Short Break around the Loches International Tandem Rally We have just returned from a lovely holiday touring around the centre of France following on from us joining in the tandem rally at Loches. We visited friends at Deux Chaises, near Montlucon, ex-neighbours from Hanley Road who moved near Perigeux and a lovely couple who stayed with us in May who live near Evreux. In between, we stayed in free motorhome stops and a couple of naturist camping sites. The weather at the begining was a bit wet with sunshine, very wet when we went further south and dry, sunny and warm [View Full Entry]

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A Week's Drive from Cartagena to Folkestone We are now almost finished our trip with stays in Folkestone (Lesley's brother and family) and then Guildford (Anne and Graham/daughter and son in law). We set off from El Portus where we entertained Gerry and William from Devon and fellow members ofour Ringwood naturist club. We had popped in to see them on our way to Plymouth for the ferry in December. They had already booked a holiday in one of the cabins at El Portus for a month starting just as we would be leaving. We popped in to see a cycling [View Full Entry]

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It's Epiphany Greetings to everyone. We are ensconced on a tight campsite at Torre del Mar called Almanat. The weather since Christmas Day has been lovely apart from a couple when it rained but we were moving on then. Today we think it went up to 21°C and we sat drinking at the bar on the beach. We didn't swim though as it is still cold water. We might try before we go if we dare. We have already cycled to Nerja in the east and tomorrow we shall go west to Malaga. It's a bank holiday for Epiphany. Another day [View Full Entry]

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Stopped in El Portus We spent a very pleasant if cold time travelling down through Spain. Bilbao was a wonderful revelation with the Guggenheim at the junction of the river front and the old town. We stayed out on the coast at Sopelena and caught the metro in to the town. Further south we met a bit of drizzly snow and then rain popping in to Gernika, Zaragoza, Teruel and Almanza. We skirted Murcia and then down to Caragena which is about 10 km away. The weather is fine but now cloudy. It's 16°C at lunchtime. Unfortunately, there is huge [View Full Entry]

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Ferry Cancelled We've said goodbye to everyone but have received a message from P&O Ferries letting us know that they are not risking their ferry across the Bay of Biscay to Bilbao on Sunday. The next available is leaving on Saturday 15 December. So we have now booked for Wednesday from Plymouth to Santander which takes only 24 hours instead of 32 from Portsmouth. And soon we shall be letting you know how we are getting along. All the best from Southampton. Michael and Lesley [View Full Entry]

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Ypres or Ieper We had an interesting time looking at the First World War artifacts and information which abounds in Ieper. There is a great and good museum there in the impressive Cloth Hall rebuilt after the desolation in the war. And we then headed down to Vimy Ridge which we knew of from the Somme visit earlier in the summer. It is very impressive. The Canadians have left the battlefield as it was left after the war and opened up the tunnels built into the chalk. It was a great victory for the allies and the Canadians led the [View Full Entry]

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Tandem Rally We had a great time at the rally and met some lovely people and families. Lots of kids but not in the campervan field. They tended to be in tents and caravans. We had good weather for the whole week with just one day with a couple of showers. But even those we avoided by being in the cafe at the time. After that we traveled west into Netherlands exploring campsites and cycle routes in Flevoland and then around Utrecht and Gouda which is a lovely city with some astounding architecture and stained glass. We found a site [View Full Entry]

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The Tandem Rally and into the Netherlands We are doing fine. We finished the tandem rally last week finding some really good weather. We had only one day with rain which we managed to avoid by being in the cafe at the time. We met some lovely people but were amazed at the difference in their contraptions, their ages and the different ways in which they travelled to Osnabruck. We had driven up from Belfort in France where we had stayed at a very out of the way campsite, a club site in a high wood. It was a mean [View Full Entry]

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Via The Canal du Midi to Biarritz This wifi is difficult to find. Even now we cannot connect with the one of a friend. But we came away from the south coast to near Toulouse to a lovely site Domain de St. Laurant not far from the Canal du Midi which Lesley has wanted to see for some time. We explored it all ways and even went to stay with a Servas host (his first ever) in Toulouse. It's a lovely city. He was bit absent minded leaving us waiting for a desert he offered which never arrived nor he [View Full Entry]

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Frpm Versailles to Serignon Plage We have moved on from Versailles where we had a fortunate wifi link in the camping space. Excellent but not to be repeated yet. We have wifi here but we have to go to restaurant or near to get it. Not far from Paris, so they say, is Heliomonde campsite/home to loads of Parisiennes where we stopped in some great sunshine. We went into the pool. Michael hurt his back diving into it. Won't do that again. But it was a lovely site with lots of trees and very peaceful apart from being on the [View Full Entry]

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