Europe - Here we Come! First stop- Troyes.

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For years we have been promising ourselves that we would explore Europe, After all it is on our doorstep --practically.

Well that time has arrived! We set sail for Zebrugge, Belgium, on Sunday to begin a road trip through Belgium, France to Italy, then through Austria, Germany and back through France to Calais. On the journey we will be making many overnight stops to break up the journey and explore the area. Two of the stops I am most looking forward to will be in the Alps and later the Dolomites.

This all came about as Stan wanted to visit Breganze in Italy for the 70th anniversary celebrations of the Laverda motorcycle. Some of you will know of his passion for classic bikes, Laverda being one of his favourites. A few people have asked "are we going on his bike?" The answer is a big fat "No!" I'm afraid these days although Stan loves riding his bike it's not for me. We have loaded up the car and stuck a Laverda sticker on the back window to show willing and will be travelling in style. (Well compared to on a motorbike we will!)

Our first stop will be Troyes, a medieval town south of Paris.

Update.
2nd July 2019

Well we finally made it to Troyes, not without problems though. We were the first car to arrive at the ferry poet in Hull but ended up being the last to get on it due to some idiot in a car behind us annoying the usher on who decided to make our queue wait till the last.
This of course meant we were last to get off next morning in Zeebrugge so the very last car through passport control meaning sitting in a queue for an hour and a half in the hot sun.
Good start!

The journey through Belgium was fraught with difficulties meaning endless stops to check the route, once we reached France, thankfully the roads became better and we coasted our way to Troyes on lovely quiet roads arriving around 6.30pm

Our accommodation was in the heart of the old town in an medieval house. Very cute.

We took a short walk into town that evening. There was a lovely atmosphere with many lively street bars amongst the old buildings.

On Tuesday our destination, Bourg end Bresse, is not too long so hopefully well get some time to relax.

Road to Bourg end Bresse.

The journey to our next destination turned out to be a much more relaxing day, coasting through vine yards and fields of sunflowers and corn. The roads were so quiet and a dream after the day before. The temperature was rapidly rising as we moved south and our hotel turned out to be pretty damn hot. So next day we were glad to be moving on.

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