Campingplatz Pilensee, Review

Campingplatz Pilensee is 40 minutes from Munich. The kids loved the lake. The bathrooms were new  and very clean.

Highlights

• The lake with large inflatable 
• The bathrooms
• The location
• Also close to Aldi!!!

7/10

We do it again!! Lake Pilsensee

So the year is 2019 and the kids are 14, 11 and 7

Rog is doing contract work and I have some extended annual leave so we take the kids out of school again (BAD PARENTS) and head off to Europe for 7 weeks.
This time we' ve hired a camper van. Initially I had found a small compact number, sleeping 4 so we'd need a tent but Alex commented 'Mum, we'll kill each other in 7 weeks in that...' so we rented a monster truck.
We left Melbourne on 25.6.19 and flew into Munich and picked up the van after an extensive orientation....

Our first stop is Lake Pilsensee, just 30 minutes outside Munich.

This campsite is on the shores of Lake Pilsensee. There was a fantastic inflatable with a slide and trampoline in the middle which was great fun. Alex and Charlie mastered 'the sausage' and I swam across the lake.

Sunset over Lake Pilsensee

Mad Woman Will Travel

Compare and contrast, Venice and Queenscliff. Same Mad Woman at the wheel, same caravan but on the other side of the world!

Pictures 9975 miles / 16053.21 km apart!

Mad woman in Queenscliff, Australia!

Mad Woman in Venice, Italy!

First Australian Trip in Caravan

Happy family

We had our first trip in the caravan in Australia to Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsula. Every thing worked just fine. Our 11year old faithfull Mitsubishi Magna coped well with towing the caravan. It has a rated towing capacity of 1500KG and the unladen weight of caravan is 1336 KG. Australian Caravans are much heavier and most vans you see here are towed by 4x4's. We have stored the caravan at storage facility for $12 per week which is pretty good! Next stop Tasmania!!

Grandad would like the view!

Caravan arrives in Melbourne.

After 12 weeks at Sea the Caravan has arrived in Melbourne. It was not a straight forward process by any means:

It arrived on the 18th December just in time for Christmas. However everything slows down in Australia in December so it did not make it  out of the container depot until the 10th January.

When we did pick it up there were two areas of damage which was disappointing. The fibreclass was broken on the front of the caravan. But we are insured through our shipping agent SeaGo so we are getting quotes on the repairs.

The good news is that it was straight forward getting the caravan registered with VicRoads. The key thing was going to the great people at Sunshine Trailers and getting a compliance plate made with the VIN and weights on. This is a must for registration. Now are adventures can continue in Australia.

Damage to fibreglass Ouch!!!

More damage. Somebody has been careless!!!

Update on Caravan

For all those people who have been asking, yes the caravan is on its way to Melbourne. It should reach Singapore on the 28th November 2013. Then it is scheduled to arrive in Melbourne on the 15th December 2013. A big Christmas present.

It's travelling on a ship called the MV Cosco Pacific. It has just come through the Suez Canal. 

You can track it's progress here:

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/details/ships/477107200

BTW: We now have a new Australian blog charting our Australian adventures. Check it out!

http://middle-park.blogspot.com.au/

Suez Canal

Numbers, Places and Conclusions

Well we are now back in Australia after over six months away.

The last week in europe was very hectic we shipped the caravan back to Australia (it should arrive in November). We sold the car with two days to spare. It was on the market for eight days. 

People have asked us "how was the trip?" The answer was it was fantastic it exceeded all our expectations. Every country we visited was full of surprises and virtually without exception all the people we met were lovely. 

The other question people ask is what was the best place you visited? A tricky question they were all so good. 

However I have nominated two, one city and one area of outstanding natural beauty. 

1. The City: Paris 

We actually visited paris twice it was so good. The first time was in mid August. We had perfect weather and watched the sun set over the Seine and the moon rise over the Louvre. 

Moonrise in Paris

2. Nature: The Soca Gorge in Slovenia.  This place was magical. It had cold blue clear water full of wild fish. We must have jumped into the gorge 100 times between us it was wonderful. 

Alex jumping into the Soca Gorge

Here is a video of kayaking on the river that gives you an idea of what it was like. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4snc4sJvnhc

We drove 20,000 km's and flew 34,000 km's that's 54,000 km's in total. Our kids started off the trip at the ages of 8,5 and 1 and are now 9,6, and 2! They have had a world of experience in the last six months and hopefully we have fired their imaginations. Alex wants to be an environmentalist, Charlie wants to be a roman empress and Sam just wants to "play!"

As I write this Sarah is back at work at St. Vincent's and the kids are happily back at school and day care. I am unpacking and contemplating what to do next. 

Would we do it all over again? Of course! Would we do it differently? Probably not the trip was well planned and we did everything we set out to achieve.  Thanks for reading and posting all the comments :). Get travelling!

Roger.