Hi everyone,
I have been very quiet on the forum recently and with good reason. about 2 weeks ago i decided to go on a Euro holiday and so here are some of the pictures of the adventure!!
The route plan - 2000 miles all in (we added Paris in too but you get the jist of things):
We took the Norfolk line ferry from Dover to Dunkerque and landed in France at 4am. With some time to kill, explored a bit of Dunkerque before setting off for Brussels to see a friend. I spotted this restaurant too!! How cool, its named after my panda!!
Morning spent in brussels then it was off to Amsterdam to check into a great campsite near the party capital!
Next stop Hamburg, more of a stop off point but a very clean well kept city with some interesting buildings.
Then it was Berlin and we spent 2 days there as there was a lot to see. Wanted to get a picture of my panda next to the berlin wall maybe something a bit like this:
Not sure i wanted to drive it through the wall though. But it would have made a good picture! Unfortunately they were painting over all the original graffiti to protect the wall from the elements. Almost defeats the object of keeping as a monument if you're wiping off all the history. Anyway, found this funny though whilst walking to the berlin wall:
After berlin it was a loooong drive to Stuttgart, of course stopping for a cup of tea half way! And cruizing at 80mph on the autobahns!
We arrived just in time to hear Linken Park playing live!! The campsite was in the city centre and right next to the concert so, we payed 10 euro each for live music and a place to sleep!! Woooohooo!! We explored the city the next day and discovered they reeeeally love fountains in germany!! Ran out of time unfortunately so didnt get to see the mercedes museum.
Next was Zurich, and another coincidence we arrived on Swiss independance day!! So there were celebrations all over. Another stroke of luck! Huzzah! We found a great campsite right by the lake too, with fantastic views of zurich across the lake:
Then was the Alps!! I had been looking forward to this the whole trip and i was not at all disapointed! The most beautiful sites I have ever seen, awesome roads and some of the lakes were even quite warm. Was really refreshing to have a swim after so many days of driving. Here are a few of the pictures I took:
We drove to a place called Interlaken where we camped lakeside surrounded by huge mountains. We arrived there in the evening, and just in time to catch the celebrations for swiss independence day. The fireworks were very impressive, some of the best I have seen. This is where we stayed and the view from our tent:
We climbed a 4300ft mountain too that looked down on our campsite and the views were breath taking:
Final stop was Paris, a long drive from Interlaken!! French roads however are so bad!! I think I saw some of the worst driving yet and the tarmac is full of pot holes and bumps. Plus its the only country that asked us to pay to use them!! 26 euros too!!! Anyway, rant over we arrived in paris and muscled our way into town to the final campsite!! Opted out of driving round the crazy roundabout so walked in but in old worn sandals i ended up with blisters all over my feet! And the cue to climb the Eiffel tower was too long so will have to do that next time. We were just running out of time unfortunately. Initial impressions of france asside, Paris was quite a pretty city.
Here's something that made me laugh:
Sorry Jon!!
Just got back yesterday morning, 10 days after beginning the quest to conquer europe in a 24 year old panda! Not a single breakdown, all I had to do was adjust the points gap on the distributor as I had not touched it since getting the car and they have closed up completely!! In fact I couldnt even see a gap at all but the car was still running!! They are very good engines!
Some pandas i saw along the way:
Other random cars:
Mini with number plate SE X!!! On its way to a mini festival in Birmingham. Was parked next to us on the ferry home
Loebs WRC rally car in Paris:
We had 2hrs to kill at the docks in Dunkerque thanks to Customs taking so long!! so we got out the stove again, put on some tunes and had tea and biscuits in an entirely british fashion!!
Next hurdle, MOT is due Friday and test is now booked for monday, so a quick check over and fingers crossed!! Wish her luck!!
Hope everyone is well,
Cheers, Si
I have been very quiet on the forum recently and with good reason. about 2 weeks ago i decided to go on a Euro holiday and so here are some of the pictures of the adventure!!
The route plan - 2000 miles all in (we added Paris in too but you get the jist of things):
We took the Norfolk line ferry from Dover to Dunkerque and landed in France at 4am. With some time to kill, explored a bit of Dunkerque before setting off for Brussels to see a friend. I spotted this restaurant too!! How cool, its named after my panda!!
Morning spent in brussels then it was off to Amsterdam to check into a great campsite near the party capital!
Next stop Hamburg, more of a stop off point but a very clean well kept city with some interesting buildings.
Then it was Berlin and we spent 2 days there as there was a lot to see. Wanted to get a picture of my panda next to the berlin wall maybe something a bit like this:
Not sure i wanted to drive it through the wall though. But it would have made a good picture! Unfortunately they were painting over all the original graffiti to protect the wall from the elements. Almost defeats the object of keeping as a monument if you're wiping off all the history. Anyway, found this funny though whilst walking to the berlin wall:
After berlin it was a loooong drive to Stuttgart, of course stopping for a cup of tea half way! And cruizing at 80mph on the autobahns!
We arrived just in time to hear Linken Park playing live!! The campsite was in the city centre and right next to the concert so, we payed 10 euro each for live music and a place to sleep!! Woooohooo!! We explored the city the next day and discovered they reeeeally love fountains in germany!! Ran out of time unfortunately so didnt get to see the mercedes museum.
Next was Zurich, and another coincidence we arrived on Swiss independance day!! So there were celebrations all over. Another stroke of luck! Huzzah! We found a great campsite right by the lake too, with fantastic views of zurich across the lake:
Then was the Alps!! I had been looking forward to this the whole trip and i was not at all disapointed! The most beautiful sites I have ever seen, awesome roads and some of the lakes were even quite warm. Was really refreshing to have a swim after so many days of driving.
Here are a few of the pictures I took:
We drove to a place called Interlaken where we camped lakeside surrounded by huge mountains. We arrived there in the evening, and just in time to catch the celebrations for swiss independence day. The fireworks were very impressive, some of the best I have seen. This is where we stayed and the view from our tent:
We climbed a 4300ft mountain too that looked down on our campsite and the views were breath taking:
Final stop was Paris, a long drive from Interlaken!! French roads however are so bad!! I think I saw some of the worst driving yet and the tarmac is full of pot holes and bumps. Plus its the only country that asked us to pay to use them!! 26 euros too!!! Anyway, rant over we arrived in paris and muscled our way into town to the final campsite!! Opted out of driving round the crazy roundabout so walked in but in old worn sandals i ended up with blisters all over my feet!
And the cue to climb the Eiffel tower was too long so will have to do that next time. We were just running out of time unfortunately. Initial impressions of france asside, Paris was quite a pretty city.
Here's something that made me laugh:
Sorry Jon!!
Just got back yesterday morning, 10 days after beginning the quest to conquer europe in a 24 year old panda! Not a single breakdown, all I had to do was adjust the points gap on the distributor as I had not touched it since getting the car and they have closed up completely!!
In fact I couldnt even see a gap at all but the car was still running!! They are very good engines!Some pandas i saw along the way:
Other random cars:
Mini with number plate SE X!!! On its way to a mini festival in Birmingham. Was parked next to us on the ferry home
Loebs WRC rally car in Paris:
We had 2hrs to kill at the docks in Dunkerque thanks to Customs taking so long!!
so we got out the stove again, put on some tunes and had tea and biscuits in an entirely british fashion!!
Next hurdle, MOT is due Friday and test is now booked for monday, so a quick check over and fingers crossed!! Wish her luck!!
Hope everyone is well,
Cheers, Si
