Europe March 2024

Our Etihad flight from Bangkok lands in Amsterdam on Sunday the 17th of March at 7.30 pm, it looked beautiful as we came in at 30000ft, bright blue skies and sunshine but as we land its grey and overcast, some drizzle but not too cold for us even though we have been living in warm Asian weather for 3 months.

Our flight from Bangkok stops at Abu Dhabi for an hour where we change planes. Pretty weird spot as we fly over ….

 

Its a breeze through customs and we collect our bags before heading outside to the bus stop for our hotel transfer. Next morning we head to the van storage and Peter who stores our van has it all ready as we arrive around 9am to start our new journey. Looks like the mice have had a nice time while we where away, been munching all the stored toilet paper and some dried foods as well. First time we have had them inside but its pretty common. After a clean up its off to Lidl supermarket and big stock up. Our park up tonight is not far away and located behind a small garden nursery on a canal. Well its Holland so bound to be a few canals around. Its a purpose made motorhome stop and allows us to spend the day getting everything prepared for our next journey. The sun has even come out and its about 18 deg so we couldn’t have asked for more. 

 
This year we have decided to cross to the UK from the Hook of Holland rather than Calais. Its a longer crossing at 6 hours compared to 1.5 hours but we save on the long drive to Calais. We berth at Harwich in England and from there its basically cross country to Stratford and our motor mechanic.
Well the 6 hours becomes long and tedious, we board an hour before sailing which is 2.15pm and the time drags on, bit like sitting on a plane just waiting to reach your destination. Our park up once we land is nearby on the waters edge, the road is pretty quiet and we enjoy a peaceful night. Oh, apart from a little mouse we hear nibbling at something on the middle of the night, need a mouse trap.

The morning brings some English drizzle with a grey and wintery view across the large harbour. No walk this morning so we head off towards Cambridge. After about an hour we stop at a large Go Outdoors shop near Ipswich and spend some time looking for decent walking shoes. Undecided we leave with a few camping bits but no shoes. Back on the A14 and we continue across the UK midlands before exiting to a small village called Pytchley and stopping at a pub called The Overstone Arms. Provided you spend some money in the pub they are happy for you to park up for the night in their carpark, it works well for everyone. We don’t eat but just have a couple of beers and a chat with the girls behind the bar. We spend a quiet night with just the local church bells ringing on the hour.

  

We awake to a cold morning but no rain and make our way to the M6 and head towards Coventry where a Decathlon sports store is located. Again its a fruitless search for some good walking shoes, we will have to expand our search. Its only about an hour to Stratford and we head to a canal side stop we have used before. I’m guessing the camp spots will be closed off as they are all grass and will be too soft but hopefully we can use the dump and get some water. It all works to plan and we are thankful for the use of the  facilities, there isn’t a soul around so no chance to thank anyone. A little later we pull into Ellenden Farm Shop to park up for the night. It works the same here, just spend some money in the shop and you can park for the night. Some nice organic sausages, free range eggs and we are set. We spend a quiet night on the farm.

  

This morning, Friday, we have the van booked for its roadworthy, or as it called in the UK an MOT. A simple process becomes a long drawn out saga. Our MOT fails due to a faulty headlight, something we knew and mentioned when we dropped it off. Turns out its fault lies within the power circuit that controls the lights. Not just a bulb replacement unfortunately, 3 hours later we have a solution and pass our MOT so we can head off. Didn’t look too good at one stage, and being Friday we thought we would be back Monday and a rebook of the ferry to France that is booked for Monday. Its a 40 minute drive to the Cotswolds and we arrive at Stow-on-the-Wold and park up in the carpark next to another couple of vans. Looks like our water pump has died, either that or a fuse has failed, but no water in any taps. Its too late to do anything now so a job for the morning, apart from that we have a peaceful night. This photo at Stow-on-the-Wold is just incredible for its clarity, including the stars.

 

Of course the subconscious thoughts prevail during the night with plans for the pump. Is is the fuse? Maybe a micro switch? Is it blocked? Or is the pump cactus and we need a new one? Where can we get one? In the morning the first job at is check all the fuses and not knowing which one is for the pump as there are no labels and the manual is all German. They all check out fine so its not a fuse. I try a trick of tapping the submerged pump with a screwdriver in case its jammed but no luck there either. Looks like a new pump is needed. We had planned on visiting an Ikea in Reading and I find a motorhome retailer with attached shop in Reading as well so off we go through the Cotswolds with a plan. A couple of hours later we have water, replaced the pump and its working fine. Off to Ikea and some new bedding and bits. Tonight we park up on an access road next to Tesco Super Market on a designated parking spot, not too flash but hopefully a quiet one.

 

Yes its a quiet night, we awake to rows of Tesco home delivery vans preparing their daily deliveries, sign of the times really. We have an appointment today at 10 am, catching up with our old mate Jude’s brother Barry and his lovely French wife Marie. We use Barries address for our registration of the van plus its handy to have any small bits delivered there so we can pick them up. We spend a great couple of hours chatting but must get on as we have a drive to Canterbury and a couple of stops on the way. Tomorrow we catch the ferry back to Europe, Dover to Calais. 

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