Club Motorhome Bloggers

We left the Balaton Lake area and travelled on towards Budapest. On the way we stopped at a town called Tapolca, where there is a lake in the caves underneath the town. [This is a limestone area, like much of Hungary seems to be; are an abundance of caves and, most of all, hot springs – this really does seem to be the spa capital of Europe.] We visited the caves, where you paddle your own canoe – well, flat-bottomed metal boat, (made of metal so it doesn't fall apart when you hit the sides of the cave – as you do!).

This was a very pleasant town and a lovely way to spend an hour paddling under the town.

We also stopped off at a town with a beautiful 'altstadt' (the German word seems, uncharacteristically, much more succinct than 'historic-town-centre' in English).

Maribor in Slovenia has a lovely 'old town' which is also the thriving centre of the modern town

Like many towns abroad it still has its C&A. I wonder – if they had held on in UK a little longer, would they have successfully filled the gap nowtaken by Primark and the like? It seems strange that they can trade successfully in so many other countries but couldn't succeed in the UK.

E got to Venice and spent a good 5 days 'doing the place.  I'm not putting any pictures on of Venice as you've seen all the photos and the Cannelletos, so what would my photos add.  We spent a day in Padua, then on to Trieste, this time staying opposite te yacht harbour, not under the viaduct with he rattling expansion plate as last time we went there.  We are now in Maribor, parked at a small restaurant by the river, having partaken of their excellent, and excellent value food earlier in the evening.  We have avoided the tolls, so no costs there, but when we get to Hungary I think it will be different!

This is Merano, the area of Venice where they make glass and have been doing so for hundreds of years

The Gorge de Verdon in Provence, France.  It's deep, long and wide - photos (mine anyway!) don't do it justice!

We stopped in Gent (Belgium) where we ordered an avocado sandwich; egg and bacon were mentioned in the small print.  We also had hot chocolate (what else when in Belgium?), which turned out to be a diy affair - hot milk, chocolate buttons and a pot of cream were provided - the resulting mixture was delicious!

In Nancy we saw several young people in the park in fancy dress.  In the centre, at Place Stanislas there were a lot more!

We cycled round Lake Annecy - a great place to be on a warm sunny day

Just a quick update.  We left Dover on Sunday afternoon and have travelled down through eastern France (and Belgium), visiting (notably) Ghent and Nancy on the way.  Last night we spent on a very quiet ski-station high in the Alps at Les Rousses - just three motorhomes on a carpark about 100 meters square.  Tonight we are on an Aire by Lake Annecy with 7 others, with about 3 feet between each van!

The weather has been great especially since yesterday, with clear blue skies and temperatures up to 20 deg!  We have done a bit of biking today, now at a McD's where we are using their free wifi - and drinking their coffee (Slooooowly!)

No photos to post at the moment, as I haven't had time to sort any out, or time to post, as the light is now fading, and we have to get 'home' before dark!!1

Hope your days have been as good as ours

DENMARK

LPG

Only 6 lpg stations in the whole of Denmark. http://www.mylpg.eu/ has details of lpg stations throughout Europe

SERVICING

There are a number of servicing points on the motorways - listed in Nordic Camper Guide

The temperatures continued in the middle to high 30s while we were on the campsite, so we decided that it would be far too hot to think about visiting Berlin, as we had planned - it will always be there for another day.  So, after five nights at Cottbus we headed for the Baltic coast near just beyond Rostock.  We spend a few nights there, including some time lazing on the beach (unusual for us, but very enjoyable).  Then we woke up one morning to the coldest day we had experienced since we left the northernmost parts of Norway(!) - we had certainly got the cooler weather we were looking for!

We decided that, at 19 deg. we may as well move on; we didn't feel like 'doing' any more cities, so headed for Calais, ringing forward to book a ferry.  It's a good job we did, as the first price we were quoted was way high.  However, we were able to get a sensible price for Sunday morning.  We headed to Calais for Friday night, giving ourselves a day to do the 'necessary' shopping and enjoy a lazy French lunch before our return home.

So we arrived back early afternoon today (Sunday) having travelled through 12 countries and having covered 7559 miles.  All is well back at home, now all we have to do is the cleaning, washing, gardening etc!!