Italy 2018 - Day 1 - Botley to Cherbourg

I abandoned the blog years ago, following that by settling back into a house, and selling the caravan along with the costly vehicle to pull it. But I have been inspired by my 2nd cousin Louise and her partner Nick's recent blogging to have another go. 

The caravan may have gone, but the need to travel has not!

We had our first package holiday last Autumn after many years, which we enjoyed, but realised if we were going to moan about value for money, we should go back to doing it ourselves, and win lots and lose some.

So the plan was to go to Southern Italy. We've been to many parts of mainland Italy, and also Sicily and Sardinia, but a few years ago we watched a series with Alex Polizzi (and I think Gino may have gone there) and Southern Italy looks like an area worth exploring. We were going to fly and rent a car, but decided to take our car and take our time. We booked a one way ferry from Portsmouth, and the first night hotel in Cherbourg - then take it from there.

It's over 15 years since we've not gone to France via the Tunnel, but with Portsmouth just 20 minutes from home we had to give it a try.

Here's the grumpy bit....

Twenty minutes from home; 90 minutes in 3 different areas of a glorified car park ; Brittany ferries can't load us on because they can't unload our ferry because that traffic is held up while they try and load another ferry at the same time. Do they do this every day?

Anyway we eventually get a nice seat on the left side of the Normandy Express - and a beer - and off we go. Well it's not the cheapest way to do a boat trip of the Historic Naval Harbour, but it was still worth it. The highlight at the moment is HMS Queen Elizabeth. Being as close as the Police boats allow is quite something. It looked very unoccupied. Let's hope that the money spent and to be spent on it is never fully tested as a flagship war machine...

A Town Like Amelia

We have started our second week of our road trip of Italy. We are heading towards Pompeii, and to avoid a 6 hour drive booked a cheap place to stay near Orte, just an hour north of Rome, and not to far off the Autostrada. It isn't too far off the route but unfortunately a kilometre of that drive was up a dirt track. But that was ok as the view from the top of the track, and then our apartment, was worth it.

But before we got there we took a small detour to visit a small town called Amelia. Although it has an entry in Wikipedia, it doesn't tell you that the centre is a walled old town with very narrow streets - fortunately one way - on top of a hill. In it's day built to defend itself. Not really on the tourist trail but really interesting to visit. And our granddaughter Amelia shares it's name!

Jerry's Marathon

Jerry's Marathon

We have thought about it many times over the past 34 years, but thinking about Jerry's current marathon walks has reminded us once again of a walk Gail and I shared with Jerry and Neil some 34 years ago.

We know it was 34 years ago - May 1982 - it's significant because Gail was expecting Kate, whose birthday is on June 22nd. This particular walk was on the second bank holiday Sunday in May 1982. Jerry was spending the weekend in Portreath with Neil, and we all met at the Pandora Inn, near Falmouth for lunch and a few pints.

Whether it was a result of the few pints, or the pleasant weather, we decided to take a stroll along the footpath that follows Restronguet Creek from the Pandora. After a leisurely and enjoyable thirty minute stroll, Neil and Mike had the bright idea of just us two heading back to the Pandora to collect the car, rather than everyone having to trudge back the same way. Our particular concern was Gail, who was after all eight months pregnant! The plan was to meet in Mylor for an ice cream.

So after another good half hour, the car was parked and we walked into the cafe at Mylor. Where were they all? Maybe there was another cafe? Maybe a shop? Had the exertion of the walk put Gail into labour, forcing Jerry to learn another new skill. And then the realisation! Now, both Neil and Mike should have known this, having lived in the area for many years, but we had left the main group including Jerry and Gail before they reached Mylor Bridge. Neil and Mike were at Mylor Harbour! We had probably left everyone else with about another two miles to walk. We jumped back in the car, and soon after saw everyone still walking. Gail asked what on earth had kept us? But at the same time reassured us that she was ok - particularly as Jerry had kept checking that she was ok every few minutes! There have been constant reminders over the years that Jerry was very thoughtful for Gail's well-being on that day. It probably goes without saying - more thoughtful than Mike or Neil! But all ended well - Kate was born just a few weeks later - healthy and strong - maybe as a result of Gail's unplanned extra walk!

We now know that the total distance from the Pandora Inn to Mylor Harbour, following the footpath next to the water, is 3.75 miles. If you want to give it a try, here is the walk:

Pandora to Mylor Harbour Walk

love is

Homeward Bound!

Thursday November 20, 2014

The time finally arrived when we have to leave the Adriatic and Croatia and head "home" – home being where Kate, Paul and Amelia live, rather than our home which is currently the caravan which is with us wherever we might be!

There has been a change in the weather this week, with some heavy rain and thunder and lightning, particularly at night. It's quite frightening within the thin walls of a caravan. Not only can you hear it louder, but you can physically feel it!

But we had one day when the weather was really good, and we sat outside and had a very enjoyable lunch in the sun in Split. Typically the day we planned to leave was forecast to be sunny all day, with temperatures rising to 20 degrees by midday. Never mind, I was thinking it would be better to have a long drive in good weather, although as it happened this didn't last as long as I had hoped, once we headed inland.

Having set the alarm (for 6) which doesn't happen very often nowadays, I didn't feel I slept much until the alarm started when it was difficult to wake up! We left the site at 8 and joined the morning traffic. The first 20 minutes was on a slow road and involved driving a route which climbed from sea level to about 1000 feet, and joined the A1 motorway. This toll road runs parallel to the coast, some 10 miles inland, for 80 miles northwest from where we joined it, before turning towards Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.

As forecast, between the mountains and the coast the sky was completely clear of any cloud for the first few hours, and with the road so quiet in both directions it was a very enjoyable start to the day, and we were able to enjoy the scenery of rolling, green hills, and very few buildings of any sort.



The A1 motorway near the coast at this time of year is very quiet, but I doubt it would be the same in the height of summer.

If you see a crocodile bear or wolf, don't forget to scream!

We had seen a service area overlooking a lake on the journey south to Split, and had decided to stop on the way back for a look.




This has to be one of the most scenic stops on any motorway we have ever driven on.







The views are amazing.
The service area has clearly been designed to allow travelers to appreciate it. With a planned 8 hour drive, a 30 minute stop so early in the day was a bit of a delay but well worth it.





I've found out since that it's not a lake but the Krka Ria, created by the submergence of the riverbed after the rise of the Adriatic sea level after the last ice age.

Just before the A1 turns inland, it descends back down to just above sea level near Zadar, and the exit to Pag Island where we had stayed a few weeks before, with the start of a very steep climb, from just above sea level to 2000 feet in 14 miles and 15 minutes at our towing speed. This was via two long sweeping hairpin bends and a series of tunnels, the last of which was 3.6 miles long.

The motorway there was steeper than any motorway we had driven on with the caravan in Austria, where the climbs are over much longer distances, even at the highest point of 5000 feet.

The other remarkable thing about the tunnel on the Croatian A1 was that we went into it with blue skies and an outside temperature of 17 centigrade, and came out of it into thick fog with a temperature of 4 centigrade. In fact the frost warning on the car "dinged" and within 10 miles we had passed a truck salting the road.

The fog and cold stayed with us for most of the day in varying thickness, although later on we did drive through another long tunnel where at the end the temperature had risen to 12 centigrade, but this "warmth" lasted less than an hour. I guess this is because the motorway continues at a highish level to Zagreb, and onwards towards Slovenia and Austria.

The fog was disappointing as we obviously couldn't see much after the first few hours. It was nearly dark by 4, as we approached our destination of Dovje near the border between Austria and Slovenia, but suddenly the fog disappeared and the sky was clear, allowing the last 20 minutes of the journey to be completed with views of snow-capped mountains.

It is many years since we have had any car journey that long in one day, and we always knew that this would be the longest drive with the caravan we had ever done at 603 kilometres – 375 miles – taking 9 hours. It was not to race back to the UK, but at this time of year there are not many sites open. There is a clear advantage for our friends and family with motor homes who can pull into service stations and rest up. Not quite so easy with a caravan. But with roads so quiet in Croatia and Slovenia it was a really enjoyable drive.

But having got that journey out of the way we are now nearly a third of the way to Calais, with 4 more planned stops of at least 2 nights, and the longest day just 260 miles. It's been a great trip but we are now homeward bound.

So what’s the plan now?

Thursday November 6th, 2014

In the last week or so, I have had a few email exchanges with people I worked with up until I retired last year. I don't miss work, but I do miss the social aspects that working allowed, and friendships that went beyond the workplace.

I'm sure Richard won't mind me using most of the email I recently sent him as the basis of this particular blog post. He was telling me that his young boys keep him busy, and the boys' granddad gets quite tired after a visit to them in Derby. That is something we always find with Amelia - after a day or even a few hours with her, physically and mentally, it's very demanding!

As a 24 hour job I am sure the parents of young children think so even more!

But we are not complaining - what we would give to have her with us for a few hours so far away in Croatia! We had thought about flying back from Stuttgart or Munich for a short visit, but we would have had to go to Gatwick or Heathrow, and then hire a car to get to Southampton, so we reluctantly decided against it. 

I have found out since we've been here, that there is a Ryanair flight twice a week from Stanstead to Zadar, which is about 50 kms from where we are at the moment. I looked at prices in May 2015 and you can get a return flight for £75. Makes us wonder why we dragged 2 tonnes of caravan through Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia to get here! Of course we really know the answer to that - we love the flexibility and independence we have in what we are doing! Married life has its moments in a confined space, but we are generally enjoying it. 

It's great to get up and open the blinds to see the sea just 15 metres away. The site is in a sheltered bay, and the water has been flat calm in the 10 days we have been there but right now a storm is building up and it's great to hear waves breaking on the beach. And we have had some great sightseeing. I haven't really kept up with this blog. We have done a lot more than the blog reflects!

 

Richard asked what Croatia is like. I am a bit like him – I wasn't too sure other than what I had seen on television. I said to Gail while driving through Slovenia and Croatia, along a very nice motorway with very little traffic, and no roadworks, that unlike Germany and Austria, other than the capital cities, the city and town names on signs - Trebnje, Jastrebarsko, Karlovac, Zadar, meant absolutely nothing to us. 

Obviously people think about the war that happened here and in Serbia and Bosnia, and the terrible things that happened during those difficult years. 

Although it was not really that long ago, it seems to be a period in their history that is now well in the past. Like Slovenia, Croatia is now a member state of the EU, with Serbia waiting for entry.

The locals are friendly, and certainly in tourist areas eager to make you welcome.

We took a trip inland last week to see some really beautiful lakes and waterfalls - Plitvice Lakes National Park - and stayed in a nice hotel for the night. That was clearly a popular tourist area with loads of hotels, guest houses, and campsites which in the summer are probably packed with locals, Slovenians, Austrians, Germans. . . 

Even this type of year, there are coach loads of Asians with their cameras taking selfies who. . . - no - leave it there Mike!

 

When we were driving back from Plitvice Lakes to the coast and the caravan, we noticed a big area with barbed wire around and 2 tanks beside the road, just a dozen miles from the Bosnian border. There was also a graveyard with maybe a hundred headstones. 

We didn't stop, but when we got back I looked the area up – Udbina - and found that the local airport was under the control of the Serbian forces during the Croatian War of Independence. 

The local airport was used as an airbase for offensive operations against Croatia and Bosnia, in direct defiance of NATO's "Operation Deny Flight". The airstrip was eventually disabled by a 39 aircraft strike on 21 November 1994.

(Udbina. (September 9, 2014). In Wikipedia. 
Retrieved November 6, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Udbina&oldid=624828037 )

Before the war, and while the region was still Yugoslavia it was becoming a popular place to visit, particularly the coastal resorts and places like Dubrovnik. The war put an abrupt hold on that, and I don't think the Brits have quite caught up with the area again in the same way the Germans certainly have! Although I may be contradicting myself having said Ryanair fly to several airports in Croatia from the UK, but of course a lot of Germany is reachable in a long day's drive from here at least. The area we are in now, Pag Island, is very remote, but there are villas with pools being built as well as hotels and new bars etc. It is very much a summer resort, although we are enjoying having a massive site more or less to ourselves. There are several bars and restaurants on site - all shut for winter. But the next big villages – 10 miles North and 8 miles South - have a few bars and restaurants still open for the locals as well as the few tourists like us still braving it. Most of the locals seem wrapped up for winter, but yesterday was sunny and 19 centigrade which was good for a bit of sunbathing in the middle of the day at least. At night the temperature stays at 18. The beaches around here are gravelly but while it was calm the water was so clear. Not that I have been in more than once - bit cold for me! Bet it was warmer a month or so ago.

It's quite cheap to stay here with beer at £2 pint and diesel a pound a litre. We were a bit hesitant at first but Croatia has its own wines! While we were in the nice hotel near the lakes and waterfalls, we had a good and inexpensive meal, and the waiter recommended the house Croatian red. It was good. We got the name - Plavac - and will probably put a few boxes of it (at £3 litre) on the roof of the caravan to bring back. . .

And this site is costing us just 120 euros for 14 days. We had thought about staying here longer but it is remote, and we have about done all there is to do at this time of year. So we have found another site open all year and will drive the 125 miles south to Split on Sunday.

The other advantage is that we are then half way to Dubrovnik where we plan to have a couple of nights in a hotel; and the other advantage is that we are closer to the motorway network before the first leg of 377 miles of our 1300 mile journey north on Thursday November 20.

We will drive more or less the same way we came with one or 2 nights in each site in North Slovenia, Bavaria, Black Forest, and then go North West to the Western end of the River Moselle instead of returning to Northern Germany which we did on the way down 
We are going to have five nights in the Bernkastel-Kues area to enjoy the Christmas markets; then back to Bruges and on to the Tunnel on December 3. 

We are then still in the caravan for a few weeks in the New Forest before putting it in storage for a while, and we are having a few weeks in the Premier Inn near Kate's over Christmas. Then we plan a "proper holiday" all of January, followed by a few more weeks in the New Forest in the caravan. After that we think we may go to Portugal – catching a ferry to Northern Spain to cut down on the driving. Since we left the UK in September, the car has done over 4000 miles, and we still have another couple of thousand to go before we are "home". It needs a rest.

I am reluctant to tempt fate – but the car has been going very well. . . A few bulbs failed– I had to get an indicator changed at a VW dealer in Koblenz. Although there is a tool in the boot to remove the headlamp fitting, I could not get it to work. Thought it was going to be yet another big bill. But only 4 euros 50 for the bulb – free fitting! 
Then in Bavaria a brake light failed – again an offer of free fitting but done that myself once before so no big deal there. 
And then while we were here in Croatia a headlight went! And headlights on all the time is compulsory here, which is a bit strange in a country with so much sun! So I had to get it done at the nearest VW dealer - in Zadar – 60 kilometres away. But cost wise pretty painless. So far so good on this trip . . .

We are beginning to look forward to the return. Only 4 weeks! We try and speak to Kate, Paul and Amelia on Facetime once a week, but understandably it is not always easy to keep Amelia's attention!

But still nice to be able to see them even if only digitally! We have been lucky to have had WiFi at every site, and this one is free with 4 Mbps which is brilliant with no other campers wanting it!

The site in Dovje, Slovenia was also free - and 14 Mbps. Fast!

 

Vorsprung Durch Technik, Herr Dyson.

Tuesday October 21st, 2014

We are coming to the end of a month in Germany. It originally started just as a short visit to where I lived as a child, but involved several diversions, and where we planned to stay in various places for just a few nights on our way South, we have ended up staying longer. 

We leave this site at Inzell, near the Germany / Austria border in a few days. We booked in for 2 nights, and we will have been here for 11 nights on the day we set off again
.
That probably summarises what a good time we have had in Germany!

Even after working with German colleagues for 12 years, my misconceptions and generalisations of Germany have changed even more for the better.

German manufacturers do make some of the best cars in the world!

The German autobahns are no better than our Motorways 

for road works and traffic jams and bad drivers.

German beer is nearly as good as British beer. 

 There are lots of beautiful castles in Germany. 

 

Great Britain clearly makes the best hand dryers in the world.
They are everywhere!

 Vorsprung Durch Technik, Herr Dyson.