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MOTORHOMENEWS

~ A personal take by Christopher Macgowan on tourism, travel and motorhomes.

MOTORHOMENEWS

Monthly Archives: December 2014

Iain and Sandra Baxter

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in Travel

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http://baxterbus.wordpress.com

I have never met Sandra and Iain Baxter but I follow their travel blog. I am reproducing today’s edition as it is a remarkable story straight off the news TV screens.

“It all started reasonably well. The ferry was 2 hours late in leaving Ancona but as we were heading for Greece where time matters even less than Italy we weren’t too worried. The crew kindly offered us an electric hook up on the ferry, as we had very little in the fridge we declined. In our experience car decks are always freezing and our fridge stays cold enough for 24 hours, the crossing is only 22 hours so we will be fine. Once on-board we found our free cabin, on a par with Brittany Ferries, and then we went to see the purser for our meal discounts – 30% of all meals for the trip. Anek Lines and Mimoan are all one company, as they cannot offer Camping On-board to motorhomes in winter, and on a few of their ferries where there isn’t an open deck, they give a free cabin and the meal offer. Pretty amazing deal as would say that 50% of the passengers were sleeping in chairs as the cabins were coming in at nearly €200 for the night.

We were due to dock at the first port of call, Igoumenitsa, around 7am the next morning, then after unloading and re-loading a further 5 hours onto Patras so arrival eta was 3pm Sunday. We woke up around 7am to tannoy announcements for all passengers to stay seated, and a garbled message about the North Atlantic. To be honest we thought they were talking about the storm so had a lie in and wandered down for breakfast late morning. When we did we found it was the Norman Atlantic, an Anek Ferry and it was on fire, our ship has turned back as it neared port to assist and we were the closest vessel, with ships joining the circling of the stricken ferry continuously.

Its very hard to describe watching a burning ship with smoke billowing, flames leaping out from the decks, explosions every few minutes and seeing at least 60-70 people stood on the deck waiting for rescue. The passengers and crew on the ship needed winching to safety by helicopters, incredibly the whole operation to airlift them all lasted 28 hours. Most people will have seen or read news reports of the events, so its not something I feel it’s appropriate to write too much about in a blog, suffice to say its something we will always remember and will count our blessings we happened to be on the right ferry at the right time and not the other way around.

In the middle of this Iain needed to be taken down to the car decks to get some insulin and medications from the van, as we were going to be on-board for three days rather than one. At which point he finds that this ship is not freezing on the car decks, its roasting as there is a massive generator running down there. Our fridge is turning intoa cooker and a 12 months supply of insulin is about to go off. We managed to save it by bringing it upstairs where the bar staff kept it in the fridge for us. The rest of the contents of our fridge have been disposed of, however the odour will be staying with us for some days we think. The heat was enough to actually start heating the water in our tanks to a temperature that would be fine for a shower.

We finally left the fire scene late afternoon Monday when all passengers and crew had been rescued. This meant that we would be arriving in Patras around 3am, so our plan was to stay on the dock until day-light as we had no idea on roads, routes etc. When we arrived I asked the Customs officer if we could park up until morning, he said that wouldn’t be possible. I asked where we could stay and he pointed to a carpark outside the fences. I inquired if he thought we would be safe there and he told me “no not at all, beware the Afghans”(I assumed he meant people, not dogs). Patras looks a bit like Calais, fencing everywhere as immigrants try to sneak on boats bound for Italy. The carpark didn’t seem appealing so next question was what he would suggest, I had to laugh at his response “I would drive until out of the city and away from Afghans then rest somewhere safe until daylight”. Thanks for that, we felt so much better, not! We decided to aim for a campsite at Glifa just over an hour and a half away. Out of the docks and just as we should have turned onto the motorway, we realised we had wrong slotted – right into the back streets of Patras. It is probably as safe as houses, but if you have never been there before, its 4am, you haven’t slept since the previous morning you have a general apprehension about your first visit to an unknown country then trust me it was a bit scary. All we could do was hold our faith in Sat Nav and 10 minutes later we were back on the main road out of town, both praying for an easy drive with no further drama, which luckily was what we got. We saw nothing of Greece other than very dark roads, no traffic, not even some stray dogs, it all passed by in a blur as were both concentrating on the right turns to make sure we didn’t end up off route again. We finally arrived at the campsite at 5am, parked up outside the gates, switched off the engine and were out like lights within minutes

This morning all is good in our world again, the campsite we are at is the Ionion Beach. Its’s fabulous, our pitch is within 3 ft of the beach, there are only a few motorhomes here but we did meet some Brits this morning who were heading for San Marino and they gave us loads of tips for the best shops and most importantly the nearest Lidl 🙂 We have been to the village shops and caused some chaos with shopping due to our lack of language and my weighing all the fruit and vegetables wrongly. Hieroglyphics are already seeming like the the main focus of our world. We are slightly mollified by there being translations into German on many signs – my German is even worse than my French but it looks like we could be relying on it quite a bit on directions. In terms of shopping its even worse several times when we were out today one of us picked something up and said “has this got sugar in?” or “what type of bread is this?” – we don’t know, you cannot work it out unless you learn the whole new alphabet, so yes we are going to try. As always when in Rome…. pizza is out, chick peas and goat are in, as will be ouzo! On the way back from the village I made Iain stop for our first look at a Greek Orthodox Church, sadly locked up but we made do with peering in the windows, there is going to be visited quite a few churches and castles coming up in the very near future.

As of yet the sun isn’t shinning, it will be soon we have no doubt. Its been an eventful few days, a trip of 22 hours took 58 hours but it really isn’t something we can complain about, as our ferry journey ended at our intended destination. And now we are in Greece we intend to stay for several weeks and hopefully see a lot of the country before we move on in early Spring.”

Thanks to Iain and Sandra.
Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

More car charging points at Beaulieu

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in Places, Technical

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Beaulieu, Caravan Club, charging points, Christopher Macgowan, motorhome, motorhomenews, National Motor Museum

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I am beginning to see more and more car charging points – and a recent visit to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu showed additional points there as well – the project being supported by the New Forest National Park. They are located extremely close to the museum and in fact are in the dedicated motorhome car park.

Beaulieu continues to be a great place to visit with its specialist Caravan Club exhibit.

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

And the 2014 winner is…..

28 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in Places, Sites

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Christopher Macgowan, Germany, MOSEL, motorhome, motorhomenews, Zell

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I have been looking through this year’s photographs to decide on my favourite 2014 location not just for the scenery but for the whole experience of the journey, the people, the events and the intangible “wow factor”.

And the winner is Zell on the Mosel in Germany where I stayed at Campingpark Zell Mosel in Zell-Kaimt.

Breathtaking – and on this sub-zero December day it looks even more tempting now than it did at the time.

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

Happy Christmas to you all

25 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in General

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Christopher Macgowan, motorhome, motorhomenews

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Sadly no snow here so I have to rely on a photo from a few years back and pretend! I hope you have a lovely day wherever you are and whatever the weather.

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

Moreton-in-Marsh CC site

14 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in Sites

≈ 2 Comments

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Christopher Macgowan, http://motorhomenews.me, Moreton-in-Marsh, motorhome, motorhomenews, The Caravan Club

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Am staying this weekend at the Moreton-in-Marsh Caravan Club site. One of my favourites and just a five minute walk from the very attractive town centre – which was absolutely humming last night with numerous Christmas parties going on in the hotels and pubs.

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

My Christmas robin

13 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in This and That

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Christopher Macgowan, motorhome, motorhomenews.me

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My very tame robin was feeling distinctly cold and grumpy this morning – much like myself.

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

MMM Motorhome of the Year 2015

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in Motorhomes

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"Which Motorhome", Chausson, Christopher Macgowan, MMM, motorhome awards 2015, motorhomenews, motorhomenews.me, The Caravan Club

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In association withThe Caravan Club

And the winner is…
… the Chausson 610 Flash

In second place is…
… the Adria Matrix Supreme 687 SLT

And third place goes to…
… the Elddis Encore 255

Choosing our Motorhome of the Year is always a difficult task for the judges and the eight class winners left the NEC show – arriving at the Caravan Club’s Clumber Park site for final judging. Value is obviously important, but so is appeal as we, with our less predicable weather, have different requirements than our continental cousins with their nearly-always lovely summers. In the end it proved quite easy to come up with the winner as all the judges had, separately, been impressed with this particular motorhome at first sight – one at the press launch in France, the others at the biggest-in-Europe Dusseldorf show.

However after all the deliberation, our judges crowned the Chausson 610 Flash as the worthy winner of the Motorhome of the Year 2015. Coming in second was the Adria Matrix Supreme 687 SLT and picking up a creditable third was the Elddis Encore 255.

Our winner is Chausson’s Flash 610, A motorhome that takes a tried-and-tested concept and adds to it, producing a ‘van that’s comfortable, capable and versatile too.

The concept is a drop-down bed above the lounge, and here it’s applied in fine fashion, with a big, comfortable relaxing space that provides plenty of room for entertaining. Above, the electrically-operated bed can descend to two levels: the first allows the lounge below to be made into a second double bed, the second sees it arrive at sofa level, providing an easy-to-get-into double for the touring couple.

The kitchen is spacious, with big drawers and a fridge/freezer. The three-burner hob and sink – both with glass lids – take up quite a lot of the worktop, but you can always use that large lounge table.

Peter Vaughan, Which Motorhome Editor and MMM Group Road-Test Editor, said: “Taking the proven (and much-copied) layout of the original Flash 10 and adding a rear garage, the new 610 addresses the one downside of the earlier design – limited storage for bulky gear. Better still, the 610 remains relatively compact, while also being blessed with the superb on-road characteristics of the new Ford Transit.”

You can read the full road test of the Chausson 610 Flash in the January 2015 issue of Which Motorhome magazine.

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

6584 miles travelled per person last year

11 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in Travel

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AA, Glaister, King, macgowan, motorhomenews, RAC Foundation

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Press Association.

The distance people travel, including on foot, has still not reached pre-recession levels, Government figures have shown. On average each person in England travelled 6,584 miles in 2013 – slightly down on the 6,599 figure for 2012 and well short of the pre-recession total of 7,124 in 2007.

The bulk of the 2013 total figure comprised travel in cars or vans, either as a driver or as a passenger.

Average distances travelled by car or van as a driver last year totalled 3,235 miles, slightly down on the 3,305-mile figure for 2012.

The distance travelled as a passenger in a car or van rose from 1,833 miles in 2012 to 1,865 miles in 2013, while the number of miles walked rose from 182 in 2012 to 187 in 2013.

The average number of miles completed by pedal cycle fell from 55 in 2012 to 49 in 2013, but was still above the pre-recession figure of 43 miles achieved in 2007.

The distance travelled on London Underground (83 miles) and on the railways (567 miles) last year were both almost identical to those for 2012.

The figures came from the Department for Transport. They also showed:

:: In the period October-December 2013, a total of 68% of people travelled to work in Britain by car;

:: There were 228 million arrivals and departures at UK airports in 2013 – a 3.5% increase on the figure for 2012 but still 5% below the 2007 peak;

:: At 1.90 million, the number of passengers starting or ending cruises at UK ports was 15 times higher in 2013 than in 1983;

:: At the end of 2013 there were 35.2 million licensed vehicles in Britain – a 1.6% rise on 2012 and the largest annual increase since 2007.

RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “The total mileage we travel by train, plane, automobile or otherwise, has shown a slow but steady decline pretty much over the whole of the past decade.

“The question is why? Does the telecoms revolution mean we are doing more without leaving the house or is it a matter of changing patterns of life and levels of income? These are fundamental questions that need addressing as we plan for a population growth of 10 million over the next 20 years or so.”

AA president Edmund King said: “We know from our research that 79% of AA members enjoy driving, and the car is a much needed item for people, with 76% saying it is essential to their daily lives.

“Today’s statistics show that as the economy picks up people strive to lead mobile lives and that the popularity of personal transport is not as some would suggest on the wane. In essence ‘the car is still king’ and we are beginning to see an increase in younger people and women taking to the roads.”

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

Father Christmas was out in force in London today…..

06 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in Places

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Christopher Macgowan, Father Christmas, London, motorhome, motorhomenews

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Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

Erwin Hymer Group moves to the cloud

02 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by chrismacgowan in General

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Christopher Macgowan, cloud, hymer, motorhome, motorhomenews, SAP

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Motorhome maker Erwin Hymer Group is moving its SAP ERP platform to the company’s cloud-based in-memory compute platform , HANA. The company’s chief information officer Salim Siddiqi said the move will enable Erwin Hymer Group to be more responsive to changes in its supply chain operations across its global brands.

The Group, which owns the brands Bürstner, Carado, Dethleffs, Eriba, and LMC among others, is in the process of moving its ERP platform to a cloud-based implementation of SAP HANA in a bid to leverage in-memory computing’s speedy processing of large volumes of data.

“A complete material requirements planning run in the classic batch mode usually takes an entire day,” Siddiqi said. “Thanks to SAP HANA, we can now simulate this run ad hoc in real time, several times a day. So if the order situation changes suddenly, we can adjust our production lines and inventories immediately.”

The company originally moved from multiple ERP platforms onto SAP ERP in 2013 in order to harmonise its legacy IT landscape, including the consolidation of its database. But it said using the cloud-based version of SAP ERP allows it greater flexibility in its operations, the potential to deploy more software based on the same platform, and the opportunity to streamline business processes globally.

Source: http://www.businesscloudnews.com

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

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