Back to an easy pace of life

It is lovely here. We have a very nice pitch looking out to sea, and the
site facilities are of a good standard. We have made friends with a very
nice English couple, Steve and Anne, in the van next to us (have to say that
they might be reading), and also the crazy French couple just behind them
with their dachshund 'Vodka', must ask why its called 'Vodka' one day.
The weather has been pretty good so far, and the sunshine is lovely and warm
when it makes an appearance. Today is supposed to be wet, and it is a little
so far, but the sun is due back tomorrow for Christmas Day. The temperature
only drops down to 10-13C at night, it has been 15-17C during the day. It's
not scorching but very pleasant.
We have visited the shops in Finale, which are limited but well stocked, and
also the bigger shops in Cefalu a few miles along the coast, so we are now
loaded up with food to get us through a week or so. I am sure we will have
to potter into Finale, 5 minute walk, every now and then for bread and
booze.
Sue has been busy so far catching up on the washing backlog whilst the sun
is out and I gave Noddy a Christmas wash yesterday. I think we will manage
to survive here and on Sicily for the next few months, but we will have to
drag ourselves away from staring at the sea to see the sights of the island.
Apparently Etna is 'erupting' at the moment and slowly pouring out lava and
puffing ash, must see that.
Oh well, back to the grind, must be time for coffee and some bread and jam.
Ciao
M&S

The final push

We have been settled into our new winter home for a few days now after
arriving late on Wednesday.
After leaving Pompeii the Autostrada made for very slow progress south as
they are in the middle of rebuilding most of the stretch from Naples down to
Reggio di Calabria. It looks like they have been at it for several years
already and that they will have a few more years until completion with all
the bridges and tunnels they are planning. However, we still managed to make
good progress and as we had made an early start we were down towards our
planned stop for the night at Palmi early in the afternoon. After some
discussion we decided to push on and try and get a ferry across to Sicily
and if possible reach our final destination that evening.
All was going well. We bought our ticket, €31, and queued for the next
ferry. It seemed that there was a choice of two that had arrived to pick up.
When we got to the front of the queue the guy took our ticket and mumbled
something to us with the word Palermo mixed in. We thought he was asking if
we were going to Palermo, which we weren't as we were heading for a small
town called Finale 50 or so miles short of Palermo. We looked confused and
said 'No', so he pointed to the open top ferry in front of us and we ambled
on board. The ferry eventually loaded and set sail. All seemed good for a
while until we realised that we were chugging steadily further south than
what we made out to be the port of Messina, were we would be landing. The
other ferry was aiming straight for the anticipated port way back behind us.
We checked with one of the crew who didn't really understand and gestured
that we could drive to Messina from wherever the boat was heading for, not
much help. So naturally we thought the worst and that we might be heading
down the coast to Catania the next main port, a good 11/2 hour drive from
Messina. Perplexed we returned to Noddy and made some hasty alternative
plans for a campsite for the night on the east coast, as we did not fancy a
hasty drive back up the coast to Messina and then the two-hour drive west to
Finale. The boat eventually docked, and we knew we had not gone too far down
the coast, definitely not Catania, but we did not have a clue where we were,
so we headed straight for the Autostrada. It turned out that we had come in
not far south of Messina and were only a little behind schedule. So we sped
on, the roads were quiet, and we eventually reached Finale at about 19h00. A
bit tired after 10 hours on the road we took a pitch for the night and
waited for the new day to dawn to see our new home in the daylight.
Ciao
M&S

It's driving Jim but, not as we know it

We did not make it to Italy on Saturday as previously predicted. Two reasons
for this! Firstly, the site we were heading for at Albenga has solar heated
showers and it is winter and not very sunny. Secondly, we decided to
continue on the non-toll roads in France for another day to save some more
pennies. We instead made it to a small town called La Motte, northwest of
Frejus not far west of Nice, and another Aire de Service for a free night.
So on Sunday we aimed far and for Rome whilst the roads were quieter. The
Autostrada along the northwest coast of Italy is quite some drive. It is
very up and down and not very straight so our progress was slow initially
and we fell short of Rome and stayed Sunday night at a camper stop at
Orvieto. It was €15 for the night in a large camper car park but it had very
nice powerful and piping hot showers and a good electric hook up so can't
complain.
Yesterday we continued south towards Pompeii. The drive was not too bad but
the air quality was very poor. Almost all the way past Rome and down to
Naples the air was thick with the output from the constant industry and
smoke from farmer's fires. Thankfully it cleared not far from Naples and we
had a 'clear' run through the mayhem that is the motorway past the city. We
only had one near encounter when a 'white van' emerged from an entry on to
the motorway completely oblivious to our presence, or more likely didn't
give a **** that we were there, and thanks to Noddy's brakes a swerve and a
huge slice of good fortune we did not collide. If you haven't driven down
this way before then think of how bad normal Italian drivers drive and
multiply it by 1000, no joke.
Anyway, we made it to the site at Pompeii, a stone throw from the ruins, and
rested for the afternoon and evening as it decided to pour down. Thankfully
today the rain eased off for a while so we were able to visit the majority
of the ruins, vast that they are, and made a good 2 or 3 hours of it before
the ever heavier rain persuaded us to head back to Noddy. We ventured into
the town centre briefly on the way back in search of some food and
eventually bought what I can only describe as large savoury doughnuts, one
filled with ham and mushrooms, the other with ricotta. Back in the dry of
Noddy we filled our bellies, the doughnuts were delicious, and we are now
letting our wet clothes dry off in the bathroom while we doze away the rest
of the day.
Tomorrow we head further south hopefully to Palmi almost in the toenails of
Italy. From there it is just a few miles to Reggio di Calabria where we are
hoping to get a ferry across to Sicily on Wednesday.

Ciao for now.

M&S

We're on Our Way

Well on our way to our winter home. We are currently at the town of
Tournon-sur-Rhone, halfway between Lyon and Marseille.
We crossed the channel on Wednesday afternoon and made our way to the town
of Conty for the night, just south of Amiens. We stayed at an Aire de
Service de Camping-cars, an area (small car park) provided by the local
community, and it was free. Yesterday we made quite a long day of it, 8
hours driving, past Paris and down to Beaune just south of Dijon. The going
was a bit slow especially around Paris but it was bright and sunny so very
pleasant. We made a decision to avoid the toll roads to save a few pennies,
but taking the main roads can get a bit slow at times with all the villages
and towns. Towards the end of the day the fog descended so we spent the last
hour or so after sunset plodding along counting down the miles to our
destination. The site when we eventually got there was mostly full of UK
vehicles, probably also on route for some winter sunshine.
Today we set off again in the morning fog and continued south past Lyon and
on to Tournon for the night. This seems to be a very busy town on the west
bank of the Rhone. We had a quick wander around on arrival and purchased a
nice baguette to have with our dinner. Needless to say the baguette had
shrunk a wee bit by the time we arrived back at Noddy. Poor Noddy is quite
filthy on the outside at the moment with all the dirt from the damp roads,
but he will have to hold on until we get to Sicily for a much needed
shampoo.
We have spent quite a while this evening planning our next move and what
stops we will make on our way down through Italy. I think we have now got a
plan, and it involves some major usage of the toll roads. I think if we
plodded along avoiding them it would take us quite a while to get all the
way down. We had intended to miss out on the French tolls and only pay in
Italy, but we have saved quite a bit already. Thankfully the Italian tolls
are much cheaper than the French, especially the final stretch from Naples
which is something ridiculous like €1.8 for 300 miles.
Anyway, time for an early night before as we are hoping to get into Italy
tomorrow and stop off at Albenga on the north west coast at a site we used
earlier this year.
Cheers for now.
M&S

Cricket poor, Weather very poor, bothered ... no

The date for the escape is next Wednesday 13th at 14h02, or earlier if we
can get a slot.
We have been staying at a site just west of Brighton since Sunday and the
weather has been very poor the last few days, plenty of rain and severe
gales. Poor Noddy has been a rocking and a rolling.
We did however have a nice day out in Eastbourne shopping on Monday, and a
nice day out in Brighton yesterday, some sunshine helps. Other than that we
have been keeping our heads down in Noddy out of the wind and rain. Last
night was the worst so far, didn't get much sleep, but the weather is better
now, not perfect but better.
The next few days will be spent doing some final last minute planning, as we
have to plot our route and possible campsites on the southwards trip. We are
not quite sure what to expect in Italy over the Christmas period, but it
should be great fun, oh and a wee bit warmer hopefully.

Cheers for now.

M&S

It's a date

It may have taken a while and a lot of chasing our tails but we have finally
made a decision on when we are going to cross the channel back into Europe.
We are aiming to do the tunnel mid December, 13th or 14th, and then head
south to Italy eventually aiming for Sicily. If we can we will try to be in
Sicily for Christmas. So unless we change our minds in the next week or two,
well you never know, we will be enjoying some Mediterranean sunshine for the
festive season.
Once the cold snap is over we will make our way back to the UK aiming to
return in April or May, or perhaps even June if we get waylaid somewhere
nice.
Cheers for now.
M&S

Global warming? My feet are freezing!

Well it sure was chilly down Exmoor way. We spent a lovely if not icy week
at Dulverton on the southern edge of the moor. The small town is sat in a
valley in the surrounding hills and does not get too many hours of sunshine
at this time of the year. The days were bright and sunny and the nights were
below freezing. Thankfully Noddy has been keeping us nice and warm during
the chilly periods, and as a reward we treated him to some nice insulation
on some external pipe work. Well we don't want his waterworks freezing do
we!
We enjoyed some very nice walks and cycles around and about in the sunshine,
but on the day we went up to the coast at Lynmouth we got fogged in. Up on
the moor it was warm and sunny, but we could see the cloud rolling in below
us where the coast should have been. Lynmouth was fairly deserted,
unsurprisingly, but we found a fudge shop that was open and sampled the
local produce, yum.
The best day out was our trip to Honiton and our afternoon at the Land Rover
Experience centre. We had a great time putting a new 110 Defender Station
Wagon through its paces both on and off road, very addictive stuff! Since
the drive we have been heavy into reading up on Land Rovers and getting
further along the road of planning our future 'dream' trips around the
world, by road. Watch this space!
After Dulverton we ventured down to Looe for a few days. The weather got a
bit warmer, but it also got a lot wetter. We managed to cycle into Looe on
our first day, all down hill on the way, all uphill on the way back. Sadly
after that most of our time was spent sheltering in Noddy from the heavy
horizontal drizzle, not nice.
The weather followed us back east to Wareham where it changed, but for the
worst. We had some very heavy rain and blustery gale force winds. We did
manage an outing into Bournemouth to meet up with some old friends, which
was great.
We are now back at Broadway as Noddy had to go back to his makers again to
have the final work done on him. I hope that we wont have to make any more
visits especially as our warranty has now expired and we will not get any
more freebies.
From here we head back to Gatwick for a week or so, and then probably back
into Europe sometime in December. Well that is we can ever make our mind up
on where we want to head for!

Cheers for now

M&S

Winter is a coming

We are well into our mini tour of the west and it was good to back on the
open road after a few static weeks in Sussex. It has been quite a whistle
stop trip so far with our first stop at Woodstock, a few miles west of
Oxford. It was a very nice site on the edge of the Blenheim Estate, and in
easy reach of Oxford by bus. I won't dwell on the price of buses too long,
but it cost £4.20 each for a return to cover the 7-mile trip. If we had
however used the park and ride it would have been considerably cheaper. The
only problem being that out of about 7 park and ride sites around the city,
only one has spaces for motorhomes and then only a measly 5 spaces. However,
Oxford was delightful, and very busy. Woodstock is a very pretty village,
but we chose against a visit into Blenheim as they charge the princely sum
of £14 each, not on our budget they don't!
After Woodstock it was only a few miles down the road to our next stop,
Burford. The site was situated a few miles out of town next to the Cotswold
Wildlife Park. In the evenings if we stood outside Noddy and closed our eyes
we almost imagined that we were back in the Kruger Park thanks to the
occasional roar of the lions. Feeling energetic we ventured out on the
bicycles, ashamedly the first time since being back in the UK, and had a
very pleasant ride via the country lanes into Burford. Burford is, like
Woodstock, a very pretty small town and was incredibly busy that afternoon.
The next small hop we took was to Cheltenham, and a site in the grounds of
the racecourse. Sadly there was no racing that weekend, but Elaine Page was
playing on the Sunday night, fitting location, no comment. Thankfully the
town centre is only 20 minutes walk from the racecourse so we were able to
stroll in and take in the sights. We spent the daily mainly touring the
shops on the high street as we had been there previously.
Noddy dictated our next point of call, Broadway, as he had an appointment at
the manufacturers in Willersey just down the road. We had a short list of
things that needed attention before the warranty ran out. Some were done but
we have got a return trip booked for later in the month to have the work in
the bathroom to be carried out. We were hoping to get it all done at once,
but as we had discovered additional problems we had to book in again.
Turning south we aimed for Cirencester and a site in walking distance of the
town in Cirencester Park. Since we have been here winter has started
knocking on the door. It was down to 1C outside, only 5C in Noddy, last
night and is only getting up to about 7C or 8C in the day. We have wandered
into town the last two mornings through the park. The park and the town are
very picturesque especially with the clear, sunny if cold days. We have been
at Cirencester now for a couple of days and head off tomorrow to Exmoor.
Should be nice and warm there!
Our main highlight coming up is on the 9th, a half day Land Rover Experience
at Honiton. We get our hands on a Defender for the afternoon for some off
road fun, can't wait.

Cheers for now
M&S

No Rest for the Wicked

Yes we are still on the move. Well not so much over the last couple of
weeks. On arrival back in the UK we stayed with my brother for a couple of
days and have since been based at a site next to Gatwick airport. Why? Well
Sue and myself have been hard at work clearing out the odd year or twenty of
accumulated stuff, allegedly mine and my brother's, from my Mum's loft and
garage. After two weeks and a dozen or so trips to the local amenity tip the
'hard labour' has now been completed.
From here we are heading west ending up in Cornwall and then heading back to
Sussex by the end of November. Our mini tour will include; Woodstock,
Burford, Cheltenham, Broadway, Cirencester, Exmoor, Looe, and Wareham.
Depending on how quickly winter arrives we will decide on where to go in
December at a later date, but most likely we will turn south back to Europe
and chase some winter sunshine.
We have however started the long process of planning a dream future trip
around the world, by land, sea and air. There is so much to think about and
it will probably take a year to cover all angles. We shall keep you posted
as our plans progress.
Cheers for now.
M&S

The End is Nigh

Yes, all good things come to an end sooner or later. However, we like to
think of it as one holiday finishing and another just beginning.
We have spent the last few days in Belgium, first at Ghent and now at
Bruges. Ghent came across as a strange town. Some very old buildings and the
great canal system, but it had a shabby air to it. Perhaps it was just the
weather, which was gloomy and wet, or perhaps it was all the students from
the university. Bruges however is a truly lovely city, very busy, but
lovely. Street after street of old typical Flemish buildings and the large
cobbled squares give it a quite superior feeling, which is why I guess so
many people flock to it all year round. Oh and of course the odd chocolate
shop or two also help. The weather was warm and sunny yesterday when we
toured the city, which always helps, but I think even Bruges would appear
very respectable in the rain.
Tomorrow we eventually make our way back to British shores via the tunnel. A
new experience for both Noddy and ourselves. Just hope the damned thing
doesn't spring a leak! As our booked crossing is not until late in the
evening we shall no doubt pay a visit to the large hypermarkets outside
Calais for a bit of last minute shopping. Gifts, no, a chance to stock up
for the next holiday!
Do not fear though, or perhaps you should, we shall be continuing the blog
and letting you know where we are and what we are doing over the next few
months up until the end of June 2007 when we will give Noddy a rest for a
while.
Cheers
M&S

To Infinity and Beyond

It's not that I have been lazy or anything, or that we have not done
anything, it's just that I haven't got around to writing for a while, put
off today what you can do tomorrow!
We arrived in Paris last Wednesday (13th), and easily found our site at
Maisons Laffitte in the northwestern suburbs. The site was quite large with
quite a few fixed caravans, and a high percentage of English caravans and
motorhomes. Access to Paris was easy via the RER network, the station just a
few minutes walk from the site.
We ventured into the city on the Thursday and trawled many of the main
sights. The RER took us directly to the Arc de Triomphe, and we wandered
from there to the Eiffel Tower. As we had both previously been up the tower
we chose to give that a miss and continued on our stroll eventually ending
up at the Musée d'Orsay. The Musée d'Orsay contains the artwork that fills
the time gap between the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou including the
Impressionist and Post Impressionist movements, e.g. Monet etc. This is more
our cup of tea than the earlier or modern work. The gallery is situated in
an old railway station, which is worth the admission fee itself. After a few
hours of viewing and becoming maxed out on art, not to mention having weary
feet, we called it a day and headed back the Arc de Triomphe to catch the
RER back to Noddy.

On the Friday we decided to make a later visit into the city after lunch so
that we could have dinner out, and a lazy morning. We took in several more
sights in the afternoon, from the weird Centre Pompidou to the amazing Notre
Dame. The only problems with planning to eat out are a) where to eat and b)
waiting to eat. We almost chose to have Tibetan, but instead decided on
traditional French cuisine in what appeared to be a nice restaurant, it was
recommended in our Rough Guide. After a drink at a nearby bar to kill some
time as it had started to rain, we ventured to the restaurant and were one
of the first to sit down. The food was very nice; the service was
interesting, and the cliental mostly American tourists! It's the sort of
place where they write your order on the paper tablecloth! We very much
enjoyed it, but if you generally take life too seriously you would probably
wonder what was going on. Suitably stuffed we wandered back through the
city, which like most cities is a different place after dark. The Eiffel
Tower looked amazing with its display of sparkling lights. Apart from having
diner, we also wanted to see a firework show that was supposed to happen at
21h30 that evening at La Defense. We planned on making it back to the Arc de
Triomphe by the start and watch from there. We made it just, and waited, and
then left after a few fireworks as the show was not as spectacular as we or
the other hopeful tourists had expected. If you were down at the La Defense
I am sure it would have been better, just. Oh well, better luck next time.

Saturday was a day of rest and we enjoyed the sunny weather and did some
shopping in Maisons Laffitte.
On Sunday we again went into to the city after lunch this time to catch the
free organ recital in Notre Dame, oh and have another lazy morning. The
musical choice of the guest organist that day was a bit unknown to us and
quite modern, but still most enjoyable especially when he hit the loud
pedal!

Our next destination after Paris was Amiens and the start of our WW1
battlefields tour. Amiens cathedral, Notre Dame, is actually bigger that its
namesake in the capital, and probably more impressive, and definitely
quieter. They are in the process of laser cleaning the outside, and the half
they have so far completed looks truly amazing. The rest of the city is very
pleasant, and we could not resist the lure of lunch by the canal, a steaming
pot of mussels each, yum yum.

Yesterday, we did a tour of the WW1 battlefields and cemeteries from Albert,
with its stunning church, around and about up to Arras, where we stayed for
the night. It is the first time either of us has visited any of these sights
and it is really quite moving and thought provoking. The cemeteries are all
impeccably kept, and all the information centres completely fascinating. It
is obviously difficult to appreciate what the poor souls endured during the
war, but what has been preserved gives a very good impression of what is
must have been like. It's just a shame that we have learnt nothing over the
last 100 years.

Our final piece of the tour this morning took us to Vimy Ridge, where the
Canadians made one of the most significant breakthroughs. After a few hours
taking in the battlefields, we pushed on and ended up just north of
Brussels. We were going to stop at Tournai just over the border in Belgium
but the site was not great and we headed here up instead. We have not yet
decided if we are going to venture into the city before we turn west and to
Gent and Bruges.
Cheers
M&S

Food glorius food

After a very nice and relaxing week at Poupehan, we headed into France. The
Poupehan site was virtually empty by the time we left, well up until our
last afternoon. On the Friday there was a steady influx of Dutch caravans
and campers. It appeared that most knew each other and it turned out to be
an office weekend away in the countryside. Needless to say it got quite
noisy on Friday afternoon, not the quietest of people the Dutch, and we were
happy to be on our way again.
Our first destination in France was not too far over the border at the town
of Buzancy in the Ardennes. A very sleepy little town, as most little French
towns are, set in lovely rolling French countryside. The site was a pleasant
surprise having been fairly recently updated. It made a grand location for
sitting in the hot sunshine and enjoying the chatter of the TMS team on
Radio 4 for the final ODI against Pakistan. We have had a fair bit of hot
sunshine for just over a week now, I think that summer has returned in full
force, but looking at forecasts it may not be with us for too long.
We are now slowly making our way towards Paris and stopped off last night in
Epernay, one of the Champagne towns, just south of Reims. By the time we had
checked in at the site, the local municipal, it was getting on in the
afternoon. We walked the short distance into town to have a look around and
also see if we could get a tour of one of the champagne houses. After first
checking with the tourist information office we made a brisk walk to the
Champagne de Castellane, it was the only one still doing tours that day. We
made it just in time to join a very interesting tour of the works, from
fermentation, through the cellars, all the way to bottling and packing. It
was very informative and well presented by a nice young French lady who
spoke very good English, although she had to confirm a few words every now
and again. The free sample at the end of the tour was most refreshing and it
was no surprise that we made a purchase, just the one bottle to keep for a
special occasion. It is most fortunate that it happens to be Sue's birthday
today!
After the present opening ceremony this morning, didn't take long I'm
afraid, we set off again further west and are now not that far from Paris at
the town of Varreddes near Meaux. I think the lady at the site reception,
who spoke no English, made a nice little cash in pocket. She did not want
passports and was not too forth coming with a receipt, no questions asked.
Only one night here so no fortnight in Barbados for her on what she pocketed
from us!
Tomorrow we will hit the site we are aiming for north west of the capital
and probably stay there for 3 days giving us enough time to see plenty of
the city's sights. I think we can get a multiple day travel card for the
transport side, and you can also get a 'museum' ticket that gives you entry
to several museums for a reduced rate. We just have to decide what we want
to see and make a plan.
It has to be said that our diet, which has generally been very healthy, has
taken a dip with Germany and now France. So many tasty sausages, pates, and
cakes to be consumed. Not too mention the great fresh bread with jam or
cheese. I think we will have to do many a mile around the Paris streets to
fight the war of the waistline!
Cheers
M&S

What an absolute shower

The weather was not great for our day out in Cologne some sunshine but
mostly grey skies and showers. The cathedral, the main attraction of the
city, is very impressive indeed but very black and dirty on the outside,
although they seem to be in the slow process of renovation and cleaning. It
is quite huge and very simple inside, not overly ornate like its Italian
counterparts. As to the rest of the city, we spent most of our time in and
out of shops to keep dry and strolling around the streets in the odd dry
moment so we did not really get to see many other highlights. As this was
going to be our last stop in Germany and we were particularly hungry we
decided to eat out. A nice old bar we found with an interesting menu had
finished serving food for the day, so we just enjoyed a beer or two of the
local Kolsch beer, only produced in Cologne, and were entertained by their
1920's 'automatic tuba-accordion'. This was a most amusing and musical piece
behind the bar that consisted of automated models of two men, one playing
the tuba and the other the accordion. It is like a jukebox and you can
select from a range of tunes, and then watch and listen as they do their
thing. You have to see it to believe it. After our beers we set off to find
somewhere to eat and found a nice if touristy place near the river that
specialised in pork knuckles, Eisbein. We ordered and tucked into a large
grilled Eisbein each, washed down with a large beer, and were suitable
stuffed. Thankfully our cycle to and from the city was dry, and not far on
our full stomachs.
The next day we headed off to our next country on the tour, Holland. The
first campsite we tried near Vaals was full due to some horse event going on
nearby. This was the first time we had encountered this problem, the full
site not the horse event. Thankfully we had an alternative not too far away
near Gulpen and found plenty of space there, and probably a nicer site
anyway. Most campsites you visit have nice free showers that you start and
stop, as you want. Some have time limited, to save water, via tokens that
you buy, or get included in the price, but you can also start and stop
those. At this site the showers were included and were timed. Not that this
really saved any water. You got 5 minutes worth, non-stop. So the water ran
even while you were not using it and trying to lather up and wash. The first
morning I got caught out and was not rinsed off before the water cut out.
The shower was on a time switch and you could not start it again for another
few minutes. Thankfully it was not cold so I just stood it out and kept
hitting the button until the water flowed again. What a stupid system. We
had a nice two nights at the site and also enjoyed our first hot and sunny
day for the last 6 or so weeks.
We left Gulpen and headed south to our next country, Belgium, we will return
to Holland some other time. We are now down in the south of Belgium near the
French border at the small village of Poupehan. We are staying at a very
nice site next to the river Semois, and are pitched on the riverbank. The
site is very peaceful and quiet but apparently it was packed out during
summer, and they actually had a hot summer here. They also have silly timed
non-stop showers here that are activated by an electronic tag. I can't
imagine how they think it saves water. Anyway, we had a wet day yesterday,
horizontal heavy soaking drizzle all day. Thankfully they have some English
paperbacks that one can borrow from reception and we spent a nice day
engrossed in a book or two. Today was lovely and sunny, but with a strong
chilly breeze at times. The lady in reception says that it should be dry for
the next few days, lets hope she is spot on.
We will chill out here for most of the week, if it stays dry, then cross the
border into France. Our current plan is to head towards Paris and stop there
for a few days. Then turn north up through France and back into Belgium to
visit Bruges. From there we will wind our way down the coast to Calais in
time for the trip back to the UK.
Less than four weeks to go now. Not that we are too concerned. Don't have to
worry about going back to work or anything like that!
Cheers
M&S

The show must go on

Yes we have been at the Motorhome show in Dusseldorf, and no we did not buy
anything, well except some powdered soup.
Before hitting the show we spent a very nice 5 days at a site on the edge of
the middle-Rhine valley near the village of Hausbay, about 30km south of
Koblenz. The site was huge and very busy but we managed to find a nice spot
to park. Due to the location of the site it is very convenient as a night
stop for people heading north to south and visa versa through Germany
especially by Dutch travellers. The site has 4 large 'one night only' areas
that were almost full every night we were there.
An excellent cycle path runs right past the site for 38km along the path of
a disused railway line from Emmelshausen to Simmern. We used it to cycle to
Emmelshausen to go food shopping and I also got very wet cycling the other
way half of the way to Simmern and back. The weather continued to frustrate
with some sunshine but plenty of heavy downpours and grey skies. On Friday
we took Noddy shopping in Emmelshausen to stock up for another week and as
the sun was almost shinning we decided to visit St Goar on the Rhine as it
was supposed to be quite pretty. What can I say, tacky tourist shops. We did
buy two cakes from the bakery to have with our coffee, but apart from that
it was very disappointing. This is meant to be the prettiest part of the
Rhine, and we were thinking of coming back this way after the show, but St
Goar put us off that for the moment, but I am sure that there are some much
nicer villages to be seen.
We departed Hausbay very early on Sunday morning and drove to Dusseldorf
aiming to get there and into the show grounds camper parking first thing so
that we would have a whole day at the show on Sunday as well as Monday.
Thankfully the roads were quiet but quite wet at one point thanks to a
cloudburst, we even aquaplaned for a few seconds, which was interesting for
Noddy! On arrival at the parking we were a bit confused with where to go but
after a few circuits of the area and then some assistance from two very
helpful stewards we found ourselves parked and ready to go. The camper
parking has capacity for 2000 motorhomes and caravans, and it was quite a
sight, we have never seen so many parked in one place before. Anyway, we
made use of the free shuttle busses to the show and got stuck in. Wow,
lovely shiny motorhomes, everywhere. I wont bore with the details but we did
find a few vans that might suit us for our extended travelling someday. It
was quite a tiring two days, with 8 hours each day of wandering and up and
down into motorhomes of all shapes and sizes. It is no surprise that we now
have a stack of brochures to ogle over, and fall over.
This morning we departed from the show campsite and made the short trip down
to Cologne. We are based south of the city in a pleasant site on the banks
of the Rhine, and we have a nice pitch overlooking the river. If the weather
is good tomorrow, showers today, we will head into the city, possibly by
bike on the cycle path along the river. If the weather is poor then we will
have to decide whether to stay and hope for better weather or head off west
into Belgium or Holland.
Cheers
M&S

Another day another country

We had a great time in Hall Tuesday evening. There was a 2-day festival
Monday and Tuesday and the main event each evening was 'Teatro Nucleo', a
travelling group of entertainers. I think they are originally Argentinean
but are now based in Italy. On Tuesday they put on an open-air play of Don
Quixote that was brilliant. Despite the speech being in Spanish and German
we were thoroughly entertained. Thankfully the weather held out and the hour
and half passed without any rain, well apart from that included in the play,
both water and wine!
After a day of shopping on Wednesday, we left Hall early Thursday morning
for our next destination Freiburg in southwest Germany. It was quite a long
drive but the sun was out and the route was very scenic. The site in
Freiburg, we eventually found it after going the wrong way initially, was
very wet and boggy. Ten or so days of rain had made a mess of most of the
grass but the site was quite pleasant despite this and the owners very
friendly. After settling in we made the most of the sunshine and strolled
into town. The old town is very pretty and they still have the old open
'sewer' system in the roads. Well it is actually a network of large gutters
that still flow with water. They were originally used to water the livestock
that passed through the town, and now they are just a water hazard for
unobservant cyclists and pedestrians!
We only stayed for the one night due to all the mud and on Friday headed
further north up to Heidelberg. We are actually staying a few miles east of
the city at the town of Hirschhorn. Again the site was quite wet on arrival
but thankfully we have some paving slabs on our pitch to park on. The site
could be much nicer than it is. They have a lot of static caravans here, but
where people have removed their caravans the pitches have just been left a
mess. I don't think the owners are really keeping on top of things and there
are a lot of defunct electric hook up and water points. Apart from that the
site is quite nice and handy for Heidelberg.
As yesterday was dry and sunny we cycled into Hirschhorn and got a train to
Heidelberg. The city is very nice, the old part that is. After grabbing a
tram from outside the train station that took us to where we needed to be,
we had a nice stroll around, past all the shops, and through the old town.
The cathedral looked recently rejuvenated and we were lucky to be treated to
an impromptu organ recital. There was a concert later in the evening and the
organist was brushing up on his programme, so we got to hear most of it, and
for free too. Afterwards, we paid our 1€ each to go up the tower of the
cathedral, and after all the steps enjoyed the great view from the top. By
this time we were getting a bit peckish and so first headed for a nice
couple of large German beers, hic, before grabbing a snack, or two, to eat.
Thankfully after our nice sunny day out we made it back to camp in the
oncoming drizzle before the heavy rain dropped.
Today has been a cleaning day. I gave Noddy a bit of a wash down outside as
he was slowly losing his nice white shiny finish under a layer of muck and
grime, and Sue got to work inside. The weather has stayed good today with
plenty of sunny periods and the odd spot or two of rain. If the sun is still
around we will go into Hirschhorn tomorrow for a look around.
When we leave here we will continue our northward journey heading towards
Dusseldorf for the start of next week. The biggest motorhome show in Europe
is on in the city for the duration of that week, and as we are here we
thought we would go and have a nose at all the nice expensive motorhomes on
show, and do a bit of dreaming, or future planning!
Cheers
M&S

You can call me Michael Fish

Not that I predict sunny weather when a hurricane is around the corner, but
I do get it wrong occasionally. Sunday night we had very heavy rain
non-stop. We awoke to see the river from Noddy and we had never seen it from
our pitch before. It was up 2 metres or so and not far from reaching the
tents and caravans on the pitches along the waters edge. It had already
flooded over the footpath on the bank the other side. The water was moving
at quite a pace and was carrying all sorts of debris including quite large
chunks of wood that just seemed to bob like little wine corks. It continued
to rain most of the day, but lighter, and Robert the site owner was always
around to keep any eye on the water level, as were many people with their
cameras and videos. I think it was pretty close to becoming a site
evacuation but luckily with only light rain for the rest of the day the
water level eased just a little bit. Some people who had just arrived
decided to leave and look for better conditions, although I am not sure
where as I think most of Europe is under a big black cloud at the moment.
Anyway, over the next few days the rain stayed light with the odd glimpse of
the sun and by the end of the week the river was back to normal again. Big
sighs of relief all round, except of course for Robert as all the bad
weather had obviously put many people off going camping and the site was
quite empty by Saturday. It has probably hit him and other tourist
accommodation quite badly this year as the 4-6 weeks peak season has been
mostly washed out.
We still managed to do some cycling, and I headed off for a 35 mile round
trip on Thursday. It was sunny on the way but I got rather soaked on the way
back as the heavens opened. It was nice to have a warm and dry Noddy waiting
for me on my return.
Yesterday as the sun was out we decided to move on and head west towards
Innsbruck. It was a nice drive with the sun out and shining. We stopped off
at Kitzbuhel on the way. It is a nice pretty town and full of wealthy sorts
with plenty of nice shiny Mercedes and Porsches lining the streets. It would
be quite a nice place to be in the winter with snow all around and all the
après ski to get stuck into, although I am not sure if we are posh enough!
Our new site is in the town of Hall-in-Tirol a few miles east of Innsbruck.
It is quite a nice old medieval town and hopefully we will get into to see
it if the weather permits. Today we took a bus into Innsbruck. It was a bit
gloomy early on but the sun made a good long appearance for the middle of
the day. The city is fairly nice especially the old parts that are quite
colourful, but the rest is pretty drab and much like any other city. We had
a good wander around and popped into a few shops here and there. We had
coffee and cake in a Vienna style coffeehouse. The cake was very nice but
the place itself was very smoky. Austria does not seem to have a non-smoking
policy in bars and restaurants unlike Italy where it is banned. For lunch we
had some nice traditional Tyrolean food. Pizza. Well they eat a mix of
Austrian and Italian food in the Tyrol. Sue had a good day in the shops. She
is now the proud owner of a nice new pair of Adidas sandals. She has been
looking for some new shoes for 6 months! (Sue -yep I've been wearing my
multi coloured flip-flops that I bought for shower shoes for £1.50 last
July).
Anyway, it is raining again now, surprise.
Cheers
M&S

The Rain in Spain - Is mainly exported to Austria

My mistake. I said in the last blog entry that the weather was warming up
again after a few days of rain. What I should have said was that we were
expecting a very cold and wet week, as that is exactly what we have had. The
sun has popped out for the briefest of appearances and it has mostly been
around 12C during the day and pretty wet. Not that this is a great problem
for us as we can just sit tight and do some indoor things like reading or
listening to the radio, or even the odd spot of cleaning. The scrabble and
cards have made several outings also. We feel sorry for the poor people who
are only here for a week or two on their annual holiday as they have a very
cold and wet time of it especially if they are pitched on the grassy areas
of the site. We are on a nice gravel hardstanding so no mud at our door. The
site emptied out a bit over the last few days with people going home early
probably hoping for some sun back at base camp.
We have been here for just over two weeks now and will stay on for a bit
longer as despite the rain it is a very nice site and the surrounding area
is great. The bikes have made the odd trip out when the weather has been at
its best, but I must admit we don't feel too keen in the mornings when it is
pouring down despite having some nice new cycling waterproof jackets we
purchased the other day. This morning we were going to cycle up one of the
nearby hills at St Martin that has 7 or so churches / chapels on the 2km
route, not far but it does climb up 250m on the way.
The river next to the site has been gushing away with all the rain. We have
been assured by the site owner, a friendly chap called Robert, that the
prospect of it flooding is not likely as it is too cold to melt any of the
high level snow that may have fallen in the last week or so on the
surrounding mountains that feed the river. Not sure if that means it will
flood if we get a heat wave and more rain though!
Tomorrow if it is still wet we will head over to Salzburg as there is a big
shopping retail park there. Nothing like a bit of retail therapy, or window
shopping in our case, to wash away the wet weather blues. If the rain does
ease off we will probably do some trips out to places like Kitzbuhel, and
also Berchtesgaden over the border in Germany.

Anyway, despite the wet weather we are still very much enjoying ourselves
and planning all of our future options.

Cheers for now

M&S

Were on our way back - almost

We have now booked our return to the UK. We will be returning via the Euro
Tunnel on the 29th September. It seems strange now having a 'deadline' only
9 weeks away. Oh well just have to start the next trip sooner rather than
later!
We are still at Lofer, and still enjoying the morning cycling and the
afternoon relaxation. It has been a bit wet for the last day or so with the
odd thunderstorm thrown in for good measure, but it is now warming up again.
It is just so difficult to decide where to head to from here. This is a very
nice site and not too busy, but others places may well be very full and
noisy depending on where you head to. If we decided to head west into the
Tyrol then we might do a day trip over to Salzburg before we leave here but
it probably would take more than a day to see all that there is to see. It
is also very busy there now for the next few weeks as the Salzburg Festival
has just started which is nice if you can both afford and get tickets to the
events. I think we will probably choose not to do it in a day and either
find a campsite near the city to allow us plenty of time to see the sights,
or leave if for another time.

Anyway, that's about all for now. Time for a nice cup of tea I think.

Cheers

M&S

Apparently we are a 'couple of Lofers'

We are still at the site in the town of Lofer and will stay here for
probably another week or so. There are so many cycling and walking routes to
make the most of, all of which are well marked, and the weather is great,
sunny and temps up in the 30s. We tend to do our cycling or walking early
morning and then chill out for the rest of the day. It does make things
easier as the showers tend to be busy in the morning, but by the time we
have got back and had a bite to eat they are free. The rest of the day is
then spent idling around and hopping from one patch of shade to another.
There is a nice big tree next to us that give us shade on Noddy for most of
the midday sun and also gives us some nice shade to sit out in.
Our idling time is spent making plans for the future and basically coming up
with as many options for travelling as possible so that we can avoid having
to work. I think we have enough to keep us busy until we 'officially
retire'.
While we are here we will probably pop over the border into Germany for a
day out and see what life is like on the other side of the fence, not much
difference I would think, and we might also head over to Salzburg for the
day. Apart from that we are just content with enjoying our surroundings and
relaxing.

Cheers

M&S

The Grossglockner Experience

We have now moved on from Heiligenblut and its wonderful surroundings and
are now at the small town of Lofer in the Salzburg province of Austria. We
had a great last few days at Heiligenblut making the most of the walking,
cycling, and amazing scenery.
On Saturday I decided to go for broke and went on another wee mountain bike
tour. My destination was Franz-Josefs-Hohe where you get the best views of
the Grossglockner mountain range and also the Pasterze glacier. The cycle
route was most stunning. The total climb on the route was from 1200 at site
level to 2370 up at the top of the route. The initial ride was up through
forest on a rough trail, and then the final ascent was on the main road. It
was not an easy climb by any means and at some points on the final stretch
you look ahead to see what is coming and you think 'oh my god'. After all
the effort and once you finally arrive the view is just breathtaking, and
the adrenalin from the ride and the achievement keeps you pumped up for a
while. It was a bit chilly compared to down in the valley and I was glad I
had taken my fleece with me. I had decided on this trip to take the camera
as I had my backpack with essentials in it, so I managed to take many a
picture on route and at the top, and also on the way down, the odd video
clip or two. I managed at one point to get up to 43mph on the descent on the
road, crazy but brilliant. It took 1hr45 to get up and only 20mins to get
back, 11 miles each way. Sunday, funnily enough, was a day of rest, although
I didn't feel tired after the thrill of it all.
On Monday we went off first thing for a short run and a walk just down the
road from the site. We ended up getting carried away with ourselves and
headed much further down the valley than we had intended. We climbed up a
while and then dropped back down, jogging some of the way. I had thought we
could do a round trip but in the end we could not seem to find where the
return path started, so we had to back track all the way. We did however see
hundreds of butterflies of many a variety, and also a nesting pair of
falcons of some sort up in the pinewoods. We did not have our binoculars
with us so we could not hope to identify them.
We had originally planned to go for a hike if the weather was good, which it
was, so we took the ski gondola from Heiligenblut up to the top station for
the ski area at Schareck, 2552m. Wow, mind blowing views set off by the
crystal clear blue sky. After a few snaps and a wander about we made the
descent on foot, back down to 1200m. The alpine flowers up there and on the
way down were more beautiful than words, or even the many pictures we took,
can do justice to. The descent was quite a long hack, just over 31/2 hours,
and very trying especially on certain areas of the leg as it was pretty
steep in places and you cant help but pound down as you walk. We weren't
tired by the time we got back to camp, but our legs we a bit sore from the
pounding, and also the morning 'short' run / walk!
Tuesday, pardon my French, but bloody hell our legs were sore. I know we are
not as fit as we should be but even getting in and out of the van was
painful as our leg muscles were very tight, silly fools!
After hobbling around for a day and resting up we took to the paths again on
Wednesday and went on a hike up the other side of the valley to Briccius'
Chapel. This is where Saint Briccius was apparently killed in an avalanche
on route from Byzantium bringing with him a vial purporting to hold the
blood of Christ. The vial after is recovery now resides in the church built
in Heiligenblut, which is where the town gets its name from, translated as
'Holy Blood'. Anyway, the walk was again quite steep at points on the ascent
but eventually once you get to the chapel at 1600m it levels off into a
lovely alpine meadow. The route was a circular one, so after a quick look at
the very small chapel we headed off and ended up having yet another very
steep but beautiful climb trough the pinewoods up to the highest point on
the walk at just over 1900m. Our legs were just about keeping up with us
even after the descent back to the valley, which stretched them out a wee
bit. All in all quite a long walk at about 41/2 hours, but well worth it for
the views you get.
We left Heiligenblut yesterday and came through the Grossglockner pass.
First off we went to Franz-Josefs-Hohe so that Sue could see the views for
herself. We got there very early, just after 08h00, and it was blissfully
quite unlike when I had cycled on the Saturday. Apart from the fantastic
views we also saw many a Marmot and also a few mountain Ibex. After leaving
Franz-Josef-Hohe we then made the main climb up the pass. Noddy managed with
out a problem although it was quite steep in places and we made good use of
2nd gear, the highest point on the pass being at 2571m. We stopped off for a
while at one of the many lay-bys and had our breakfast surrounded by
magnificent views. It was lovely and peaceful apart from the maniacs on
motorbikes and in cars who seem to think it is a great challenge to race up
and down the pass taking risks and generally peeing everyone else off, and
not really seeing anything of the scenery but a blur as they try and stay on
the tarmac. It is amazing how many people cycle up and through the pass,
both on day trips and also cycling tours with all their panniers etc.
clinging to the bikes, full of admiration for them unlike the aforementioned
maniacs.
Noddy's brakes were most definitely feeling the strain on the descent, as it
is very long with many a hairpin bend. We stopped off occasionally to give
him a rest and also to make the most of the fantastic scenery. The road
through the pass is a toll road and cost us 26€, but on the whole it is
worth it especially if you make a long day of it and do some walking etc. up
in the heights of the mountains.
Now we are at Lofer and the site here is very nice. We are in the 'no kids'
area, so it is nice and quiet. There is plenty of walking and cycling to be
done here also, so we will stop off for a week or two, or perhaps three, and
enjoy the warm weather, mostly in the mid 30s at the moment.

Cheers

M&S

What goes up must come down

We have now moved on into central Austria and the Hohe Tauern National Park.
We are at the small town of Heiligenblut just south of the Grossglockner
Pass. It really is a very pretty place to be staying. The campsite is very
nice and is set in the valley just below the town itself, and is surrounded
by tree-covered mountains and hills. We have a great view of the peak of
Grossglockner (the highest peak in Austria at 3798m) in the distance and it
is still covered in snow. We will drive over the pass when we leave here and
head to the northern parts of Austria.
The only problem here is that it is mountainous, i.e. the cycling is a bit
more difficult. I have done one of the marked MTB routes so far and climbed
up to 1700m at the highest point. The site is at about 1200m so it is not as
bad as it sounds, but it was still pretty hard going as I only covered about
5 miles zigzagging back and forth up the mountain roads and tracks to gain
the 500m or so. The views were quite breathtaking and I did at one point
wish I had taken the camera with me, but I knew it was not an essential
piece of equipment (i.e. weight). The downhill was another thing, on mostly
dirt tracks and then finally tarmac. That is the real reason for not having
the camera with me, as it would most likely get shaken to bits on the very
bumpy and rocky dirt track at +20mph. There are several harder rides to do
and I will attempt them over the next week or so. Sue has also been getting
in the miles on the bike. She did 13 miles the other day before we left
Hermagor and she is also keen to try some of the smaller climbs around and
about the campsite.
There is plenty of walking to do around here. A ski lift from the town goes
up the to one of the nearby peaks, Schareck 2552m, and we will go up that
one day and walk back down. I think the walk is about 31/2 hours.
One of the new big things here is the sport of Nordic Walking. It is a
similar thing to Nordic Skiing, same arm and leg action, but without the
skis. You still have poles and use those as you stride out. It is meant to
be a total body workout as well as a great cardiovascular workout. You never
know we might even give it a go sometime.
Other than that there is not much else to report at the moment. We are still
very much enjoying ourselves, especially the not working part.

Ich habe mich verlaufen.

M&S

Future Projects - any takers?

Just in case you think we sit around all day snoozing I can tell you that
you are most wrong. We spend a fair amount of time trying to work out what
happens after we have finished travelling. Well the answer is simple, travel
some more.

Our current list includes the following options:

- more travelling around Europe in Noddy
- driving down all the way down through Africa to SA
- touring the USA in a camper for a year
- buying a yacht and sailing the Caribbean for 6 months or so
- touring New Zealand and Australia in a camper

At the moment we have not delved too deep into any of the options but we
will do so once back in the UK with cheap Internet access on the mobile.

For certain projects, especially Africa, we would take any serious offers of
fellow travellers seriously as on some trips safety in numbers is quite key.
So if you are getting itchy feet at work and spend more hours staring out of
the window than working, and wonder if there is a better way, then get in
touch. Matthew.goode@ukf.net

Cheers

M&S

Yes we are still alive

Hello, it has been a few days since last blog. Thanks for the reminders!
Not much to tell really. We are still at the site at Hermagor, but we are
leaving tomorrow morning. It has been so nice here just relaxing and
enjoying the wonderful outdoors, apart from the occasional thunderstorm. I
have been doing about an hours cycle a day and Sue has tried to do 30
minutes or so, and we are also still keeping up with the walking / running
programme. I did another organised MTB ride yesterday, was great. Climbed up
500m or so and had great views across the valley.
The footie is all done and dusted. Couldn't face doing another blog after
the England game, was too depressed. Was inevitable once it went to
penalties and most of the key penalty takers were off the pitch. Anyway, was
over it pretty soon especially after watching Germany get knocked out in a
room full of expectant German supporters. I tried to keep my cheers of
delight fairly restrained. Glad Italy won the final in the end. The French
were not really in the game, and after the 'Zidane' incident I don't think
it was going to be their day. We could almost hear the Italian celebrations
from over the mountains!
Austria has made it onto the provisional 'places to live' list. It is very
nice in this area and house prices are pretty cheap. It is also a great area
for all sports. In the summer there is all the walking and cycling along
with any number of waters ports on the many large lakes around. In winter
there is a pretty good ski area, Nassfeld, to make the most of as well as
ice-skating on the lakes, and probably snow machining. So watch this space,
you never know.
Sue is pleased as we now have some more guidebooks for her to read. We
didn't have anything on Austria, Germany and Switzerland, so we ordered some
Rough Guides on the Internet from Amazon. They only took a few days to
arrive, and we are now armed with the guides, a German phrase book, and
pocket German dictionary purchased in town. So no stopping us now.
Tomorrow we will be heading a bit further west and slowly doing some kind of
a route around Austria. Not too sure of where and when yet but if I get my
butt into gear and keep the blog updated more frequently you will know what
we are up to.
I guess that is probably all for now, except that you will be pleased to
hear that we have been out of work for over a year now, time has flown by,
and no we are not missing it or planning to do any again for a fair while,
if at all. We highly recommend it.

Ich glaube, ich habe ein bisschen zu viel getrunken.

M&S

Auf Wiedersein Pet

This is such a lovely place. The site, Schluga Camping, is in the small
village of Obervellach a few km east of Hermagor in Karnische region. We
have a great pitch with some shade for Noddy and from the van we look
straight at the mountains behind us. Spitzegel at 2119m high is mostly tree
covered but the peak is ragged and rocky with a cross on top to mark the
summit that you can just make out with the naked eye. The site is fairly
quiet at the moment but I am sure it will get much busier further into July
and August. There is a nice pool, apart from when the kids invade it, a
shop, a restaurant, and as previously mentioned the small cinema where they
are currently showing the footie games.
The area around is just a haven for walking and cycling in the summer, and
there is also a skiing area just down the road for the winter. Sue and I
have done some short cycles to town and back, and I have also been out doing
some longer rides. There are loads of well-marked cycle and walking routes,
and I have found a nice 20-mile route that I try and cycle most days, takes
about an hour. Also, the son of the family that owns the site takes people
out once or twice a week for a full on mountain bike ride. I did one on
Wednesday and I just about made it back alive. It was only about 20 miles
but we climbed about 650m at one point firstly up a steep tarmac road and
then up an even steeper rocky track. The views from viewpoint we reached
were amazing, and you could see mountains in both Slovenia and Italy. The
ride down was pretty heart stopping especially on the rocky track at 20+
mph. Hopefully there will be another this Wednesday also. We are also trying
to do a walking / running schedule in the morning. So the next time you see
us we will either be totally knackered or very fit.
A few km east of here is a lake, Pressegger See, where there are some
private beaches that you can pay to use. Schluga has its own which is of
course free to people staying on site, and there are all sort of facilities
there to use. We have not yet been to it as it looks very busy and quite
noisy as all the families tend to go down there but we will try and get
there this week.
As Hermagor is only a short ride away we have tried to cycle in to do the
shopping just getting supplies for 2 or 3 days at a go. On the whole things
don't seem to be much more expensive than Italy, and some things are
cheaper, but the fruit and vegetables that are available are not quite on a
par with Italy. I think they tend to eat more meat here than anything else.
Anyway COME ON ENGLAND, hope we can do the job on Portugal later, although I
am not looking forward to an England v Germany final as there are too many
partisan holidaymakers here!

Bratwurst and Sauerkraut

M&S

PS We have managed to find a supply of Rooibos tea here in Austria. If you
don't know, don't worry.

Another day another country

We had a very nice week at Aquileia. The site was very nice and mostly
quiet, although we did have a family with a very grizzly 1-year-old opposite
us for a few days and also a small school party who were not exactly quiet
whilst enjoying the swimming pool. But apart from that it was very nice and
relaxing. I did a few cycle rides, and we both cycled out to Grado one day,
a nice and relaxing 25 miler (temp must have been +30c ). Grado is on the
coast and seems to be a major German tourist spot. It was quite a nice town
with a very pretty Centro Storico and also many a yacht in the canals and
marinas. It also has a fairly large and typically Italian organised beach
area with rows and rows of colour coded umbrellas and sunloungers, not quite
our scene. We had a stroll around and a very tasty slice of pizza, and then
made the trek back to site via an alternative route suggested to us by the
English couple from site that we had bumped into in town. The route was very
pleasant although longer than the direct way back that we had used going to
Grado, but the roads were good, quiet and flat, and we needed the exercise!
Aquileia was once an important Roman colony in 181BC and the basilica has
some amazing mosaics on the floors that are in very good condition. There
are also several other Roman sites in the town, some of which are still
being excavated. They were also staging a string of 'Mozart' concerts in the
Basilica throughout the summer, but unfortunately we had just missed one
before we arrived and the next was not for another week or so.
After our week of relaxation we chose to move on and head north across the
border into Austria. Our initial destination is Hermagor in Carinthia. The
site we have chosen to stay at is on our cheap ACSI rate until the end of
the 1st week in July, which helps us keep the cost down a bit before peak
season arrives and costs start to jump. However since being here we have
discovered that you also pay a 1.25€ tourist tax per person each night in
Austria and some sites charge an environmental charge, 1.65€, to cover
rubbish disposal. I think German sites and perhaps some in Switzerland also
charge a 'rubbish' fee. It all soon adds up and the cheap rate becomes a bit
more expensive. Oh well I guess it is a gentle introduction into the higher
prices we will pay in the middle of summer. On the plus side, the site we
are at now has a small cinema where they are showing all the World Cup
games!
Our biggest challenge now will be the language barrier as we know no German
and we don't even have a phrasebook or dictionary. Neither do we have a
guidebook for Austria, Switzerland or Germany. So we will have to hunt down
a good bookshop somewhere and tool up!

Apfel Strudel

M&S

Restless Feet Again

You kind of get used to a place and it feels like home after a while. Well
it felt like we were leaving home on Friday when we left the site at Preci.
It had only been 2 weeks but we had kind of settled in there, but we know
that there is a lot more to explore and see.
So we headed to the east coast and the town of Gatteo Mare north of Rimini.
At this point I feel the need to make a point. The roads in Italy are a mess
and quite possibly dangerous. Apart from the majority of the Autostrada
network, most of the major roads and some minor roads are of a very poor
quality, pot holed, rutted, cracked, and quite literally falling to pieces.
For a country that is supposed to have one of the top 10 economies in Europe
it is beyond belief that the road network can be so poorly maintained. It is
probably bad enough travelling in a car, but in Noddy we feel everything and
at times you have to fight to keep going in the intended direction. It will
hopefully be quite a relief when we eventually cross the border to Austria
as we hope things will be infinitely better there.
Anyway, digression over, after a fair drive on the aforementioned bumpy
roads we arrived at the site and were not too taken with it. Very pleasant
that it may have been, it was quite busy and mostly inhabited by Italians.
This I guess was not a surprise as it was near the sea and also more of a
holiday camp than a nice quiet site. So we decided to make it just an
overnight stay and then continue on our planned route on Saturday. We did
however manage to get a good shop done at the very large and smart retail
park nearby, so not all bad.
A wee problem we did notice was with Noddy and his left rear tyre. Sue had
thought it looked a bit low on Friday and we put some air in it. It was then
low again on Saturday so we put some more air in it. We decided to see how
it went as we drove and stopped occasionally to check it. We were heading
for the far north east of Italy towards the Slovenian border at a small town
called Aquileia and decided to hit the Autostrada for most of the way so as
to avoid both the slow and bad surfaced other routes. After a while on the
strada we stopped to check the tyre and it was again low. I decided that it
was prudent to set about changing the wheel rather than risk going further
especially after noticing that there was a nail imbedded in the tyre. It was
very warm on Saturday, in the high 30's C, so as you can imagine it was a
hot and sweaty job changing the wheel on a motorhome, but with Sue's help we
managed to complete the job and restore Noddy to 100% fit. We just need to
find a tyre place now so that we can get the damaged one sorted just in case
we need to repeat the operation at any time, hopefully we wont have to!
We eventually arrived at our destination and even before we got to the site
we knew it was going to be a far better place than the previous one at
Gatteo as the surrounding area was so much nicer, and we weren't
disappointed. The site is very nice, quiet (not many Italians), and we will
be able to spend a few days or a week here before continuing. Also there is
a bar just down the road with Sky so I can watch the footie, well you have
to get the important things sorted out.
Today we had a nice chat with a retired English couple who gave us a whole
list of things to see and do around here, they have been coming here for 25
years, so it can't be a bad place, and it all sounds and looks very nice.
They have also recommended a site in the North of Austria, which they say is
excellent, quiet, and cheap. It is in our guidebooks and seems very nice, so
we will probably route via there at some point in July.

Il tuo ego é fuori controllo.

Ciao

M&S

Come on England!

It seems a while since we last gave you an update on our progress and not
surprisingly we have not got that much to report. We are still at the site
in the Umbrian hills near the town of Preci and are just relaxing and
enjoying the views, oh and the odd World Cup game! The guy who owns the site
very generously brings in his own satellite box so that we can watch the
footie in a room above the bar.
We returned the other day back to Norcia to have a look at the town itself.
A very pretty old walled town, quite and peaceful except for a little bit of
hustle and bustle around the main square and the few shops that there are.
One of the shops is a great little deli with all sorts of lovely foods on
offer including a good selection of locally made salamis some of which are
made from wild boar, a must if you ever visit. We had some for lunch today,
yum yum.
One piece of luck we did have on our visit was returning to the supermarket
where we had shopped a few days earlier. When coming to pay for our
groceries we discovered that we were missing our credit card. You can
imagine what was going through our heads. We had enough cash so decided to
pay and then panic back in Noddy. The young girl on the checkout said
something to us in Italian but we didn't understand. Then the supervisor
came over and again tried to explain something to us, but to no avail. We
weren't sure what was going on. Eventually a lady from the shop next door
was called in to translate and it turned out that they had either recognised
us from our previous visit or the fact that we were English and seem to be
missing a certain piece of plastic. We had left our card there after paying
last time and they had put it aside in case we returned again. What a relief
it was to be reunited with our card and not having to try and work out where
we had lost it as well as having to cancel it. We do have a backup stashed
in Noddy but thankfully that can remain in its hiding place.
On Saturday after the excitement of the England game we had a very nice meal
in the restaurant on site. We did not go too mad with the menu, but had very
nice starters and a most delicious pizza each freshly cooked in the wood
fired oven, oh and a litre of the local red stuff and a bottle of fizzy
water to wash it all down. It was all very nice, but we did feel sorry for
the poor waiter who was running around in circles looking after everyone on
his own. He did however manage to do a great job of it.
We will be leaving here on Friday, after England has crushed T&T, and start
heading north towards Austria. We want to get there before the end of the
month to make best use of the cheap sites before prices start to climb in
Italy. We will stop at a site on the east coast near Ravenna for a few days,
perhaps even a week if it is nice, and might even watch a few more footie
games.
The weather here has been pretty good with most days warm and sunny except
when the chill breeze blows. Today has been the warmest yet, high 20's, and
tomorrow is supposed to be even better, into the 30's.

Anyway, time to go and watch France against Swisscheeseland.

Ciao

M&S

Nothing like fresh mountain air

We did indeed leave Gubbio on Friday as the bad weather had not really eased
off and it was still very wet and miserable. We were planning on spending a
day or two near Spoletto but as the weather looked set and the campsite was
not cheap we chose to leave Spoletto for another day, or another trip.
Instead we headed to our next destination in the far eastern stretches of
Umbria and the small town of Preci on the edge of the Sibillini National
Park. The campsite is perched on a hillside just outside the village of
Castelvecchio a couple of miles from Preci itself. It is a very nice site
and we have a great view from our pitch out across the fields and to the
hills nearby. The weather has improved now after wet days both on Friday and
Saturday, and it has been mostly warm and sunny with the odd downpour, well
we are up in the hills so I guess it is to be expected.
Yesterday we had a nice lazy Sunday. In the morning we took the short walk
into Castelvecchio and on the way into the village we saw two men picking
cherries from a tree, one of the many wild cherry trees around, that leant
out over the path from a terrace above. On the way back they were still
there and they called to us, broke of a small branch and dropped it down.
The fruits were delicious, especially as they were wild, and free! In the
afternoon I cycled the few miles to Preci to have a look around. It is a
very nice old medieval town perched on a hill, and despite it being a Sunday
and very quiet it has a great deal of charm. It is a real rabbit warren of
little streets climbing up to the old Palazzo at the top of the town. The
cycle was nice and despite it only being 2 or 3 miles door to door it is
quite a drop from site down to the road and then up to Preci, and then
obviously visa versa on the way back.
Today we headed off in the sunshine to Norcia to see the Piano Grande. The
Piano Grande is an extremely huge plain, which once used to be a lake, high
up in the hills (1400m or so) next to Norcia and is quite an amazing sight
once you have taken the steep winding road up to it. You approach it blind
not knowing what to expect and then suddenly you rise over a crest in the
road and it is there in front of you. What made it particularly impressive
was the recent snow capping the hills that surround the plain. In one corner
of the plain is the small town of Castelluccio perched on a small hill, and
apparently early morning the plain is covered in cloud and then slowly as it
disperses the town emerges almost ghost like from its cloudy covering.
We shall return another day to visit the town. It was mid afternoon when we
had returned from the Piano Grande and on Mondays everything closes at
lunchtime and the towns can appear quite soulless.
At least we have now sorted out one burning issue, finding somewhere to
watch a few World Cup games in pleasant surrounds as the site has a TV room
and I think the staff are quite looking forward to watching the odd game or
two over the next few weeks. So we shall stay here for another week or so
and see how it goes. There is plenty to do from site, walking and cycling in
the hills around, and also a few more small towns to check out.

Ciao

M&S

If you can't see, I'm on my soap box

We are back as roaming tourists again. We left the site at Bolsena yesterday
morning. Although we enjoyed our week there very much we ended up leaving on
bad terms with the campsite. When you check in at a site they obviously need
some ID so that they can take your details etc. and they usually take your
passports. What you can get instead is a CCI card, credit card size, that
has your details on it, i.e. name address passport number, and they use that
instead. This is what we did when we arrived, but when we went to check out
they did not have our card and could not find it anywhere. They had lost it!
Can you believe it? Typical Italian efficiency! Most campsites take your CCI
or passports etc. and put them in an envelope just for your details and then
into a drawer. This site seems to just lump all the passports etc. for the
same day arrivals into one folder, and thus our CCI card must have ended up
in someone else's passport and vanished. We were not impressed, but what can
you do.
Whilst I am in the mood, when we left the site we headed to Orvieto about
20km North of Bolsena to have a look around the old medieval town. After
driving around trying to follow intermittent parking signs we eventually
found the parking out of town that you could use. There was a huge car park,
FREE, for cars and coaches, FREE, but next to it was an area just for
motorhomes. It was an organised area with electric points if you wanted to
stay the night, but just to park there they wanted 2€ and hour. I think you
can read my thoughts. We were tempted to park in the free parking but you
can bet your socks that we would get a ticket or clamped. People say Britain
is a rip-off, think again.
Anyway, we ended up leaving Orvieto and headed back to Lago Trasimeno and
the old town of Castiglione del Lago. We only stayed a night there and went
into the town yesterday afternoon to have a look around. It's a very nice
little old town that used to be the dominant town on the lake. It is not
very big but very nice apart from a couple of the shops that are a bit
touristy and ply for trade out on the streets.
Today we headed a bit further east and north to Gubbio, about 35km north of
Perugia. Gubbio is another pretty town perched on a hillside and if the
weather improves, has been a bit wet and windy today, we will venture in
there later on this afternoon for a look. I don't think we will make it
around all of the 78 churches!
From here, probably tomorrow, we will head south of Perugia to Spoleto,
another old town, and then into the Sibillini mountains to the east.

Ciao

M&S

Life is good

Well, we are still at Bolsena and have come to like the campsite very much
despite our initial thoughts. Yes the facilities may not be as we have been
used to, but they are still very good in their own way. There are more
continental WC than UK style, i.e. holes in the ground, but that does not
seem to be so much of an issue as they are always kept very clean and most
of the campers seem to prefer those than the UK ones. The showers are mostly
in cubicles outside, but there is a non stop supply of hot water and again
very clean, and you get to have a shower in the nice morning sunshine. I
guess it is just more of a European way of living than we have been used to,
but you adapt, and we have.
We have cycled into Bolsena a few times and it is a very nice town indeed.
It is probably the first place we have visited on this trip that we have
thought 'we could live here'. There are a only a few shops but they stock
everything you could ever want or need, and the old part of the town is just
delightful.
Back at site the private beach onto the lake is very nice, and it has black
volcanic sand which makes a nice change. If you don't know, this is the
largest volcanic lake in Europe. We had a nice swim in the lake today, the
water is cold but very pleasant when you get in, and no salt so you don't
end up all sticky when you get out.
The site has got busier over the last few days, but you don't seem to notice
many people about if you are just sitting on your pitch as they all descend
on the beach to enjoy it.
So, in summary we have not really done much since we have been here and I
think we will just chill for a few more days before heading east back into
Umbria or wherever.

Ciao

M&S

When in Rome - Part II

We had two more days of seeing the Roman sights. Sunday we headed first to
the Vatican to see the Pope. And see him we did as he briefly blesses the
huge crowd in Piazza St Pietro from a balcony in the Palace. We had heard
that he did this at noon every Sunday and thought that something was going
on as the streets from the metro stop to the Vatican were streaming with
people, and on arrival in the piazza it was almost packed out. At 12h00
sharp he made his appearance although he was at quite a distance and hidden
behind his bulletproof rostrum. After a few minutes as we did not understand
what was being said we decided to head into St Peters itself as the queues
from earlier had gone whilst the Pope was greeting his audience. What an
amazing building. Not only is it enormous but also extremely ornate. We took
our time and saw as much as we could take in while the place was almost
empty, and made it out again before the tour groups from outside in the
square descended in their hundreds. After eating our lunch in the square we
headed off on foot across the river and ended up in the park in the north
east of the city centre off from Piazza Del Popolo. After a nice stroll
around in the park and as we were feeling the heat we headed back to site
and chilled out in the evening sunshine.
Monday morning was another early start as we were going to try and visit the
Vatican museums early before the crowds hit. Silly idea. We got there at
about 09h00 and the queue was already from the entrance almost all the way
back to Piazza St Pietro, mostly tour groups. We decided to give it a miss
as it would have taken probably 2 hours to get through and it would have
been unbearably busy inside. So instead we utilised our travel tickets and
hit a few buses and trams around the city. We also visited a very nice
little church not far out from the Colosseum which had an amazing mosaic
above the altar, one of the few in the city. As we did not have any food
with us we took a bus to the Centro Storico to hunt down a place from some
options in the guide book, but as is usually our luck they were either
closed or only doing pizza, which we wanted, in the evening. We eventually
found a nice place doing sandwiches and satisfied our hunger. Later on back
at the site Sue was chatting to a nice Dutch lady who said they had been
told buy a German lady who's husband was a tour guide that the Vatican
museums are not worth visiting from Spring through summer as they are packed
and you just get rushed through. Glad we did not queue and spend the 12€
each for the privilege. We will have to return at another time and visit.
After 4 hard days of wearing out the Roman pavements it was time to move on
and today we took the short trip north up to Lago Bolsena and the town of
Bolsena. The campsite was a bit of a fright on first arrival as the
facilities are not quite as good as we have been used to, but they are okay
and will suffice for a few days while we chill out here. I took a brief
cycle back into town, about 3 miles away, and it seems very nice. So we will
be popping in and out over the next few days I am sure.

Avete un vocabolarietto migliore di questo?

Ciao

M&S

When in Rome

We eventually managed to drag ourselves away from our lakeside retreat on
Wednesday morning although we did deliberate about it for a while. Well when
you are having a nice time in a lovely location and there is no real need to
go anywhere in any specific time scale then it is hard to leave what feels
like 'home'.
Anyway, we hit the Autostrada and dropped down to Roma. We had a tip off
from a nice Dutch man at the lake about a site we were thinking of going to
but didn't believe it had any public transport near enough to make it
feasible for visiting the city. He had just come from there and said it was
no problem. And it isn't. The campsite provide a free bus to the nearest
station and then it is just 15 minutes into the heart of the city. The site
is nearly 15€ cheaper a night than the one we would have gone to.
So we arrived on Wednesday, settled in, and then headed into Roma first
thing on Thursday. We purchased a 7 day ticket for the public transport
(i.e. travel card), only 16€ each, and had a very nice first day roaming the
streets. Unfortunately not long after physically extracting the tickets from
the nice not so shiny ticket machine, had to hit it a few times to get it to
cough out what was required, we then found that there was a general strike
on all transport on the next day, Friday, so we would not be able to get
into the city then. Anyway, once in the city on Thursday we ended up at the
Colosseum, via the sights leading down to and including the Capitoline Hill,
but decided against venturing in as the queue was very long and it looked
even busier inside. We made a plan to return another day early in the
morning to beat the tour buses. We then took the returning long stroll back
to our train station via several of the shopping streets and the Trevi
Fountains, although we somehow couldn't find them.
Friday, the strike day, was still very nice enjoying the sunshine, getting
all the washing done, doing some shopping, and just relaxing some more.
Can't get enough of a good thing.
Today we headed back in to the city early to do the ancient remains before
the crowds hit. We left the site at 08h00 and arrived at the Colosseum just
after 09h00. Quite an amazing place although the several hundred weight of
scaffolding both blocking up entrances and also supporting the odd brick or
two kind of detracts from the overall atmosphere. The Forum and the
Palatine, the oldest of the Roman ruins, are also quite impressive but hard
to imagine what it once was as it also has the 'scaffold' effect and the odd
bit of reinforcement here and there.
The old town, Centro Storico, was very pleasant and more of a place to
stroll and take in all the sights. Eventually after a coffee and cake stop
and a bite of lunch we ended up at the Pantheon, one of the oldest buildings
in the city. As you can expect for a free entrance it was very busy, but
still quite awe inspiring given its age.
We had no choice as it was so warm to get a bit of light refreshment at this
point and navigated the streets to find a recommended ice cream parlour to
sample some 'healthy' local specialities, before then heading back to the
train station to get the treno back home.

Felice Compleanno Matt

Ciao

M&S

Just Chillin'

Well on Thursday the weather did not look nice. It started raining at about
06h00 and kept going strongly until very late morning. So we decided to sit
tight and leave Perugia until Friday. Once again we used the cheap local
trains and buses and ended up in the old town on top of the hill in the
centre of the city. It is not a huge place, but still very nice and not very
busy. The best part were the views from the walls on the edge of the old
town looking around for miles despite it being very hazy. The sun shone all
day and our decision to delay from Thursday was vindicated.
Apart from that we have really just kicked back end enjoyed the sun and the
views across the lake from site. As I mentioned previously we have a nice
pitch on the waters edge, there are about a dozen or so pitches that are and
the rest of the 50 odd are back further into the hotel grounds. This does
lead to some most amusing dashing about in the mornings when a waterside
pitch comes up for grabs as someone is departing. Before the dust has
settled from the departing unit someone else's outdoor chairs appear to mark
the pitch as 'in use' so that they can dash back and grab / move the
remainder of their possessions before anyone else can lay claim. This almost
led to an altercation yesterday when the staff at reception must have told
some new arrivals that they could have a pitch by the water, but in the time
it took them to walk down and inspect the chairs and assorted items from
another caravan had already been relocated. Sadly no fistfight ensued and
the new arrivals chose a different pitch instead. One lives in hope.
You will be pleased to hear that 'Whistling Joe' next door is still in full
'tune', and he has managed an ABBA number or two and a little bit of
classical. Well I assume that is what they were as they are not exactly true
renditions, and he must be just a wee bit tone deaf.
However, it is very pleasant here and we shall stay for a few more days just
chilling out before we head in the direction of Rome over the next week or
two.
Yesterday was very hot and sunny, and the lake was eventually quite busy
with small boats of many a design. Unfortunately today is calm and it is
just starting to rain. No worry, the local paper promised 32C for tomorrow
fingers crossed!

Pensavo che fosse é strano

Ciao

M&S

In which I try to set fire to Noddy

As planned we eventually left Bucine on Tuesday, although we did deliberate
about it for a while in the morning as it was pouring with rain as it had
done for the previous afternoon and evening. At last the thunder and
lightning eased off and we decided to get going. We did not have too far to
go and ended up on the north shore of Lago Trasimeno at the town of
Passignano sul Trasimeno. The site is in the grounds of the Hotel Kursaal
and we have a nice pitch right on the waters edge. The site was fairly quiet
when we arrived yesterday but has started to get busier and we now have
neighbours squeezed in next to us which is fine apart from the mans
incessant whistling. He spent about 2 hours, not kidding, extracting all
sorts of tables chairs and who knows what from their motorhome and never
stopped to take a breath. It seems that when he is not talking to his wife
he whistles, oh and its the same tune. Perhaps we might snip their handbrake
cable in the dark of night and wheel them into the water, shame its only 7m
at its deepest.
Anyway, we had a nice stroll into town and the lady at the Tourist
Information was very helpful with all our questions about local transport.
We bought a couple of nice pastries and headed back to the van to enjoy them
with a nice cafe latte. When we have used the espresso pot, the traditional
little metal ones, it gets washed and then dried quickly on the electric hob
otherwise it is a pain to dry. Unfortunately whilst the pot was drying I got
sidetracked helping a Dutch couple move their caravan, and then went to sit
outside with Sue and forgot about the aforementioned drying pot. When the
smoke alarm in the van started cheeping I suddenly realised that perhaps the
pot was now dry. Well most of it was apart from the plastic handle that was
now melted around the base of the pot and was smoking a tad with the odd
hint of a flame. I don't think it would have done much damage, but it just
goes to prove that smoke alarms are worth their weight in fire
extinguishers.
Tomorrow we will get a train into Perugia if the weather looks nice and then
perhaps do Assisi on Saturday.

Ciao

M&S

Time for a Holiday

After all the hustle and bustle of lovely Florence we headed about 60km
south into central Tuscany to a site just outside the small town of Bucine.
We thought that a relaxing weekend in the countryside would be a nice
'holiday' from the holiday. We have spent the last 2 days relaxing, well
cleaning the van inside and out, and generally enjoying the lovely hot
sunshine.
As can be expected at some point or another your blissful peace and quiet
will be shattered by something or somebody and this time it wasn't hundreds
of screaming kids but a group of bikers on Harley Davidson's who arrived on
Friday for the weekend. Actually they were mostly quiet and compared to the
kids almost nonexistent.
Today, Monday, we took a break from the relaxation and went into Arezzo for
the day. We cycled into Bucine, about 3 miles away, and took a train. It was
only 4.40€ each for a return and the journey was about 30 minutes, so not
bad value. Arezzo is a fairly large town and has a charming old quarter
perched on the top of the hill in the centre of the town. We spent a fair
while just strolling the streets stopping here and there to admire the
buildings and pop into the odd church, including the Duomo. Just outside the
Duomo a presentation was going on and afterwards we discovered that it was
the 148th (I think) anniversary of the Police force. We did not understand
what was being said but several officers we presented with awards of some
description and a few local citizens were also acknowledged to the rapturous
applause of some local youths. After the pomp had finished we checked out
the Duomo, and were most pleasantly surprised by its interior. Mostly quite
plain and not over the top apart from one of the side chapels that was most
ornate with frescos and lit by real wax candles. I mention the candles as
most of the churches we have seen so far don't seem to burn candles anymore
but have electric imitations instead.
After the Duomo we covered the remainder of the old town and stopped in the
Piazza Grande to consume our packed lunch that Sue had made earlier and to
enjoy the warmth of the sun. In a way it was quite fortunate that the town
was not too big and did not consume too much of our time as we got the 14h14
train back to Bucine and cycled back to site arriving just in time before a
thunderstorm and a very large downpour commenced. If we had stayed any
longer in Arezzo I think we would have got quite soaked at some point or
another.
We will leave here tomorrow and head down to Lago Trasimeno just into Umbria
and stay there for a few days and make some trips into local towns including
Perugia, and also perhaps back across into Tuscany to some of the beautiful
hill towns.

Lo consiglieró ai miei amici.

Ciao

M&S