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Published: June 20th 2009
So the next stop on our one summer journey was meant to be the gorgeous Switzerland. It took us about 6 hours to drive a mere 100 or so kilometres mostly thanks to more frustrating driving through a major city to find a park near the tourist office so we could then locate the closest camp ground to town (for some free parking antics). Finally we found a park near a camp site only to be told to move on by an arrogant ghetto looking group of males proclaiming “this is my street and I’ll call the cops if you stay”. SO we had had enough and decided to move on! Bern was out the window as we were more then p*#sed off with the whole day and situation. After reviewing the schedule that Vince had prepared we realised we were actually already behind anyway as we have to catch a ferry to Ibiza down in Spain on the 23rd of June and we still had to take in Nice, Monaco, Nimes, Marseille, and Barcelona, and it was the 9th of June already after all. In hindsight we should have looked at this and realised that we had no time for
Switzerland at this point of the trip. Oh well, we will have to wait til after Oktoberfest to take in the Alpine region of the Jungfrau region and Interlaken.
So we plugged in Nice to the GPS (avoiding toll roads of course) and looked forward to basking in some sunshine on the French Riviera. Had we known that our “helpful” GPS lady would take us literally over the Alps, we would have paid the tolls and stuck to the highways! As we mentioned earlier Jonesy doesn’t like hills, so you can imagine what he thought of the Alps. Oscillating between 2nd and 3rd Jonesy managed to make it up to an altitude of 630m, however this feat was not without rather stressful times. Our old mate Jonesy was clearly showing his discomfort and annoyance by coughing and spluttering litres of oil along the roadside. However what goes up must come down right? Lucky for us we got to the top so we could come down with much more ease and only half a tank of oil. Over 100km later we arrived in Nice. Now for all you van travellers don’t even contemplate trying to park in Nice, unless you
want to pay through the nose at a parking lot. So we were hot (32 degrees), extremely frustrated, very angry knowing the car was essentially stuffed, trying to find a park, hungry, dirty and needing the toilet (as they are few and far between in Europe). Trip of a lifetime hey hahahaha - at this point we were ready to sell the van (or take it to a scrap yard more like it) and head home. Notice its the van now not Jonesy?? Hehehhe
However we bit the bullet and after 48 hours, 6 BP’s with service areas that couldn’t speak English , 2 Speedy’s (which is like a big chain of mechanics) - again who couldn’t speak English we were running out of options. Our last chance was the tourist office and it was there our saviour Roman pointed us in the direction of hope. Thanks to Roman offering to be our free translator (and on hand whenever we needed him, as he gave us his mobile number) we could now communicate with people! After another 4 litres of oil, we were off to another mechanic who after 10 minutes told us we needed to go to Volkswagen,
as really he had no idea, so off we went to Volkswagen and they couldn’t help because the car is too old, so they sent us to a guy they knew who could maybe help out the next morning at 8am. Once again hot and frustrated and not knowing if the problem would be fixed we stayed in a hotel nearby to the mechanic for the best shower ever and the most awesome dinner, dessert, wine and coffees for 26 euros - finally our luck seemed to be changing.
We woke early and eager to get Jonesy patched up to arrive at the mechanics only to find out that when a Frenchman says 8am he really means 10.30am. After waiting around the outside of the mechanics (which mind you looked like a scrap yard that might be run by a bikey gang) a rustic, middle age, pony-tailed cool looking Spanish guy rocked in on his massive trike! With his little English and our extremely little French we managed to convey the problem with lots of sign language and props and charades - we felt like we were at acting school! 3 hours, a spot of welding, 200 euros and
1 greasy Spanish looking dude called Jean (we found out later he’s actually Portuguese) Jonesy was ready to rock and roll once again. Jean chatted with us for while afterwards and strangely managed to communicate with us in a whole lot more English! I guess basic conversation was easier than trying to speak detailed mechanics in English. He then invited us in for espresso and a nice chat with his brother Carlos. Clearly Vince hadn’t learnt after the Istanbul drink spike debacle, cause he took the drink off the stranger while I cautiously drank my own water (smart girl). Hahahah. Well Vince assures me he watched him make the coffeelike a hawk anyway, and it was all good. After a Kodak moment with Jean and exchanging of emails we now have a personal online mechanic and some lovely Portuguese friends.
From here we headed straight to a campsite 8km out of Nice so we could re-assess the trip and what we wanted from this “one summer”, because as you can see from the last couple of weeks it was all getting a bit much!
With a pool onsite we had a chance to swim and relax and contemplate
rest time for Jonesy
we managed to roll into a parking spot in Nice on day 1 there, with the oil lamp blaring at me, it was time to seek some more oil whilst we left Jonesy to think about what he had done!our future on the open road with Jonesy. We have decided that we have been running around like blue arsed flies way too much, trying to see every single corner of Europe. Although we have really enjoyed our first 5-6 weeks in Northern Europe, and seen a hell of a lot, now that we are in the South we have decided to slow down.... considerably.... and spend more time in less places! We have also decided to stay in more parking grounds rather than free camping all the time as all the effort begins to take its toll. We get much more advantage out of Jonesy at campgrounds anyway as we can freely have the top up and the awning out, music blaring and beers on ice..... and we are guaranteed showers and toilets! WOOHOO!
So from here we can finally take a day out to sight see Nice (at last after almost 5 days here already) and we will head to Monaco for a day trip, then off to Barcelona via Nimes.
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charlotte
non-member comment
oooohhh shit
oh sounds like you two have been having a bit of an adventure! cant wait to catch up, see you in pamps ill be there 5-8 then san sebastion- to bbk festival 3 days will you be attending? loving reading ur travel blog very good stoery telling skills- and toilet humor i see haahaa! pooooooh vince- :b my new number is 07786808176 keep in touch much love and good luck charlotte- from "adventures in edinburer" hehe