First half of the journey home

We were a bit sceptical about our route choice from Italy to Germany, as it included passing the Alps. However, it turned out that the Brenner pass was a piece of cake to our caravan. As the name of the road indicates, it's mainly built to bottom of pass and despite of the fact that the highest point is in 1372 meters, the journey moved along smoothly. Almost the only indication of the rising road profile was the snow which we hadn't seen that close since December. The only minus was the weather; it very foggy and cloudy. We could only see the huge walls of the closest mountains and enjoy the nice Alps style houses in nearest villages. Still it's obvious that with clear weather and during the summertime the views would be breathtaking. 

While driving through five countries we had good time to compare roads and fare collection systems. We came to the conclusion, that these two things don't correlate. In southern Europe (Spain, Italy and France) they use pay tolls, of which France is the most expensive one as Italy is the cheapest. The quality of the roads is pretty much the same; maybe a bit lower in Italy. In Austria you need to by a vignette, 7,90€ for 10 days, which is basically nothing compared to the pay tolls. Despite of that the roads were smoothest ever. Northward from Germany the motorways are free. The surface quality is not that good everywhere, but in Germany the lanes are extremely wide and even the Assistant had no problems in fitting our caravan on those. For as long as our narrow experience covers Belgium and Netherland, the quality is quite the same as in Germany, apart from the lane width. Also Belgians truly are pioneers in cycling; there are cycle paths everywhere.

As it was quite early when we arrived yesterday, we desided to take a look at Lommel track before heading to camping site. The first Finnish driver met us at the gate, and as we got in, we found more old friends. The same theme continued in a grocery store as well as at the camping place. The motocross world seems to be very small in Europe during wintertime!