The adventures of Bangles in Europe

[Tap]

I love all of your posts and photos on here.

I'm living vicariously through your adventures, locations, helpful information, tips, and photos.

Please continue your posts for a long time. Thanks!!

[Roquefort]

We startet our Holiday break in Brugge, an age old town in Belgium.
Many rivers there, a bit like Venise

Impressive Buildings, hundreds if years old. The entire center is nit allowed for any bus or RV.

Entry if Brugge RV park...! Far to small for us!

The main speciality of Belgium, beside Chocolate is... BEER!
We found this "1/2-legal" spot for the night, in the Marina, with watervieuw!

While the road was dark and tiny, i crashed my passengerside mirror :-( ,
if anybody has a heated power mirror now for me, let me know.
I could fix with tape etc. but it was a "shame" for me....!

From there we went further to the french north sea coast to "Malo les Bains", the beach of Dunkerque.
This is the town, where the allied troops in 1940 at first tried to liberate Europe from the Nazi-Terror, unfortunatelly it was not a success...!
The town suffered from heavy bombardements, you still see the "wounds".
We had a winderfull spot, DIREKT next to the Beach!
Will post later more Pictures!
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[Roquefort]

Wonderfull Coastal architecture from 1900! Still a lot there to see.

But you see also many "construction sins" if the 50ties...!
This town suffererd so much from World War 2.....




It was a sad Thing for us to see this as "Krauts", even if we are to young, to be guilty of it.


We parked next to the beach!

The morning vieuw!

Breakfast on the beach! (just kidding, it was SO stormy!!!)


Can you see her....?

[Roquefort]

Impressions of Dunkerque


Nothing better than an empty beach and wind!!!! (and seafood!!!)



Next day we moved Bangles to the dunes, we gad to run the generator to recharge our batteries.
Not a good idea, next to houses


also just two steps from the beach!


What's better than french "Brasserie" Kitchen, Wine and a classic Airstream...?
Correct: A second Airstream to choose the "right" one per tour...!
Later more!

[Roquefort]

Comming "home" in a warm and cozy Airstream, after a windy day on the beach!
Even "Fiete" our "little"...(!) dog feels "at home"!

[Lily&Me]

Great pictures.

My little rig would fit in that RV park just fine.

When we were in Paris for our 20th wedding anniversary in 2012, we did a day trip by bus to the Normandy Beaches & Museums.

My husband had an uncle who came ashore on one of those beaches. Such a sobering experience.

Enjoy, and keep the pictures coming!


Maggie

[Roquefort]

The last Stop-over, allready on our way back home... 😢😢
We visited BERGUES, a now well known town in north France, close to the belgian border.
This town became famous after the fantastic comedy film "Bienvenue chez les Chti's" (Maybe there is an english version, should be named as "Welcome to the Chti's", or similar?!
With the french comedian actors Dany Bohn and Kad Merad.)
The town is a typical example of the architecture of the years 1650 to 1700, very "cozy", with tiny roads....!
Was an amazing challenge, to manouver "Bangles" into the historic center!
entering Bergues


cozy Miner houses (a lot of Mines in north France before!!!)

the historic Bergues townhall


The tower behind Bangles is no church, no castle. It's called "Bellfried", a tower, build in 1720 (?) to show, how rich the town was. Inside one of the biggest "Carillons", an Musicinstrument, to play similar to an orgue, but with bells, instead of pipes!
The typical "Chti-food" style?
Fries, toasties, strange sausages (deepfried...!) and : BEER!

i followed my GPS system and became shoked, as i saw THIS...!

Fortunatelly, we could turn just before the gate!

But to leave historic Bergues, we had to use a Gate.....!

[Roquefort]

So, folks, that's it now.
We drove home after 3 days in 3 countries (Netherlands, Belgium & France), we spent a wonderfull time, even if weather was "lousy"!
"Bangles" ran flawless, just some "little issues" (as allways...!), like a non wirking dash heater, a "nousy" Furnace and a blown waterheater thermostat!
We will see, where we go next, Bangles is ALLWAYS ready to roll, gas full and fridge filled 👍😜


Leaving France 😢😢🇫🇷

[msimon]

Originally Posted by Roquefort

Regarding "FROLI":
We used the "STAR-SYSTEM", aftermy memories ut was essier to set up and a bit (!) less costintebsive.
For our east/west queen we bought 1 Basic set + 1 additional set to fit 1.50 x 2.00 metres.
While the original mattres became "ugly", because if humidity UNDERNEATH, we decided to buy a brandnew "MALIE-METEOR H3" innerspring Matress, plus a "Memoryfoam-Topper", 8cm thick.
This make's a PERFECT "Boxspring" feeling, like in the most sophisticated 5 star hotels! (The heatpad from WALMART is the "cream ob the fruit"!)
We removed the thin, but heavy Plywood before and replaced it by 12mm super-lightweight plywood, used in Aurcrafts also (cheap stuff from di-it-yourself market).
We realized, the mattrass "moves" while traveling, also by night, i will make a "nice" sort if rail arround.
This will cover up also the now still visible "FROLI" springs.
Let me know, what you get fir a pricing in Amerika, i will compare here and if it's worth, i can sent the (tiny!) bix to you!

Roquefort,

Thank you for the additional information and kind offer regarding the Froli system. We have rear twin beds in our trailer. Although the "Star" system that you have sounds more comfortable, I think we need the "Travel" Froli system as the beds are not rectangular and the Froli needs to follow the curvature at the rear of the trailer. We already have a 2 inch rail along the non-wall side of the beds. That said, the price here would be about 240 US dollars (that's about 218 Euros) for each bed. That's not an outrageous amount of money for a good night's sleep, especially if we can use a less expensive mattress. The Airstream innerspring mattresses that came with our 1992 Excella are about finished and will need replacing soon. I think that when one considers shipping from Germany, customs, and warranty considerations, it's just as easy and probably just as cheap for us to purchase the system here in the US rather than to trouble you to send us some. Your kind offer is much appreciated though!

Happy travels and thanks again! Looking forward to more photos from Europe .

[bolerama]

Thank you so much for starting this thread! It is so enjoyable to read about your adventures in some of my favourite places.

Lisa

[Roquefort]

Hello my dear friends!
After many weeks full of work, i was heavyly biten by the "Bangles-Bug"!
I called a friend if mine, we decided to have a "boys evening" on the Rhineriverside.
Water was quick filled up, so was Propane. Some drinks in the fridge, some food and we were "ready to roll"! After a 120km trip we arrived in ANDERNACH, a very old tow close to KOBLENZ. Very nice and cosy town!!!! Highly recomended, if anybody want's to see the Rhine valley.
We arrived at the Andernach-RV park....!
What a busy and terrible spot!
As often, we could not find a place, the size of Bangles was far too big for the lots...! We were nit allowed to stay along the river, they offered a spot in the last row...! (no vieuw, just RV's...!)
No thank's!!!
We went further and found a wonderfull spot a few miles away, NO other RV, NO hazzle, no nothing, but ature and river!
Never travel without pets...!
The sky had "dramatic" clouds, ut was warm and slightly windy!
A good evening for some drinks, no wifes...😀🍷🍷🍷👍🏻

The problem with "nice" spots is, there is no Restaurant arround, so we had to cook...!

This was just a weekend break, but it feels allways like "Holyday", once Bangles is on Tour!
We will see, will be continued soon!
Tomorrow we start to the "historic Market" in KORNELIMÜNSTER, our first market this year.
Will post pictures!!!!
By for now!

[Lily&Me]

Looks like a great spot....we call camping without hookups "boondocking" over here.


Maggie

[bolerama]

Gorgeous spot! Good food, drinks, and friends. Sound like fun!

Lisa

[Roquefort]

Hi!
As i promised last week, some Impressions from the "historischer Jahrmarkt" in Kornelimünster, near Aachen. Aachen is an age old town, with a "world heritage monument" cathedral, about 1200 (!) years old. Kaiser Karl was here during his regency, the town is full of history...!
Kornelimünster is a few miles from there, directly next to the belgian border.
Also very old, with a 700 years old monastere, once a year they celebrate their "yearly Market" with a 250 year Old Tradition. We are proub to be part of that, we participate since 15 years with our booth.
As you can see, a very "cosy" old town, but VERY busy ones a year!


The "fabulous" GILBERT, a "Saltimbanque" from Paris!

Some vieuws from our booth, just compare with the christmas pictures...! (we are here for just 5 days!)




We had a very succesfull start here, perfect (!!!) "market weather"!
i will post some more pictures from the "temporary RV park", you will be amused 😀😀😜

[Lily&Me]

Gorgeous pics!


Maggie

[tevake]

Really fun entertaining posts Roquefort!
I'm so enjoying the look into your RV/ market world.
The neat images of the stream in the old world settings, the challenges and rewards of traveling in the narrow streets and roads of Europe.

All good fun, thanks for sharing your stories.

Now about all of the goods in you market stand. Do you pack it all into your coach, or ship it to the market site.
Inquiring minds want to know.

Cheers Richard

[Lily&Me]

You could bring some of those wares over here and sell them, I am sure.

I particularly like those wooden bowls and cooking utensils.

Are they olive wood?


Maggie

[Roquefort]

Hello dear Airstreamers!
We just came home from the historic market, we had big luck with the weather, all these "monsun" rains and tornados we had in Germany last weekend, came NOT to Aachen!
We had a lot of rain, but just rain...!
So, to answer some questions, yes, we sell olive wood, and we sold a lot of our producrs in the states! We sold to WILLIAM SONOMA, WEST ELM and to Wildly Delicious in Canada 🇺🇸👍🏻!
US market is a bit "quiet" now, but we are momentary in negociation with Cracker Barrel!!!!! (We will see!)
Olive wood is very heavy, so is soap, no chance to bring in Bangles to the markets. We have a van, also the Booth is a sort of "container". We have to move a lot of stuff, before we can sell 😬😬!
See some more nice vieuws from the place, also some pictures from the "RV-park" later!

[Roquefort]

Some more market vieuws:











My boys are helping our friend Bianca in her Wood-oven bakery! (That's more "cool", than helping mum & dad...!)

[Roquefort]

We had "Boy's time" after the market, see our "nice" place for boondocking!