Week 4 – 30th December 2023– 5th January 2024 Interlaken, Switzerland to Benicarlo, Spain. (889 miles)
NOTE: You can now see where we have been with Jess on our travels since we started. Click here for a Google map that will allow you to move around in the usual way.
Saturday 30th December 2023 – Interlaken to Lucerne. (45 miles)
That’s Christmas out of the way… We have been based in Interlaken for 6 nights, one of the longest stops. It has been very good here, we’ve seen and done quite a lot and enjoyed ourselves. The campsite was excellent, very cheap and very handy for facilities and with the help of the free bus pass from the campsite, we were able to get out and explore.
Time to move on now though. We intend to bring in the new year back at Lucerne. We stayed for one night there last week. It’s a city, so very busy, but they are having a huge fireworks display on the lake on the 1st of January and we would like to see that. The campsite works on a first come first served basis and as it’s the new year with this big firework thing, we think it will fill up, so we need to get there sharpish.
Jess is packed up, serviced, and ready for the off. We need some LPG for heating etc, we have gone through a whole bottle! We are also down to our last bits of food so on the way out of Interlaken we find a garage and top up with gas and later a budget supermarket (which is still more expensive than Waitrose). We are fully stocked. The drive is about an hour and a half to Lucerne.
It’s a pleasant drive. Hayley is at the wheel today.
There’s lots of twisting and turning and steep climbs, she pulls over to let people pass, and about 30 cars go by – bet they were cursing us. The weather is fair with some sunshine as we make our way back through almost 20km of tunnels to get to Lucerne.
We arrive at the campsite which is closed for lunch, but they have left a sign with the available spaces, which aren’t many now, so you are encouraged to pick your spot from the remaining and cross the pitch number from the list. Whew!
We bag a space. We are going to be here for 3 nights, leaving on the 2nd January 2024! We get settled in and have a cup of tea in the cool afternoon sunshine. Nice.
Dinner in tonight after a lovely dusk walk by the lake. It’s cold. Snow is expected on New Year’s Day. We shall see.
Sunday 31st December 2023 – Lucerne – Day 2
Well, folks, it’s the last day of 2023.
We are up late but we have a good hearty breakfast and spend some time in the van chatting and reading, all very nice. Time for a walk though. We take the bus to the centre of Lucerne and have a good walk around town.
It’s a very nice town, lots of history here and lovely buildings. We do manage to get some chocolate here in Switzerland!
We put together a small bag of Lindt chocolate balls from a high street chocolate shop, which on reflection are a bit sickly, but it doesn’t stop us from scoffing some of them down!
Rain is threatening so we decide to walk back to the van around the lake. By the time we get back, it has started to rain properly, not heavy but just enough to get you wet. In total, we walked a good 5 miles.
Very good. We feel better for doing it.
The rain is now gently pattering on the roof of the van.
It’s cosy in Jess though, with nice lighting and the heating on while we enjoy some crumpets and a tea, and later a glass of pre-New Year Champagne. We want to spread it out a bit you see rather than drink the whole thing in one go!
Hayley does a fantastic dinner tonight of turkey, red cabbage, and spatzle, all very local, washed down with a small glass of red. To kill time until midnight we play an EXIT game. These are games that are like escape rooms but on paper. They’re good fun, sometimes they can be tricky but they’re entertaining. We’ve done many of these games and enjoyed them very much.
Well, folks 2023 is fast coming to an end. We are off to bring 2024 in with the rest of the fizz and maybe nip across the road to the water’s edge of Lake Lucerne if the rain stays off.
We would like to wish you all, family, friends, and acquaintances a very happy, healthy, and prosperous new year.
Del, H and Jess…xxx
Monday 1st January 2024 – Lucerne – Day 3
Today, the first day of the new year, we get up very late.
It was a very nice night last night. We played and completed our EXIT game with an hour to spare before midnight.
On the stroke of midnight, we were outside Jess with a glass of fizz in hand counting the seconds. The locals had gone crazy with the fireworks. The sky was alive with them. We did the short walk to the nearest park where the public is just allowed to let off as many fireworks as they like, and they were. It was mad, but great to watch.
Back at the van we did some phone calls and texts, watched the London fireworks and were in bed by 2:00 am.
The rest of the new year’s day we spend mainly indoors. It’s cold today. We have seen Lucerne now. We are here for the “official” fireworks later tonight.
We do manage a short walk to the Lido across the road where we just missed a group of people doing a swim in the cold lake. Mad.
We relax back in Jess waiting for the evening fireworks. It’s cold tonight as we make our way to the lake which is just a couple of hundred yards from the campsite and pick our spot for the display.
They didn’t disappoint. The display was at the town end of the lake but we still had a very good view along with the couple of hundred other people that turned up to see them. Excellent.
Tuesday 2nd January 2024 Lucerne – Leysin (142 miles)
Today we are heading south and slightly east to a place called Leysin. We are going there because there is a Tobogganing Park that Hayley wants to try out. It’s 1300m above sea level and the forecast for the area is predicting cold temperatures and snow.
We get packed up and do a full service before we leave as we will be off grid today, so everything gets charged up, full tank of fresh water, fresh toilet and we are good to go.
It’s a very nice drive today with some spectacular views as we climb higher. The temperature gets to 3 degrees and we start to see snow, not fresh falling snow but snow from previous falls. Del is driving today and in need of a coffee so we stop at a service area which has a McDonald’s.
Well, why not? 23 Swiss francs later we have a bag of food (not much for 20 quid) and are sitting in Jess having “a lunch”.
Back on the road and climbing higher. After some tight twisty narrow driving, we arrive at Leysin. It’s 4 degrees. We get a good spot and set off for a walk. There has been no fresh snow here for a while but the park is open and only 8 of the 13 runs are operating. We have a good walk and find some good snow to walk in.
On our way back to Jess it starts to rain, which is quite heavy by the time we get back. We get in the van and get the heating on, cup of tea and settle in for a quiet evening.
Tomorrow is our last day in Switzerland.
Wednesday 3rd January 2024 Leysin, Switzerland to Volte-sur-Rhone, France (245 miles)
It rained for most of the night last night. There were only small gaps in the rain, but for the most part it just rained! It was supposed to be freezing with snow. When we look out of the window this morning, it has finally stopped raining and is quite pleasant but a lot of the surrounding snow has dissolved. Fortunately, the Toboggan Run is made of lots of compacted snow and ice so it’s still there and still open but with only 6 of the 13 runs working.
We have a lazy breakfast as our session is from 12 midday. You get 1 hour 50 minutes on the slopes. After breakfast we get togged up in lots of layers and off we go. It’s just a short walk to the check-in, Hayley shows the ticket and we are both given a quick 3 minute safety lecture and handed a crash hat and our inner tube that we will sit in and then be pushed down an icy slope on!
Great fun!!! There is a ‘magic carpet’ that takes you to the top, which is just a fancy outdoor travelator. You sit yourself in the ring, cross your legs and get pushed!! It is pretty fast with a few twists and turns and banked corners cut into the snow. Sometimes you end up going backwards, spinning and so on. We got about 10 goes in our allocated time slot, which was plenty. Fabulous.
Back at Jess we pack up and set off just before 3 pm. We have a possible long drive ahead of us today. We are just east of Lake Geneva and we have to get to the south of France.
The route is either over a high pass on very twisty roads and then dropping down into Chamonix which will take hours, or to go around the top of Lake Geneva and get on the French motorway system which is less time but a longer distance.
We take the second option. 5 and a half hours later, 42 euros on tolls and another 70 euros on diesel we finally arrive in the southern half of France, south of Lyon and north of Marseille. Hayley has a little app that allows us to book spaces in advance in France using “Camping Car Park”. You find the site, pay the small pitch fee and that’s it. What’s more, it worked. We arrived at the site where a French van was sitting outside, as we approached he signalled to us that it was full, but we just drove up to the barrier, swiped the card and the barrier opened. We are in. We did feel a bit sad for the French who couldn’t get in, but only a bit…
We are about a 2 hour drive from the French Mediterranean and we are aiming to be in Spain by late afternoon tomorrow.
An enjoyable but very long day, we are wiped out. Once we get settled, which is very quickly, we have a cup of tea and we are done. Night!
Thursday 4th January 2024 Volte-sur-Rhone, France to Capmany, Spain (240 miles)
Today we are up quite early, have breakfast, and are off and on our way by 10 am. It’s a bright cool morning. Another long day today of driving lies ahead. We want to get over the French/Spanish border and down to the south as quickly as we can. So we would like to get there quite early today. Looking at other campsites in Spain they are all full, mostly with Germans. They seem to be having an extended Christmas holiday, or doing what we are up to, and escaping their country for the winter.
We can either go by national, none toll roads, which will take forever and we will use up a lot, but a lot, of diesel. Or we can get there quicker use less diesel but pay a fortune on French toll motorways.
We go for the second option. We get a shop done as we are fast running out of supplies and soon we are off again and on the French motorways. They are very expensive but they are very good. Well maintained, clean and spacious.
After 58 euros on tolls and 5 and a half hours on the road we are in a charming Spanish campsite called Camping Albera just over the border in a small village called Capmany. We have been here before. It’s very pleasant. The sun is shining and it is 18 degrees!
As soon as we are parked up, the chairs are out, Hayley has a t-shirt on and a cold glass of white wine in hand sitting in the sun.
Within 24 hours we have gone from the Swiss Alps to the Spanish med.
A bit of a downer on the horizon – Spain is expecting some very rough weather soon, that could last 10 days. We shall see. Dinner tonight was all homemade, all very nice, especially Hayley’s Tartiflette.
After dinner we manage a good walk out into the village of Capmany. Sitting in the van all day for almost 6 hours, we feel we need to stretch our legs a bit and get some blood flowing. It was well worth it. A very nice place indeed.
Friday 5th January 2024 Capmany to Benicarlo (230 miles)
Another long drive is planned for today, but hopefully, this will be our last one for a while. We are trying to get as far south as possible to get some sunnier, warmer weather. We have had a very pleasant stay here in Capmany, a very quiet place, but when we wake up this morning the site is almost empty, completely different from our arrival when the site was almost full. Lots of German motorhomes in transit, but are they going north or south?
It’s a grey overcast day but a nice temperature. There has been some light rain overnight. We need diesel and gas so we set off for the chaotic La Jonquera. It lives up to our description – chaotic. It is on the main motorway between France and Spain on the border, all road freight goes through here as well as tourists. It’s badly signed where everything is, the roads are in a bad condition and you have trucks, in the main, and tourists milling around. How there is not an incident we have no idea. Maybe that’s it. Maybe too much regulation and direction causes more accidents? Anyway, we give up filling at one place as we can’t get in. All kinds of height restrictions and bollards.
Finally we get to a petrol station after going around a roundabout or two while dodging Lithuania trucks, French tankers and German camper vans. Great fun…
We are on our way. The weather brightens up, it’s a lovely day as we head south on a FREE Spanish motorway. It’s busy as we pass Barcelona. The weather over the next few days is not great. Very high winds are expected, very high, we can already feel the start of it as Jess gets pushed about a bit in the wind. Hayley books us into a campsite called Camping Alegría del Mar for the night which is located south of Tarragona near a town called Vinaros.
At 3:30 pm we finally arrive having left Capmany at 11:00 am. We get a nice welcome that includes a free drink from the bar and a very nice spacious pitch. The stony beach is a two-minute walk. We can’t resist walking there as soon as we arrive to look at the Med and a rather stormy sky. It’s good to be here, we like it. We look out to sea and remember fondly the amount of times that we passed this spot when we had our boat, Stargazer.
The campsite has a nice, warm friendly feel to it, so much so, we will dine in their restaurant tonight and maybe try for another two nights here and stay for the weekend to sit out the winds. It’s Kings’ Day here tomorrow so it might be tricky. We shall see.
We decided that, yes, we would have dinner tonight at the local campsite restaurant and it was well worth it. A very nice friendly atmosphere with a mix of English, French and some Spanish. We had a lovely dinner with a salad, chiperones (fried baby squid), fiduea (paella but with short noodles) and two glasses of red. All for under 50 euros. That would have only got us a main course for one in Switzerland.
They had a few games of bingo, which we joined in and Hayley won a bottle of red, and Del won a bar of chocolate. All in all great fun and a lovely evening.
Thank you for another enjoyable read, and well done for doing such a long drive in 24 hours! Happy New Year to you both.