Sounds like a great trip! The only thing you'll find is long stretches of the motorways will be getting resurfaced ready for next season but it'll still be much quieter than this side!
I brought mine round to a tyre fitters who had a proper spring compressor, charged me £10 to change the pair. You don't want to mess with the little clamps and risk it slipping.
Here are the torque figures I was given that you'll need when it comes to reassembly.
When I changed the springs, I also had similar difficulty at first, I used a jack to push up on the base of the lower arm with a block of wood. This took the pressure off and allowed me to wiggle the bolts out and proceed with removing the shock.