Italy and Croatia via Switzerland 2025

We drove to Folkestone Monday 18th and got the 1836 Chunnel then drove a short distance to Bergues and stayed on the free motorhome aire.
Had a walk into town but had just missed the bars, which seemed to stop serving by 2100. Had a walk up to the old Abbey and gardens then around town and along to the little river with a bridge and lovely looking little restaurant
We didn’t intend to stop here, but en route to our intended stopover Ally spotted the signpost and we did a quick detour-we stayed here in May and it’s a lovely place to stopover.
 
Tuesday was just a driving day from Bergues to Thaon-les-Vosges via Belgium and Luxembourg. We don’t bother with toll roads, it’s an unnecessary expense when we are in no rush.
Stayed over at the side of the canal on the nicely provided motorhome aire and had a walk into town for a beer.IMG_3629.webp
 
Tuesday was just a driving day from Bergues to Thaon-les-Vosges via Belgium and Luxembourg. We don’t bother with toll roads, it’s an unnecessary expense when we are in no rush.
Stayed over at the side of the canal on the nicely provided motorhome aire and had a walk into town for a beer.IMG_8824.webp
 
Tuesday was just a driving day from Bergues to Thaon-les-Vosges via Belgium and Luxembourg. We don’t bother with toll roads, it’s an unnecessary expense when we are in no rush.
Stayed over at the side of the canal on the nicely provided motorhome aire and had a walk into town for a beer.View attachment 300334
Looks great. Make sure you don't put the van in reverse accidentally..
 
Save this clogging up the ‘where have you been thread’ I’m going to document our current trip as inspired by @cgtmiles.View attachment 300333
That’s us packed for 7 weeks about to set off.
When I think about how much stuff that we lug around when on even a short trip, I almost feel ashamed when I look at a van as empty as that seems to be. You can’t see any of the floor of ours once we’re packed up and ready to go.
 
When I think about how much stuff that we lug around when on even a short trip, I almost feel ashamed when I look at a van as empty as that seems to be. You can’t see any of the floor of ours once we’re packed up and ready to go.
There’s only 2 of us and the u-shape seating gives load of storage.
It’s like a bomb site now. Once you get stuff out of the boot it never goes back just gets moved around inside. Plus we’ve done a ‘big shop’ so the worktop is full of bread and stuff. Looked tidy for a day though.
 
Wednesday we planned to drive into Switzerland and get somewhere near Bern so we didn’t have too far to go to Grindelwald.
However, weather over in Switzerland was looking pretty horrific so we only drove about 60 miles and stopped at Montbeliard. Nice little town and weather held out until about 7pm. IMG_3659.webpIMG_3662.webp
 
Thursday was a rainy drive over to Grindelwald.
Had an afternoon walking round the town dodging the rain in and out of overpriced outdoor clothing shops and overpriced tourist tat shops lol.
Had beer obviously. Now back at the van and it’s hoofing it down.
Hopefully brighter tomorrow, but forecast not great. Will we stay an extra night if the weather improves? Doubt it, probably move the van to a car park to do the trip up to the First View point then head to Brienz.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Sounds like I’m miserable, but I’m not, we’ve had a great day.IMG_8843.webpIMG_8848.webp
 
And don’t forget you can follow the wife as she attempts to navigate her way through instagram along the way.
 
Thursday was a rainy drive over to Grindelwald.
Had an afternoon walking round the town dodging the rain in and out of overpriced outdoor clothing shops and overpriced tourist tat shops lol.
Had beer obviously. Now back at the van and it’s hoofing it down.
Hopefully brighter tomorrow, but forecast not great. Will we stay an extra night if the weather improves? Doubt it, probably move the van to a car park to do the trip up to the First View point then head to Brienz.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Sounds like I’m miserable, but I’m not, we’ve had a great day.View attachment 300453View attachment 300454
Shame about the weather, if you’re on a 7 week trip it would be worth staying if the weather is going to improve.
It’s not cheap but a train ride up Jung Frau is worth it, if you make the shortish walk across the snow up to the Observatory there a even more expensive but delicious beer waiting. Take your sunglasses, the sun glare is strong.
 
Shame about the weather, if you’re on a 7 week trip it would be worth staying if the weather is going to improve.
It’s not cheap but a train ride up Jung Frau is worth it, if you make the shortish walk across the snow up to the Observatory there an even more expensive but delicious beer waiting. Take your sunglasses, the sun glare is strong.
The train to Junfrau joch is now a bargain £225 each. It’s hard (impossible) to justify that for us unfortunately.
The weather looks to be sunny on Saturday so we will stay Saturday if that’s the case - might as well get some use out of my hiking boots.
 
The train to Junfrau joch is now a bargain £225 each. It’s hard (impossible) to justify that for us unfortunately.
The weather looks to be sunny on Saturday so we will stay Saturday if that’s the case - might as well get some use out of my hiking boots.
Go up the first cable car, it’s much cheaper and quite an entertaining ride, worth it even if it is cloudy but then we did pay €150 to go up Zugspitze in a white out! Is the weather in Austria any better? You could head there, loads of great mountains there or South Tyrol that’s good too
 
Looks like a bloody good effort so far pal. Keep it comin and post more pics of van/your faces please. Have a fantastic onward journey. Youre worth £225 a piece easily 🤣
 
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