"It's very nice to go travelling but it's oh so nice to come home"
We rated our second attempt at Italy a success. We didn't see everything but we didn't expect to so there's plenty left for another visit. And there will certainly be another visit because we decided we really like Italy, the place, the people, everything. We noticed it was a little more expensive than the UK and the popular places were very crowded so some more thought about the best time of year is needed, plus some more intensive planning if we are going to visit some of the museums and art galleries. Towards the end of the trip the temperatures started to reach uncomfortable levels so that needs to be taken into account too. Jamie became somewhat lethargic, but that may have been more because he needed clipping quite badly. He certainly perked up when it suddenly got colder when we reached the Channel coast.
Campsites, rather than aires, featured a lot more on this trip and we stayed longer at them which gave us plenty of chill-out time, something we should try more of in future trips. We still used aires etc. whilst transiting however - there is no point in paying full prices for just the basics which is all we need.
The advice we received to use the toll roads if travelling any distance was definitely well-founded; the autostradas were generally okay but other main roads were patchy, some good some, well, in need of some TLC! Minor roads in the populated areas tended to be awful although elsewhere were quite reasonable, probably due to less use of course. Italy obviously has no money to maintain the normal roads; the autostradas being self-funding were that much better.
We ate out a lot more too, not frequently but at least once a week whereas we usually only manage once or twice per trip. Was it Italy or are we changing?
There's nothing planned for future trips at the moment; we've given up on shows as we've realised they hold nothing for us. Perhaps one or two of the smaller MotorhomeFun rallies? Or maybe another "themed" tour.
Whatever, watch this space!
Monday 4 June 2018
Gravelines - Home
Monday morning and the vet was busy but managed to fit in an appointment for later in the day so we just chilled out back on the aire. We later heard that a Brit Funster parked on the Gravelines aire had been targeted for theft of the valuable bikes he had on the back of his van in the early hours of the morning. We didn't hear anything but from later correspondence he may well have been on the "unofficial" aire.
With Jamie sorted we had another night at Gravelines and on Tuesday had a lazy run up to the Auchan hypermarket at Calais, intending to refuel until we saw the price and decided to wait until the UK where it was cheaper - except we later found it wasn't! A quick stroll around the hypermarket for anything we might have needed then on to the Citie Europ motorhome parking to overnight ready for our booked crossing on the Channel Tunnel in the morning. Not unexpectedly there were around 24 others parked there too.
Early start on a dull and dreary Wednesday morning, foregoing breakfast until we had crossed, hoping to get an earlier train. With Jamie cleared we checked in and were given a 30 min earlier reservation and we proceeded through, having the van properly searched by armed soldiers, and eventually onto the train.
Which didn't pull out on time. Then came an announcement that due to a fuel leak in the car section part of the train had to be evacuated while they dealt with it. Not us but of course it delayed our departure for almost an hour. Frustrating to watch our "booked" train depart ahead of us but it's the first time we've been seriously held up so we're not complaining - at least they made regular announcements with progress.
Once off at Folkestone we called in at the Stop 24 services for breakfast then on to Tesco at Ashford where we were shocked to see the price of diesel; we had no inkling that it had increased by so much! With no alternative we topped up and set off on the long slog north.
Being a weekday it was very busy but we were fortunate in not experiencing any delays, pausing at Peterborough for lunch then going straight through, arriving home about 6.45 pm. We just unloaded the essentials for now and finished off the following day before putting Bertie back into storage until we had a few days clear to do some of the small running repairs and give him a thorough clean and polish.
With Jamie sorted we had another night at Gravelines and on Tuesday had a lazy run up to the Auchan hypermarket at Calais, intending to refuel until we saw the price and decided to wait until the UK where it was cheaper - except we later found it wasn't! A quick stroll around the hypermarket for anything we might have needed then on to the Citie Europ motorhome parking to overnight ready for our booked crossing on the Channel Tunnel in the morning. Not unexpectedly there were around 24 others parked there too.
Early start on a dull and dreary Wednesday morning, foregoing breakfast until we had crossed, hoping to get an earlier train. With Jamie cleared we checked in and were given a 30 min earlier reservation and we proceeded through, having the van properly searched by armed soldiers, and eventually onto the train.
Which didn't pull out on time. Then came an announcement that due to a fuel leak in the car section part of the train had to be evacuated while they dealt with it. Not us but of course it delayed our departure for almost an hour. Frustrating to watch our "booked" train depart ahead of us but it's the first time we've been seriously held up so we're not complaining - at least they made regular announcements with progress.
Once off at Folkestone we called in at the Stop 24 services for breakfast then on to Tesco at Ashford where we were shocked to see the price of diesel; we had no inkling that it had increased by so much! With no alternative we topped up and set off on the long slog north.
Being a weekday it was very busy but we were fortunate in not experiencing any delays, pausing at Peterborough for lunch then going straight through, arriving home about 6.45 pm. We just unloaded the essentials for now and finished off the following day before putting Bertie back into storage until we had a few days clear to do some of the small running repairs and give him a thorough clean and polish.
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