Motorhome round Europe

After deciding on a lifestyle change in 2003 I resigned from my job of 30 years with air traffic control, we sold our family home in Reading and just before Christmas 2003 we bought an American motorhome.

With most of our possessions in storage we moved into the motorhome just after new year 2004, spent a few weeks visiting family and friends in the UK (and getting used to our new life) then crossed the channel to tour round Europe.

We had various destinations planned over the year at events or places to meet friends. The first was to visit friends in southern Germany for the children to learn to ski. It was cold living in the van! With more and more snow forecast we decided after a few days we needed to move further south so set off across Switzerland and the Mont Blanc tunnel into Italy and finally arrived in France at a campsite near Nice where we spent almost a month.

Our next rendezvous was with family in Avignon and then a few days later with friends near Lyon. After some lovely days we battled a Mistral to go north along the Rhone valley stopping at various farms overnight on the way north until we reached Le Mans for the test day in April. Because of our height we couldn't get under the tunnel into the campsite so were allowed to park next the track!

Leaving Le Mans we ended up on the coast at La Boule for Polly's 5th birthday and then to Brittany to stay with friends again. It rained continuously for days! Also full of British people!

Onto Paris where my mother came to see us where the weather improved and then we started a long drive south to meet friends near Santander in Spain and onto Portugal for Euro 2004 football.

On the way we spent a lovely few days on the Ile de Re where our (domestic) water pump packed up. We ordered another one from the UK which arrived on the day we left! Finally the weather became hot and I wore shorts until September!

Spent a week in Portugal with all the nations of Europe - mainly Dutch, German and Swedish and then started the long trek across the open wastes of Spain via Salamanca and Madrid to stop for a few days in the mountains just before Barcelona on an almost deserted campsite apart from one night when a huge 'fiesta' took place.

From Barcelona we gradually wound our way around the Med stopping for a while seeing friends in Agde, spending another week near Nice in Antibes, grandparent visiting in Rome and finally ending up at Pompeii.

Our next major destination was the Olympics in Athens so we crossed Italy to the ferry from Brindisi to Pireaus. We had a booking to go back to Brindisi but changed it for a longer crossing Ancona. Whilst in Greece we stayed in Corinth because we couldn't find a campsite nearer Athens that would accommodate our van! We hired a car to get in and out of the city to go to the events we had tickets for - table tennis, volleyball, gymnastics, athletics and best of all cycling where we saw Chris Hoy win a gold medal and Bradley Wiggins break a world record.

After getting back to Italy we spent a few days in San Marino including a family scuba diving session, onto Bologna and a visit by train to Venice, then to the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Parked next to the track for a week! One day exploring on our bikes we ended up cycling along the start straight with cars going round, the pace car simply waved at us!

After that it was off to Austria in the Zillertal Valley and Salzburg, back to friends in Germany where the weather finally broke becoming cold and wet.

The final few weeks spent going north through Germany to Amsterdam, south again into Belgium and finally to spend the last night in France at the same campsite we spent our first night in France.

Back into the UK in early November visiting family and ended up in Chesterfield just before Christmas 2004! Mileage of just over 10,000 for the trip.