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Started off as a wish, became a reality when the ferrry was booked and the van went in for a TDI conversion, the conversion didn't go to plan and i had to do it myself. The holiday wasn't looking possible... Luckily got it ready 4 days before the ferry date Nothing like a near 3000 mile journey to test it
The van performed faultlessly and it turned into one of the best family holidays to date. So here's a little photo journal of our family odyssey

Packed up and ready to go


kids seem pretty excited

We wanted to get a fair way down France on the first day, so drove to an aire on a lake about 250 miles south from Calais.
lac de orient, turned out the aire had been shut and a campsite had replaced it, we was only here for the night so didnt take many pics. But it had a nice lake to swim in


The next morning we set off on a scenic drive to a place called Nantua in the Rhone alps







This was a lovely place, and only 7 euros a night.
The next day we were heading to Italy, the kids begged to go through the Mont blanc tunnel, so we headed up past Geneva towards the mountains



We came out the other side and stopped for lunch at Aosta

From Aosta we headed down to the Asti region of Italy, with the plan of staying for a few days at a wild camping spot... The reality was we could find nowhere as the area is mainly farm land. we managed to find a very retro campsite that also doubled as the local farmers bar and general gossip point. We found out pretty quickly that this was also the meeting point for every tiger mosquito around wrong time of year to camp there... only took the one photo before hot footing it out of there the next day


We then made a family decision to head for Rome, we reached a campsite on the shore of lake Bracciano late afternoon.
This place was nice, camping in the trees with direct access to the lake







even had beavers in the lake

This was to be our base for the next four days, the campsite laid a bus on to take you to the local train station. from there you could get a train direct into the centre of Rome

















After two days in Rome in 50 degree heat the kids were pretty tired!


So we did a bit more of this

Then headed north...

It was a toss up on what lake to head for, Garda or Como? Looking at the the map, there was another lake next to Como. Lake Maggiore, we decided to head for this hoping it would be less touristy and busy. Thankfully we were correct and we found a nice campsite with a beach onto the lake, we stayed here for 3 nights and just chilled, we were remarking how cool it was compared to Rome, checked the thermostat and it was still 35 degrees! Shows how hot the Rome area was
You could even fish for mussels in the lake








After a relaxing few days we decided to head over the Gotthard pass into switzerland, a beautiful country and an amazing road to drive






We had to stop halfway down the pass due to cooking the brakes, but it was a good excuse for lunch and managed to find a nice spot by a footbridge





The highest point on the pass is 2107 metres and is quite a barren landscape, as we got lower the scenery was just as stunning



We stopped off in a town called weggis for a while, then headed into Germany

That road looks like fun, my wife Gill had a fit of the vapours going over Holme Moss!!!

We headed into the black forest and stopped at a town called Titisee, again we found a campsite by the lake and settled in for a few days




hot dogs!


i think the wife ordered turd for dinner..


The weather turned after the second day, with some massive thunder/lightning and rain storms. we checked the map and decided to do a short hop over to Strasbourg and visit the Cathedral (Notre Dame) and Petite France. We found an aire on the edge of town which although looked a bit car parky was in a great location. Having at least 3 big kids playgrounds around it and a footbridge over to Germany



There was also a cycle path straight to the city, where we saw the sites









After this we only had a couple nights before the ferry at Calais, looking at the aires nothing really stood out. It seemed the further north you went, the less nice they got.
I hatched a plan with the wife and we decided to surprise the kids... I found an aire actually in EuroDisney, and it only cost 10 Euro's more than the usual car entry. So off we set. Not a bad set up really, showers and toilets and a perfect view of the fireworks display


next stop was home

jrt wrote:That road looks like fun, my wife Gill had a fit of the vapours going over Holme Moss!!!

The wife did have a little weep

Absolutely superb pics, have just spent the last half hour showing hubby as we want to get to Europe next year. That's what memories are made of! Nice one

Cheers! go for it i say, some amazing countries out there. We are already planning next year, west coast of France and loop up around Barcelona or Croatia via the Bavarian Alps....

Bloody superb mate, so happy for you as what you had to go through in getting your engine conversion completed by yourself, this trip was the reward you and the family needed, so glad it was a trouble free trip too, and what a trip!

Brilliant, thanks for sharing it with us matey.

Great photos, glad you all had a good time

Ian

Vantastic mate , I think its Rome for us next year

Well done!

cheers everyone, had a great time, can't wait 'til next year..

Fabulous photos,
You certainly deserved a holiday after all the trails and tribulations with the engine conversion!
Btw, what bike rack is that?

cheers for that, the rack is just a standard halfords towbar mounted item (mine is for four bikes)