Welcome to the December edition of the newsletter. This month we have our "round up of the year" after our busiest season ever!
We are also previewing the NEC Motorhome Show in February with 10 pairs of tickets to give away and details of a discount for Crossings customers.
As usual, we have another great cut-out-and-keep recipe and this month's motorhoming tips are all about eSims.
NEC Motorhome Show 18th to 23rd February 2025
It doesn't seem a minute since the last motorhome show, but the Feb Show will be on us before you know it. We will be presenting again at the Perspiration Theatre (it's called the Inspiration Theatre really) and this time our presentation will be all about the Alps. You can expect plenty of dad jokes as usual in addition to some genuinely useful information about touring in the area. Hopefully, it will be a "peak" performance.
In exchange for presenting we get 10 pairs of free tickets to give away. Regulars will know that we give these away on a completely random basis via the "orange woolly hat draw". If you would like to put your name in the hat, please send us an email - it's that simple. Entries close on the 31st December this year with the winners announced in the January edition of the newsletter (and on Facebook). The tickets are valid for any day of the show.
If you are not lucky enough to win a pair of tickets, you could always buy some. If you want a bit of a discount, click on the link below where you will get a (life-changing) £4.50 off the on-the-door price and a less impressive English Pound off the the usual web price. With the money you save, you could make a part-payment on a cup of coffee:
We have not been informed of the celebrity guests yet but rest assured, as soon as I know, you will too. While you are at the show, you could also come along and see us. We will be on Stand 4110 in Hall 4. Remember that Tuesday is cup-cake day when all of our customers can come along and claim one (and leave a crumby mess on our stand).
Full details of the show can be found here: https://ccmshow.co.uk/
2025 Tour Update - Early Bird ends soon
Time for the sales pitch! We are pretty much full for 2025 now although we do still have a couple of spaces left on the following two tours.
Lake Garda & Venice: https://www.crossingsmotorhometours.com/lake-garda-venice-2025
The Loire & Burgundy: https://www.crossingsmotorhometours.com/loire-burgundy-2025
Our Early Bird Discount gets you £100 off the list price of any of our tours. If you want to book for next year, please do so before the year is out as it runs out on 31st December 2024. Remember that if you have travelled with us before, you are also entitled to a further £50 loyalty bonus. It's not much but you can have a meal out on us while you are enjoying your tour!
The Annual Review
2024 has been our biggest year ever with 10 full tours completed. Thanks to everyone who came with us this year and to those of you who have re-booked or booked with us for their first trip in 2025.
I would like to start the annual review with a big thank you to all of our tour leaders, who are the beating heart of our business. When we started this up in 2013, Wendy and I did all of the tours ourselves. Brexit and exhaustion made this model unsustainable, so now we have a great team of leaders, all of whom have been customers (and then come over the the dark side). Take a look at the reviews page of our website and you can see what a great job they have done for us this year.
We always ask our tour leaders for their highlights and there is a common theme. Our tour leaders always seem to enjoy the people they take on tour as much as the places they take them to!
Here are our top ten (11 actually) highlights of 2024 roughly in the order that they happened:
The Keukenhof Gardens - this is a spectacle that you need to see once in your life. Located half way between the Hague and Amsterdam, the they rightly claim to be the most beautiful spring gardens in the world. Typically, you can expect to see 8 million flowers all in full bloom at the same time with the peak viewing being in April.
Trakai Castle - not far from Vilnius in Lithuania is the town of Trakai, famous for its island castle. The castle was originally constructed in the 14th century and almost completely rebuilt in the 1950s and 60s. A particular highlight of the trip was the boat ride from our campsite across the lake to the castle. When I say boat, it was more of an upturned skip. Suffice to say that the group were greatful for Gary's experiences as a mariner!
Budapest Evening River Cruise - this was on our Budapest, Prague and Vienna Tour. This two-hour cruise starts just as the sun is setting allowing you to then see all of Budapest's most famous monuments all lit up at night. This is on the famous Danube River, with the highlight being the illuminated parliament buildings.
Rome Night Walk - many of our guests were able to enjoy this unusual treat on our Tuscany & Rome Tour in June. This was a night-time guided walk with all of the famous bits (the Colloseum, the Trevi Fountains and the Parthenon) all lit up. It makes you want to watch Gladiator all over again.
Geneva Bus Trip - on our French & Swiss Alps Tour we organised a trip to Geneva with a few extra bits thrown in. Geneva is famous for its lake and the Jet D'eau, a 140 metre high fountain of water that sprouts from the centre of the lake. It also has a lovely old town. The bus trip also stops off at the Palais de Nations, home of the UN. As an extra treat, Phillipe the bus driver took the group on a hair-raising drive up the Saleve Mountain (as used in the Tour de France) for spectacular views of Mont Blanc and the Alps.
La Rochelle - by far the best location on the French Atlantic Coast, La Rochelle still boasts its impressive ancient port and fortifications. It also has a fairly unique old town with most of the shops housed in arcaded walkways with town houses dating back to the 13th century.
Lourmarin - this is a fairly undiscovered gem in the heart of Provence. Although it is only a small town, it is one of the most beautiful in France. In fact it is officially listed as in the top 100. Expect cobbled streets, loads of nice restaurants, lots of art galleries and boutique shops. It also has a great local market.
A Day Trip to Venice - one of the many attractions on our Lake Garda & Venice Tour, is Venice itself. Easily accessible from the campsite, most of our group took the chance to head into the wettest city in the world. Highlights include the Grand Canal, Bridge of Sighs and St Mark's Square (though you might want to avoid having a coffee there). If you were wondering, a 30-minute gondola ride costs 90 euros (for five people) but they charge extra if you want them to sing "just one cornetto".
The Mont Cenis Pass - is one of the lesser known passes over the top of the Alps between France and Italy. You can expect spectacular views and a massive turquoise lake as you climb around 6000ft above sea level. This is a well paved wide road with lots of twists and turns - but perfect for motorhomes along with the odd crazy cyclist!
Brione and Monte Baldo - Start the perfect tourist day with a quick trip up the glass elevator in Brione on the northern shores of Lake Garda in Italy. After that catch the paddle steamer across the lake stopping at the stunning village of Limone (famous for lemon trees) before alighting at the equally beautiful lakeside town of Malcesine. From here its a short walk through the cobbled streets to the Monte Baldo cable car that whistles you up 1750m to the top of the mountain from where you get the best panaromic views of Lake Garda.
The Plitvice National Park - this is the oldest and largest national park in Croatia. You can easily spend a day in the park either walking the boardwalks, or taking the land trains and boats to view the spectacular waterfalls, lakes teeming with fish and amazing flora and fauna. This is one place where a bit of rain actually improves you experience as the waterfalls are more dramatic.
There are so many more highlights to the year. For example, I haven't even mentioned being interviewed by Simone Calder! Anyhoo, thanks again to everyone who shared their holidays with us this year and we look forward to seeing you in 2025!
Coq au Van (the amusingly titled recipe feature)
Spicy meatball pan lasagne
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
10 - 20 ready-made pork meatballs
1 tsp fennel seeds
crushed
½ tsp chilli flakes
100g frozen sofrito mixture
400g finely chopped tomatoes
1 chicken stock cube
8 fresh lasagne sheets each cut into four triangles
1 ball mozzarella torn into pieces
fresh basil pesto to serve
Method
Step 1
Heat the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan. Fry the meatballs until browned all over, seasoning while you cook. Scoop the meatballs out of the pan and fry the crushed fennel seeds with the chilli flakes for 1 min.
Step 2
Add the frozen sofrito mixture and cook for 10 mins until softened. Add the tin of finely chopped tomatoes, 400ml of water and the stock cube. Simmer for 10 mins, then add the meatballs back in.
Step 3
Cook until the sauce has thickened, then add the pieces of fresh lasagne sheets. Simmer until the lasagne is tender, adding a splash of water if it thickens too much (it should be juicy). Top with the torn mozzarella and a good drizzle of fresh basil pesto.
Motorhoming Tips
Excuse us if we are behind the curve a bit, but this month we came across something called an eSim. A "sim" is the little card that you put in your mobile phone that controls your access to data, calls and texts. One option when you go abroad is to pay roaming charges or buy a bundle that entitles you to use the phone while overseas.
An alternative that could work out cheaper is to use an eSim, whereby you don't actually swap the card in your phone, you just do it virtually (you have do do everything virtually these days). With an eSim you can keep your own phone number.
Regular readers will know I am no expert in anything that happened after 1999, so here is a link that explains it better: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/what-is-an-esim/
Keep in touch
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Please feel free to contact us at any time. When we are away, calls will bounce to our mobiles at no expense to yourself.
