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As I wake up on yet another morning in Germany, I can hardly believe that a week has already passed since I arrived. The past seven days have been a blur of bratwursts, beer tents, and Bavarian revelry, as I’ve immersed myself in the world-famous Oktoberfest festivities. But now that the dust has settled and the crowds have dispersed, I find myself with a sense of restlessness. What’s next?
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In the spirit of spontaneity and adventure, I embarked on an impromptu journey across Wales, England, and then across Europe. My destination? Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. The idea of driving a thousand miles might seem daunting to some, but for me, it was a challenge I was ready to embrace. I was driven by adrenaline, the thrill of the open road, and the anticipation of the experiences that awaited me.
I have a full series of my first European Road Trip To Oktoberfest where you can follow the full adventure of driving to Germany for the first time.
2022 was the first year of this festival, funded by the European investing fund and billed itself
Gwên Gwen is an independent music + art festival held in the historic market town of Kidwelly, on the beautiful Welsh coast.
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The Gwen Gwen Festival is an annual event that takes place in Kidwelly, a small town located in Carmarthenshire, Wales. The festival celebrates the local Welsh culture and heritage, with a focus on music, art, and food.
Gwen Gwen Festival 2023 Tickets
The festival will be back for 2023 from Fri, 11 Aug 2023 18:00 – Sun, 13 Aug 2023 23:00 BST. Tickets can be purchased via eventbrite.
This is it, the van is ready to go and I’ve been wanting to go to a Vanlife festival for a number of years. So when I saw the self build Campervan event in Stroud, at a brewery I figured is a perfect way to get help and advice with my own van, learn from other and it’s at a brewery. Surely a perfect win win scenario, little did I know how wrong I was going to be.
Costs
Nice and simple here with 2 price tiers
Showing off my nice van Stays will be equivalent to £10 a night at £20 weekend ticket (you will receive 2x beer tokens for showing your van)
or
Looking at nice vans – Weekend Camping Stays will be equivalent to £10 a night at £20
After booking a follow up email was received asking for the dimensions for my van so that pitches can be allocated which makes sense. However after emailing I never got a reply back to say thank you for your email nor when I followed up. Not a biggie but some automated reply would have been nice
Parking At Stroud Brewery
To be fair there was plenty of parking but that’s only if you arrived late. Let me explain. The keen types amongst us who got there in the afternoon pulled up, met by 2 members of staff, checked my reg no and said, let’s just put you over there. Straight away I though why did I bother send the details over to you.
The parking was nothing short of horrendous and borderline dangerous. To get into the car parking space relied one someone moving out so I could get in. One van who had parked as far back as he could to make space was entirely boxed in. Should there have been any problems, none of us was getting out of there in any quick fashion. This was made worse by an extra long wheel base being in the car park space that really should have been for the med wheel base type vans. We quickly referred to our parking spot at the goal.
The good news is that we had a portaloo.
Car Park Rating 0/10
Overall
I really don’t have much in terms of positive things to say about this “event” and left feeling more like we all were renting a car parking spot on a first come first served basis, rather than this being some event.
The parking in our area was dangerous and if there had been a need to get out quickly, that wasn’t going to happen
I’m a patient person but when you’re waiting 20 minutes for a pint thats a joke, apparently the upstairs bar was open, but with no signage or helpful staff to say how were we supposed to know.
The staff in general I found rude, the cup of tea incident still sticks in my craw again again I am a patient person, it’s not like I’d been drunk or rowdy but serving me a £7.50 bacon roll (which was nice btw) seemed to be beneath this one member of staff.
I had several heated debates to cut Stroud brewery some slack because it was their first event like this. However they have events at least 3 times a week, so no slack is to be given. This was more evident during the presentations where they had a mixing desk, plugged in and yet the brave souls were having to shout so the people at the end of the room could hear.
Taking away some very small positives. I met 2 great people @bearfootandguy and @heather_n_bella who we’ve agreed to meet up and do Stratford Upon Avon
The world right now seems to be going a bit more back to normal travel restrictions are being relaxed and countries are opening up their borders. Now you might be thinking let’s ago away on a break, let’s go away on a holiday and you might be thinking when you are looking for hotels in the uk, let’s look at hotels. This might lead you to thinking of staying at the Travel Lodge brand, and in particular the one in Merthyr Tydfil.
Read moreIt’s the last day of my job working for the NHS during that pandemic thing. 9 months of living almost full time in the back of my van during that interesting time. It really was the end of an era.
For the last 9 months during lock down I’ve lived in my van and had the privilege of working for the NHS. The pandemic ended, I’m out of a job and today is my last day working away in Cardiff #cardiff #nhs #vanlife