Meandering down through France

Some years ago in the days when were both working and taking two week holidays in our VW campervan we had a favourite destination in Central France - St. Gaultier. We used to stay on the Municipal campsite, a pretty small site with basic amenities (but cheap!) a gorgeous little town in the Indre region with a disused railway cycle track running right through it. So this trip we thought it would be good to go back to revisit the area and cycle the trail. This time though we stayed on the free Aire in the outskirts of town right by the cemetery (the neighbours are quiet at night!). Nothing much had changed in the town since we were here last unlike the village in the U.K. where we live where we are being hemmed in by all the hundreds of houses being built all around us.
With lovely warm sunny weather we set out along the track doing what we love the best! The track took us through countryside and sleepy villages       (where does everyone disappear to in the afternoon?) it's always such a delight cycling on the traffic free paths in France.

Leaving St Gaultier we headed further south to the Dordogne to visit some motorhomer friends we met in February in Mojacar Spain who live at La Coquille. Barry and Jean moved to the Dordogne a year ago and have a fabulous house and new life in France, we were fortunate enough to be invited to their friends BBQ which was a wonderful afternoon spent meeting lots of people who have either moved to France or have holiday homes there. And it set us to think that maybe it could be something we would like to  do - sell up our house in the U.K. buy a smaller property in Sussex nearer to our daughter and the grandchildren and a house in France. With property prices so low in France we could buy a really nice property in which to enjoy the tranquil country life - it all seems very appealing and gave us a lot to talk about!

After a lovely couple of days socialising we went deeper into the Dordogne to a pretty village near the epicentre of the region - Sarlat (easily accessible on the cycle track we were parked next to!!)
It's an interesting area to visit maybe a bit touristy but the ancient buildings in the town are amazing. If we do buy a house in the Dordogne we would prefer to keep to the edge of the province rather than in the thick of the main attractions.
Leaving the Dordogne we headed to the Lot valley to stay with our friends Rik and Marie. We were able to park in their garden where we had a couple of really peaceful nights - late one night I was looking up at the night sky filled with thousands of stars, the Milky Way stretched  across directly above, a sight never seen above our home in the UK with all the light pollution there is there. We had a great couple of days catching up with our friends and enjoying Marie's cooking before moving on to one last stopover in France before heading on into Spain.

Villefranche-du-Perigord - Market place

Medieval houses

Back on the road again!!

After spending six months of touring already this year you would have thought that we would want to stay at home, but it's actually quite the opposite - we just love the travelling life! The last couple of months have been wonderful being at home with all its comforts, taking time to catch up with our friends and family especially our beautiful grandchildren who seem to grow and change every time we see them - even if only a few days have past. We always miss them when we are away on our travels.
This time for our Autumn travels we have decided to head slowly down through France, taking time to explore and find some good cycling as well as visiting friends. Then as the temperatures start to dip we will head south to Spain, the plan being to tour the north before heading down the middle eventually ending up in the south and the Costa Del Sol. We might travel west into Portugal at some stage to visit the Douro valley we have heard so much about. Well that's the plan, but who knows where we end up going to as we have no fixed agenda just a few ideas of where we would like to visit.

Our journey began last Wednesday when we took the 11am ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, a four hour crossing and not our usual route, but it all went well, the crossing was smooth and the time seemed to go quickly. Unfortunately after we disembarked as we were sitting in the queue for Passport control the driver of a campervan wasn't paying attention and swiped our driver mirror- the plus side is that we have 'Mirrorguards' on both sides which protected the mirror and all the delicate workings inside so Keith was able to fix the guard back on and no damage was done, but it wasn't the best start to our trip! What we did enjoy though was not having the long drive to Dover to catch the ferry as well as a two hour drive at the other end.
We headed to a free Aire at Mesniere en Bray only 25km from Dieppe for our first night on French soil, after a very peaceful night we then headed south to the Loire region for some cycling adventures. We found a great place to stop at Pontlevoy with free facilities including electricity overlooking a pretty chateau.

With a free cycle route map from the local Tourist Information office we found plenty of  peaceful lanes and

tracks to cycle on in the region and
really enjoyed the peace and quiet as we cycled through the forests. The jewel in the crown of the Loire region has to be the fabulous Château de Chambord built in the 16th century as a hunting lodge for the King, with all its rather whimsical pillars and towers and its central double helix staircase it is a fascinating place and so over the top! Apparently King Francis 1 only ever spent about seven weeks here in total! It's hard to believe that it is in such wonderful condition after hundreds of years including being left abandoned for some of that time.
We are in our element staying in an area with so much cycling to do and ended up staying another three nights based on an Aire in a pretty little village (Tour de Sologne) right on a number of routes for us to chose from. Perfect!

Cycling through the forest with the beginnings of the Autumn colours

The last leg of our epic trip

With heavy hearts we left Austria and headed across Germany towards France, we decided not to spend much time in Germany on this trip as we wanted to make for the Ardennes , an area of natural beauty which we had researched to have some excellent cycling.
The Trans-Ardennes cycle trail seemed to us a perfect ending for the last week of our trip, it also served as a reminder of how wonderful the cycle trails are in France as well as how easy Motorhoming is in this beautiful country, there are facilities everywhere for Motorhomers as almost every village and town has designated free Aires.

We had a wonderful time cycling parts of the 83km trail alongside the spectacular river Meuse, the trail is almost traffic free which makes for a much more relaxed journey especially when we come across a bakery that serves delicious coffee and cakes!
We booked our crossing home from Calais to Dover and were so surprised when sitting in the queue waiting to board the ferry we saw our friends Martin and Isabelle also waiting in their motorhome for the same ferry. We just couldn't believe the co-incidence! Having not seen them since our stay in Mojacar in March we had a lot of catching up to do about where we had all been and the adventures we had over the last few months! They had been mainly in Portugal, Martin had a big birthday whilst they were there and they hired a huge villa for all the family to join him in his celebrations - you can imagine he had a few tales to tell about that!
What a wonderful end to our travels, the crossing went by in a flash whilst we chatted and we didnt even notice the sea was slightly more choppy than usual!

And so our six month trip across Europe is over, we travelled 6500miles in the motorhome, cycled 1500 miles on our bikes, took 2 overnight ferry journies and visited 12 European countries. We have made many new friends and certainly had some really interesting experiences.

I wonder when and where our next experience will be?

Somewhere in Greece 3 thousand miles from home....

Austria - our perfect destination

Having scurried out of Slovenia to escape the persistent rain we arrived in Austria for just a bit more rain before the dark clouds cleared and we were blessed with beautiful weather, hot and sunny in the daytime and cool in the evenings (although when we were up in the mountainous ski resorts it was quite chilly during the night). We started our Austrian adventure in the south at Rosegg, a pretty little town on the river Drau, conveniently situated right on a cycle path which follows the course of the river and this begins the theme of our stay in this beautiful country - cycle paths! We stayed in the car park by the cemetery, the neighbours are quiet and most cemeteries have a water tap which is very convenient!

Our favourite spot in the mountains- so tranquil

The first impression of Austria is how impeccable it is everywhere, the beautiful chalet style houses, often of pine construction with colourful window boxes and manicured gardens. There is no litter anywhere but one thing astounded us about this rather pristine country, if you go in a bar or restaurant you may encounter a smoky atmosphere. Apparently the smoking ban was overturned by the Freedom party, against the stern advice of the medical profession and cancer charities, notably the leader of the party is a smoker himself! I have to say it was Weird and not very pleasant to go back to the days of sitting in a restaurant next to a smoker, it's like going back in time!

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And then there is the scenery, we fell in love with the breathtaking snow capped mountains, the lush valleys, the fairytale villages and the abundance of clearly way-marked tarmac cycle paths, we arrived in ebike heaven! As we progressed slowly north towards Strasbourg, we were blown away by the stunning beauty, having never been a skier, I now understand the draw of the exhilaration of skiing combined with what has to be the most amazing scenery in the world.  We found plenty of places to park for a night or two without any disturbance, being off season the ski lifts are closed but the car parks make great places to stay! Everywhere we went we were wowed by wonderful views, the hot weather melting the snow from the mountain tops, the meltwater rushing down the hillsides in torrents and falls. One place we stayed next to the river we had to get used to the constant roaring of the gushing water, it was like White noise!

Top of the mountain 5606ft above sea level

One day we cycled up a mountain alongside the ski lift, the road just went up and up past heaps of compacted snow, it was still warm enough for short sleeves, in fact right at the top where the air is thin the sun was really hot! At the summit was a lovely restaurant where we sat and enjoyed a coffee, taking in the superb views. Without our ebikes we would never have made it to so many places we visited. 
We stayed in Austria for over a fortnight and when we left we both felt really sad to be leaving such a wonderful country. One day we will return as we only explored a tiny bit of Austria and just maybe the weather might be as fantastic!

A lovely spot for a picnic lunch!

Hungary, Slovenia and into Austria

Cycling Lake Balaton, Hungary 

As we left Romania and headed through the open border into Hungary we certainly felt that we would return to spend more time in both Romania and Bulgaria on another trip - especially the coast which we had heard lots of good things about. As we travelled into Hungary we could tell we were moving towards Austria and Germany - the roads were in good condition with excellent signposting, the surrounding countryside very tidy and organised, the towns and villages we passed through much more modern.

Lunch! Cheese Langos and chicken filled Gyros

Our first stop was in a car park of an Arboretum at Szekesfehervar, which was right on a cycle path so handy for a pedal off to explore our surroundings. We stayed a couple of nights then headed to the Lake Balaton area and a campsite for a few nights (catch-up on my washing). Hungary is a land-locked country so they make a big thing of the Lake, it's a major tourist attraction with a cycle path which circumvents the lake, on the way are lots of cafes and restaurants with large lawned areas for people to laze in the sun or swim in the lake. We stopped and had lunch, it was lucky they had a menu with pictures because we don't speak a word of Hungarian, it may look like a pizza but the base is entirely different- it's deep fried dough, no wonder it was so tasty! I'm often asked how we get on with language in all these different countries and the answer is that we get by with asking in English first, sign language, pointing at things and Google translate, it also helps if you don't get too disappointed if you don't get quite what you wanted!

Leaving the campsite but not wanting to leave the area we found a Park4night spot in the wine growing area, just a car park but great views across the countryside to the lake, there was also a water fountain nearby with a constant flow of icy cold spring water. We had a very
peaceful night here but the weather changed from hot and sunny to cold and wet so it seemed a good idea to move on into Slovenia. We always try to use bad weather as "down time" for moving on our next destination, unfortunately there was a huge band of rain across Central Europe and from this we could not escape!!

Great place to stay, loads of walks and cycle rides but the rain would not stop!

We easily crossed the border into Slovenia (dusty old border control point with nobody in it!) and headed to the small town of Ruse where we stayed on a dedicated Motorhome parking with free facilities including electric hook-up which was very useful whilst we sat in the van for two days waiting for the rain to stop - which it didn't. At times like this we are eternally grateful for all the films downloaded onto our hard drive (Thanks Paul!)
So once again we hit the road and headed into Austria, here we fell in love with the breathtaking scenery, the snow capped mountains,the lovely towns and villages, but most of all the abundance of amazing cycling on well marked tarmac trails - we also had wonderful weather! Ebike heaven!
Don't miss my next blog post to find out what we got up to in Austria!

Our favourite stopover in Austria at Zedehaus

From Bulgaria to Romania

Crossing the border from Bulgaria to Romania took two hours sitting in a queue of cars and vans, the huge lorries had even longer to wait as all our vehicles and documents were checked (including the vehicle registration) by a rather grumpy official. We also had to pay 6€ for crossing the New Europe border bridge, thankfully they took Euros as we didn't have any local currency. Once we arrived in Romania it felt calm and orderly, the small single storey buildings were tidy and well kept, their gardens well manicured in contrast to the rather scruffy and rundown houses in Bulgaria. One thing that struck us about both countries was that nothing was new (except in the city areas) there is no building work going on and time just seems to have stood still. 

We found the people friendly, although at times they stared at us like we were aliens (which I suppose is true in a way!! 👽) 

For our first stop we parked right by a convent which was a 10 minute walk from the Danube, we stayed a couple of nights and ventured out on our bikes on the riverside track. It was a peaceful place to stay except for the bells in the night calling the nuns to prayer (at 2am - really?!). We then moved on to a campsite which was rustic to the extreme. The photo is the toilet- just a hole with no running water ( no - we didn't use it except to empty our own toilet!) the shower was outside under a water tank (cold water only - for those brave enough to try it) the water into a trough was cold mountain water and flowed continually. 

No electric just a warm smile from the elderly lady and her husband who owned the place, she spoke no English and we spoke not a word of Romanian but we managed to communicate. We paid £3.65 to stay for one night so can't complain! The area was in the mountains and very scenic, it even boasted thermal baths but when we went to see them they were rather crowded with tourists and disappointing so we didn't indulge this time! 

The weather was rainy which hindered our exploring so we moved on to our final stopover, another convent where we were driven mad by the church service being broadcast by loud speaker into the car park, we took ourselves off for a walk into the local bar in the village to escape (it went on for 3 hours!!) we had a couple of beers for 8.80 ROL (about £1.65) - the cost of living is definitely cheaper in Romania.

We got the feeling the Romanians were, on the whole, hard working and conscientious people which I wonder is a throwback from their communist past ( it was a communist country until 1989). Having said that, when we went to the supermarket we didn't leave the van unattended as there were a few dubious looking characters hanging around the car park which made us feeling a bit uneasy. We only stayed for five days, but we both agreed we would like to return to spend more time in this interesting country. 

A typical Romanian home well kept and very brightly coloured!

Leaving Greece we head into Bulgaria

After over five weeks in Greece we head north and cross into Bulgaria. Having never been to this country we didn't really know what to expect, we hoped their roads were less pot-holed and chaotic than Greece and we weren't too disappointed, the main roads were in better condition and the drivers a bit less crazy, but venture off the main roads and many of the side roads were in a terrible state and the van was shaken to bits in all the holes and broken surfaces!

Our first stop was at Rupite where we parked on a grassy area next to another thermal pool, which turned out to be a very interesting place to stop as it was only 1 km from the remains of the ancient city of Heracles Sinitica, built almost two thousand years ago by Philip II (who's Royal tomb we visited in Greece) and once ruled by his son Alexander the Great. We were also right by a park area with a Church, cottage and gardens of a great lady called Vanga who was famous for her prophesies and healing powers. 

We stayed for 2 nights to make the most of the natural Spa with its lovely warm water and green clay for a mud face mask as well as visiting the ruins and Vanga's garden. As you walked to the public area there were market stalls selling local produce - honey, jams, olive oil etc but we didn't have any Bulgarian Lev yet so couldn't buy anything. I had wondered what to do about cash in all the different countries we planned to visit out of the Eurozone, but found the solution- using my pre-loaded cash card (loaded in GBP) we took about £50 worth of cash out from the ATM, that provided a kitty for smaller purchases in the country, larger purchases like in the supermarket or in a restaurant we used the credit card. When we left, any currency we had we used to buy diesel in a garage before we crossed the border. This worked really well for Bulgaria and later Romania and Hungary.

National theatre Sofia

From  Rupite we headed to a Camperstop in Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. The two guys who ran the site couldn't have been more helpful, they even lent us money to pay for a taxi into town where we could get some cash. We had a wonderful day doing the tourist thing wandering around this vibrant city with a whole mix of modern and ancient buildings. We had a huge rainstorm in the afternoon but luckily we missed it! We were having a very nice lunch in a typical Bulgarian restaurant. After a delicious salad starter, the main course we shared was a loaf of bread scooped out and filled with a whole variety of spicy sausages and meatballs. This was followed by a scrumptious desert, after that we were as stuffed as that loaf of bread!
The next day, leaving the Camperstop and our new friends Bobby and George we headed to Romania spending our last night by a quiet lake not too far from the border. It was so tranquil..... but for the constant buzz of all the insects (especially the mosquitoes) needless to say at dusk we stayed in the comfort of our van and admired the view from there!

Lunch Bulgarian style!