Finally, we have arrived in Italy – after three days travelling through several countries in our beloved Enid!

We set off from home in the early evening to camp outside a lovely pub called The Doghouse and Vinyl Bar near Folkestone. It was the perfect pit stop for our first official holiday drink before leaving at 5.30am the next day for the channel tunnel. It was tempting to travel in our PJs but we thought that central Europeans might frown upon this behaviour…

Our next destination was Luxembourg but, as it is a four-hour drive from Calais, we stopped at Namur in Belgium to stretch our legs and let Luna have a taste of the local lake (she even found a tennis ball – winning!). We found a nice park to walk around and have a little picnic while taking in some rays. We also couldn’t resist a nearby (albeit dodgy) bar for a quick drink. Luna got free water and biscuits. Standard.

It wasn’t long before we were back on the road and travelling on motorways lined with enormous green trees. It was just beautiful. What’s more, the roads were pretty quiet, making it a really nice drive right up until we reached Camping Bissen – our campsite for the night. We parked Enid up in front of the river and put up the awning before having a few well-earned drinks under the sun. Luna of course couldn’t resist a paddle and had a close encounter with a brave (or stupid) duck!

It’s probably a good thing we got an early night because this is when the weather took a turn for the worse. It POURED with rain all night and, while we kept dry, our chairs sadly didn’t because we left them outside. Rookie mistake. We took down the awning during a short rain break before driving in more rain to Colmar in the south of France (or, as some call it, Little Venice). This journey was relatively short, and we were relieved to arrive at the campsite in the sunshine. We set up camp and walked along the adjoining river while Luna swam in it to fetch a French stick 😉

We had great intentions to stroll into the centre of Colmar but, just as we finished getting ‘glammed up’, the heavy rain returned. Bugger. Intent not to let it scupper our plans, we drove in and headed for a café for the holiday’s first (and very expensive) Aperol Spritz. Luna was somewhat of a celebrity with onlookers gazing at her beauty. She bloody knows it too. We then grabbed some food before getting another early night as our final leg before arriving in Italy would take six hours.

Note to self: don’t bother putting up the awning if there is any hint of rain. Putting the awning away was an absolute pain. It was drenched in rain, mud and grass – and took bloody ages to pack. We couldn’t wait for Enid to get us back on the road and leave the miserable weather behind.

We drove through a bit of Germany before arriving in Switzerland – and WOW. Every bit of this country is stunning. We were surrounded by mountains, waterfalls and windy roads. If there is any road trip you want to do in a campervan, it’s in this country. We left the rain to travel through fog and some snow, and it was still beautiful. It would be even more beautiful if we had bluebird sky! Maybe next time.

Many hours later and Enid made her descent towards the Italian border in Lugano where the weather was MUCH kinder to us. It had been a long day of travelling and, towards the end of the trip, we made a few wrong turns (my bad) so we were very happy to arrive at an apartment we booked just outside of Menaggio in Lake Como – our favourite place!

Enid now gets a break from driving hundreds of miles (and from us!) while Luna gets a break from Enid as she is a terrible passenger. Poor dog. She will be rewarded with her favourite thing though, and lots of it – which is water to paddle and swim in, but you might have guessed that already 😊

Ciao!

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