Where Have You Been In Your Van Today?
- Thread starter mhill
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No need to ask which bit!
It's great for kids though, the swimming, not so the fair! Donuts were good!
After a later than expected start last Sunday (I won't go into details but it involved what we suspect to be a dodgy salmon fillet on Saturday night!) we went through the tunnel and arrived in Calais at around 1800hrs local. We spent the first night in ay Camping Fort du Lapin and after overnight stops in France, Germany and Austria we are now at Camping Selce in Istria (Croatia) for a long weekend. The weather is fantastic at around 27° which is a distinct contrast to Pongau in Austria where we stayed last night where it just managed top scrape 10°. On the plus side, by the time we got that there, the rain had almost stopped - it had been with us almost all the way through Germany and Austria and made for bleeding horrible driving in places. We're moving on up the coast on Monday. I'm desperate for a scrub up now but will post campsite details and comments over the weeken
OK, here we go:
Sunday was at Camping Fort du Lapin in Calais. The site is only about 10 minutes from the tunnel and is perfectly good for a couple of night. We only did one and didn't use the showers but I did hear someone squeal and complain about cold water from one of the cubicles. TBH it wouldn't bothe me that much as I always give myself a cold blast before finishing a shower but my Mrs wouldn't go anywhere near it. ACSI CC price not valid yet so €24 per night (which I reckon is quite good even with a cold shower. No picture, sorry.
Monday was Camping Les Breuils a short walk from Verdun which has a WW1 interest and is generally quite a nice town. The campsite had a good restaurant one site but was not too busy and at €20 with ACSI CC was a genuine bargain and sanitary facilities were alright.
Tuesday was Camping Aichelberg in Aicherlberg, Germany. It was very wet when we arrived and some of the pitches were quite muddy but others had gravel on them which we chose. Their own restaurant was closed but there was an Italian up the road which turned out be be fully booked so we got take away pizzas. TBH, the pizzas weren't much to write home about but having spent a lot of time in Italy and, in particular, Naples I consider myself a bit of a pizza snob. No pics of this one due to the rain but it was pretty unremarkable anyway. €27 without ACSI CC and the showers etc. were top notch.
Wednesday was Austria at Camping Kastenhof, Pongau, a typical Austrian town surrounded by mountains. We were greeted by one off the most misderable women that I have ever seen on reception duties who charged us €54 for the night and then had the front to tell us that showers needed a €1 coin for 5 minutes. Basically, I can't recommend the campsite but the town was only about 500M away and we found a really nice restaurant which was weirdly busy considering the rest of the place was deathly quiet at 1900hrs. At night, it dropped to 10°.
Which brings us to Camping Selce in Istria, Croatia yesterday. We left Autria at about 0900hrs and got here at about 1500hrs having crossed into Slovenia and out again to Croatia with only a brief stop for some scram. It's amazing what crossing under a mountain and 450 odd Km can do for you. The weather here is mostly sunny with some cloud and late 20°s - when we got back to the van after a swim, it was 37° as we opened the doors. The site itself is reasonably uncrowded with a mix of motorhomes and campers along with bungalows and lodges. When we are here late September last year, I commented that the facility looked good at first glance but were actually falling apart (mainly because it had been done up on the cheap using 'domestic' standard fittings which just weren't up too the hammering that a busy season would give it. It's exactly the same this but I think it's all been replaced since last year. That said, we will inevitably use the place again in the future as the stuff still mostly works even though it's hanging off the walls. There is also a cracking little town about 15 minutes walk along the beach with lots of eating and drinking. The site has also got two 'infinity' pools and is right on the sea with no beach but plenty of concrete platforms etc. We're here until Monday and haven't paid yet but I think it's €42 a a night because the low ACSI CC season doesn't kick in until next week (IIRC last year it was €21).
Sorry for any typos but I couldn't be arsed to proof read this one. Over and out for now.
Pitched up at Henley CAMC site, dropping our daughter off.
Please tell me that's a soft focus edging and my eyes aren't that bad!!
It's either soft focus or the DTs and a long exposure.
Camping Sud Gironde Foret des Landes - Bordeaux
First of two nights at this woodland campsite near Bordeaux. Found it on pitchup.com.
My first big journey in the van. Heading into Spain from here, travelling along the North coast to meet the girlfriend at Santiago de Compostela airport on the 11th....
First of two nights at this woodland campsite near Bordeaux. Found it on pitchup.com.
My first big journey in the van. Heading into Spain from here, travelling along the North coast to meet the girlfriend at Santiago de Compostela airport on the 11th....
I think my phone camera lens was dirty!
Thank the goodness!
Mr and Mrs Twotone2 first trip to La belle France in the van, been here 5 days, visited Crecy and Agincourt, wandered down the coast to the village of Yport, found a great camping site over looking the cliffs and the sea, strangely we seem to be the only “Brits” on the site, if anyone is thinking about travelling to France and hesitating - just go for it!
We stopped at that site a couple of years ago. Nice site but out of season so the bar/restaurant was closed. Was it open when you was there?
As I reported above, we're currently in Istria, Croatia (moving down the coast tomorrow) and there is not a single Brit camper, car or motorhome on the site. As you might expect, there were quite a few on the site that we used in Calais but none in Verdun, Germany or Austria. I've not been counting but we really haven't seen many UK registered vehicles on the roads either.
When I typed my earlier posts, I forgot to mention prices. Diesel was a bit less than UK cost in France and Austria but something over €2.30 in Germany. We also started getting and Adblue warning of 1600 miles left which dropped down to 1400 miles after a while so I looked at the price of a 10 Litre container in France in a motorway services. At €34.95 it was about the same as a 10L container in Germany and both were a complete rip off. I wasn't too worried and decided to top up the next time we saw a pump which turned out to be during a comfort break on the autobahn near Munich. Interestingly, the price in the 'car section' of the forecourt was €1.79 per litre but out of idle curiosity I also looked at the price for lorries on the other side of the service area and it turned out to be €0.79 - Although I already thought I knew the answer, I did take the precaution of a quick Google to check that it was actually the same stuff as cars use.
