Well, the van made it all the way to Sunny Switzerland without any major problems! That's a whole lot better than last year! Our first stop when we hit the continent ws a place in france called Buzancy. We were only here as a quick one night stop so we slept in the tent and left the awning safely strapped to the roof of the van. nice campsite off the beaten track with its own lake to swim in and a chippy van serving burgers and chips etc. We then drove further south east to Langres (went here last year [View Full Entry]

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Well, Ollie has a new starter motor now and, although the battery wasn't too good at first, we have now managed to drive locally a few times. Geoff put the starter motor in himself on New Years Eve whilst I was preparing the house for a party. As the van had been shut up for most of the winter so we got a bit of a shock when we looked inside for the first time. There was black mold all over the ceiling - ooops! However, after a bit of elbow grease and lot of spray, we managed to clean it [View Full Entry]

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Well, We are back home now and Geoff is hobbling about..... purely a drink related incident back in France.... As you will see from my previous entry, we were staying in nice chalets with verandas overlooking the lake. It was our last night on the campsite and Geoff had drank a few (as you can imagine). He decided to race Adam back to the chalet at the end of the evening.... Adam decided to try and cheat and, instead of going up a few steps to our chalet, he cut through some shrubbery.....followed and overtaken by Geoff (got the picture so [View Full Entry]

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Ok so we're back in France... (8 hours drive from Italy to here!) We couldn't find a campsite on the web in Germany that had static mobile homes and plus none of the sites were in English which made it a problem. Hotels near Munich would have been quite expensive so, sadly we missed a couple of countries form our plans. We're now in Langres and living in a nice chalet right by another large lake. Theres an outdoor and indoor pool, bar, restaurant and shop so all we need. Yesterday was a scorcher so Geoff and Adam did a spot [View Full Entry]

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Well, we finally made it to Italy!!! Booked into a really nice campsite at the Southern tip of Lake Garda. Campsite is called camping San Francesco and there's a fair bit to do here. We are staying in a large mobile home which normally sleeps up to 7 people and it is about 100 yards from the lake. On Thursday Geoff hired a speedboat and took us on the lake for an hour which was great fun and Adam had a go at steering too. Adam loves the large swimming pool here and I just love the fact that the weather [View Full Entry]

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Well, yesterday we went for a really lovely walk for 2 1/2 hours. (yep, we actually walked that long - US!!!) It was really scenic and surrounded by mountains and waterfalls. Then we were told that the van would be ready for collection in France at 4.00 so we set off lunchtime and got to the garage with 1/2 hour spare. BAD NEWS AGAIN.....they had ordered the wrong starter motor so it hadn´t been done. All that driving for nothing. We got a few bits we needed out of the van and, as it was raining in France we decided to [View Full Entry]

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Well, this has been a fine start to the holiday...... Arrived in France safely, however on route to the campsite Ollie (the van) started making wierd noises and once it totally stopped and we needed a bump start. Finally got to the campsite, parked on pitch and van would no longer start. NOTHING! Called the lovely AA (we were wise enough to get cover). A french guy came out and hit the starter motor with a hammer, that worked but that wasn't all - the Alternator needs replacing and he told us he can't do it! D'oh!!! So, back on the [View Full Entry]

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Ok, so, Ollie wasn't fixed for a couple of days so Neil and Lesley kindly let us stay for 2 nights - Thank you!! Then we were finally off!! Dropped the hire car back and headed down towards Bern in Switzerland with a possible stop in Langres, France.....or so we thought!!!!!! We were doing great and made it passed Langres, however, a couple of times we needed to stop for breaks and each time, me and Adam had to push the van to bump start it...not ideal!! Anyway, we got down to a place called Besancon (quite close to Swiss border) [View Full Entry]

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Well, by Friday, we'd had quite enough of France so we decided to drive down to Switzerland in the hire car for the day! WOW!!!! Berne was lovely (the old town) and then we went onto Interlaken - amazing! Long drive there and back but well worth it. AA called to say the van was getting a new starter Motor on Monday so we decided to leave France for the weekend and find a place to stay in Interlaken. Saturday - check out of France and go back to Switzerland. Stayed in a lovely hotel called Silberhorn which looks so pretty. [View Full Entry]

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