Denbighshire 6 - The final countdown

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The final countdown – I find myself singing this as the days count down to our first European trip in Suzy. The time has flown. It hardly seems almost two months since we got here and our holiday seemed a long way off. It now feels just round the corner

Saturday – 6 days to go and the weather has been awful with incessant rain and it feels much colder than April should normally feel. Apparently April has been the wettest on record for some years and I don’t doubt that at all. The garden looks forlorn and we have been trying to find a window of opportunity to get some netting up to stop the birds decimating our raspberries and other soft fruit. Last year was a poor year for soft fruit but it looks as if this year the raspberries will be covered with fruit and it augers well for blackcurrant, redcurrants and blueberries. We also needed to get the grass cut. There is no law here to make you keep your grass cut but most people do keep their lawns tidy and we felt that we needed to give ours a haircut to get rid of the dandelions and daisies otherwise it would be like a forest by the time we get home..

I walked down to the chemist to pick up prescriptions and realised that I had not ordered enough to cover our holidays. Oh dear, another e-mail to the doctors to re-order more.

The rest of the day was spent getting the shake down list out to check it against the contents of the van, moving clothing into the lockers and refilling the fridge. We placed a file in the van full of passports checked and rechecked. Copies made in case we need them. Why on earth we do not have identity cards I cannot for the life of me fathom? Civil liberties make it harder for us to prove who we are without carrying our passports with us every time we go out. Driving licences copied and saved. Money in the new safe. What horrible colours are used on Swiss francs. They look rather garish in bright yellow. I have never liked them. The Croatian Kunas look rather restrainedby comparison. We have invested in a Caxton Card and pre-loaded it with euros for the trip. It should be useful for paying for diesel and shopping. We have limited our maps to just one for the whole of Europe. Not too big that it is unwieldy. We have upgraded our TomTom which now conforms to the new French laws which state that you cannot have speed cameras on them. I love the French but sometimes they make life hard for us travellers as we have no upgrade on our Snooper which is specifically designed to tell us of low bridges and narrow streets that Suzy would dislike. We have struggled to get the new breathalyser kits. The one we have works but is not what the law says you should have. They seem out of stock in this country but luckily the law does not come into force until July by which time we will be back home. Time enough to pick two up perhaps if we fall upon a french pharmacy whilst we are away.

Sunday – countdown 5 days to go . Another day of rain. More books put in the van. Three tourist guides – The Rough Guides to Croatia, Venice and the Veneto and the Italian Lakes, ACSI guide books, All the Aires in France and all the Italian Sostas. Looking at the aires and sostas it seems clear that the French do aires better than Italians do sostas. The sostas seem to look as if they are shoved into dirty corners of cities in dubious areas that you really don’t want to spend any time. Perhaps when we get there we will be proved wrong and they will be better than expected. If they were all like Paestum they would be lovely.

Tickets and e-mails put into the files and we feel ready to go. We are getting excited and cannot wait to get away.

Monday - countdown 4 days to go. Haircut done and it feels much better. Garden tidied as the window of opportunity arose. The sun shone this morning and the sky was blue with fluffy white clouds instead of overcast black ones. Water filled and Suzy was taken down to the weighbridge to check that we have not overloaded her. There was a sense of relief amongst us to realise that we are well underweight and should be able to fill her up with wine from the french hypermarkets to bring home with us.

The photos attached are of the small town of Ruthin which nestles in the valley below the Clwydian range. It is a pretty little town which does not make the most of its stunning location. The town is mainly based around the square with its pretty church and tudor style buildings. Narrow hilly streets radiate from the main square.The present Church was built by John de Grey in 1310. At the bottom of the town is the old gaol (hen carchar) which is open to visitors. Another hidden gem is Nant Clwyd y Dre a half timbered town house which sits close to Ruthin Castle . Finally for those interested in motor racing there is a wall sculpture devoted to the Formula 1 racing driver Tom Pryce . Tom Pryce was a welsh racing driver famous for winning a Formula One race in 1975 and also for the circumstances surrounding his death. Pryce is the only welsh driver to have won a Formula One race and is also the only Welshman to lead a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix.

Ruthin a lovely little town well worth a visit.

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Comments

[Graham and Dee]

You don't know us but........
Hi, we read your blog as we sit in a site on lake D'Iseo northern Italy. It is between Lake Garda and Como. What caught my eye on your blog was the reference to Denbigh. My son and his family live there although we hail from Wiltshire. We left UK mid April and have travelled through France to the Camargue onto the Cote D'Azure and we are now travelling East to Slovenia, Croatia then north to Austria, Germany, Belgium and home. It has rained all day today but the cloud has started to lift and the mountains are just showing some of their peaks. Its beautiful if wet! We hope your trip goes well and that you have good weather when you reach this area. We have six weeks and are now nearly half way. It's the first time we have done this, we have a caravan and aren't sure of the pros and cons of motorhome vs caravan. Our blog is under Graham Vaughan, we'll follow yours with interest. Graham and Dee.

[JenGog]

your message
Hi Your trip sounds lovely, sorry I have been so long responding , we have struggled to get on the internet. We are almost at the end of our trip . Lake Garda was pretty but busy , we moved to mantove which was lovley, Ferrara before moving to Acquilea. After htat we got through Slovenia and spent a few days in Krk, Pula and Rovinj. We are now in Alsace working our wayhome. Glenn is from Chesterfield originally and I am from wrexham . We live in Ruthin . I work for the jobcentre and have just taken partial retirement working three days a week. We have never had a motorhome before and this is our first trip. What a big learning curve but an interesting one. How di d your trip go.

[Home and Away]

I can tell for you preparation and planning...
is half the fun of a trip.

[Graham and Dee]

Back home now
We had a brilliant trip thanks, loved every minute of it, even the disasters! Came back to fantastic weather in Wiltshire so van all clean and washing done! Plan to go again in September to Northern Europe once the grandchildren are back at school. Hope your trip went ok, read your blog, like your information about castles and houses, our blog is less informative but have a look if wish. Search bloggers under "graham vaughan". Our trip was very similar to yours. We also went to Krk and loved it. Before I retired fully last year I did some work for the jobcentre, maybe that's what finally persuaded me to stop?!! Graham and Dee