Giving It Another Go

We’re gonna give it another go, another tour out across Europe in Reggie. Hopefully this year we’ll also return to the UK in Reggie, although I feel like I just tempted fate typing those words.  So fingers and toes are fully crossed.

Tuesday 9th May.  We drove from Kettering in Northamptonshire down to Folkestone in Kent. The smooth four-hour drive included a short stop for a pot of tea and sandwiches, and we arrived at The Warren campsite around 2:00 pm. We ‘enjoyed’ our first campsite wash-load, enjoyed a short stroll along the beach below and ‘enjoyed’ our first campsite shower before an early night.

Wednesday 10th May.  Oh dear; all the water in the tank had disappeared, so Rodney fiddled with tank taps and filled Reggie up again……more finger crossing.  At 8:00am we were in the queue to board the DFDS ferry from Dover to Calais. The crossing was smooth, but we lost an hour with the time change, so we quickly hopped onto the motorways and sped off past Dunkirk, Lille, Mons and Namur. But had our troubles already started? During our short lay-by lunch break, we discovered we’d left 25% of our water tank contents on the road, again. At Camping Chenefleur in Tintigny, more tap jiggling occurred and we went to sleep with our fingers crossed, again.

Thursday 11th May.  We pulled out of the campsite around 9:00am with a nearly-full water tank, again.   We’re pretty sure the tap is now sorted; Reggie won’t be weeing all the way today. And it came to pass that we leaked no more. Yippee!  We drove into Luxembourg from the west side and in no time at all, we drove out on the south side.  Metz and Nancy were passed and finally we stopped near Remiremont. A solid three-hours’ drive, a satisfying Carrefour food shop and a very satisfying sushi lunch got us back on route to Camping Cigognes in Cerney, arriving at 4:15pm.  ‘Camping the Storks’ proved to be true to its name; they were nesting in a cedar tree and swooping low over the campsite; a fabulous sight.

Friday 12th May.  We were out of the stork campsite at 8:30am and aiming to get through Switzerland and into Italy.  By continuing to stick to the motorways all day, meant that we spent a lot of time in tunnels; we felt like moles in Switzerland. Basel, Lucerne, lakes and mountains, all went past unseen, so it was always brilliant to pop out of the tunnels and breath in the green views spreading beneath the heavily clouded skies. Rodney mostly enjoyed never seeing a pothole!  Then the Saint Gotthard Tunnel was the worst part of the journey today.  Sixteen kilometres long with 1.5 hours of crawling, or near standstill, up to the mouth of the tunnel, wasn’t much fun.  It was a huge relief to get out of the other end and find somewhere for a break after sitting in our seats for over five hours.  At 3:00pm Sosta Camping Lugano was our choice of overnight stop.  To stretch our legs, we walked down to Lake Lugano during a break in the rain, for an early pasta dinner, and somehow managed the 295 steps back up to Reggie to burn off the meal.

Saturday 13th May.  At 10:30 am we finally did cross into Italy, after a very long queue to get out of Switzerland. Then we immediately hit road works and another slow crawl. As we approached the toll booths, near the Milan outer ring road, we missed the only tiny sign pointing us to Bologna. We ended up driving literally through Milan, constantly avoiding the endless double parking, stopping at traffic lights and, at one point, following a guy on a E-scooter who was somehow managing to use his mobile phone at the same time.  We finally cleared Milan at midday having not seen anything of interest. It was quite a relief to be zooming along the E35 across the completely flat Po Valley towards Rimini.  At 3:15pm we reached Bologna and, having not stopped there in previous years, we decided to pull up there for two nights. But the only campsite near Bologna turned out to be flooded / full, so after further research we got back on the motorway and drove for another hour and a half, aiming for the coast and the numerous campsites around Rimini. With fingers cross we pulled into Camping Riccione at 5:20pm and found it to be more or less empty!  So we paid for two nights and flopped.