# peejay autumn tour part 1



## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Hi all,

Got back from our autumn hollys yesterday, thought I'd give you a bit of blurb on where we went etc if you're interested.

We managed to get down to Dover early and jumped on an earlier ferry at no extra cost, P&O have always been good in this respect, the usual slick operation and we were onboard within minutes for a trouble free crossing. The plan was originally to go up to blanc nez for the night but there were mutterings on the forum before we went about access problems so we took the bino's on board with us and as we entered Calais we could see that there were quite a few at the aire and it looked like the barriers were all up so we thought we'd give it a try.
This would be the first time I'd tried the satnav in Europe and it successfully guided us to the beachfront aire exactly the way we normally go, so quite impressed so far, only thing I have noticed though is that 'sally traffic', the girl who does the talking appears to have a lisp - "at the roundabout, take the thecond exthit", tried it with the blokes voice but that has a similar 'th' with the esses, back to 'thally twaffic' as we prefer her more calming voice, must be something to do with the speaker, its quite amusing to listen to though.
Arrived at the aire and one of the barriers has been removed completely, so there's no fear of getting locked in anymore and there were noticeably more vans there than the last time we visited, we had a pleasant night there and drifted off to sleep with the hum of the ferries in the background.








calais aire with barrier removed

Next morning, time to move on, but first I though I might as well empty the toilet, so off we went to the borne. There was a large queue for the facilities so I carried the cassette over and there was a Belgian couple with a Laika parked next to the flot bleu, now, this laika had a marine toilet and they had started to dump their black waste via a long blue flexi hose into the toilet bit, trouble is, the long blue thingy had jumped out of the hole and several litres of sh*te, pee and andrex had gone everywhere but where it should be, being as it was a marine loo, they obviously hadn't used any aquakem, so the stench was something to be believed, so I held my breath and paddled through the mess and emptied our toilet pronto and left the Belgians to it, couldn't help as the smell was so bad, if I had stayed any longer I would have entered 'throw up' mode, I'm sure pusser could have helped if he'd been there though!
Rinsed the soles of my shoes down, re-entered van and went to get some diesel from auchan, the prices are all creeping up, fuel wise over Europe, in France at supermarkets it was about €1.11 a litre, in Germany about €1.15 to €1.19 alitre and about .93cents in Luxembourg.
Full of fuel and provisions we were of to our first port of call, Montherme on the banks of the river Meuse in the Ardennes forest. There actual aire is at the top of town by the road and not a particularly knockout place to stop, but if you drive down to the bridge in the town there is a pleasant place set aside for camping cars right next to the river and we stayed here for the night, no charge. We were befriended by a swan and her two young uns, they consumed nearly a whole baguette, and hung around our pitch all evening, a pleasant evening was had by all, the weather was great, but when the sun went down it was decidedly chilly, so we retired to the van to finish off the wine.








Montherme aire

Next day, we followed the river along its course into Belgium then carried on down towards Germany and decided to pop back into France and visit the aire at Stenay as there have been a few good reports on this place on MHF. Very nice aire by the canal and excellent value at €5 a night with full facilities, Stenay itself is nothing special though, but the weather was great again so we spent the next few days sunbathing during the day and quaffing wine in the van at night.








Stenay aire

The time came to leave and we drove over to the borne to replenish, thought the suspension felt a bit funny on the way across and discovered we had a puncture on the r/hand rear. Bugger! Didn't fancy crawling half a mile under the van to get to the spare so the plan was to call red pennant and call someone out to fix it but for some reason, I couldn't get through to their number on the mobile, as luck would have it, just across the road was a garage, so I went across and in my finest French, burbled to the man about the problem, 'dix minutes' he said, so we went back to the van and had a brew, true to his word, ten minutes later he came across in his van with jack and wheel brace, took it off, back across to the garage, repaired it, back across and refitted within half an hour. Excellent service and I was expecting an excellently large bill for his services as well, so, went across to pay, 'combien monsieur?', says I and he replies 'dix euros, blimey, that was the bargain of the century and I was so chuffed I gave him €20 and told him to keep the change, can't see that happening in UK!

Off to Germany today, via Luxembourg for cheapo diesel then down to the Pfalzerwald and first stop was the unremarkable town of Hauenstein and we stayed the night at the stellplatze behind the shoe museum €5 per night with electrics and not especially picturesque, however, the reason to stay here was that it is on the 'Deutsche shuhe strasse' and my wife has a 'thing' about shoes, Imelda Marcos has nothing on her, so she was in seventh heaven as just down the road was the 'Joseph Siebel' shoe factory along with a load more famous shoe outlets all selling their wares. If you're into good quality shoes this is the place to go, I had to keep her on a tight reign though, or there would be no money left for the rest of the holidays.

Back to the van to retire for the night and to double check my finances and the van seemed down at the back again, bugger! Perhaps I shouldn't have given that bloke €20 after all as it was flat again, this time there was no garage nearby, so decided to put the spare on, not exactly the easiest job in the world but I managed it along with quite a few helpful Germans, who gave lots of verbal advice but no actual manual help, still, it was nice to have a natter, me with my pigeon deutsch and them with their pigeon English, not sure what we were talking about half the the time but a pleasant chat nonetheless. Several bottles of chilled German white was required afterwards to cool me down and we both slept like logs that night, Judy dreaming of shoes, me of where the nearest tyre depot might be.








Hauenstein stellplatze

The following morning, on the way out, as luck would have it, just opposite another shoe outlet was a Peugeot garage, so once again, in my finest German, explained the problem, we left it with them as it would take about an hour and went for more retail shoe therapy across the road. Back an hour and a half later and it was all done, not quite as cheap this time at €41 but at least it lasted the rest of the holiday this time.

Next stop Neustadt An Der Weinstrasse, a lovely touristy town with a very handy stellplatze 15 minutes walk from the town centre and only €2.50 per night, Germans really do know how to look after motorhomers. There was also an Aldi and a Lidl next door to stock up with supplies.
Once again the weather was beautiful and we stayed a few days here, exploring the town, sampling the local fayre, a lovely couple of days and highly recommended if you ever visit the area.








Neustadt stellplatze

Moving on after a few pleasant days at Neustadt, we toured around the Pfalzerwald area, it really is beautiful at this time of year with the trees turning to their red and yellow hues. Whilst exploring we also came across the wife's home town…….








I'll be in trouble if she sees this one!

Next, we decided to try one of the many vineyards in the area that welcome motorhomes, a sort of German version of 'France passion', there are loads of them listed in the Bordatlas for this region and we ended up at a lovely one in the small village of Edersheim just south of Neustadt. Weingut Boos. www.weingut-gaestezimmer-boos.de Room for only 4 vans and in a lovely spot in the vineyard with very friendly owners, once again the weather was fantastic, really sunny and we stayed a few days here sunbathing and sampling all Herr Boos products from his cellar. This is the way to buy your wine - follow frau Boos down the steps to the cellar, tell her what type of wine you like (I like a dry red and Judy likes a dry white) she them plies you with several glasses of different types until you decide which one you like, no pressure to buy, we came back up the steps a bit wobblier than we went down them and also with a few litre bottles of red and white at €2.50 a bottle and proceeded to finish them off sat amongst the vines in the sunshine, we had both died and gone to heaven. If I was retired I could have stayed in this area for weeks on end but as we only had a few weeks the time came to move on.








Edersheim stellplatze

We originally planned to go on down to Lake Constance but we decided we didn't want to spend too much time driving so a change of plan and we are now going to follow the Rhine up to Koblenz, then down the Mosel again as we enjoyed it so much last year.

Tell you all about that when i've typed part 2.....

CLICK HERE FOR ALL AUTUMN TOUR PICCIES

Pete.


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## Scotjimland (May 23, 2005)

Hi Pete
Sounds like you had a great time.. your piccies brought brought back great memories of our trip this year  
Looking forward to part two.. 

 Jim


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

I did enjoy reading that - bring on part 2 !

(We paid E20 for a tyre repair at Angouleme; how lucky can you be to stop to investigate an odd clicking noise in the car park of a huge tyre depot at 11.50am? It was a massive nail stuck in the tyre up to its neck. )

G


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## Frenchlily (Sep 16, 2005)

Sounds excellent will watch for part 2. Have received today our aires book thank you for all your useful advice.
Lesley and Alan


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## 88741 (May 9, 2005)

Great reading PJ, and good yo see you back in one piece


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## Pusser (May 9, 2005)

Absolutely super piece of writing and great pics. Roll on next bit.

Many thanks for a really great read.


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## Bazbro (May 9, 2005)

Great report, Pete. Keep it coming.


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## storeman (May 16, 2005)

Hi Pete glad you had a great time (except the flat tyres) looking forward to part two. some nice photos as well although the one marked as Enkirch should read Ernst.


Chris


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## 96097 (Aug 22, 2005)

A wonderful read! Thanks peejay.

Sharon


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## 2point (Jun 10, 2005)

Great trip, sounds relaxing and interesting at the same time.

Much of a problem with language, I can get away with French but haven't a clue where to start with German.


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## GypsyRose (May 9, 2005)

Really enjoyed reading your account of your holiday! Waiting for part 2 eagerly! I should be planning our own trip but got distracted reading yoursbut reckon it was time well spent!! :lol: Ana xx


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

"Much of a problem with language, I can get away with French but haven't a clue where to start with German."

2point,

Funny you should say that, because that's my perception. French O level has left me in much better stead than German O level did :-( 

But should it weigh against a trip to Germany? Because that's what I feel it does, but it shouldn't. I was chatting with some international colleagues over lunch yesterday and one said he was much more comfortable in Germany than France, because in his experience more Germans spoke English than French speaking English. I then quipped that clearly the French were feigning it because he obviously hadn't tried to speak French, however badly, but he didn't think so.

Incidentally the other chap was a Canadian who speaks perfect French. But because he doesn't LOOK French, every time he walks into a shop in France and asks for something, he reckons they answer in English!

So peejay, great report thanks; what's the language low-down in Germany?

Dave


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## 2point (Jun 10, 2005)

Thanks Dave

We will certainly 'do' part of Germany at some point, even if we do end up living on bier, saurkraut and frankenfurters!


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Thanks for all the nice replies and well spotted storeman, got my ennkirches and ernsts a bit mixed up there but all sorted now.

As for the language lowdown in Germany - err, well, they speak German!

Seriously, I think you've got more chance of a German offering to speak English than a Frenchman, IMO Germans always seem eager to impress and try out their language skills on you whereas the French seem much more reserved. When you're in a seriously touristy area though, they all seem to speak English as it's to their financial benefit methinks.

We can both stumble through reasonably painlessly in both lingo's although i'm more comfortable with German than French, biggest trouble we both have is just as we're getting into the swing of things with French, then you're in Germany trying to speak Deutsch and you get it all mixed up with French and vica versa on the way back, very confusing.
I think the most important thing, whatever country you're in, is to have a go, no matter how bad you are, they will always appreciate it. 
It never ceases to amaze and shame me seeing some brits walk into a shop abroad and ask for something without the slightest effort whatsoever at the lingo, then they wonder why they get a negative response and then come to the conclusion that they are all arrogant and ignorant across the pond.

Just my opinion, but you should never let the language barrier put you off visiting a foreigh country, you'd be missing so much.....

Oh, and Germany is probably equal with France as the two most motorhome friendly countries in Europe so you have no excuse........

Fahren sie nach Deutschland fur eine schoenes urlaub!



pete.


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