Picked up the Weasel in London, almost took out a motorbike, and started our adventure of a lifetime!!!
Caught the Eurotunnel across the channel, kicking back in our bed with a glass of wine & in no time at all Bonjoir France! Spent a few days cruising down the West coast of France, free camping in Aires & getting used to driving on the right hand side.
Read more ...We had been living in London for about 6 months before we started our van tour, so after picking up the van we made our way back home to pack everything we owned into the back of the BEAST that was Arrows. It surprisingly (and sadly) all fit in with ease.
After one more night in a comfortable bed, we eventually made our way to Folkestone where we were to catch the eurotunnel to Calais (highly recommend, very quick and easy) and eventually on to Normandy.
We checked out the D-Day beaches and the American War Cemetery, both were quite beautiful but sad at the same time. A must see if you’re into Historical crap like myself.
Following the French West coast down, we stopped through St Mont Michel. We didn’t have enough time to go inside but the views from afar were awesome. Then we made our way toward the Stoke Travel campsite near Pamplona, Spain for the Bull Run.
After a couple of days exploring London we arrived at wicked to pick up our van.
A guy and girl travelling together at that stage as mates wicked decided to give us the ‘just married’ van … haha very funny! Made for some awkward conversation starters!
We didn’t have a lot planned out to be honest we were slack so here are some vital things I suggest you have with you before departure!
Introducing the Smurf Mobile… Our home for the next 101 days!
The bedroom
The kitchen
The dining / living room
As we had to be in Pamplona for San Fermin/Running of the Bulls on the 5th of July, we were under a fair bit of pressure to drive up through Italy and across the southern coast of France to get there in time… We didn’t help ourselves by deciding to head to Barcelona, Valencia, and Madrid before heading back up to Pamps, which is actually quite close to the French (Atlantic) border.
The last of Italy (for now…)
First things first, we picked up our camper in San Benedetto Del Tronto. We then drove, rather nervously on the wrong side of the road, up the east coast of Italy in search of our first free camp, stopping at Ancona to deck the van out at Ikea (where else!) and to pick up supplies at the massive Carrefour. We quickly discovered that we had no hope of finding a free camp on the resort beaches so had to go a lot further afield than we had hoped… We finally ‘pitched’ our van for our first night in the not-much-happening-town of Fano.
Read more ...Firstly we would like to thank Julie from Wicked. Julie was very helpful right through the booking process, answering all our silly questions and making sure we had everything in order. Throughout our van tour she promptly returned our emails and did what she could to ensure we had a good time, and even got our money back when we left it in the car.
Touring around Europe in a Wicked Van was an amazing experience, we saw more than we had hoped and experienced a deeper insight into the many cultures and gained invaluable history lessons. If it wasn’t for the van I don’t think we would have been able to afford to go to all the places we visited. We were able to hit almost all countries in West Europe, the Eastern Bloc and even the Scandinavian countries. Cruising along at our own pace, we chose where we went, how long we stayed and what we did.
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