| |
Hint's tips and general advice
| Home |
• Switzerland can be crossed on a tank of petrol, so no need to pay over
the odds in shillings. Though it can only just be crossed, might be an idea
to carry a gallon or two, especially if you get caught in a queue trying to
get out. Also on the French side it’s a few miles to the nearest fuel
station.
• Andorra, Switzerland and Austria are steep and high, yes you will be
on the motorways in second gear, no it’s not necessarily your VW about
to expire, though it could be.
• Sweden’s goes on for a long way, and doesn’t change very
quickly; to make things more exciting try guessing when you’ll see, and
what colour the next corrugated steel roof will be.
• Not too many fuel stations have ATM’s and trying to find a bank
in Italy is a really profitable way of spending a day or two. Well finding the
bank’s not too bad, just trying to get back on the autoroute afterwards
can be a bit tricky.
• Italian road signs are the worst in Europe; take a good compass (that
doesn’t always point south east), a good road atlas (not one that’s
got the first half duplicated and the second half missing). If you can take
a GPS system, or at least a sextant, ball of string and a big bag of bread crumbs
as they all come in handy when trying to get out of the towns.
• Ports get less well organised and signposted the further south you go.
• Not all of ‘Europe’ takes the Euro, though most will at
an inflated exchange rate
• Some French (in particular) fuel stations only take local credit cards
at the automated pumps.
• On the subject of fuel pumps, if you do have a suitable credit card,
have managed to work out how to get the pump to accept it and have a good idea
how much fuel you’re going to buy, don’t be surprised if there isn’t
any fuel in there.
• Don’t carry drugs (or large quantities anyway) I’ve had
the van searched in Greece and, Italy, a ‘friendly’ chat in the
UK at Dover and a thorough 4 man ‘take the van apart’ search in
France (not far from Lyon, nowhere near a port!), and trust me, they've had
nearly 40 years experiance searching these vans!
• 1000 miles takes a while at 55 MPH.
• Take some earplugs for all those hours at 55MPH.
| Home |