Alpine summer

Following the mechanical troubles of the JOGLE run we planned our own summer adventure on the return of Roofus.  We are probably going to alternate summers in the British Isles with slightly further afield travels.  As last year finished with the Devon trip, this year is another Euro-jaunt.  Poland or Italy were the likely destinations and I don't remember why but the southern compass point won the day, Italy it shall be.

Trummelbach Falls

We've never made it to "proper" Italy, just managing to break into the lake areas at the top a couple of times.  So we though we would make a go of it this year.

However, when it came down to it, we failed again.  We had a good could of days driving down through France at a leisurly (for us) pace, stopping in Verdun for a couple of nights.  A flappy gearstick later and confidence in the "it'll be OK" diagnosis, using google translator, from a VW dealer in Besancon we carried on.

The we found ourselves in northern Switzerland and kind of decided that actually we should have a look around.  It is a beautiful coutry and we bought ourselves a motorway vignette and headed off to Interlaken.

Camping in Stechelberg

We found a great campsite at the head of the Lauterbrunnen valley with views down to Wengen and towering cliffs on either side.  I took myself off for a full day hike up into the foothills of the Schilthorn (I think) meeting goats and other wildlife.  Fran enjoyed  a lazy couple of days reading and chilling in / around the van.


I guess we then decided to move on and seemed to spend the next few days going up and down the Alps.  We certainly managed a lot of alpine passes - Sustenpass and St Gottard into Ticino (Italian Switzerland) where we stopped and took in the Madonna del Sasso before getting caught in the mother of all thunderstorms at the campsite.

Climbing in the Busenbrand

Mountain wildlife

As we were so close we felt Italy itself was calling, so we did a token drive down to Lake Como before returning to Switzerland by way of St Moritz and the Fluelpass to Davos and departing via Klosters.  How the other half live!

We continued north into Germany and flirted with the Schwartzwald again staying in St Peter before spending my (40th) birthday driving up to Bingen to join the Rhine gorge up through Koblenz.  We then headed across country into Belgium and spent the night at a campsite very close to the Spa Grand Prix circuit, not quite realising that one day later and we'd have been fully caught up in the GP frenzy.  The countryside round here is fantastic.  Birthday dinner was an interesting selection of deep fried items containing cheese and other indistinguishable content.

Madonna del Sasso, Locarno

From Spa it was a long motorway haul to overnight in Ypres, where we took in the last post at the Menin gate.  The quick blast from Ypres to Calais and then M20, M25 home...!
Back to work

Loans and tribulations

This year Roofus has had lots of ups and downs, not just physically but mechanically too.  A full check-up including timing belt, and LPG service should have set things up well and for a while all went well.  I also had enough of Wipro, so resigned in early May without anything to follow, maybe a bit rash, but it felt good at the time.

Thanks to our long serving monarch we were blessed with an extended weekend in early June so, following on from the 2011 Easter trip, we planned a weekend in St Neots with C+S.  On the morning as we prepared to depart we receieved a call saying the site was waterlogged and they would be unable to have us to stay.  Undaunted, we rearranged to a much closer site, near Ivinghoe and toddled off bunting and all.  We had a very pleasant couple of days interpersed with an entertaining Italian meal in Tring, torrential downpours and a stomp up the beacon.

I got a new job, starting late July, for PayPoint in Welwyn Garden City.  Notwithstanding all the great things about the job, the fact I no longer have to commute daily into London is a massive bonus for me.

Fran's friend Neil decided to undertake the challenge that is the Lands End to John O'Groats cycle, except for logistical reasons he decided to do it from North to South.  In support of this he managed to engage his parents as a support crew, and asked if they could use Roofus as the support vehicle.  As the first ever possible leasers of Roofus we were a bit uncomfortable but slowly came round to the idea.  In early July they departed for the North to begin the challenge - Neil has his own blog for this at http://neilsjogleadventure.blogspot.co.uk/.

Unbeknownst to us trusty old Roofus was not behaving herself and had a couple of not insignificant failures on the trip:
1 - LPG fuel line failure at a filling station which involved the AA and the Police and resulted in the filling station being closed for a number of hours.  The cause was a badly worn fuel hose which had failed and leaked LPG (Propane) all over the forecourt.  Being heavier than air it didn't disperse either!
2 - Catalytic Converter failure requiring a full replacement
In some ways we are really thankful these failures happened on british soil which meant getting them fixed did not also become a linguistic challenge, but ultimately to have major failures on a vehicle that you don't own cannot have been any fun for the JOGLE team.  Top marks to Geoff for the cost of getting both problems fixed though - less than £200 all in!  All finished successfully and Neil raised loads of money and has returned safely, but I bet there were a few heart stopping moments.

I still need to have a chat with my man Ian who services the van to see his views on the corrosion of the fuel pipe, especially as it has been regularly serviced, and the whole system is significantly less than 2 years old!  Writing this makes me remember I still need to have that conversation.

2011 fun and games

2011 started with the new job, which for about 3 weeks had me based in the London office.  Then a couple of day trips to Paris by Eurostar to meet clients.  Then a consulting engagement based in La Defence, Paris which turned into a 4 month weekly commute.  I now have a reasonable working knowledge of Paris as a City and grew to quite like it, especially for jogging along the Seine, around the Arch de Triomph, the Jardin Tuilleries and Luxembourg etc...

And by the end I'd built up enough points to bring Fran over for a couple of days to enjoy a weekend for very reasonable cost.  I can't find any pictures of Paris, but I'll add them if I do!

Family Davies for Ruby Anniversary

Easter in sunshine at Olney

When we got back from our Europe trip we were convinced we would use Roofus for all sorts of little getaways and overnighters...  We have done a bit, and certainly the fact she is parked outside the house all the time means it's really easy to jump in and go.  The reality is not quite so idillic but nothetheless we do try and use her, even just for pinic or takeaway lunches on Chipperfield Common!

Roofus did have quite a busy 2011 when we had outings to:
- Thetford Forest for valentines
- Easter weekend in Olney with Chris, Sarah and SPAR

Birthday at Samyeling monestary

- Graham and Amanda's wedding (Staffordshire) in May
- Mum and Dad's Ruby Anniversary in April at Whipsnade Zoo
- Natalie and Mark's wedding (Surrey) in August
- James and Nicki's wedding (West Sussex) in August

From Sussex we took a Roofus on a trip of northern England taking in Hull, Segways, Keilder, Peebles, Lake District including the Wrynose and Hardnott passes, and returning via Blackpool and the Peak District.  Beautiful scenery and pretty good weather to boot.

My Birthday this year was partly spent at the Samyeling Buddhist Monestary somewhere in the borders.

October Half term 2011 was perhaps the least successful housing selection in all the years we've been doing the holiday.  We stayed in Shoreham by Sea and the location, company and weather was up to standard, it's just the the house itself wasn't.

Sometime in November we had a random and not fully successful night out somewhere near Duxford where we stayed in a pub garden and ate in the pub.  An experience to be remebered but hopefully not repeated.

Boxing Day 2011 was spent in Farnsfield, near Mansfield and included using Roofus as our overnight lodgings, which was pretty refreshing although the heating did us proud.

Remainder of 2010

38 today

So, the end of the summer holiday took a slight detour through Thorncombe for my Birthday where I was presented a splendid cake.  Rufus became re-christened "Roofus" and spent a happy afternoon being treated like a playhouse by the little Monkies.

The October half term trip (10th anniversary) was spent in Barton on Sea (New Forest) and we had some fantastic weather for a change enjoying trips out and about including the Isle of Wight.  I remember one phone interview in the flat competing with really poor phone reception and a smoke alarm.

Then reality properly hit and I started looking for a job. 40 or so applications later and only something like 3 getting to interview stages.  I landed a job with Wipro Consulting working out of the Paddington Office in London, Starting January 2011, which I delayed as much as possible.

As I wasn't quite in employment I took Roofus a brief trip to the North to visit Kirsty and Charles in York, followed by Bob and Phoebe in Warrington.  Main memories of this trip was the minus temperatures overnight when I insisted in staying in the van.  I also just missed, by hours, some fairly heavy snowfalls which caused chaos across most of the areas I had just left behind.

Catching up... after a blogging drought!

Hairy big man

This is to update the time between summer 2010 and autumn 2012!  Quite a big gap really and no valid excuses.  Anyway, I've decided to catch up by filling in as many blanks as I can between the end of the 2010 summer break and now...

Looking back at some of the photos from Devon 2010 reminds me how stupidly long and ridiculous my hair got when I didn't have a job.  I'm the one on the right.

And also quite how wet and dank the holiday was, but that's the joy of a staycation.  We could hardly see 50 yards up on Dartmoor but it certainly was a different experience to southern Europe at the beginning of the summar and 40°C in the shade.

Hosepipe ban?

Rain stops play

England in August, with the correct helping of rain which has halted todays driving and viewing of Dartmoor.  So special extra blogging from the campsite ;-)

Tis fantastic holidaying in this country!  We've been in Dorset and Devon for 4 days now.  Today it is raining... lots.  It's wet everywhere and we tried to sightsee a bit but got all moist so gave up.  Now we're camped near Tavistock in the West of Dartmoor, and it's still raining!

But our world is happy, and I'm looking forward to a DVD or two while Fran does some painting - I'll attach a picture of the still life and then we'll see how it turns out...  Shall I go for Men in Black II, Time Bandits or Snatch?  I'm erring towards Snatch!

Just noticed a small technical glitch in that I'm using my laptop what doesn't have a card reader so there is no way to get photos to web.  If we get on Frans laptop at some point I may upload some piccies later.  Don't hold your breath.

Home now, for good?

Back in Blighty today after a very uneventful ferry trip sur la Manche.  So it's back to reality and the admin of life such as sorting out the bank and other useful things like emptying and cleaning the van.

The Le Mans museum and track visit was followed by a couple of leisurely days in Chartres, on the Seine and in La Touquet.  It did rain as we entered English waters this morning, so we felt welcomed home.  It's good to be home, but would love to get back out there and do it all over again.  Tired now, but still have a buzz from so many sights and scenes.  We'll be putting together some sort of concise(ish) record of the last 3 months in the next few weeks to bore or enthrall anyone who shows the remotest interest.  So look forward to that..

Next trip?  There should be a couple of weeks somewhere at the end of August, possibly Devon, and day trips in between.  But nothing exciting again for a a while.  It's job hunting now ;-(

Champagne et Chateau

A day off in Verdun, so plenty of reading done by all.

We left Verdun after the fireworks feu d'artifice of Bastille day and passed by the WWI monument, which is really quite something.  I saw a gravestone number 12,557 so I shudder to think how many men it truly commemorates.

In the Champagne region you have to do champagne, and in the Loire you have to do Chateau, so we've tried to do both in the last few days.

We stayed overnight in the driveway of a small champagne producer, and bought a bottle of rose bubbly for the trouble.  This was our view from the van.

And the we moved on to the Loire and have seen more than a few Chateau, some more closely than others.  Actually, we've been into 2 and probably seen another 5 or 6...  Not enough for Fran, so we have promised ourselves we will come back to this area in the future

To the chateau.  Fontainbleu first, and lots of Napoleanic details - very big building and some gardens.  Actually, most of the grounds are public access for free, which is quite refreshing!  Spent a couple of hours going round the exhibition inside, which I felt gave more than enough access to the royal apartments etc.  Quite tired / bored by the end of this...

Stopped over in Jargeau, on the river and took a wander into town for a bite in the evening, and happened apon the "Grand Table" event.  This is where loads of tressles are arranged through the main streets and the restauants and bars put on food for modest charges and everyone comes and eats, from what seems miles around.  Very sociable, very french and very weird!  We had a drink and went back to the campsite for grub ;-)

Chambord next, with it's impressive architecture and big gardens.  I refused to go inside, but instead took a 2.5km stroll around the canal in the garden, with Fran waiting in the shade for my return!  Again, this was free access and we only paid to park the van here.  By not going in we missed out on the famous double helix staircase, boohoo.

Spent the night in the centre of Blois, which allowed us the chance to visit the chateau in late afternoon (including sword fighting), grab some food in the town (pizza on a bruschetta!) and then go back for Son et Lumierre after dark.  This was ok, but was basically a storyboard of french history with french narration, so I wasn't really able to translate quick or accurately enough for Fran.  I struggled myself although we had the advantage of having met most of the story in the afternnon tour of the chateau.  Some of the light show was impressive though.

This morning was a slow start with a walk around Blois, before carrying on past other chateau towards Tours.  Caught glimpses of Cheverny and Chenonceau, but no visits this time.  Then up to Le Mans and took in part of the circuit.  The plan is to return to the race track tomorrow and "do" the museum.

Bastille day, en france

We thought we'd set ourselves up so that we didn't have to do anything today, since it's Bastille Day and only the french understand how that affects life, shops and general movement

So we're in the campsite until tomorrow, we ordered bagette from the bar and we're not moving all day.  It's back to baking hot, so that's not a bad idea, and the camp spot is right by a lake under a tree so we have the best of all worlds.  A good breeze is blowing through too.

Yesterday afternoon, post blogging, we walked into Verdun to have a look and try and work out what happens today.  It's a good little town with the river Meuse running through and some little pedestrian streets.  Plus the tourist office who inform us that the celebrations today (14th) will be a large feu d'artifice (may have got that wrong), but it's a fireworks display that starts at 2300!

Reading the information boards it seems there is a military celebration at 1100 and the fireworks at 2300.  This will be followed from 2330 until 0300 by a big party.  So, if we can stay awake we will go take a look later on.

Tomorrow the plan is to have a look at some war memorials before heading to champagne country, so fran can enjoy a tipple?

Au revoir deutchland

Bienvenue en Francais, encore.  We're back in France having spent the last few days in germany.  And the satnav is back up and running so me and the wife are still talking to each other.

We spent a couple of days in the Black Forest (Schwartzwald) area looking for the nice bits, since we were told there aren't any!  Not true, we found lots of bits we really liked, some fantastic roads, great scenery and good food.  Plus football which made the germans blush a bit.  They were quite quiet during the Spain game...

Then Stuttgart, or rather Porsche; Stuttgart. 

A couple of hours at the new Porsche museum which competes with the Mercedes one down the road, which in my view is no competition.  Both of us really enjoyed it and saw some rather special motor cars.

Had a night sharing the van with loads of flies, and became quite blood thirsty in thier destruction.  At least they didn't bite.

Then to Darmstadt, to meet and stay with Anya and Noel.  We had a great couple of days trying to take things easy in 37 degrees and no breeze.  Took a stroll around a dog sanctuary and walked a couple of the inmates.  And managed to catch both finals of the football - Anya and Noel don't have a telly, so we had to go and watch both matches in Anya's mum's house, 5km away, which they're trying to sell.  All told, being the avid footie fan I am, I think the best team won.  If Netherlands had got it hanging on with however many yellow cards and only losing 1 player, then it would have been rough justice.  Well done Spain.

Anyway, with our hosts off to work in the morning, we left Darmstadt and headed back towards France.  The idea was originally to head for Paris, but we may have binned that since the heat is unbearable and actually we can get to Paris very easily from Watford any time.  So we sort of found ourselves back in France having driven further than we thought, and stayed in Pont-a-Mousson on the river bank last night for €7.

I took a run at 7.30 this morning to miss the heat and now we have pottered the short distance up to Verdun.  Checked in to a campsite for a couple of days, mainly because we're not sure how mad / quiet things get tomorrow (Bastille Day), and this site is quite near the town centre so we can go and join in the fun?  It's got a good pool too, so if the weather holds then we'll enjoy that too.  Forecast is for heavy rain tomorrow though, which will be a right shame, given the last few days.

SatNav kaput!

Today was a day of seeing places we'd never heard of and having to resort to paper cartography.

Yesterday we flew through Liechtenstein, buying lunch in a very upmarket Co-op.  Then ate lunch half way up a hill with a beautiful view of Switzerland / Germany / Liechtenstein.  Then found a campsite on Lake Constance, again with a fantastic view.  And went for a swim, in the pool, not the lake - my first swim in probably 5+ years ago!

Enjoyed the footie (Netherlands vs Uruaguay) in the sort of campsite bar, with the germans.  Quite surreal, since it was almost exam conditions - very quiet and lots of analysis.  Most were supporting the dutch, which was nice to see, but a couple really wanted Uruaguay to go through, since I guess they think it might make an easier final for them?  They've still got to get there themselves.

Today, the things we've never heard of.  Stein-am-Rhein, which is a really nice little medieval town on the Rhine with little cobbled streets and frescos on the buildings.

Then we went to the Rhinefalls, which is where the Rhine goes over a waterfall.  Call me stupid, but I didn't know it did that!  Anyway, had a good couple of hours wandering around the river and viewpoints - a bit like Niagara, but on a much smaller scale.  Good fun.

Tried the Nordic walking poles around the waterfalls and I think they went down well - I had a go too and I reckon they're pretty useful.

Then the satnav died, or rather got itself in a loop where it just kept rebooting...  So some use of the GPS on my phone coupled with the really high scale europe map and we managed to navigate into the Schwartzwald (Black Forest).  And found some maps in a supermarket after a few attempts.  Used the maps to get to the campsite, and then the internet to diagnose the satnav.  A full factory reset later and fingers crossed (not tested yet) it's good to go.  Fran really didn't like the hobsons choice of driving the van, or navigating!  So happy families should be resumed.

Tonight we're making a point of watching the football in company of the germans, since we sort of missed it a bit in Berlin, and the stakes weren't so high.  Looking forward to trying to understand the slightly odd mentality they seem to have over the football.  Will update if we work it out.

Sightseeing frenzy? Certainly Churchtastic

We're still going but, phew, it's been a bit warm the last few days!  What have we been up to?  Having conciously sort of slowed down...,  for some reason it seems that the last few days have been the most intensive sightseeing days so far.  Munich and Salzburg in quick succession kind of knocked it out of us so we had a nice day off yesterday in the busiest campsite of the trip (so far).  We're beginning to hit high season.   I say "day off", which was the plan, but I certainly feel the effects of touch rugby and other games with odd shaped balls, plus a run that somehow took in a 350m climb!  The aching bones of my old body noticed the abuse as we strolled around Innsbruck this morning.

Salzburg is pretty, with a river.  And we went up to the castle on the funicular and did the tour and museum bits - Fran felt spoiled because she implies I don't let her do the touristy things very often, especially if we have to pay!  More churches than you can shake a stick at.

We camped under the Bayern Munich Stadium (Allianz Arena) on Friday night and watched it change colour every 1/2 hour from 10pm, until 1130 when it went back to white and blue and repeated the sequence.  It's pretty impressive when you're up close.

White with blue text, red with white text, blue with white text, then repeat...  all night.  With the corresponding glow in the van.

Park and Ride into Munich, which has a pretty Central area - to be fair most places we've been have pretty bits and they started to blur a while back!  Munich has a very impressive Rathaus in the square, and I climbed up St Peters tower and took some panorama shots of all the spires and sticky uppy bits in the city.  Lunch was beer and a slab of pork roast from the market...  Also had a look at some churches.

We popped in to what is touted as Germany's biggest Camper and Caravan Centre.  It certainly isn't small.  Had a look at a few options, but decided Rufus is all we could want for now :-)  And we couldn't afford the prices they were selling at!  Bought some plastic glasses for all the prickled water we seem to have acquired a taste for.

Then we sort of headed for Innsbruck and found ourselves at the busy campsite with yappy dog and kids and all sorts of distractions that we love so much.  So we thought we'd stay an extra day, as you do.  Made friends with an Irish couple and wiled away a few hours recounting travel tales and passing on suggested places to go.


Innsbruck this morning was pleasant, although the central bit is really quite small and we'd done with it in just over an hour.  We parked really close to the centre, just over the river and on returning were slightly perterbed to find the bridge closed to traffic, police everywhere and our bit of road shut too.  It turned out to be less than sinister, and in fact it was for a bike race (I didn't see Dad in the peleton).  First time I've caught a full on bike race and it's quite impressive, although I don't think the standard was fully out of the top drawer.
Update:  Just been surfing and it was Stage 2 of the Tour of Austria (173.9km).  Dad only did 48miles today, so he wasn't part of the pack. 

We had some rain last night which was refreshing, and nearly broke our awning ;-o but back to 30+ degrees again now.  Came up over the mountains through St Anton this afternoon and broke back into sunshine and are now camped up happily reading, sunbathing, shaving and blogging!

Where next?  We were going to do a couple of mountain passes and go to Italy, but we feel we've seen enough mountains and 12% gradients for a while.  So we're heading into Lichtenstein (you have to if you're as close as we are) and then Switzerland to spend some left over CHF.  Then the black forest for gateau.  Talk soon.

And here's a rockin' sheep for all those who liked the idea of a rockin' moose.  Which, by the way, you can get in most IKEA's - we should know, we've been in a few round europe now!