Got to Vias with some relief in late afternoon. Met up with Ian and Emmy after we had just sat down in a cafe. Bit of a relief because linda not sure of how to get to Ian and flos. Was a lovely welcome to Vias!
Wednesday 15th October
Was such a relief to wake up having a base for the rest of the week. Many thanks to Ian, Flo, and family for making us so welcome.
Our week at Vias...
Lin here agreeing with Brent re enjoying being able to chill, catch up with paper work..eg checking the bank balances and getting to know Tom and Emie a bit more. We had a lovely lunch at the Peace family's home on our first day and enjoyed strolling down to the beach and exploring the village. On Friday we had lunch all together down in Vias and in the evening Brent went with Iain to Anthony's stag do, whilst I went out on the hen do with the girls... both were fun experiences....
The hen night / l'enterrement du jeune fille: 5 of us – me, Flo, Laure, Stephanie and Megan, the bride to be, headed to Beziers, where we met Julie, who had prepared an outfit covered in sweets, including a matching necklace, for Megan to wear. Having put this on, Megan was then given a basket full of goodies: sweeties, g strings, perfumes etc. We all then proceeded to the first bar, where we approached unsuspecting men...and some women, who donated money ( a pen and some cigarettes!) to the bride, and chose something from the basket in return. At some point in the evening Flo took out a set of scales and set out a challenge for Megan: she had to kiss 2000 kilos of men! Looked good fun to me and the men she chose were all good fun and joined in without complaining...the fact that Megan is a gorgeous girl, may have contributed to this. At some point we enjoyed some tapas together then at the end of the evening Flo tallied up and Megan went home with 185 euros! What a great tradition.
The stag night...over to you Brent:
The stag night was not such a sober affair. We were based in the Irish bar in Vias. Was fantastic to be made so welcome by the grooms friends. The beer was flowing followed by carmel vodka shots in between each pint and then later a baileys mint one. The groom Antony was dressed up ( by Ian ) as a rather fetching woman. Was actually a bit scary the way he could wiggle his hips. Anyways he also had a pint glass taped to his hand which was regularly filled and he was blindfolded at regular intervals so needless to say his drinks were mixed. My capacity to keep imbibing the drink has limited with age so at the point when Ian and Antony moved to the next bar I retired and walked back to the gite.
Next morning felt surprisingly ok. Linda had offered to do the video recording at the wedding so went off. I had some quiet time on my own (which was very welcome ) At about 3.00 ish Linda came back with Emie and Tom and we did some drawing, and football. We had a game of wally. Tom proved he was particularly good by beating me 100 points to 93. The game involved scoring by hitting the tree ( 2 points ) the wall ( 1 point ) and the window ( 3 points ) . The ball was very soft and the window very small!!! Good time had by all. But boy did my inner thigh hurt from side footing the ball. Damn to getting old :-)
In the evening we had been invited to the post wedding celebrations with some food and drink at Ians and Flos. It was an intimate gathering with close friends invited and we felt very privileged to be there. The bride and groom looked resplendent - which was quite amazing considering the alcohol that had flowed the night before. They both put on a superb dance which was to a compilation of pop songs starting and finishing with their favourite Elvis number. Retired earlier than most after a lovely evening.
Sunday was a day of catching up and planning ahead. Was glad to be able to get our head around the forthcoming England visit.
Woke up to a cloudy day on Monday ( shock horror ). But as in time honoured fashion the sun did come out and we set out on our planned cycle trip along the Midi Canal to Bezier
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Friday, 17 October 2008
On the road again
Sunday 12th...Lin here and nothing to report really. Quiet day by the pool, with a game of boules at the end of the day.... have to say I'm not a good loser and Brent, who I have to say has had more practice of boules, having played reserve for Dave and Wendy's Red Lion team...beat me hands down. As I'm already 7-2 down at backgammon my morale is low in respect of these competitions. Any advice gratefully received!!
Monday 13th..still Lin here. Well today we got the car back: this involved a 4k walk to the village of Puget, where the garage was. I'd called earlier to be told it was ready and had taken 2 hours to fix at a cost of 120 euros. Turned out the petrol tank wasn't damaged, just the outer covering. Anyway when it came to paying I was quite pleased with myself as I got a reduction for cash. However we both still feel a bit ripped off...still we needed to feel safe. Returned to camp and tried to renew the green card...therein lies a tale. Spent the best part of £6 trying to renew the card using a card...in the end we rang off having listened to recorded music for much of the time. What makes this all worse is that Gordon told us that in France the green card is automatically provided with car insurance. So much for being in the EU! Anyway..on the road again and headed to the living room of Provence (Salon de Provence) where we found a nice little hotel with free internet!!! Really pleased to have caught up with both Simon and David (Brent's sons) this week.
Tuesday 14th October
Still Lin here as Brent is in the middle of cooking dinner. Today we enjoyed looking around the living room (salon) of Provence. Salon de Provence ... it's old town rang bells for Brent, who thinks he visited it years ago. It was very pretty and we particularly liked the Nostradamus statue, which we photographed and may try to draw at some point.
Brent here now. Packed our things back into car and set off 10km north of the town to find a walk that we had looked up in 500 walks in France. Beautiful, bright sunny day with a hint of crispness in the air that you associate with autumn. We arrived in the village along a tree lined avenue. Rucksack packed with baguette, cheese and salad we put on our boots, got out our sticks and set off. The started up a steep hill which led quickly into sandstone rocks which were peppered with caves. These had a long history dating back to the stoneage but then being re-occupied in the middle ages when a village of 200 people grew up. Was fascinating to think about how people must have led their lives amongst the rocks. We attempted to follow our map unsuccessfully. The area was also wooded with lots of paths criss crossing it. Have found in the past that woods are notorious for getting lost in – so it proved. We aborted our plan to do the walk but had not been disappointed by the area – set off back to the car to carry on our journey.
Attempted to stop in Arle but after Linda had done about 3 circuits of the town to try and find a parking space decided to move on. We talked of our memories of being able to drive in France and pull into small towns and park with ease. Alas seems to be no longer. Carried on our journey feeling frustrated. Amazingly the temperature was probably hotter than we have had.
Monday 13th..still Lin here. Well today we got the car back: this involved a 4k walk to the village of Puget, where the garage was. I'd called earlier to be told it was ready and had taken 2 hours to fix at a cost of 120 euros. Turned out the petrol tank wasn't damaged, just the outer covering. Anyway when it came to paying I was quite pleased with myself as I got a reduction for cash. However we both still feel a bit ripped off...still we needed to feel safe. Returned to camp and tried to renew the green card...therein lies a tale. Spent the best part of £6 trying to renew the card using a card...in the end we rang off having listened to recorded music for much of the time. What makes this all worse is that Gordon told us that in France the green card is automatically provided with car insurance. So much for being in the EU! Anyway..on the road again and headed to the living room of Provence (Salon de Provence) where we found a nice little hotel with free internet!!! Really pleased to have caught up with both Simon and David (Brent's sons) this week.
Tuesday 14th October
Still Lin here as Brent is in the middle of cooking dinner. Today we enjoyed looking around the living room (salon) of Provence. Salon de Provence ... it's old town rang bells for Brent, who thinks he visited it years ago. It was very pretty and we particularly liked the Nostradamus statue, which we photographed and may try to draw at some point.
Brent here now. Packed our things back into car and set off 10km north of the town to find a walk that we had looked up in 500 walks in France. Beautiful, bright sunny day with a hint of crispness in the air that you associate with autumn. We arrived in the village along a tree lined avenue. Rucksack packed with baguette, cheese and salad we put on our boots, got out our sticks and set off. The started up a steep hill which led quickly into sandstone rocks which were peppered with caves. These had a long history dating back to the stoneage but then being re-occupied in the middle ages when a village of 200 people grew up. Was fascinating to think about how people must have led their lives amongst the rocks. We attempted to follow our map unsuccessfully. The area was also wooded with lots of paths criss crossing it. Have found in the past that woods are notorious for getting lost in – so it proved. We aborted our plan to do the walk but had not been disappointed by the area – set off back to the car to carry on our journey.
Attempted to stop in Arle but after Linda had done about 3 circuits of the town to try and find a parking space decided to move on. We talked of our memories of being able to drive in France and pull into small towns and park with ease. Alas seems to be no longer. Carried on our journey feeling frustrated. Amazingly the temperature was probably hotter than we have had.
Sunday, 12 October 2008
Monday 6th Oct
OK.. so today we decided to stick to the coast road and head for Imperia. When we got to Alassio however the sun was boiling and we spotted a lovely sandy beach so decided to explore. A friendly Scottish lady who worked in the tourist info gave us lots of info (we later found out that she'd studied languages at A level and came to Italy as a young woman set to be an air hostess. Then she met and fell in love with an Italian and she's been settled here ever since). We decided to stay the night and found a little hotel with sea view. Spent the afternoon on the beach relaxing....keep telling ourselves “ we deserve this!” but can't really believe how lucky we've been...not one day without sunshine in 6 weeks! The sea was just lovely today and we both enjoyed the swims. As in Levanto we spent the evening in a bar with nibbles and filled up on pizza afterwards. We drank the local wine Pigato, which is delicious, but proved to be a bit expensive...oh well, after 4 nights of camping “we deserve this!”
Tuesday 7th Oct
( Brent here ) Sitting in the tent in the rain thinking back over the last two days. Yesterday,( thats date above in the blog ) started cloudy but at the far end of the bay the sun was peeping through the clouds. Linda and I went in pursuit using our legs- that is we walked. The walk proved pleasant along the 4km stretch. Got into next village where we sat down at a cafe by sea for a lemon soda delivered to us in a can. On paying for it was charged 3E for a can which cost 40cents. Most frustrating thing when you are ripped off abroad is not being able to vent your anger. Eventful walk back to our town with Linda in search of nearest toilet. Got back to room for a siesta so fully recovered to have a good nite out. Went in search of an eatery. Wandered up and down for ages going past many empty ones – never a good sign. eventually stumbled on a peach of a restaurant with live music. One of our aims when we set out was to search out music venues but this had often been out of synch with events. The group consisted of keyboard, violin, flute, and guitar with all four men joining in with vocals. One of them looked like Art Garfunkel- sort of forehead that goes back for ever. The music was sort of folky but all musicians were having a good crack. We enjoyed the food and music thoroughly.
Weds 8th Oct
Woke up to another glorious day – sun shining yet again. Did a quick shop in local supermarket to get some provisions for lunch and the evening meal. Got back to car to find a slightly deflated tyre. Set off on journey with intention of putting some air in it. On journey very few garages with any facility to do this. Many closed down – assume this is recession related. Eventually found one on the Auto-route so relieved to pump it up – must be a slow puncture. Crossed the border into france – happy that at least one of us could now speak the language. Pulled in to the first Aire we came across. Nobody does Aires as good as the French. Found a lovely picnic bench under the pines and got out our fresh bread, tomatoes, ham, cheese, salad, and mayonnaise. Made the best sandwich yet and to cap it all was able to sit down at a TABLE. Had to give it a little hug. Carried on to j36 of motorway and after a brief detour found the campsite we were looking for and set up camp.
Thursday 9th October
Decided to explore the coast path reception had told us about and headed for les Issambres where we found a fantastic sandy beach. Decided to do the walk first only to find that lots of it was along the busy road. We quickly gave up on this and forced ourselves to join those sunbbathing and swimming in the warm waters of the Med. where we spotted lots of fish...” we deserve this!”
Back at camp and the nearby group of bikers who are clearly taking part in the local VTT (mountain bike) race at le Rochebrune decided to start their loud banter. Boys will be boys, but it did get a little wearing and we decided to get up early tomorrow and do the gorge walk ( also recommened) before heading off towards the Camargue and then on to Vias.
Friday 10th October
Oh well! Best laid plans and all that! We'd packed the car up nice and early, when trying to avoid the tree behind us Brent managed to reverse over the terraced drop. The left rear wheel was well and truly stuck and a horrid smell of petrol. With help from campsite folk the car was jacked up and off the kerb, but we spotted a hole in the aluminium cover of the petrol tank. Although not sure if the actual tank was broken we knew it needed checking, so called out green flag who transported it to a local garage..this being Friday, the earliest they can look at it is Monday. The local English guy, Gordon came up trumps helping us out with provisions to see us through tonight. He's also offered to take us to the supermarket tomorrow, which is great as there's absolutely nothing near the site!
Saturday 11th October
Off to supermarket at 10 then decided to walk to Bouverie, the nearest town... what a laugh! Looked quite a large town on the map, but when we arrived it basically consisted of loads of housing, a stadium / sports field and a few miserly shops. But at least there was a cafe. So we had a quick drink and headed back to the camp pool. Now here we are in the camps laundry, where we've found free electricity to plug in the laptop and bring the blog up to date. It's nice and light too so we're going to have a game of back gammon too, as this is proving difficult in the tent after 7.30, when our little lantern is a bit ineffective!
OK.. so today we decided to stick to the coast road and head for Imperia. When we got to Alassio however the sun was boiling and we spotted a lovely sandy beach so decided to explore. A friendly Scottish lady who worked in the tourist info gave us lots of info (we later found out that she'd studied languages at A level and came to Italy as a young woman set to be an air hostess. Then she met and fell in love with an Italian and she's been settled here ever since). We decided to stay the night and found a little hotel with sea view. Spent the afternoon on the beach relaxing....keep telling ourselves “ we deserve this!” but can't really believe how lucky we've been...not one day without sunshine in 6 weeks! The sea was just lovely today and we both enjoyed the swims. As in Levanto we spent the evening in a bar with nibbles and filled up on pizza afterwards. We drank the local wine Pigato, which is delicious, but proved to be a bit expensive...oh well, after 4 nights of camping “we deserve this!”
Tuesday 7th Oct
( Brent here ) Sitting in the tent in the rain thinking back over the last two days. Yesterday,( thats date above in the blog ) started cloudy but at the far end of the bay the sun was peeping through the clouds. Linda and I went in pursuit using our legs- that is we walked. The walk proved pleasant along the 4km stretch. Got into next village where we sat down at a cafe by sea for a lemon soda delivered to us in a can. On paying for it was charged 3E for a can which cost 40cents. Most frustrating thing when you are ripped off abroad is not being able to vent your anger. Eventful walk back to our town with Linda in search of nearest toilet. Got back to room for a siesta so fully recovered to have a good nite out. Went in search of an eatery. Wandered up and down for ages going past many empty ones – never a good sign. eventually stumbled on a peach of a restaurant with live music. One of our aims when we set out was to search out music venues but this had often been out of synch with events. The group consisted of keyboard, violin, flute, and guitar with all four men joining in with vocals. One of them looked like Art Garfunkel- sort of forehead that goes back for ever. The music was sort of folky but all musicians were having a good crack. We enjoyed the food and music thoroughly.
Weds 8th Oct
Woke up to another glorious day – sun shining yet again. Did a quick shop in local supermarket to get some provisions for lunch and the evening meal. Got back to car to find a slightly deflated tyre. Set off on journey with intention of putting some air in it. On journey very few garages with any facility to do this. Many closed down – assume this is recession related. Eventually found one on the Auto-route so relieved to pump it up – must be a slow puncture. Crossed the border into france – happy that at least one of us could now speak the language. Pulled in to the first Aire we came across. Nobody does Aires as good as the French. Found a lovely picnic bench under the pines and got out our fresh bread, tomatoes, ham, cheese, salad, and mayonnaise. Made the best sandwich yet and to cap it all was able to sit down at a TABLE. Had to give it a little hug. Carried on to j36 of motorway and after a brief detour found the campsite we were looking for and set up camp.
Thursday 9th October
Decided to explore the coast path reception had told us about and headed for les Issambres where we found a fantastic sandy beach. Decided to do the walk first only to find that lots of it was along the busy road. We quickly gave up on this and forced ourselves to join those sunbbathing and swimming in the warm waters of the Med. where we spotted lots of fish...” we deserve this!”
Back at camp and the nearby group of bikers who are clearly taking part in the local VTT (mountain bike) race at le Rochebrune decided to start their loud banter. Boys will be boys, but it did get a little wearing and we decided to get up early tomorrow and do the gorge walk ( also recommened) before heading off towards the Camargue and then on to Vias.
Friday 10th October
Oh well! Best laid plans and all that! We'd packed the car up nice and early, when trying to avoid the tree behind us Brent managed to reverse over the terraced drop. The left rear wheel was well and truly stuck and a horrid smell of petrol. With help from campsite folk the car was jacked up and off the kerb, but we spotted a hole in the aluminium cover of the petrol tank. Although not sure if the actual tank was broken we knew it needed checking, so called out green flag who transported it to a local garage..this being Friday, the earliest they can look at it is Monday. The local English guy, Gordon came up trumps helping us out with provisions to see us through tonight. He's also offered to take us to the supermarket tomorrow, which is great as there's absolutely nothing near the site!
Saturday 11th October
Off to supermarket at 10 then decided to walk to Bouverie, the nearest town... what a laugh! Looked quite a large town on the map, but when we arrived it basically consisted of loads of housing, a stadium / sports field and a few miserly shops. But at least there was a cafe. So we had a quick drink and headed back to the camp pool. Now here we are in the camps laundry, where we've found free electricity to plug in the laptop and bring the blog up to date. It's nice and light too so we're going to have a game of back gammon too, as this is proving difficult in the tent after 7.30, when our little lantern is a bit ineffective!
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Italy continued
Friday 3rd October
Lin here again. So this morning we headed for the station and bought a one day ticket to get us into the cinque terres national park (http://www.cinqueterre.it/en/index.asp) and allow us to take the train/ bus, even hire bikes for 3 hours. We went to the furthest village...Riomaggiore and set off on the coastal walk...oh dear! spot the tourists. There were hundreds of them all doing the famous via del amore (lovers lane) walk. We decided to carry on regardless as it was a beautiful blue sky day and the views were to die for. If there were still as many people after the 3rd village we would think again. After the third village the paths got more demanding and most of the tourists dropped away leaving us with a much more pleasant walk. We quite enjoyed keeping up with a huge group of US students from a Washington university and earwigging on their tour guide. It was amazing to see the terraces of vines and to imagine the locals making their living through producing wine: they had even installed monorails to get the grapes up and down the mountain....they must be really fit thats all I can say ( it's Lin her by the way, interrupting Brent again!). By the end of the 12k walk our knees knew about it. Finished the walk at 5.00pm with steep walk down about 1000 steps to the last village Monterosso which had a beach. So brent ( thats me now ) went for a swim in a very rough Med. Managed to lose my goggles and hearing for a while (nothing new there...that's Lin's comment!) when I was swept off my feet by a huge wave. Needless to say Linda didn't bother with the swim, she just had a paddle and rescued our things from being swept away! We got the train back to Levanto and explored the town a bit more. It has a huge beach and looks worth a longer visit. We adopted the local practice of buying a drink in a bar and getting a load of nibbles for free (we'd spotted this the previous night and thought it looked good). However we were surprised when by 9pm the bars and streets emptied and we were on our own! Still we went back and had another drink in our favourite bar before heading back to the campsite.
Saturday 4th Oct
Lin here keeping you up to date. Another beautiful day here in Italy and we set off for Genoa / Genova depending where you are. I drove today and Brent managed to stay quiet as I manoevered the steep hairpin bends from Levanto to Genoa. Again the scenery was magnificent. We reached the outskirts of Genoa at around 11.30 and bought a lovely picnic lunch before finding a quiet square to eat it. We drove into the centre and I managed to park near the aquarium (the biggest in Europe), which we both fancied seeing. It was good to see seals, dolphins and turtles up close but I think both of us found it hard to see such creatures kept in cages.
It was after 4 when we left Genoa and Brent drove us on to the next campsite in Ceriale. Getting out of Genoa proved to be a nightmare and the cause of our 2nd major fall out. I'm seriously thinking of taking a bus and meeting up with Brent at the other side of our next major town!!
Anyway we found the site which was highly recommended in our Alan Rogers guide. It's actually ok. The great thing about it is that it has wireless internet. Its quite busy with camper vans and the swimming pool needs a refit. The family that runs it is very friendly though and we managed to set up the tent and cook a meal in the dark!
Sunday 5th Oct
Wow! A lovely morning. We did a morning walk along the beach, calling at the supermarket for our lunch. Caught up on emails etc over lunch and then had a very pleasant hour or two by the pool relaxing in the sun. Around 3pm the weather clouded over so we came back to the tent and skyped family in Coventry. It was lovely to see 2 of my sisters, my niece and little Evie and Jake.. time to get dinner ready now so I'll sign off. Brent busy looking at possible sites in France for tomorrow.
Lin here again. So this morning we headed for the station and bought a one day ticket to get us into the cinque terres national park (http://www.cinqueterre.it/en/index.asp) and allow us to take the train/ bus, even hire bikes for 3 hours. We went to the furthest village...Riomaggiore and set off on the coastal walk...oh dear! spot the tourists. There were hundreds of them all doing the famous via del amore (lovers lane) walk. We decided to carry on regardless as it was a beautiful blue sky day and the views were to die for. If there were still as many people after the 3rd village we would think again. After the third village the paths got more demanding and most of the tourists dropped away leaving us with a much more pleasant walk. We quite enjoyed keeping up with a huge group of US students from a Washington university and earwigging on their tour guide. It was amazing to see the terraces of vines and to imagine the locals making their living through producing wine: they had even installed monorails to get the grapes up and down the mountain....they must be really fit thats all I can say ( it's Lin her by the way, interrupting Brent again!). By the end of the 12k walk our knees knew about it. Finished the walk at 5.00pm with steep walk down about 1000 steps to the last village Monterosso which had a beach. So brent ( thats me now ) went for a swim in a very rough Med. Managed to lose my goggles and hearing for a while (nothing new there...that's Lin's comment!) when I was swept off my feet by a huge wave. Needless to say Linda didn't bother with the swim, she just had a paddle and rescued our things from being swept away! We got the train back to Levanto and explored the town a bit more. It has a huge beach and looks worth a longer visit. We adopted the local practice of buying a drink in a bar and getting a load of nibbles for free (we'd spotted this the previous night and thought it looked good). However we were surprised when by 9pm the bars and streets emptied and we were on our own! Still we went back and had another drink in our favourite bar before heading back to the campsite.
Saturday 4th Oct
Lin here keeping you up to date. Another beautiful day here in Italy and we set off for Genoa / Genova depending where you are. I drove today and Brent managed to stay quiet as I manoevered the steep hairpin bends from Levanto to Genoa. Again the scenery was magnificent. We reached the outskirts of Genoa at around 11.30 and bought a lovely picnic lunch before finding a quiet square to eat it. We drove into the centre and I managed to park near the aquarium (the biggest in Europe), which we both fancied seeing. It was good to see seals, dolphins and turtles up close but I think both of us found it hard to see such creatures kept in cages.
It was after 4 when we left Genoa and Brent drove us on to the next campsite in Ceriale. Getting out of Genoa proved to be a nightmare and the cause of our 2nd major fall out. I'm seriously thinking of taking a bus and meeting up with Brent at the other side of our next major town!!
Anyway we found the site which was highly recommended in our Alan Rogers guide. It's actually ok. The great thing about it is that it has wireless internet. Its quite busy with camper vans and the swimming pool needs a refit. The family that runs it is very friendly though and we managed to set up the tent and cook a meal in the dark!
Sunday 5th Oct
Wow! A lovely morning. We did a morning walk along the beach, calling at the supermarket for our lunch. Caught up on emails etc over lunch and then had a very pleasant hour or two by the pool relaxing in the sun. Around 3pm the weather clouded over so we came back to the tent and skyped family in Coventry. It was lovely to see 2 of my sisters, my niece and little Evie and Jake.. time to get dinner ready now so I'll sign off. Brent busy looking at possible sites in France for tomorrow.
The Ligurian coast
Wednesday 1st Oct
We made it through the first month ( Brent here ). Set off around Lake Garda today. Very spectacular views with mountains rising up to dizzy heights, the road cutting through the bluffs using tunnels. Stopped in a small village on side of lake wind was high but sun was out making white topped waves. Planned to stay in Riva la Garda at the end of the day but found it very modern and uninspiring so carried on to the western shore. We eventually came across another small village called Limone, where we found a room for the night. It was in a spotless hotel, unlike anything you'd find at home...sort of felt more like a prison, or a hostel but no young people.We actually managed to barter the price down by threatening to look elsewhere. So far we have been really poor at this so both felt we might be getting somewhere. Anyway we got an excellent breakfast included in the price, which was great. Limone was another charming little town, with ferries across the lake and lots of little restaurants.
Thursday 2nd October.
The day started very overcast with mist over the mountains on the other side of the lake. We had talked of two alternatives. One was to head further east and explore some of the other lakes. The other was to head down to the med where Linda had found a walk in one of our guidebooks which was between five villages. Strangely it was called the five villages walk. So we drove south in search of sun and sea. By mid day the sun was shining down on us again. We eventually arrived in the small village of Riomaggiore after a driving down a narrow road which led down to the sea. The philosophy of the National Park is to deter cars and this they certainly did by having extortionate parking fees. We set off in search of a room for the night. This proved interesting... the best offer we got was a room for 50 euros next to the station..whilst we could have paid 110 euros for a small apartment on the Sat night...then you also had to leave your car miles away and pay for parking. We asked about alternatives at the tourist info. only to be told that there really weren't any ...no campsites and the next place after the 5 villages ( los cinque terres) called Levanto was very touristy. Nevertheless in our inimitable fashion we decided to plough on. The drive was amazing. Fantastic views of the coast with bendy roads. Needless to say Brent drove: I've realised that it's just too stressful for him when I drive! Round about 6pm we came to a diversion. We couldn't believe it! We were directed back down to the coast which would have added about an hour to our journey. We hung about a bit. A bunch of cyclists arrived and were clearly equally stunned. Then 3 cars went through the barriers, so we decided to follow their example and risk it. This proved to be the right decision as the road works had finished for the day,which meant we could crawl past the unsurfaced part of the road and head on our way. When we reached Levanto we found a campsite immediately and set up the tent before having a wander. We found a great little bar and good take away pizza,which kept us very happy! We also saw other campsites advertised...so much for tourist information. We also saw how close we were to the station, where we could buy day tickets to enable us to do our walk...great!
We made it through the first month ( Brent here ). Set off around Lake Garda today. Very spectacular views with mountains rising up to dizzy heights, the road cutting through the bluffs using tunnels. Stopped in a small village on side of lake wind was high but sun was out making white topped waves. Planned to stay in Riva la Garda at the end of the day but found it very modern and uninspiring so carried on to the western shore. We eventually came across another small village called Limone, where we found a room for the night. It was in a spotless hotel, unlike anything you'd find at home...sort of felt more like a prison, or a hostel but no young people.We actually managed to barter the price down by threatening to look elsewhere. So far we have been really poor at this so both felt we might be getting somewhere. Anyway we got an excellent breakfast included in the price, which was great. Limone was another charming little town, with ferries across the lake and lots of little restaurants.
Thursday 2nd October.
The day started very overcast with mist over the mountains on the other side of the lake. We had talked of two alternatives. One was to head further east and explore some of the other lakes. The other was to head down to the med where Linda had found a walk in one of our guidebooks which was between five villages. Strangely it was called the five villages walk. So we drove south in search of sun and sea. By mid day the sun was shining down on us again. We eventually arrived in the small village of Riomaggiore after a driving down a narrow road which led down to the sea. The philosophy of the National Park is to deter cars and this they certainly did by having extortionate parking fees. We set off in search of a room for the night. This proved interesting... the best offer we got was a room for 50 euros next to the station..whilst we could have paid 110 euros for a small apartment on the Sat night...then you also had to leave your car miles away and pay for parking. We asked about alternatives at the tourist info. only to be told that there really weren't any ...no campsites and the next place after the 5 villages ( los cinque terres) called Levanto was very touristy. Nevertheless in our inimitable fashion we decided to plough on. The drive was amazing. Fantastic views of the coast with bendy roads. Needless to say Brent drove: I've realised that it's just too stressful for him when I drive! Round about 6pm we came to a diversion. We couldn't believe it! We were directed back down to the coast which would have added about an hour to our journey. We hung about a bit. A bunch of cyclists arrived and were clearly equally stunned. Then 3 cars went through the barriers, so we decided to follow their example and risk it. This proved to be the right decision as the road works had finished for the day,which meant we could crawl past the unsurfaced part of the road and head on our way. When we reached Levanto we found a campsite immediately and set up the tent before having a wander. We found a great little bar and good take away pizza,which kept us very happy! We also saw other campsites advertised...so much for tourist information. We also saw how close we were to the station, where we could buy day tickets to enable us to do our walk...great!
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Thanks to all our readers
Thank you to everyone for your comments. We really appreciate the contact see our comments on Maslow. Will try to upload more photos at www.flickr.com under Linda Burdett. This is proving slow going but Croatia photos are next
Into Italy
Friday 26th Sept
After a night of restless sleep on ferry deck ( not outside ) was woken up by Germans ( well they mostly seemed to be ) at 5.30am queueing for breakfast. Ferry docked in Rjeke at 7.00am and we drove off. In the guide book said there was a quiet village with a long promenade so headed off for a stroll – very welcome after being on ship for 19 hours. Linda and I were a little knackered but welcomed the short break. Headed off again towards Italy briefly passing through Slovenia again on the way to Trieste. Trieste was another big city and the italians were mad drivers. As well as them over and undertaking all the time had to contend with thousands of scooters and motorbikes under and over taking. As Linda had said we should have got through there to next smallest place but stupidly I wanted to look at city. You have to be rested to look around big cities and we had not rested or fed and watered properly and now we were in a different country having to cope with a new language. Decided to exit stage left as soon as possible. Drove to a little place called Siestra and booked into a small hotel to recharge our batteries. After a two hour siesta we felt more able to cope with the world and walked down to local sleepy marina. Not a lot here and definitely end of tourist season. We were unsuccessful in finding somewhere to eat so made do with food from the local store. Had a good nights sleep and felt refreshed and ready to drive the next leg to Lake Garda were we had found a lovely campsite in our book.
Saturday 27th September
Set off on the smaller roads along the route to Venice. Stopped off at a little fishing port on the coast which had used the same poles driven in the mud to anchor the boats as we had seen in Venice. All the road signs were written in two languages which pointed to the strong identity of the Venetian region. Headed back onto Autoroute so we could make some distance. Tailgated many times by speeding cars – one of whom came within about 6inches and then started gesticulating. I returned the traditional Anglo Saxon salute as they sped past. Soon the mountains came in sight. We headed off onto east side of Lake Garda in direction of lots of theme parks including Gardaland, Movieland, Aqualand and our campsite was very close. Other strange event was thousands of motorblkers driving in convoy around the lake. Seems like it must be a larger version of Matlock Bath. Campsite was very spacious though with gorgeous views down onto the lake. We found a quiet pitch which actually had grass – shear luxury being able to drive my tent pegs into soft soil ( thats sounds a bit of a euyphamism – non intended ) It did allow me to get my tent erecter than it has been for a long time though ;-)
Sun 28th Septh
Lin here...well, I'll make no comment on that save to say that lake Garda is quite beautiful. We started today with a swim in the camp's fantastic pool... but unfortunately not heated. Talk about mad dogs and Englishmen! I have a feeling that the other few campers out sunbathing were bemused at the sight of us. Anyway we had a good sun bathe before taking a short lakeside walk... very beautiful, until I got taken short and had to rush back to camp! Oh well! We then had a lovely surprise when we drove to the nearby village of Lazise. On arrival it seemed very busy. We thought it might actually be one of the aforementioned theme parks as we'd spotted turrets en route. In fact it was a fabulous small walled town, beside the lake and the sunset was just gorgeous. We found a nice restaurant and had a first Italian pasta whilst sort of chatting to a German couple next to us. Definitely worth the visit!
Mon 29th sept
Brent here. The day started in glorious sunshine. Planned a trip into Verona today. Not sure about when the buses were but we were lucky enough to get one in 10 minutes and take the 20 kms into the town. The city is a delight to the eye with many beautiful buildings and quiet plazas. Did the tour of the Duomo-very ornate with Romanesque arches.
Tuesday 30th Sept
Walked into Pescheria along the lake. Strolled around the town. Got lost looking for a supermarket that had been signposted for cars as 500 metres ( ha). Bought some chicken that Linda subsequently left at the bus-stop. She said her feet were killing her. Got off bus at village near campsite. Bought some more chicken. Oh forgot to say we found some gas canisters that fitted the stove – the highlight of the week. ...
Lin here – and yes I did blame losing the chicken on sore feet! Anyway after a lovely chicken dinner we got into heavy philosophical discussion about human needs and decided that Maslow's hierarchy was about right. Whilst our most of our needs are definitely being met so far our higher level needs relating to socialisation may need a little more stimulation! So... we had an early night and played the game related to the mime artist that Simon recommended to us and whose name escapes me right now. This involved one of us miming out one of the songs from the mp3 player, which we now know off by heart and the other guessing the song! Sad eh? but I can tell you it was a right good laugh. This then lead to the shadow game on the ceiling of the tent... I think my crocodile was the outright winner. So you see these are just some of the small pleasures of camping.
After a night of restless sleep on ferry deck ( not outside ) was woken up by Germans ( well they mostly seemed to be ) at 5.30am queueing for breakfast. Ferry docked in Rjeke at 7.00am and we drove off. In the guide book said there was a quiet village with a long promenade so headed off for a stroll – very welcome after being on ship for 19 hours. Linda and I were a little knackered but welcomed the short break. Headed off again towards Italy briefly passing through Slovenia again on the way to Trieste. Trieste was another big city and the italians were mad drivers. As well as them over and undertaking all the time had to contend with thousands of scooters and motorbikes under and over taking. As Linda had said we should have got through there to next smallest place but stupidly I wanted to look at city. You have to be rested to look around big cities and we had not rested or fed and watered properly and now we were in a different country having to cope with a new language. Decided to exit stage left as soon as possible. Drove to a little place called Siestra and booked into a small hotel to recharge our batteries. After a two hour siesta we felt more able to cope with the world and walked down to local sleepy marina. Not a lot here and definitely end of tourist season. We were unsuccessful in finding somewhere to eat so made do with food from the local store. Had a good nights sleep and felt refreshed and ready to drive the next leg to Lake Garda were we had found a lovely campsite in our book.
Saturday 27th September
Set off on the smaller roads along the route to Venice. Stopped off at a little fishing port on the coast which had used the same poles driven in the mud to anchor the boats as we had seen in Venice. All the road signs were written in two languages which pointed to the strong identity of the Venetian region. Headed back onto Autoroute so we could make some distance. Tailgated many times by speeding cars – one of whom came within about 6inches and then started gesticulating. I returned the traditional Anglo Saxon salute as they sped past. Soon the mountains came in sight. We headed off onto east side of Lake Garda in direction of lots of theme parks including Gardaland, Movieland, Aqualand and our campsite was very close. Other strange event was thousands of motorblkers driving in convoy around the lake. Seems like it must be a larger version of Matlock Bath. Campsite was very spacious though with gorgeous views down onto the lake. We found a quiet pitch which actually had grass – shear luxury being able to drive my tent pegs into soft soil ( thats sounds a bit of a euyphamism – non intended ) It did allow me to get my tent erecter than it has been for a long time though ;-)
Sun 28th Septh
Lin here...well, I'll make no comment on that save to say that lake Garda is quite beautiful. We started today with a swim in the camp's fantastic pool... but unfortunately not heated. Talk about mad dogs and Englishmen! I have a feeling that the other few campers out sunbathing were bemused at the sight of us. Anyway we had a good sun bathe before taking a short lakeside walk... very beautiful, until I got taken short and had to rush back to camp! Oh well! We then had a lovely surprise when we drove to the nearby village of Lazise. On arrival it seemed very busy. We thought it might actually be one of the aforementioned theme parks as we'd spotted turrets en route. In fact it was a fabulous small walled town, beside the lake and the sunset was just gorgeous. We found a nice restaurant and had a first Italian pasta whilst sort of chatting to a German couple next to us. Definitely worth the visit!
Mon 29th sept
Brent here. The day started in glorious sunshine. Planned a trip into Verona today. Not sure about when the buses were but we were lucky enough to get one in 10 minutes and take the 20 kms into the town. The city is a delight to the eye with many beautiful buildings and quiet plazas. Did the tour of the Duomo-very ornate with Romanesque arches.
Tuesday 30th Sept
Walked into Pescheria along the lake. Strolled around the town. Got lost looking for a supermarket that had been signposted for cars as 500 metres ( ha). Bought some chicken that Linda subsequently left at the bus-stop. She said her feet were killing her. Got off bus at village near campsite. Bought some more chicken. Oh forgot to say we found some gas canisters that fitted the stove – the highlight of the week. ...
Lin here – and yes I did blame losing the chicken on sore feet! Anyway after a lovely chicken dinner we got into heavy philosophical discussion about human needs and decided that Maslow's hierarchy was about right. Whilst our most of our needs are definitely being met so far our higher level needs relating to socialisation may need a little more stimulation! So... we had an early night and played the game related to the mime artist that Simon recommended to us and whose name escapes me right now. This involved one of us miming out one of the songs from the mp3 player, which we now know off by heart and the other guessing the song! Sad eh? but I can tell you it was a right good laugh. This then lead to the shadow game on the ceiling of the tent... I think my crocodile was the outright winner. So you see these are just some of the small pleasures of camping.
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