With the odd `nick` or two repeatedly chiming negative - like cane toads in a fruit salad - I thought a happy only thread on our next planned trips might be a good start to the New Year.
Again, we will be going across at Dover in the car - mid March - and again considering cruising down to Turin/Susa/Aosta areas.
Any further advice and encouragement appreciated - worried its too far - am becoming a chicken ;)
How about your own plans?
All the best in the New Year!
Edited by oilrag on 01/01/2009 at 09:28
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Mid March for us as well, trip over to France heading for Burgundy region. Will take the Honda Shuttle as it is big and comfy!!!
Then have 2 more rtn tickets to use by end of the year so hopefully will get a short break in Belgium and maybe another trip to Burgundy or if i can convince SWMBO a trip to Switzerland!!
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New Year greetings to all BR Members!
February - a week in Cyprus. 5* all inclusive for £299 each. (Google for TravelZoo!)
March Long weekend in Kevelaer West of the Rhine in Germany, near where I was
when in the RAF in the 70s and 90s
May A week in Sorrento
August Long weekend end in Prague for my birthday.
Getting hard to fit all this stuff in with the part-time job that pays for it!
R75 - if you go to Brugge check out Hotel Adornes for somewhere to stay - lovely
Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 01/01/2009 at 09:57
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Finances permitting, we'll repeat our trip down to Northern Italy again in the Summer. This time though we'll do an overnight somewhere in Southern Germany or Austria to break the journey up. There's a very pretty town in Bavaria that we passed through called Nesselwang which looks a likely candidate.
SWMBO is being made redundant at the end of Feb though, so it's all a bit up in the air at the moment. She may choose not to work for a bit which will mean some serious belt tightening, including getting shot of one of the cars.
Cheers
DP
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My big bike trip to Israel come May.
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Care to tell us more about it when you have time, PU? It sounds really interesting.
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Yes when I finish work in May (one last big job dependant !) I ride off into the susnet - initial destination is Turkey (to a friend's apartment), then Cyprus and over to Israel. No other plans other than to stop when I'm tired or something interests me !
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Well, funnily enough.....
This may well be one of those ill-conceived pipe dreams which never happens but the "big" discussion in the Backbridge household last night included a radical re-think of short term plans.
It seems that 2009 promises little more than selling goods and services at a loss or on such a tight margin as to be pointless, to customers who can't or won't pay their bills.
Not much of a business plan really.
The alternative idea is to dip into the bottom drawer and take a sabbatical. Various versions are under consideration. Overland trips to India keep cropping up. Wonder if "Betsy" would make it?........
More pipe dreams to follow.....
;-)
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I dunno about you guys but I'm taking a 365.256366 day trip around the sun :oD
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Happy New Year (Oilrag you're getting too good at sandwiching in motoring links).
Technically the next time I get in my car will be to drive over to my parents later to watch Shrek 2 with my dad (it's tradition - you're never too old to laugh at Donkey) and then to work in the morning.
However, there may be a bigger trip in the offing for Pologirl, as a somewhat enforced career change could mean the Golf going back and me going... who knows? Australia looks good and my profession is on their list of people they let in. Or maybe just find Polo, buy him back and go back to the Midlands! ;-)
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"No other plans other than to stop when I'm tired or something interests me !"
Sounds great!
Around 23 years ago we took a similar approach with a 2CV in France - heading South and abandoning the maps and `plan`. There was a tent in the back and it turned out to be a trip where we met people and situations that we would otherwise have missed.
In fact i`d forgotten about how relaxing it was.. Reflecting on that - might just book the ferry and head in the general direction of Italy on a day by day basis - booking the next hotel (usually Campanile) in line by computer - as required, rather than a string of them from the UK, prior to departure. I think its the latter that keeps putting me off planning this trip..
By the time I have checked for vacancies in all the Campaniles on route - I feel as though I`m `straight-jacketed` into a route march - and end up not doing it.
Edited by oilrag on 01/01/2009 at 11:36
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Got a few bike rallies planned; one of 'em's a definite 'cos we're getting married at it, or nearby to be strictly correct.
Had considered the Isle of Man for honeymoon, but the ferry prices are a ripoff so stuff 'em.
Holland sometime during the summer, finances permitting.
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I've bought a tent and a sleeping bag. Only reason so I can use the ever so convenient continental camp sites when I get far enough south for decent weather. None of that cooking melarky - I will be eating out. I had two very good holidays this summer - the bike is a great ice-breaker wherever you go. Small town America is still a nice place to be and we met some very nice people.
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Small town America is still a nice place to be and we met some very nice
people.
Didn't know you played the banjo PU.
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R75 - if you go to Brugge check out Hotel Adornes for somewhere to stay - lovely
Thanks for that tip, will bear it in mind when the time comes.
Oh, and anyone who thinks they may make multiple trips across the channel may want to look at Norfolk Line who are offering decent multi trip savings, akin to those that were offered by speedferries a while ago.
And those of you that are going to do long journey's (Pugugly) are making me somewhat envious!!!! Will have to wait for the little ones to grow up a fair bit before we can embark on such a trip!!!
Edited by R75 on 01/01/2009 at 12:24
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"Around 23 years ago we took a similar approach with a 2CV in France - heading South and abandoning the maps and `plan`."
Reminds me of a month long trip to Europe we took in 1980s. Quite literally, while waiting to get off the boat we tossed a coin - heads we turn left, tails we turn right.
We went right.
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Sticking to the French theme
Myself, the better half her sister and husband (we get on well fortunately) are going there this weekend
Drive straight to Reims explore the city (a wonderful place for anyone who hasnt been) overnight stay then a day at the "Moet & Chandon" cellars in Epernay and back that night
Last time I went I learnt that there is no trick to keeping champagne bubbly if you leave a bottle open overnight, (like leaving a silver spoon in it etc) it just stays fizzy naturally!
Though why you wouldnt drink it straight away goodness knows :-)
Edited by Webmaster on 02/01/2009 at 13:11
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Oilrag, it is lovely in the region you are going to. We went to the southern Alps 2 years ago, but we flew to Nimes and hired a car.
When we travel around France we usually go to a Logis hotel without booking. If it is not august you can nearly always get a room.
I would like to go on the road in the Italian Job, you know the one where the bus skidded off. Does anyone know where it is?
Happy new year to all backroomers.
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I would like to go on the road in the Italian Job you know the one where the bus skidded off. Does anyone know where it is?
The opening sequence with the Lamborghini was shot in the Italian Alps, the scene where it exploded in a tunnel was in a place called Aosta.
High in the Italian Alps, Col du Petit St Bernard, was the scene of the Jaguar/Aston Martin devastation that Croker and his cockney suffered by the Mafia.
Getting the Coopers onto the coach was shot on a new piece of unopened motorway in Turin. Getting them out of the coach was shot on the Italian side of the St. Bernard Pass in the Alps, which was ideal as it has over 20 hairpin bends!
Eventually the Herrington coach was left dangling over a cliff near Ceresole Reale in the Alps,
Courtesy of www.theitalianjob.com/the_film_locations_italy.htm
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Thanks alot Altea Ego, I am looking forward to driving these roads, but in a more powerful car than a 3 cylinder diesel Ibeza that I hired last time. Nice handling car, but a bit slow for the mountains!
I'm going to look where these places are in my Europe map, thanks again.
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Well the 1st January sees me having completed 30 years service and retirement from the Constabulary. Where did all that time go??? I shall however be continuing in a civilian capacity doing the job I was doing within the Training dept. - lot less money and less leave entitlement though :-( .
What has changed in 30 years? Really very little, the job is still the same as it ever was its just that demands have multiplied. The social infrastructure has collapsed. Government interference and targets have tied the Police 's hands behind their backs and moulded public perception, not for the better. I think the level of commitment and team ethos has eroded for many newcomers with it being a job rather than a career.
As a young copper I would listen to all the old sweats, "We've had the best years son." Well I think I have seen the best years and the service will continue to go through radical change; and not for the better as government quangos continue to meddle and interfere because they know whats right for policing in the 21st century. Ever expanding back room departments awash with staff who have no real impact on front line policing. Self perpetuating empires. Its got NHS written all over it!
Anyway back to motoring! After the appalling summer I am hoping to get out on the motorbike more this year with some extended touring in Britain. Well that's the plan, we will just have to see if it happens.
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Thanks, oilrag, for setting a positive tone. We too have been wondering about Italy in March, but perhaps I'm becoming a chicken too - not because of distance but for fear that driving conditions might still be pretty difficult in the Alps. Is this something you've done before?
We drove to Aosta in (summer) 2007 en route to Como. The journey to Aosta, and Aosta itself, were great, but things deteriorated sharply immediately thereafter in terms of general grottiness, bad roads and traffic. In fact, although we did get through to Como, we decided to abandon our deposit - not a thing I've done often - and scoot to Switzerland. If we went again we would want to get straight across Northern Italy and into Tuscany etc.
Will now withdraw for a while to revisit my photos of the Great St Bernard pass (tunnels, who wants them?).
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OC -in my well-heeled past life I used to tour the Alps and was suprised to see how many main roads were blocked ie not snow ploughed, until May or even June. Some road maps show the closures with an 'X' and the monthly dates in Roman numerals when the pass is shut (XI to V) for example. I was in the Dolomites in May last year and found one road still closed which caused a major diversion. Don't assume that because it is a mail road and shown on the map that it will be open
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I'm off to St. Anton in Arlberg in Austria tomorrow for a week skiing, wahay!!!
Not taking the car, there is a train from Munich, takes 3 1/2 hours and costs 38 Euros return. No contest between that and sitting in the endless traffic jam crawling through Garmisch-Patenkirchen the entire ski season.
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"in the Alps. Is this something you've done before?"
I`ve travelled north from the coast and Menton - up through Cuneo and back into France. From memory about 70 miles or so of that trip was through Italy on that road. Stopped at the side of the road to make a brew when a bloke arrived in a small van and tried to explain something in English - just two words he seemed to have. "Go away" he then pointed at the hillside opposite holding what looked like table tennis bats in his hand.
Suddenly the penny dropped - they were blasting rock with dynamite for a new road and we had parked up in the middle of the exclusion zone - not understanding the signs. Really reacted to that - as though shot...Thought it was quiet with no one around.....
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I feel the same way as Humph - could be a good year to take a sabbatical! I'm still evaluating the cost of 10 weeks in Oz if I can get hold of a car for the right price.
Pugugly - Israel is a pretty small country, not sure that it's ideal for a bike trip? (Especially at the moment..!) Plenty of traffic to dodge too.
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A week on the Costa del Sol in March involving a short cab ride to Heathrow and hiring something at Malaga - might try out the new Fiesta if available.
Last week September, first 2 weeks October in the Legacy through France to tour Green Spain. First night with a late crossing in Boulogne then steady cruise to stay overnight at Limoges. So many places to put on the list in Spain including surprisingly the Rioja region. Probably come back via St Emilion and overnight in Ay (nr Epernay.) That's the planning done, now just the eight month wait.
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Haro is lovely, do visit the bodegas, I recall La Rioja Alta and CUNE as being the best tours I did - though it was some years ago. As is St Emilion. And Epernay.
If buying fino sherry, buy it at a big supermarket; they have the biggest turnover rate.
Cannot imagnie what shopping you might be planning with that little journey...
Have you thought of sailing into Bilbao/Santander?
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> Don't assume that because it is a mail road and shown on the map that it will be open
Indeed - my planned route in the italian alps was changed due to a blocked road that was unploughed, and that was in early October. The diversion took 2.5 hours
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My next trip - probably to the skip with an old carpet.
Ohhhh, you mean foreign trip.
We're planning to fly to the south of France in March. We'll hire a car. If anyone can tell me how to maximise my chances of being given a new Berlingo as a rental vehicle, I'd be very grateful. :-)
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My next trips:
End of the month: Loch Lomand (Tarbet) for 3 nights
End of March: Portmeirion (well close by)
May: Lesvos for two weeks
Sept: Possibly Lefkas again
Motoring link? I'll be driving to Portmeirion and might hire a car on Lesvos.
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Every three years a group of us travel by car down through France to Bordeaux. A couple of days there visiting, eating, tasting and buying, especially St.Emilion. Then drive down to Rioja for another week or so. Same actions as in Bordeaux, would also recomment Haro, and small hilltop town of El Ciego. Travel up to the mountains as well as it is wonderful scenery. Then back to Santander for the long crossing with fully laden cars!
Off there this year in late May - something to look forward to - Euro rate now getting better as well.
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>>Have you thought of sailing into Bilbao/Santander?
Yes and no. I've done it a few times over the years to save time and driven straight off the ferry and south to The Costa. It's quicker definitely but no cheaper than driving through France and staying in modest hotels in great towns and cities. We enjoy a bit of sightseeing, culture, sampling a bit of the French way of life and naturellement the food and wine.
I did have a particularly horrible Plymouth/Santander crossing the Bay of Biscay one October - the only time I've ever been genuinely worried on any type of boat.
Thanks for all the tips on places - appreciated.
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Just waiting for lighter evenings then going to hop a train from Manchester to Mallaiag, get to Kyle of Lochalsh....train to Inverness, Edinburgh, Leeds and home. 3 nights away
and not too expensive booked in advance.. August, load up the bike with camping gear and off to Der Bodensee......Kampingplatz Uberlingen....right on the shore,
for a couple of weeks.
Can't wait
Ted,
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