This episode starts in the magnificent Wurzburg on the river Main and we head south along the Romantic Road stopping at Landsbderg am Lech.
This is a beautiful part of Germany with lots of places to see. We stop over at many places for a look around along the way capturing medieval walled cities and lovely traditional towns.
The Romantic Road is a must do if you like touring.
We’ve embarked upon our European Tour starting from Glasgow, Scotland and heading to Lake Garda in Italy. We plan to drive through France, Belgium, Germany and Italy.
We plan to drive south through Germany along the Romantic Road (Romantische Strasse) before finally heading for Lake Garda in Italy.
In this episode 1 we travel from Folkestone on the Eurotunnel, then drive through France and Belgium arriving in Cologne, Germany.
We’d love to know what you think so feel free to comment.
This was our first trip to Vanlovefest at Elvington airfield. We absolutely loved it. Friendly people and very well run. Whilst we were there we tested MiRider bikes and bought two – so time to get healthy!
I’ve been wanting to upgrade the audio system in the van for some time so I could have Apple Car Play, DAB radio and better connectivity. I wanted the new system to be flush in the dashboard so after some research I found a Pioneer system sold by Dynamic Sounds.
This is quite a comprehensive upgrade. It is not particularly difficult, it is time consuming and you need confidence to cut out internal components of the dashboard to make room for the larger unit, relocate the Fiat Blue & Me module and make space for the wiring harness.
I believe you also need a multi-tool to be able to cut accurately in confined spaces.
We returned to Findhorn with two campervans parking up at the aire. This is a beautiful location a couple of minutes walk from the beach, and five minutes walk to the restaurant. We were lucky to see seals in the River Findhorn and dolphins in the Moray Firth – although didn’t capture the dolphins in the video.
Our second consecutive visit to Camp Quirky. The event was good, although due to our 9:30pm arrival we could not park up in the event on the Friday evening. The earliest we could park up the van was 10:00 on the Saturday morning and we were located in the overflow area. The ground is much rougher here and we really didn’t feel part of the event located down here. Pity really, as otherwise Camp Quirky is well organised and run.
We visited Northumberland for the first time, parking up at Waren Mill campsite. The campsite was very muddy so it was a good opportunity to test our new BF Goodrich KO2 tyres. All went well whilst several vans around us needed towed off the grass. Nevertheless, after the holiday weekend we moved pitch to a hardstanding.
We visited several of the small villages, and castles, along this coastline. There’s lots to do here so we may well return for another trip in the future.
The Holy Island causeway was a chance to try out my DJI mount on the outside of the van. I was worried my camera might fall off. Everything went well though, except I messed up the camera clamp mounting on the way over.
The video captures some of the highlights.
The garage advised our tyres were near the limit which I could not understand as I had measured their depth the day before. This experience resulted in new tools, new tyres and new rear discs.
Then new locking wheel nuts and new Fiamma Jumbo ramps.
Now we are ready for summer touring!
The van was called FreeTime when we bought it and I removed these graphics in July 2022 whilst in 40C heat in France. It’s taken a while as we have been debating what we wanted to call the van and Wendy has been learning how to use her Cricut machine.
We decided on Fiat Di Campo. So Wendy cut the graphics and we put these on the van. Whilst we were there we added a graphic on the bonnet and a small graphic to one of the backdoors.
We are still debating if we want to add a mcnaughtsontour graphic on the van, so this might happen in the future.
Let us know what you think – good or bad, all views are welcome.
We needed some drinks holders, especially on long trips, so we converted the central glovebox to a double drinks holder, installing the Fiat OEM parts.
This is a straightforward upgrade. There are quite a few parts and you’ll see in the video if you have the Blue & Me option installed on your van then you will need to cut out the plastic blanking plate. I found the DeWalt multitool was good for this.
The parts are available on Amazon at this affiliate link. We will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
This upgrade has worked really well and we are really pleased with it.
McNaughts On Tour 