Tag Archives: germany

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Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux

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Today I took a walk to the “centre Ville”, or town centre which is 3.8km from the campsite. Check out the church above; it’s difficult to get an idea of scale unless you look at buildings on the right. A truly massive building, out of proportion for a small place like this.

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The centre of town, when I got there was silent. Everything is closed on this Sunday afternoon. Indeed, it’s so dead here, the town should be twinned with Stornoway.

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The back streets provide some interesting attractions such as Jesus on the cross, or the bicycle turned into a planter, below.

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Well that’s it for today. It’s quarter past six local time as I write this and the rain is beating heavily on the roof of the van.

Tomorrow takes the Sooty Van away from the French forests and into Germany. Keep an eye on progress with http://tinyurl.com/sootytrack

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Henry’s Lake

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imag0513_rattlesdenThree weeks before the start of the season, or before a long trip, the Sooty Van goes for a little run out to a local campsite near the house. A bit pointless, I hear you say, however it does give me a chance to test the van is OK, that the fridge, heating, water pump work and so on. I work on the basis that it’s easier to fix those things at home rather than in the wilds of Europe. The brakes completely failing in Vienna last year was a nightmare!

Normally I go to the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Polstead in Suffolk – about 30 miles from the house, it covers motorway, A roads and “twisties” so is ideal. However, they are setting minimum lengths of stay which does annoy me (shouldn’t I decide how long to stay, not have someone tell me?).

Enter Henry’s Lake run by Kate Henry. This is a C&CC Certificated Site occupying 5 out of 9 grass pitches at any one time to give them a bit of rotation. I have the whole site to myself in the Suffolk wilds and there is something quite relaxing about that. The van is performing well so is good to go for France, Germany and Belgium in three weeks.

We will be back here again, and may even do something with the Bambi Owners Club, a long weekend rally perhaps? The people who run the place are very friendly and it would make a great rally location for those wishing to get a bit of peace and quiet.

 

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Oil Leak

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Hmm… took the van out for a 30 mile run yesterday and noticed a patch of oil on the floor after it had been parked for an hour. It’s coming from either the front of the gearbox or somewhere near the back of the engine.

I hope it’s something simple like the rocker cover gasket or seals on the distributor. I don’t want to have to start rebuilding engines or gearboxes with less than 4 weeks to go until the trip.

There’s a pre-holiday weekend trip planned to Henry’s Lake in Suffolk for the 23rd/24th February to test that everything is OK, water pump works, fridge works, and so in. That’s less than a week away so the oil leak needs to be looked at today. Lucky the weather is nice and the sun is shining!

 

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Countdown to Europe mini trip

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p1000421_nideggenCan’t wait for the Europe mini trip, visiting France, Germany and Belgium. Still a few jobs to do before setting off:

  • Notify motor insurance and breakdown cover that I’ll be overseas
  • Take out medical/travel insurance
  • Book campsite in France
  • Book campsite in Germany
  • Book campsite in Belgium
  • Download Satnav updates and set waypoints
  • Obtain Euros
  • Convert headlights to left hand drive beam

Not so much planning as was needed for the big trip last year, so that’s a relief. I’ve also resurrected the Sooty Van Tracker which should work using this link – http://tinyurl.com/sootytrack

 

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£1,345.32

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£1,345.32 is the final cost of the trip, not including spending money. I’ve updated the costs page. It sounds like quite a lot of money but when you think that the van went through 11 countries and stayed in 8 of them, it’s not too bad. When you take in some of the superb sites of Prague and Venice it sounds even better still 🙂

Tolls: Belgium, Germany and Poland did not charge me anything for the use of their roads. All the others did. The highest was Italy at £92.84 followed by France in second place with £55.72. I could have kept off the motorways in France and saved some money, would have had much nicer scenery too.

Fuel: Cheapest fill was at Brzeszcze in Poland at £1.039/litre the most expensive was Italy at £1.605/litre, a difference of almost 60p between the two. With the combination of tolls and fuel, Italy is a very expensive country to drive through.

Campsites: These did vary quite a bit in price. Cheapest was the Dialogue Centre at Auschwitz which worked out at £5.52 per night. It has 16 amp electric, water tap, nice showers and washrooms, washing line and even a BBQ for the use of the campers. Only me and one other camper in the whole place! Most expensive was the Knaus Campingpark in Nuremberg at £22.32 per night, but it is very popular and close to the city centre.

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Nideggen

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I’ve arrived at the site in Germany and its lovely. Only 13 Euros for the night including 16 amp electric and shower.

Time for a coffee now after my 340 miles today.  All booked in and pitched there is a lovely castle on the mountain behind my van. I am actually quite sad to be here for just one night. The birds are chirping in the forest behind me, and other than that it’s peacefully quiet.

Off to Nuremburg tomorrow and will have a couple of days there.

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Welcome to sootyvan.com

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This is my first attempt at creating a blog so please go easy on me 🙂

It’s my plan to do a tour of Europe in the sooty van during late June and early July 2012.  This is the place where I plan to put updates and pictures so friends and family will be up to date on whatever trouble I manage to land myself in.

Here’s the rough plan:

Leave Essex on Saturday 23rd June 2012 and head to Kent for the Eurotunnel.  The trip then follows three legs of approximately 1,000 miles each returning via Eurotunnel on Saturday 14th July.

Leg A – Witham to Auschwitz, Poland.  Travelling through Belgium and Germany, Czech Republic and finally Poland.

Leg B – Auschwitz to Casola in Lunigiana, Italy.  My friends Mick and Yvonne have a villa in Tuscany and I plan to stay with them on the weekend of 7th/8th July.  This leg will take me through Austria and Slovenia with a detour to the Plitvice National Park in Croatia, before briefly travelling through Slovenia again to Italy.

Leg C – Casola in Lunigiana to Witham.  The final leg will see me staying at Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva, and meandering back through France before taking the Eurotunnel again for the trip home.