25th May

25th May
Budapest to Bratislava, Slovakia

We left Budapest in the searing heat, hitting a Tesco for groceries and then the slow crawl through the city centre to get out on the open road and highway 10. The traffic was slow for a good while and Bruce was wilting in the heat and ended up sleeping on the floor of the van while I drove on. We were headed for Bratislava and i'd already been on the net earlier in the morning to find a campsite address. Just as well that I did, as there was only one listed.

We passed over the border without any hassle, just a quick check of the passports and we were on our way, but only after having nearly crossed into Austria by mistake after taking a wrong turning. Bratislava isn't far from the border and we were soon in the outskirts surrounded by a bit of a concrete jungle. Not the prettiest city seen from that angle. Loads of people were cycling and rollerblading along a path on the banks of the Danube in the late afternoon sun.

Maisy found us our campsite at Zlate Piesky, on the outskirts, wothout any problems and we were soon camped and had thrown all the windows wide open, 2 fans on and trying to cool down. The campsite appears to be a municipal site next to a lake and they also rent out small chalets (huts really) nect to the lake. There were people in swimming and on pedal boats.

I checked with the girl at reception about getting into town and bought tram tickets and we headed in. It was dark by the time we arrived in the centre after the 25 minute journey, and we set about finding a net cafe to get some info on the place.





The guy in the net cafe was a grumpy toad - never smiled once the whole time. We made our way to a bar and had some cheap beers (2 euro for 0.5 litre Staropramen - yay!) and watched some funny drunken dancing. We had all sort of problems finding places on our silly, small photocopied map. We ended up hopping from one city map at the roadside to another, tracing our steps al the way, and found a club up some backstreet. I think it was a club designed for hobbits, as it was down in a basement, and as we went down the stairs, we had to limbo half way down under the ceiling which was only about 5 feet high. Bizzare. Once inside and paid our 50 Kronur entry (about 1.50 euro) we had to negotiate another crazy low arch. I'm amazed no -one has been hospitalized from the place. still, the music was pretty good and the beer was quite cheap, although spirits were again expensive. We rolled out of the place at after 4am pretty drunk and sweaty and grabbed a cab back to the campsite.

23rd May

22nd and 23rd May
Budapest.

Well, so much for best laid plans. The weather was really too hot yestarday and today early on to be comfortable to walk around sightseeing in. Yesterday we lazed around the campsite and while it roasted, I got 4 loads of washing done including all the bedding, so that was a good job done, and since use of the washing machine is included in the camping fee, I felt that I was at least getting my money's worth!

We finally headed out around 5pm yesterday and into the city centre for some food. We found a restaurant and had dinner which was very nice and reasonably priced, then walked down to the banks of the Danube and along to a large island in the middle called Margitziget which has a public park on it. Even as it was getting dusky people were still waling around, enjoying the park and it was really nice, with a water feature that is sequenced to music. We walked for a good while right through from one end of the park to the other and up on to the bridge at the end, then along the road to the nearest Metro station, Arpad Hid.

We caught the train back into the centre and ended up in a small bistro / bar where we sat and drank beer. There was a little small guy who came in and I dubbed him a hobbit (running joke between me and Bruce) and he ordered toast from the guy at the bar. Instead of Tubbietoast a la the Teletubbies, we christened it hobbit toast. We got chatting to 2 American guys who were on a whistlestop tour of Europe and had arrived by hydrofoil from Vienna earlier in the day; a 6 hour trip. We had a good laugh slagging off Bush and ended up calling it a night around 2am and had to walk all the way back to the campsite as we couldn't seem to flag down a taxi. It was still very warm even that late.

Today (wednesday) has been similar in that it was just too hot to go out early (well after noon when we got up!). I stuck the thermometer under the umbrella outside and it ended up at 35 deg C in the shade at 2pm and it was about the same in the van. We headed out about 3pm and caught the metro to Szechenyl Furdo station and came out of the metro into a large park and straight across the way is a large bathing complex. There are hot springs and it's all very Victorian era and grand. We paid 2400 Forints each (about 9.50 euro) which gave us access to the hot spring pools inside and ouside and also the swimming pool outside. It was excellent. We started off in the hot pool inside at 38 deg, then the cooler inside one at 30 deg, then outside to the 2 hot pools there. We didn't get into the main swimming pool as we had no caps with us, so made do with the side pools, one of which has a jkacuzzi in the middle. It would be a great place to spend a full day. Take your picning with you and sunbathe, swim, or lounge in the hot pools, even on a cold day in winter it would be grand. We were both like prunes by the time we got out!

(Photo of outside of Public baths(




We had a stroll around the park for a bit but my feet were killing me from the blisters on them, so didn't go too far. We made our way back into town for some dinner. The food has been really good and we had huge portions again. Budapest has been my favourite city of the trip so far in terms of it being an unexpected gem for me and great value. It' got it's own character and reminds me a lot of Glasgow.

21st May

21st May
Pecs to Budapest

Arrival in Budapest, 50251km

We left Pecs around 11am having settled up the bill at the campsite (3600Huf - about 14e). The road all the way to Budapest is Highway 6, and for the most part of it, it is currently being widened and resurfaced with funds from the EU. There is a new motorway about 100km from Budapest, but you need a vignette for the motorways here which you need to buy in advance. There's no great speed advantage to be had by going on the motorways with Hermione, so I prefer to stick to the national and regional roads, and it's not like I'm in any great rush anyway. The countryside is mainly flat or gently rolling, and lots of agriculture, from wheat to sunflowers and rape growing. The road was failry quiet, even if the journey was a bit slow due to the never ending series of roadworks. From what I've seen so far though, the roads in Hungary are of no worse standard than in Ireland, and presumably will be improved as EU money starts to roll into this country.

We arrived in Budapest about 2.30pm and found the campsite without any major fuss, so it's definately handy to have an address beforehand! We are staying at Camping Haller, on Haller Utca which is about 4km from the city centre. We got sorted out with a pitch by the friendly guy at reception, who also gave us a guide book and map. The camping isn't cheap though. For 2 nights it's 12000Huf (about 48e) although there's a 5% discount off with the Camping Card and they also offer a 4 nights for 3 deal. we're not sure how loing we'll stay. If we like Budapest a lot, we may end up staying for 4 nights. The campsite is small, but very handy for town.

We walked up Haller Utca towards Nagvarad Ter and bought tickets for the Metro (about 80 cents each) and travelled the 5 stops to Deak Ter station. The metro is a bit old and the trains look like they are from the 60's but it all works fine and they're clean and comfortable inside. In fact, I found it quite cute the way that there's still an air of the old Communist stuff still around, even if at this stage, Hungary is most definately a capitalist country. Another thing that impressed us, as we came up out the Metro, is that at every major road junction, they have built underpasses rather than having crossings at street level. They are well lit and clean (in fact at 11pm there were cleaners hosing all the floors down) and in the larger ones there are small shops and cafes.



We had a wander around part of the city centre, which has some quite grand buildings and the usual plethora of shops, then down to the river Danube and watched as one of the pleasure boats went past. First impressions of Budapest are very good. It's clean and bustling, although somewhat more expensive than Pecs was, but I think that was always to be expected. We ended up in a bar for a few drinks and the bill for 3 pints of beer, 3 large glasses of rd wine and 1 coffee came to 4200 Huf which equates to about 17 euro. The same drinks bill in Dublin would be around 30 euro, so I cant really moan that it's expensive.



We finished off our night at a strange bar /club where they give you a numbered card at the door as you enter and all your drinks are marked on it and payment is made at the end of the night. Spirits and mixers were dear at about 6 euro, but we bought a bottlee of red wine that came to about 8 euro, so I think it just depends on what you want to order - some is cheap, some not. We called it a night around 2am and jumped in a taxi back to the campsite (4 euro) and hit the hay.

The weather today was scorchio. By the time we hit Budapest, I reckon it must have been 30 or 32 deg C (about 85F) and even late into the evening and early morning, we were both wandering the streets in shorts and T shirts and it was still very warm. Tomorrow we will have a look around some of the main sights and take things from there.

20th May

20th May
Pecs (pronounced paych), Hungary.

Once on the Campsite, we had a bit of messing around to be done in order to get fresh water. The only tap was in a wash house in the main building, but I managed to get Hermione close enough to get the hose to reach. The woman who runs the site lent me a couple of guide books on Pecs, although we were having to conduct all instructions in German as she didn't speak any English. I thought that she wanted the books back when we returned from the town, but as we were leaving to go sight-seeing, she demanded the books back! Oh well.... at least we had read through them and also had a small photocopied map of the city centre.





We walked the 1.5km into town. Sadly, a lot of Pecs' industry has declined after the fall of communism, and lots of factory buildings lie empty and derelict. The old centre of the city is, by contrast, very pretty and has had some effort put in to turn it into a place for tourists to want to visit. There are a couple of mosques still standing from the era when the Turks invaded, although they have been converted into Christian churches now, but the one at the main square really is very beautiful, having retained most of the Eastern influenced architecture. We visited the old Cathedral museum where they have on display a lot of the masonry from the earlier Cathedral and have made attempts to place all the stone work where it would have once stood. The arched entrance way and the altar are particularly impressive.





We had a wander around the quaint streets and stopped off at a bar for some lunch. The main meat dishes on offer seemed to be of turkey or pork. We both opted for turkey, prepared differently. The portions were huge and the fare simple, but tasty and well cooked. The bill including drinks and tip came to about 12e for the two of us! After the problem finding a campsite here, we went into a net cafe to check out sites for Budapest, so as to be a bit better prepared, then continued on our wandering by foot.

We were looking for a bar on the other side of town, so we needed to cross the railway, then walk along a long road past the football ground (very run down looking) and past lots of old factory buildings, then up towards a development called Pecs Plaza (a kind of out of town cinema complex). We couldn't find the right road and ended up going in a huge circle. We tried again but even after asking for directions, we had ended up in a housing estate amongst tower blocks! We were definately on the correct road, but no sign of the place. Oh well..... we decided to hop in a taxi back into the centre as our feet were now killing us! I have blisters on both of mine.... grrr....

We had a drink in a bar in the centre (with a surly waitress), tried to see if the club down the street was open late (it wasn't) and then headed back to the campsite and negotiated the locked gate with the key left for us on a hook to get in.

I really enjoyed the visit to Pecs. It gave a good insight into not only the old, historic parts, but also into the areas you wouldn't normally see as a tourist, and although maybe a bit on the shabby side in terms of the housing, which was a bit 1960's / 70's 7 storey blocks of flats, but there wasn't any major vandsalism to be seen, just some graffiti, and no wee neds / skangers hanging around. Just such a different attitude from the council estates back home. Hungary, so far, has also been very cheap, but it will be interesting to see if the capital, Budapest is the same.



Spotted this old Beetle in Pecs.

19th May

19th May
Krk, Croatia to Zagreb, then on to Pecs, Hungary.

Arrival in Pecs, 50049km

A small bit of a disastrous travelling day today as initially we had decided on heading to Zagreb, but ended up aborting that plan and heading for Pecs in Hungary.

The journey to Zagreb was really nice, as we avoided the Autoroute and kept to the old national route through the mountains and all the beautiful, small villages, then everything flattened out towards Zagreb; still really pretty.




Zagreb proved very disappointing. Bruce mentioned it looked like a dirty, pre renovation Glasgow. The only pleasing aspect of it for me was the old 1960's east European trams which I found quite cool in my geeky way..... We couldn't find a campsite anywhere, so decided to just cut our losses and head for our next destination, Pecs.

By the time we were passing through the Border, it was getting dark, and finding a campsite in Pecs wasn't easy in the dark and rain too. When we eventually found a campsite, by chance, it was too late and the gates were closed, so I just parked Hermione on the street outside behind 2 coaches and we slept there. it tuned out to be fine and next morning I moved on to the now opened campsite. We are just getting ready to go off exploring......

17th and 18th May

17th and 18th May
Ljubljana, Slovenia to Krk, Croatia.

Arrival in Krk, 49650 km

After our 2nd day in Ljubljana, a city we both really enjoyed, we decided to head for Croatia and do a couple of days of coast relaxation. It was a bit of a case of 'pin the tail on the donkey' on the road atlas to choose our destination, along with availablility of camp sites. We decided on the island of Krk, and kit's main town, also named Krk. There were a few campsites listed, so I reckoned that it would be a reasonable sized tourist town. We travelled mostly Autoroute for the 1st half of the journey, then turned on to a more minor road towards the Croation border.

Arriving at the border, we crossed through the Slovenian check point without any problems, and through the initial Croatian police check point, but then I managed to take a wrong turn and ended up in with the trucks at the Croatian customs check point. This resulted in some confusion with the officials, who disappeared with our passports for a few minutes and then informed us that we would need to turn back and head through the other check point for cars. This meant going back up the one way system the wrong way, only to find the barrier had been lowered and we couldn't get back through! I had to go and speak to a ploiceman who wasn't being very helpful, but meantime, Bruce had spoken to a policewoman who had agreed to lift the barrier, so we finall passed through the border.....

Travelling through the City of Rijeka, we headed for the island of Krk and paid the 350 Kuna (5e) toll to get on to the island, and headed along a very bumpy road to the town of Krk.

Krk is a very pretty, small harbour town, with many old fortifications dating back to the 1100's and some Roman remains too. It has a good number of restaurants around the harbour front and some more in the streets behind. The campsite, 'Bor' was very pleasant, sitting at the top of a hill with amazing views down over the bay and to the islands beyond. We were pitched on a terrace and next door to us, a cat was living under the next caravan and had her litter of 6 kittens which kept us entertained. They were quite timid but eventually came out and poked around and we fed the mammy cat some milk.


We ate out in one of the restaurants and I decided that i was having a blow out and having a starter and main course. In the end, the portions were huge and the food very good and reasonably priced. I think it worked out at less than 30e for both of us having 2 courses each and wine. Next day we just had one course each!


The weather was very nice and we sat down at the harbour and had some drinks and cake in a lovely harbour cafe bar. A very pleasant town, if a small bit on th quiet side at this time of year.

15th May

15th May
Lido di Jesolo to Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Arrival 49331km



An uneventful journey through Italy towards Trieste, where we cut up on to the autostrada A4 and paid the toll of 1.50e towards the border with Slovenia. I pulled in at a motorway service station to fill up with diesel at 1.13 p/litre and then we hopped over the border, stopping at the Italian check point first and then 100 metres later, at the Slovenian one, both of whom just waved us through.... About a kilometer later on we passed a filling station advertising diesel at 96 cent per litre and I fumed at my stupidity! Slovenia has been using the euro since the beginning of this year and looks like it will possible be a good bit cheaper than Italy was.....

The scenery changed over the border into a more Alpine like view and Hermione struggled a bit on some of the hill climbs as the rain vame on. I pulled in at a rest stop to check the tourist info point, but it just turned out to be a map, and we got our first taste of gypsies hassling people in their cars for money. I hoped this wouldn't be a recurring them here.

I'd set Maisy GPS for an address in Ljubljana of a campsite listed in the camper stop book that appeared to be on the outskirts of the city and she got us right to the door, but we about turned and headed back to a supermarket first to get some food in while the wheels were still in motion. Once back at the site, I booked in at 22e per night. We're on Laguna Ljubljana Resort which is a campsite and hotel. There's a bus stop across the road for buses into town, about 5km away.

We hopped on the bus after asking one of the bus drivers at the terminus which one to take to town. It was cheap at 1.25e and the bus amused me as it seemed to be quite old, I'm guessing mid 70'2 vintage, with wooden seats and very basic, but sturdy, german built and made to last. We found the old town with the help of our street map and it's very pretty, with cafe's on both sides of the narrow Ljubljanica river, lots of nice old buildings and a nice feel to the place. WE went up to the castle on the little cable car and had a poke around there, which was quite cool, then stopped at a pizza shop and bought a couple of large slices for 1.70 each and had already been to the fat cake shop and had 2 slices of cake in a box for afters.




After our al fresco meal, we strolled around and ended up a bar called cafe Romeo and cursed as we saw them serving really nice looking food that wasn't that dear..... Still, the drinks were good and cheap. We sampled the local Rum (75%) at 2 euro a shot and our drinks bill came to 20 euro by 11pm. Bruce asked the little waiter guy if there was a place opened late and he directed us to the Skeleton bar, where we ended up getting rather drunk on 2 for 1 cocktails before heading back to the campsite by taxi. I was pretty drunk and just crashed out.....

Tomorrow is planned for another day here probably.....



The ceiling of the chapel in the castle -

14th May

14th May
Venice



Another warm day in store by the looks of things and we got organised to travel into Venice by bus and boat. It wasn't all that cheap to get there at 16.60e return, but this included 2 bus journeys and a boat trip, so maybe not all that bad in terms of value. Italy, in general hasn't been cheap, not extortionate, but not a cheap holiday destination. Anyway, we took the 2 buses which took about 45 minutes to get to the boat terminal at Punto Sabbioni. We hopped on the the fairly large ferry boat and settled down for the journey which took about 25 minutes. It made a stop off at Lido, which looked nice. I think there are some hotels there and it's more than likely cheaper to stay there than in Venice itself. Finally, the boat rounded in the lagoon and we could see the domes and spires of Venice up ahead.


The ferry docked at San Marco and we stepped out to the quay wall where there were the usual tourist stalls selling t-shirts and trinkets, and also some restaurants. Once over a small bridge spanning one of the many canals, we were able to get a flavour of the Venice that everyone has seen on travel shows on TV. It's very pretty, in a slightly shabby in parts way. There were the expected gondolas, splendid looking in deep gloss black paintwork, and I watched one of the gondoliers as he used the large paddle to keep the boat moving, making it look effortless, as he kept up a running commentary with his passengers. Also, water taxis, some of which had really amazing varnished decks and were very pretty craft indeed.


We wandered around the streets for ages looking in the shops, stopping off at a small restaurant in a little back street for a good cheap pizza lunch deal and continued on. My only gripe really was that Venice seems to really just exist for the tourist trade, and obviously I know that we were part of that, but it just gets a wee bit tiresome after a while, seeing all the same tat aimed at the tourists. I mean, how many shops and stalls are really needed to sell the same stuff? There was some nice jewellery and glass ware, but some hideous tack too. I think the worst thing I saw was a kid on gilt framed 3D picture of venice with a gondola in behind the plastic screen. It really was the worst kind of 'Made in China' crap I've ever seen. I can really do without all that kind of stuff.



We stopped off in a square just behind the Ponte de Rialto bridge. There's a real lack of places to sit. We didn't see any benches - ended up sitting on the edge of a fountain that was drained of it's water, and we got wired into our bottle of cheap red plonk and had some good sliced fruit from a little stall, and watched the owner's dog chase the pigeons. In San Marco square there were hundreds of pigeons, all there to be fed by the tourists and some folk had pigeons on their arms and on their heads. Yuck. Filthy flying rats!




By around 7pm, we'd had enough and were a bit fatigued, so headed back to the quay to catch the boat back to Punto Sabbioni and it was getting dark when we arrived back at the campsite. A good day sightseeing in Venice though. Tomorrow we are going to head for Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia, which we're both quite excited about, having never been to that country.

As we leave Italy, I'm left with far better impressions of the country than the last time I visited. Probably down to the places visited, which were all very nice. The people were very friendly in the most, and prices, although not cheap, were still on a par with the UK and Ireland for eating and drinking. I'm certainly glad that I spent a bit of time, even if it was only really in the North of the country.

13th May

13th May
Porto Corsini to Lido Di Jesolo

Arrival 49090km

I was up early as we needed to be off the camper stop area before 9am or we would be charged for another day, so as Bruce continued to sleep (he likes to sleep!), I carried out the few bits and bobs needing to be done before we set off and then we were on our way. The plan was to head in the direction of Venice, and I'd found a few campsites in the guide book at a place called Lido Di Jesolo where there is a bus and boat service to Venice from.

We arrived at the first site, Waikiki and booked in at reception, 12e per night and a really nice site, with the pitches under trees for a bit of shade and right next to the beach. We spent the afternoon having a laze around on site and I got the satellite dish set up for Bruce to be able to watch the tennis on Eurosport. The trees proved to be a bit of a problem for the satellite signal, but finally I found that the pole used for the pitch marker numbers was in a perfect spot to get a signal, so that's where the dish ended up....

Later on, we walked into the small village of Cortellazzo. The area is all very low lying, most likely a lot of the land has been reclaimed from the sea, and it reminded me a lot of Holland in ways. There wasn't a lot to see in Cortellazzo, but we picked up a few supplies in a supermarket including a couple of bottles of cheap wine. The wine, sadly, has proven not to be as good value as Spain was, but at 1.20e a bottle, one really can't complain too much! The ice cream from the local gelateria was also sampled and proved to be very good, even if the woman serving was a bit of a grouch and a bit miserly on the quantity. I made enquiries at campsite reception about travelling into Venice the next day and we chilled out in the van with the satellite retuned to astra 2 for some English language programming. The signal was too weak for a lot of the channels, so we ended up watching a kind of bad Tv movie; the sort that you'd normally just turn over, but it actually turned out to be ok in the end up.

Venice tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to.............

Update

Sorry no pics in the last few posts.... when I find the time, I'll go back in and edit them, but the connection here is a bit slow. MOre to update from Venice and we're now in Lubljana in Slovenia, although just arrived. Ciao....

12th May - Porto Corsini

11th and 12th May
Firenze to Porto Corsini (near Ravenna)

Arrival 48923km

An interesting journey up and over the mountains and down toward the coast, 2nd gear stuff both up and down for a good bit of the way, so although not a huge mileage was covered, it took a good 4 hours to get there. We ended up on the large camper stop area in Porto Corsini which has a charge of 7e per night. I'd say there were about 30 vans there when we got there, but by the next morning (Saturday, the place was heaving with about 60 or more vans and very noisy.


We did a small grocery shopping and Bruce cooked a nice pasta meal, and afterwards we headed towards the town and found a ferry that runs over the channel to Marina di Ravenna and had a snoop around there. We found a nice bar and had a drink there and wandered around for a bit. Marina di Ravenna is a nice small resort town, probably used by locals from Ravenna mostly. There are a few hotels,but mostly apartments, plenty bars and restaurants and shops. A pleasant enough little town with a nice beach. We made our way back to Porto Corsini on the ferry about 11pm and a bit later, there was a commotion as loads of cars came down the road next to the camper stop and were heading for the beach bar at the end of the track. I would have headed out but was just too wrecked after the days driving, and ended up crashed out on the bed.

ON Saturday we headed to the beach for a lazy day. We set up our towels and plonked ourselves down only to be moved on by the guy renting out the parasols and loungers, who told us it was a private beach. We moved slightly further along, only to be told by other people that that part was private too! Finally, we sussed out that there was a small strip of no man's land in between both the private bits, where people had set up their towels, so we did the same.....

We went swimming to cool off and the water was surprisingly (to me) not all that cold. We both ended up a bit burned, so decided to head off the beach and get some food in a small cafe. The food was ok - lasagne, but I had to send mine back as a it was a bit on the cold side. More ice cream was had..... the ice cream in Italy really is very good.

Back at the camping area, we ate in the van and made attempts to chill out, although the place was a bit noisy.

Tomorrow we head for Venice, hoping to stay at a campsite in the town of Lido di Jesolo and get a bus from there.

10th May - San Gimignano / Firenze

10th May
Lucca to San Gimignano then Firenze

Arrival in Firenze 48747km

We decided to skip visiting Pisa as we had a really nice time in Lucca and wanted to head for Florence. My friend Matt had recommended a visit to the town of San Gimignano, near to Florence, so we headed for there first, with the plan to spend the afternoon there and then head for Florence in the late afternoon.

The drive was very pleasant in typical Tuscan scenery and finished up winding uphill towards San Gimignano which sits perched atop a hill. It's another walled town and very well preserved and quaint, but very touristy with it. The town has obviously set itself up as a little tourist trap and have organised parking for coaches and camper vans, although the camper van parking is a fair trek from the town and all uphill.


We kicked around San Gimignano for a few hours, wandering the narrow streets and alleys and eating gorgeous Italian ice cream. The weather was very warm and it was nice to be able to sit in the shade of a cloistered area just off the main square and relax for a while.


Leaving San Gimignano, we made our way towards Florence and Maisy had one of her fits of nonsense, taking us up a tight and twisty narrow road through tiny villages and almost getting us stuck a couple of times. Finally, we made it to the city centre of Florence where the drivers are just simply nuts! It was a real free for all with scooters buzzing around the sides and on the roundabouts you really just need to force your way into the traffic flow or you'll sit there forever. We had no luck at all in finding either of the camper stops listed, but had seen a camping sign further back, so made attempts to retrace our track back to where the signs were. This went surprisingly well, luckily, and we found the campsite within about 25 minutes. Camping Michaelangelo is at the top of a hill just above the city centre. It's hilly, the pitches slope quite a lot and it was expensive at 33e for the night, but it just had to do.

Once pitched up on a slight slope, we decided to head down into the centre and went to a couple of bars and decided to get drunk. Drinks were expensive, but the spirits proved better value than bottled beer as the measures were free poured and generous. We tried to head for a late club, but couldn't find it in the end up, even after a nice wee Moroccan guy had taken us to where it was supposed to be, so decided to head back to the campsite about 2.30am. Bruce just caught the last of the pizza shop and bought himself a slice of pizza for 3e which I slagged him about for getting ripped off....

We decided not to stay on, which was a shame in a way, as Florence looked to be a nice city, but I think we had become all cityed out by this stage and wanted to head for the coast the next day.

9th May - Lucca

9th May
Parma to Lucca

Arrival in Lucca 48560km

Diesel 35e



We were a small bit late in leaving Parma, just due to the fact that we were both a bit wrecked. I think all the walking around in the sun yesterday had taken it's toll a bit. While Bruce was still sleeping, I pottered around and did a few jobs, like emptying the dreaded chemical toilet! The weather was already really starting to warm up by late morning and we got on our way around noon, stopping off to fill up with fuel.

I had planned the route the night previous, as there was a scenic route listed on the road atlas that looked to be more interesting, perhaps, than the main trunk road, so we only relied on Maisy to get us on to the first stretch of the main road and then I switched her navigational instructions off and just kept the map on, to keep track of the road numbers as they approached. We started off on the SS9 towards Modena and then turned south on the SS12 all the way towards the city of Lucca.

The first stretch was fairly uninteresting, but once on the SS12, the scenery started to unfold. Rich, lush pastures, then climbing into the hills where there were lots of forests. On the first of the long slow inclines, I had Hermione dropped down into 3rd to make the climb, and I always have a habit of keeping an eye on the temperature guage on those long climbs, especially on hot days, and today was scorching. Some of the roadside signs were showing 32 deg C, although I imagine that's not in the shade. Anyway, about half way up, the needle started to creep up and usually I can tell when the cooling fan should kick in, just above the 90 deg mark, but still the needle kept climbing and I started to get a small bit concerned. The temperature warning lamp came on and fotunately we were only a few hundred metres away from a lay by, so I pulled in and switched off the motor.

When I rurned the ignition switch back on, the cooling fan wouldn't run, so I knew we were in a spot of bother, as there was going to be no way to do all the hill climbing ahead with the engine overheating. I started to investigate the problem. Some previous owner or mechanic had rewired the electric fans and had completely bypassed the original circuit, ppresumably for a sound enough reason, maybe it was faulty, but the wiring job they'd replaced it with was a bit of a dog's breakfast, with cables taken directly from the battery, through a relay and the fan switch on the radiator. I mean, it all made sense the way it was wired, just more the routing of the cabling that was pretty poor and untidy. I discconnected all the cabling from the relay and started testing it all with the multimeter in my toolbox. I found all the wiring to be ok and ran the individual cables from the fans to the battery. One worked but the other fan didn't budge. It looks like the motor has siezed up. It may well have been like this for a while, running with just one fan. I found that the relay used to switch the circuit was faulty, but fortunately I had a spare relay in my bag of spare 'stuff' in the boot, so I was able to rewire it all with the new relay and just left the faulty fan disconnected. I'll need to try to pick up a fan assembly at a scrap yard, but until then, one fan will just need to do the job. The wiring will all need to be tidied up properly later on too..... Finally, I topped up the coolant that Hermione had spat out when she overheated and we carried on our way.

It was a very scenic, if a bit of slow journey, due to the hill climbing and very twisty mountain road, but still well worth it for the views. We arrived in Lucca about half four and tried to find somewhere to park up. I spotted signs for a camper rest area and we headed there. This one is a proper commercial camper stop that looks brand new, as there's nothing listed in the book I have. It's 15e for the night inc. electric hook up which is ok. It's nicely placed within walking distance of the city centre.


WE walked in and through on of the city's gates (it's still walled nearly all the way round) and found a very old, quaint city inside, with loads of churches and piazzas and narrow stone streets. It's a fascinating little city that I'd never have though of visiting if it hadn't been marked on the atlas as well worth a visit. We had dinner in a small restaurant. The food was ok. Actually, the pasta was very good, but not all that cheap. I'm missing Spain for the cheap food!

8th May - Parma

8th May
Bergamo to Parma

Arrival in Parma 48339km

I'd collected Bruce from Bergamo airport late last night. I arrived there slightly early, so sat in the car park and waited for his flight to land at midnight. When I went back in to the terminal building around ten past, he was actually walking towards me, but I didn't see him straight away, since I wasn't expecting his flight to be through baggage collection yet. That, and he'd cropped his hair off, so I was expecting to see a mohawk and instead got a number 1....

We headed back to the camper stop and sat chatting until about 2am, which is well past my bedtime on this trip!

The car park / camper stop in Bergamo was already full at 8am and I began to gorry that we were going to end up hemmed in, so when the car in front moved out, I grabbed my chance to get us out of that spot and go fill up the water tank.

We left around 11am and travelled down mostly non-main roads towards Parma. So 'non-main' in fact that one of them wasn't even surfaced! I don't know what that Maisy one is thinking sometimes......

WE found the camper stop in Parma without too much bother, although it's kind of hidden in a car park next to a sports centre. Basically, it's just 7 dedicated motorhome spaces marked out in the car park plus a service point for emptying tanks and filling with water, but it serves it's purpose fine. One thing I've noticed so far is that the Italian camper stops aren't as well developed as the French ones I came across, in that the French ones generally have a separate parking area purely for motorhomes. Anyway, they are still ok, and free which is always an added bonus.

We did a small bit of grocery shopping to get some stuff in for lunch, at the shopping centre just across the road, Centro Torri, then aferwards headed in on foot to find Parma city centre, which was about 3km away. It was basically a straight line in towards town and we found it no bother.




I was very impressed by Parma. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what we found was a city with lots of trees and nicely spread out on both sides of a river. It has quite a 'studenty' feel to it and lots of people were hanging out in cafes in the late afternoon sunshine. The weather was glorious. I reckon it must have been in the high 20's in the afternoon, but with a nice breeze to just take the edge off. We walked around the periphery of the centre, then cutting back in through the middle streets and branching off into some of the side streets. We stopped off at a small tapas bar and had some drinks and do a spot of people watching.


They have trolleybuses in Parma, which make hardly any noise, but you need to be careful or you could quite easily get run over!

Later, we ate dinner in a nice restaurant in one of the Piazzas. The food was ok - not breathtaking by any stretch of the imagination, and a slight let-down prehaps from what I had expected of Italian cuisine. It was fairly reasonably priced though.



By the time we were heading back to the van, darkness had descended, but it was still pleasantly warm and quite comfortable still in shorts and t-shirts.

Tomorrow the plan is to head for Pisa.

7th May - Bergamo

7th May

Iseo to Bergamo

Arrival 48138 km

42e camping
18e diesel
12e engine oil
25e groceries

I headed off from Iseo around 11am after finally getting all the remaining washing dried. The campsite was pretty good, but had beeen very quiet, probably as the wetaher had been so poor and a lot of the pitches are seasonal where people have their caravans and awnings set up for the whole time, so more than likely they don't bother visiting unless the weather's decent. This was the first campsite that I've used the Camping Card (discount card for certain sites) and it saved me 10e each night, so it more than paid for itself just then. It worked out at 14e per night inc electric. The showers were decent, so I used the ones on site and saved on the gas in the m/home too.

I stopped off at a Lidl and bought a few groceries. Raging now as they had snorkel sets on special and I wish I'd picked one up now for the next time I'm at a beach or lake. There was a kid outside with her father mooching around the van when I came out, probably looking for money. I told her to scram, which probably doesn't translate into Italian, but she seemed to get the message anyway. there's a fair bit of begging goes on here, but then Spain was quite bad for it too.

I topped up the engine oil and diesel at a filling station. I think the guy saw me coming since he sold me synthetic engine oil at 12e for a litre, bloody rip-off, but anyway, my language skills are non existant, soi it would have been difficult to try to get something else and none of it was out on display anywhere. The turbo warning light is still staying on, but it's coming on as soon as the ignition is switched on without the engine running, which leads me to (Hope!) believe that it may be a faulty pressure sensor. I'm assuming it's some kind of diaphragm arrangement that may have got stuck, but I'll need to strip it off and see if I can suss it out. The turbo still sounds ok and the engine's running alright, so I shall hope for the best that all is ok....

I arrived at the camper stop in Bergamo and it was ok. Just a public car park really and not much room, but a few vans parked up andc it looked safe enough, so I manoeuvred in and then headed into the city on Shanks' pony, which was about 3km into the centre. Quite a nice city for a stroll around and I spent a pleasant enough afternoon wandering the streets and window shopping. There are some amount of the African 'looky looky' guys selling sunglasses, belts and watches. And there I thought that they only frequented the beach areas.....

By the time I got back to the van it was really warm. Such a difference from a few days ago. Also, my cold is nearly gone, so I'm feeling a bit more back on form.

Bruce is due to arrive from Prestwick around midnight on a Ryanair flight, so I'll need to head off and collect hime from the airport later. He's coming out for 3 weeks, but we'll need to get the heads together and see where he'd like to see. I'm thinking Florence, but it's a bit of a trek south, and definately Venice. There's a campsite at Lido de Jesolo that is served by public transport to Venice so that looks to be an option. Anyway, I'm sure that a plan will form along the way........

6th May - Iseo

6th May

Still in Iseo.....

The rain stayed off for about 4 hours and then started up again. I think wse've had about 3 full days of rain when it's all added up. Anyway, I used the time to get all my washing done, although the machine was crap - no hot water in the tank and it doesn't spin dry anything, so I had to wring everything out by hand first. It all took ages to dry as it wasn't very warm and there was still a lot of water in the clothes.

I went in to Iseo a few times over the weekend, and it's a busy enough wee place when the weather's ok. Sunday saw the weather finally pick up properly and it was nice- warm and sunny. I really should have taken a trip on the boat that runs up and down the lake serving all the small towns, but I dunno, I really still wasn't feeling on great form, so I didn't bother.




Not an awful lot more to add to this entry really. It's been 3 days of sitting around and waiting for the weather to sort itself out and also let my cold run it's course. Tomorrow, I'm going to head for the city of Bergamo, north east of Milan and try to find the camper stop there, and if it's ok, I'll park up and head into the city and kill some time until Bruce arrives as his flight doesn't come in until midnight.


I did manage to catch some British TV on the campsite in Iseo as firstly I had it tuned to Astra 1 which has BBC prime, so I caught up on Eastenders and a few other half decent programmes, then I fiddled around and managed to pick up Astra 2, but the signal was too weak to get BBC and ITV, so I had to make do with a few TV movie channels and the news, but hey, any English language programming out here is a plus, trust me!

4th May - Iseo

4th May
Torino to Iseo (Brescia, Italy)

Arrival 48079

Well it's been a bit of a shit day all round today, really.

Firstly, it rained non-stop for 27 hours. I left Torino this morning around 10 and got soaked just getting the electric cable unplugged and the gas turned off, and that was with a waterproof jacket on. The woman at the campsite reception muttered something about 'poca agua'. Poca agua my arse, more like mucho agua.

I left after settling up, which wasn't too bad after the horror stories I'd heard about Italian campsites being expensive: 39e for the 2 nights inc electricity. I made my way along the rain soaked streets of Turin, with the destination of Milan in mind.

I didn't know that the they had paddy fields in Italy. Honestly; there were just dozens of fields under about 9 inches of water. I don't think that they'll have a drought this summer somehow.....

About 20km before Milan, I noticed a red warning lamp on the dash was on, but there was no marking on it to tell me what it was for. Since it had been so wet, I considered the possibility that the water had maybe got into the electrics somewhere and was acting a bit screwey. I finally got to the parking area for motorhomes on the outskirts of Milan, but I really wasn't all that happy with it. It would probably have been ok to overnight on, but I wouldn't have felt happy leaving Hermione there and going in to the city on the Metro, so I just decided to abandon the idea altogether and head for somewhere a bit more scenic, since the rain wasn't letting up anyway. I programmed Maisy GPS for Iseo, Laga d' Iseo, a lake between Bergamo, the airport that Ryanair fly into, and Brescia. Apart from missing one turn off it went ok, with one stop to fuel up and a scare when another warning light came on after leaving the petrol station.

When I finally arrived at the campsite (which is a steal at 14e a night with my camping card) I checked up the manual and found that the 1st warning lamp relates to the turbo pressure and the 2nd to the air cleaner needing attention. It may just be a dodgy sensor, as the turbo sounds ok and doesn't seem to be lacking in any power and isn't smokey, but I plan on getting it checked out on Monday when the garages are open.

I checked the oil level and she's down about a litre, but I've done 5000km without needing to put any oil in so far.

Thirdly.... I've come down with a stinking cold and am not feeling on top form. Hopefully a few days rest will let it shift.

Hmmmmm.... anyway....

The rain finally gave up about 6pm and I walked into Iseo. Nice place, right on the lakeshore, but not a lot happening. I think people were hiding away from the wet weather all day. I decided I needed cheering up, so had myself a slap up meal at the campsite restaurant of pasta, T-bone steak and a half bottle of red to slosh it all down with. It was all right. I'm a bit pissed off tonight - lack of communication is a big factor. The fact that I don't speak a word of Italian doesn't help, although I've found that pigeon Spanish translates across fairly well.

Well, I'm still alive anyway, and tomorrow, as they say, is another day folks.

Ciao.

3rd May - Torino Day 2

3rd May
Torino - Day 2

I peeked out of the curtains about 7.30am and had a look-see at what the weather was doing. Hmmm..... cloudy, but dry, so I stuck on the boiler for an hour to have a shower, rolled over and dozed off again. When I woke, it had gone 9, so I figured I'd best get myself up and make a start to the day.

By the time I was ready, the sky had cheered up a bit and then it was a case of wondering whether it was T-shirt and hoodie, or T-shirt and light jacket weather. I tell ya, the lifechanging decisions one has to make on the road.......
So anyway, I made the executive decision that it was light jacket day.


I checked out the stunning view from the terrace of the old villa and snapped off ssome photos, then ambled down the hill towards the city. The hill is an awful lot easier on the way down than it is coming back up, when it becomes a calf buster! I wandered along the banks of the River Po, which was in spate, flowing fast with murky brown water after the extensive rains of yesterday and last night. I soon reached the centre and began to take a look around. The shops were all open this time and there are plenty of them. Another thing there are plenty of are caffe's. The Italians love their coffee - shame I don't share the same appreciation really. I did bow to the little devil on my shoulder and indulge in the stickiest ice cream I've ever had.

I made a fair old circuit of the city centre; through Piazzas and streets, grand avenues and skirting the edges of some fine parks. Torino is very pleasant, but I get the feeling that it's a bit on the cool side at times, being bordered by the Alps. I could see snow on the upper slopes of one of the mountains in view at the end of one of the avenues. Brrr......

It is however, cleverly planned, and the main shopping areas are well served by what you'd call, galleries, I suppose....
These covered walkways mean that although you may not escape the cold, at least there is respite from the rain. Glasgow and Dublin planners, please take note. And this was planned out in the mid 1800's. Everything has a solid, well built and well maintained feel to it. The buildings all sit well together and are painted in matching hues, so that there is a recurrent architectural theme to the place. The transport system consists of trams; some a bit old fashioned, looking similar to the ones that Blackpool has that were built in the 60's and other, newer versions, and the systems seems to be quite comprehensive. There are also very frequent buses, which people seem to just hop on at the back of without paying the driver. I haven't sussed out how that system works! They also have a subway of sorts, but I'm not sure how extensive the lines are.


I carried on window shopping. One pet hate of mine, in everything from shoes shops to estate agents, is that it really bugs me when the traders don't put the prices on things in the window. I have no interest in going inside to find out how much something is, and you'll never sell me an apartment or a house with no price in the advert. I'm fairly sure that I can't be unique in forming this opinion?

I had a paranoid moment earlier today when I thought I'd forgotten the PIN number for my bank card. This happens to me now and again. The last time I had the bank send me out a reminder, which took about a week to arrive, and when it did, as soon as I saw the number, I had instant recall. Today, I had a choice of 3 numbers in my head and thankfully, the 1st one that I tried came up trumps! Phew.... visions of me running out of cash and no way of getting any out of the hole in the wall.

I was tempted to go clothes shopping, but I didn't really see any bargains, although designer label queens would be bowled over by the number of boutique shops, Dolce and Gabbana, Guess, etc., and practically everyone seems to sport at least a major designer label accessory like a belt. Or sunglasses. Now there's a thing I just don't get. I'd just lose sunglasses and don't fancy shelling out 150e to replace them. At least with a belt, it's firmly attached to your waist. That I can get..... Anyways, I resisted the temptation since I couldn't find a Penney's anywhere!

I finally found a net cafe and managed to get the previous week's blog uploaded and answer a few mails and while there I checked in on Colette's blog that she uses to keep me updated about things back in Ireland, and found out that Evelyn's cat, Boots, had been run over and killed on the road. That pretty much put a dampener on my day. I felt gutted. Poor wee cat. I really liked him. For the few short months that he was around, his character really shone through. Colette has a theory that the local alpha male tom cat, who may or may not have been Boots' father as they had very similar markings, had chased him away and he'd gotten run over trying to make it back home. He may, of course, have just gotten brave and decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the fence.

Crazy Italian drivers everywhere. I was crossing the street on the green man at one of the marked crossings and an ambulance came flying straight through. I thought to myself that it would have been somewhat ironic to have been ploughed over at that point, in an Alannis Morrisette kind of moment.

By 3pm, the clouds had started to roll in and a few spots of rain were making their prescence felt, so I decided to call it a day. Truth be told, my feet hurt, and I knew I had that nasty uphill stretch at the end of it all to look forward to. The rain managed to stay at bay until I got back to the van and then the weather turned to kak. I made myself a very Italian lunch of spaghetti with tomatoes and crusty bread and decided to chill out and watch a DVD, so 'The Shawshank Redemption' has been dragged out.

Tomorrow, I head for Milan, so I'm guessing whatever Torino has by way of boutique shops, Milano will have truckloads more.

Torino (Turin, Italy) Day 1

2nd May
Savines Le Lac (France) to Torino (Turin, Italy)

Arrival 47782 km

I took the N94 / SS24 from Savines Le Lac over the Alps and down into Italy. There was a fair bit of snow on the mountain at the summit of the road just before passing over the border, and the road was very twisty both on the ascent and descent. It was wierd seeing a 38 tonne articulated lorry coming down as some of the bends really bouble back on themselves. I'm assuming that the driver didn't want to pay the toll on the autoroute. The scenery on practically the whole journey was excellent. From Savines, it reminded me of the landscape between Kinlochleven and Ballachulish in the west highlands of Scotland (one of my favourite places), only the mountains were that bit taller.






On arriving in Turin, I had set Maisy GPS for a camper stop listed in the book. Unfortunately, the co-ordinates listed must have been off, as I ended up in a narrown uphill cul-de-sac and had do back out all the way down again. According to the GPS co-ordinates, I would have been camped on someone's front lawn! I had spotted a signpost for 'Camping Villa Del Rey' on the climb up to the aborted stopover, so I decided to back track andc see if I could find the campsite.




Following the signs brought me up another very narrow and winding road and I began to wonder if I was on the right road or not, but on rounding the final hairpin bend, there was a caravan parked up in front of me, so I reckoned I had found it. Unfortunately, the gates were shut, as the office didn't open until 3pm and it was only 2.20. I needed to back up Hermione into a parking space, but she had decided to throw a strop and was in one of her 'non starting' moods. I had to resort to the old tried and tested trick of the extra cable directly on to the battery terminal and she fired up. I had tried to just roll her back into the space, but with the engine not running, no power steering and the servo not working for the brakes, it was too awkward to attempt.

The guy from the camping came out and opened up the gates, showing me to a decent sized pitch which I had to turn around on, as it was on a bit of a slope. Thats the one good thing about this van. On a level surface, she sits slightly 'nose down' due to the Alko rear axles sitting a bit higher, and campsite pitches are generally never quite on the level, so I can usually face one direction or the other and be fairly level inside the van without the need for levelling blocks, which I had a bit of a disatrous time with in Madrid when they got stuck between the back wheels of the tag axle and I ended up having to jack up the back of the van to get them back out!

The campsite sits in the grounds of an old villa - judging by the name 'Del Rey', I'm guessing that there's some connection with royalty along the way. The house looks as though it's in the middle of a restoration. New windows have been fitted and there was scaffolding up inside one of the downstairs rooms and someone at work restoring the room. It looks to be an original villa with two wings added on, 4 storeys - pretty large. I don't know what the owners plan to do with it, as it's too big for a family to live in as one house.

Not long after I got settled in, the rain started and another thunderstorm which continued for nearly 3 hours, then the sun peeked through and the rain stopped. I decided to make my move and head down to the city to try to catch some sightseeing before dusk fell. I walked down the steep hill and into the city centre, which took around 15 minutes to get to. There is a tram stop at the bottom of the hill, but I had no idea what tram to take, so just hoofed it instead.

Torino, on 1st impressions, is impressive. I arrived initially at a really large square, 'Piazza Vittorio Veneto', and walked past the shops which are sheltered by covered, arched walkways. Very clever, in what I imagine is a fairly rainy city. I continued on up street, again more walkways and covered a roughly square walk around the main part of the centre, dodging trams, buses and crazy drivers that don't seem to think there is a need to slow down for you while you're crossing at one of the many marked road crossings. You need to have your wits about you, as there is sometimes a need to break into a sprint at the last minute!



Dusk had started to descend, so I decided to head back for the van. Torino is an easy city to navigate in, as it's layed out in square blocks off the river, so I found my way back without any problems, not needing to consult the tourist map I'd broght along. As I neared the campsite, the rain started again, and I was only inside the van about 5 minutes when it really started pelting down. It continued to rain all night and didn't ease up until about 5am.

As I'm writing this at 10am, the sun is making an attempt to come out, but it's not looking all that great. As long as the rain stays off though, I'll head back for the city again in a bit.

1st May

Vallon Pont D'Arc to Savines Le Lac (Lac de Serre-Poncon: Haute Alps Region, France)

Arrival 47586km.

Lovely drive today on some great roads and fantastic scenery. Most shops and businesses are shut for the holiday weekend, so not much to do really.

Arrived on a hotel campsite for 10e a night inc electric which is cheap, but it's a bit dead here, so it will just be an overnight stopover. I headed down to the lake and went for a bit of a walk, but the weather's a bit cool and rainy on and off.

I've taken the chance to get all the blog written up on the laptop and the photos edited, so that's a job done I suppose. I need provisions and to get some laundry done soon!

The sun's come out now, so I may head back out and see if there's any life in this one horse town. A lot of motorhomes are parked up at the beach but it's a good bit farther out of town plus there area a lot of 'no camping' signs around, so I didn't want to chance it.