saturday morning yoga session in the bar at the campsite. She invited us to her 5pm session on the basis that she didn’t think anyone else would turn up but in the end she had 3 paying customers so we stayed away. She said that we have been really unlucky with the weather and that, generally, this has been the worst/wettest/windiest start to the summer that she can remember (and she has lived here since she was 18).

    Anyway, she suggested that we walk up to a nearby lake for lunch which turned out to be a really good tip. An easy walk in the dry and a lovely meal of salami and cheese followed by local filled pasta for me and gnocchi with cheese and bacon for Sara. All washed down with half a litre of white wine (which, as nearly always is the case around here, was slightly fizzy).

    The only downside was that it rained all the way home so we got soaked. Spent the afternoon in the van trying to dry out.

    Then a small (very small) bbq for tea - our first bbq of the trip funnily enough. Most places in France and Spain have banned them as far as we can tell. Italy seems less worried about them. Mind you, it has been so wet recently, I don’t think there is much danger of setting fire to anything.

    The weather forecast promised us that it would start to clear from about 9pm and, to be fair, it looks like it is. Fingers crossed.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Monte Rosa massif

    June 16, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Highest point in Italy.

    Finally woke up to some sun this morning after two days of cloudy wet weather. It was worth waiting for.

    We took the chairlift (my first time) up to the glacier that flows down from Monte Rosa (about 1900m), then walked across it for the views, then back down to the car. It’s Sunday so there were lots of people walking up. Beautiful views all the way.

    I was naively expecting ice and snow on the glacier (the woman in the tourism office had suggested that we needed crampons - at least, that’s what we thought she said!) but the snow line was still well above us. We were basically just walking across the rocky moraine below the glacier proper.

    Now heading for Switzerland.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Camping Santa Monica

    June 16, 2024 in Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    We are at Camping Santa Monica in southern Switzerland. The drive here was amazing, probably our most scenic yet, up and across the Simplon Pass and over the Ganterbrücke bridge. Some lovely views of the Alps.

    Here for one night we think, then heading north thru Switzerland.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Frutigen

    June 17, 2024 in Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    We’re at Camping Grassi in Frutigen. Lovely little campsite with glorious views and walking distance from Frutigen town centre, currently having a beer at the outside bar opposite the Hotel Simplon. Surrounded by mountains.

    Paying the local tourist tax gives us free access on public transport (including cable cars/chair lifts) so just trying to work out how to use it tomorrow. Think we’ll stay here at least two nights.

    I know I said that yesterday’s drive was amazing but I think today’s might have been even better…. certainly more unusual.

    We tend to follow Google maps (which I have to say, has been a bit hit and miss, especially in Italy). Anyway, we stopped for a short walk this morning, and when we got back in the van, Google said it was altering the route because of a road closure.

    We followed the new route around multiple hairpins up into the mountains and then took a sharp left onto what we thought was a toll road. The toll was 27 Swiss Franks which is much more than we have been paying but there wasn’t much else we could do so we paid it. Then we followed the car in front, thinking we’d be driving thru a tunnel, but ended up driving onto a train - literally onto a train! Weird. Then we had to sit for about 10 or 15 minutes as the train took us thru a completely dark tunnel - probably about the distance from Chippenham to Bath Spa. Turns out we were on the Lötschberg Car Train. Amazing.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Breakfast

    June 18, 2024 in Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Oats, water, soya milk, seeds, peanut butter, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, and banana. Coffee.

    Pretty much every day of the trip.

    Sara has an apricot instead of banana and cherries. And she has tea rather than coffee.Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Niesen

    June 18, 2024 in Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    What a great day. We used our free train tickets to get to Mülenen, then caught the Niesenbahn funicular railway up to the top of Niesen, at 2362m.

    The funicular runs for 3.5km and has a maximum gradient of 68% which feels incredibly steep. It gets to a height of 2336m so we had to walk the last bit to the top of the mountain. There is a restaurant up there but it was very busy and we had already bought sandwiches.

    The views of the Alps from the top are amazing, especially on a completely clear day like today.

    There was some snow on the slopes below the peak but not very much. The paths are well maintained and well signed.

    The walk down was 7.5 miles and took us about 4 and a quarter hours - the sign at the top said 4 hours but we had lunch on the way! The drop was about 5250ft. Our legs were just about knackered by the time we got to the bottom, i.e. to a bar in Frutigen. We definitely needed a beer… but we decided to stay for schnitzel and fries instead of cooking back at the van. Weirdly, the schnitzel came with sprouts, carrots and braised red cabbage (in addition to the fries) which seemed a bit odd but was very nice nonetheless.

    Think we might have a slightly more relaxed day tomorrow.

    [Btw… the service stairs for the Niesenbahn funicular are listed by Guinness Book of Records as the world’s longest stairway, with 11,674 steps and a height of 1,669 m (5,476 ft). The stairs are usually employee-only, but there is a public run called "Niesenlauf" once a year. Run!! Can you imagine??!!]    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Hängebrücke Hohstalden

    June 19, 2024 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    A quiet day today. Both of us have got quite stiff legs.

    We borrowed a couple of the free campsite bikes this morning and popped down to the local Coop to buy something for lunch and dinner.

    After lunch we caught the bus a couple of miles up the valley to cross (and the re-cross) the Hostalde Suspension Bridge, a 155m long and 37m high footbridge across the Engstlige river. We then walked back along the river.

    The bridge is quite bouncy!

    Big storm this evening but it cleared up quite quickly. Weather is turning though. ☹️. Moving on to France tomorrow.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Masevaux

    June 20, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    We are at Camping de Masevaux (aka Camping Les Rives Doller) in Masevaux in the Alsace.

    Not much more to say really. Sara had a sleep this afternoon and I cooked tea and then watched a terrible quality England football game on a terrible quality BBC iPlayer feed.

    Then we walked around the town to find it completely dead. The liveliest thing was probably the slightly scary carved figures in the town centre.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Sparrows and storks

    June 21, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We’ve driven a short distance up the road to Turckheim, near Colmar. In doing so, we crossed the 4000 mile mark in terms of distance driven this trip. We are at Camping Medieval tonight (and we have booked one night at Hotel des Deux Clefs for tomorrow). Looks like there is a music festival in Turckheim tomorrow so it may be heaving - we haven’t managed to book a restaurant yet!

    The weather forecast for today and tomorrow has been pretty bad but, actually, today was ok apart from one brief spell of rain this afternoon (and a bit more now this evening).

    We caught the bus into Colmar this afternoon. Nice looking place.

    I got my haircut, though my attempt at “numero quatre on top” went a bit wonky and it is a lot shorter than I expected 😊. Never mind.

    Storks feature heavily around here and there are a lot circling the campsite and landing on people’s pitches (though not ours so far). The only other birds we have seen on this campsite so far is sparrows - lots of them,    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Hotel des Deux Clefs, Turckheim

    June 22, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We’ve moved from campsite to hotel.

    Pretty wet morning so we packed up, moved the van., went for a coffee, then mooched around the town for a while until we could check in.

    This afternoon we went for a walk - the weather had brightened up a bit. About 10k thru woodland to a chapel, then back across vineyards.

    This evening there was a music festival in the town. After a meal in one of the town restaurants, we spent the rest of the evening drinking local wine and listening to the local brass band. Absolutely fantastic.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Camping Le Lac d'Orient

    June 23, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    We’re at Camping Le Lac d'Orient, near, well… near nowhere really. We are sort of half way between Dijon (where the mustard comes from) and Paris (where the Hilton comes from).

    We got up late, had breakfast at the hotel, checked out and have been driving for most of the day. I think we’ll use toll roads tomorrow because, otherwise, getting anywhere takes ages.Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Loire valley

    June 24, 2024 in France ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We are at Camping Isle Verte on the Loire in Montsoreau, just up river from Saumur. We came camping near here with the kids a long time ago but can’t remember exactly where.

    This campsite and the last one have both been full of Brits. Don’t want to be too snobbish about it, but we prefer our campsites to be mainly Dutch and German! We have seen very few British people on the rest of the trip.

    Another longish drive to get here, mainly on toll roads. Lunch was at a rather delightful aire next to the gare de peage.

    Hottest day of the trip so far we think - certainly feels like it. Luckily, the campsite has a very nice pool.

    We walked to the nearest bar this evening and Sara sat in front of the biggest dog we have ever seen (an Irish Wolfhound apparently).    Read more

  • European Van Tour
    2

    Manoir de Ker An Poul

    June 25, 2024 in France ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We breakfasted with a baby Robin this morning!

    We’re now in Brittany at Camping Eden Villages Manoir de Ker An Poul, near Sarzeau. We’ve booked here for two nights so we can do a walk along the coast path tomorrow and, maybe hire bikes as well. That said, the campsite has a great pool and isn’t very busy so we may just have lazy afternoon instead.

    We had a shorter drive today but we came via Pontchâteau and a little campsite called Camping du Bois Beaumard, better known to our kids as “granny camp” - we camped here in around 2000, when they were quite young, and when all the other campers seemed very old. Truth is, they were probably our age now :-(

    It was one of the nicest campsites we have ever stayed at and has really good memories, hence wanting to go back. We had a quick walk around and found the pitch we stayed on. It’s still a lovely site but a bit in the middle of nowhere so we decided to move on. We don’t have many nights left now and we want to see a bit more of Brittany.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Plage de Landrezac

    June 26, 2024 in France ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Nice walk this morning, along to Landrezac, then back along the beach and around the headland at Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Côte. We meant to walk further but it was well hot.

    It was a a bit hazy out to sea but we could just about see Belle Ile from the beach.

    Spent the afternoon at the pool.

    Galettes and crepes for tea, at a local restaurant. Well nice.

    We spent yesterday evening in the bar at the campsite watching the England game, which was awful. We were the only English people in the bar (there aren’t many English people on the campsite)… actually, for much of the game we were the only people in the bar apart from the staff and their family/ies.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Camping Pen Palud

    June 27, 2024 in France ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We drove to Saint-Pierre-Quiberon this morning, on the Quiberon peninsula in the south of Brittany. A lovely little village where I did my French exchange prior to taking O levels. I spent 3 weeks here when I was 15 (I.e. in 1975) and although it wasn’t a perfect trip, mostly my memories are of sun, sea and playing on the beach.

    The house I stayed at is still there - pretty much unchanged on the beach side, but the long front garden has been split up and re-developed. It’s a lovely place which, I assume, must now be worth a fortune.

    For some reason, probably because it was my first time away from home for any length of time I guess, those 3 weeks seem much more significant in my memory than they probably deserve.

    We had lunch on the beach at Plage de Kerguelen, then we drove here to Camping Pen Palud. After a walk around the coast (which included some lovely little beaches) followed by tea, we spent the evening sitting on the beach in the dying sunlight.

    Overall, a really good day.

    Moving on tomorrow but still not sure where to.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Roscoff

    June 29, 2024 in France ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We walked along the coast to Roscoff today, not exactly the most exciting of walks but not bad. Had a lovely lunch while we were there. Then another afternoon by the pool.

    Moving on to St Malo tomorrow for our last two nights.Read more

  • European Van Tour

    St Malo old town

    July 1, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We spent our final full day exploring the old town of St Malo including a full tour of the walls, lunch on the beach, a quick visit to the cathedral, and an exhibition of photos by Lee Miller.

    The latter was interesting, partly for the photos but also for the potted history of the liberation of St Malo from the Germans towards the end of WWII. Miller was with the American troops as the battle unfolded.

    We learned that the fortress at La Cité d'Alet, where the campsite we are on now is, was bombed using napalm (at that time a top secret weapon that was only used rarely). I didn’t realise that napalm even existed back then.

    Final meal out in the evening on Quai Solidor, just down the hill from the campsite.    Read more

  • European Van Tour

    Home

    July 2, 2024 in England ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    We’re back in the UK, at home in Bath.

    Trip over.

    We left the campsite at St Malo at about 10.30, had lunch on a beach near to Cherbourg. Then a really smooth crossing and a drive back to Bath from Portsmouth.

    We’re both a bit sad to be home tbh.    Read more

    Trip end
    July 2, 2024
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