Tour of two battles, February 2012

We set off on another trip last week, keen to take a look at the Meuse area of Northern France along with the Verdun in particular. We had seen the Meuse area advertised and it looked pretty and we had wanted to go to Verdun for a few years now.

Just four and a half hours from Calais is Verdun, once acclaimed as one of the most heavily defensive areas in Europe, it was here that we started our tour.

An underground Citadel was built in the 1800′s to defend the town, with it maze of underground tunnels, partly open now to the public. Visitors are driven around on automated cars, as the corridors open up to show you what the Citadel has been used for throughout its history.

We walked around the town of Verdun before heading into the nearby hills, where, during the 1st world war, huge battles took place. The road we drove along was the front line, all along the route, there were constant reminders of its chequered past. From defensive ‘pillboxes’ and underground fortresses, to wiped out towns, memorials and vast cemeteries.

After a few days visiting the various sights, we decided to head North, Belgium in Fact, to Waterloo and visit the Battle of Waterloo area. It was a few hours drive, just short of Waterloo itself stood the Lions Mound. This was built not long after the Battle, actually on the battlefields, it is a huge mound with a Broze statue place on the top, looking over the battlefields. There is a visitors centre where you gain entry to the mound and the 200 steps to the top. Inside there are two short films to watch, next to the mound there is a circular building, built in 1912 for the 100th year anniversary of the battle. Once inside, you will find a 360′ panoramic painted scene of the battle.

Across the road, in an old pub, there is a wax museum, with Napoleon along with The Duke Of Wellington.

We took a 6 berth motorhome for the week in February Half term. The motorhome from GoExplore motorhome hire would cost £525 to hire for the week for UK hire for 1 driver, add £75 for European Insurance.

The Lion Mound

Verdun

Good walks and fine food awaits you in the Peak District.

Setting off on a Friday evening in late January for a 2 hour easy drive to the Peak District, namely Castleton. As we approached Castleton, and not having eaten yet, we called into the Travellers Rest Inn, Nr Brough.

This charming Inn with roaring log burner was quite the welcome. We promptly ordered our food, 2 steak and chips, we hadn’t hoped for much as the price was only £11.95. How suprised we were when the plates arrived with a huge sirloin, (cooked to perfection) chips, veg, homemade onion rings, whole cooked tomato and mushrooms.

Good food seemed to be the order of the day, or weekend, throughout our stay, whether it be lunchtime snacks or evening meals, like the Meal on Saturday night at the Castle in Castleton, really good food.

Castleton town was just half a mile pleasent, level walk from the Caravan Club site where we were staying in the motorhome.

Walking and outdoor activities are what people generally come to the Peak District for, and although there was snow on the ground, (see picture below) we donned our walking atire on Saturday and bravely set out again on a level 4 mile circular walk around the countryside……fresh air!

Sunday, the campsite which had been full, was awakening and avid campers were packing up camp and heading home.

We, on the other hand had other plans. We were heading for Bakewell, parking for motorhomes is by the Agriculture Auction car park, follow signs for the coach park. Again, in Bakewell we had a delightful lunch of Steak and Kidney pie was devoured, after we had browsed around the numerous outdoor clothing shops. A last stroll along the river was pleasant, it must be lovely in the summer, and then it was time to head home ourselves.

All in all, a great weekend, it was £30 for the 2 nights on the site, and we used half a tank of fuel.

A Motorhome could be hired for this weekend from GoExplore motorhome hire for £295, Fri-Mon, Midweek hire would be Mon-Fri £350 in Jan, Feb and March.

Route 66 New name for Welsh road?

Discussions taking place to rename the A470, to attract more tourists to visit Wales

It’s the road to the Valleys and beyond – known for its rush hour traffic jams and the many journeys spent stuck behind a Mid Wales tractor.

But support is growing to rename the A470 from Cardiff to Llandudno the Royal Welsh Way to boost the morale of the armed forces and attract tourists in search of a road-trip to remember.

A spokesman said: “The spectacular scenery, activities, attractions, stories and communities along the A470 already make it an iconic tourist trail for many visitors. Giving the A470 a title to reflect this would be an interesting proposal.”

William Powell, a Lib Dem AM, plans to champion the campaign in Cardiff Bay. He intends to lay a statement of opinion to seek cross-party support.

He said: “The A470 is very much the spine of Wales. I think it would be an enormous boost to [the armed forces’] morale if they had that further endorsement. Obviously, the people of Wales are very strongly behind them.

“I look forward to engaging with the regiment to see if we can move this forward.”

Another suggestion put forward in an Assembly petition is that the road should be renamed “Prif Ffordd Tywysog Owain Glyndwr” (Owain Glyndwr Highway).

The petition, submitted by a group called Embassy Glyndwr, yesterday had just five signatures. It was launched in response to the campaign for a Royal Welsh Way, arguing that while soldiers swear allegiance to “English royalty” Owain Glyndwr pursued independence.

John Wake, a leading expert on Welsh tourism, said just as tourists travel great American highways so the A470 deserves to be counted among the world’s great roads.

He said “It’s the Route 66 of Wales” adding that naming it either the Royal Welsh Way or after Glyndwr was “fantastic”.

Tribute songs to the road have been written by both folk singer Lorraine King and Welsh psychedelic band Soft Hearted Scientists, and it inspired a 2005 S4C drama series.

The campaign to name it the Royal Welsh Way was sparked when a member of the public suggested the idea to Lib Dem councillor Mike Priestly via Facebook.

He said: “As soon as I saw it I thought, ‘What a blooming great idea’.”

The councillor is pressing ahead with efforts to install signs honouring the troops along this section of the A470 but he would be delighted to see the entire road renamed.

Mr Priestly said: “If people want to extend the name along the A470, of course I’d back them. Wouldn’t it be great to have a connection from South Wales to North Wales?

“It’s things like this really that get me up in the morning.”

Conservative shadow transport minister Byron Davies said: “Changing the name of the A470 – to further show the admiration and high regard our armed forces are held in across Wales – is an idea that should be properly considered.”

Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/need-to-read/2012/01/18/a470-rename-plans-to-attract-tourism-set-to-take-off-91466-30144762/#ixzz1jniEbN00

Christmas Ski trip

We ventured to the French Alps for Christmas again this year, once we had seen the last motorhome out for hire.

We left on the 16th December taking a night crossing via Euro Tunnel, stopping at Calais Plage for a good nights sleep.We headed off in the morning reaching the Burgandy region by dusk, approx 6hrs drive. We made good use of the Aire de service, right by the river. When we woke the next morning, it had begun to snow, so we left to complete the journey to Samoens, 3hrs away.We drove through some heavy snow reaching Camping le Girffe at lunch. It continued to snow for the next 4 days.

We took in some great ski-ing for the next 6 days, the sun shone and it got quite hot up on the slopes.

Night times were filled with games and DVDs, and the odd visit to the nearby town, just 10 mins from the site, for some apres ski.

We had to leave before the new year, stopping an extra day due to heavy snow, spending new years eve in Reimes after a 6 hr drive.

All in all another great Christmas trip.

Conwy….the new hub for extreme sports?

Millions to make Conwy extreme sports capital of Wales

MILLIONS of pounds of investment will see Conwy county branded as the extreme sports capital of Wales.

Conwy this week announced a £1.5m grant from the European Regeneration Fund which will be used to market outdoor pursuits as well as heritage.

Destination Conwy, the team leading the vision strategy, say Conwy is fast becoming the ‘Adrenaline Coast’ to watersports enthusiasts, whilst rural areas such as the Conwy Valley is seen as a Mecca for mountain bikers and climbers.

Generating £560m annually, Conwy already has a massive 25% share of all the tourist revenue in Wales.

Watersports such as jet-skiing, sailing, surfing, kite-surfing, paddle-boarding and canoeing are already big business, whilst mountain biking, mountaineering, hiking and climbing are also massive in the Conwy Valley.

Now several pots amounting to millions in funding will be used to make Conwy the extreme sports capital of Wales and will see several projects come to fruition boosting the county’s reputation as a hive of outdoor activity.

Head of coastal community development, Jim Jones was excited about the potential for the growth of extreme sports and explained Conwy was working with neighbouring authorities and similar project developers in Ireland.

“It is an extremely exciting time for Conwy county, we want to make Conwy the extreme sports capital of Wales,” he said.

“We can virtually deal with every outdoor sport in this county. We are blessed with a natural environment. We have got fantastic natural landscape, mountains and the countryside; we’ve got an awesome stretch of coastal water with very prevailing winds which then allow for the sports of kite surfing, surfing and yacht sailing, as well as paddle-boarding and canoeing. From Destination Conwy’s point of view we have a strategy and action plan; it has been a goal of ours to brand our area as the ‘Adrenaline Coast’.”

Conwy want to build on the success of several events including hosting the British Round of the World Rally Championship Wales Rally last month, as well as a recent international kite surfing tournament held at Kinmel Bay.

Amongst the plans is a £1.2m Cycle Centre of Excellence which is being created in the shape of a eight mile recreational track between Llyn Brenig at Cerrigydrudion and Betws-y-Coed funded by Visit Wales.

A £200,000 visitor activity information hub is planned at Betws-y-Coed which will be funded through European Regional Development funds.

Whilst facilities are set to be improved at both the Mountain Bike trails at Penmachno and the Marin Trail at Gwydyr Forest, near Llanrwst.

A £3m watersports hotspot is set to be complete in Colwyn Bay by the end of the summer- as well as plans for new slipways at Llandudno, Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan.

Other existing projects in Conwy catering for extreme sports and outdoor activities include the Go Below Snowdonia Caving Trips, the Ski slope at Llandudno, the Tree Top Adventures near Llanrwst as well as the Plas y Brenin National Mountaineering Centre at Capel Curig.

Lake District, on a budget

We took the motorhome up to the Lakes during the October half term. We had heard about an overnight motorhome parking facility in Ambleside, just a 5 minute walk from the town, so we just had to go and give it a try. Just two and a half hours from Conwy we arrived on the Friday evening, we paid our £10 for the night and we were shown where to park. This is not a site, purely a place to park overnight. It does provide fresh water and a dump point though. We had a great few days, travelling on a pleasure boat on the Saturday to Windermere, and a walk above Ambleside on the Sunday. Ambleside has a vast amount of retaurants catering for all tastes and bugdets.

We moved on to Keswick the following day where we stopped in a site overlooking the lake. There are plenty of walks as you can imagine, and October was a great time to visit, with the autumn leaves. Verdict… Highly Recommended. Costs…1 tank of diesel, £10 per night in Ambleside, £30 per night on the Keswick Site.

Lakes and Walks

Llangollen Canal Walks

We took our motorhome on a short trip to Llangollen this summer stopping at Chirk for the weekend at the Caravan Club site there.

We drove to the pontcysyllte aquaduct on the Saturday, there is good parking for motorhomes at either end. On this occasion we parked at the Eastern side and walked across to the marina, then followed the canal towpath to Llangollen. www.attractionsnorthwales.co.uk/attractions/pontcysyllte-aqueduct

On the Sunday we left the motorhome at the site in Chirk, and followed a marked walk past the gates to Chirk Castle, this circular route led us to the canal once again which can then be folled back into Chirk.

Eating out in the evening, there is a fantastic Indian restaurant in chirk. Chirk Tandoori  Tel: 01691 772499

North Wales

North Wales offers a host of attractions and activities to offers it visitors.  There are various seaside resorts and mountainous areas to discover, along with valuable history and unique culture.  North Wales really does have something for everybody. Between the beautiful countryside and the quaint resort towns, through to the tranquillity of Anglesey and Snowdonia.

North Wales is definitely a place to spend a good week exploring. There is so much to do and one of the best ways to explore has to be by Motorhome.  Hiring one of these splendid vans gives the advantage of staying where you want, when you want, whether it is out in the middle of the countryside or within the resort towns.  The freedom it gives is second to none.

Snowdonia, another beautiful part of North Wales is a must if you plan on visiting North Wales.  Snowdonia is one of Wales’ 3 National Parks and a hugely popular area. Snowdon is the biggest mountain in Wales and definitely worth a visit to the top if you are in the area.  You can get to the top by foot or train, but which ever route you take you will be awarded with amazing views from the top.

Snowdon is a very popular place with walkers and those wishing to partake in outdoor pursuits.

It has great road links, and is a beautiful place to explore.

European Motorhome & Campervan Hire/Rental

One of the fantastic reasons for renting a motorhome is to be able to roam the continent, we offer a service that allows you to take the motorhome abroad for a small extra insurance fee, what’s more we will not limit your mileage we just ask that you are reasonable with the use of the van.

If you are interested we have first hand knowledge of trips to Europe and can recommend places to go.