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.