Things you have done when being Weekended

[harry_monk]

There’s some discussion going on about the merits of being home every weekend but many of us don’t mind a weekend away so I’ll start the ball rolling with some stuff I’ve done, which I would never have had the chance to do were it not for my job. I only signed up in the first place because I came from that generation who looked for “travel on the cheap”.

Been up the Stanserhorn mountain in Switzerland on a cable car with my 8-y-o son for Sunday lunch

Been up the Eiffel Tower in early evening to see the lights of Paris.

Been around Dolbamahce Palace and across the Bosphorus to Asia on a ferry boat in Istanbul.

Laid by a swimming pool in Spain sipping beer and roasting until my skin came off in strips while it poured down with rain in England.

Taken a Moscow Metro train to Red Square.

Walked for an hour to tiny French villages, bought a baguette and had a beer with the locals.

Sat in a bar in Madrid watching the Spanish cup final between Real Madrid and Barcelona- Real Madrid won.

Climbed the Potemkin Steps in Odessa.

Seen the Reichstag in Berlin.

Cooked Camion Stew in numerous service areas across Europe with drivers of all nationalities.

Been to the annual festivals in Tilburg, Holland, and Kiev, Ukraine.

Sat in Jabbeke watching the rain pouring down.

And numerous others that I can’t even remember.

Please add your memorable weekends here!

[jb]

I went into Turin city centre on a bus from carisio. That bus driver could have shown jenson button a thing or two!
Stopped at the service area coming up the Italian side of the frejus quite often (it was cooler up in the alps)
Another favourite of mine was “la chambre” Jcn 26 on the French side heading up for the frejus. A nice walk up into the village and a few nice bars.
Been into lokeren plenty of times when the festival is on. I was also a regular at lokeren fc for a while and got well in with the locals.
Antwerp is a short train journey and has some “interesting ladies” who sit in windows waving at you… Pmsl.
Folkestone and ashford town centres can be a laugh if your with the right lads.
Had plenty of weekends in various destinations across Europe.
There what you make them I guess.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[chilistrucker]

nice post!
watched italy win the world cup, in a bar next to the san siro, mental atmosphere, then the stones played the following night, in said ground.

few bonkers weekends on the algarve at my old boss’s place. the irish bar in the harbour was fantastic.

did 1 of those bus tours in berlin, very educational.

caught up with my best mate in stokholm, he now lives that way.

went round the VERY GOOD museum at sinnsheim.

like harry, some great weekends in various truck parks and services around europe with drivers from here, there and everywhere, all having a cook up and a few beers.

played poker in a few casinos, mainly losing though

couple of top nights in the hells angels clubhouse in lisbon, another english driver lives there, and kind of “runs it” they know how to party.

plus more than my fair share, of middle of no-where industrial estates all on my own, all wkend.
swings and roundabouts eh

[wheel_nut]

When I had use of my legs, I loved walking. I used to walk miles on my own, middle of summer in Germany I could almost smell out the lido, always a good cheap day with ladies to watch for about 3DM. Topkapi Palace. Berlin Underground, Checkpoint Charlie, Reichstag both naked and wrapped. Smells of Antwerp and sights of the night. Hamburg and Amsterdam nightlife.

The Athens Acropolis. Marseille. Tangiers in the Souk. Spent a week in Gothenburg, a few days in Stockholm. Swimming in the Gironde. Hockenheim F1. Done the WW1 cemetaries from Amiens to Arras. Leper to Lille. Been around Nurburgring in a Jaguar I delivered. Done 3 laps of Brands Hatch in a touring car. Sinsheim Museum several times, the Eagles Nest and a rainy weekend in Jabbeke.

[daleyboy]

I too enjoyed the museum at sinsheim.

Weekends in lloret de mar laid on the beach

Ending up at a French wedding while weekended at barbezioux

Laid by the pool at the routiers just south of Limoges

Taken into a German town by some locals. Cant even remember the name of the town.

Climbing over the fence in several French motorway services and finding nice little towns.

Lazy weekends cooking camion stew in cloppenburg

Weekends with a mate in Toulouse

Eating pizza for breakfast lunch and dinner in carisio

Weekending in the town at Manapello Scalo

[jacko22]

Puked up at the Pub at Bourg,
Puked up at Jayat,
Puked up at Macon,
Puked up at Harrys,
Puked up at Freds
Puked up at the Algerians
Puked up at the Mistral-There’s a pattern to this! Oh i do like me drink!

The list is endless too

[skids]

Too many weekends to mention in Milan, tram to the city centre then taxi back pi 55 ed
Long weekends in Salou for spanish festivals
4 days empty outside lisbon with my then 6 year old son, spent a day on the beach at Estoril which was fantastic.
Some cracking weekends in Dover and Folkestone. A good one in Carlisle at the Pirelli factory.
A wet weekend on jabbeke!

[caledoniandream]

Many a fantastic weekend on the Lago Maggiore in Dormoletto, plenty Barbeque and in the winter 10 pin Bowling
Many good weekends in Carisio, watching the boxing as the Murfitts were parked up there, was kind of a pattern drinking start at 10 am altogether, boxing start 14hrs every man for his own, drinking start again at 18hrs altogether, boxing match at 21hrs, Carbanierie arrives quiet and a good sleep, next day the same.
Good weekends in Llorett de Mar, parked in a secure parking in the town, building sandcastles with 10 burly drivers under de influence of a bevy
Good weekends in Macon with the right crowd
Good weekends in Freiburg on my own.
Fantastic weekends in Vienna, parked near the Prater.
Super weekend in Slupsk (Poland) parked in the brewery
Good weekends in Croatia (Parked in the Brewery)
Best weekend ever in the Dordogne (was ■■■■■■■ the rain, but I desperately needed to be alone, with no drink and time to eat, sleep, read and think.
Great weekends in Falkirk (Scotland and many of them)
Stupid drunken weekend with the wrong women in Budapest (but the right crowd)
Too many weekends that I cant remember but passed with a little reading, sunbathing, walking or talking to the locals.

Worst weekend was Christmas in Algiers, waiting on parts while the family home was enjoying yourself, that moment you are lonely…very lonely.
But it never stopped me from going again, and again.
Been more weekends away in my life than I have been home, it’s not a way to live, but defiantly a ■■■■■■■ good way to hide for life!

[markrhyl]

Many weekend spent in lloret spent more money than i earned really bad head monday morning. weekend in nantua shell garage a regular stop for us morgan freight walkers and howarth bros drop trailer down to the village sit around the lake and the bars. cariso loads of beer campo and hotel lazio that was a good weekend the good old days

[suedehead]

First time i was weekended, was in Auchterader,which was good belive it or not.Double room b+b. Star inn.
Got thrown out of the “Globo” in Vecelli for being a bit of a ■■■■

[malcolmj]

colditz castle,battlefield at Verdun,Memen gate at 8pm,spot the theme?
dont think ive done Jabbeke in the rain but have at zeebrugge fish dock, lots at lorrett while waitting for sony Viladecvalls to get their act together and best of all the Bikers Club/strip joint next to sony factory in Tranava SK (weekend millionaires)

[bigr250]

I’m having a bit of a struggle remembering individual weekends, I remember one in Colmar when I hitched a ride with a mate heading home from Swiss to Berchem services in Luxembourg and stopped the weekend with my sister who lived in in Ettelbruck going to Bastogne to see Pattons memorial.

I remember a couple @ St Boi de Lobregat, running down to the beach at El Prat with other Brits parked there, or back in the 80’s parking at ‘The Dutchmans’ @ Peniscola, going out on pedelo’s with other drunken subbies from TIF, drunken times:)

Sat on my own outside the BP in Pobla de Valbona, never for long though, I remember one time spending a couple of days there with a Scottish owner driver who had a lovely Daf 95 SSC with a 500 ■■■■■■■■ top times in and out the local clubs;)

Deffo too many to remember.

Ross.

[460mc]

Suedehead:
First time i was weekended, was in Auchterader,which was good belive it or not.Double room b+b. Star inn.
Got thrown out of the “Globo” in Vecelli for being a bit of a [zb]

Keep thinking about giving that globo a go, is it all gellato’s and cafe’s or do they actually dance and drink in there.

My weekend ahead of me is port grimaud next to st tropez and Iv got my husquvarna in the trailer aswell happy days

[billybigrig]

Plenty I can’t mention for fear of incrimination but…

Dachau and Auschwitz camps
Octoberfest
Berlin open top bus thingy and general mooch around Zoo station etc got me a chunk of the wall
Hamburg Ripabahn
Leipzig ended up in a dodgy illegal punk club
Dresden when the Frauenkirche was in bits on shelves. (must get back and see it rebuilt one day)
Tivoli gardens in Copenhagen.
Amsterdam by day and by night
Paris touristy stuff, boat ride and Eyeful tower.
Plenty of good weekends at St Genis.
Plenty of beach weekends, Loret, El Prat,Casteldefells, Cambrils, Mojaca etc etc
Touristing around Barcelona Fountains, Ramblas etc Madrid.
Touristing around pre EC Warsaw, War monument and eternal flame were pretty moving
Touristing aroung pre EC Riga.

Too many good ones to remember fully but all great fun and never felt unsafe mixing it up with the locals. Still in contact with some good friends made.

Only remember one truly lousy one when I broke down in a poxy parking area near Orange on a Saturday night

If you run your clock out and weekend where you stop you ask to be miserable and begin to resent the job. There’s always somewhere or something to see and do.

These days most trips I do take more than the week but we try to ship out on Friday or Saturdays long boats so I’m usually weekended afloat Failing that I make sure I’m going to be stopped where there’s something to do or see. Free travel, never waste it or knock it

[paul]

Too many weekends spent away to mention but the worst was my first ever trip abroad, 1 drop Rome. I was totally taken for a fool by the boss who ran down as far as Novara with me (he had 1 drop Milan). We left on a Sunday and he told me I would be back home by Friday, well after various delays including stiking French drivers and clutch going near Modena I only managed to clear and tip on the Friday in Rome. Phoned for reload to be told the 1 pick up I was to collect had gone. Fax came through with 8 collections of wine to be loaded Monday, he told me of a truckstop near Orvieto and to spend the weekend there, couldnt find it so went to nearest motorway services. All I had map wise was a Collins Euro atlas, not even an Italian map. Spent most of Saturday sat on my own trying to find the towns /villages where I was meant to be loading from. By 8 pm I had had enough and was on the phone home to my dad begging him to get me a 1 way flight out of here but was told to go back calm down and come back in a couple of hours if I still wanted out and he would get me one from Rome airport. Went back to the truck and another Brit had parked next to me, got chatting over a few beers and he put me right with his maps and calmed me down. Spent Sunday having a few more beers and thought Ok will carry on but NEVER AGAIN. Got loaded over the Mon/tues and eventually tipped In London Friday morning and back home up north that day.

Probably one of the best was in small village north of Kranj Slovenia parked outside the factory ready to load shoes on the Monday , can’t remember the year but it was but I am sure it was the year Schummaker ran Hill of the road in I think the Australian GP. I had a small portable bw tv that could pick up faint pictures but no sound over the water. It was a sunny Sunday morning and I was sat there watching the GP and cooking my full english about 10am when a Swedish driver in an F16 parked up at the side of me. We got chatting through the cab windows and I offered him some brekkie, to which he said yes If I would have his beverage. He then got out a 1tlr bottle of Teachers whiskey and the Sunday began. Around 4pm and over half the bottle gone it was decided we would walk into the village for some food. Now I had been there since Friday and my last shower had been earlier that day so apart from cab washes and baby wipes I wasnt at my freshest. We found a great restaraunt with a live local 4 piece band playing and had a great meal. The Swedish driver who spoke good German then decided to ask the waiter if there were any " ladies " that wanted to spend some time with us, now I wasnt to relaxed with the idea with my in cab washing but went along with the idea. The waiter told us he had a friend ( a very elderly gent ) who for 10 DM would drive us to a bar that should have some “company” for us and that if he couldnt find us any “company” then there would be no charge, so off we went. We spent all that night in various bars including getting invited to a wedding reception, in some very remote villages up near the Slovenian/Austrian border. This guy was determined to earn his 10DM but at 2am we decided we had had enough and he took us back to the restaraunt that we had started at and was still open. We had had a great night with the locals even if we didn’t meet any " ladies" but this guy wouldnt take a penny from us, we did though leave the 10DM with the waiter and strolled ( well staggered, crawled ) back to the trucks at 3.30am, only to be told that the car park we had parked on would start to get full at 6am so it was best to park inside the factory gates to avoid being blocked in. I dont know to this day how, with the amount of alchohol consumed, we managed to not only drive but reverse our trucks onto the loading bays, but we did and then we both collapsed into our bunks with both engines still running. 8 am and there is a knock on the door asking for loading reference and for once in my life I was glad when they told us it was going to be a handball load, so back to bed thinking I needed a week to recover and not just a couple of hours. 3pm and I get a knock on the door to say loaded and to head for customs in Kranj to do papers. 8pm and all clear to go so it was through the Karawanken tunnel and stop for the night in Villach Austria for a much needed shower. I loaded at the shoe factory again a couple of times and visited the restaraunt whilst there but never met the Swedish driver again and to be honest my liver was glad.

[chilistrucker]

ha,ha, good stories paul, showing both the best and worst of weekends away.
amazing how when you think your on your own in the middle of no-where, another truck roles in, (any nationality) and you end up hitting off with the other driver and having a cracking weekend! also, most times when this happens the other driver is a top lad, (or lass) not one of the, “been there, seen it, done it merchants.”

think 1 of my worst weekends was somewhere to the east of avelino, italy.
i’d tipped friday afternoon at agip’s in avelino, and the agent said the reload was available fridaay evening and the customer was “waiting” for me can’t remember the name of the town as it was a good 15 years back, but it was more of a big village really, at the top of a bloody big hill and it was pasta for tescos.
so i rushed up there, but got there at 6pm as abit of a pig to find, and surprise, surprise the gates were shut and the car park was empty there was an old boy in the rather dated security shed, and somehow between us and some sign language i worked out i could park in the compound, and he showed me how to get in and out of the “locked” side gate as i’m sure he was pulling a flanker, as once i was in he buggered off home, and never came back till sometime during the early hours of monday morning
he pointed out the facilities in the hut, 1 dodgy toilet, a very old sink, and no power
he also showed me where the water bowls were for the 5 yard dogs.

so i got settled, freshened up, and thought i’d check the village out, that was about a mile away, and it was the only thing around for miles. got down there in the evening when it had cooled down, and found the 1 pizzeria, walked in and it was like the scene from american werewolf where the 2 yanks walk into the pub on the moors. the entire time i was in there, i just felt uncomfortable, had a pizza and 2 beers, then decided it was time to do the off back to the lorry. got back to the compound, started fiddling with the “locked” side gate. cue lots of barking and scabbling of paws on the concrete, as my 5 “mates” the yard dogs appeared doing there full on security routine, made me bloody jump, and judging by the snarling and showing of fangs, they didn’t seem keen on letting me in
i reckon it took me nearly 2 hours of trying to butter up these bloody dogs, before i could finally get in to the yard and across to the lorry, at least they were keen. woke up the next morning to stroll over for a wash and had the same scenario, this time they didn’t want to let me out of my bloody truck, but some biscuits soon had that sorted. suffice to say it was a very long, hot, boring weekend in that yard. by monday morning i was out of grub, (with help from the crafty mutts) i’d read every mag and paper in the wagon word for word, and was really wanting a shower, i was pleased at 7am monday when the staff turned up for work, and sorted me a nice brew and gave me access to the shower in the building. finally got loaded about 11am and set off home, bet those bloody dogs missed me as there easy target for food and a game of chase the stick

[suedehead]

460MC:

Suedehead:
First time i was weekended, was in Auchterader,which was good belive it or not.Double room b+b. Star inn.
Got thrown out of the “Globo” in Vecelli for being a bit of a [zb]

Keep thinking about giving that globo a go, is it all gellato’s and cafe’s or do they actually dance and drink in there.

At the time(bout 15 years ago) it was the biggest nightclub i had been in.
There must have been about half a dozen seperate dancefloors catering for all tastes from ballroom to the latest europop.
Deffo drinking going on but dont try dancing with the “security bods” after a few Chiantis/Peronis

[simon]

When I was spending several weekends away at a time, I’d pick a place I hadn’t stopped at before if it would fit in with the job.

I spent a lot of weekends in Milan city centre, La Chambre, Habay and Dover.
I’ve also weekended in Pisa, Modane, Turin, Crecy La Battaile (for the Joan of Arc celebration), Salou, Valls, Cahors, La Caylar, Rouen and many, many other places. Some were fortuitously fantastic like my weekend at Crecy, I had no idea that it was the weekend of the Joan of Arc celebration. I stopped there that weekend because it fitted comfortably into my route and I wanted to see Crecy.
Other weekends were absolutely boring, most were pretty good for many various reasons.

[limeyphil]

gave the missus a good seeing to. other than that it was DIY, followed by getting very ■■■■■■■

[simon]

limeyphil:
< snip > getting very ■■■■■■■

Done plenty of that too.
I thought the question was more about the other things we’d done.