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If your dream has always been to travel Europe in a motorhome for an extended period, whether as a sabbatical from work,
by taking early retirement, or you are now retired and able to spend up to 6 months abroad, then Motorhome Adventures – Touring France, Spain and Portugal is the blueprint for that dream.

If you are still at the dreaming stage, at the tentative planning stage, or, determined that this will be the year to set off on that first seriously long adventure, be it a month, three months or six months, then there’s no good reason to hold you back, well, apart from finance, health and the complications we all have in our lives, and this book touches on those hindering topics as well.

Forget the outdated concept of retirement and the boredom of everyday life that being at home may bring, pottering in the garden, watching daytime TV, with the odd holiday thrown in to break the tedium. There’s no need to endure that existence, and every reason not to, especially in these unpredictable economic times, or, if you have a doubt about your long term health.

You may fall into one of the following categories…
You already own a motorhome equipped for extended touring.
You have just bought your first motorhome and are getting it prepared to go.
You may someone still grappling with the myriad different configurations of a motorhome (RV for American readers) before making that purchase,
Or finally, you may be one of the new breed of mainly young self-builders about to take a gap year or earn a living on the road, equipping a van on a budget.

Whatever category you may fit into, the objective for all of us is to head off to new exciting locations to investigate the diverse and incredible history of our unique continent, sample the local cuisine, meeting and making new friends along the way. Day to day life in a motorhome has a rhythm, not a routine, no two days are the same, the place and the people, both local and fellow travellers, make each day interesting and different. The inconveniences, challenges, and difficulties of travelling are far outweighed by the joy of discovery and the sense of freedom.

Follow the journey of two sixty-three year old Scots as they take early retirement and head off in their motorhome, Louis the McLouis, on a six month road trip following the sun through France, Spain and Portugal over the long winter months in search of better weather, good food, and new experiences.

Written in a diary / blog format, this book details their route and experiences on a daily basis on their journey from Argyll, on Scotland’s west coast, to their ultimate destination, Portugal’s Algarve. Once on the continent, the route they take hugs the coast of Normandy, Brittany, the Vendee, over the Pyrenees then to Tarragona on the Spanish Mediterranean coast south, all the way to Gibraltar, before heading into the Algarve in Portugal. Miles driven, places visited, major expenditure, people met, and never to be forgotten experiences, are all presented in a wry, witty, fresh style.

If you are planning a long term trip into Europe for weeks or months, maybe even years, the experience of ‘The Driver’ and his long suffering co-pilot in life, ‘The Navigator,’ will entertain, inform, and hopefully give you the confidence to follow in their footsteps.

This book also contains the following BONUS content…
Map coordinates of every single overnight location, including wild-camping, aires and campsites.

– Links to over 70 YouTube videos showcasing the main towns and cities visited en route.
– Map coordinates of over 70 overnight wildcamping spots, Aires and campsites.
– Tips and tricks known before setting off, and many picked up along the way.

With 650 carefully composed, pub quiz style questions with three possible answers to each question, the content of this quiz book should appeal to quizzers of all abilities. The average pub quiz has between thirty and a hundred questions so there are many nights worth of entertainment in this book.

With Brexit on the tip of everyone’s tongue for the last few years, I thought it would be worthwhile to test your knowledge on our fellow European countries. Remember, in Britain we are not leaving Europe, we are leaving the European Union trading block so we can still travel around and enjoy the scenery, food, culture and climate anytime we choose.

Q – What’s inside this Ultimate Countries Quiz Book?
A – There are ten questions on each of the smaller countries and twenty on each of the larger countries as follows,

SMALLER COUNTRIES
Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia and Her, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine.

LARGER COUNTRIES
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,

The only exception to the above is with the United Kingdom where there are twenty questions on England and ten each on Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

There are a broad range of questions including, geography, history, trivia, sport and music, so, If you’re organising a pub quiz, a social gathering of friends or family, or you just want to brush up on your own general knowledge on our European neighbours, then this book is a handy addition to your quiz book collection.

Happy quizzing!
Angus Campbell

QUIZMASTER RULES
It is up to each individual quizmaster how they want to ask the questions contained in this book.
The question can be asked without reading out the three suggested answers.
The question can be asked along with the three suggested answers.
My suggestion to make it more interesting, would be to use a combination of both methods.

The Quizmaster should insist before the quiz starts that no one shouts out or writes down the answer until all three options have been read out.

The countries are listed alphabetically so the quizmaster can either follow the order as printed, or skim through the countries and questions randomly.

However you choose to take part in the quiz – have fun!

This is the fascinating story of an intriguing man, born in interesting times.
Duncan Paterson was born in Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland around 1798 to an Irish mother and a Scottish father of some pedigree. Born a Paterson, he would, in 1853, successfully apply to the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh to change his name to Duncan MacIver Campbell upon his inheritance of the substantial Asknish estate at Lochgair, Argyll. Duncan had an eventful personal life, marrying twice without issue, but between those marriages he would conduct a relationship of some years standing with one of his domestic servants, resulting in the birth of three illegitimate children, two daughters and a son, his only descendants.
The first marriage, lasting less than a year, was not for love, but for Duncan’s financial benefit, and almost inevitably, ended in a long running and acrimonious divorce case, debated not only in the Scottish Courts, but considered on appeal, at length, in the House of Lords. His second wife was related to both him, and his first wife, however, against all the odds, this marriage was successful and would last twenty years until his death in 1881.
He had a number of acrimonious disputes which would cause him anxiety and bouts of depression throughout a substantial part of his life. Disputes with his with his father leading to his exile from Kilrush, with his first wife, with her father and family, with a rival claimant to his accession to the chieftainship of the MacIver Campbell family, with the Admiralty over a disputed patent, and, with a number of local fishermen leading to a physical assault on him.
This is the first ever biography of Duncan MacIver Campbell head of the MacIver Campbell family of Asknish and the Laird of the Asknish Estate at Lochgair in Argyll between 1853 and 1881. Drawing on extensive archival research in Scotland and Ireland, Angus Campbell charts for the first time, MacIver Campbell’s incredibly eventful life along with a detailed insight into his Paterson and MacIver Campbell pedigree.

Do you have a bucket list?

A bucket list gives you a purpose in life, something you know you want to do, or, it can be a place you want to visit. It gives you goals to reach for, an achievement to get out of your life as life is all about making memories and your bucket list certainly will give you plenty of them. They will be memories you will hold onto forever, and give you great stories to tell other people. A day spectating at the Tour de France really should be on your bucket list and if it isn’t, by the end of this book, hopefully it will be!

To see the Tour de France in person is on the bucket list of many people, and, if that’s your ambition, but you’re not sure how to go about it then this is the book for you! Not only does the book outline the adventure we had on the five back to back stages we saw, it also explains in detail how to plan your trip before setting off to ensure that you not only see the Tour live, but that you’ll have an easier time planning your trip with your motorhome or campervan.

The Tour de France is the pinnacle of professional cycling. It’s the third most watched sporting event in the world behind the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games. Every summer, cycling fans worldwide are glued to the TV, discussing who’s in contention for each stage or the overall race, and who they think will attack in the mountains and who will have earned the yellow jersey in Paris on the final day.

The summer of 2018 spoilt sports fans with the World Cup in Russia kicking off the sporting calendar of events but with Wimbledon, Test Match Cricket, the Open Golf and other events vying for our attention, it was a great year for those of us who like watching live sport, or on TV.

That said, the sporting event I, and my long suffering wife, The Navigator, were most looking forward to was the 2018 Tour de France and we set off to France to see the action in five stages over a distance of four hundred and fifteen miles. The route varies every year and this year it passed through Brittany and Normandy for a week, making it accessible for a quick hop over the channel.

Although we are seeing the Tour in its infancy from stage five to stage nine out of twenty one, as a day’s entertainment and a sporting occasion, it was amazing to see the world’s finest cyclists giving their all.

Apart from the fairly hectic schedule of seeing the five back to back stages in five days we were in the fortunate position to be able to top and tail the Tour with a holiday on either side, after all, we are travelling just over a thousand miles from Argyll on the west coast of Scotland to near Saint Goazec in western Brittany to see our first stage.

As well as a detailed description of our journey from home to home there are other informative chapters including..

– Random Tour de France facts.
– 40 of the best cycling quotations.
– What’s so special about the Tour de France?
– By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail
– How did we choose our locations?
– A typical day at the Tour de France.
– The caravan
– Top tips for seeing the Tour de France with a motorhome or campervan.

The book is illustrated with 44 colour photographs and links to the video we took on each of the five stages and is a perfect introduction to the spectating experience and the planning and preparation you will need to make in order to enjoy a stress free time at any future Tour de France.

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This small income helps us maintain Bessie and allows us to travel and create interesting blogs.

Thank you,

Angus & The Navigator