TravelStream™ news feed for member marksadventures on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/marksadventures en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:45:47 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259250195/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259250195/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259250195/tpod.html Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:45:47 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Boulogne-sur-Mer, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France

My next exciting adventure is the Crumball Rally! This is a type of banger rally, where participants form a team, buy an old car (normally with a price limit of 200 pounds, though that didn't apply to this one for some reason) get it up to MOT/safe standards, and then drive around certain parts of Europe. Despite the name, it is in no way a race - think of it more as part organised road trip and part an exercise in tasteful (!) car decoration, stopping at many of the great sites Europe has to offer, with challenges and drinking along the way.

Each rally has a theme; ours was based on the comedy 'Allo 'Allo, and so centred around areas where the French Resistance played their part in World War Two.

Our chariot of choice was a 1.3L 1995 'Skoda Favorit LXiE', called Stavros, but after a few modifications this became a 'BMW Favorit RS Motorsport Sport Turbo Sport LXiE V8'. Awesome.

For the first day it was an early start - up at 2:30am for a 3am departure, made worse by the fact that we only got to bed at about 11:30pm, after making sure everything was set for the big drive. I stayed at my cousin Pete's place that night, and we then picked up Rich and Phil, the other members of team 'Le Roast Beef' - apparently that's what the French call the English.

Pete and I were sharing the driving duties, so I drove us to Calais, making the most of the last bit of driving before crossing over to the wrong side of the road. We arrived at Dover at around 5am...perhaps a little early for the 9:15 ferry, but as I learned when catching the ferry to the Isle of Man - it's better to be an hour early than a minute late! The weather wasn't so great - infact it was windy as hell - which meant that some of the SeaFrance ferrys to Calais had been cancelled, but fortunately our ferry with P&O was only delayed by 2 days...and as we arrived early, we managed to get onto the 7am ferry, which ended up leaving at about 9:45. This was no problem however, as the sign up time for the start of the rally wasn't until the evening, meaning we had all day to find our hotel and do a little exploring.

After getting off the ferry, we proceeded to get lost in Calais...on unfamiliar looking roads...driving on the right...
Fortunately we found a map and somehow found our way to Boulogne. After parking the car and getting settled in at the hotel, we went for a bit of exploring.

Boulogne (which is pronounced 'ba - loin'...at least to us English speaking folk) is an old town which has been settled for around 2000 years. Like many towns around Europe, there is an old walled part of the town, with subsequent urban sprawl around the outside. Inside the walled off part of the town, we found a 'car park' (it's official name is 'Voiture contre Nature' - 'Cars against Nature' in English.....but I think 'car park' is clever so I'm going with that) which had a bunch of old cars and car parts turned into art in a small park. Quite quirky and a bit different, so I liked it.

After having a bit of a wander round, we met up at the Le Bureau bar for registration and to sign our lives away on the safety disclaimer form, then had dinner and a bit of a chin wag with the other entrants. For dinner I initially asked for a hamburger, but was told they were sold out, so I went for a Cheval (horse) Steak instead. It tasted similar to beef, though it had a different after taste...but it wasn't a fillet, instead it was like a burger patty...so whether I ended up with Cheval or Beef I don't know! Either way it was a good meal. We had a few drinks then turned in for the night, as we had to meet up at about 9am for the first day of the rally.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259272079/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259272079/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259272079/tpod.html Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:45:25 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Ypres, Flanders, Belgium

After a bit of a hard night, we were all up at about 9am to check out of our hotel and go for a quick wander around Brugge, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Often described as the 'Venice of the North', there are quite a few canals in Brugge, but as we discovered, there's even more chocolate shops - they're everywhere!
We walked down a stretch of road, only about 1km long, and saw about 7-8 chocolate shops, including one part where there was 3 in a row! They all sold some amazingly presented food and after making some purchases we went for a quick walk around another church (I'm not religious, but I love looking through all the old, well built and presented buildings!).

On the way back to Calais, we went via Ypres, a city which was completely demolished during World War 1. The two main buildings in the centre of the city both sustained huge damage during the war and required significant reconstruction. Some parts of the original buildings still stand, and show shrapnel damage, and some of the statues in the church walls are badly damaged.

Next stop after Ypres was at the Hooge Crater Cemetary. This cemetary contains the graves of nearly 6000 soldiers, many of whom were younger than I am, and a lot were only engraved with 'A British/Australian/New Zealand soldier'. Again, it was pretty sobering, seeing all these graves.

We managed to all get completely soaked today, and it was freezing cold and windy as well, so it wasn't particularly comfortable. After that, it was back to Calais, stopping at one more of the massive French hypermarkets for a few souvenir pieces of food, then back onto the ferry back to Dover.

So, that was the Crumball Rally over! We did really well I think, travelling over 1400 miles (or over 2300km) and the car ran faultlessly! Overall it was an awesome holiday, we all had heaps of fun and all said we'd like to do it again. The next one is in early May, and is going to be a motorsport themed event, running through France to Monaco, ending at the Monaco Grand Prix. I'd really like to go on this rally, but won't be able to as I'll be on the Topdeck training trip!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259265683/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259265683/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259265683/tpod.html Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:45:02 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Brugge, West Flanders, Belgium

Today was a many miles day - around 500 in fact, or about 800km! We all met up in a carpark on the outskirts of Macon, then travelled in convoy north. As we were travelling such a long way today, we all decided to use the motorways, as despite being toll roads and meaning we'd see a bit less scenery, it was well worth it as we'd get to stop for longer on the way and get there earlier. The tolls were quite expensive compared to what I'm used to (it cost us about 21 Euros/NZ$42 for the days driving) but the motorways were so good - 3 lanes each way, hardly any traffic at all, and really smooth. The motorways in France have a speed limit of 130kph in the dry, and 110kph in the wet, so either way they were faster and more direct than the meandering country roads with a 90kph limit.

Part of the way along, we came across team Les Pompiers, and they drove past us waving our aerial at us! We soon caught up and received it back though...at about 130kph!

We stopped for fuel in Dijon, which (at least the parts we saw) didn't look all that great, in contrast to the rest of the country which I thought was great.

Our final stop in France was in Metz, where we grabbed lunch, had a quick walk around the markets and I bought a crepe with strawberry jam (delicious). We had a walk through St Stephens Cathedral - a massive church whose construction started in around 1220 and finished in 1520. It is a very spectacular building, incredibly tall and with amazing attention to detail.

Back on the road, we headed further north and crossed over the border in Luxembourg. We stopped briefly at some motorway services, but as we were running short for time we didn't get the chance to stop in Luxembourg city. Going through one village we did see a pretty cool house on top of an outcrop of rocks, which looked great all lit up, but it was hard to get a shot which did it justice.

After crossing over into Belgium we stopped for gas, then carried on the final 3 or so hours of our trip to Brugge near the coast. We were a little late arriving....we were supposed to meet up at 7:30pm for the awards ceremony at 8pm, but we didn't make it to the bar until 9:30 - oops! We received our medals and bottle of cheap wine for finishing, then went off to find some dinner.
As it was now past 10:30 we had to go for the first restaurant we could find, and we went to a place selling Argentinian food of all things! I'd never had Argentinian cuisine before (nor was I really aware that they had a particular style of cooking) but I have to say it was one of the tastiest meals I've ever eaten - I was impressed! I had a glass of Sangria to go with it too, and it was sooo good!

We spent the rest of the last evening of the rally in the bar with the others, having a few drinks and a good time. It was a late night too - not getting back til gone 3am! Overall it was a great time, we met some great people and had lots of fun.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259256976/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259256976/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259256976/tpod.html Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:00:59 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Macon, Burgundy, France

After loading up the car, we met up at the cafe next to the pub from the night before, and received our challnges for the day. The first was to follow a series of arrows on the footpaths (a sort of tourist trail) and write down certain numbers on the plaques next to certain landmarks on the way. We started at around number 30, and an hour later got to number 60...and in that time we had only found one of the numbers we were searching for (out of 16 required!) so we boldly decided that this was too challenging and to give up and head on to the next one. Walking back to the car, we found a French Patisserie, and some of the most amazing looking food I've ever seen...all sorts of sweet foods, really well presented and they looked so good I had to try some, so I went for the chocolate profiteroles, and they tasted just as good as they looked.

First stop for the day was in a small commune called Vezelay. This small hilltop town has a great little main street, with an Abby at the top, all of which has been given UNESCO World Heritage Site status. While here, we had to take a photo of the hot air balloon ride sign, and then had a wander round. We went up to the Abbey and had a look inside, and it was an awesome building. We went down into the crypt below the church floor, and saw an old piece of scripture in a glass case behind an iron gate, which apparently dates back to the 1200s!
Back at the car, we found that the aerial on the car had been stolen...and whilst we had our theories as to who it was, we had no proof.

Next we had a brief (quite literally) stop in Saulieu, where our challenge was buy the biggest pair of womens knickerswe could find...but instead we went for a quite tasteful frilly g-string...which unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of!

Final stop of the day before arriving at our destination, was in a small town, where we had to buy the cheapest bottle of wine we could find, and we'd get one point for every Euro that it cost below 5 Euros. We did a pretty good job, finding 1L bottle for 1.25 Euros (roughly NZ$2.50!).

Again it was dark as we arrived in Macon, and after finding our way to the hotel and dumping out stuff in our rooms, we headed off to the bar where everyone was meeting. This was the Bridge Cafe on the waterfront. This was a great night, with lots of good quality socialising and drinking, and a bit of mingling with the locals...in conversations consisting of very bad French and English...but still it was a lot of fun, even though I hadn't spoken French since 3rd form at school - 10 years ago! I'd really like to try and pick up a bit more French now.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259253782/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259253782/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1259253782/tpod.html Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:20:11 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Auxerre, Burgundy, France

In the morning we drove to the first checkpoint to meet the rest of the cars/drivers and to receive our challenges for the day.

It was great fun meeting up with the other drivers and seeing their cars. There was a real mixture, including an Austin Allegro ("All Agro"), a Vauxhall Calibra, a pair of Porsches, an old Mercedes, another Skoda (a newer station wagon), a Honda Accord and a really well decorated Ford Mondeo. The Mondeo was a team of firefighters, who happened to know a graffiti artist, so he painted their car for them, and it looked fantastic, as you'll see in my photos.

Included in our challenges for the day was a task to take a picture of a V1 flying bomb from World War Two. We were given a hint that there was one in the foyer of La Coupole, a base which was built by the Germans in World War Two to fire V2 rockets at London, so we drove there (via the wrong museum outside of St Omer, which happened to be closed). As we all had an interest in WW2, we decided to do the full tour of the facility. I found it very interesting (I'd seen a documentary on the V weapons and LA Coupole) but also very grim...knowing that it was all built by POW slave labourers, forced to work at gunpoint to the point of starvation and death, was not nice.
The complex was made up of a huge concrete dome built into the side of a large hill, with a maze of tunnels providing access. It was designed to allow safe construction of the V2 bombs inside the dome, which could then be transported out to the firing area by a small railway.
It was a fascinating place, and to know that Hitler knew of, and possibly visited this site, was quite eerie. Inside was a V1 flying bomb, a V2 which was taken to the USA after the war to aid their rocket program then gifted back to the French, and an exhibition of photos and accounts of the holocaust and life in German POW camps...all of which was very sobering. One of the most shocking parts was a photo of an SS officer about to shoot a Jewish woman and her child in the back of the head...truly awful stuff.

After completing the tour, we drove on to Auxerre, a town south west of Paris. As we took a bit of a detour away from the shortest route there (which included being taken on a dodgy, puddle ridden gravel road through a vineyard by the GPS) we arrived well after the sun went down. Our hotel was right on the river passing through the town, and after unloading the car we got some great photos of the cathedral lit up at night, reflecting off ot he river. We met up in the Les Brimborions Bar (which according to google translator, is 'The Knick-Knacks'!). As we arrived so late, the only food place open was a small kebab-ery, so that made it an easy choice. When talking to the others at the bar, we heard that we had two casualties on the rally so far - the old Mercedes suffered from a brake master cylinder failing, and the Austin Allegro had a broken fuel pump. Both teams had breakdown cover however, and so were able to get a hire car and carry on for the rest of the rally while their cars were fixed/posted back to England. We did find it a bit amusing that the Mercedes team were given a Skoda hire car, which made it to the end of the rally!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257176714/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257176714/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257176714/tpod.html Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:37:30 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Stone Henge, England, United Kingdom

On our way back to London we stopped at one of the most famous sites in the world - Stone Henge on the Salisbury Plains, which was great to see. The stone circle is famous for the mystery surrounding it, and is on an area known for its long history. All around the area are what look like small hills in the middle of the fields, but they are actually buriel mounds made thousands of years ago...pretty amazing!

After a quick stop at some motorway services we were back home, ending what was a great trip away in an amazing corner of the country!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257176445/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257176445/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257176445/tpod.html Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:32:10 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Launceston, England, United Kingdom

On the way to Launceston today we stopped at Minions, where we saw the Hurlers, a group of stone circles which are thought to have stood since around 1500BC. In Launceston we saw Launceston Castle and just did a bit of exploring around the town.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257175957/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257175957/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257175957/tpod.html Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:24:38 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Dartmouth, England, United Kingdom

Today we went for a drive to Dartmoor, a seaside village at the mouth of the River Dart.

For lunch I had a pasty (I love Cornish Pasties!) and an English Toffee icecream with clotted cream - yum!

In the evening we drove back to Liskeard through Dartmouth National Park, which had some great views (hard to photograph though unfortunately) and we even nearly hit a wild horse which ran out in front of the car!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257175508/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257175508/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257175508/tpod.html Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:14:12 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Land's End, England, United Kingdom

This morning we went on a trip to Land's End via St Michael's Mount. St Michael's Mount is a small island just off the coast near Penzance with a small village and castle. It's a very picturesque island, despite the grey skies we had today.

We then headed to Land's End, the south-western most point of mainland England, and on the way back to the holiday house we stopped at Mousehole (what a great name!) and Truro, which are both great little seaside towns with lots of narrow roads and heaps of character.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257174028/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257174028/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marksadventures/1/1257174028/tpod.html Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:13:43 -0500 Mark's big OE!!!

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Tintagel, England, United Kingdom

Today we went on a day trip to Tintagel and Newquay.

Tintagel Castle (now the ruins of) is the legendary birthplace of King Arthur, and lies on an exposed headland on the north side of the Cornwall peninsula. There is a lot of history there; some findings suggest that it was occupied as long ago as 200-300AD! There is a small chapel (well, ruins of) which dates from around 1000AD, and the castle itself was established around 1233AD. After a walk around the windy headland, we headed for Newquay, which is a popular town/beach for surfing. My favourite part of Newquay was definitely the house on top of the tor with it's own suspension bridge!

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