Blue & White Van Man - In The Beginning

Stan Potter
DriveWrite
December 27, 2013

Stan Potter shows it doesn’t matter how you travel as long as you travel:

I travelled widely in Europe before I purchased my Blue & White van. My first trip was in 1965 when a group of lads toured around several countries in a Thames mini bus. There were seven of us but we were not magnificent. Between us we could speak about ten words in total of any language other than English.

We crossed from Dover to Calais on Townsend Thoreson 1, a fairly aged un-stabilised ferry which in the fairly rough Channel rose up and then slid sideways off the top of each wave. So it was a very subdued bunch that set off through France towards Belgium. Our first stop was in Brussels. The Grand Place was quite spectacular and we found a bar run by a guy who grew up in Grays, a town in England near where we all came from. This was the first of many bars we investigated on our trip.

Unfortunately the resulting thesis was lost somewhere between bars number 25 and 30. So this important tome has been lost forever. Eventually we arrived in Vienna. The camp site we found was in the middle of an industrial estate but it did have a convenient bar which obviously had to be investigated. There was no problem asking for “Sieben Bieres” But one of our number wanted a Rum and Blackcurrant. This took a lot of consulting of dictionaries but we were eventually successful. The next day we looked around the beautiful city and ended up in the Prater amusement park and had a ride on the big wheel made famous by the film “The Third Man”.

From here we went to Venice and found a campsite on the mainland. The main problem here was the mosquitoes; they seemed to be the size of sparrows and came regularly to drink from the saucers of insect repellent we provided for them. We parked the van in the Piazza Roma which is the car park for the city. Then we walked around the narrow alleyways to the Piazza San Marco where everything was horrendously expensive. Continuing on our mission we checked out Harrys Bar, probably the most famous bar in Italy. There are Harrys Bars in many other cities around the world.

Leaving Venice pretty much how we found it we went to the then Communist state of Yugoslavia before it divided into the present states. It was a fascinating country. The service in shops and bars was poor until you left a tip. On your next visit they could not do enough for you. We went into one shop to buy some vodka, the assistant (who spoke some English) said “try this instead” it was locally made and was half the price. We found out later it was called Polish Spirit and was 96% ethyl alcohol by volume. It is so alcoholic that once the bottle is opened it becomes weaker by absorbing water from the atmosphere. We tried to drink it as the locals do by having a thimble sized measure washed down with a tumbler full of white wine. We failed, and ended up using it as cigarette lighter fluid.

We went to a cave complex, supposed to be the largest in Europe. You catch a small train to a vast cavern that has signposts labelled Francais, Deutsche, Italien and most other European languages. We stood by the English sign and were joined by a family. I said it was nice to meet some other Brits. To which the man replied, “We are not English, we are Danish. It is easier to understand English with a Serbo Croat accent than Danish with a Serbo Croat accent”.

We were staying at a campsite at a town called Opitja. It reminded me of Bournemouth, the architecture was very similar and it had the same genteel feeling. After Yugoslavia we headed back towards England through Switzerland. We experienced the most terrifying event. When descending a mountain pass the brakes on the van overheated and virtually disappeared. The van had a three speed gear box with synchromesh on the top two gears so to slow the vehicle down I had to double declutch into first gear,(not recommended to the inexperienced or faint hearted) Fortunately it worked and we eventually arrived at Calais. The White Cliffs were a welcome sight and we arrived home safe and sound.