After spending a wonderful weekend in Lake Como for a beautiful wedding it was time to start the journey home. We had two nights to break up the journey on the way back but we had learned a few things from the journey down that helped us out on the way back:
- It is much wiser to input your final destination into the sat nav (even if you are not intending to drive there in one blast) and then find suitable stopover points along the way thus avoiding going off route too much
- Electric hook-up when stopping for one night isn't compulsory when you're doing so much driving as the batteries have plenty of time to charge up to easily get you through the night
- If in doubt stop off at one of the service stations to stock up on your essentials just in case you don't find a supermarket near to where you are staying, or worse, they are closed.
- Wine tends to be cheaper than beer in France and Italy if you are fond of an alcoholic beverage as we are.
- Spend a few moments taking in your surroundings and enjoy the adventure
For the journey home we decided to power through Switzerland and get through as much of France as we could before stopping but sometimes things don't go entirely to plan. We encountered some of the heaviest rain we had ever seen as soon as we crossed the border from Italy into Switzerland.
Then we came across a wall of traffic while trying to enter a tunnel (even though the diversion we attempted fully backfired on us as they had closed all the entrances onto the motorway that we tried).
About an hour later we arrived at the tunnel entrance and we were on our way again. We couldn't figure out why but they were only allowing a few cars through at a time - we think this might have been because our sat nav had directed us through the new San Gotthard tunnel which is over 35 miles long!
Several hours of driving later including a service station stop to pick up some much needed (and wonderfully local) wine we arrived at Les Portes d'Alsace Campsite which was approximately one mile from Saverne. We found the site as it was listed on the Camping and Caravanning Club and Caravan Club websites but unfortunately there was no discount to be had and we paid around 24 Euros for our pitch with electric hook-up included.
Much to my surprise, this campsite didn't seem to have a restaurant or bar onsite (or maybe we were too tired to notice?) so we cracked open a bottle of the local wine we had purchased and settled in for the evening.
The campsite did seem to have a nice swimming pool though.
If only we hadn't been so tired and time-constrained otherwise I would have loved to spend more time exploring Saverne. Still, we have noted it down as a place to re-visit in the future.
The next day after catching up on some much needed sleep we drove all the way to Calais and stayed at a lovely campsite called La Bien Assise. We had our apprehensions as this site was so close to the port but we needn't have worried, it was part of the Les Castels group just as the lovely campsite we had stayed in as our first stop on the way down.
We did manage to get a discount here as we only have a small 'camping car' and we were only staying for one night. They gave us a nice pitch with electric hook-up included for less than 20 Euros.
We met lots of nice people here who were either starting their adventures or going home and it was an especially important night for us as England were playing Iceland in Euro 2016 so to find a bar with a TV showing the football was very welcome (it was just a shame about the result!)
The campsite was very close to the Eurotunnel terminal and we took advantage of that by going shopping at the Carrefour Hypermarket before our crossing and picking up some bargains (and lots of wine!)
We really enjoyed our adventures through France, Switzerland and Italy and we are really looking forward to another visit in a couple of months time for another wedding but our destination will be Lake Garda for that adventure...
Several hours of driving later including a service station stop to pick up some much needed (and wonderfully local) wine we arrived at Les Portes d'Alsace Campsite which was approximately one mile from Saverne. We found the site as it was listed on the Camping and Caravanning Club and Caravan Club websites but unfortunately there was no discount to be had and we paid around 24 Euros for our pitch with electric hook-up included.
Much to my surprise, this campsite didn't seem to have a restaurant or bar onsite (or maybe we were too tired to notice?) so we cracked open a bottle of the local wine we had purchased and settled in for the evening.
The campsite did seem to have a nice swimming pool though.
If only we hadn't been so tired and time-constrained otherwise I would have loved to spend more time exploring Saverne. Still, we have noted it down as a place to re-visit in the future.
The next day after catching up on some much needed sleep we drove all the way to Calais and stayed at a lovely campsite called La Bien Assise. We had our apprehensions as this site was so close to the port but we needn't have worried, it was part of the Les Castels group just as the lovely campsite we had stayed in as our first stop on the way down.
We did manage to get a discount here as we only have a small 'camping car' and we were only staying for one night. They gave us a nice pitch with electric hook-up included for less than 20 Euros.
We met lots of nice people here who were either starting their adventures or going home and it was an especially important night for us as England were playing Iceland in Euro 2016 so to find a bar with a TV showing the football was very welcome (it was just a shame about the result!)
The campsite was very close to the Eurotunnel terminal and we took advantage of that by going shopping at the Carrefour Hypermarket before our crossing and picking up some bargains (and lots of wine!)
We really enjoyed our adventures through France, Switzerland and Italy and we are really looking forward to another visit in a couple of months time for another wedding but our destination will be Lake Garda for that adventure...
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