In Italy – heading South

Malcesine, Lake Garda, Italy

The cultural shock of leaving a very organised society (Germany / Austria) where virtually everyone speaks English and entering into a totally foreign one is a gentle transition. The Italian Lakes (Lake Garda) was buzzy, beautiful and more German than true Italian. In fact given the car registration plates most people seemed to be German in Malcesine where we camped and as such there was good English spoken. We have been to Garda several times and even visited Malcesine but always late in the season (end Sept/Oct)… this time the pretty old harbour was full of people doing all the things we all do on holiday.

Verona

Italians are obsessed by the coast and the sea… they want to live near it and rush to it in their millions in August. It is understandable because with Italy being so narrow, less than 100 miles wide in most areas, and mountainous down the middle section Italians have all grown up in the coastal strips not far from the sea. OK we have got Felixstowe and although the toilets are likely to better it lacks the blue sea and 20 – 30 C sunshine that promotes the real need for that sea breeze.

Verona

So we follow a simple plan – down one side and back up the other. We stayed on the Eastern side of the mountains and headed South. Although in theory you could criss-cross from east coast to west coast the mountain passes and/or toll roads and tunnels would quickly increase your cost. The sky’s got bluer and temperature has slowly climbed to 39C and all the memories of the need to brake out the quilts has faded… although we will have to go North again at some stage : (

We have been totally off the normal tourist trail;

Verona – great Camperstop in the middle of this big and vibrant city.

Castel Bolognese – tiny town… tiny.

San Leo  at night

San Leo – beautiful, peaceful, classic hill top town although a bit tricky to manoeuvre a motorhome in. We had to drive through the old gate and into the main square - scary.

Pesaro – Sea side but where the road and railway are between you and the sea. Have you seen that film when the gypsies come home at night and light campfires, cook hedgehogs, drink what looks like vodka and sleep rough on the grass. One night was enough!

Porta Polenza Picena – nice little town by the sea.

Bomba, Abruzzo - by a lake.



Palomboro, Casoli



Torretta (Casoli, Abruzzo) - we went to a great looking restaurant BUT it was a specialist steak (from all around the world) house? So not a good choice for us. We really must learn the language!

Lesina, Puglia – lovely old fishing port on an enclosed sea area. we made a mistake in the traffic system and ended up breaking some kind of restriction outside the Town Hall much to the amusement of a large group of local people. The bad news was it ended up with a Police escort out of town… the good news was that we had to follow them to a real lovely little campsite near the marina. The local Police have been good – not so sure about the ones that carry the guns though.

Lesina

Lucera – Old walled, cobbled street town… A University town, lots of young people sheltering in every shady doorway. It can be a tough life this university lark in a hot country.

San Giovanni Rotondo – It’s a town dedicated to a single monk and a long story that you can google it if you area really interested. We join the religious pilgrim trail and in 40 C with 100’s of steep steps and lots of singing some of these over weight Mammas looked closer to God than they had ever been before. We also did the laundry here which also tends to be a religious experience when you have been gone 3 weeks and only have 3 sets of underwear J

Minnie and Me

Minnie (our motorhome) is returning around 35miles to the gallon even across the Alps and  although diesel is closer to the UK price in Italy it is better than we were expecting.  We have now fully adjusted to being in our little home with things like showering, getting out of bed and doing the laundry / ironing passing off with the minimum of injury. In fact eating rock hard Italian bread has by far proven to be the most risky thing we have done this week - bloody tough - although in did make a fantastic Bruschetta!

We really must learn the language, knowing that you have a Data SIM but can't read the instructions or that you can buy a good bottle of Montepulciano for £1, is not enough given that hardly anyone speaks English here in the Southern areas of Italy.

Take Care

Richard and Jane X

South through Germany and Austria into Italy

Leaving Dover... with a coffee

After a break of a year we are out on the road again… and with travel comes the journey in both its physical and emotional context. As with the vast majority of travellers we are not really sure if we are looking for or running away from something. This blog is simply a mechanism to exercise this emotional side freezing it in time so it can be revisited… you are welcome to join us.

There is so much to do and see in the world and if you are lucky enough to be in a position to be able to there is no substitute for getting out there. With our year long trip in the USA a fading memory (we have the blog : )  we are planning to spend a few months roaming around Europe.

Koln (Cologne) Germany

Travelling with no real plans, timescales (home for Christmas), guide books or must see’s or do’s is a new departure for us. We have only been gone a week and are less than 400 miles from home but it is like we have already crossed a huge gulf separating us from everything that is familiar. Although you can see the coast of  France as clearly as the white cliffs of Dover from the ferry the twenty something miles - a thin blue line if there ever was one - has done a remarkable job of keeping Jonny Foreigner and all his funny little ways out of our British culture. OK… so we may like a croissant with our cappuccino and a glass of pinot grigio with our pizza but we British are no closer to being Europeans than we were when Den first went to Germany in 1971. The only thing we have felt completely in our comfort zone is the approach to motorhomes… neither of us have felt that good as it takes time to adjust – everything is different



On the banks of the Rhine

The Europeans, the Germans in particular, have a motorhome culture unlike anything we have experienced in either the UK or the US for that matter. It is not camping in the US context which reflects the scale of the country and the pioneer heritage of its people… big open wilderness, forests, huge pitches with picnic bench / fire grate, log camp fires, BBQ’s and toasted marshmallows and open to all campers with some areas reserved for tents etc. The UK version of camping covers the whole spectrum but more often than not is commercial sites which are often no more that grassy car parks with motorhomes, caravan’s, and tents squeezed together…  a TV room, cold old toilet blocks and big red fire extinguishers to put that camp fire out…‘Health and Safety’ : )  The European version is neither. OK they do have the British style holiday camp sites in tourist areas but they also have ‘Camper stops’ literally everywhere. They only cater for self contained motorhomes, (have own facilities) and are often in the strangest of places.



Schwabisch Gmund

Camperstops can be found in city centres often a specific area of a larger car park, parks, farms, vineyards, restaurants’ even in peoples garden. For example today 17th Sept for E9 (9 Euro = £7) we are camped in the owner’s garden in the little town of Oberaudorf, Germany and plugged into his garage for power and water. From our window we have fantastic views across the Austrian border and the Alps. So far we have camped within 500M of the centre of Koln and Worms and literally on the banks of the Rhine for around E10 a night. Before you pack your bags its good to visit the cities / towns this way but it can be a very tiring experience. Take Braubach,  pretty little old town on banks of the Rhine – great walk but when it came to sleeping we discovered the downside. In the flat we are used to some road noise but within 200M of our motorhome there were Rhine barges, heavy road traffic (lorries) and main line trains running all night! You quickly learn to be more observant when you first arrive before you decide to stay the night.

So with good value Camperstops, lower cost diesel (why?) and Aldi for the food staples this leg of the trip into Italy is looking good. Food highlights include big pastries, exotic breads, fresh figs and the German beer. Jane’s home cooking has quickly resumed where she left off in the RV. Cooking a full meal in such a small a space is a skill that takes a bit of mastering and a lot of organisation.

So as it supposed to be about our travels the route we followed;



Austrain Alps

Dover – Calais then Arques, France… Aachen,  Koln, Braubach, Worms, Schwabisch Gmund, Lechbruck am sea (2nights) Oberaudorf, all in  Germany across the alps via Innsbrock Austria and into ITALY

Jane’s best bits – travelling next to the Rhine with views of the amazing castles, palaces and forts on route, German old towns with cobbold streets, doms (cathedrals) and clock towers, availability of fresh figs (lots of them and very cheap).

And not so best bits – graffiti everywhere, strange smells from the fields and some noisy surroundings at night!!

Den loved German efficiency… OK I  accept that it is not a clean as was in the 70’s (graffiti) Sat Nav co-ordinates for camperstops, the mighty Rhine - pretty in places - but still true trans-european highway and the slow onset of fresh alpine scenery and air.

Oberaudorf  - German Ausrian border

I could live without… empting the waste tank! It is every bit as much fun as it sounds. Then there was a couple of sleepless nights the worst being the free camperstop at Schwabisch Gmund about 30KM east of Stuttgart. It looked good but turned into a meeting point for the local youth until about 2am only for Saturday morning car boot sale to start at 5am.

Das gut

Happy Birthday        Kate (11^th Sept), Phyllis (23^rd Sept) and Pat (29^th Sept) we are thinking of you but with no regular Internet sorted out no Skype so far.

Den and Jane X

PS Strange to think that Chris will out there somewhere in Italy as our paths cross.

23/09/12 - Delay for this 1st posting this as we have been sorting out our Internet connection... We now have an Italian SIM (called TIM) but can not understand the information web page to do anything with it (top it up etc) so for now it is working but does not seem to like Skype.