Me and my Van: Euro road trip June 2026. Pt1 (Travel, Luxembourg and Germany).

A 3 week trip in my van to include Luxembourg, visit to friends in Germany and then a change of plan, was initially going to go to Italian Lakes but looking at Chamonix now.

Day 1 - travel

08 June:

Van packed day before with just the bike to be added. Left home in Scotland at 10:45am so I could take a very easy drive down for the drive to Dover. Ferry wasnt until 3am on the 8th but wanted zero stress.

Stopped off at Tebay, wow it was busy, although I got to laugh at all the e car drivers queuing for the chargers (i am sure they all laugh when going by fuel stations with the huge costs for diesel etc). A chicken pie then coffee, yum.

After Tebay continued down south, missing out the highly priced M6 toll road (£17 for my van). A few sets of roadworks but all very relaxed as I knew I had ample time. Another couple of boring but necessary stops and then I got to Dover Ferry Terminal. Was mega early but just thought id sleep, nope, they kindly put me on an earlier ferry. 11:35pm and boarded, was a bit cheeky and stayed in the van, jumped in the back and had a snooze during the journey over the channel.

Day 2: Drive and relax

Monday 9th

Calais to Condorf in Luxembourg, 450 km and a wee trip through Belgium. I stopped off at an Aire in France on the way and slept for about 4 hours, was pretty exhausted. The AIres system in France is so much better than the terrible setup we have in the UK. Sleep over I continued into Belgium and then the lovely scenic drive in Luxembourg. Stopped off at Bastogne, anyone thats watched Band of Brothers will know the relevance of this place (even although it wasnt actually filmed in the actual site). I didnt go to the war museum as I had visited it last time I was here.

Onto the site. Ive been to this site before, very well looked after and good pitches. Got the van setup and then had hoped to relax….

Someone who used to be close to me has been causing a huge amount of grief recently. Id hoped it was finished with but nope, more hassle to deal with. So sleep didnt really happen while I dealt with that.

Day 3: a change of plans

Tuesday 10th

Today I had planned to do a walk on the pretty amazing Mullerthal trails but ended up spending most of the morning sorting out the most recent “rubbish” thrown my way. Dealt with that and decided no more of that on my holiday. Mid afternoon I went out on my bike and did a local loop, roughly 10 miles and such a nice loop, virtually no traffic with a lot of the riding on forest paths. Slowed down to see a bird of prey, which I think was Red Kite, was pretty amazing.

After the ride, back to the campsite, a bit of a stretch, shower and rest up for remainder of day. A bad start but overall a great day and fell asleep very relaxed.

Day 4: Time for a walk

Wednesday 11th June

Today was Mullerthal Walk time, my main reason for coming to this are of Luxembourg. The scenery, rock structures and flora and streams are exceptional. I ended up walking just over 8 miles, all of them amazing with so much to see and enjoy.

A narrow section to walk through, lots of sections like this

Lord of the rings eat your heart out

Hiding place for FRodo etc

This waterfall is quite famous and a big tourist attraction, pretty but I was quite unimpressed.

These rocks were amazing, so much going on

So impressive

I did a few extra sections, including an amazing walk through almost canyon type close together rock faces, amazing .

Walked back to campsite, had a stretch and then really enjoyed my shower. Sleepy and an early night.

Day 5: travel and friends

Today was a 5 hour drive into Germany and over to Rickenbach to see Rick and Andrea. The drive was very straight forward, only one toll to go through a tunnel and overall quiet roads.

A stop off at a very nice Aire quite close to Strasbourg

Was great to get to destination and had a lovely catch up with R&A. We went out for an excellent meal then back and watched the WC footie, a decent game with some nice goals and even more red cards.

Day 6: Museum and site seeing

A very relaxed start of day with a tasty Bavarian breakfast then it was off to Switzerland to visit a war museum. I do love museums but especially enjoy war themed museums and exhibits.

This place was incredible with a mix of aircraft, Tanks (Panzer I finally found out is just German for tank), ground weapons and various vehicles and tools used in various wars.

As we were leaving we saw what looked like a little stick on the door, turns out it is Buff tip moth

Rick saying hi to a tank. The museum took ownership of this in bits, they then built it back up to the original build.

Back in the day you wouldn’t have wanted to be on this end

Pew pew

Kaboom

How many of these have we seen in war movies over the years

Must have been quite a small skinny bloke to have fitted into this. A similar setup to the unmanned V-Bombers in the background

An Enigma machine - amazing

Lots of original equipment inc from both World wars, a very recognisable logo…

After the brilliant visit we headed over to the Swiss/German border and had an ice cream on the connecting border bridge over the Rhine . Lovely place (and even better ice cream) with huge history. Bunkers all along the Rhine showed some of this history, walked down and into one of them. We had a little walk in Switzerland before heading back over to the van in Germany.

In Switzerland

The other side, from Germany facing into Switzerland

After this we drove back home, food, watched the MTB Short racing and chilled.

I also made the decision on next part of Journey. Going to head over to Livigno and stay there for a week or so. After that a couple of days in ST Moritz before ambling my way back up to Calais taking 3 or 4 days over that, so that will take me through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland and Italy to that point in my trip.

Day 7: Wheeee

Today was fun, we went up the HasenHorn Coaster in Todtnau. A toboggan ride down the mountain, what’s not to like. Paid for the ride and chair lift up the mountain, which in itself was fun. Up and joined the queue - yuk. Roughy 30 minutes later and we boarded our individual carts.

The ride itself was brilliant, so very fast, it had a brake but pfft to that (I did brake once, on a mega tight corner), did I mention it was fast…. Then I started catching up on Rick, yay thought me going faster than him, then realisation, someone up front was going VERY slow, bit of a shame as impacted everyone behind her. I just stopped every now and again, waited for a space to be created then had a zooming session (while making sure not to mess anyone around that was behind).

After that we went to a lovely cafe, had a drink and some very yum ice cream.

On the Monday Rick was working and Andrea busy so I headed out on my bike, a wee bit of Black Forest touring. The weather was TOASTY ☀️ , anyone thats knows me will know I dont operate well in anything over 18 degrees…🥵. Still, off I went on a kind of tourist cycling route with a few diversions I thought looked better. It was brilliant, so scenic and beautiful.

Jebus blessing my bike