|
LIVING
We had no major problems with the motorhome and found the
Autosleeper Symbol layout to be ok for extended living at least in the
summertime. We installed a Fiamma 180 rear box which gave us useful additional
storage and
fitted it to the bike rack on the LH fixed rear door with the bike rails removed.
We also took a
dome tent to use as a storage area/awning which was quickly erected when staying
on site for two or three nights. This made us slow down and "stay put"
for a few days when we found a pleasant site. Gas turned out to be expensive as
we only had room for two Camping Gaz 907 cylinders with a Calor 3.9Kg propane as
backup.
DRIVING
We avoided toll autoroutes as much as possible except along the
French and Italian Riviera where it was extremely built up and slow. We
passed though at least 130 tunnels on the Italian autostrada between
Menton and La Spezia, leaving the motorway at Imperia to Savona to look at
the coastal towns (very busy) and to stay near the Cinque Terra (which we
didn't actually reach due to the crowds at the weekend). We found the main
roads in Italy to be generally busy and slow with lots of lorries (except
on Sundays). Around Rimini, Ravenna and Venice the traffic jams were
horrendous (a public holiday weekend). We considered that the whole of
Northern Italy was not pleasant for driving due to traffic and large built
up areas around towns which weren't obvious from the Italian Touring Club
road maps. The Simplon Pass was easy but with major roadworks on the
Italian side and we passed through Switzerland on empty non motorway roads
(on a Sunday) to avoid buying an annual vignette for one day. The van
struggled up the long gradient from Martigny to the Col de Forclaz. Once back in France the
driving was much more relaxed (except through Geneva). We missed
Luxembourg city but liked Vianden and the low fuel prices (€0.86/L).
Belgium was interesting in parts and we found Ghent to be a pleasant
lively city worth a visit but Bruges had too many tourists.
SITES
We stayed at a mixture of campsites, aires and wild camps in a total of 48
locations with fees ranging from free to €25 a night. We had 18 free nights and 16 nights at campsites using the ACSI low season
discount camping card which saved us over £40 in site fees.
Campsites list Aires
list
PHOTOGRAPHY
Although we took an 35mm camera as backup our main camera was a recently
purchased Samsung Digimax A6 6 megapixel compact camera which proved
to be extremely versatile producing excellent photos (more than 700 in
total!) and a few video clips. For storage we had two 128Mb SD cards (but
will invest in 512Mb cards now the prices have fallen). About 80 images
could be fitted on each card and these were backed up to a trusty old IBM
laptop and also transferred onto CDR discs at various photography shops en
route at a typical cost of €7 to €8 for a disc
COSTS
Ferry £88 return on Norfolkline
Fuel £635 : 198 gallons 5400 miles (about 29mpg)
Campsites £330 min £2.70 max £13.30 per night
Gas: Camping Gaz 907 £65 - varied from €12.50 to €18.50 for each
exchange cylinder
|
