23 Into Spain

Friday 8th
We all slept well again, and were ready to move on reasonably early.  Ray had been intrigued by an old coach, which was turned into a MH with a large trailer on the back, and in true Ray form, he ended up speaking to the German man who owned it.  I will let Ray tell all.

Purpose built bus/motorhome and odd looking trailer

(Ray) It’s a funny fact of life, but what realy makes us what we are are the differences and the similarities between us. Today I met a similar (read worse) nut case to myself. As Karen states above I spoke to a guy in what I thought was a converted coach but turned out to be a purpose, one of conversion by the coach manufacturer, “Setra”, who make lots of European buses. This German guy, called Frank for short,  drives this bus all over Europe as a home and a toy hauler. On the back he had a very odd looking trailer (see pic) that intrigued a moron such as myself. Whilst I was putting out the rubbish he was out in his dressing gown and me being the nosey little sod that I am asked him what he had in it.
Frank replied, “Guess”, OK…”sports car”, “Quad bikes”, “Jet skiis”. No was the reply, you will never get it. How about a helicopter, ……or more correctly a gyrocopter.  A WHAAAAT…..yep…. a gyrocopter. Being the nosey little sh!t that I am I asked for a look. He opened up one side door on the trailer and sure as James Bond is 007, there it was, a bright yellow gyrocopter.

I have never seen one in the flesh and was intrigued. We spent the next half an hour talking about flying licences, take off speeds and all sorts of anorack stuff that I like. He made me laugh with his comment to Karen (when I dragged her over for a look) about boys never growing up and their toys getting more expensive (pointing at Wallace hanging off ther back of Lizzy). The man was a an old bearded nut case and I loved him.

We were in Spain pretty much for lunch time, and the ladies of the night were back out on the road.

We were trying to get a picture of them for the blogg and I was being very discreet as Ray did a little detour off themain road, (he wasn’t supposed to but tomtom keeps getting it wrong), anyway, there I am camera almost hidden and we come to a stop at a stop line right infront of them, the fact that we’ve stopped makes them look up, and then the flash went off, we stayed there waiting to get into the main road again, but by now the whole world and his wife were travelling, in separate cars, so we were there for ages, and I could see them discussing something, I’m sure it was something similar to “ we could be in for something kinky with these two and flash photography, or quick call the police and take their index number,” Whichever it was, I couldn’t get under the dash board quick enough.  What we do to entertain you…..

Bad photo. We spent about a minute waiting to get out of a junction whilst she was watching us having seen our flash go off. Karen was trying to climb into the footwell to hide her embarrassment.

We eventually found a lovely campsite on the beach in Blanes, pronounced Blahness.  It is near Llorett de mar which is one of the first places Ray and I went on holiday together, aahh.

It doesent get much better than this...

Leon is starting to settle down now and has started to go outside but not very far at present.

Karen says I can't call him "Stumpy" but I can think it can't |I.

We are set to stay here for a week, just so we can let Leon, and ourselves to some extent, recoup and do housework on the   MH.  And guess what, here we are in sunny Spain, and it’s forcast to rain for the next three days, yeah. Today is warm and windy, but we took out the pedal cycles and cycled around the town.

This one is for Mum - a hairdressers in town (Karens Mums name)

Most of it is shut for the season, but we managed to get some food cooked by a Glaswegian. Having been the only people in our site when we arrived, on returning after our trip it is full of Spanish people, all out for some fiesta which will last till Tuesday. Quiet it isn’t.



(Ray) Er ...actually ...No.. all we can hear is the crashing of waves on the beach 10m away. He  he he

22 A better day

Thursday 7th

From now on all posts by Ray will be in blue - unless we cock it up that is ;-)

Strangely enough, both Ray and I had slept.  We were up early and showered and stowed away ready to go and collect our boy.

 (Ray – Karen found the French unisex shower cubicles interesting – showering next to a Dutch guy in the same room.)

We were in a good spot on the campsite, but unfortunately for us and the size of Lizzy, we were stuck fast on the mud.  We spent ages with me running around putting non slip mats in front of the wheels and Ray desperately trying to get onto the path, unfortunately when we did get to the path, we had perfect slick tyres so we ended up going nowhere, much to the amusement of some of the other MH people.  (Theirs were little MH's and boring,.... and they have to sit outside on their deck chairs in the bad weather) that's my opinion anyway, but as it turned out, the guy behind us who was from Holland (Ray – Karens new shower buddy !), moved out and I supervised, whilst Ray reversed, maneuvered, did tree surgery and kicked mud, ready for new grass seeds to be planted, (we are always happy to assist) we finally got free to go and rescue Leon.

Down back in town, we were back in the supermarket car park.  Ray and I got faster and faster on the walk to the surgery, to see hopefully if  we could pick him up.  The receptionist, as we stated that we were here to collect him, did that "oh, raise the eyebrow, scare me to death", type of look, now I'm expecting bad news look, that both Ray and I thought the worst, however after a couple of minutes the vet came out and took us through to see our boy.  (Girls this is a note for you, this man was gorgeous, French, I know, but he looked after Leon, (tall dark, handsome, with an accent), Magnifique......ohheohheohee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow will do.

(Ray – Whaaaat ?)

Anyway from the previous comments you will know by now that Leon, was good.  He didn't like my new choice of hero, but he was looking loads better. He hissed and tried to look really tough as the vet picked him up, but once he realized Ray and I were there, he completely changed. Whatever the translation, they looked after Leon brilliantly, he came back to Lizzy, and straight away he had a little bit of food and a pee and slept.  Although he looks a bit different, and it is shocking, he is still beautiful and he was back looking to get outside by the end of the day.  The three musketeers are back on the road again.

On a couple of hairpin bends, they had to undercut the cliff face to make enough space....

 (Ray) We drove for hours.  At 7pm we are just past Perpignan parked up in a civilized service area. By civilized, I mean one that actually welcomes you to stay overnight and accommodates accordingly. For example, an area specially set out just for caravans/motor homes to park up in peace away from the transiting cars and lorries and picnic style tables and chairs all laid out inviting you to eat your own food if desired. I have to say that as a Brit, I have always been the stereo typical "we all hate the French" type of ignoramus, but now, after only a few days of having been treated very well and also seeing how the French treat their own people, kind of like everyone looking after each other, I have changed my opinion. Am I finally growing up, God I hope not.

Leon surprised us both, he was subdued when we collected him but as soon as he got back into the familiar surroundings of  Lizzy, he sharpened up and immediately took some food and had a pee. Whilst at the vets, he had not eaten at all. He slept most of the journey up in the loft above the driving seat and when we finally parked up he came out of Lizzy for a short walk with us. He is still very, unsurprisingly, nervous of the outside world, we do not know what actually happened to him and can only speculate between being run over (unlikely due to the location) or being attacked by another animal. He has not yet got used to his 1” tail, instead of the previous steady swish, it now twitches from side to side. I suppose it will settle down when he gets used to it.

Anyway, 10km to the Spanish border, we intend to find a campsite at a place called Blanes on the Mediterranean sea, it’s just past Lorret del mar and 50km north of Barcelona, for those of you that know that area. We have found (in the camping book) a place that is open all year and will likely spend a week there and if we like it, we may stay longer.

21 Austria, Italy and France

Monday 4th
We started off towards Austria. Neither   of us could walk, so we made the best of the driving.  In Austria we had to get Vignette, which is a little box which cost us 80 Euros but we needed it to travel with the size of our vehicle if we went on the motorways.

Leon and friend, chillin...

Ray found an alternative route and we didn’t use any of our credit up and on into Italy.  All went well until we reached a route that took us up over the mountains towards Livigno.  The first hair pin took us by surprise.  Not a good idea to take a 28 foot MH with a trailer on that road.  I will let Ray take over the tale.  Suffice to say, my nerves were shot and I was not driving.

(Ray). Today I completely scared the crap out of myself. We reached a hairpin bend that took us by surprise and I could not get round it. I remember thinking ...Sh!t...I cannot turn around, I cannot reverse  any distance with this trailer and now I cannot go forward. We are stuck !!!!
I managed to reverse back a bit and on my second attempt, we got round. We negociated three more hairpins and decided at the next one that had a bit of space to turn around. We changed a 30km journey into a 230km one. We changed our minds about going to Livigno.

We eventually camped up in a campsite at about 7pm just North of Lake Garda.  The rain had just started and then continued solidly for the next 12 hours.   Neither of us got much sleep. We actually wondered as the campsite was grass, if we would be able to get out of there the following morning.
It is said that for every positive, there is a negative, and after our scares yesterday, all 3 of us were in for a lot more today.

Tuesday 5th
We were on the road by about 7.30am with the intention of getting as far through Italy towards France as we could, so we knew we had a lot of driving to do again.

The wierd mist on Lake Garda

Ray started us off, and again we  ended  up  going  back down a mountain pass, which was okay when we just met cars coming the opposite direction, but unluckily for us, we met three large tourist buses in the narrowest part of a tunnel.  We were so close to the rock face, and then we heard the horrible crunching sound as the side of the MH dragged along the rock. Everyone was trying to reverse so that we could all get through, which we did, but it was really frightening and Ray did brilliantly.  At the bottom of the pass, we pulled over, and although upset that we had damaged the vehicle, were grateful that it was only the awning cover that had been scratched and the end cover pulled off.  We carried on and stopped for coffee, after that I took over the driving, and although the roads were narrow, I got the easy bit.  We were quite surprised on route through the little towns, that at cross roads and roundabouts, and railway crossings, we kept seeing   women at the side of the road.  It turned out that these were “ladies of the night”, out in the daytime.  For one of them, obviously business was slow as she had brought along her own chair and was sitting quite happily on the roundabout.  Further along, all the railway workers had stopped for “lunch”. We saw girls being dropped off and lots of the little white work vans parked up. 
We needed to get some fuel for the vehicle, and pulled into one of the garages. They are all self service, and that means that you pay the machine and then you can get your fuel.   Ray put 50 Euros into the machine, and when he tried the pump, nothing happened.  There are no attendants or anyone to ask, and after the day we were having, we were both set to start swearing and throw a hissy fit each.  I luckily, realized that it was a game of “spot the pump which was lit up” and after some more maneuvering, we got our fuel. 

Cute road blocks

We stopped again and let Leon have a little stroll on the mountain and drove right on through till about 7 again.

Leon strolling around beside a mad hairpin bend that we stopped at.

Awesome scenery

We had been looking for campsites, but most were closed for the season, however in France, which was where we were by now, there are public car parks where you can stay overnight for free, so we pulled in.  The setting was lovely again with the mountains all around us and a little river.
 We were in a place called   L’Argentiere, and Leon liked it, had a little stroll again and then we all settled for the night.

The view from Lizzy at L'Argentirre

Just before bedtime, it has become custom for Leon to have a quick walk before we close down for the night, and tonight was no exception.  He had been gone a wee while, and when I called him, there was no response.  I got my torch out and went searching for him, still with no luck and got Ray involved as well.  We had been completely alone in this park, but whilst searching I came across a bloke who had a large Rottweiler  type dog with him, sitting down the side of a car which was hidden from our view.  The dog was pretty vocal when I got close, and in my limited French asked if he had seen a small cat.  He responded in the negative, so I turned round to return to the MH and saw Leon just climbing into it.  I had been starting to get a bit fraught, because it was so unlike him, and called to Ray and went to tell the wee man he was grounded.  I looked into the MH and can only tell you the horror I felt when I looked at Leon.  His tail was hanging on by a thread, and his left eye was weeping.  I screamed to Ray to come and help, and basically I became the most useless person on the planet.   Ray sparked into action and we had to take off the tail.  Leon was going into a bit of shock, and I was in total shock.  He is my little boy and I couldn’t stand to see him in such a state.  We bandaged it up and in our limited French we tried all possible ways to get an emergency vet on the phone.  It was 11pm, French time and eventually spoke to a vet who spoke no English but said we could come to him.  We looked out his address and although we thought it would take us only 20 minutes to get to him, it turned out that it would be nearer and hour.  Ray phoned him to let him know and he told us he couldn’t help, that was too long.   Leon was very quiet and I was really upset.  We cleaned him up and decided that the best thing to do would be to drive to the next big town, which was Gap and take him to a vet first thing in the morning, if he survived.  Gap was over 60K’s away and it was the longest journey we had made.  I knew that I wouldn’t get any sleep when we got there,  or  until we got help for Leon.  In Gap we headed to the center of town to find the tourist information office, in the hope that there would be some information about a vet, and as I sat with Leon, Ray was actually approached by some French Police Officers.  Ray explained our situation and they did no more than told us to follow them and they took us to the Police Station.  There, they phoned a 24 hour vet, and told us again to follow them, they would take us to the vet, who would be with us in ten minutes.  It was a very surreal situation. We were in our 28 foot MH with trailer, speeding after a Police car through the deserted streets of Gap at 2.30 in the morning, one very sick cat, and one very red swollen eyed female, still sobbing her heart out.  30 years in the force, did not help me deal with that.  True to their word, they took us to the vets, and he arrived in less than 10 minutes.   He took one look at Leon and stated that he would need  what was left of his tail amputated, checked his eye and stated that it was shock and small trauma, it would be alright.  Large doses of antibiotics and iodine later, Leon was kept in for his operation the following morning, and Ray and I parked up in the car park of a local supermarket so that we could get back to him about 11am.  It was a long night for me.
Wednesday 6th
We were at the vets by 11.  The Vet has been lovely and showed us Leon.  Poor soul was still under the anesthetic so we were told to come back between five and six.  Needless to say, we were there at five on the dot and again were shown Leon.  He was still very dazed and the vet told us that because he is an older cat, his temperature had dropped and he was not responding as quickly as a younger cat would.  He wanted to keep Leon in another day, and that’s where we are at the moment.  For me it is another  long  night and I am really struggling with being positive about it.    We are both just trying to keep busy.

On a positive note, we can’t thank the Police and the vet enough for all their help.

20 Garmish Partenkirchen

Saturday 2nd
Upped sticks again, we had played with the idea that we would go to Magny Cours in France for the last round of the World Super Bikes, but it was over 900 kilometers away and we felt that it was too much for one day. Plus we couldn't face the look on Leon’s face after the day before, when we'd driven over 500 k.  So we had a look at the map and decided we would have another couple of days in Germany with more curry wurst and found a lovely little campsite just outside Garmisch Partenkirkchen.  A couple of hours later there we were in beautiful sunshine, mountains in front and behind our Lizzie and loads of space for Leon to explore. I think we are forgiven.

En-route, our first sight of the Alps

Ray setting up

The view in the other direction

Leon being taken for a walk

We went into the town, which is really beautiful.  It is like stepping back in time and guess what, they were having their own Oktober Fest.  We obviously had to join in and there we were eating Wurst and drinking beer, singing along to a German Folk band and having the time of our lives.  I must say at this time, they really do know how to enjoy life, and the number of people who have taken the time to dress up in the German National costume, is amazing.  It was the same at Munich, all the girls in their costumes which are mostly checked dresses over lacy tops which manage to enhance the bosom, and aprons, all varying lengths, and the guys in lederhosen.... I'll leave it there.
Back to the town, all the buildings are beautifully painted and all the shops look far more enticing with their displays.  We loved every minute, but we are a little bit biased.

Pig head.....!

That box is actually a musical instrument !

We returned back to Lizzie with a view of coming back out in the evening, (see piccy of beautiful sunset) but we were shattered and ended up having an early night. As it turned out, that was a really good idea, especially when I discovered what Ray had in store for me the next day.

Sunday 3rd

Woke up to beautiful sunshine and warmth, lovely, and a cup of tea in bed, should have got suspicious then.....only joking, I'm very lucky in that it is a daily treat from my husband. (It's a costly treat I have to tell you in the long term). 
We had seen that on the mountain in front of our Lizzie, were a couple of platforms that came out of the mountain and were hanging over the cliff.  It is called The AlpspiX Viewing Platform, and is two platforms, one above the other, that cross each other in mid air and poke out above the cliff 25 feet, over an abyss. We drove to the bottom of the the Zugspitze mountain and bought one way tickets on the cable car.  Ray thought it would be great to walk down, I agreed, god some days I don't know what I'm thinking.
The journey up was fantastic and we could see Lizzie in the valley below.  We are used to going up in cable cars, but normally everything is white. (Skiing, for those that didn't get that).

Lizzy is thr big white van in the centre above the road

At the top curry wurst, pomme frits (fat sausage and chips, with curry sauce)  and water later,(yes I know it really was water) we set off to go to the platform.

We should have chosen this route down.

I can only speak for myself here, I was fine as I stepped out onto it but when the kids started rocking it I felt very scared. I could look down through the grill I was standing on and I could see the rocks down below, in my head I knew I was safe, but my body was screaming get off. I would be brilliant in a disaster movie.

(Ray) My take on it was: I, despite my dubious past, cannot stand heights. To stand out on a wobbly platform full of screaming kids was my nemesis. We needed to take some more photos, so I decided it would be a good idea to send Karen back out so I could take the photos, whilst I was on terra firma. I'm not as daft as I make out!

With bellies full and shattered nerves recovering, we decided to make a move for the bottom. I looked at the very confusing wall map for routes back down and guessed that it would take 2-3 hours to get back down. We set off and the path started very steep, so much so that every step was slow and deliberate. We thought quite incorrectly that it would level out somewhat. It went down and down and down and seemed to go on forever.

Ray remebered the keys this time. These are Stinkhorns.

We had one stop and a restaurant for a beer about half way, but bloody hell it was hard. My humungous legs were knackered, I could only guess how Karen felt, her knee gave up at about 3/4 distance and she gained some huge blisters on her big toes. However, despite the fact that her problems slowed her down, she kept her dogged determination up and struggled on to the end. About 5 hours after setting off, we arrived at Wallace and Karen said she had never been so pleased to see a motorcycle.
5 minutes later, helmets on, I threw my leg over the bike and almost fell straight off, much to the amusement of a group of passing Germans. We then drove back to Lizzy and collapsed with only enough energy to drink beer whilst writing this blog.
Tomorrow, we are off to Italy via Austria, so its pack up time with Wallace on his trailer and all the other bits sorted and off to bed to try to gain some use of our legs for the 250km drive in the morning.

19 Munich

Tuesday 28th

Today I finally lost patience with the fact that the cupboards and drawers were all so full of the things I couldn't possibly live without, and that had never been used, that I made Ray take me to the local hard ware store and get storage boxes and drawers that would help tidy everything up, and surprisingly we threw out a lot more rubbish.  It has taken a while to adjust to our new life and strangely it is very cleansing.  After a long night doing the sorting out, we are far more efficient and lighter.
I had to take Leon to the vet's to make sure he was completely ready with all his jabs and stuff, as we have decided to go to Europe as of Thursday.  We are totally fed up with the weather that we have chased around and are going sun hunting.  The vet described Leon as the youngest and healthiest 14 and a half year old cat she had ever seen, so we are off on the ten 0'clock ferry to Dunkerque on Thursday morning.

Wednesday 29th

Ray bought Leon  a disc with his name a phone number on it. He looks cool.
We are getting visitors today, so I did all the house work and made sure we looked like we take care of the place other than do a pub report for the blogg.  My brother and his partner Tim came down to Ashford to see us and our motor home, as life had prevented the time being right before.  It was a fantastic night.  Tim drove us into Ahsford and we were searching out a curry house via Ray's Zumo sat nav.  We ended up asking a little Indian chappie, sat in the street if he knew where the curry house was, and apparently he said, Curry Leaf and started to walk along the road, beaconing us to follow, John and I were bringing up the rear and thought he said, I'll give you a lift to which we both thought no way am I getting in a car with him. John and I started shouting to Ray that there is one over there as Ray and our little fellow turned into a door way.   As it turned out, there were two Indians within a nats of where we stood, and I have to say the other one looked far better, with old beams and listed building style, and our little fellow took us into a more modern building that had only half the character of the other.  However the food, drink and company was brilliant, and I have to say a good time was had by us all.

Thursday 30th

Thursday morning we were up and off to Dover for the ferry.  The weather was glorious and we had a lovely trip over to France, then, began our long journey to Munich for the Oktoberfest. We drove through a bit of France, Belgium,  Luxembourg and into Germany. We were aiming for a little place called Trier and landed at about 8pm our time, 9pm by theirs so it was a long day.  We weren't at a campsite as we know it, but a hugh car park for an industrial estate. There are no fee's or services but there was a huge McDonalds and it was just a short walk into town.  I'm not sure what Leon thought of his first steps on European soil, however he still went off exploring. I should add that having left a glorious day in Dover, by the time we hit Germany, it was raining again, I could begin to start taking it personally. We needed to go into town for the bank and do a wee bit of shopping so off we wandered, managed the bank and then found a lovely little German pub. We popped inside, the air was thick with cigarette smoke and the bar was a bit of an international affair, with, German, Russian and Polish people in there and then there was us.  For both Ray and me, Germany is like a pair of comfortable slippers, Ray served here when he was in the Army, and I lived here as a child, when my Dad was in the Army. We both have a smattering of German words, so soon became involved in conversation with our new best Polish Friend, Darek.  It did help that he spoke a little bit of English. It was quite surreal, because the Russian joined in, Darek also spoke that and we were having conversations in 4 languages.  Having popped in for one, 2 hours later and the shopping forgotten, we headed off to bed.  It was a great way to start the European jaunt. The bar was run by a lovely woman called Sandra.

Darek, Sandra, Ray

The bar...

A drunk cuddling the cat

The public "campsite"

Friday 1st October

Another early start, and on down to Munich for the Oktoberfest.  We hadn't booked a campsite so headed for one that we found in our trusty tom tom.

I am gonna get you back for this, I havent been out all day

It was another full day of driving and on reaching our first choice, it was completely full, however they did direct us to one over to the west side of town.  We had to negociate the centre of town, I use the term "we" loosely, I sat very quietly thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't driving. Ray did a great job and we arrived at the recommended one, which again was only for MH's and covered a vast amount of ground.

Lots of room and thousands of noisy Italians

 
We had electricity here so it was slightly more user friendly, however, it was one of the more expensive, presumably because of the festival.  It was a little bit hectic here for Leon, but again, off he went, I can't believe the change in this boy, he is really enjoying his new life.
After setting up, it was off to quaff some steins of beer and eat curry wurst.  We managed to get to the "fest" with some help from our new best, Swiss, Italian and American Friends. They helped us get the right train tickets, told us what station to get off at, and if that wasn't enough, bought us our first beer of the night.

One of those bottles was Ray's ...honest

Just like the London tube escalators...not. Smiles and happy people...oh and bosoms...

There are some very nice people out there.
We had a wonderful time, the atmosphere was brilliant.  The only thing I would say was the last time we were here we were able to get into the tents and join in the fun, this time it seemed to be more corperate and by reservation, but we were able to stay in the beer gardens and enjoy.

 

We actually went into the funfair this time and went on the big wheel to take some pictures to try and let you see the scale of the place, and then just for fun we went on a  water log flume, and were lucky not to get too wet, but had loads of fun.

Just let me sup up will you....

Let the action begin....

How an I doing so far....

It all closed down at 11pm so we were hoarded onto the U Bahn, (Germany's equivalent of the tubes in London, except everyone is happy, absolutely nothing to do with the beer).  It was a bit like when we'd policed the football games and concerts in London, it was weird being on the other side.
We both slept well that night, even with all the parties going on around us, and the Italians laughing loudly and telling jokes at shouting level.