Category: 2019

An archive of blog entries published in 2019

Denmark

A tremendous rainbow marked our departure from the workshop and the start of a long trek North. In Denmark we met up with some old friends, the marvelous Lars and Inge, who thoroughly maintain the Danish reputation for being the happiest people in the world. We left Denmark via the Öresund Bridge – a magnificent feat of engineering and possibly the most expensive toll bridge in the world.

Industrial Camping #2

We turned our back on the Alps and headed to the Unicat workshop. Time for some adjustments and upgrades before setting off in a different direction.

  • Last look back at the Alps
  • Toilet roll upgrade
  • Installing a new electrician
  • Winch envy
  • Dog getting excited about all the interesting workshop things
  • Re-registering the bike in case of Brexit
  • Walnut trees behind the workshop

Lets Gets

Spent a week at Lets Gets on the French border. We were there to meet up with an old friend and ski. It snowed quite a lot. The slopes were crowded. Many Brits on package tours.

This used to be a very popular location for motor homes. Close to a chair lift. The ‘Aire de Camping Cars’ costs €18 per day. For which you get – nothing. Well, not quite, there is a hole in one corner of the car park to empty your washing up water. However, that really is the full scope of the facilities. When the inspectors came round, they took our money and then told us we were not welcome. Too big. Do not come back. How big is too big? They got very vague on this and shuffled a bit. Oh well. Lets Gets just got a little less popular.

  • Too big for the parking area
  • Too much snow to go skiing
  • Deep, fresh snow on Mont Chéry
  • Dog with no legs

Garmisch

We headed into Austria, again, following reports of lots of snow. We got completely stuck because of weight restrictions, again. In fact there were extra restrictions in place because of the snow. After a couple of days we did manage to reach one ski resort but were told quite firmly that we could not camp there. So we left Austria disappointed, again, and headed for Germany, again.

Garmisch is really the only serious ski area in Germany but it is lovely. There was fresh snow, good runs, good views and good restaurants.

Snow in Austria

Austria is a very pretty place. In the snow it looks really fabulous. We learned that Baloo is impeccably behaved in fresh snow – breezing over the Obertauern pass we were the only truck that did not need snow chains. But being truck sized in Austria appears to be a bit of a problem. For a start you need a ‘GoBox’ tracking unit to pay the rather expensive road tolls but the real kicker was all the weight restrictions. We found it really difficult to get anywhere without encountering a restricted road. Eventually we rolled into a town where, from the center, every exit had a weight restriction. Including the road we had come in on. At this point we gave up and took the most direct route out of Austria.

  • We woke to discover it had been snowing overnight
  • We found an interesting stairway up a gorge
  • Cent gets very excited in the snow