4150 miles around Europe in our T25!

Post by **Tallbird** » 02 Sep 2006, 19:26

Just back from an epic trip in our '85 T25 Autosleepers conversion high top.

Did 4,150 miles door to door, over a 7 week period.

Went through France, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Repulic, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

We bought the van in April - it only had 60,000 miles on the clock and the body work and inside were pretty excellent.

We did a few miles in her before we left to iron out any troubles (snapped fan belt, knackered alternator pulley), and to figure out what kind of kit we needed to carry.

While we were away the only problems we had were a fuel leak (small bit of hose had perished and needed replacing - new hose donated by French Halfords equivalent) and a gas leak (seems that all the hoses are reaching the end of their lives) which were sorted pretty quickly.

She needs a bit of a clean and a bit of a check over now - but I think she has done us proud.

It was a fantastic trip - and I just wanted to tell you all about it.

[/img]

Post by **OLD ONE** » 02 Sep 2006, 21:16

Well done that pair. Glad it was trouble free, well almost. Hope you have some Pics to put up later

And I bet you are planing your next trip.

Post by **Tallbird** » 02 Sep 2006, 21:41

Photos?

Blimey, I have loads of those - and plenty featuring the van in various countries, but how do I post them on here??

And can you take it?

Planning next trip for definite - probably a trip to Sweden (via Germany & Denmark) next year for a friend's wedding, also would love to spend more time in France, and return to Slovenia (lovely place) when it wasn't raining!!

Not much that we would change with the van - a pull out full length awning would be a bonus (we had a fair bit of rain in the last couple of weeks), if the bed were just a touch wider that would be fantastic, otherwise it was brilliant.

For anyone in the hitop/pop top quandry - the hitop meant that we could carry 7 weeks worth of clothes, toiletries, thermo mats, awning, groundsheet, chairs, table, 2 gas bottles, potti, laptop, etc, etc, without much of it being on show when we were parked up. Fantastic.

There was nothing we took that we didn't use, and not much that we wished we had.

Big winners on the kit front - the thermo mats (but more in the hot weather than the cool), the gas ring that screws right into the top of your gaz bottles so you can cook outside and the double skillet pan thingy that was recommended to us by some 'grown up' motorhomers!

Website · Post by **dbroada** » 03 Sep 2006, 09:54

sounds brilliant!

our first trip was (former East) Germany, Poland, Czech, and back. Took jusy over 2 weeks and we covered exactly 0 miles. Replacing the speedo cable was less of a priority than getting through the MOT - which was finally done about 28 hours before or ferry!

where abouts in Surrey are you? We are near Croydon if you want to compare your van with a "work in progress" hi top.

Post by **Tallbird** » 03 Sep 2006, 12:42

wow - that far in 2 weeks? You must have seen most of those places through the windows of the van didn't you?

We are in Camberley - almost as close to the Western Northwestern edge of Surrey as you can get!!

Work in progress sounds interesting though....

Website · Post by **dbroada** » 03 Sep 2006, 14:54

yes, the schedule (mixture of hotels & campsites) was sorted when I had a Granada with an MOT.

we are in the furthest SE corner of Surrey - about as far from you as possible!

as for our holiday.....

we got a Friday evening ferry and hoteled just south of Calais. The next day all the way to Bielefeld (near where I used to live) for a couple of days. Quick blast down the autobahns to Dressden for a couple more days. A slow ride to Wrocklaw (our favorite stop), again for a few days. Then on to Czech - passing lots of breaker yards with T25s(!) but unfortunately on Sunday. - although we wouldn't have had any spare space if I had found something. A few days in Prague - staying at a "botel". Then to Nuremberg for a DM (car) race and finally a blast home and work the next day.

I'm in the process of adding some photos to http://www.photobucket.com/ which will store photos on line and give you the ability to post them on here. I hope. I think I got impatient and stopped the upload but this should be the first nights stop!

Post by **Tallbird** » 03 Sep 2006, 16:15

Aha, I knew I could figure it out!

I have a blog of our journey (http://theroadtoknowhere.blogspot.com/ if you have a few hours spare and like reading about other people's travels! July onwards (archived months on the right hand side)) and there are lots of photos in there I can use!!

The van does Reims

Mountains heading to Geneva (just before we suffered serious brake fade and the brakes stopped working - luckily we were right at the bottom of the hill we were coming down and not heading for a hairpin half way down!)

The van getting it's leaky fuel hose fixed

The van enjoying the Italian Lakes (note the yellow and black bike on the back? Bought it in Carrefour in France - £35!!)

Traffic jam in Austria (traffic lights on the motorway??)

Outside Tesco in Czech Republic

Beers & a campfire (we had extra chums at 3 points on our journey - my brother in law and his girlfriend joined us for 4 days around Verona, a chum of ours from uni and his girlfriend joined us from Prague to Nurembourg and my sister & her boyfriend flew out to Amsterdam!)

Nurembourg Kongresshalle - built (but not finished) by the Nazis. The van looks very small in comparison!

And finally (well, you know - there are loads more, but I think I have already gone on a bit

) not our van - but an idea for the future perhaps?

Post by **Mattt** » 03 Sep 2006, 19:47

Nice pic's.....

But you need an "e" .....

Think I reconize ye bus, tho just for the TYPO in volkswagen, where you at the bus Stop Over ?

Post by **Tallbird** » 03 Sep 2006, 19:56

Hello Mattt - yes we were at the Bus Stop Over - well spotted

Sorry about the typo - all part of the character though I think !!

Post by **glenn** » 03 Sep 2006, 20:59

sounds almost identical to me and my girlfriends trip. we went back in may for 7 weeks. started out from hereford, drove to dover, ferried it to calais, drove through france and belgium to amsterdam where our trip really started!! thankfully only got stuck there for about 3 days, very messy!! we then drove through germany, czeck republic, back to germany,where we had to get wilma(our van), into a garage as we had a terrible oil leak and an exhaust that was about to fall off! when we got her back she was like a new van! cleaned inside and out and everything fixed like only germans can do! we then drove down and up and down through the austrian and italian alps, amazing, then through slovenia to croatia, which we found to be not so friendly, so we turned back and stopped in slovenia for a while, probably the nicest place i've ever been! from there drove back across italy to france, didnt get on to well there either so decided to go back to amsterdam before returning home! an amazing trip!

Post by **Tallbird** » 03 Sep 2006, 22:35

Sounds fab Glenn.

We went from Camberley to Calais via Dover, down to see the Tour de France at Col de Joux Plain then Chamonix (which was fab), across Italy (which we didn't like so much), into Slovenia (which was really lovely), through Austria (not too great), into Czech Republic (can beer really be that cheap?), Germany (gorgeous), Belgium (bad roads and a bit dull), Netherlands (suprisingly scenic, cycling round towns great fun - especially Amsterdam on a hired town bike!), back home through Belgium & France.

Our van went great in the heat (we were worried about overheating - but not a problem), OK but super slowly on up hills, and - after our brake problem - super slowly and noisily (engine braking) on down hills.

It hates the damp (don't we all) and we had lots of that - every morning when we left a site after a damp or cold night we had everyone staring at us, clearly thinking we wouldn't get further than the end of the road we sounded so bad

Sounds like you had a bit more experience with garages - was it all pretty straightforward to get done?

Are you planning another trip?

We would like to go back to Slovenia (it rained a lot when we were there this time) and on to Croatia, and definately we would like to spend more time in France. That was a real suprise for me - I thought they didn't like us brits and was expecting some real attitude, but it was lovely - a thoroughly pleasant experience, and the French countryside is stunning.

Back to work tomorrow though

Website · Post by **dbroada** » 04 Sep 2006, 20:40

Tallbird wrote: and definately we would like to spend more time in France. That was a real suprise for me - I thought they didn't like us brits and was expecting some real attitude, but it was lovely - a thoroughly pleasant experience, and the French countryside is stunning.

most definitely worth the trip to France. Never had problems there at all.

I was going to post a couple of pics of our first trip but I'll just post a link instead....

http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l168/dbroada/?

I'm not sure when we next have a free weekend but do you fancy meeting somewhere in Surrey to compare notes?

Post by **Tallbird** » 07 Sep 2006, 22:41

hey dbroada, sorry for the delayed reactions there - you know how it is

A meet up sounds nice - we are terrible at being sociable (we went to the Bus Stopover and didn't talk to a sole) so this will be good for us

I'm not saying that we are anti-social or anything, just that we aren't very good at striking up conversation with random strangers - that's all.

Oh dear. Maybe I should stop there..............

one thing.
Your pics of your trip - did you mostly stay in hotels???? i am a bit confused by that.

Website · Post by **dbroada** » 08 Sep 2006, 06:22

could be a very quiet time then - we're exactly the same!

Our trip & hotels. One of the problems was I did the plans before we even thought about a camper. I had booked hotels for the cities and would use the tent in between. But I didn't take many photos of our camps. The one in Dressden was too wooded, dark & wet - and I was repairing a fuel problem. Vimperk was just exposed! I think you've got the rest.

Post by **kathyshack** » 11 Sep 2006, 11:31

" the gas ring that screws right into the top of your gaz bottles so you can cook outside and the double skillet pan thingy that was recommended to us by some 'grown up' motorhomers!"

what is this then?

Club 80-90 Forums