Vinnie Van Goes

Oct-Dec

We meet all kinds of weathers in Tuscany!

We left Mantua early on Saturday morning, after another wet night, and drove 200 miles to Tuscany.  We had decided it was time to explore somewhere different.  We eventually drove up some hills, more windy roads, to San Galgano which has an abbey which is supposedly one of the most

Oct-Dec

Culture and Pasta

We left Colico with the sun shining and headed down the lake and into rain!  We had decided to visit a couple of places on the River Mincio listed on drive 7 in our book. We arrived (100 + miles later a 1/3 of it tunnel!) at the aire at

Oct-Dec

Stunning scenery at Lake Como

After a very wet night we woke up on Tuesday morning to fantastic views of the surrounding mountains so we rushed out to walk the dogs - just in case it all disappeared.  Luckily the sun came out so we could enjoy the scenery all day.  When we walked the

Oct-Dec

Exploring the lakes

While we were exploring a motorhome had arrived and parked in the space in front of us, however, so close that we could not leave without them moving as we needed to roll down our tyre ramps forward. After a quick chat they confirmed they would be leaving by 10am

Oct-Dec

The sexiest lake in Italy?

Dawn broke with more mist and cloud however by the time we had eaten breakfast and walked the dogs it had begun to clear and we got some super views across the mountains. We set off for the Simplon Pass to Italy not really knowing what we were letting ourselves

Oct-Dec

Decisions, decisions....

We woke up in the morning to thick cloud so we could not see the fantastic view from the fromagerie car park. After subjecting Charlotte to a Vincent shower we drove down to the lake to have breakfast at Saint Aubin Port. We all enjoyed eggy bread and then decided

Oct-Dec

Views from the wanderweg

We woke up early planning to get to the next campsite before the rugby started. But when we got up the view over the lake was stunning and we spent a long time standing by the lake talking to a British family so we ended up staying at the campsite

Oct-Dec

Cow bells and paragliders

We woke to a beautiful morning with views across the vines covered in mist. Bridget went for a run (without getting lost!) and then met Mike at the end of his dog walk, before he went to the boulangerie to buy breakfast. We then left to drive to Basel, via

Oct-Dec

Alsace Wine and Gingerbread Houses

On Tuesday morning we explored the forest around Mittelbergheim via a two hour walk that took us up to a fantastic viewpoint (Rocher Sainte-Richards), a ruined castle (Chateau d'Andlau) and back amongst the vines - all before breakfast for the dogs - woops! We then left the dogs

Oct-Dec

Old castles and beer

Our night in Montherme was not brilliant as it poured with rain and  some 'worse for wear' locals were quite noisy at 2am and 6am. The boulangerie van then arrived beeping his horn at 8.30am and Mike just managed to rush out to buy our breakfast before

Oct-Dec

And we are off again!

Our journey began with a drive in the pouring rain down to the Camping and Caravanning Club site right be the sea in Folkstone. Once parked we enjoyed a great walk along the coast before returning to Vincent to cook a lovely meal of harissa chicken with chickpeas and couscous.

France

France - Our stops and the route

Here is a short post which shows our stops and our route in September.  We travelled over 1,500 miles and only stayed more than more than one night in 2 places, Chartres and Amiens. 7/9/2019 - Le Tréport - Camping Municipal les Boucaniers 8/9/2019 -

France

Following the Somme River

On Friday we decided to walk into Amiens without the dogs. It took us 45mins to walk down the river to the town and then 15mins to get to Notre-Dame Cathedral (an UNESCO World Heritage site). It is huge! Apparently it could hold two cathedrals the size of Notre Dame

France

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink!

So we woke to a small leak in the loo from the roof which we mopped up and decided to drive to get some breakfast. When we moved Vincent the small leak turned into a deluge as water which had obviously formed a puddle on the roof cascaded down the

France

We are (nearly) all going on a Boar hunt!

The next morning we decided to go for a walk down the canal but opted to leave Mitzy in Vincent for a rest. At the bridge at Saint Oulph we opted for the 10k. As we turned the corner we came across a 'Danger Boar Hunt Season' sign

France

Chablis and Burrs

We headed into Chablis for breakfast. We managed to find a nice big car park and then walked to the Boulangerie with the dogs and discovered a 'Balade des Grands Crus de Chablis' which we decided to do after the tasting. After the biggest Pain au Chocolat on

France

Art trail

We left our France Passion site before breakfast as we decided we needed to let the dogs have a roam so headed towards Loches. Luckily we found a convenient aire on the way then continued our journey. We parked at a great aire by the river in Loches and walked

France

France Passion

We left the 'Slow Camping' site and headed down the Loire to find a nice place to walk. We stopped at St-Saturnin-sur-Loire which had a convenient aire by the church and also a clearly marked 6k circular walk - perfect! The walk took us through some woods, across

France

Bourgueil to Angers for Power

We woke in the morning in our little vineyard to a beautiful sunrise. The dogs had a lovely time exploring the area whilst we enjoyed a cup of tea then fresh peaches and muesli. We now had no power (!) so we decided to pack up and head towards a campsite

France

France - Vaas to Bourgueil

We left our private spot and drove down the south side of the Loir towards Le Lude passing more sleepy villages of cave houses. We had pinpointed a campsite near Marcon by the Loir with a lake which we thought looked good. We arrived whilst it was closed for lunch

France

France - to Troo and Vaas

We had some fun with the power in Vincent while writing the blog the evening before the leisure battery died completely with a alarm going off (the one in the main van not the engine).  We quickly unplugged everything but it did not seem to recover! Not a good thing

France

France - 1st trip - south from Chartres

We planned to leave at 9 but woke at 8.30! After yummy eggy bread (the best way to use up old English bread ) we left Chartres at 10.30 and headed south with a plan to stop in Chateaudun for lunch. We got to the small FREE aire sited

France

France - 1st trip - Days 1-5

A little drama This is the first post in a while as we have had a bit of drama in the household.  We were due to travel to France and onwards on the 12th September however Bridget slipped and fell when cycling, on the 19th August, and after a trip

Northumberland

Northumberland - the Final Route

I wanted to conclude the holiday with a track of our route. It proved slightly more difficult than I expected as I cannot download, but only view the route plotted by the tracker installed in Vincent.  Therefore I needed to 1) plot the route in Google Maps, 2) create a

Northumberland

Northumberland - Days 10 & 11 - Hadrian's Wall and Sherwood Forest

Day 10 - Wednesday was our last full day in Northumberland and we decided to walk eastwards today and caught the bus to Greenhead which is about 5 miles west of the campsite. We had an really nice cup of coffee and bought 2 cakes - ate one and kept