Preparing for a European Adventure
Our campervan has an on-board LPG tank, which is great, and saves messing about with gas bottles. Service stations dispensing LPG in Europe have a variety of different nozzles, however… so I needed to invest in a collection of adapters. That was just the beginning; some campsites and aires don’t have the three-pin EHU (Electric Hook-Up) sockets, just the standard European two-pin socket, for which we would also need a suitable adapter. There is also the potential issue of Reverse Polarity, where power is being served up with the live and neutral in opposite positions to here in the UK, requiring some means to check the polarity (a tester) and a reverse polarity lead (to correct it). UK vehicles driving in the EU must display a UK sticker, and various other essentials are required to be carried by law, such as a warning triangle for if we break down, and hi-viz jackets. Let’s also not forget headlight deflectors; our van is set up for driving in the UK, which means the main beam is focused on the left-hand side of the road, which could be a dazzling hazard to European drivers on the opposite carriageway, since they drive on the right.
Our van is 8 years old this year and, up until a couple of weeks ago, had never had a habitation check. The good news is it passed with flying colours, although the leisure battery needed replacing and the extending shower tap in the bathroom also needed fixing. A general garage visit was also necessary, to fix an issue with the handbrake and to replace the offside wing mirror; not because there was anything wrong with the mirror, but because it houses the external ambient temperature sensor, which had started playing up, was reading incorrectly, and was affecting several of the engine’s internal systems (and – bizarrely enough – the reversing parking assistance). annoyingly, the sensor can’t be changed individually. Finally… our Drago has had two new front tyres.
All of this stuff isn’t what the trip is about, of course, but I’ve listed the items here for future reference, both for myself and anyone reading this who may be wondering what steps are necessary before booking your ferry ticket.
So, with all that taken into account, we’re almost ready for our European Adventure – so let’s get onto the good stuff…
It’s been a while since I recorded a trip in the campervan (of which we’ve had many over the years, in the UK), but this one feels a little special. We’ll be crossing the Channel at Dover, to Calais, and driving to Luxembourg for our first night’s stop. Strasbourg is en route to one of our primary destinations, Zugspitze , in Germany. From here, we will be dropping into Austria for a couple of nights, and then several nights in another primary destination – Lauterbrunnen, in Switzerland, before heading back towards France, and home.
What could go wrong?… Hopefully nothing…
