Visiting cousins in Luxembourg

On the way back we stopped off in Luxembourg to visit my cousin Júlia and her husband Nicky in their fantastic house with a labyrinth of rooms for every type of activity – gym, preserves, workshop, sewing etc. They too have a camper van the same size as ours and so were well set up for van visitors. Júlia has a wonderful garden where she grows fruit and vegetables and then preserves them in jars and as bottled juice. We were treated to fantastic meals with virtually everything from the garden. Nicky goes out for a 2 hour cycle ride every morning at 6:30am (he has inspired me!) and before we left he sorted out yet another problem with one of our taps.

We left with a box of preserves and a huge bag of walnuts from her tree.

Visiting friends in Chiemsee

On the way back we visited our friend Ingrid who lives near Lake Chiemsee – a very pretty area in Bavaria. Unfortunately it rained every day but in between the downpours we were able to go for a swim in one of the nearby lakes and it was lovely to spend time catching up.

Ferry from Igoumenitsa

We got the ferry back from Igoumenitsa to Venice. It left at 6:30am and so we decided to park overnight in the car park at the terminal. After a bit of confusion where we found ourselves in the parking area for trucks we found a spot for the night. In the morning we were glad we’d made this decision as by 5am there was absolutely nowhere to park.

We had been told to go to the check-in at 5am which we dutifully did to be met by a huge queue. It took us over one hour to reach the counter – next time we’ll get there earlier.

Croatia to Greece

The next stage of our journey took us through Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia and Bulgaria but we just passed through without doing any sightseeing. For our first stop we made for a campsite across the border into Serbia. The road through Bosnia close to the border with Montenegro looked very windy (this means mountainous) so we started early.

The journey was fine and we stopped in a small campsite called Camping Viljamovka in Kremna (N43° 50′ 42″ E19° 34′ 26″) finding ourselves in a pear orchard managed by a very friendly chap called Jarko who insisted that we tried the pear brandy that he makes. The only other people staying were a Dutch couple on motorbikes travelling to Turkey.

The following day we again set off early and driving through Serbia saw a wonderful stork’s nest with youngsters craning their necks and lots of cows wandering on the roads which reminded us of India.

That second evening we reached Sofia in Bulgaria and managed to stay at a small motorhome stop in Park4Nite on 220 Bulevard. There are two MH stops in Sofia and this is the one in the back garden of an older couple. The gate was closed and padlocked but there was a bell to left. Eventually a very friendly man called Ivan welcomed us in. It’s a smallish area but he managed to pack in nine vans, and some pretty big. It was fairly basic but had everything we needed. By that time it was quite late and we asked Ivan if there was a restaurant nearby. He pointed towards a tower block and said we’d find everything there – restaurant, gym, swimming pool … We eventually found the restaurant, but it wasn’t the usual traditional type of restaurant in surroundings that we would normally seek out. Still, the people were friendly, someone spoke English and we had very tasty pizzas and salad.

Driving through the four countries we became aware of some of the differences. Croatia has a lot of tourism and people had wonderful gardens with beautiful flowers. In Bosnia Herzegovina any land around a house was given over to growing vegetables. Serbia had some amazingly ugly buildings. The part of Bulgaria that we drove through was very industrial with chimneys belching smoke and a pollution haze covering valleys, although the south west also had a forested national park and was very beautiful.

This was the first time we’d driven in the van outside western Europe and outside the EU/Schengen. We had forgotten about queues at borders!! It was quite usual to spend one to two hours waiting to get through the border, and having to show the van registration document and my driving licence. And for the lorries it was much much longer.

Autogas: virtually every garage sells GPL so no problems there.

When things go wrong!!

Yet again we had tap problems! Water leaking/streaming from under the kitchen tap. Oh dear. Fortunately the campsite were able to give us the details of a mobile motorhome repair company operating in Croatia and cheery Mr Nottebohm came to the campsite in his green van and saved the day.

We needed a new tap and he had one of the right type in his van!! Within half an hour it was all fixed.

Stops en-route to Croatia

We took three days to drive to Croatia via Germany and Austria. After Belgium the stops were:

  • Car park in Hochspeyer (park4night) by an outdoor swimming pool. Very well set up stop with all facilities. N49° 26′ 28″ E 7° 53′ 35″
  • Car park in Siegsdorf (park4night) by a railway station. Went to a very nice Italian restaurant – Il Porcino. N47° 49′ 17″ E 12° 38′ 45″
  • Parking lot Vrhoulne, Croatia (park4night) – couldn’t quite make it to our destination N44° 51′ 7″ E 15° 25′ 27″

First stop Belgium

Spent our first night in a little town called Veurne just across the Belgian border. A pleasant town – completely dead by 9pm, but buzzy in the morning with people doing their shopping. Stayed in a parking area by a canal. Very pretty and it has somewhere to empty the toilet cassette. What could be better??

GPS N 51° 4’ 14” E 2° 39’ 56”

Oh dear … a problem with the Webasto boiler

Second day in Spain and something went wrong with the Webasto boiler. It gave off error messages about no combustion.

Into the workshop

After phoning Webasto in Madrid we found an authorised dealer in Valladolid with a skilled engineer named Cesar who could fix it. But of course it needed a new part which had to be ordered.

Evidently if you’re only using the water heater (as we tend to do over the summer) carbon builds up around the burner and eventually it stops working. Evidently these boilers need to be set to very high heat every so often to prevent this build up.

Breiza restaurant

The workshop was in an industrial estate just outside of the city but as this was Spain there was a very good bar/restaurant where all the workers from the surrounding businesses went for lunch. It took three excellent ‘menus’ at €10 each before we were on the road again.

Valladolid

Valladolid was our first stop. There’s a great camper stop in a car park near the city centre for €5 per night (see park4nite). 

River Piseurga Valladolid

To get to the centre you have to cross over the river Pisuerga and the town have made great walks along the river bank, bringing in sand to make a beach for bathing.

Jero tapas bar

We went out for something to eat and just happened upon a Tapas bar called Jero. There was a queue outside of people waiting to get in before it had even opened at about 8pm. So we were lucky and able to get a table.

Prawns on mushrooms

Delicious prawns on mushrooms!!

Travelling down to Spain

This year we set off on 20 December, and got down to the Ribamar campsite at Alcossebra on Christmas Eve. We crossed the channel on Eurotunnel (so easy) and took the route recommended by Susy – Rouen, Chatres, Orleans, Clemont-Ferrand .., and then follow your nose to Spain. It was a very pretty route.

We stayed the first night at an Aire in Montreuil sud Mer, about one hour from Calais where we’d stayed before. The second night at a camperstop in Bruère-Allichamps – very pleasant by a river (once you’d worked out how to get in), and the third night at a Camperstop in the car park of a restaurant Chez-Nous in Fitou. Lots of vignerons around there so of course we had to contribute to the local economy. Both of these stops were found through the CamperContact App.