The Bluefish Euro Tour

Well we left the AR at around 12ish on the sunday to head down to Dover for an overnight stop befor catching the ferry at 0815 hrs, no problems on the route down although there was quite a bit of traffic on the m25, you don't say, so a lot of filtering was reqd, reached Dover about 6ish and looked forward to the showers, stayed here as modelled by mrs bluefish 50 quid for the night not including brekke as we were leaving at seven the same time as brekke started, didn't want to miss the ferry did we, i mean it was a 5 minute drive away



This turned up here as well, snazzy.



Oh nearly forgot i had not been paid yet so we had didly squat money at this point, tea was a couple of chicken bits and some fries and we had about 80 pence left, although we did have about 60 quid in euros so loaded then, this had a bearing in the next day or two, lol.

Day one,
so up early on monday load the bike and off to the fery port, we of course were one of the first there so abit of a wait and on to the ferry,

bike was tied down quite capably and we sailed away, docked on the other side france and we were away, ps the cost of the return crossing= £36.50 bargain.
Ok so we set satnav to avoid tolls mainly as we had a lack of the folding stuff and to the shortest route, off we go about 30-50 miles in they had blocked off a road with no diversion being shown, so around the housing estate we go, twice and eventually get back on the route, but after a while we could tell we were not making much progress, so i changed satnav to quickest route non toll, this took out to the motorways on the eastern side of france and then down. After a few stops and being tired we made it to chalons en champagne just past reims, my trusty iphone came up with the municipal camping site here and that was the end of day one, site was ok reasonably expensive about 15-16 euros, no pics of this, not that impressive.

Day two,
Left chalons about 9ish, and carry on heading south with the idea to get to Bourg st Maurice in the french alps sometime, maybe today maybe not,

a quick break somewhere, this village had no shops nada,
stopped here for a coffee and a look about, chaumont.



This pulled up,

local parking,


then we were off again, finall finding ourselves near the town of Dole, about 30 or so miles south east of Dijon, phone to the rescue again or i can't remember but i discovered that the satnav had a few camping sites listed in it's memory, anyhow we found a place by the river, set up and headed into town for supplies. By now money was running out still not been paid yet, we had only been using a tank of fuel a day,about 18 euros worth, that will get us 200 miles even fully loaded up, the average was over 50mpg but will give more details on this at the end.



had a nice beer and coffee at the place on the left, walked back and had a meal of,beer, bread, sardines, pate and cheese, haha proper feast lol. met two couples from oz who were on a 14 week trip around europe, can't be bad. After tea we whent down to the front of the campsite as they had a magician type act on, he was quite good but boy could he talk, he must have used every word in the french language, then as it started getting dark cos he'd been talking so much, the bugs started coming out mayflies absoloutely millions of them attracted to the spotlights the act had and they were all diving for cover the act as well lol,

Put it this way the spiders had a feast that night, after that brilliant entertainment all we could do was go to bed TBC


Left Dole at 9.30 heading on our way to Annecy and the start of the Alps, and the twisty's,





lake Geneva in the background,

rest stop just befor geneva, then we turned and went around the right side of the lake to Annecy, got in at the second campsite we tried, after the staff offered no help as to where another site might be, but there are loads of them all down the sides of lake Annecy, tent up and kit off, it was hot and when you are hauling that amount of kit about you know about it, into town and has been said befor Annecy is a brilliant place, not cheap though there are a lot of wealthy folk around, the center of it is a bit like covent garden, with a fair bit going on,











you could go for dinner and a cruise around the lake on the above for about £80 per person, looked good though, still even though i had now been paid the budget didn't quite run to luxurys like that,


this is how we rode into town, did i say it was hot?, still we did spot this, so we didn't feel too under dressed, lol.

he gave us a wave as he saw me taking his piccy.

It rained for the first time on our trip last night and as we were leaving the roads were wet and there was a slight drizzle, we were going to make Bourg ST Maurice today woohoo, it was only about an hour and a half away, well that's what satnav told us, but when it's on if you accidentally touch the screen it can add wherever you touched it as a via point DOH, well some how we ended up here,


and it wasn't the best route up, but we wen't to dissapointed even though we had ended up in a different country, it had stopped raining by now even though it was damp and muggy, so we set off down the other side and onto a small town called Beaufort where we stopped for a coffee,


Then off over and down through the Cormet de Roselend, this was proper hairpin bend stuff, and i now need to find out how to upload video, as by now lesley, the mrs felt like trying to take some pics and video whilst we moving, she is most trusting lol, wait out.
on the way through to bourg you pass here,

the weather wasn't the best,


link to video of part of the cormet de roselend,

http://s637.photobucket.com/albums/u...arthols153.mp4

From there down into Bourg got in at the first campsite, shopping, beers usual stuff and bed, those bends really take it out of you.
pic of the stealth bomber at the campsite,


Next day set off about 9.30 for mont blonc via the tunnel, ie the short way, up and over the col du st bernard, stopped at the top for piccys and a brew,






then down past the st bernard into Italia,




I took this as we were stopped at a set of roadworks



Through the tunnel and parked up to go up this,




using this,


we went up to stage two of three, stage one is here,



and stage two is here,


stage three is to go over the top back to france i believe,
some pics of people doing it the hard way,






and some views from the top,





and her fave pic lol,

and believe me the altitude at nearly 4km above sea level really gets to you, my mrs could hardly walk up the stairs at the station at the top, and i was feeling pretty giddy, lesley didn't appreciate it when i said i'd race her to the top of the stairs. Then back down and back to bourg, the next day we went up to here,


val d'isere that is and the col de l'iseran,







Now it was feckin cold up there so we didn't hang about for long, went back down to val d'isere an looked about mainly it appeared to be shut, well it was the middle of summer, haha.

Me planning routes and pretending i know where we are going




The next day it was time to start making our way home in a roundabout way, so off over st bernard again into italy through the st bernard tunnel, into switzerland and stopped at Basil, it was reasonably late when we got there and we couldn't be bothered with camping tonight so we looked for a hotel, lol, the first one was 175 euros a night, the second 150 then iphone to the rescue, Easy hotel.com 60 euros per night for their cheapest double and it didn't even have a bleedin window, no problem we'll have it, turn the light out and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, mrs put the bathroom light on at some point in the night as it was too dark for her, lol. no pics pretty boring, tell a lie here's one,


The plan for the next day was too get to Heidleberg as we had done a fair distance the day befor and have two night's there, the plan worked, so tent up,



and into town by bus and a couple of these,


The next day back into town for an explore, the castle,



and the old bridge or brucke, took a tram ride to nowhere in particular, just cos i've never been on one befor, got some eats and bed. In the middle of the night she wakes me and says, can you hear that, what i go's, that rustling and a pitter patter of tiny feet, a bleeding rat eating our loaf of bread, about 12 inches long he or she was and a beige colour, quite cute i told her, again wasn't impressed, so i put the loaf outside so it could have a good nosh up, and in the morning this,




good job it never touched the french stick we had as well.

Morning and back on the road again heading west from Germany, via Luxembourg and Belgium and stopped for the night in a very nice town in France called Givet just inside the border from Belgium, where they have this old fort, would be good to go back and see it properly,






The local Hells Angel, seemed like a nice chap,





Penultimate day and off up towards calais somewhere for our final night over the water and we found the most expensive campsite of the whole trip,in between Calais and St Omer, 19 euros but hey ho, was quite nice, an english couple staying there gave me a couple of beers and the mrs a nice cup of tea her one and only for the whole trip lol, then the next, the last day a short hop to Calais,


and back over the water to good old blighty,


We left dover aboot 11.50 ish am and again major traffic stopage on the 25, so the filtering skills were bought back into play and we finally made it home at about 8.45 pm bleedin knackered but glad to be back.
Total distance covered from leaving home 2665miles including the ar, total covered over the water 1725, Total money spent including the ar approx £1000, average mpg two up and fully over loaded, 52mpg, Oil used, NIL, was it worth it? OH YES, would i do it again? OH YES, now where can i go next year?.
Hope you enjoy perusing this those that find it, and feel free to add your coments, if you didn't like it, tough, laters Andy and Lesley.

[STRAMASHER]

Ahhh, a cracking trip report, just what I need to wash away the wet monday morning blues!

Cheers.

Great report and photos.

Looks like you two had a fantastic time.

Nice trip

[maviczap]

H'mm I think i'd like to move over there.

Val D'Isere best sking I've ever had.

So sking in the winter, motorcyling & cycling in the summer. Tour de France every year

Fantastic report really want to do something similair to this myself next year.

Glad you is enjoying the read, will be looking to go somewhere as well next year, maybe Germany and beyond as we quite liked it there.

Looks like great trip Andy, between reading your writeup and Fizz's I'm quite jealous now!

[Luckypants]

Super pics and write up, found myself saying been there, remember that etc

The road from Dole to Geneva (actually the N5 from Poligny to Nyon) is one of my favourites, because it is where I hit the Alps / twisites proper when on my way down there.

Originally Posted by Luckypants

The road from Dole to Geneva (actually the N5 from Poligny to Nyon) is one of my favourites, because it is where I hit the Alps / twisites proper when on my way down there.

yes when you hit them it's all of a sudden, and it's like ok here we go then bring it on And to all the jealouse peeps, get on your bike and do it, we was going to go to scotland but thought, well we're down in south wales, might as well go to france from there, so buy map, book ferry, pack kit and off we goes, simples. Europe, just do it