On this page I’ve taken all the Europe 2012 postings and put them onto one page so they read in the correct order.

Eurotunnel

We’re here, but no chance of an early train. I’ll have to sit it out until 10:20. Next post hopefully from Nideggen in Germany.

Day 1: Nideggen

I’ve arrived at the site in Germany and its lovely. Only 13 Euros for the night including 16 amp electric and shower.

Time for a coffee now after my 340 miles today.  All booked in and pitched there is a lovely castle on the mountain behind my van. I am actually quite sad to be here for just one night. The birds are chirping in the forest behind me, and other than that it’s peacefully quiet.

Off to Nuremburg tomorrow and will have a couple of days there.

Day 2: Nideggen to Nuremberg

After my overnighter in Campingplatz Hetzingen, I’m making a dash down to Nuremberg where I will be staying for two nights.

I’m just about OK with this driving on the right now, I’ve even stopped going round roundabouts the wrong way.  And I thought all those people tooting and waving at me just wanted to be my new friends 🙁

Today was my first attempt at going on the autobahn.  I got onto a clear autobahn at 8.30 this morning and within 5 seconds a large Merc went past me right on the limiter (250 kmh).  There was a bit of a shockwave hit the van and it was a bit of a shock for me too – I just didn’t expect it.

The rest of the journey was uneventful.  Overtaking can be difficult as you’re using the wrong side mirror and traffic can (and does) come up at speeds in excess of 100 MPH so you really have to take care.  I put it off for a while and kept to my cruise of around 55 MPH.  However, I ran into a car and trailer doing less than 50 so had to overtake.

Sooty van was doing over 70 during this dicey manouver, wahey! This would, of course, be illegal in the UK ha ha…

Anyway, I arrived in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg unscathed and tried to find a space in the campsite.  It was rammed out, the lady pitched next to me explained that they, and many others, were on a Jehovah’s Witness conference in the Easycredit Stadium next door.

As I write this, it’s 8PM in Germany and 7PM in England.  The Germans are interested in the outcome of this evening’s match, I’m just waiting for it to start with the doors and windows wide open, listening to the light rain coming down on the roof.  Tomorrow will be pretty rainy so I’m not sure how far I will be venturing.  A trip to the Altstadt (old town) is looking less likely…

Day 3: Nuremberg

This is my third day of the trip but only my first day of no travelling. I had a mondo amount of beer while following the England v Italy game and did not wake up too early as a result.

Monday morning and most of the site is beginning to thin out. The Jehovah’s Witness conference at the stadium next door finished yesterday and they are all packing up to go home. Daisy is sat in the field on her own now, quite a contrast to yesterday when it was hard work even finding a space.

There’s nothing better than a walk to clear a hangover so I headed out to the EasyCredit Stadium and from there onto the Zeppelinfeld (Zeppelin Field). It’s so named because they used to land the Zeppelin balloons here in a field about a quarter of a mile square. It was later on used by the Nazis as their rally ground (Reichsparteitagsgelände) and was built up, surrounded by amphitheatre type seating and regularly spaced buildings which you can see above.

At the moment it’s not possible to get in. Large fences surround the perimeter, some are topped with barbed wire to they are keen to keep people out. There are a couple of gaps about 2m wide with a security man standing at each one to prevent “unwelcome visitors”.

Determined to get in, I went back to a previous street and managed to sneak round the back of a Volkswagen dealers and right inside the perimeter fencing. I walked up the overgrown steps onto the top of the arena but there wasn’t much of interest inside. You could see the main grandstand and lots of overgrown seating areas, also a cinder track in the middle amongst more undergrowth.

I didn’t stay for very long so as not to attract the attention of the security people and came back out the same way as I got in. Down the side there are evenly spaced buildings – one says “Hochtspannung” on the door which I know means High Voltage in German. Lots of power was put on at this venue, enough for a small city so as to provide for the massive light shows.

Another building has “Golden Drakes MC” written above the door.  It’s obviously the home to a chapter of a motorcycle club.  Finally, I got to the top of the Zeppelinfeld and saw the main grandstand which is where all the speeches would have been made from.

That was my morning stroll, I decided that lunch would be in the Altstadt (Old Town) area of Nuremberg and also that I’d walk the 3 miles there to get some exercise.

The Altstadt is a very picturesque and very old area. I know that 90% of it was destroyed in only 1 hour by Allied bombing, but the Germans rebuilt and restored 70% of it back to how it should have been. I am so glad they did, and didn’t turn it into another Barbican.

It’s now lunch o’clock and I’ve spotted a Bratwursthaus. Manju at work has been telling me that the Rostbratwurst und Kartoffelsalat (sausage and potato salad) is to die for. After spending ages looking at the menu in the window and practising how to order in German, the waitress came out and said “would you like an English menu?”

Further into the Altstadt is the market square selling mostly fruit and veg from what I could see. I noticed that about quite a lot of people were Turkish so there must be quite a number of them living in the area.

On the walk back I called into Netto for some provisions. They were doing 0.5 litre bottles of 5% lager for 0.29 Euros – that’s about 25 pence – surely it must be ein Scheiß? I took a bottle of more upmarket stuff “Turmbläser” with a Grolsch style flip-top bottle for 0.50 Euros. I’ll try this tonight if I can get it into my packed out fridge for a couple of hours.

Doing the final stretch back I was going to call in at the Documentation Centre, part of the Congress Hall pictured here, but decided not to as it was late in the day and I was carrying shopping. It’s a museum that documents the history of the rally grounds and how the Nazis took such a strong grip on Germany. From what I can gather, it needs a day to do it justice and it was nearly 4PM as I wandered past, so it’s for the next time I visit.

I think I’ll have an early night and try and head off at about 8.30 tomorrow, destination Prague.

Day 4: Nuremberg to Prague

I woke up nice and early this morning left the Nuremberg site just after 8:00. Not long after I was out on the Autobahn system again and looking for a filling station. Unfortunately, this took a bit longer than planned and the fuel gauge got down to empty and then even lower still.

The picture was taken when I had about 5 miles left to the services. To say I was worried was an understatement.

Once the panic was over and I got some fuel in, the rest of the journey was uneventful. There are some disused border controls with the motorway just going straight through them. 4 days, 4 countries and nobody has asked to see my passport yet – a waste of £74?

The Czech motorways are not much different to the German ones. You have to buy a vignette (13 Euros for 10 days) which is the toll fee for using the motorways. I now have 5 tax discs of various sorts in the window! If it gets any worse I will have to peer out of the window through a small area “tank commander to base…”

My ETA was around 12:00 according to the LBGPS (Lying B—— Global Positioning System), and that’s too early to turn up at the site. I decided to kill some time by pointing the Sooty van at the outskirts of Pilsen to find a supermarket. Quite close to the motorway was the Kaufland which is a bit like Netto or Lidl. A catchy jingle comes up on the loudspeaker every couple of minutes, but it gets on your nerves fairly quickly.

My command of the Czech language is non-existent so I was shooting in the dark with some of the shopping. Bavorska Klobasa it said on the pack of four super sized sausages, but what were they? They looked good, and as it turned out, tasted very good too.

A pack of four 330ml bottles of Budvar for Kc 43.40, just worked it out that’s £1.40 and a bit of a bargain. I have some in the fridge as I type this but suspect they won’t be in there for very long.

The sliced bread felt like very heavy dough, which didn’t appeal to me – I grabbed a couple of French sticks instead. Some other items graced the trolley like Fazole s Parky (Beans and Sausage) and I left.

The outskirts of Prague were very busy on the traffic front with a lot of traffic lights to punctuate the journey. I got to the campsite about 1:30PM, the man told me the office was shut until 2PM and to just grab any space I wanted, have a shower etc. and just make myself feel at home.

I had a good gab to a Dutch couple next to me, as with almost all other Dutch people they are very friendly and well travelled even giving me some useful advice. “Uhhh, no, Dunkirk is not in France, it’s in Belgium”. OK, now I know why I got E in my O level geography!

As my final task of the day, I fired up the little Maplin washing machine. It did a fine job of washing some towels and clothes, these are now hanging out to dry.

Now to check out what to visit tomorrow – there is no shortage of attractions in Prague so I may solicit the views of my friendly neighbours on what to see 🙂

Day 5: Prague

Fifth day of the trip and no driving today so I can spend some time in the Czech capital, Prague. I set out nice and early and picked up a day ticket for Kc 110 (approx £3.50) which gives unlimited travel on the trams, metro, buses and trains in the Prague area for 24 hours.

The train station is 10 minutes walk from the campsite and only 13 minutes into the Hlavni Nadrazi railway station which is right in the centre of town (shown above). This is an old building an decorated in an old style too which really gives it some character. A big chunk of the station is underground and is a modern tiled affair.

Prague is a mixture of old and new buildings but the two seem to coexist quite happily. The town centre is mainly tourists with McDonalds and Burger King on every main street. Tidy and clean looking street stalls sell burgers for Kc 25 (about 80p).

Guided tours of the city abound. You can take a tour in an open topped car or horse drawn carriage.

This city is easy to get round – remember the cheap travelcard? Or you can clock up about 8 miles walking all over it as I did. You can walk all over this city, unlike London where you will probably get run over.

Beggars are everywhere and are as fake as they come. Avoid them like the plague.

The main square is very picturesque with plenty of things going on and cafes on the fringes. There are plenty of museums and art galleries too, no shortage of culture in this town.

Souvenir shops are on overload but to me, all look identical with the same stock laid out in the same way! I did get a Praha baseball hat to keep the (unexpected) sun off my head.

Due to the weather report (sun to start, then cloud, then rain) I took a coat. They lied yet again, what they meant was sun to start, then sun, then more sun. Didn’t put on any sun cream or take a hat so I came home about 2PM as I didn’t want a repeat of the sunburn I got at Great Yarmouth the other week.

I went back to the train station which was a bit of a silly move as the Hlavni Nadrazi station has no trains to Dolni Pocernice between 08:39 and 14:39. I had to go to the main station (Masarykovo Nadrazi) instead which was about 5-10 minutes walk away.

The trains are very tidy, the one I took back to the campsite was less than six weeks old.

So here I am back at the campsite, the I can hardly read the screen on the laptop due to the blazing sun we weren’t going to get. The campsite broadband has asked me to log in again (it does this every 60 seconds which is starting to annoy me). Time to break out a beer I think.

Early night tonight before getting up to do the 300 mile trek to Auschwitz tomorrow morning.

Day 6: Prague to Auschwitz

The D1 is the main motorway East out of Prague and goes to Brno then to the Polish border. The centre of the concrete slabs have all sunk so the van goes thump thump thump as it goes over them. During the drive I really feared for the vans safety. It was my plan to go to Auschwitz and come back this way to Brno then down to Austria but there’s no way I’m going to use this road if possible so I’ll go to Austria via Slovakia (a new country, yay!)

Also the D1 stops after it gets near the border with Poland, completely closed while workers presumably try and fix the poor state of it. Taking country roads as a detour, and having my brain fried by the GPS shouting “make a U turn if possible”, I unfortunately hit a Polish border patrol while doing nearly 60km/h in their 30km/h zone. Two jump out with speed cameras and I’m fscked… He points to the side of the road and I hit the brakes hard. I got out of the Bambi and a slightly built Polish policeman came up to me all nervous “Can I see ID please?”. Not sure why he’s nervous, there are five of them with guns and one of me armed with only a bunch of keys.

Showed him my passport and answered a few questions. He asked me to open the back, had a quick peer inside and thanked me for my time. I’m on my way again and to be honest the detour off the motorway was a blessing in disguise – lovely villages and quaint little churches, some made of wood. I’m kicking myself for not taking a few pictures.

Polish roads are not the best in the world, especially out in the sticks where they seem to get patched up time and time again. It took a bit of concentration to make sure I didn’t bang out on some really bad bits.

The last 20km seemed to take forever with lots of pedestrian crossings and traffic lights. I checked out a Polish supermarket and bought some Polish sausage and salami (when in Rome etc.)

Before long I was at the Dialogue Centre. With all the wrong turns and detours I had been driving for 8 hours with a couple of breaks so I was ready for something to eat and a cold drink.

Arriving at the Dialogue Centre I was gobsmacked at how neat it was, and was greeted by the suited and booted staff in the cool marble reception area. This oozes 5 star hotel instead of prayer centre / library cum hostel.

I paid the 60 Zloty for the two nights (about £11) and was told to pitch anywhere I liked on the site. Picked an area of grass right with an electric supply and water tap right by the shower block with just me on it, and one other van on a different part of the hotel grounds. I’m scratching my head as to why more people don’t come her.

Found out my fridge is collecting water at the bottom so it’s defrosting. Must be a fault with it not working as I’m driving along – another job for the list. There’s a loud humming noise and looking through the trees behind me, there’s a 100kv/20kv substation right next door. Within a couple of minutes I’ve got used to the humming noise and can’t be bothered to move anyway.

Food and drink sorted out, I decide to wander a block away to Auschwitz I. This is the first concentration camp in the area and was expanded later into Auschwitz II – Birkenhau at a nearby village, I’ll visit there tomorrow.

Walking into Auschwitz concentration camp I’m horrified to see a fast food cabin just inside the car park. Pressing on I get to the main reception area. It’s hot and I fancy a sit down and a cold drink in the more upmarket cafe but on approaching I see an elderly woman sobbing with her head in her hands. It’s too much for me and I turn back.

Going through to the main part of the museum, you get to the main camp itself. The Arbeit Macht Frei sign has been restored after being stolen and cut up. I’m sure everyone is familiar with this sign.

Heading in there are a number of brick buildings which were originally a first world war camp pressed into service by the Nazis to take their prisoners.

These had extra floors built on to make even more room and a number of extra buildings were constructed. Even these could not hope to cater for the large number of people being shipped into the area, resulting in the massived Auschwitz II being built at nearby Birkenhau.

Down at the far corner of the camp is block 11 where the worst brutality took place. A wall between blocks 11 and block 10 to the left was used to execute prisoners by shooting them. Block 10 was used for experiments on women. It’s here you get a sense of just how depraved the regime were.

It’s also the block where prisoners were starved to death including the Saint Maximilian Kolbe who gave his life to spare another prisoner. Incidentally, the street on which the Dialogue Centre stands is named after him.

Walking down to the other back corner of the camp is situated an old weapons store which got turned into a crematorium to deal with the growing number of executed prisoners. The morgue next door to the furnaces was later turned a gas chamber and is where the initial tests on gassing prisoners was carried out.

A memorial now stands in the centre of the room used for gassing prisoners at Auschwitz I. Looking at the walls you can see the fingernail marks all over them as people suffered in agony from the gas.

For me, this is the worst part of the site, it’s the place where thousands were murdered and you can see their last moments ingrained into the walls.

I walk back a block or two to the van and decide to read a book I bought before leaving the museum. A few tinnies then off to bed…

Day 7: Auschwitz II Birkenhau

Today is going to involve a lot of walking, so a hearty breakfast is in order. The Polish sausage I bought yesterday has been cooked up with an egg and some Czech baked beans. A mug of coffee and a couple of slices of buttered concrete complete the picture (why is the bread here so hard?)

I decided to walk down to the site as I figured it was probably quicker than trying to work out the bus timetables. At a mile or two away it doesn’t take all that long to get there. On the way to the site, I noticed lots of railway lines and a big coal yard. I did wonder if the coal yard provided the base materials for the I G Farben factory at Auschwitz III where they made synthetic rubber and petrol.

It’s not long before I see a sign saying Auschwitz II Birkenhau 1200m. A quiet lane takes you to the site which didn’t look as I expected. The site is 45 degrees to the incoming road and the picture that sticks in peoples minds is the front-on view of the railway line going in.

The site doesn’t look like much when you get there, just the facade, then you spot the barracks, most of them with just chimneys left but a few complete ones are preserved.

It’s at this point that you get the impact of how large this site is. No map or photo can describe the size of the facility.

Walking through one of the entrances into the camp itself, you are presented with the selection ramps. It is in these places that the Nazis decided who would be useful to work and who would not. Those who were of no use to the regime (all children, all elderly, those who were ill) were marched down to the end of the line for “a shower and change of clothes”.

Little did they know what awaited them.

I turned right and looked down the row of barracks. Those on the left were made of brick, those on the right were later ones made of timber as the bricks had run out. They were based on a design for horse stables used in the field by the German army.

Most of them were for housing workers at the nearby factories but one functioned as a toilet block.

The facilities were simple – a concrete hole to sit on running into a latrine about 60cm wide. The conditions in here must have been shameful and disease and illnesses rife in the camp.

The smell, especially in summer must have been equally awful.

Taking a trip behind the front row of preserved buildings you can see the ones that have expired. Only the chimneys and concrete bases remain as the wooden parts of the buildings have long gone.

It’s when you stand and look at the sea of buildings it gives you an idea of the immense scale. This was abuse and destruction on a magnitude never seen before.

Down at the back of the camp is the gas chambers and crematoria. The army tried to blow them up to hide the evidence as they retreated. The blown up buildings are just as they had been left.

To the left of the crematorium is a pit where the ashes from the crematorium were dumped. Four headstones stand at the edge proclaiming it as the final resting place for so many – one in Polish, one in English, and two in Hebrew.

Walking back, I realised that the place was packed with barbed wire, many miles of it and all electrified. This must have been a desperate place to exist in.

Continuing my walk to the front entrance, many coaches have turned up. The majority are school children from all around Europe visiting as part of their religious studies. An Orthodox Jew talks abruptly into his cellphone. A small party of Chinese people chain smoke as they come out of the Museum area.

Those going in seem upbeat and lively, those coming out are much more subdued.

Anyway, I’ve found out that the Dialogue Centre has free WiFi, I just need to come up to the courtyard to use it. That’s why I’ve managed to get these two days uploaded now.

That’s it – Leg 1 of my journey is complete and Leg 2 (Auschwitz to Casola in Lunigiana) begins.

Tomorrow takes me to Vienna in Austria, and my campsite situated on the shores of the Danube. As previously stated, my route is changing and will take me through Slovakia as the main motorway from the Czech Republic is closed.

Day 8: Auschwitz to Vienna

If you’ve read the info from the previous days, you will know that I’m no fan of the D1 motorway that goes across the Czech Republic – it’s a mess. My original route took me from Auschwitz back to Brno (on the D1!) and then down to Austria. Avoiding this meant adding Slovakia to my list of countries, I guess their roads could not be any worse.

Bingo! Lovely motorways, nice and smooth and with very little traffic on them. It’s 10 Euros for the Vignette to stick on the window (toll sticker) and I now have a grand collection of five plus my tax disc

The heat got to me a bit today, everything in the cab was getting to hot to touch from a combination of the bright sun and the heat coming up from the little engine (you sit on the engine you see, or more correctly, the passenger does).

I had the phone on the dashboard doing the SootyTrak GPS stuff and covered it up to keep the sun off it. Somehow the cover fell off without me noticing and the heat made the phone go nuts, it eventually died which ruined the day.

Anyway… got to the site which is near to the Danube and a few km from the centre of Vienna. The thermometer in the back of the van was showing 41.6C at one point. No wonder things are breaking. The fridge is showing 22C, hardly ice cold beer, looks like I’ll have to hit the site bar later.

I’ll take a trip to Vienna tomorrow, today has been setting up, washing and trying to fix the phone. I found out it’s the battery which had cooked in the heat, lucky I brought a spare with me and the phone is now working again – result 🙂

Tomorrow I’ll take a trip into Vienna and see what’s what. Watch this space…

Day 9: Vienna

Can’t believe I’m on day 9 already, it’s going very quickly. Today was spent parked up at Vienna, my stop between Auschwitz and Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. I took a trip up to the town which is on the other side of the Danube, a pass is available to trains trams and buses (24 hr) for 6.70 Euros.

The town is very much like Prague – a curious mixture of old and new that all seems to work together, the centre of the small old town features the Imperial Palace. It’s Sunday here and all shops are closed. There are a few McD’s open, Burger King and the odd Turkish or Chinese restaurant for those who need a bite to eat.

The McDonalds I went in had a different breakfast menu to the UK ones, maybe 30-40% of the items in common, some were tuned more to the local Austrian palate.

Like Prague it seems to feature a few homeless people in the most touristy bits. I guess they survive on handouts from the passers by.

Some wandered the streets, some were asleep on benches, and some were sleeping on the grassy areas.

Another similarity with Prague was the multitude of horse drawn carriages ready to give you a tour round the city centre.

I took the U2 line into the centre, this loops round the North, West and South of the City.  Making my start at the South, I walked to the East and then from there back in to the centre where I found the lovely Imperial Palace.

This has the name of Franz Josef I engraved in a stone over the archway, some building work is going on, but that doesn’t detract from the lovely view.

The front of the palace features a walkway that takes you into the Palace Gardens. These are home to some very large bronze statues and nice grassy areas to park yourself on.

Going all the way through the Palace Gardens takes you to the West side of the old City and the Museum Quarter. I had a look and a museum ticket was 25 Euro, I fancied a look in but didn’t want to see things that badly so I headed back to the South and then back to the campsite.

The metro train back over the Danube took about 10 or 15 minutes, did a pile of washing and drying as I was near a water tap 🙂

Tomorrow is Croatia and the picturesque Plitvice Lakes National Park. I get a nice deal from Three which gives me unlimited internet on my phone in the EU for £5 a day. However, Croatia is not in the EU so I won’t be doing any data roaming. That means the SootyTrak® system will be off as it depends on the mobile phone GPS and internet to work. Should be back on Wednesday when I head back into Slovenia and onward to Venice.

Day 10: Vienna to Plitvice

Day 10 takes me from the Neue Donau Campingpark on the outskirts of Venice to Camp Korana at the Plitvice Lakes National Park. The day did not start well – at 06:50 I was ready to go and just had to empty a couple of things out of the cab. The floor was soaking wet, but there had been no rain so where did the water come from? I touched the stuff, it felt like oil but a quick taste confirmed it was brake fluid. Lots of it, all over the brake pedal and the floor.

The brake fluid reservoir was nearly empty but I could see that the fluid was coming from one of the two pipes connecting to it. One pipe had split very slightly at the top and the jubilee clip had broken which didn’t help. The big problem is that the dashboard has to come out (including steering column) to get to the relevant bits. I didn’t have time for that so using some pliers up the back of the dashboard I managed to get the pipe off. As luck would have it, there’s a Shell garage outside the campsite so I managed to get brake fluid without having to walk too far.

In all, I lost just over an hour but it could have been worse, a dashboard out job or a low loader back home.

The rest of the trip went fairly well, it took a few miles to get through Austria but Slovenia went quicker than expected. Getting into Croatia, I decided to have some lunch and stopped off at a shopping centre which turned out to be a Croatian designer village. It looked very nice but didn’t have much in the way of customers, or much in the way of lunch as it happens.

A major traffic jam occurred just outside Zagreb which cost me another hour but once past that, the Croatian roads were excellent.

The scenery was something else, and if I hadn’t been in such a rush would have taken some pictures of the valleys with their colourful houses.

Arriving at the campsite about 4.30PM local time, I was told just to park up where I liked. Campsite Korana has enough pitches for 2,500 people, all with electric and water nearby. Also free showers and free WiFi complete the picture.

Having been baked in the roasting sun on the last few sites, I took the opportunity to grab  my own shady little space surrounded by four trees.

A bus (also free) takes visitors from the campsite at 09:00 every day to the National Park main entrance which is about 10km away. It picks up at 17:00 on the dot, so probably best not to miss it.

I’ll bust the big camera out again tomorrow for the lakes – stay tuned 🙂

Day 11: Plitvice Lakes National Park

This place is stunning, I’m not even going to say anything, I’m just going to leave you with the pictures. These have not been screwed around with, it’s as they were taken and yes, the water really is that colour. Just click on any of the pictures to see a bigger one.

Tomorrow is back through Slovenia and up to Venice. “Just one Cornetto…” LOL

Day 12: Plitvice to Venice

Over half way through now and it’s up nice and early (6.30) to get away pretty sharp. Most of the people on the Autocamp Korana site are Germans or Dutch and they like to be up early too.

I’m going North through Croatia on a different motorway to the one that took me down. My GPS decides to take me cross country to meet the other motorway, which initially seemed like a mistake. Hairpin mountain roads only just wide enough for two vehicles with big drops and no barriers.

But a motorway has no soul and the cross country trip allowed me to see some of the more obscure parts of the country.

I entered a very small village to see a couple of people standing at a fence to my right. Their gaze pierced right through me, clearly they were not used to outsiders.

Another 50 metres on and I could see why. I parked the van and looked back in their direction, a house (above) riddled with bullets from the civil war. The one to the front of the van (right) was worse, all the render had been taken off the edge of the upstairs windows by hundreds of 9mm rounds – a massive shoot out had clearly taken place here.

When you bask in the beauty of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, it’s so easy to forget that this region has a painful history and from only 20 years ago. You don’t normally see the houses like this where people had put up a stand for independence against the Yugoslav army and Serbian militia, and lost their lives in the process.

Anyway, that’s enough of “Duncan reporting from the war zone”.

Before leaving the cross country route, I had a bug land on the windscreen. Now some people whinge when they get a little creepy crawly on their screen, but is was a serious mother!

The rest of the trip took me through the border patrol into Slovenia (don’t forget Croatia is outside the EU so there is a border crossing). Slovenia went past quickly, then I started my trek across North East Italy, descending on the outskirts of venice at the superb Camp Jolly.

Don’t be put off by the daft name, it’s got a great shop (size of a small supermarket half of which is alcohol), bar, restaurant, and two swimming pools. There’s even free WiFi, and it’s fast.

Tomorrow, I’ll take a quick ride into Venice. Like with Plitvice Lakes, I’ll break out the big camera again. Snaps are good, but this is probably the one and only time in my life that I’ll visit, so quality pictures will be nice to take home 🙂

Day 13: Venice

Venice or Venezia to give it the local name is an offshore island in North East Italy, or more correctly a series of over 100 small islands connected by bridges.

It really is one of a kind so I very much enjoyed my trip there today.

Got up nice and early and had the 6.50 Euro breakfast at the campsite restaurant (why can’t I find the Euro key on this laptop?) There’s a bus service for 5 Euros return which takes you from the front gate of the campsite direct to the bus station in Venice itself, so something of a bargain.

Once you get there you are treated to mayhem – check out the top picture, the Venice boat skippers are as aggressive as Italian car drivers, it’s quite an eye opener!

Bridges are an important feature of the landscape. There are three major bridges cross the grand canal and dozens of smaller bridges dotted around the chain of islands.

There are many paved areas within each island and no shortage of tourist shops and restaurants. There’s even a McDonalds and a few kebab shops.

Many nice buildings exist, and a few small squares where tourists (and pigeons) gather in their droves. The largest square is at Piazza San Marco which features the Basilica di San Marco.

I didn’t get that far as the heat was getting to me after a few hours of the Venice sunshine.

For much of the outing I took refuge in the shade and used the opportunity to explore some of the smaller waterways or “back streets”.

Clearly, much of this has not changed for hundreds of years.

This is the Ponte di Rialto the middle of the three bridges. The bridge itself contains shops which have the feel of a Victorian arcade, although Ponte di Rialto was finished in the late 16th century.

I didn’t attempt to cross it to due to the number of window shoppers who had stopped to have a nosey, getting past them would have been quite a chore.

It might have been too hot for me, but some were lapping up the lovely Venice heat.

This small lizard was scampering around the busy shopping area between peoples feet. I doubt it survived the day in such a busy place without someone standing on it.

A final shot of the grand canal before I returned back to base. This is a really picturesque place, and the nearby Camp Jolly is absolutely superb too.

If any of you campers are near North East Italy, I can recommend both the old city and the Camping Jolly site for a visit.

Tomorrow it’s off to Mick and Yvonne’s at Casola in Lunigiana. I’m looking forward to it as their village is 1000 ft above sea level, and I’m hoping a little bit cooler than what I’ve had in the last few days.

Day 14: Venice to Casola in Lunigiana

Day 14, the final day of leg 2, brings a trip from the East coast of Northern Italy to the West. My destination is the small commune of Casola in Lunigiana where my friends Mick and Yvonne live.  I’ll be staying in their house for three nights, and quite looking forward to catching up with them as they are mostly based in Italy these days.

The trip involves a morning on the Italian motorways which are all toll based. I’ve got a feeling the toll charges are coming to nearly as much as the cost of the petrol which makes this an expensive country to get around in.

At least I had a good run with no jams and it wasn’t long before I was in Aulla, the nearest town to the commune of Casola in Lunigiana. A trip to Lidl to top up with beers and bottles of mineral water was followed by the last 15 miles or so to the village.

Parking round here is scarce to put it mildly. When this mountainside village was built in the 1300’s, there probably wasn’t too much of a need for car parking.

Luckily there is a small campsite behind the walled village and a deal has been struck to leave the Bambi parked there on an electric hookup for €7 per night so everyone’s happy.

After a good afternoon of chit chat, mostly me and Mick putting the world to rights, we headed up the hill to the only restaurant in the village for a nice Italian meal and vino. We sat outside until quite late, indeed all the staff had long gone home by the time we left.

 

Day 15: Casola in Lunigiana

It’s been a nice easy day today, no travelling and just a small number of odd jobs to do. We went down the hill to the local campsite and pulled a couple of bits and pieces out of the van that were still coated with brake fluid.

The remainder of the day was spent watching the Formula 1 practice and qualifiers – we could not get over how bad the weather was in England.

In the evening Mick and Yvonne had a barbeque and invited their friend James over. We’re going over to his place in the morning to look over a Piaggio Ape that he’s bought and turn him over for a free breakfast 🙂

That’s it, lazy days, no travelling for a couple of days and no rush to do anything. The pace of life in Casola is very laid back so it suits me at the moment. I think all the driving has caught up with me!

 

 

 

Day 16: Casola in Lunigiana

This is my third and final day in Casola and we started with a trip up to see James. He’s from England and is converting a barn into a house in the village.

As we left, the “Casola Cats” were outside. There used to be four kittens, all had problems with gunge in their eyes and problems with their tails. Two have disappeared, and out of the remaining two this is the healthiest looking one.

Up at James’ place he has a Piaggio Ape (pronounced ah-peh) which are quite popular in the region for carting round building materials, wine, and indeed any items that are two heavy to cart round by hand. It has a 50cc scooter engine to power it but this one is currently off the road.

We had some coffee and headed back for breakfast but before leaving, we clocked some killer ants. I have never seen ants this size before, about three times the size of a normal ant.

The afternoon was spent watching the British Grand Prix, and the evening was taken up by a lovely four course meal at the campsite where Daisy is parked.

Tomorrow is a trip back up the E15 then into the St. Bernard tunnel and into Switzerland, destination Les Grandettes near Montreux. I shall leave you with a couple of pictures of local Casola buildings, this really is a stunning village.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 17: Casola to Des Grangettes

17 days in and it’s time to say goodbye to Mick and Yvonne (and my new adopted kitten), and head for Les Grangettes on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Once I’d left Casola, the motorways were pretty uneventful, the only entertainment being trying to work out how the Italians could charge so much for tolls and get away with it.

I stopped for lunch once I’d got to the mountainous bits of Italy, and sat on a bench in the shade (above). The views were absolutely stunning and it’s just a shame I didn’t stop to do some pictures. With 300+ miles to do today, plus a late start due to the campsite owner having a lie in until 9AM, I didn’t do much in the way of stopping.

Arriving at Les Grangettes at 5PM, I checked in and went to my reserved pitch. It’s only a few yards from the shores of Lake Geneva which you can see in the background. Couldn’t get the site WiFi running as the office had closed by the time I’d set the van up, but I’ve found my old Vodafone dongle which is how I’m doing this update 🙂

Tomorrow, I’ll take a ride into Montreux a few km up the road, where the Jazz Festival should be in full swing.

Day 18: Des Grangettes

It was always my desire to visit Montreux but there is no public transport from the campsite which complicates things a little. Google maps is my friend in this instance and tells me I can walk 3.5km to Villeneuve which is the nearest town. Villeneuve has a railway station and the line runs to Montreux.

When I got there the station was closed for lunch from 12:00 – 13:30 so I decided to check out the Istanbul Kebab House and relieve them of a Doner. By the time I’d eaten it, it was raining. I had no coat and couldn’t be arsed getting getting rained on waiting for the railway station to open so returned to base.

On the way back I got some shopping at the supermarket. 1.5kg bag of potatoes, 160g pack of boiled ham, and a Cornetto. Over 10 Swiss Francs, that’s nearly seven quid. This has to be the most expensive country in the world to live in!

I will forgive the Swiss though, because the country is clean and tidy, also the views are stunning. Sat in the van late afternoon, the sun came out again to light up the local landscape. From the window I can see Lake Geneva, Montreux and Lausanne.

Tomorrow I’ll make an early exit, around 8AM to head up to Troyes in Eastern France.

Day 19: Des Grangettes to Troyes

It’s day 19 and time to say goodbye to the most expensive country in the world and head for France.

The first part of the journey through France is on village type roads rather than the motorways I was expecting. Anyway, the TomTom seems to get it right most of the time, but I’m not complaining as the empty country roads are a delight to drive on.

I do eventually get to the motorway and want to head off for some fuel and a bite to eat. Leaving the motorway exit means going through a toll. The lady in front is having problems getting through and came over to me giving it large and I hadn’t a clue what she was saying. “Sorry, don’t understand, non parlez Francais”, she went back to her car, tried again, then came back giving it large again. Maybe she thought I had learned to speak French in the 60 seconds she was away from me! At the time the picture was taken, she had cleared off altogether.

A French speaker in a car further back came and helped her, ticket goes in the hole marked ticket, credit card goes in the hole marked payment. Simples.

Further down the motorway it started to rain, what a treat! I hadn’t seen any rain for nearly 3 weeks, only scorching sunshine and flies.

It’s a sure fact that the closer I get back to England, the shittier the weather gets. It’s also cooling down a little which makes things more comfortable for me.

Found the campsite at Troyes OK, had pre-booked a pitch and was told to pick any vacant pitch I wanted.

There’s a supermarket 50m from the entrance of the campsite, it’s one of those Leader ones which is a bit like Lidl. 10 bottles of beer for 2.09 Euro, what a difference to the prices in Switzerland?

I’ll settle in for the night and grab a bus to the centre of Troyes in the morning, it’s supposed to be a picturesque medieval centre so I’m looking forward to taking some snaps.

Day 20: Troyes

When planning the trip I had in mind to visit Prague, Venice and so on because the places have a “must see” factor about them. To be honest, I only put Troyes on the list because it’s half way between Montreux and Calais.

What a good move! This is such a lovely place and will certainly be getting a second visit in the future. The map of the city looks like a champagne cork on its side (quite apt as this is the Champagne region). The head of the cork is the old medieval city and the square bit is much newer stock.

It’s like stepping into a movie set, I can’t recall visiting a city in the UK with so many medieval buildings.

The newer section on the right is still comparatively old but looks ultra modern compared to the medieval parts.

There aren’t that many shops and the ones that are here a lot were shut. It’s Bastille Day in a couple of days so that may be something to do with it.

On the way back, one of the local hotels had an exhibition on the Templars. That’s quite appropriate as the Champagne region and the Troyes area is where they first started up.

The hotel itself dates back almost 1,000 years and is a fascinating piece of history all on its own.

I really like this place. The campsite is really nice, the staff are helpful and the 150 pitches come in all shapes and sizes so you will find something you like. I went to the Leader Price supermarket next door to buy some cases of beer to take home, and Merguez for my tea. The girl on the till remembered me from yesterday and tried helping me with my poor French which made the shopping trip all the easier.

Tomorrow it’s off to Buysschere up near Dunkirk. I’m only there for the one night before returning home so I’ll try and get up early to give me some extra time there.

Day 21: Troyes to Buysscheure

Last day with any real travelling abroad, most of the journey was spent on the A26 L’autoroute Les Anglais.

The campsite at Buysscheure is superbly presented and the hosts made a fuss of me and the van as soon as I got there. As well as the sizeable restaurant, it boasts a swimming pool and even a small fishing lake.
It’s just a shame I wasn’t staying for.more than one night.

Tomorrow is Bastille Day in France and I’m not expecting very much to be open. Might try and track down a Leader Price supermarket and top up my allowance of French beer. They have on offer a 10 pack of “Burgbier” for €2.09 🙂
Last leg tomorrow, off to Calais for the Eurotunnel at 18:20, then home to a large pile of washing. I hope the Little Elms has plenty of beer in for me 🙂

Day 22: Buysscheure to Home

Last day, just a short run up to Calais and then the Eurotunnel home. I visited the Auchan hypermarket at St Omer and bought a few essentials.

Enough money had been taken off me by Italian and French tolls so I decided to take the D (Departmental) roads back to Calais to go toll free.

I stopped in a layby to empty the water tank in a bid to get the weight down as I planned to blow the last of my Euro’s at Calais on beer and bubbly 🙂

A quick visit to Leader Price in Calais to buy some ballast for the van was followed by a run to the Eurotunnel check in, I was well over two hours early but decided to chance my luck.

I managed to get the 18:20 swapped to 16:36 for no charge, a good result!

Unfortunately a train had got stuck in the tunnel so we had to wait nearly an hour for it to be extracted. Can’t complain, I was still back an hour early 🙂

So… 3,185 miles later I’ve had enough of travelling and its time to head to the Little Elms for a few pints…