Italians: Lovely people face to face but put them behind the wheel of a car and they become wanna-be F1 drivers with the temperament of a Doberman in a used car yard at night. We encountered some of the worst drivers in Italy, passing on double lines making their own centre lanes only to brake suddenly in front of you and turn off 50m ahead!! In fairness they weren't as bad as we had heard they could be...only got beeped and flashed a handful of times when we couldn't go any faster. We entered Italy via the Dolomite mountain range. A [View Full Entry]

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From Lichtenstein we did a huge day of driving involving the passage through three countries to get to the lovely city of Salzburg in Austria. We did spend most of this in Austria seeing some of the countries beautiful landscape around Innsbruck. We arrived in the late afternoon and after a quick bite headed into town on our bikes to see the city by night. Another pretty European city of course, set on a picturesque river we were again charmed. Concluded the night with a couple of steins at a somewhat touristy but tasty beer hall/restaurant accompanied with a hearty cholesterol [View Full Entry]

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There isn’t really that much to see in Lichtenstein but seeing as it is its own country (the 6th smallest in the world) we thought it at least deserved its own blog. Actually we mainly just wanted to tick it off the countries visited map! We spent a night just out of the capital Vaduz, which was pretty and very small. We walked up to the Prince’s castle but as he actually resides there we obviously didn’t get a look inside. Unfortunately neither of us needs dentures just yet which was a huge shame, Lichtenstein being the world’s biggest producer of [View Full Entry]

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The Swiss are very friendly people! We arrived in Geneva at around lunch time but couldn’t check into our campsite till after lunch so spent some rest time catching up on our novels. When reception opened we were greeted with the most bubbly girl ever and with paperwork done we were cheerfully told to "enjoy our installation." We rode into Geneva that afternoon along the shores of lake Geneva and took in the main city sights before heading back to camp. The following morning we visited the United Nations complex on a guided tour, went to the Red Cross to find [View Full Entry]

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It felt great to be on our way again as we headed into France once more. We enjoyed the drive along the rugged Costa Brava and then a brief visit to the tiny fishing village - now a major tourist mecca- of Coulliour. This village was famous for it’s anchovies which have to be skinned and beheaded by hand due to their delicate flesh. We sampled some at a local restaurant and were suitably impressed. Next stop along the way was the ancient Cathar Fortresses in the Roussillon region. These fortresses were built before Cathar times but are well known as [View Full Entry]

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Arrived on the outskirts of Barcelona early to get a place in a campsite as they tended to be overflowing by early afternoon. Once again we found a place right on the beach and on the bus route into Barcelona. Spent the afternoon relaxing, washing etc and headed into Barcelona for a speed tourism day the next day. This included taking the open top bus tour (much to Jason’s dismay as he vowed to never do this) and stopping off to see some fantastic Gaudi sights along the way. The Guell park was a highlight that was shared by at least [View Full Entry]

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Forty degrees and a climb from sea level up to around 3000m. This and the fact that we very stupidly had not realised that one of the many extra switches on the dash was actually a manual switch for the radiator fan, made Clancy quite hot. Very hot actually. To the point that when we pulled off the motorway into a little town called Mondujar, she was boiling with steam hissing out the back. As we couldn’t get the temperature and flashing warning lamps to come down after some time we decided to call the RAC for assistance. By the [View Full Entry]

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Our arrival into Spain was met with 40 degree heat, the first we had encountered so far, proving too much for our delicate British bodies and forcing us to head for the hills. We stayed one night in a lovely little camping ground in Los Alcornacales National Park. The area around was extremely rugged with little villages tucked in amongst the hills. It was getting late before we found a camp ground but we managed to find a little oasis in the desert with the help of a Spanish ranger and lots of gesturing! Next day included a trip to see [View Full Entry]

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After a stressful arrival into Lisbon trying to find a caravan park and our brakes getting very soft we spent a relaxing afternoon before heading into Lisbon the next day. Lisbon was a different city to Porto having lost many of its old buildings in a big earthquake, tidal wave and fire in the 1700s. Here we exhausted ourselves wandering around tiny streets and up steep hills, visiting the Castle and the cute Alfama district. Had a few well-earned cerveja that night before indulging in a night of Fado music, wine and more seafood. Next day included trips on funiculars and [View Full Entry]

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Crossed into Spain on the 19th, leaving the glitzy beach resort of Biarritz behind. The entry into Spain was non-existent took us a while to realise we had changed countries! Drove along the Spanish north coast past the busy beach resorts of San Sebastian and Zarautz, spending the night at Santander. It took two attempts to get Clancy up the hill in the campsite after she stalled at the top. Enjoyed our first Cerveza and pinchos in town that night. Next day was a fast tracked pilgrimage to Santiago de Compestella where we mixed with the Christian pilgrims who had made [View Full Entry]

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