Travelling Europe on the Wild Side (1 Viewer)

mlarb

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I have to confess to only having flirted with MotorhomeFun for a few years, but a couple of weeks ago I paid my subs and so here I am.

As I was scouring the forum the other night for tips on fridge misbehaviour I realised that I should be using this forum so much more, as the advice is excellent.

We will have been motorhoming for 10 years in September and love it. As most on this forum, I'm sure, we're very passionate about motorhoming, and in fact our elder daughter bought out Talbot Bedouin from us a few years ago when she was 22, the same age as the Bedouin, and loves the lifestyle too, getting to France as often as she can. Our younger daughter also has every intention of getting a motorhome too.

I should point out that we appear to be different from most motorhomers, from what I can tell, in that we never tour the UK (we're Jersey-based), only use campsites if absolutely necessary, and never hook-up. At this moment, we're on our first proper tour in Spain, where there are a fraction of the aires of France or Germany, and so are becoming even more entrenched as users of Park4night, which with its user reviews of aires and excellent parking areas is something we simply couldn't be without.

In fact, for example, today we visited the Spanish town of Palencia, where there is an excellent aire, with marked bays, all the facilities, except hookup, and only a stroll across a bridge to the town. But we've become a bit free spirited, and so preferred to head off to visit some other sights, and find somewhere a bit more rural. So tonight I'm writing this near the Canal de Castilla and overlooking an extensive plain in a very peaceful rural parking area, with just the sounds of the birds and the water.

Whenever we tour we keep a daily blog going, which can be found at mlarb.com. It is essentially a light-hearted account of our daily travels, encounters, errors, and experiences. It is always supplemented by my wife's excellent photographs of all the places we've visited along the way.

I'd loved to have had a blog like this to read when I'd started out, and in fact our experienced motorhoming friends find it fun to see what we're up to each day because we rarely stay in one place more than one night, and we keep this up for a month or so at a time touring Europe. We even have followers who tell us they watch our progress as inspiration for their upcoming trips.

Obviously I'd encourage anyone interested in motorhoming in Europe to check our blog out, and if it floats your boat then if you register you'll get notified whenever we make a new post, which is currently daily.

It's great to be part of such a helpful and welcoming motorhoming community

Mike
 

jumartoo

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:pink: to Fun.

Just had a quick look at your blog and will bookmark it. We've just returned from the Palencia region and intended to cycle along the Canal de Castilla but other plans took over. We're now back home in Totana, Murcia for a short time before we head off for five months of our own motorhome adventures in Scandinavia.

We visited Prades and Siurana many years ago for the climbing and hope to get back there again some day although we'll be climbing much easier routes! It's a lovely area.

Look forward to hearing more about your travels.
 
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DBK

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Welcome! I suggest putting a link to your blog directly in your signature. It's allowed. I think because your web address doesn't use www it isn't being picked up. You may have to show it in full: https://mlarb.com :)

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Lenny HB

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I should point out that we appear to be different from most motorhomers, from what I can tell, in that we never tour the UK (we're Jersey-based), only use campsites if absolutely necessary, and never hook-up. At this moment, we're on our first proper tour in Spain, where there are a fraction of the aires of France or Germany, and so are becoming even more entrenched as users of Park4night, which with its user reviews of aires and excellent parking areas is something we simply couldn't be without.
You sound perfectly normal to me & a lot of us on Fun think the same way.:D
 
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mlarb

mlarb

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Thanks John for the tip re the blog link. This is now changed as you suggest. Hopefully it'll show up on this.

Thanks for you book on Spain by the way, as it was our final impetus to get there

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mlarb

mlarb

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Thanks Lenny about us sounding normal. That's encouraging and I look forward to learning and sharing more tips
 
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mlarb

mlarb

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Thanks Jumartoo. As you might have gathered, although we blog daily, a lag builds up as some days require more than one blog, but we limit it to one post a day so as not to over-face people. This explains why today's blog has us leaving Siurana, although we're currently about 22k North of Palencia.
 

DBK

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I've just realised you can do it like this as an alternative way. mlarb.com
If you click "quote" then click the button with a spanner in the top right you should see the URL and /URL inside square brackets, which makes it a link. :)

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mlarb

mlarb

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http://mlarb.com/

Thanks John - that worked, I think. I've changed my signature but I'm not sure if it's appearing with each of my posts?
 

CWH

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I've changed my signature but I'm not sure if it's appearing with each of my posts?
Yes, it is!
Hello, and welcome to the Fun :hiya:

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Riverbankannie

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Hi I will enjoy reading your blog, we are still a couple years away from doing longer trips but I like to research for inspiration :)

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Anthea M

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w2fHello and welcome! I love a good blog when stuck in wet dreary uk!( although today it's sunny!)
Thanks for sharing:WelcomeFlag:
 
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mlarb

mlarb

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Thanks Spidey. That's great. The more readers the better. Always happy to offer any advice or tips, and we're always looking for inspiration ourselves as Europe is such a large place with insufficient time to really do it justice
 
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mlarb

mlarb

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Thanks Anthea. Sorry to hear about your recent weather. We were commenting to ourselves yesterday that we've just completed 5 weeks and can only recall one day when it rained, and that was probably in France on the way down. Also we've barely strayed from the North of Spain, where it seems to have been in the mid low 20s virtually every day, which is our max heat preference. Now we're heading West, where I understand the weather can be a little unreliable and when it rains it rains, but let's see. :D

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jumartoo

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The weather in the north of Spain has been unusually dry this winter. Check out the water levels in the reservoirs. There are also forest fires in some areas. The weather in the south has been worse than previous years but is improving now although we still have a duvet on the bed instead of just a light throw!!!

Heading west is pot luck but probably more luck this year than others. Enjoy!
 

ukbill

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In portugal at the moment,weather brilliant,heading back to spain soon,will prolly use that ap all the way,remember its about having fun,so enjoy
 
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mlarb

mlarb

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Thanks UKBill - I agree, Park4night has literally transformed our motorhoming experience. I finally got round to submitting my first location today, but will definitely be adding more so as to give something back, given how we have benefited over the the last year :D

We're already thinking about being away next Jan and Feb for the first time, and Portugal is somewhere we're keen to experience. I assume Park4night is well represented there too
 
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mlarb

mlarb

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Thanks for the update on the weather Jumartoo. Explains a lot :)

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mlarb

mlarb

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Thanks Anthea for the comments you made directly on our blog site. It's always very encouraging to get such positive feedback and my wife, Sophie, was delighted with what you said about her photos. In fact I believe she has responded to you about the lost notebook she found.

By the way, today's post has now been published.
 

ukbill

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yes the ap is great for portugal
 

suavecarve

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I have just had a quick butchers at your blog and am, so far, seriously impressed.

Definitely somebody who is going to read it all, having done more or less the whole of france and heading to spain for the first time this summer now.

Good work

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mlarb

mlarb

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Thanks Suavecarve - now that's the sort of feedback I really appreciate :).

Feel free to pass on the word to any like-minded motorhomers and point them in right direction.

Thanks again
 
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Thanks to those who have recommended park4night. I have just started looking at it - seems useful.

Could one of you please advise where on the site one can find the key to the symbols they use.

Thanks in advance.

Geoff
 

ukbill

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Wat symbols do u mean

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