2016 Summer Holiday - Figure of 8 visit to Germany, France and Italy

I am always in a bit of a dilemma as to the best way of presenting a really long trip, but I will try and do it the same way as I did in 2014.  Photo's are really the main aim of this 'story', and as it is difficult to add photos to the main text, I will add them in the reply boxes below.  Look at the date below and scroll down to the reply boxes and look for the appropriate date.  Hope some of the photos and comments might inspire someone to visit some of the places on our list.  Fingers crossed that this works!!!  Add any comments and questions and I will do my best to answer.

We were away for longer this year, which gave us the opportunity to relax a little more on the sites where we stayed.  We still did lots of nice visits though – do take a look.

27 June MONDAY: Travel from Polesworth to Folkestone Eurotunnel Terminal.  Train at 10.50pm (Check-in before 10.20pm).  Travel through the night to Burgen (between Cochem and Koblenz)

28 June TUESDAY: (Camping Bergen, Mosel) Arrived at about lunchtime at Camping Burgen.  The site has not changed much since we last visited, but it is now under new management, Dieter Linzenbach having retired a few years ago.  Really pleased that the standard of the site has been maintained.  A great site to stop at.

29 June WEDNESDAY: (Camping Bergen, Mosel) Visit Berg Eltz – a fairytale castle not too far away.

30 June THURSDAY: (Camping Bergen, Mosel) Haven’t been to Koblenz for years, so we decided to go to the place where the Rhine and Mosel meet.  Couldn’t resist a visit to the Globus supermarket at Lahnstein followed by a ride down part of the Rhine Valley, before returning to Burgen.

1 July FRIDAY: (Camping Bergen, Mosel)  A visit to Cochem today

2 July SATURDAY: (Camping Belchenblick, Staufen) After our short visit to Burgen, we travelled from Burgen to Camping Belchenblick at Staufen in the Black Forest.

3 July SUNDAY: (Camping Belchenblick, Staufen) A visit to the monastery at Mustertal and the waterfall at Todnau.

4 July MONDAY: (Camping Belchenblick, Staufen) Day relaxing on site.

5 July TUESDAY: (Camping Belchenblick, Staufen) Visit Titisee.

6 July WEDNESDAY: (Camping Belchenblick, Staufen) Visit Briesach at the Rhine.

7 July THURSDAY: (Camping Belchenblick, Staufen) Visit to the glass blower and complex on the road between Freiburg and Titisee

8 July FRIDAY: (Macon Municipal) Travel from Belchenblich to Macon.  I can’t remember how many years it has been since we stopped at Macon.  The site seems much better than I remembered it, but it did feel like the Gnat capital of France!!

9 July SATURDAY: (Macon Municipal) Visit Cluny and Taize.

10 July SUNDAY: (Camping Le Bregoux, Aubignan) Travel from Macon to Aubignan, near Carpentras.

11 July MONDAY: (Camping Le Bregoux, Aubignan) Day relaxing on site.

12 July TUESDAY: (Camping Le Bregoux, Aubignan) Visit Vaison La Romaine (in the rain!!).  It brightened up later and on the way back we stopped to visit Le Berroux and the Chateau.

13 July WEDNESDAY: (Camping Le Bregoux, Aubignan) Today we visited Chaneneuf de Pape.

14 July THURSDAY: (Camping Le Bregoux, Aubignan) Today coincided with the Mt Ventoux leg of the Tour de France.  To go to Mt Ventoux today would have been a step too far, so we piched up the race a little further south at Gordes.

15 July FRIDAY: (Camping Le Bregoux, Aubignan) A trip to the Gorges de Nesque.

16 July SATURDAY: (Camping Le Bregoux, Aubignan) I’ve lost count of the times we’ve been to Mt Ventoux, but it just has to be done – a fantastic place to visit.  The Tour de France as well and truly passed Ventoux now, but it is still quite busy.

17 July SUNDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) Our week at Aubignan went quickly, but today is our travelling day from Aubignan to St Aygulf.

18 July MONDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) Our intention at L’Etoile, was to spend a little more time relaxing on site, so other than a quick visit to Carrefour at Puget, we spent the day relaxing on site.

19 July TUESDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) A ride up in the Bagnol Forest and the Gorge de Blavet.

20 July WEDNESDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) A visit to the Roman Amphitheatre at Frejus and a ride along the coast from Frejus to Antheor.

21 July THURSDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) A ride out to St Raphael and back.  The traffic was really bad, and the parking was very difficult.  Not an exercise I will repeat!!

22 July FRIDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) Day relaxing on site.

23 July SATURDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) A visit to the Grande Canyon Du Verdon.

24 July SUNDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) Day relaxing on site.

25 July MONDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) Visit Monaco.  We arranged it so that our day in Monaco would coincide with the International Firework Competition in the evening.  Unfortunately no one told us that the competitionand displays had been cancelled this year because of the events in Nice.

26 July TUESDAY: (L'Etoile D'Argens, St Aygulf) Day relaxing on site and packing up for the journey tomorrow

27 July WEDNESDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme) Today was a big travelling day, from St Aygulf to Montecatini Terme in Italy.  The pitches in Italy are notoriously small but our pitch at Belsito wasn’t too bad, if a little sloping, but we did specifically ask for a large pitch.  We took the opportunity to visit the restaurant on site for our evening meal.

28 July THURSDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme) Day relaxing on site.

29 July FRIDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme) Visit Lucca.

30 July SATURDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme) Day relaxing on site.  Lovely swimming pool complexes at Belsito – especially the one at the top of the site.

31 July SUNDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme) Visit to Montecatini Alto and Vinci.

1 August MONDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme). Our son and his family arrived in Florence yesterday – they had come across for a friends’ wedding.  Today we went across to visit them, just south of Florence and then we went into the city for a look around.

2 August TUESDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme) Day relaxing on site.

3 August WEDNESDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme) Today we visited Pisa with our son and his family and they came back to our site for a dip in the pool and evening BBQ.

4 August THURSDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme) Day relaxing on site.

5 August FRIDAY: (Camping Belsito, Montecatini Terme) Visit Sienna.

6 August SATURDAY: (Camping Gran Bosco, near the Frejus tunnel) Today we travelled from Montecatini to Gran Bosco.  The scenery was wonderful, but the site at Gran Bosco was disappointing.  The toilet block was fine – modern and clean, but the site itself was not to our liking.  We were pitched on an open field, next to a caged football and games area.  Although we had no problems with footballs etc., coming over the fence, the continuous thud was a bit disconcerting.  Fortunately we were only here for one night – and I doubt if we will return in future!

7 August SUNDAY: (La Columbiere, Neydens) Today we travelled from Gran Bosco to Neydens, in France, but near Geneva, to an old favourite site.  We thought we would sample the site restaurant for evening meal – not cheap, but we could take the dog in without a problem.

8 August MONDAY: (La Columbiere, Neydens) Visit to La Saleve during the day and a Raclette meal organised by the site in the evening.

9 August TUESDAY: (La Columbiere, Neydens) Day relaxing on site.

10 August WEDNESDAY: (La Columbiere, Neydens) Visit to Annecy today.  The last time we went to Annecy we couldn’t park the car.  More luck this time, fortunately.  We had our lunch on the shore of the lake before walking up into the old town.

11 August THURSDAY: (Camping Chalons-en-Champagne) Travel from Neydens to Chalons-en-Champagne.  The site at Chalon is looking really tired these days.  I think perhaps we’ve come to the stage where we need to find an alternative.  It’s still good for a few days, but in spite of some cosmetic work on the toilet blocks, they look very much the same as 20 years ago.

12 August FRIDAY: (Camping Chalons-en-Champagne) We went to the supermarket followed by a ride out to Ambonnay, where we had lunch.  Then back for our vets appointment to comply with the requirements to return to the UK.

13 August SATURDAY: (Camping Chalons-en-Champagne) Visit Beaulieu-en-Argonne, and then the supermarket to get stuff for the return to the UK.

14 August SUNDAY: (Camping Chalons-en-Champagne) Today was our big pack up day in preparation for the journey back to Calais tomorrow.             

15 August MONDAY: (Blackhorse Farm, Folkestone) Travel from Chalons to Calais.  Although our Eurotunnel train was not until 5.20pm.  The wife and daughter wanted to arrive early to get chance to look in the ‘duty free’ shop, and of course, to check the dog in.  We managed to get on the train one before we were due.  Rather than travel back up through London to the Midlands, we decided on an overnight stay at Black Horse Farm.  Fish and Chips for tea!!

16 August TUESDAY:  We left Black Horse Farm at about 5am.  The idea was to avoid some of the traffic on the M25.  It was still really busy, but at least no hold ups.  We arrived home at about midday.

Looking back on it all, just over a week later, I really don’t know where the last 7 weeks have gone, but it may help me re-live it a little if I share some photos.  I will do this in the same way as I did it in 2014, but adding photos a bit at a time, below in the comment boxes.  Just hope that someone might find them useful and might inspire others to go on a Europe adventure.

Here goes…………

Best wishes

David