Bath Time

A few days in Cornwall and the sun came out so we gave Kiki a much needed wash - hopefully we'll be able to give her a polish too before heading back to Devon early in the New Year.

Engaged

Steve and Emma (the Kiki crew) became engaged on Christmas Day :-)

Home for Christmas

Kiki and crew are now back in UK for Christmas.

We returned on the P&O ferry "Pride of Canterbury" from Calais to Dover at midnight on 13th December, slept overnight in Marine Parade then continued on to the South West after breakfast.

Kiki parked for the night in Marine Parade, Dover

Tournai

After visiting Brussels we drove to an Aire in Tournai where we spent the night. It was very cold at night and we woke to find a thick frost and ice on Kiki. First thing in the morning we walked around Tournai and then headed to Calais where we visited the wine warehouse and petrol station before heading to the ferry port.

Tournai is the oldest city in Belgium and has some very impressive old buildings, unfortunately, despite the early morning sunshine it was bitterly cold so we didn't hang around too long.

Atomium at night

As we left Brussels we drove past the Atomium which was illuminated at night

Brussels

We spent the night on the Aire in Strasbourg and then had a long 150 miles drive to Luxembourg. Once across the border we filled our near empty tank with diesel at €1.05/lt - hopefully this will last time until we reach the Calais!

We stayed overnight on an Aire at Dudelange and then headed to Brussels where we visited the Christmas markets.

Brussels Take 2 - four months after our first visit we returned on a cold but sunny Sunday morning.

The Grand Place in the December sunshine

The Mannequin Pis gets a Christmas makeover......

.... and Steve get's a proper Belgian Waffle at last!
Cream, Banana, Strawberries and more Cream - YUMMY :-)

Santa's Harley

Strasbourg

After spending the night in the carpark outside Obernai we woke to find that our gas had ran out overnight which meant we couldn't run the central heating or have a hot shower!! Fortunately we managed to squeeze enough out of the empty bottles to have a hot cup of tea and then we drove to the nearest petrol station selling LPG and filled the tanks. We parked in the supermarket carpark, closed the curtains, turned up the heating and had lovely hot showers to thaw out.

After a little light shopping (xmas lights, baubles and tinsel included!) we drove on to the Aire on the outskirts of Strasbourg. We needed electric hook-up tonight as the domestic batteries were running low but unfortunately the Aire had metered electricity at €2.50/hr so we decided to cross the Rhine into Germany to the Aire in Kehl which we stayed on our way down.

After a quiet night in Kehl (we were the only one's in the Aire) we returned to the Aire in Strasbourg, parked up and cycled into the city. It was a wet and very cold cycle ride but we liked Strasbourg which made up for the frostbitten extremeties :-)

Medieval buildings and the Rhine in Strasbourg

Another massive Christmas market - the best we have seen!

The Gothic cathedral

Obernai at Night

Obernai

We left Pfaffenheim this morning and drove to the medieval walled town of Obernai.

Through the arched window - the whole town was beautifully decorated for the Christmas market.

Shame about the rain - it poured all day and night

The natives were not very friendly.... then I read the sign saying "ne touche pas le donkey" or something similar in franglaise!

Well well

A light tipple

Em checks out the wine cellar

Pfaffenheim

After spending the night on the carpark (Aire) in Delamone we left Switzerland and continued our journey north via Pfaffenheim in the Alcase region of France.

Nativity scene and medieval houses in Pfaffenheim

The small independant winery where we stopped for the night. Several happy (merry) hours were spent in here sampling the wines - they were so good Em's wallet came out for an airing and Kiki left the following morning loaded down with Xmas hampers of wine.

Kiki parked up in the vineyard - crushed grapes anyone!

The road to Delamone

We left the Aire in St Blaise without too much wheelspin and headed north towards Delamone. The distance was only 50km and should have only taken an hour or so.... unfortunately Jane (our Tomtom) decided to take the scenic route which involved some very icy roads through a forest. Driving very slowly and carefully we crept along at 5mph. After several km and with no way back we came to a low bridge sign - 3m!! The "bridge" turned out to be a roughly hewn tunnel through the rock which was only just big enough to squeeze through without loosing our bedroom or wing mirrors......

One of the less icy sections of road!

Massive icicles on the approach to the low "bridge"

No way back now - the tunnel appeared just round this corner....

More snow last night!

We woke up this morning to find another 2-3inches of snow had fallen overnight - slightly worried about getting out of the Aire!

Neuchatel

We were planning on moving on today but after a lazy start we decided instead to cycle into Neuchatel to see the town that we missed yesterday.

The cycle path was rather..... snowy!

Lake Neuchatel - parts of it were frozen!

The Medieval centre of Neuchatel

St Blaise

Today we drove north from Montreaux towards Neuchatel where we planned to stay overnight. The route was mainly motorways so no snow problems today :-)

When we arrived at the GPS location in Neuchatel we couldn't find the Aire we were heading for - the motorway goes underground along the lakeside and the location appeared to be in the tunnel - not a good place to spend the night! We searched for a while to no avail so we decided to carry on to another Aire at St Blaise which is another 5km along the road.

As we approached the GPS location is St Blaise we were once again in the motorway tunnel! We took the next exit and headed towards the port - fortunately we'd been told in Neuchatel that the Aire in St Blaise was by the port. We soon found the Aire (which has free parking, services and electricity hook-up) and discovered that it was directly over the motorway tunnel so the GPS had been correct after all!

Plenty of snow but nice clear roads

One of the picture postcard Swiss villages along our route.

Lake Neuchatel at St Blaise

The Snow in Montreaux

Answers on a postcard please....

Christmas Market

This evening we walked along the lakeside into the centre of Montreaux to visit the Christmas Market

It's a dogs life

If I can't litter, you can't either - one of the quirky signs along the waterfront in Montreux