25 November 2019

1997

Part One

It was the summer of 1997. I had bought a small camping trailer from some friends. Linked to this, I had had a tow bar fitted on our silver Ford Escort.

We planned  a road trip through the heart of Europe down to The Mediterranean without the assistance of the internet which was very much in its infancy. Ian would have been twelve years old and Frances would have been nine and of course Shirley and I were younger too.

In mid-July I had the car fully serviced for we were about to set off on a 3000 mile journey. Some of the camp sites were pre-booked and I had acquired maps and other useful information.The camping trailer was packed - including the big frame tent we had just bought.

We set off very early one morning bound for Folkestone. The Channel Tunnel had finally been opened the year before and this was the first time we had used it. I manoeuvered the Ford with its little trailer on to the flat bed of a train and we were transported for twenty five miles under the English Channel, emerging in France half an hour later.

Then we headed to southern Belgium, arriving in the early evening and successfully setting up camp on a wooded site near Spa where the Belgian F1 Grand Prix race is held each year. 

After two Belgian nights we were on the road again heading through Luxembourg and back into France. We camped for three nights near Bitche in the Moselle region. The campsite was right next to an "etang" or an inland lake  I remember swimming in there with the children  though the water was muddied and you wondered where you were putting your feet. There could have been water snakes or alligators or bottom feeding sharks! 

After packing up the camping trailer once more, we set off for Strasbourg before heading east into Gemany. It was as we were crossing the border that I noticed the temperature gauge rising on the car's dashboard. I am not referring to the summer weather but to the car's radiator. I pulled over and after a few minutes carefully unscrewed  the radiator cap. Steam was emitted as if from an Icelandic geyser. 

A kind German man in a Porsche stopped to see if he could help and though he hardly spoke a word of English, he managed to communicate that there was a problem with the fan and that I should drive south without replacing the radiator cap. 

We headed along fast roads towards Lake Constance or Konstanz which straddles Germany's border with Switzerland. As we drove along there was no problem with the water temperature - with cooling air swishing into the engine compartment but when we hit slow traffic in Friedrichshafen the gauge began to rise alarmingly again.

I saw a sign for lakeside camping and headed there immediately. It was a Friday evening and as we set up our tent once again I was very anxious about how we would get the car fixed. We went to the camp's bar-restaurant where a helpful barmaid who spoke reasonable English found me the address of the town's main Ford dealership but it was too late to go there for help that night. I would try in the morning.
 To be continued

23 comments:

  1. I love a good road trip.... looking forward to the next instalment.
    (Was this Clint's grandfather?)

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    1. Clint hails from South Korea. As far as I know, there is no familial link.

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  2. Ooooo. Can't wait for the next instalment.....

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    1. You will just have to do something else while you are waiting Christina. Perhaps make hubby a nice Lancashire hotpot.

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  3. Swimming in a muddy lake is never my favorite thing -- even in France!

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    1. I like to see my feet. Clarity is always good when it comes to swimming.

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  4. Well, I'm sure that the car did not explode and kill all of you because here you are! But I looking forward to hearing what did happen. What an amazing trip you had planned. I hope you were able to make the whole route.

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    1. That deduction was so clever Mary. Maybe you should have been a detective.

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    2. My talents are endless.

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  5. A road movie! Easy Rider with a camping trailer. Hope there aren't going to be any sex scenes like in Thelma and Louise.

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    1. This is a family friendly blog my good sir and any references to sexual encounters have been eliminated. If you want that sort of thing may I suggest a visit to yorkshire-nanas.com

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  6. Whilst I made many long journeys across Europe with the children we always stayed with friends or in hotels on the way (saving time and effort ). I was very fortunate never to have (as far as I can remember) any car or other emergencies in all those years. I look forward to your further adventures.

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    1. I was hoping to avoid such a mini-crisis and that is why I had the car serviced before the holiday began.

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  7. A road trip! I understand the concern over the car trouble as I have been there many times in my younger years. It is hard for me to imagine a road trip crossing into so many different countries but it sounds exciting. I have driven across my country but never beyond it.

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    1. I would love to drive across America - often taking back roads - and visiting places off the beaten track.

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  8. There is nothing quite like the sinking feeling of car problems when one is far from home. I've had a couple of those when I've been driving on my own and my first step is always to phone my husband and ask what to do. When you ARE the husband, I don't know if it's easier or harder. Not trying to be sexist, just describing my own world :)

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    1. Husbands do have their uses don't they? Also good at opening stiff jar lids and dealing with wasps.

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  9. The route you took brings back many happy memories of holidays taken with my parents in our Morris Oxford! Many, many, decades before the Channel Tunnel, Internet, computers, mobile phones, and when Thomas Cook was the only travel agent who booked hotels, ferries, and you had to buy your foreign currency from them, or the bank. In those days there was a real sense of adventure! The only thing that ever happened in all those years was the speedometer indicator fell off as we were driving through the St. Gotthard tunnel and from the on we had no idea what speed we were doing.

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    1. I remember holidays "on the continent" when you had to stop at every national frontier and have your passport stamped etcetera - even Luxembourg!

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    2. Yes, and it will probably be the same post Brexit - that's if they'll let you in !!!

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    3. Most full blood Yorkshiremen are descended from The Vikings. I might have to apply for a Norwegian passport.

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  10. I had this problem when I first got my trailer. They put on and extra radiator and problem fixed. I'll be interested to see what happens here.

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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