Post by artisans on Oct 14, 2017 19:29:41 GMT 2
This year’s autumn home run has been a bit more hectic than usual, but it all revolved around keeping our motorhome legal and up to par for our future journeys. Our return to the UK was leisurely by some people’s standards and we had two or three stopovers starting in Ravenna, in Italy, and followed by Freiburg in Germany and Heiderscheid in Luxembourg … our 2017 pass for Switzerland is getting well used this year. With a one-night stop at Lake Lugano en route, that took us about ten days. After that, it was a one-nighter at Bruges and a dash for the ferry to Dover.
I couldn’t resist the opportunity to revisit what must be one of the best UK farm shops at Faversham. Maknade Fine Foods has improved beyond all recognition and it is the only place in the UK that we have ever found all those foodie treats that we have discovered on our trips around Europe … they even have proper Greek yoghurt, full fat, properly strained and so delicious! We then headed off down a tediously slow M25 to stay a night at Dorney Reach before heading to Cardiff for a few nights. After that, it was into camper service mode in north Wales, and off to Scotland to see the rest of the family.
Our return trip needed a few finishing touches and we almost fell at the first hurdle, having to find an alternative campsite at the last minute. We headed off to Crimdon Dene for two nights in order to visit elderly relatives in Wingate & Peterlee, and then it was off to North Shields to catch the overnight ferry to Ijmuiden. We were hoping for a quick & easy run back to Luxembourg, but the ship limped over on one engine, we were 90 minutes late heading into Amsterdam, and the five-lane motorway to Utrecht was solid traffic.
A two-night stopover in Heiderscheid help us to catch up and a quick dash to Colmar for shopping was next in line. French supermarkets are so much better than those in the UK, so it was an essential detour as we wouldn’t have a lot of time to buy food on the rest of our trip. From their, it was back to a rural site near Freiburg for a night, before heading back into Switzerland near Basel en route to Lindau am See on Lake Konstanz.
We had expected to travel to Lindau through Germany, but it turned out that the most obvious route was further south, skimming Zurich before heading north east. It was a great journey until we were in sight of the lake near Bregenz, but local traffic slowed us down so much that it took almost an hour to cover the last 8 miles. That was a shame, as the weather was hot and the skies clear and our campsite near Lindau was right on the lake. What was left of the afternoon was a delight, with a group of some thirty people sipping beer or wine, while listening to an acoustic guitarist play all the oldies by the lakeside - idyllic!
While the UK prepares itself for Atlantic storms, central Europe is basking in temperatures of around 24C, and the newscasts are all talking of a mini-summer. That was certainly the case today, as we headed into Austria on our way to Innsbruck. We had bought our €10, ten-day vignette yesterday as we crossed from Switzerland into Austria and back into Germany, all in the space of ten miles - they all want a piece of the lake and I’m surprised that Liechtenstein didn’t muscle in on the deal as well! The journey to Innsbruck was such a treat, through St Anton along a route I took by train when I was 15 years old on my first school trip. The privilege of seeing all the spectacular autumn colours in picture perfect conditions was something we will always remember. The high, pine-clad limestone mountains, some still with snowy peaks, were stunningly beautiful against a cloudless blue sky. Our campsite at Natterer See, just 10km outside of Innsbruck, is probably the very best site we have ever stayed at - not just the setting, but quality and quantity of the amenities, some of which we have never encountered before.
Tomorrow, it’s due south into Italy in the hope that the fabulous weather continues … we can’t wait!
Steve & Jan
I couldn’t resist the opportunity to revisit what must be one of the best UK farm shops at Faversham. Maknade Fine Foods has improved beyond all recognition and it is the only place in the UK that we have ever found all those foodie treats that we have discovered on our trips around Europe … they even have proper Greek yoghurt, full fat, properly strained and so delicious! We then headed off down a tediously slow M25 to stay a night at Dorney Reach before heading to Cardiff for a few nights. After that, it was into camper service mode in north Wales, and off to Scotland to see the rest of the family.
Our return trip needed a few finishing touches and we almost fell at the first hurdle, having to find an alternative campsite at the last minute. We headed off to Crimdon Dene for two nights in order to visit elderly relatives in Wingate & Peterlee, and then it was off to North Shields to catch the overnight ferry to Ijmuiden. We were hoping for a quick & easy run back to Luxembourg, but the ship limped over on one engine, we were 90 minutes late heading into Amsterdam, and the five-lane motorway to Utrecht was solid traffic.
A two-night stopover in Heiderscheid help us to catch up and a quick dash to Colmar for shopping was next in line. French supermarkets are so much better than those in the UK, so it was an essential detour as we wouldn’t have a lot of time to buy food on the rest of our trip. From their, it was back to a rural site near Freiburg for a night, before heading back into Switzerland near Basel en route to Lindau am See on Lake Konstanz.
We had expected to travel to Lindau through Germany, but it turned out that the most obvious route was further south, skimming Zurich before heading north east. It was a great journey until we were in sight of the lake near Bregenz, but local traffic slowed us down so much that it took almost an hour to cover the last 8 miles. That was a shame, as the weather was hot and the skies clear and our campsite near Lindau was right on the lake. What was left of the afternoon was a delight, with a group of some thirty people sipping beer or wine, while listening to an acoustic guitarist play all the oldies by the lakeside - idyllic!
While the UK prepares itself for Atlantic storms, central Europe is basking in temperatures of around 24C, and the newscasts are all talking of a mini-summer. That was certainly the case today, as we headed into Austria on our way to Innsbruck. We had bought our €10, ten-day vignette yesterday as we crossed from Switzerland into Austria and back into Germany, all in the space of ten miles - they all want a piece of the lake and I’m surprised that Liechtenstein didn’t muscle in on the deal as well! The journey to Innsbruck was such a treat, through St Anton along a route I took by train when I was 15 years old on my first school trip. The privilege of seeing all the spectacular autumn colours in picture perfect conditions was something we will always remember. The high, pine-clad limestone mountains, some still with snowy peaks, were stunningly beautiful against a cloudless blue sky. Our campsite at Natterer See, just 10km outside of Innsbruck, is probably the very best site we have ever stayed at - not just the setting, but quality and quantity of the amenities, some of which we have never encountered before.
Tomorrow, it’s due south into Italy in the hope that the fabulous weather continues … we can’t wait!
Steve & Jan