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.
I've 2 for last 5 years, they work great! Slow down to 30 and then slam that right foot down moment barrier goes up to get to 130kmh (only in the dry and no faster) as fast as possible just because the noise is incredible and because you can.