Archive for January, 2010

Ibis hotels in Mulhouse

Friday, January 8th, 2010

mulhouse

On the way back to Italy we stopped in Mulhouse for the night. Alfredo, one of my English students, had said it had a beautiful centre. Driving into the centre we were looking out for hotel signs. We saw one for an Ibis Hotel and checking our Tom Tom we saw that the Ibis was listed and was only 650 metres away.

We arrived in front of the hotel, there was a parking space and we went in and got a room. They also had a garage which was “easy to find” – from the front of the hotel go first right, then right again and right again. We followed instructions and ended up back in front of  the hotel. We failed the second time but on the third time round we saw the entrance to the Ibis car park.  Ironic that the most difficult part of the day’s travelling was at the end.

Our room was small, comfortable, clean. The shower was hot. The hotel staff recommended a good restaurant as their hotel was closed and the breakfast in the morning was fresh and abundant. Cost 55 euros for the room, 15 for breakfast and 6 for parking. Worth the price for being near the centre of a town which on a wet January night seemed very pretty and worth going back to.

Tom Tom saves us money.

Friday, January 8th, 2010

map home

A week after struggling through snow and Eurotunnel delays it was time to drive back to Italy. Having found France rather expensive in terms of motorway tolls we decided to ask the Tom Tom to work out a route through France without tolls. The route we then followed went through France into Belgium, into Luxembourg and back into France. The majority of the roads were motorways or dual carriageway and the total time taken was about 7 1/2 hours – 1 hour longer than the faster i.e. more costly route. An added advantage is that petrol is much cheaper in Luxembourg and so we saved money when filling up. 

We left Calais about 10.00 and arrived in Mulhouse (on the Swiss border) about 6.30. The only unexpected cost was a tunnel near Mulhouse which cost 7.00 euros. The only problem was the horrible weather in France as it rained all day but it did stop while we wandered round the centre of Mulhouse looking for a restaurant.