Two hours from Calais and beyond - First timers abroad (in MH).

[daveclare]

Apologies, it was Tossa not Lloret.

 

[Momac]

Have you been to Barcelona? You seem very close....it's a fabulous city. Can highly recommend Camping Barcelona at Mataro. ACSI 2395. Free bus from site into Barcelona, lovely swimming pool, free wifi. Pitches numbered 1 - 5 are the best, with a sea view

 

[Julspur]

Hi Clair and Dave, have been reading your journey info and very funny. We are off the France next Sunday 18th October for the first time like yourselves. Very nervous, because it is something completely different. Can I ask if when staying not on sites, but on aires you are allowed to lower your hydraulic legs? What are you allowed to do on an aire, i.e can you get a chair out? Thank you very much. Where are you now? Julie

 

[LesW]

What are you allowed to do on an aire, i.e can you get a chair out?

It depends entirely on the particular aire that you stay on.

Some allow, and even have picnic areas, others may not have the space to do this.

Used one of the apps available and read the reviews.

 

[Clarky]

Hi Clair and Dave, have been reading your journey info and very funny. We are off the France next Sunday 18th October for the first time like yourselves. Very nervous, because it is something completely different. Can I ask if when staying not on sites, but on aires you are allowed to lower your hydraulic legs? What are you allowed to do on an aire, i.e can you get a chair out? Thank you very much. Where are you now? Julie

When in Rome France do as the French do.

Although the strict rule may be no 'camping behaviour' the French tend to deal with such rules as guidance only.
As long as there is space and you're not blocking someone else’s pitch nobody is likely to bother.
Some Spanish towns tend to be rule followers with no tables/ chairs etc but I think that’s mainly for parking on highways.
Just follow the locals.

A typical aire.

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[daveclare]

Hi Clair and Dave, have been reading your journey info and very funny. We are off the France next Sunday 18th October for the first time like yourselves. Very nervous, because it is something completely different. Can I ask if when staying not on sites, but on aires you are allowed to lower your hydraulic legs? What are you allowed to do on an aire, i.e can you get a chair out? Thank you very much. Where are you now? Julie

Hi Julie, as others have said, just go with the flow. Self levellers were out at every stop. Awning out at most with table and chairs. From reading many other first timers posts, the concensus is we wished we'd done it years ago. You'll have fab time, especially with the fountain of knowledge from those who've been there and done it. Some Aires have been as good, or better than some sites we've stayed at. Small town ones are also great. Enjoy it all while you can.

 

[daveclare]

Forgot to add, we're now in a place with a great name, Peniscola. Never to old to have a chuckle at that! Our site is just off the main drag with beach across the road and many restaurants within a very short walk. Very busy here, heard someone say it was a Spanish holiday.

 

[daveclare]

Have you been to Barcelona? You seem very close....it's a fabulous city. Can highly recommend Camping Barcelona at Mataro. ACSI 2395. Free bus from site into Barcelona, lovely swimming pool, free wifi. Pitches numbered 1 - 5 are the best, with a sea view

Thanks for the info. Already passed there, but as with other great suggestions, it's on the list for future trips. Because this definitely won't be the last.

 

[daveclare]

Had a walk into the main drag tonight. Fantastic walled town with really quaint streets filled with many small restaurants.

Twenty thousand steps today. Had to have a mojito to address the balance.

 

[daveclare]

Just been out for a ride along the coast and found a neat wild camping stop if anyone is interested. Details on one of the photos.

As close to the sea as you could get.

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[daveclare]

Went into the walled town again last night. Found a little tapas bar specialising in all things Bellota Iberico. Went all out for the full experience. Vegies beware. The below photo contains a lot of meat. Accompanied by black truffle cheese. Of coarse had to have some veg, patatas bravas.

 

[daveclare]

We've moved from the town with the fun name and have arrived in..........Benidorm. Never been here before and never planned to come here. After weeks of quiet aires and sites, we fancied something totally different. In addition, we'd read so many contrasting opinions of the place, some quite strong that we thought "let's go and make our own minds up."

We went for a drink on the front which is about a 15 minute walk away.

Tonight we went for proper Spanish tapas, with lots of Spanish there too. Right in the heart of the old town. Food was great and to be honest matched tapas we've had in other rural areas of Spain.
Don't want this thread to be a discussion on the likes and dislikes of Benidorm. Just wanted to keep peeps updated as to where we're visiting on our travels.

 

[Hirsch]

Great thread this.

Thanks

 

[daveclare]

Having left Benidorm, we've moved a bit down the coast and are about 15km from Torrevieja in LoMonte. Arrived to the dulcid tones of Tom Jones.!!

Some school of life and you can make your own mind up on some of it:

1. When you arrive on site make sure you've filled up with water before getting everything out and setting up, including leveling up.
2. It takes a few trips to the single tap nearest you, to fill a 200 litre water tank, with a watering can and bucket.
3. There are one or two dirty b**tards in this world who don't clean up after emptying their toilet waste.
4. Be prepared to rub shoulders with many Spanish in the Tapas scrum.
5. An area where people come up to you in the street offering drugs, is to be avioded.
6. The shopping area in Benidorm has police patrols. Whilst the area where they openly offer drugs for sale doesn't. I wonder why!
7. Avoid pitches at the bottom of a hill when biblical rain is forecast.

And finally,
8. It's comforting to see an area you'll never visit again in the rear view mirror of the MH.

And finally, finally,
9. I didn't know they had Tuk Tuk drivers in some Spanish towns.

 

[daveclare]

Goodbye to Lo Monte.

School of life:

1. Just because there are many hundreds of apartments and villas near your site, does not mean there are many restaurants or bars nearby.
2. Places with hundreds of apartments and villas, can actually be totally deserted and quite eerie when trying to find somewhere to have a nice drink/meal!
3. Lots of cats in a site can mean a few things. Two of which are rats and cat crap. Didn't see any rats, but saw plenty of cat crap. Because the grit they use on the pitches looks incredibly like cat litter. Not the sort of thing you want sticking to your flip flops!!!
4. It pays to listen to experienced motorhomers/tuggers when they say a certain place isn't nice to drive through, or stay.

Hello to Camping El Quinto. One night stopover. No photo, no awning out. To be honest the car park at the top of Mojacar Pueblo looked more attractive and easier to navigate.

School of life:
6. Having a 360 camera set up is great, all round vision really helps with tight sites and pitches, but they can't see everything. Like trees which have been expertly trimmed to cause as much damage as possible to your windows and everything on the roof. I wonder if anyone does roof mounted camera set ups. Erase stupid thoughts immediately to prevent MH dashboard looking like BBC production suite.

Hello to Balerma. Hello to a campsite placed strategically between what looks like a plastic tarpaulined Ghetto. Just because the review says 'only 700 metres from the beach', doesn't mean it's a nice place. Well I bet parts of Beirut after a bombing raid are only 700metres from the beach. A swift goodbye to Balerma. Hello to Roquetas de Mar. Goodbye to Roquetas de Mar almost immediately.

School of life:
6. Please see no.4 above. Just blinkin listen to others before trying to make your own mind up, which coincidentally agrees with what the experienced motorhomer told you in the first place. Which was "Almeria is just one big plastic covered region".

Hello to campsite near motril. Oh bloody hell! not another one that looks ok from the outside and on google maps, but sad, tired and very tight for a 7.5m MH on the inside. Thankfully only for one night. What is it with these sites which contain knackered old caravans, covered by netting resembling an old tarts stockings after a heavy night out on the tiles? Littered with dust laden multiple plant pots and at least twenty, two litre water bottles filled with rancid looking water. Sadly waiting for their owners to return and switch on the multiple and very dodgy wired lanterns.

Three rubbish sites (IMHO) on the trot means MUST DO BETTER when looking for next one near Granada. Next year we'll be ready with a full bank of Lithium and more solar, ready for a wild(ish) camping trip around europe.

Note to self

Get off your bottom, get out of the MH and actually have a walk around the site to look at pitches BEFORE paying the money to stay.

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[daveclare]

Goodbye to Granada.

School of life:
1. It always pays to get to a popular site early, such as the one near the Alhambra. Not the car park (world's most expensive wild campsite), but the Camping Granada site.

We arrived about 12 in the afternoon and there were quite a few spaces left. I popped my head into the garage to unload the scooter and 'hey presto' the place was full of Frenchies. Which in itself is no problem. Until large groups of them smoke what can only be described as the most rancid smelling cigarettes on earth today. Not nice.

2. Just because a set meal is €9.95 for three courses, doesn't mean all three courses will taste nice.

3. Sometimes it's very difficult to sleep when you've eaten a meal (6 hours earlier!!) that they haven't invented an indegestion tablet for yet, that'll provide degestinal relief.

4. It's always advisable to empty the toilet cassette before coming home filled with a meal that just won't go away.

Hello to Alcorrin. Nice site right on the beach. First real contact with multiple British motorhomes in weeks. Again self levelling coming into its own.

 

[daveclare]

Forgot to add had a very nice tapas night out in Granada.

 

[daveclare]

Food has been good and bad so far in our trip. Some really nice ones.

And drinks too!

 

[daveclare]

Goodbye to Alcorrin.

School of life:
1. Do not, repeat, do not, forget to unhook EHU cable from mains before lowering self levelling and attempting to drive out of pitch. Thankfully everything was intact. It just pulled the plug out rather quickly which overtook us as I drove out!!

In my defence I was trying to work out how to avoid the low-hanging branches from more expertly trimmed 'roof architecture' killing trees.

Instead of heading west to Cadiz, we had to slowly make our way home as daughter has started a new job and Charlie the Labradoodle needs human contact otherwise he'll combust with separation anxiety.

"Yes sir we may be able to help. It'll be £400 a month for the medication which may or may not help him. That's for life", said the vet.

Sod that he can watch replays of the Dog Whisperer on Really and self council.

Anyway back to the trip home. Hello to Avila. Small aire 44 vans all Spanish except us and a Dutch one. Fantastic walled town with 13th century walls still intact.

Aire not far away at all. Goodbye to Avila.

Hello to San Sebastian. Aire 4km from old town was rammed but managed to get one of two last pitches.

 

[daveclare]

Goodbye San Sebastian.
School of life:
If there is more than one pitch, have a look at the vans either side. Pick one where there isn't a knackered old van with a knackered diesel heater exhaust pointing your way. Why? Because a sound like a vulcan bomber jet engine starting at 6am is quite an annoying inconvenience.

Hello to saint Jean d'angely. A quiet little town aire. Only two MH's. Short walk to town. Not much to say about this place. One thing that we both felt was the freezing weather, after 8 weeks of hot climate.

Goodbye Saint Jean. Hello Evreux. Campingcarpark.com place, which wouldn't let us in when we scanned the card. Quick call soon sorted it.

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[daveclare]

Goodbye to Evreux. Our next stop was to be Le Touquet. However, on route we passed near Montreuil-sur-Mer and thought we'd have a look at the aire there. As we'd already spent four hours visiting E'leclerc, Carrefour and Leroy Merlin, filling every available space in Elsie the motorhome (it's reg. no. thing!) with many French delights both liquid and solid. We thought as it was getting dark and there was one space left, that we'd stop there instead of heading on to Le Touquet. This would leave us with an equally short trip back to eurotunnel Calais the next morning.

So after our last night in France, with the heating on full blast, whilst still trying to acclimatise to the much colder weather 'up north', we headed back to the train with a few hours to spare. Not really knowing how long it would take and expecting French customs to search everything and everywhere due to 'Napoleon Macaroons fishing rights envy', we were pleasantly surprised to get through everything in about ten minutes. That's from arriving at check in to getting to the lanes for loading.

We've only used eurotunnel four times so far and on every occasion we've always got on an earlier train for free and with little fuss. Long may this continue.

So that's it. Our first foray into Europe with a motorhome is over. For the next two weeks or so, anyway. We're still emptying stuff we've bought on our travels, four days after getting back. So what is the final school of life summary?

1. Travelling in the motorhome is amazing, exciting, frightening (please see hairpin trauma post), tiring (too long driving), relaxing (comfy seat, 9 speed auto, cruise control, toilet & kettle close at hand) and many other adjectives including fantastic!

2. When you eventually meet Brits abroad, everybody seems to be in an equally good mood. Willing to pass on their experiences and knowledge and also share a drink/meal or two. So thank you to those few we met along the way. The funsters know who they are

3. It doesn't matter if your original plans go awry. So what, we didn't get to Croatia as originally planned. We still had a fab time visiting France, Italy and Spain.

4. The rubber covered steel barriers protecting French toll booth machines from vehicles hitting them can catch you unaware. The less said about this, the better. But soon we'll post our experience of Autoglass or should that be Autocrap!

5. Sat navs can be brilliant and absolute rubbish in equal measure! As many wise 'sages' on here have stated.

6. Even when you've got unloading and setting up on the pitch down to a fine art. The moment your bum hits the chair, you survey your surroundings and take that first sip of tea/Aperol/wine, is special. AND with a motorhome, you get to do it over and over again.

7. French, Italian and Spanish flies, are as equally annoying as those everywhere else. At one of our early stops I wondered why the Dutch guy was sunbathing with a fly swatter. Not for long though!

8. If you don't like a site, you can leave. Simple as that.

9. France is very motorhome friendly. You can dump waste and fill up at the supermarket. Even some villages/towns will accommodate you for free.

10. When you put your foot down, the motorhome can go through a fair amount of Adblue and diesel.

And finally:

If you don't use up all of your 90 days, you can go back in a few weeks to visit the Christmas markets.

Yippee!