Wrapping up the 2012 Tour – United Kingdom

Procrastination is the enemy of the blogger.  Yes, it has been two weeks.

From San Sebastion Team Lloyd landed in windy, wet England late Thursday evening courtesy of the Bilbao to Portsmouth ferry - a week earlier than planned.  Although we’d intended to spend a week or so travelling along the west coast of France, the call of the heart proved too strong.  On Friday 23 November Lloydy said his final goodbyes to his friend of over 30 years.

But wait … there’s more … a week later Lloydy celebrated England’s win over the All Blacks at Twickenham.  It should be noted that Mrs L was and continues to be, magnanimous in defeat! 

Unsurprisingly the River Thames had partially drenched the Chertsy Campsite but once again Team Lloyd found the campervan community fantastic. The staff at the camp proved warm and friendly.  We also met and exchanged experiences with older kiwi doing the big OE.  Crossing fingers for Rick and Kathy plus dog Sky, from Auckland who’ve been touring UK/Europe since January this year.  It’s a bugger when a country moves the goal posts while you’re away, but we hope Sky returns to NZ safely next week.

Cally has survived the tour relatively unscathed, so the rest of the month will be spent wintering her over i.e. minor repairs, deep clean inside blah blah; so we're prepared for more adventures in 2013.

Now the dust (frost at the moment) has settled, what tips can we offer the intrepid campervanner contemplating a tour of Europe?

Top Tips:  

Like love the person(s) you are travelling with.

                         

Update your GPS software – Italy, Portugal and Spain have made significant improvements to their roads.

MacDonalds (can’t believe we've written this) is your friend  i.e. for free Wi-Fi and for excellent McCafe expresso.

                         

If you have a residential permit – make sure you hand it to border control or your night will be much longer!

                         

Join a campsite association e.g. ACSI or the Camping and Caravanning Club to take advantage of discounts.

                         

Get on with your partner (labouring the point).

                         

Forget the budget occasionally – get out there and enjoy yourselves.

Photo gallery:
To end this blog here's an album of fun, amusing, unusual things (sic) found on tour:

Hunter style Camper Van - Cambridge, UK

Cutesy bike 'glam'd up - UK

Antwerp

Antherp, Belguim - Avonmouth Rugby Supporter

Brugge, Belguim

Lissewege, Belguim - sharing a bath

Lissewege, Belguim Art

Lisseewege, Belguim

Leapfrog - Varberg, Sweden

Gamebly, Sweden

Trelleborg-Rossberg Ferry - Dog Toilet

Love this chap from Berlin, reminds us of a friend

Polish Road sign

Manaco - Kept in the dark

  

Lloydy's little Pompeii friend, Italy

Found in Rome, Italy - the Bristolians may be confused about their infamous Portuguese Explorer

Lloydy in hunter gatherer mode, Avin, Spain

Found RAT!

Regua, Portugal - colour conflicts

Lad with heads in clouds. Madrid, Spain

Gympy - found in Amsterdam

Royal Mail, Stockholm

Local lad in Gottenborg, Sweden

Kolobrzeg, Poland

Rome, Italy

Queen of Hearts, Carcassone, France

The meat was goat but, Warsaw, Poland

Taking it to the Italians!

This is a WTF? monument outside a church in Caceres, Spain

Vastervik, Sweden - Kiwi's will smile at this one

Lisboa, Portugal

Portugal, Spain versa

The Basque VX take on Japan in San Sebastion tomorrow, just down the road from Gran Camping Zarautz (rugby for the uninitiated).  If we get our timing right, may just catch it live.  We have seaviews so are relaxing watching fishermen landing their catch.

Yesterday we spent in Nationale Parque Pisco de Europa, Avin, checking out the local fauna, tasting food and sampling vino.  If we had more time, we’d take a week out in Zone 6, site 7 – camping at its most basic but with a bar and pool within 250m.  Lloydy found time to forage; finally, Mrs L’s having a positive effect on the lad.

The views on departure from the park via the mountains were spectacular.  Lloydy looked down once from his drivers perch and after that we sat in the middle of the road whenever possible. Took the N634 to avoid rip-off tollroads - thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and the challenge of up-down roads!

If you’ve got time to check the photos closely.  Got bad news for boys and girls in Britian … snow is eminent!

So, what else have Team Lloydy been up to this week:

Post Vila Cha we headed north towards Spain.  Most notable on our drive have been signs for ‘Santiago de Compestela’.  Lloydy’s done his reading and reckons it’s a significant pilgrimage.  Everywhere we’ve driven along the northern coast has scallop-shell signage.  

To be fair, the only pilgrims we met were at A’Vouga, north of Muros where Lloydy also managed to charm Elida for a few days.

From A’Vouga we ‘wild-camped’ at Gijon (HeeHong) due to being booted out of Santa Maria del Mar for arriving 10 mins past closing time.  To be fair, it was dark … and the place was heaving (probably pilgrims)!  Felt a little like Joseph and Mary being chucked out of the inn. Sorry no Jesus on the way!

We love  Northern Spain.  Mrs L thinks lots of places reminder her of the lower North Island, NZ.  The place has so much character, scenery, wonderful people.  Plus … we can see why they don’t advertise. 

Another last minute never seen ever in our tour of Europe.  Pataka kai … well, corn stores for the Spanish.

Spain, Portugal

Another week down.  We have done huge miles (2,000kms tho includes ring road SatNav FU’s) through Barcelona, Saragossa, Salamanca, Badajoz, Lisboa. 

Today we’d planned on catching the train from Sao Bento, and travelling along the Duro River in Porto.  A Greve Genral put paid to that.  As needs must, plus we’re stuck in a little village (Vila Cha) in Portugal … we’re whiling the hours away with beautiful beach views, vino and food.  Maybe tomorrow!

The Vila do Conda is very much a Portuguese version of Waitarere Beach.  A little rockier but no less prettier.

One bogie we’ve failed to mention in much detail is TOLL roads.   We were pinged €16 in France for approximately 160kms, €20 in Spain – appro. 100kms (€11.65 was just past Salamanca for 12kms of highway.  Not cool).  To get to Portugal quicker we chose a 200km stint between Caceras (Spain) and Lisboa, cost €27 which was not inexpensive but saved us three hours and 150km of mountain climbing.  A deal.  The young Kiwis we’d met in Pompeii had mentioned their €100 bill on French Peage highways.  

Given we’ve got another 2,500kms through all three countries, we hope SatNav lady will exercise caution to get us back to Old Blighty in robust financial shape.

On a sadder note.  A dear friend and ex-colleague of Lloydy passed away Thursday last.  It's a timely reminder that friends and family however close the cyber distances … if you’re stuck in a van on the Continent it’s a long, long way when your loved ones are in trouble.  Be safe out there - friends and whanau …

Photo gallery

Historic - One Crane, one stork (flying) and two flamingo

Halloween night