Granada and back with broken fridge door (1 Viewer)

[Techno]

Spured by David I have now uploaded my pics of Baie de Somme services from 2011

Gallery here http://techno.smugmug.com/Travel/Baie-de-somme-services/45163418_GZ8HHW#!i=3634225526&k=WwkBgX2

 

[Taran_Las]

Out came the cards, none acceptable, not even the bloody Caxton we got specially (Thanks Taran Las), even tried to convince a Frenchman waiting to use his card but he explained in best Franglais he had no credit left!!

Mevasosorry.​

 

[vwalan]

just look for a village church . lots of parking . but not on a saturday . gets a bit busy.
this time of year you can almost park anywhere . nobody cares .

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[DavidG58]

looked really lovely


last night, now I have downloaded the photo it looks more like Colditz

just setting off south again

Angouleme direction then look for an aire, or maybe just park by a church (Alan) they do have some amazing churches, Chartres always makes me look twice when we see it in the distance

 

[Mousy]

Lovely thread David, please can you mention all the bread and cheeses available to you so that I can be even more jelious?

Thanks Grandad!

 

[DavidG58]

Just had our first row of the holiday

Not as I would have expected between me and Bev, but between Bev and Tom Tom

I like my Tom Tom (not a euphemism) but it does sometimes have some funny ideas, but on the plus side it does not tend to fall asleep at critical parts of the journey

So going round Tours, for the first time ever, Tom Tom programmed for Angouleme, Bev armed with map aimed for same place says

'Oh I didn't expect to go this way' and then after a bit further

'This really doesn't seem right'

few more miles

'Are you sure you have programmed in the right Angouleme?'

now that might seem extreme even for Bev, but Angouleme happens to be right on the fold of the map book so spelling place name was a bit of a guess. But how many other places can start Angoule and be more or less in the right place when Tom Tom showed the route

Anyway, so now we have had to stop, about 15 miles from Tours on the way to Chinon, it does look like Tom Tom is going to take us back towards where Bev had planned, so nearly OK other than the fact that I trusted TT more than her 15 miles ago

Its going to be a long day.......

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[DavidG58]

so we are here for night 3, end of day 1

here is aire de Loisirs, in a gourgeous little town Verteuil-sur-Charente

if you like quiet this is for you, nice park down to riverside

town over other side, accessed by path or road, café, cave, small restaurant, closed bar (boarded up closed)

amazing chateaux just cant really get a good photo, off for a walk will post more if I can get some before dark

 

[DavidG58]

more photos of the aire

 

[DavidG58]

some photos of the town

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[DavidG58]

I should add that this is a free aire, I am really liking that bit, it even has free electrics, but a battalion of Dutch have claimed the 4 points and even split one for themselves. But we don't need electrics, I would probably trip them anyway so easiest not to have any

the road in is really tight, made more fun by builders, their vans, their scaffold and French man with no idea of relative size, but he has a bit more now hopefully

well worth the small effort though, we are liking this aire idea, why oh why cant we have similar in UK, (apologies to any CL owners here) I do fear the UK would abuse it somehow though

roll on full retirement, I could spend some months trying these out

 

[DavidG58]

now this is another really good reason to love France

note, the nibbled end of my Pistachio flan and the fully scoffed raspberry panacotta, all troughed by Bev while I got camera out

 

[andy63]

just saw your thread all be a bit late but best wishes and safe journey..enjoy
ta andy

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[DavidG58]

just saw your thread all be a bit late but best wishes and safe journey..enjoy
ta andy

we have only just started Andy, 3 nights in 18 to go

just to explain the title, we left with a broken fridge door, long story, see other thread

hope to come back with no more broken fridge door

 

[DavidG58]

Lovely thread David, please can you mention all the bread and cheeses available to you so that I can be even more jelious?

Thanks Grandad!

A lovely lump of Comte tonight, thought of you all the time while nibbling Dawn x

 

[DavidG58]

Beautiful morning here, planned an early start, but didn't wake up till nearly 9

Had breakfast, more coffee and now just about to leave

Delayed in part by a red squirrel playing near us

Off to check out the new toll road from Bordeaux south

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[DavidG58]

Day 3 in France

Had a really nice day, possibly drove a few more miles than we would have chosen to, done 240 miles down to St Jean Luz, come to a site we have used before Bord de Mer, ACSI site cost us 17 euros, not really sure how that works when they should be 12,14,16 or 18, but not complaining

Journey down was speed restricted by the previously mentioned N10, but we had already decided 90 kph makes a nice cruising speed in France, so sat back and enjoyed the view

My game was watching mpg on computer, resets automatically from start, and crept up to an amazing (by our standards) 23.4 mpg by lunch time, 90 kph isn't so bad after all

Next game was dashboard avalanche, now for me it was all Bevs fault, for her it was all down to my driving

A pile of stuff forms the further we go into any holiday, maps, Acsi book, knitting, more maps, tour guides etc, at some bends something would always slip, sometimes caught, if not my driving comes into question, at every roundabout nearly everything moves, most of it onto the floor, never Bevs loading ......

But when Bev pops to the loo (having rather bizzarely said if I need a wee shall I go and get one??) must be a female thing, anyway she goes then we come to a roundabout, you can probably guess or maybe even picture the rest.....

Next bit of interest was the new peage section on the way down to Biarritz from Bordeaux, I have no ides what class we are (probably should do and no doubt will be told in a few minutes) but we approached the first new toll booth with no idea would it be a ticket only or cash, it was cash, asked us for 15.63 euro, no idea how far that was for but it seemed a lot. Then remembered comments on here about challenging the rate, so told Bev who was just about to pay up, to press the button, she did, it changed the French writing to English, she had pressed the button with the union jack on it. Easy mistake to make?? so it still confirmed we had 15.63 to pay. Then I suggested the button next to the speaker, with which a litter picking attendant walked towards us but before they arrived the price dropped to 5.30 euro, in line with the price for a car. That will do nicely so Bev paid and we moved on, still not knowing how far we had paid for

Next toll was about 40 miles down the road, same again 15.63, pressed buzzer, they spoke this time and we said price was high, dropped to 5.30, then we realised the booth did not take cash, so tried a card, bloody Caxton thing (Phil) hasn't been accepted anywhere yet, so pressed buzzer again, while a few behind us pressed their horns!! Explained I best Franglais that the card would not work, they asked if we had cash, they then sent someone over to take money and open barrier

We then decided to stay on peage down to St Jean Luz, next toll 5.30, then still another 3 euro before we got off, expensive bit of the journey, but could have ben so much worse

So we have done a couple of aires and loved them, but now must say it is lovely to be on a site sat out on chairs, with our new Morrocan awning mat (Lola loves that) on third G + T in 28 degrees of end of day sunshine

Definitely for us, some and some, aires and sites, off for a warm shower with loads of room in a bit, then better get something to eat or any further posts will be of dubious value / quality

 

[magicsurfbus]

..note, the nibbled end of my Pistachio flan..

Pistachio? Not convinced - I've always wondered what the French did with the rest of the frog after they'd eaten its legs. I reckon that's Gateau de Kermit.

 

[DavidG58]

edit, so much for a warm shower, luke warm is being generous, luckily air temp outside is still 24C

nite all

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[sedge]

Ah, the 15 euros was probably correct TBH - cos you is Class 3 being over 3m high. But mostly they charge all camping-cars Class 2 rates unless they are being jobs-worths.

Did you go round the chateau at Chateaudun? It's absolutely empty - we took our grandson about 10 years ago whilst we were all staying at St Denis les Ponts at a carp lake there. The aire at St Denis hadn't been thought of at that time and the supermarket there (it is an out of town hypermarche for Chateaudun, as St D is only a village) was brand new - it had opened about a month before we went!

 

[DavidG58]

Ah, the 15 euros was probably correct TBH - cos you is Class 3 being over 3m high. But mostly they charge all camping-cars Class 2 rates unless they are being jobs-worths.

Did you go round the chateau at Chateaudun? It's absolutely empty - we took our grandson about 10 years ago whilst we were all staying at St Denis les Ponts at a carp lake there. The aire at St Denis hadn't been thought of at that time and the supermarket there (it is an out of town hypermarche for Chateaudun, as St D is only a village) was brand new - it had opened about a month before we went!

I fear you are right on the tolls bit, it is only the sat dome that officially takes us over, never thought of the impact of that when fitted, will be sticking to non peage on way home, problem on the road yesterday is there is no parallel option like normal

As for the chateau just admired from the outside, amazing building

 

[DavidG58]

Sun shining, another early start has come and passed us by, 10:30 and still packing ready to leave, then to supermarket before heading towards Madrid

No real plans see where we end up, would guess somewhere north of Madrid, due to meet our friend in Durcal near Granada on Monday

20C here this morning, lazy breakfast in sun, no incentive to move on really

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[Techno]

My sat dome takes us to 3.24 metres but I've never been charged more than class 2

 

[DavidG58]

My sat dome takes us to 3.24 metres but I've never been charged more than class 2

The Spanish tolls got out and counted our wheels

Do you have twin or single axle?

We have 6 wheels, even with 2 hidden they still got us in Spain

 

[Techno]

four wheels only , 2 axles 2100kg front 2400kg rear

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[DavidG58]

So day 4 in France / Spain, we cross the border today and head to our friends place just outside Granada, a few weeks ago Old Mo posted when he got back into Spain there was something about it he really loved, but could not put his finger on it. Well we have the opposite, also not really not quite sure why, but my main feeling is we can't speak Spanish so feel uncomfortable

My Franglais is half decent but my Espinglise is totally useless

Anyway we are off to see our friend come what may, so over the border we go, having decided to use the peage to cross having wasted ages last time through Irun etc, then up over the hills toward Bourgos (I think thats right) why they cant sign it for their capital city I don't know

So decide that we will pull in at a lay by for coffee, chose a picnic option rather than service area, never again, human excrement all over the grassed area and poo striped paper alongside to remove any possible doubt

YUK

So following on from my query the other day ref dash message 'reduce engine oil level', before we left I had checked all levels to be sure, both physical and electronic via dash, all OK. Reading blog replies even MB suggest driving a bit harder occasionally to clear sensors and remove risk of this alarm. Pulling out of layby, not best pleased anyway, decide to take it out on engine and clear sensors at same time, so use kick down to hold gears get to speed quickly, decide 70mph is enough then back off, something feels odd, but no warning lights, but no power. Check we haven't stalled, that's good, drop down to 3rd have limited power but cant get above 40mph, no we are on a hill, although we normally only drive at 55 ish, 40 suddenly feels like we are parked, so hazards on which a lot of lorries do in Spain anyway up hills. Top of hill still looks a long way off, so be grateful for 40mph and plod on. Over the top no more power, gravity gives a little more speed but something is wrong, so pull into next layby

We had a similar unresolved issue with our previous Mercedes MH, so stopped, ignition off, locked MH unlocked and restarted, expecting no change, but all OK, bit more cautious on hard acceleration, so back on with our travels

There are more positive comments in the next comment, so will start again......

 

[DavidG58]

My sat dome takes us to 3.24 metres but I've never been charged more than class 2

nor have we yet but only thanks to the buzzer

 

[DavidG58]

second half of day 4, now wholly in Spain

Not speaking the language and the Spanish not really having an aire system, we were really not sure where we were going to stop tonight, last time we found a restaurant car park with several other lorries and a few too may undesirable others, so vowed to do better this time

Total journey from Biarritz (last night, are you keeping up) to Durcal near Granada is 540 miles, Madrid is more or less in the middle, but my logic says just get round then stop, this also means we will be just over half way, 300 miles today 240 tomorrow, hardly ideal holiday motoring but it suits us and our lack of the lingo (you may need to refer to earlier posts to keep up properly)

So we get to and past Madrid, 28C not bad for the end of the day, we fly past the restaurant car park reminding ourselves not again, but then look for alternative sop over

Bev gets ipad out with more apps than you could imagine, so we should be sorted, turns out I am now driving too fast for the GPS to track us!! Not really sure than 70 mph can out run satellites but it has been a long day and too late to start a row over

Turns out we passed an ACSI site 10 miles back, so now do we turn round and go back? hardly the British approach, so we career on, possibly now closer to 75mph with the rapidly approaching sunset.

From the ipad corner we get, there an aire, but I cant find it on the map, but it is 30km from where we are or were at least!! Row is getting more likely any moment now. But to defend Bev the map really is a new thread on its own, but in summary

When last in Spain our friend said what a good map we had, as we were only retracing our steps we offered to leave ours with him, reckoning when / if we came back we would buy a new one. So we get to the Spanish border on our way down again without a new map, pop in to Le Clerc in St Jean Luz for some bits and a road map of Spain, do they have one?? well sort of, the smallest road map in the world, but we buy it because we have nothing and will stop in Spain to buy one, well Spanish service area garages don't sell them either. So we are stuck with the postage stamp sized book with only about 6 pages to the whole of Spain

Back to our plight for the night

Said aire turns out to be about 20km further down the road we are on, now at this point I need to go back to MH to recharge laptop, get camera for photos of aire and map book before I can give you any more detail

Sat a bar on their wifi because I cant for love of what not get our iBoost to pick it up from MH

So I will be back with photos and location of a lovely little absolutely brand new totally free aire in Spain on the road to Granada.............................

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[jockaneezer]

It's not a holiday if you haven't fallen out at some point Enjoying the read so far, sounds like one of our journeys.

 

[DavidG58]

Looks like it has snowed in first photo??!!

Brand new aire new this year at least, Puerto Lapice, approx. 50 miles south of Madrid on Cordoba road

We arrived about 7, walked to bars in town about 400 yds, no food options obvious, had a beer or 2 then fed ourselves at MH

Nice convenient aire, slightly tight entrance for no obvious reason, couldn't work out the electrics but didn't need anyway

and FREE

 

[DBK]

...couldn't work out the electrics but didn't need anyway

A Ficha is a token, which presumably you buy somewhere else, but the supply is only two amps so barely enough for the Christmas tree lights.

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