MyMap fest...

Google 'MyMap' function has become a bit of an addiction recently, and over the past week I've produced three maps for use on our forthcoming trip, they may be of help to others.

1. Motorhome storage in Southern Europe

I have updated the map I posted a couple of weeks ago with some additional places that are willing to provide secure storage for motorhomes in Southern Europe. It is important to agree arrangements with your insurers who have varying policies towards leaving vehicles in storage abroad. Some won't do it, others have no problem. Our insurers - Aviva brokered through Motorhome Facts - require a questionnaire to be completed, then make a decision - always for an additional fee! Last year they charged £35, this year £60 - the price hike presumably because the place we have in mind is run by a campsite, not a dedicated vehicle storage depot.

2. Lidl stores on the Peloponnese and LPG stations (from LPG Stations in Europe site)
stores in red, LPG in blue.



3. Jean's Wild Camping Spots in Greece

Jean Williams, a participant on the Facebook site 'Motorhome Adventures', posted a really useful list of places where she wild camped last year in Greece. It gives some really good locations next to important archaeological sites in the Peloponnese, as well as some good stops in Northern Greece for people driving through the Balkans or arriving by ferry at Igoumenitsa.

4. Peejays Greek Stopovers. We are all indebted to Peejays comprehensive 'gazetteer' of free places to live the Hellenic dream.



5. Lidl Stores, IperCoop and LPG Stations in Sicily

With this one I have attained near epic levels of geekiness. It soon became obvious as I cross-referenced Google Maps with the European LPG Site that a good number of the POI's relating to LPG in Sicily were either no longer there, wrongly placed, or had been put there by garages aspiring to sell LPG as part of some vague future plan. So, I started to use streetview to see if the garages that claimed to sell LPG  had either signs outside advertising the fact or pumps in evidence. There are a lot of POI's in Sicily. Normal people would have given up, but I firstly I am stubborn as hell, and secondly, not exactly OCD, but certainly more than averagely interested in mindless detail. So, here you have it. The LPG stations on the map below do advertise that they sell it, at least they did when the Streetview car last chugged past. For most of the island this happened to be in the last three months, but just to indicate  the recency of the information, I have annotated most of the POI's with the date of the latest Streetview 'sweep'.

As well as LPG, I've included the locations of Lidl Stores (red pins), and if the need to do a megashop strikes you, then I've included where IperCoop hypermarkets are too (orange pins).

Really, the tunnel crossing on the 29th cannot come soon enough, I am running out mindless routine tasks, I need to leave the country very soon before OCD tendencies take a hold completely.