Freds at Coslada in the early 90s before it became built up area, another place to stop on way back to France Sunbilla especially the bag house ■■? Used to see some lad`s from John Manns on way back from North Africa.
frenchflyer:
Freds at Coslada in the early 90s before it became built up area, another place to stop on way back to France Sunbilla especially the bag house ■■? Used to see some lad`s from John Manns on way back from North Africa.
freds was a regular for me too.
many a good night there, when tipping in and around madrid. 
The original and first Freds was in a block of flats right in the middle of the residential area of Coslada, the truck parking was a dust bowl, but like the others have said everyone met up there and a had a good laugh and craic with all the nations there.
He then moved to a newer place with armed thugs for security, they looked liked Gorillas, at some point of time Fred had a place on the national one heading down to Madrid, it was high up on a hill, i never went there.
Fred is multi-lingual, and is still going strong at a new place under a block of flats again, last time i saw him, he seemed not to have aged much, he would tell many drivers to get the bus/tram or train and visit the city if you got weekended in Madrid, i used to cycle there, but was in fear of my life and tried to stick to the smaller roads to get there.
Lloret del Mar was a good place, i would park for free in the coach parks behind the big hotels, the beach was fanastic.
Sunbilla or Kontixa, now shut for food, but did great roast trout with ham, lentil soup, bacon and eggs, and bagguetes,good shower, free with fuel, locals would get drunk there a lot.
Drop the trailer in the customs park in Alverca Lisbon and solo to have a weekend on the beaches at Estoril or Cascais, see films in English at the mall,free shower at the camp site on Praia de Guincho.
Aosta, up the mountain on the cable car, for Italy.Hendaye on the French border when clearing at Irun, a good stop.
Too many to count, but some of the best were in Sitges, just south of Barcelona.and Granada,Rota among others.
chilistrucker:
frenchflyer:
Freds at Coslada in the early 90s before it became built up area, another place to stop on way back to France Sunbilla especially the bag house ■■? Used to see some lad`s from John Manns on way back from North Africa.freds was a regular for me too.
many a good night there, when tipping in and around madrid.
Both Freds & Sunbila (southbound side) were regulars for me, but had many a weekend at Tilly’s Piug parked up on the wasteland by the dual carriageway, also had plenty of good nights parked in small towns like Pobla de Valbona, Guadassuar, Benifaio & Silla when they were having their Fiesta’s.
Spanish small town Fiesta’s are a tremendous experience local delicacies like Churros & local sausage that you wouldn’t know to order in a restaurant!!!
Does anyone who’s ‘done’ spain remember coming across a drink called ‘Calle Mocho’?
Ross.
Same as you lads, I’ve had some cracking nights and weekends at Freds, Victors, Salou, Lloret, tillys in Piug and Clauds spring to mind. Also The Bakehouse, Jayat, and the Picadilly at Santhia but one of the most memorable was at the TIR park in Concorezzo (Milan) with a Belgian driver. Laura’s bar for drinks then the frenchmans for nosh and back to Laura’s to get hammered. I remember going to the spread axle bogs next morning, after getting on the launch pad I heard a ■■■■■, ■■■■■, ■■■■■, Thinking, oh no my keys down the hole but to my relief it was a bit of change in my back pocket !!! lol
The good old days… a hard job but a great one.
Probably one of my most memorable nights out in europe was more of a day/night with just myself and a Swedish driver in a small village just north of Trzic in Slovenia in the early 90’s ( can’t remember the excact year but I’m sure it was when Shumacher ran Hill of the track in the Australian GP ).
I had arrived on the Friday night at the factory that I was to load shoes from back to the UK and was allowed to park on the factory car park until the Monday morning but I had to be off the car park by 6 am to allow the workers to park, otherwise I would get blocked in. Friday night and all day Saturday went by really quite boring, just doing the usual cleaning the truck and reading the newspapers I had brought out with me ( used to buy the Times in those days just to give me plenty to read).
Sunday morning I got up about 9.30am and started to cook a full English on the double burner with grill. I had a small B/W TV that when abroad would either pick up a picture with no sound or sound but no picture and I was wathing the GP when a Swedish F12 Globetrotter pulled at the side of me. We both gave each other the usual nod to say hello then he asked if I was loading from the factory on Monday. I asked him if he would like a coffee and he said yes but he had something that we could put in it and got down a litre bottle of Teachers whiskey from the top locker. By 4pm we had spent the day chatting away about various things and had nearly drank the whole bottle. The Swedish guy then said he was getting hungry and also wanted to see if there where any ladies in the village that may want some fun, so did I fancy walking into the village to get some food and have some fun. I told him I fancied eating out of the truck for a change but that I hadnt showered since Friday lunchtime so didnt really fancy looking for a lady. So it was a strip wash by the cab a change of clothing and off into the village, the Swede had loaded there before so knew where to eat and we found an excellent resteraunt, I didnt understand a thing on the menu but the Swede and the waiter both spoke some German and a fantastic meal was served to us. In the background was a local 4 piece band playing that consisited of an accordian, two accustic guitars and a single snare drum.
After a while the Swede went over to the waiter and started chatting to him, when he got back I asked what the conversaytion was about and he told me he had asked if the waiter knew where we might find some ladies and that it was all in hand. Ten minutes later an elderly guy appeared at our table with the waiter and it turned out that this guy would drive us to some local and what turned out to be not so loacl bars to find us some ladies for the fee of 10DM’s and if we didn’t find any then there was no charge for his services, so off we went. This old guy took us to a few bars and just sat there in the corner on his own whilst we got hammered drinking local beers and spirits. When it looked like there where no ladies available we just gave him the nod and he took us to the next bar. We eneded up at the wedding reception of some locals and they welcomed us in with open arms, playing in the background was the same 4 piece band that was in the resteraunt earlier that night. After an hour or so and looking like there where no single ladies there we dceided to move on, this was now around midnight and to be honest all I wanted was my bed, knowing that the truck had to be moved by 6am, but the Swede was determined to find some ladies. We ended up going to bars in the Slovenian/Austrian border and I am sure at some point we crossed in to Austria through some unmanned/illegal border and went to a bar there. At 3 am the Swede was admitting defeat and we decided to head back and the old guy took us back to the resteraunt, which to our suprise was still open so it was one last drink there then we headed back to the trucks. When we got back at 4am totally hammered, the security guard told us it would be best to move the trucks now before the workers came in and that he would open the gates and we could park on the loading bays. How we managed this I have no idea but we did and we both fell asleep over the steering wheel with our engines still running until 6am when a guy from the factory woke us up for our order numbers. He told us that the load would be handballed onto the trailers and this would take around 8-9 hours. Never before have I been so glad to have to wait so long to get loaded, I closed the curtains and got into bed.
3pm we got the knock on the cabs to say we where loaded and that we now had to drive to Kranj to clear the customs, and off we set. Something that usually took hours to complete was done in under two hours and that night I crossed over into Austria via the Krawanken tunnel and parked up near Villach for the night. I never loaded at that facory again nor have I ever seen the Swedish driver, but that day/night has always stayed in my mind.
Cambrils, the seafood is very good, last time i was there the guy in the fuel station was handing out parking invoices, the parking is free but the driver hands in the ticket to claim the parking back from his boss when the parking is free.
The town and beach is a ten minute walk, and good places to eat by the marina.
The freight forwarders would say i was to load shoes or textiles up in the mountain villages around the Porto area, Braganza, Guimares, what really happened was a factory of underage girls making shoes and packing them by hand.
Two days later i pull out to complete groupage at the large transport warehouse in Porto, up all night loading, moving from bay to bay, goods not ready or arrived, come back later, they will bang the cab door.
The drivers would head to Matosinhos, to be relieved of their bosses running money in the bars with the ladies in.
For some reason i did not like having a night or two in Gibraltar, La Linea had a good Chinese restaurant.
Wheel Nut:
Kerbdog:
Just wondered if anyone has any good memories of a night out they’ve had whilst over the water ?I got to thinking after remembering a time I went to Zeebrugge for a trailer change. I parked in the Total garage just on the way out of the dock. I found the truck which had my trailer behind but no sign of the driver. Anyway, got talking to a tanker driver from Widnes and we decided to walk back up the road towards the dock to see if there was a pub which there was ! All I can remember is that the barmaid was called Betty ! I remember coming out of there hammered. I was booked on the boat for 7am and also forgot about the local time difference to my ‘English’ clock ! Needless to say I missed the boat, the drive from Dover to Manchester later the next day was a drive I never want to repeat. Talk about a hangover haha. Anyone else with stories ?
That draught beer in Zeebrugge was pure evil, you could lose a weekend on it. I have lost several. Primus 33 was a lot more driver friendly
The bar wouldn’t be Monte Carlo bar, or Montys as it’s known was it? I also had a night on that strong Belgian lager, me and a Denby driver, I was sober as a judge until I went out in the fresh air then…bang it hit you 
, and the headache the next morning was evil, I took a half finished bottle back to the cab that night, Next morning a Belgian driver looked at the brand and shook his head, he said that 2 was normally enough for the locals, God knows how many I downed.
Coin de Port in Ouistreham, the owner let his dogs sit on the counter, very good food while having time off waiting for a loaded trailer to be shipped out to me.
It was a long bike ride to the centre in Caen along the river past the Pegasus bridge, the original bridge was by Norberts yard, i could still see the machine gun bullet holes on it.
Question for Toby…did you work for nobby?
No i did not work for Mr Dingly dangly. 
ive spent many a lost weekend at chiasso on my way to italy, theres an irish pub 2 minutes walk from the parking compound and its always jumpin.
Any more cracking storys ?
jimboy124:
Well, as I said it was a good Friday and obviously a driving ban for my particular truck.So we parked unit only in Eifeltor. As some of you may know the truckstop you will also know that it is quite famous for its ladys that ply there trade in these caravans
As the white beer,truckerbraü and BS flowed and stuck a heap of money in those slot machines we decided to retire to bed . As our units were parked in the car park area of the truckstop we shared it with these caravans . I then thought it would be a great idea to try and break into one and have a nose about …as you do ! Several attempts to break in failed then colin said " better not let there pimps catch us " I then said " ■■■■■■■■ to them!"He then started mucking about with the towing hitch and proclaimed " lets hook it up to that Omega over there " over there happened to be at least 40 feet away . We pulled and pushed this “love machine” across this car park in fits of laughter, Colin was laughing so hard that beers spraying out of his nose and mouth . We then dropped the " ■■■■■■■■ " onto the omega with a satisfying 《clunk》. I then looked at Colin who was belly laughing so much it made me laugh so hard a little bit of ■■■ came out of me !!!
When we woke in the morning the " passion wagon" was back in its rightful place and the omega was gone …
We then spent a day in Köln drinking more beer in Barneys and a afternoon in some kind of Club … I think it was called Pascha … on Hörnstraße … but cannot be sure !
So many to post on here but…Victors in Burgos was ok. Salou was probably the best for me…
Just thought of another one…The Atlantico bar in Portro.
Atlantico the one on the beach with poor hygeine,a South African couple running it,and an amourous married couple that liked being watched for you know what.What about Freds at Coslsda in Madrid.
toby1234abc:
Atlantico the one on the beach with poor hygeine,a South African couple running it,and an amourous married couple that liked being watched for you know what.What about Freds at Coslsda in Madrid.
Fred’s was good. But salou was better. And up there with the best was el puig also.
Cambrils with the famous buffet or Lloret del Mar.La Linea for waiting athe Gib border for the cinema in Gib.