Day 63: Another Wet End to the Day

Date: Friday 30th May
Staying: Camping Bled – Bled, Slovenia
Distance Travelled: 72.6 Miles
Song of the day: Its Raining Again - Supertramp

Slovenia is quite a small country, and it doesn’t take to long to get anywhere. Apart from the 30 minutes we wasted trying to get around Ljubljana (the capital) because of road works and diversions, the rest of the journey was a breeze, and we got to our next destination in only 2 hours driving. I have to say, that the standard of service areas (Little Chefs etc) in Slovenia is quite exceptional. Some larger European countries could take notes (I am all about the snacks).

We only have 2 stops in Slovenia, and they are the 2 most popular tourist destinations outside Ljubljana. First was the Postojna Caves that Laurie wrote about yesterday which is the number 2 attraction. Top of the list is Lake Bled, which is close to the Austrian border, at the foot of the Julian Alps. This is a stunning back corner of the world. As you come over a small rise in the village (5,000 residents) of Bled, the lake plays out in front of you, surrounded by forest and mountains on all sides with Slovenias only island in the middle.

Our campsite was on the opposite side of the lake to Bled, so we drove round, admiring the stunning view, and the tunnels drilled through the rock, on the way. We parked up (having noticed a New Zealand flag on one of the campers on our way through), and headed back to the lake for a quick reconnoitre. Little did we know that our brief walk (during which we saw more snakes – 2 fighting, we think) would be terminated so abruptly by a massive thunder storm that rolled in over the hills behind the campsite. Took the edge off the heat though!

So as the rest of the day was a wash out, we spent it going through our photos (we haven’t done that often. Too many of them) and reading books. Tough life innit!

Day 62: Postojnska Jama

Date: Thursday 29th May
Staying: Camping Pivka Jama – Postojna, Slovenia
Distance Travelled: 82.9 Miles
Song of the day: Deeper Underground – Jamiroquai

To cure our “Post-Fusina Hangover” (that feeling when you’ve had so much fun in one place, that the next seems rather dreary), we decided to cut and run on Croatia. I’m sure it’s lovely (actually, I’ve been to Zagreb and it is), but it clearly didn’t strike us in the right mood. Next on the list was Slovenia.

We’d both heard vaguely of the Skocjan caves, and on consulting the (much-thumbed) Lonely Planet Europe guide, we decided to visit the Postojna Caves just up the road. The caves are not the largest in Europe (those are in the Ukraine), but they are the largest open to the public, comprising 21km of cave networks. The caves are a steady 8-10 degrees all year round, so we donned our jerseys, despite the near 30 degree heat outside.

Entry to the caves is controlled. During peak season a train leaves on the hour, and takes you through 4km of the caves. The “train” is open on all sides, and seats two across, and resembles nothing so much as a fun park ride as it whips you into the cool depths. As you are ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the sights, you must remember not to point or let any part of your body get outside the train, and on more than one occasion we were so close to the rock formations that we physically had to duck. The woman in front of us nearly lost her head when she tried to stand up to see if her friends had gotten on the same train. Alighting from the train, you then wait by the sign that says “English” (or German, Italian or Slovenian) for your friendly guide to accompany you through the caves. Although taking photos is apparently forbidden, nobody seemed too bothered and Cam roared through 250 or so in the low lighting.

Inside, the caves comprise massive caverns of stalactites, stalagmites and columns in various formations and colours. Each millimetre of stalactite takes about 20 years to grow, and some formations only grow one millimetre every 80 years. Water seeping through the cave dissolves the limestone from above, depositing it into the formations before eventually ending up in the huge underground waterway beneath. The overall effect is mind-blowing. Different caverns take on different colours from the minerals, leaving whole rooms of white, red or grey. The largest column (where the stalactites and stalagmites join) is 60m high, and estimates on the age of the caves are between 4 and 5 million years old.

Having really enjoyed the caves, we headed off to our nearby campsite. It actually has its own caves, but unfortunately they don’t open until 1 June, so we missed it by a matter of days. The caves are very wet in the Spring (or even completely underwater) from all the rain which makes some of them quite dangerous to visit, so we assumed they were waiting for it to become a bit drier. Undeterred, we made good use of the extra time to do some laundry. Now, normally a mundane task like this wouldn’t make it onto the blog, but as I was putting up the washing line, I saw something move a few feet from me. We’d seen several lizards during the day so, keen not to disturb one, I walked around the other side of the tree to take a good look. At this point I realised that it wasn’t a lizard tail I was looking at, but the end of a snake. I dashed back to the van to grab the camera, and in the 10 seconds I was away, he escaped. Cam jumped out, and we hunted around (from a distance of course) for about 20 minutes before spotting him again under a few weeds. We’re not from a land of snakes, so we were both perfectly fascinated, and at about 70 cm long and an inch wide at his widest point, he certainly seemed big enough to me. After much consulting, Cam put on his big boots and moved the washing line for me, both of us being somewhat reluctant to get into the foliage barefoot after that experience.

Day 61: Slack

Date: Wednesday 28th May
Staying: Camping Zelena Laguna – Porec, Croatia
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: I Wanna Be a Nudist – Regurgitator

I have come to a startling conclusion. I don’t really like this part of Croatia. It’s weird too, because it’s not something I can really put my finger on. It’s just a feeling.

It was actually hard to find a campsite, not because there weren’t heaps of them, but because most were Naturist. There is a proliferation of them along this coast, something I wish I had checked before we were on our way. As we crossed the border into Croatia (still an old fashioned border crossing here, but still no-one putting stamps in your passport), there is a sign advertising the major attractions of the area, Naturism is in the top 4. No worries, us prudish non-naturists ;-) managed to find a place that had limited its naturists to one quarter of the beach.

It’s not real beach though, unless it’s imported from Italy. There was no sand in sight (except on the beach volleyball court), and the naturists appeared to be given the best bit of beach, with the best view (I think something is conspiring against us here), so we were stuck with the not so nice bit. No worries, we could still take a dip and lie in the sun. And as the temperature was cracking well over 30, it was needed.

No-one actually makes you feel overly welcome here either. Whether it was the girl behind the counter at reception, or the lady serving in the market, none of them are particularly rude, but you get the impression that they really would rather not have to deal with you, even though they are being paid to. It also didn’t help that we seemed to be the most fascinating thing in Croatia; everywhere we went people were eyeing us up. I couldn’t work out whether it’s because we were plainly not naturists, or because red heads are a rarity in Croatia, but it was a little disconcerting.

It wasn’t a hard decision to head to Slovenia tomorrow.

Day 60: Another day, another Country

Date: Tuesday 27th May
Staying: Camping Zelena Laguna – Porec, Croatia
Distance Travelled: 162.4 Miles
Song of the day: Where’s Your Head At – Basement Jaxx

We left Camping Fusina late, after finally getting a bit of Internet access time, hastily posting blogs and checking emails. Back on the road, we plotted our route through Italy, in one side of Slovenia and out the other, then into Croatia. Our initial plan had been to drive to Rijeka, however since we left late and there seems to be a dearth of campsites there, we opted to drive to Porec instead with the aim of a few restful days in the sun.

Sometimes I am truly amazed at just how many trucks there are in the world. If Europe is anything to go by, 1 in 5 people here are truckers. There were times when we did nothing but pass endless convoys of trucks for miles and miles. We saw some of the worst truck driving we’ve seen on the trip so far. Let’s just say that they don’t know exactly how long their trucks are around here, making for some interesting passing manoeuvres (and much brake testing).

Unlike the rest of our trip, the borders between Slovenia and Croatia actually have proper border crossings. Not that we were subjected to anything more than a cursory glance at our passports, and none of them deigned to give us a stamp (much to our disappointment). From there it was pretty easy driving to the campsite. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a campsite like it though – the complex (I can’t think of another way to describe it) comprises about half a dozen hotels and two campsites. In our site alone there was one large and one small supermarket and three restaurants. No wonder they have a five-star campsite rating (and most of the campers bring bicycles with them, the site is so huge).

Day 59: Sighs

Date: Monday 26th May
Staying: Camping Fusina – Venice, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Under the Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers

There was one touristy thing that Laurie and I hadn’t done in Venice but intended to, and that was to visit the Doge’s palace (Pallazio Ducale). When Venice was independent (until Napoleon) the head of state was the Doge. He lived in a Palace that sits between the Basilica di San Marco and the Lagoon, along one side of the Piazza di San Marco.

The palace is most famous for the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte di Sospri), which connects the Palace to the Prison across a typical Venetian channel. Prisoners were taken directly across here after sentencing in the Palaces courts. The story of its name relates to the prisoners, when walking over the bridge, looking out of the windows of the bridge at Venice Lagoon and sighing as it will be there last sight of it for a very long time. The prisons were used up until the early 1900’s and, like the rest of Venice, are damp. It wouldn’t have been a nice incarceration.

The opulence and grandeur are what you would expect from a place such as this. There were frescos by Titian littering the place. I did find one error in the palace though. New Zealand was not on the maps that they had. Shocking oversight! Of course they were 300 years old.

After the Palace we took a trip to Murano to watch the glass blowers at work and do some shopping. Everything is a lot more expensive in Murano, but more elaborate as well. Some of the chandeliers were fantastic. The guys doing the glass blowing were quite nonchalant, but everything was timed like clock work, so they could be. They were probably sick of the tourists poking there noses into the factory all day, so could no longer feign enthusiasm. I was half expecting molten glass grenades to be lobbed our way to scare us off (now thats a picture).

Our last night in Venice and we were invited to a BBQ with some of the staff we had met over our previous 3 nights drinking. Great way to finish our stay! We plan on heading back for a night on the way to Como to break up the trip. Apparently there is a Sumo night on next Sunday which should be a laugh

Day 58: Camping: It’s not all about the Sightseeing, right?

Date: Sunday 25th May
Staying: Camping Fusina – Venice, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: House of Fun – Madness

Cam and I slept late. We had the best intentions to get up early and go to the Doge’s Palace, but it all went astray, mostly because we didn’t go to bed until 2.30am. Since Cam and I have been making new friends at Camping Fusina we stayed up late chatting, meeting interesting people and sampling Marty’s (our friendly kiwi barman and F1-lover) newly invented shots. We had a great time, and at one point I found myself discussing US politics with an American student (apparently politics and alcohol can mix in some circumstances). We finally called it a night when the night watchman (or “fun police” as we were later to learn), came by muttering something that included the words “dormire” (to sleep) and “capito?”.

So, having risen late, we indulged in a cooked breakfast (and several coffees for me) at the bar. The more observant of you will have noticed that it is Sunday, and therefore race day. Marty arranged to start late so he could watch the race with us and despite the Italian commentary, it was plain to see that Ferrari were in no way going to pull off a clean sweep, and that Lewis Hamilton had somehow managed to work his way into 1st (commence wailing and gnashing of teeth from the two guys).

By the time the race had run late, it was now getting a bit too late in the day to be heading into Venice anyway, and we now found ourselves propping up the end of the bar yet again, having a few quiet beers. And then a few “Ferrari’s”, newly invented by Marty and involving a wide variety of spirits. Some of the people we’d met the previous nights dropped by for a drink, so after uttering the words “just one more” about 3 times, we did finally manage to get to bed at a relatively early 10.30pm.

Day 57: Winged Lions

Date: Saturday 24th May
Staying: Camping Fusina – Venice, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple

The plan for today was pretty simple. Having been to Venice twice each before, we have covered off most of the main touristy things; so we planned to just get ourselves lost in the little back streets that are so prevalent in Venice, find some shops and take lots of photographs. But, of course, with all of the best intentions, we still didn’t manage to make the first boat in the morning, which left us about an hour behind what we were thinking.

Not a problem. We took the ferry in at 9am and followed just wandered off into places we didn’t know. Off the main thoroughfares, Venice is very quiet, with lots of peaceful, picturesque piazzas, and restaurants with local prices. We spent the morning walking the length of one of the 2 islands (up to the train station), and the afternoon walking back down the other island (to San Marco Piazza). This took about 7 hours, but bought us lots of pressies and souvenirs, as well as a couple of hundred photographs (and very sore feet).

Today also showed me how much of a red flag a rugby jersey is. Wearing my Wellington Hurricanes top, I was stopped in the street by a stranger who wanted to know the result of our match that morning (We lost a semi-final – insert big sigh of pity). This happened in Cinque Terre as well, where my NZ Football shirt was the draw. Must be a Kiwi thing.

Day 56: Home away from Home

Date: Friday 23^rd May
Staying: Camping Fusina – Venice, Italy
Distance Travelled: 192.8 Miles
Song of the day: Kids in America – Kim Wilde

Having knocked off a huge chunk of the trip to Venice the previous day, 192.8 miles to Venice seemed like a positively cruisy day. We had the usual combination of services stops, crazy overtaking (not mine), and a few “only in Italy” moments, as Cam spotted a bus load of nuns at one of the stops.

We’ve both been to Venice twice before, but it is such a magical place that you can’t help wanting to come back again. Space is obviously at a premium in Venice, so the campsites are dotted around the mainland areas. We chose ours out of curiousity as it was described in our camping book as having lots of “mature New Zealand and Australian staff”. We arrived at about 3pm, intending to have a reviving drink at the bar and then catch up on all our blogging. Instead, we left the bar 7 hours later having found a Formula 1-lover from NZ behind the bar.

This would have to classify as the most social campsite we’ve been to so far. Despite having at least two busloads of Contiki kids (mostly American) in every night, it also attracts lots of young backpackers travelling around independently. One of the owners is a New Zealander and the site even boasts a Kiwi flag at the entrance. Propping up the bar, we met chatted away to lots of interesting people, from Contiki drivers to Australian guys backpacking around. We tore ourselves away at 10pm, determined to get an early start in Venice the next day.

Day 55: Just Like a Bought One

Date: Thursday 22^nd May
Staying: Camping Village Il Poggetto – Florence, Italy
Distance Travelled: 317.9 Miles
Song of the day: Bohemian Like You – Dandy Warhols

‘You got a great car
Yeah what’s wrong with it today
I use to have one too
Maybe I’ll come and have a look...’

This is probably the first day that there was actually nothing wrong with the car for a while. One of the problems with being constantly on the go, its not always possible to stop and get little things fixed when they go wrong. But the little old man with the gammy knee has done wonders to the gear box. It has never been easier to change gears. Its could almost be on a Ferrari ;-)

When we woke up this morning we had 2 choices; 1^st, to go to Capri and 2^nd, drive to Florence. This was answered for us when we woke up to another rainy day. Capri should only be visited in the sun, and after 3 days solid of rain, we were both getting a bit worn down by it all, so we made the decision to head north.

As Laurie had been a bit sick, we had lost a couple of days, which meant we were not going to make the ferry we wanted to make in Bari. So we decided to head straight up Italy to Venice for the weekend. It meant that we would have 2 big driving days, but once we got past the insanity that is Naples, it was motorways all the way. In fact, we made such good time that we managed to get to Florence in time to get washing done and in the sun, which was an unexpected bonus.

Tomorrow is on to Venice for the weekend.

Day 54: Retro in Sorrento

Date: Wednesday 21^st May
Staying: Camping Nube D’Argento – Sorrento, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Strict Machine - Goldfrapp

Task number one for the day: Take the van to the garage. Cam remembered a bit of advice we received from a gent that we met way back at Mont St Michel in the campground there. He had owned a Talbot (as our van is) back in the day, and told us “If you want anything fixed, find yourself an old-school mechanic in a little town somewhere”. Would our Italian-speaking mechanic from Sorrento turn out to be this elusive gem?

After angling the van into the garage (have you ever seen an Italian garage? Don’t imagine huge forecourts, they usually have 16 cars tucked into 10 square feet), Cam and I entrusted our house and all our belongings to the mechanics, promised to return at five and went off to explore Sorrento.

The weather had been torrential for the last few days, but the rain held off until the late afternoon for us. Sorrento is largely on the top of a cliff, but has two strips of waterfront marinas (and pay beaches), where ferries depart for Capri. We started off with a breakfast in town (nutella and banana waffles, anyone?), then meandered through the Sorrento streets. Large sections are pedestrian only, and there were huge quantities of ceramics for sale as well as anything involving lemons (limoncello, tea towels with lemons, tea towels with lemons telling you how to make limoncello, and so on). We actually had quite a successful day of shopping, picking up gifts for family and friends (none involving lemons though). Lunch was had at a restaurant hanging perilously over the edge of the cliff.

So, five o’clock. We go back to collect the van. Is it finished? It is! How is it? In my limited Italian we were able to establish that it was “Non perfetto, ma medio” – in other words, not perfect, but average. Enlisting the English-Italian translation skills of the receptionist she explained that it could be perfect if they pulled it all out, but had thought it best just to adjust it. The problem was the clutch engaging in the wrong place – it was new when we bought the van, so it was just badly installed methinks. But, did it work? Oh yes. Our little van has never been so easy to drive. And reverse? (“Retro” in Italian, we have deduced) Perfetto. Our Italian mechanic gets full marks. Total cost for a house call and fix? €30. Brilliant.

Day 53: 79 AD

Date: Tuesday 20^th May
Staying: Camping Nube D’Argento – Sorrento, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Umbrella - Rhianna

My best subject when I was at school was Geography. Part of our coursework in my final year was on Volcanoes. This absolutely fascinated me, and has done ever since. The first major recorded volcanic disaster occurred in 79 AD in the Roman town of Pompeii, when Mt Vesuvius erupted, burying the town under a massive Pyroclastic flow (superheated ash and debris). I have always wanted to go there.

While Laurinda waited for the mechanic to come and fix the ‘issue’ with the gearbox (her choice, I offered to stay, but she kicked me out), I caught a train to Pompeii, some 30 minutes from Sorrento. As you pull into the station, you can see a tower, partially standing jutting out from behind the trees. The site is only 50m from the train station.

After fighting through all the other tourists and tour groups, I finally got in amongst the ruins and tried to get lost. Pompeii has been an excavation site since the 1800’s, and still only 1/3 of the place is uncovered. This means that, unlike Ostia Antica (see day 48), large parts are still roped off and inaccessible. This is also due, no doubt, to the large number of tourists that come through. It also meant that it was a lot harder to get lost than it was in Ostia.

The ruins are expansive, and some of the areas are in amazing condition. When Pompeii was first uncovered, there was a large collection of frescoes in incredible condition. Most of these have been removed to a museum in nearby Naples, however there are some left, and they do look amazing. There is one brothel that has been left intact, with its frescoes in place, and some of the villas have theirs. It is beautiful to see. The only down side of the day was the thunder storms that caused torrential downpours and left me sheltering behind walls under my umbrella as thunder and lightning cracked right overhead.

I explored Pompeii for about 5 hours, taking copious photographs before I finally had my fill and headed back to the campsite. And there was Laurinda still waiting for the mechanic. He finally turned up and he turned out to be an old man with a gammy knee who spoke not a word of English. Through pigeon Italian (no sentences, just single words) we managed to explain the gearbox issue (I didn’t say I broke it). After a look, he took me to reception who translated that he could fix it, but we would need to take Jarno to his workshop the next day. So everything crossed, he might be able to fix it.

Day 52: Two steps forward... and none back.

Date: Monday 19^th May
Staying: Camping Nube D’Argento – Sorrento, Italy
Distance Travelled: 191.6 Miles
Song of the day: You Spin me Round – Dead or Alive

We were so happy to be on the go again, that somewhere between the campsite and the Rome ring road, I burst out into an enthusiastic rendition of “On the Road Again” before realising that I only know the first two lines. Still, they were enough to see us onto the A1 to Naples. The campsites are great, but of course being sick anywhere is no fun. My neck was still a bit stiff, but I could see in all my rear vision mirrors, and Cam was checking my blind spot, so we were ready to go to Sorrento.

I have mastered the art of hanging around at the bar while I drink my coffee, so we had a few services stops on the way to Sorrento. Our real fun started however just south of Naples. Firstly, the drivers here are crazy. We’ve not thought Italy too bad until now (they are much on a par with the Spanish), but they take the cake in the south even though I’ve even adapted to the Italian driving style. (Indicators? What are they for? If there is two feet of space, I can surely get the car into that lane. I’ll just park in this bus stop with my hazard lights on and go get my groceries, for an hour!)

Anyhow, it started to rain on and off. No problem in itself, but the rain was dirty, and the wind was dirty, so the windscreen was smeared with dirt making it difficult to see (Naples smog perhaps?). Then, as we got closer to Sorrento, you couldn’t help but notice the rubbish, which was not just overflowing from the skips but threatening to engulf them, there being about four times more rubbish than space in the bins. We found out later that the rubbish hadn’t been collected for more than a year (something connected to the mafia – I won’t pretend to understand how complicated that must be). A couple we met at the site had taken the non-toll road down the coast from Rome, and reported that not only was the road atrocious, but it smelt awful.

Sorrento is near the end of a long string of cities on the coast, all placed at the edge of cliffs and only accessible via a long, winding, single-carriageway. We were alternately holding up a wedding party behind us, and being held up by those three-wheeled flatbed minis that are endemic to Italy and always seem to be carrying three times their weight in lemons.

Overall though, things were going quite well until we got to the campsite. At which point we finally lost reverse. I may have mentioned that reverse has been a bit tetchy for the last few weeks – when the car is cold, reverse is generally no problem. When it’s hot however, you may as well switch off the engine, get in the back and make yourself a cup of tea. Unfortunately the problem was compounded when Cam, using the ‘gentle’ touch he is renown for, gave the gearbox a bit of rough handling, which unexpectedly caused us to loose all our gears, and suddenly we were watching the gear stick move round and round in a circular motion.

Now, at this point, we had been angling ourselves into a camp park, but clearly nothing was going to happen now, particularly since it required reversing up a gentle incline and we could go neither forwards nor backwards. I like to think that I’m quite good in an emergency, so I trotted along to the reception, and they sent a gent over who managed to get the forward gears going again (so nothing terminal with the gearbox, at least). Through a combination of heavy turning and a lot of pushing, we finally managed to get ourselves into the park. Cam was most contrite about the gearbox. In honestly though, I was thinking that at last we had an excuse to get it fixed properly!

Come back tomorrow for the next gripping gearbox episode....

Day 49-51: Et Tu Brutus?

Date: Friday - Sunday 16-18^th May
Staying: Tiber Camping - Rome
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Stronger – Kayne West

Laurinda decided, in her wisdom, that now would be the time to become ill. Now, I can think of worse places in the world than Rome to be let loose in, but unfortunately, my services were required in the ‘caring for my lovely wife’ department. So for the last 3 days, we have had a fantastically relaxing time, while Laurinda got back to 100%. (Miralie – She is fine, don’t worry, just a little bug). So as of tomorrow we’re back on the road and flying.

Day 48: Ruined

Date: Thursday 15^th May
Staying: Tiber Camping - Rome
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Let Forever Be - Chemical Brothers

So, Laurinda was not her normal vivacious self again today. Hmmm, I think she is just giving excuses so she can sit in Jarno and read books all day. It is an addiction, and she was getting help for it in London, but away from that support network, I think she is slipping back into bad habits. There is only so much I can do, so I have to turn a blind eye ;-) (look at me, the tortured hubby). I think the fact she has almost finished War and Peace would justify my observation.

This left me with the whole day to fill in, in Rome, all by myself. Hell Yeah!!! I don’t think it is too much of a stretch for me to say that Rome is my favourite city on the planet. I love the place and could spend hours sitting on the Palantine Hill just looking around. Today, however, I determined to visit a place outside Rome that I had been told was well worth the time.

Ostia Antica is about 18km Southeast of Rome, on the coast. Back in the day it protected the entrance to the port of Rome. It was last populated in the 4^th Century AD, and has since fallen into ruin. But what ruins. I LOVE RUINS. Like, with a passion. Ostia Antica has been described as better preserved than Pompeii (I am going there shortly, so will compare), so I was looking forward to getting there.

I wasn’t disappointed. The site covers 34 hectares, and has some of the most completely ruins I have ever seen. At one point I climbed up to the 3^rd floor of a 2000+ year old house to have a look over the ruined city stretching off into the distance. If you are interested in ruins, this is a place to go. Very few tourists and not hard to get photos with no-one in them, and the school groups stick to the main paths, so you can get lost in amongst the ruins to your hearts content (that would be 5 hours for me, oops), and not worry about the screaming kids.

So after spending pretty much my entire day out of Rome, I headed back in, got off the Metro at Circus Maximus and strolled up to Plaza Spagna, via the Palantine Hill, Mouth of Truth, Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain and the Spainsh steps. All-in-all, a very enjoyable day. And when I got back, Laurinda was feeling much better (had a book fix more like), so all’s well that ends well.

Day 47: Rome. Not built in a day.

Date: Wednesday 14^th May
Staying: Tiber Camping - Rome
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Roam – B-52’s

As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you’d be mad to try and see the highlights in anything less than a week. Even so, there’s more here than you could do in several months of sightseeing. This is my second trip to Rome, and Cam’s third, and there is still much unfinished business. Rome has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to history, monuments, museums and ruins, without even a thought to the food or shopping to be had within its confines.

To start, let me say that we have a great campsite. It’s huge, with a great restaurant, bar, internet, 16 (whole, wonderful) Amps, free transfers to the station, and being right on the Tiber river, if you go out after dark you can hear the frogs by the river and owls in the trees. In the dead of night the whole site is swathed in fog, giving it a delicious feeling of mystery.

Anyway, back to day one in Rome. Neither of us had seen the Spanish Steps, so we made like the tourists (and a few of the locals) and sat for a while watching the world go by. The Spanish Embassy has it’s headquarters near the steps, and is possibly the origin of the name of the steps. Next it was off to the Trevi fountain, again to sit and watch, this time the Cabinieri blowing whistles at anyone that sat too close to its chlorinated waters. We both threw coins in (as is the custom) to guarantee our return to the “eternal city”.

At this point, Cam had promised me a trip to a bookshop in Rome selling English-language stuff, so we took a long walk up to Termini (with a stop for lunch along the way). We left the bookshop a little heavier (all books for Cam I might add, the things I wanted were all in hardback), and headed up to Santa Maria Maggiore, a church whose frescoes date back to the 15^th century, and the gold on it’s ceiling was some of the first brought out from the “new world”. It comes complete with paintings on all surfaces and relics, and is a must-see.

Time was getting on a bit now, so we headed up the Colosseum, one of Cam’s favourite places in Rome. While I lazed out on a shady green hill, Cam trotted about getting his fill of photos. By this stage the Rome heat was taking its toll, so we headed back to the shades of the campsite, and a relaxing dinner at the campsite.

Day 46: All Roads Lead....

Date: Tuesday 13^th May
Staying: Tiber Camping - Rome
Distance Travelled: 158.8 Miles
Song of the day: Road Trippin’ – Red Hot Chili Peppers

I would just like to point out it was Laurie taking the kindy nap yesterday, whilst I soldiered on, naming and tagging our photographs (now that is a massive job). That’s right, I hear the violins playing ;-) Also, I resent Laurinda’s comment about my beard and its Tom Hanks connotations. It is much tidier than that. I like to think its more Ewan McGregor in Star Wars than Tom Hanks.

Unfortunately, I have managed to pick up what ever bug Laurie had whilst we were in San Remo last week (more violins, I am on fire). This has had the effect of cutting short our viewing of Siena (although we saw what we went for), and also left me short of ideas and witticisms for today’s blog. This of course causes a problem when it’s a travel day, which means not much happens apart from driving, so you kinda of have to waffle on a bit (my English teacher always thought I was good at that. He wrote it on a lot of my work. I’ll consider it a positive ;-)). This is much easier when your brain is functioning fully.

So, today our extended road trip of Europe continued on its merry way. Today’s target – Rome!!! And for once on this trip, it was completely uneventful, except where we missed our turn off again. Damn!!! I don’t know what it is about being in Italy, but every turn-off we are looking for is labelled differently on the road, compared to what we are expecting from our map. In this case, we were expecting to see road E35, but it actually turned out to be E80. By the time we had figured out we were suppose to take it, we were well on our way to somewhere we didn’t want to be. Hmmmm, I am noticing an unwelcome theme here. (BTW, we have an up-to-date map. We would have had a Tom-Tom, but he had work commitments and couldn’t make it. Wassup Mr Lehmann). It probably didn’t help I wasn’t firing on all cylinders, but from past experience on this trip, my navigation has been called into question several times, so I probably wouldn’t have helped.

OK, have I waffled enough now? I think so. Hope you enjoyed it, and I promise to be on better form next time round. Well, at least I would have visited Rome on that day.

Day 45: Under the Tuscan Sun

Date: Monday 12^th May
Staying: Hotel Garden – Siena, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: The Sky is Broken - Moby

The more observant of you may have noticed that I didn’t answer the third question I posed on day 43: Will we ever see under Cam’s beard again? I have to say I honestly don’t know the answer to that question, but in case you’re wondering how it’s progressing, I suggest you rent a copy of “Castaway” and take a look at Tom Hanks after he’d been marooned for a while.

Meanwhile, back on the road, Cam and I had a lovely day in Siena. Mercifully, it’s been a lot cooler today with some cloud cover (and some rain, so much for the Tuscan sun), so we escaped the heat of the last few weeks for a day or two. We’d been tempted into visiting Siena by the promise of another UN Heritage listed site, so without further ado, and after a hearty (and free) breakfast, we walked into town. We made our way first to the Fortezza, a huge fort on the way into town, which interestingly is now home to a (very quiet) amusement park. Having satisfied our curiousity, we walked down into town to take in Il Campo.

Il Campo is effectively the town “square” though I’ve never seen one that looked more unusual. With a civic building and campanile at the foot, the rest of the square slopes up from it in a semicircle, making the whole area seem like the inside of a shell. In August, the square is used for horse racing, and all the spectators are fenced off in the middle of the square while the horses race around them. Because of the shape of terrain, all the spectators have a view of the action at some point, since even if you’re stuck in the middle of the crowd, you’re still higher than the lowest point of the square. It’s an ingenious design. From what we could deduce, each horse and rider represents one of the areas around Siena and wear the crest and colours of the area. After Il Campo, we sent for a wander down to the duomo, which much to our surprise, looked just like the one in Florence.

Cam being a bit poorly (looks like I may have given him my bug), we then headed back to the hotel, for a kindy nap. All this sightseeing takes it out of you.

Day 44: Made in Red

Date: Sunday 11^th May
Staying: Hotel Garden – Siena, Italy
Distance Travelled: Over 320 Miles
Song of the day: Crawling - Linkin Park

I think it would be fair to say, and I think Laurie will agree, that we probably bit off a bit more than we could chew today. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it would appear that the world has managed to conspire against us, making this our longest travelling day of the trip so far.

Our plan was, leave Deiva Marina by 8am and drive to Maranello (home of Ferrari) to watch the Turkish Grand Prix. It didn’t start out to well really. Every service station we passed for the first 70 miles of the day was closed, which does mean the petrol gauge light looks a little more insistent than we had intended. No worries, we managed to find a station and Jarno filled up more than I thought possible. No worries; back on track we even managed to stop on the way and call our mothers to wish them a happy Mothers day (for those in the UK, it’s the second Sunday in May back home and in Italy as it turns out). It wasn’t until we got to Modena (main city nearest Maranello) that the problems started to happen.

A piece of advice for the wary traveller; don’t drive in Modena, and don’t trust the signs, they are wrong. Fortunately, I had been to Maranello previously, and could mostly remember the way, but not before the signs sent us in the wrong direction a couple of times. So we got to Maranello in plenty of time to watch a Ferrari victory (Get in!!!!!!). The real trouble started when we tried to leave (I had gone a different way last time). Without going into detail, we did an extra 30 miles through detours and following what we thought were the correct road signs in Modena (A1 to Bologna, right place, right road, but we couldn’t find either). In the end, we followed signs to go in the other direction, and we found the road.

OK we thought, we can still make Siena by around dinner time. Well, you may remember Laurinda writing the other day about what it’s like on Italian toll roads. This time people were having picnics and dancing between the cars because we were stationary so long. When we eventually got going, we crawled all the way to Florence. Then, if we hadn’t had a long enough day, the road works around Florence meant our sign to Siena had been taken down and we missed our exit. 40km round trip and another traffic jam later, we were back at the exit.

We made Siena just on dark (about 8.30 – 9) and rocked up to a hotel (planned, not cheating), after a brief escapade around town, exhausted, but happy to have made it. At least we didn’t have an experience like Le Havre.

Day 43: Pink, Peach and Mustard in the Red, White and Green.

Date: Saturday 10^th May
Staying: Camping Arenella – Deiva Marina, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Pacifier - Shihad

I know you’re all in suspense: Did our intrepid travellers indeed make it to Cinque Terre? Were they thwarted by the evil train timetable and striking workers? Will we ever see under Cam’s beard again? All this and more will be answered in today’s blog.

Knowing how anxious we were to be off to the villages, the nice receptionist was delighted to tell us that the trains were indeed running, so by 10am we were off to Riomaggiore. Technically it is the fifth village but, being the furthest away, we thought we’d do that one first.

Three of the five villages (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza) are built into narrow valleys that open out onto the waterfront, with either side of the valley being built up with houses in the traditional peach, pink and mustard colours with forest green shutters. The clear Mediterranean sea washes up at the base of the villages, exposing the huge stones beneath the surface. For a little effort, each village has spectacular views that are well accompanied by coffee. The third village (Corneglia), is high up on a hill (even from the train station you have to walk up), with views down the coast in both directions. The first village is Monterosso al Mare, and is more a waterfront town with two sections – beach at one end, and the old town at the other. It’s more like Lido is to Venice, as there is traffic in Monterosso, whereas the other villages are more or less traffic-free.

Despite having a whole day, there’s no mucking about if you want to see all five villages. Cam resolved to walk between Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corneglia, while my dodgy foot and I took the train with the roving tourist hordes. For all the tourists, it’s still beautiful. It’s nice to dream of a life involving throwing open your shutters in the morning, breathing in the sea air, chatting to your neighbours on the step, having a kip in the afternoon, then long evenings of lazy dinners which start late and finish late. It took us until nearly 7pm in the evening to see all the villages (and even then we cut Montorosso a bit short), but there are so many shops to poke around in, and if you stopped for gelati in every place, well you’d never make it (we stopped for one in Vernazza with the most biting lemon sorbet I’ve ever had).

So there you have it – the intrepid travellers made it. Tune in next time for more tales of adventure and woe. Same blog time, same blog channel.

Day 42: Stuck

Date: Friday 9^th May
Staying: Camping Arenella – Deiva Marina, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Here to Stay – Korn

It would seem that I am having a bit of a bad run of blog posts recently. All the exciting stuff appears to be happening on Laurinda’s days, and mine are travelling days or we don’t do a hell of a lot. Today was going to change that.

For those that don’t know of it, Cinque Terre is 5 small fishing villages along the Ligurian coast of Italy, between Genoa and La Spezia. Their economies were traditionally fishing based, but they also make Olive Oil and Wine (one desert wine has been described as ‘the wine of the gods’). The villages are accessible only by train, or by walking between them (each walk is of different difficulty). The area has been named a UN World Heritage Site, and if very popular with tourists.

Laurinda and I have been to Cinque Terre previously, about a year ago for our friends Mel and Bec’s birthday. We fell in love with the place, Laurinda particularly, so we planned in two days so we could spend lots of time in each village, as well as visit Portovenere which is just outside the Cinque Terre area. Well, that was the plan.

It appears that we should probably have written ahead to let the relevant authorities know what we had planned, or maybe it was the curse of ‘my day to blog’ striking again. What ever the cause, we got to the train station to discover that there was a train strike on, and that there was unlikely to be any trains that day (insert big sigh and shrug of the shoulders).

So, Deiva Marina is very, very, very small, and we were here to stay for the day. There is nothing to do there except sit on the beach, which we did, until we were bored with that and made our way back to the campsite before lunchtime. Its not like we could have driven to the villages; you can get your vehicle to the first, but that is the least picturesque. Strike this one up to experience.

Day 41: What Road Tolls Mean in Italy

Date: Thursday 8^th May
Staying: Camping Arenella – Deiva Marina, Italy
Distance Travelled: 137.6 Miles
Song of the day: What you waiting for? – Gwen Stefani

After a little hiccup yesterday (a fever which kept me in bed all day in the Italian heat), I woke up rearing to go this morning. Since I thought a long driving day might be a bit beyond me, we opted for the toll road.

Toll roads are always a bit of a toss up. If you take the toll road, the road will be wide, well-maintained, have frequent petrol stations and parking areas, and will usually be the shortest and fastest route. It is also the most expensive option, since you have little idea of how much money you might be forking out. The non-toll roads on the other hand are usually single-lane, winding, go through every village (forcing you to slow down to 50 every few minutes), and generally take longer. They are however free and often picturesque. Our experience so far has shown that any money you save on tolls on the free road is usually spent on petrol as you track up and down mountains or round bays in 2^nd or 3^rd gear.

As you can see, we only did 137.6 miles today on the toll road. We achieved our objective (a village not far from Cinque Terre and Portovenere), but it took us 4.5 hours, during which we didn’t take a break. Jarno is not the fastest of vans, but on a toll road you could expect us to average 80km an hour, including breaks every couple of hours. The extra 1.5 hours we spent stuck in traffic jams. Some of the time with the engine off, and Cam poking around in the back of the van (he even offered to make a cup of tea for me, and trust me, it would have been possible). The cause of all this commotion? Nothing more than a couple of sets of road works, where the highway narrowed to one lane, which just goes to show how much traffic there is around here. Tolls = €19.50.

Not to complain though, because it has been a good day nonetheless. We found our campsite without getting lost, the people here are lovely, it is less than half the price of San Remo (€15 a night), we have power (movies later), and are parked next to a little stream (if you want, you can drive through the stream and park on the other side of the campsite). The site even has a free bus that runs you to the train station for easy access to the surrounding areas. These things all combine to make the ideal site. Yes, we are easily pleased.

Info

Hi All

I know we were going to post a proper itinary of where we were going and when, and we have been really slack and not done it yet. We have also decided to change the part after Croatia a bit. If you want to join us at anytime, please email us at camnlaurieoverseas@yahoo.co.uk and let us know where.

Ciao from Italia
Cam

Day 40: Question

Date: Wednesday 7^th May
Staying: Camping Villaggio Dei Fiori – San Remo, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: How Come – D12

I try not to get into to many Deep and Philosophical conversations these days. I tend to find they to regularly end in arguments. Now, I would much rather discuss the relative merits of a 4-4-2 formation versus a 4-3-3 formation (Football for those that don’t know. Laurie didn’t, so told me to clarify), or whether Ferrari will renew Kimi Raikonnen’s contract at the end of the year, or go for the available Fernando Alonso (which will cause me some distress)?

However, in the last month or and a bit of travel, a few relatively important questions have to come to mind which I feel need addressing:

1/ How come, no matter what part of the body you put in the sun, only certain areas tan, whilst others stay stubbornly white?!? (This is very perplexing)

2/ How come European indicators appear to be for display purposes only? Are they painted on? Do they use them for anything at all?

3/ How come Turtles have 2 different types of spine (One contracts, the other flex’s) for pulling their heads back into their shells? Why won’t one type do?

4/ How come the Glaswegian accent is so had to understand? Do they understand each other?

5/ How come the amount you pay on tolls is inversely proportional to the amount you spend on petrol, or the distance travelled on said road?

6/ How come, if you are wat you eat, I haven’t turned into one giant green olive.

7/ And what they hell does Toutes Directions means (its OK, I looked it up)

Any input is greatfully appreciated

BTW – We didn’t do anything today. Laurie was unwell, so we stayed at the campground and I nursed here back to health (which fortunately involved a lot of sitting in the sun, hence, question 1)

Day 39: Oh to be Rich and Famous

Date: Tuesday 6^th May
Staying: Camping Villaggio Dei Fiori – San Remo, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day

If you say the name Cannes, only 1 thing comes to mind, the Film Festival, and with it more celebs than you can poke with an Oscar. Despite if being famous for only 1 thing, it doesn’t stop thousands of wannabe actors, directors and tourists from visiting its palm lined beaches and boulevards (that includes us. Category to be determined). While the tourists are promenading by the beach, discretely eyeing each other up to see if you are famous behind your sunglasses (and in Cam’s case the ever increasing beard), the real celebs are hanging out n plush hotel rooms, sunning themselves n the balconies, or are miles down the road in St Tropez.

Cannes is on the French Riviera, and like all other Riviera cities, it is characterised by pay beaches, topless sunbathers and high rise apartment blocks without gardens. Its one distinguishing feature is the massive waterfront cinema which plays host to the film festival, and displays a collection of famous hand prints in the concrete concourse.

Cam and I had a lazy stroll along the waterfront, ate our packed lunches whilst the other tourists checked to see if we were famous people incognito. The city is geared for the rich and famous, so the Prada and Gucci shopping was slightly out of our price range. This being the case, we actually spent more time travelling to and from Cannes than in the city itself.

Day 38: I Should Have Stayed in Bed

Date: Monday 5^th May
Staying: Camping Villaggio Dei Fiori – San Remo, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Sweet Dreams – Marilyn Manson

A Sleep in! What Bliss! It seems kinda weird, but we haven’t stopped an awful lot on this trip. Our goal wasn’t really to relax at the beach, but to fil everyday as much as possible (clichéd I know). This does bring with it certain drawbacks, like no sleep in’s. Im quite partial to the odd sleep in, and after our unerringly hectic schedule of recent times, and the draining day yesterday, I was making sure of the sleep in today.

Luckily, we didn’t have to far to go today; a trip into San Remo, and a bit of beach time. The late start meant it was roasting by the time we left to walk into town, so he 2.5km weren’t that pleasant. Coupled with the never ending stream of traffic (anyone would have thought there was something exciting in San Remo), it was a bit annoying.

San Remo is small. It is on the Italian Riviera, so most of everything is based around the sea. This also means most of the beaches we came across were private or pay. Not so good when you only want to stroll along them (I am such an old man). We took a wander through the centre of town, but I think we hit siesta time, as most of the shops were closed. The few that were open were teaming with what felt like hundreds of Italian teenages.

We headed back to the coastal district, and eventually found a restaurant with a suitably surly waiter (how about a vote. Should a waiter smile and say hi, or am I just putting my ideals of service where I shouldn’t). We sat on the terrace and watched as umpteen Italians impersonated Valentino Rossi or Jarno Trulli, depending on what vehicle they were driving. Having tired of this, we headed back to the campsite and its private beach

You would think, in having a private beach, we could spend in afternoon in peace reading our books. Nope! We got about an hour before we were interrupted by a loon, who thought we might understand drunken Italian babble. Management came and chased him away, but by then we had packed up and joined everyone else who had left the beach. Oh well, I was probably brown enough already ;-)

Day 37: Rich and Famous/High and Mighty

Date: Sunday 4^th May
Staying: Camping Villaggio Dei Fiori – San Remo, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Grace Kelly – Mika

For the first time in weeks we got up with the alarm, determined to cram a lot into the day. After waiting for and hour for the bus (we were on the wrong side of the road), we finally made the station for a train to Monaco

The Principality of Monaco is the size of Hyde Park, with a population of 30,000, none of whom pay tax. This makes it a haven for anyone in a high income bracket, and lots of rich and famous have vast boats moored in the port. Monaco is perched, somewhat precipitously in a bay, so while beautiful, it is all apartments and impossible to have a garden.

There were 2 things we wanted to do in Monaco
- See the Grand Casino
- Walk the F1 track

Doing 2 necessarily involves number 1, so Cam lead a guided tour of 2 around the circuit. As its only 3 weeks away, much of the track and grandstands are up. Cam also pointed out every flash looking car (sorry, there just isn’t enough room to list them all).

2 hours in Monaco is about all we needed. By this stage it was only lunchtime, so we decided to jump back on the train and go to Eze. Once at Eze, we caught a bus to the village, 429m up to the highest point. Eze is a fortified village, the quietest of those we’ve seen (and practically empty compared to Mont-Saint-Michel). The village was very picturesque, full of artisans and restaurants, though the winding road left you feeling like anything but eating.

After that it was back to the campsite in San Remo, just over the Italian Border, making it another 3 country day.

Day 36: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Date: Saturday 3^rd May
Staying: Camping Villaggio Dei Fiori – San Remo, Italy
Distance Travelled: 199.7 Miles
Song of the day: DOA – Foo Fighters

It may e purely my take on things, but we have been having a pretty good time of it since our Porto incident (see day 15). Not too many wrong navigation decisions, and generally staying out of trouble. Today was the catch up.

Nothing was individually too bad, but a series of ting made it all quite draining. First we had to fill a previously pumped tyre. We think we may have been the victims of a prank, as there was a lot of air missing. It hasn’t one down over the rest of the day, so maybe we are right. We got away later than expected, as reception wasn’t open (they were dancng to the phenomenally loud hard core techno coming from across the road).

Next was the crazy drivers. We thought overtaking in Spain was bad, they have nothing on the French Riviera. I was going to use ‘Riot Van’ by the Arctic Monkeys as the song of the day due to the numerous times Laurie was on he horn and I was gesturing out the window at the insane antics in the opposite bound lane. As we are endeavouring to avoid toll roads, and these roads are more tiring to drive (windier and single carriageway), so these things don’t help.

So we decide to get on the pay road (We ahd already lost a pack of eggs from the tighter corner, aht was fun to clean). So we go about 1 mile and we reach a toll booth. €4.50 for 1 Mile!!!!!!!!! I went off on one; the women probably didn’t deserve some of things I said, and I would like to apologise. I take comfort from the fact that she ‘hopefully’ didn’t speak English.

By this stage we had been on the road for 4hours and things weren’t shaping up too well. As we were both now hungry and irritable, we deceided to pull over and have a comfort stop. So we pull into the next Autogrill. Problem. The parking lot is restricted to 2.2m. We must have found the only Autogrill in France with this restriction. This time it was Lauries turn to go spare.

We drove the 10km to the next Autogrill and found success (and a toilet, brilliant). We regrouped and prepared for the final dash. The last part of the trip was uneventful for us, but for a couple of cars around us it wasn’t. In one of the towns we drove through there was masses of traffic, and the 2 cars behind us had a nose to tail. In the car in front, I counted 3 kids wandering around in the backseat. Luckily it wasn’t that car that was hit. We were both thank ful when we pulled into the campsite in San Remo.

Day 35: World Heritage Site # 629

Date: Friday 2^nd May
Staying: City Camping – Arles, France
Distance Travelled: 157.8 Miles
Song of the day: Stuck in the Middle With You – Huey Lewis

Today we had no specific end destination in mind. We’re on our way to the Cote d’Azur, but we needed to break the trip up along the way so we’ve stopped in Arles

We managed to break the first rule today, ‘Don’t go into a city unless you have a map’. Arles isn’t large, fortunately, so you can’t get too lost. However, this means there is also a high premium on parking. The French have a lucky knack of squeezing their little Renaults wherever 5 inches is left free, but its not so easy in the van. After driving back through town the way we had come in, we pulled in at a handy campsite and walked the 2km’s back into town.

The main attraction in Arles is the Roman Amphitheatre, dating from 90 A.D. Its currently being restored, but in its heyday could seat 20,000 spectators. Its still in use today as a bull-ring (unlike Spain, the French don’t do ‘mise-a-mort’, they adore the bulls instead). In the middle ages it acted as a fortress and when a first round of restoration started in the 1800’s, it held 212 house and 2 Churches (a feat all in itself).

We also managed to get stuck in our first French traffic jam just outside Arles, as half of France tried to get through the toll booth, and the out the otherside. About 45 minutes to move 200m, possibly te slowest we have gone all trip.

PS: I love WH Sites, Really!!!

Day 34: Step Back in Time

Date: Thursday 1st May
Staying: Camping La Cite – Carcassonne, France
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Today – Smashing Pumpkins

A year or two ago I read a book titled ‘Labyrinth’ by Kate Mosse (not the model). The story was long and involved and based between the 13th and 21st centuries (or thereabouts); but the main thing that I took from this story was the description of Carcassonne, where large parts of the book were based. So I looked it up on the internet and it was even more stunning than I thought it would be. Having been here, the photos really don’t do it justice.

The citadel is based outside the modern city of Carcassonne. It is like a stone massif rising from the planes around. The fortifications that surround the city are in amazing condition. We walked around on the ramparts which give amazing views of the surrounding area; you can even see all the way to the snow capped peaks of the Pyrenees.

Like most well preserved old towns in Europe, Carcassonne is a bit of a Mecca for tourists. The narrow cobbled streets and alleys are lined with Souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants, and also overrun with French, Spanish and British people. At this time of year it adds to the atmosphere, but I am sure it is hectic during high season. But I am just as bad as the rest, so I can’t talk. Bring on the tacky souvenirs, awww yeah.

After looking round the entire medieval citadel we found what we thought was a suitably overpriced restaurant for a late lunch. The place actually turned out to be quite reasonable as the servings were huge (I couldn’t even finish it). I tried the local specialty of casserole which was actually really good and not as unambitious as it may sound. We headed to across the river next for a view of the city and a few more photos and then back to the camper to take advantage of having power. WOOOO WHOOOO.

Day 33: 3 Countries in 1 Day

Date: Wednesday 30th April
Staying: Camping La Cite – Carcassonne, France
Distance Travelled: 156.2 Miles
Song of the day: River Deep, Mountain High – Tina Turner

Today we drove in three countries within one hour. Starting in Andorra, we avoided the road on our map that looked like a 9 on a seismograph, and backtracked the way we came to Spain, with a brief border stop to be searched for excess tax-free purchases. Then we were back into Spain briefly before crossing the border into France, without even leaving the Pyrenees.

It’s not as bad as you might think, driving in the Pyrenees. If you’ve ever driven the Manawatu Gorge in New Zealand (and I know a few of you have), then you could handle the Pyrenees. Driving in the Coromandel is much worse. Once we were out of the mountains and into the back roads of France which, surprisingly, look a lot like New Zealand. It’s much more Spring-like since we were last here three weeks ago, and all the flowers are now out, along with some more clement weather.

We arrived to the campsite just outside Carcassonne just before 3pm. The site is about 1km from the walled city, and there is a beautiful view from the other side of the campsite, so we’ll go and explore it tomorrow.

Now you may remember earlier in the trip a few embarrassing moments involving plugging in the van to the campsite power and blowing everything up. Well we’ve now ascertained that Jarno needs more than 5 amps. We’ve got 10 amps tonight, so we’re backing up photos, playing music, rewriting the itinerary, and planning on watching a DVD tonight. Luxury. Plus Cam is cooking dinner (omelette, his speciality).

Day 32: Top of the World

Date: Tuesday 29th April
Staying: Camping Valira – Andorra La Vella, Andorra
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Vertigo – U2

I think Laurinda has spent far too much time around motor-racing fans as, when we were sitting in a bit of a traffic jam yesterday, she tried to tell me that her ‘High performance vehicle’ (our van) was over heating because it wasn’t going fast enough. I didn’t think it would be fair to correct her of her poor deluded ideas

As Laurinda alluded to yesterday, Andorra as a country is about the same size as the place we grew up, and unfortunately is less exciting. There is not a hell of a lot to do there outside of the ski season. That’s OK though, after the last hectic week, a quiet place is what was called for.
It dawned beautiful and sunny, which is excellent as one of the guide books we had said that we may in fact still need wheel spikes in May. The snow on the hills around alluded to the accuracy of this. We took a leisurely walk into the old town, which is quite small, but abundant with old stone buildings, and then had a long look in the tax free shops. Apparently Andorra does not charge tax on the sale of goods, so prices are up to 25% cheaper than in Spain and France. I couldn’t find the lens I wanted to buy for the camera, but the one I did look at was a lot cheaper than in London (although still out of my price range).

We spent the afternoon looking in shops and enjoying the park they have in the middle of the city, before heading back to the van on what was a very uneventful day. But as I said, it was nice to have a relaxing day. I can see how this would be a very cool, place in the height of the ski season. May have to come back in Winter.

Day 31: Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny

Date: Monday 28th April
Staying: Camping Valira – Andorra La Vella, Andorra
Distance Travelled: 107.3 Miles
Song of the day: She’ll be coming round the mountain

Cam and I took full advantage of our hotel night, staying until noon (the Europeans have the right idea about check out times) and getting our internet fill. We decided to visit the teeny country of Andorra before heading back into France, so we said a sad goodbye to Spain, which we’ve both loved so much.

Andorra looks just like a country tucked up in the Pyrenees should look. Stone ski chalets dot the countryside, green fields are sprigged with yellow and red flowers, and high on the mountain is a dusting of snow. I did burst into a rendition of "High on the hills is a lonely goatherd", before Cam pointed out it was the wrong country. I will save it for Austria.

Strange to relate, we didn’t get lost once, and though parts of the road were slow-ish going, Jarno handled it with no problems. Our campsite was right behind the Andorra national stadium: Capacity 3,000. This makes sense when you realise that the capital (Andorra la Vella) only has a population of 23,000, and the whole country is only 78,000 people. Finally, a country that has the population the same as our home town. We should feel right at home.