We’ve covered a lot of ground in a very short period of time as we pointed our bow in the direction of southern Spain. It’s been two weeks since we left Rome but it feels more like a few action packed days. After a nice visit to Siena we wound our way through the beautiful Tuscany countryside and found our well hidden campsite in Florence. Excited about checking out this epicentre of the renaissance, we headed out early the next morning with Michelangelo’s famous statue of David squarely in our sights as our first cultural contact. You know, it’s amazing how quickly ones attitude and opinion of a place can change with just one negative experience, like a transit “rip-off” first thing in the day, yes… Another! “Bogus Ticket” (Check-out the “Road Ramble” to fully appreciate our still boiling blood). Trying hard to overcome our anger about such an unjust experience we did manage to have a decent day exploring much of this fantastic old city and after waiting in line for two hours to see David, for one brief moment, we were so overwhelmed that we completely forgot about our most recent Italian ill-treatment.
We drove from Florence to Pisa where we made a quick guest appearance with the tower, such a remarkable site to see from close-up. The Italian Rivera is truly “eye candy” all the way to Monte-Carlo where Monaco itself then becomes the crowning jewel. Lucky for our bank account, we just missed the mega Monaco Yacht Show just below the Casino. But Jim, we did find a nice new blue and white boat for you, it’s the one in the harbour photo attached. Along the way to Monaco we got a glimpse of the salvaged ill-fated Costa Concordia at dock, such a sad sight and story. From Monaco we zipped along the interesting beachfront of Cannes looking for movie stars but only found miles of empty wet sand… they must have all been in Venice for George Clooney’s wedding.
We drove inland along Napoleon’s trail through Grasse (Famous for the development of French perfume) to impressive Avignon with its famous bridge and song “Pont du-Avignon”. A quick and interesting drive along the French southern coast finds us now at the doorstep to Spain with Barcelona just next door and Madrid not far away. The weather is chilling, the Fall colours are beautiful and the warmth of southern Spain is now calling our name.

Road Ramble: And yet another Bogus ticket.

When traveling in Italy forget about the Mafia or petty crime on the streets of Rome; instead, watch out for the sneakier and even “legal” local municipal scams. Yes, we did get a second bogus $80 ticket and this time it was for improperly stamping a bus ticket.
We were very excited to arrive in Florence and experience all the culture and beauty. When checking into our campground the lady said we could purchase our bus tickets from her so I asked for 4 (2 to travel into the city centre, and 2 for the return trip). To our surprise, she said there was a single ticket that could be used for two people but it needed to be stamped on the bus in both directions. We thought to ourselves what a great idea having two kinds of tickets therefore saving paper and reducing garbage. So we headed for the bus with ticket in hand. When we looked at the ticket it said “Validate on boarding the first vehicle” which we thought we did when “punching it” as we entered the bus (It did not say to validate for each rider using this ticket and therefore punch the ticket twice). So, when the “transit agent ticket lady” asked to see our ticket we had no concerns whatsoever. When she told us that we were in violation we were shocked, we tried to explain to her what had happened and that we misunderstood the two punch process but we had purchased our tickets at full price and she could phone the campground to check our story. She became loud and aggressive and would not even consider the awkward and difficult situation we found ourselves in. She told us we were in Italy and therefore we should speak and read Italian, then we wouldn’t have this problem. Obviously she was not a leading ambassador of tourism. We could tell that other people on the bus were concerned about her lack of reason, understanding and judgement and also the way she was treating a pair of confused city guests about to spend money in their city. One nice local lady even tried to reason with the agent on our behalf but got the same rude treatment that we did.
We did become upset about the complete unfairness of this situation and wanted to talk to a transit company superior or supervisor to explain our situation but she said she was going to call the police if we didn’t pay now. We said fine because we had not broken any laws by intent and possibly the police could help us reason with this lady. When we explained our story to the police officer we could tell he felt the whole situation was unnecessary and should never have happened, but he had no choice but to support the transit agent. We produced our identification, and she wrote-up a violation for $55 Euros ($80). We had understood that we would now walk into the main terminal with the ticket agent and speak to a supervisor to explain, with her present, but as we went further inside the terminal she pointed at a ticket office line-up and walked away shouting something to us in Italian. After waiting in line for some time we explained what had happened to two different desk agents and were told that the issuing agent had used very poor judgement in issuing this fine and implied that she should have shown some discretion considering the unusual circumstances involved, but they could not help fix this for us. Needless to say, we were a bit upset for the rest of the entire day. Upset about the added expenditure, upset about the embarrassing confrontation, upset because of how unjust, uncompromising, unfriendly and unfair this experience was for two confused travellers. We paid the fine to the agent at the counter and she felt so bad that she suggested we write the transit authority… good luck! When we explained what had happened to the campground lady, she was furious as this has happened before and seemed to be a regular scam. She had already written the transit company a number of times and the local newspaper about this apparent abuse of ignorant tourists and was told the practice would end… good luck! After two bogus municipal fines in Italy, we leave feeling a bit disappointed about the local authorities but we’re now looking forward to a more friendly experience in Spain.

The best preserved Greek ruins outside of Greece are located in Agrigento on the south coast of Sicily in what is referred to as the”Valley of the Temples”; and for just another pile of stones, all 12 monuments are very impressive. Our favourite part of Sicily however was along the north coast east of Palermo to Patti. Such a beautiful coastline with great little welcoming villages (with the exception of Cefalu where we received our first and very “bogus” $50 parking ticket) all along the drive. We left Sicily and made-up some time by driving the major autobahn through a series of mega tunnel systems until we reached Pompei. We were blown away with Pompei. The sheer size of the site and the outstanding condition it’s in is really impressive. We took a wild tour bus ride to the top of Mount Vesuvius and had a wonderful view from its crater of the coastline and surprisingly populated valley below. We took a day trip by train to the beautiful little tourist town of Sorrento just 45 minutes down the coast. Sorry to say Peter and Jane that the Garden restaurant was closed on this day and we missed a great opportunity to share your calamari experience. Leaving Pompei we again opted for the quick autobahn run towards Rome and soon pulled into our very handy and well-appointed campsite only a 20 minute transit trip from the main city centre. Rome is amazing and we have seen so much in such a short period of time. The Coliseum, the Forum, Vatican City with the breathtaking St. Peter’s at its heart and countless other ruins and monuments that make this city one of the most impressive so far. We have walked countless miles all over Rome and our only tiring experience so far, is all the pizza and pasta that we’ve been eating. Last night however, we managed to track down a great and rare Chinese restaurant to help balance the culinary experience. A few more days to enjoy ancient Rome and then quickly off towards Florence as we’re beginning to feel the presence of fall in the air and the reality of a ticking clock.

Road Ramble: ” And yet another natural disaster in Pompei”

We had a perfect camping spot at the Sparticus Campground. It was privately nestled between beautiful fruit bearing shade trees and we could hardly believe our luck. We extended the awning, set up the lawn chairs and settled in for a few days stay. The next day we were up and out the door to visit the Pompei ruins just across the street and it was dark when we got home but we did notice an abundance of ants in and around the motorhome. We would check this out in more detail in the morning with better light. We got out of bed the next morning to discover that we had been completely inundated with tiny harmless looking little ants. All over, inside and out! Black streams of ants marching on a multitude of highways crisscrossing our motorhome and finding their way into places I would consider impossible, like a sealed beam headlight. But the worst was the thousands that had found their way inside the motorhome… just telling this story I’m already starting to scratch again. To make a long story shorter, we quickly changed spaces and spent the rest of the entire day going head-to-head with these 3mm beasts and for a while it was touch and go as to which team was going to win. But with the added advantage of chemistry on our side, we did finally prevail and despite the intermittent twitch in my left eye and the new webbing between my toes, there doesn’t seem to be any apparent neurological damage to me or Margot. But just in case; Bert, can you please book us a space in your calendar for sometime next spring? Washing and cleaning up the motorhome after this battle was a real big job but, with or without the ants, it probably was due. I do think the campground owners were really glad to see us go however because as they continued to assign new people into that dreadful spot, I would walk over and give the trusting travellers fair warning which would then cause some unwanted administrative shifting commotion. The upside of this was we quickly made some new campground friends. Now, as we search campgrounds for a new camping spot, not only do we look for shade, good drainage and close to amenities, we also check for tiny little black ants.

Made it to Italy… finally! (See Road Ramble below) Our first stop was impressive little Brindisi and we grabbed a nice campsite close by and spent a couple of days recovering from “Boat Lag”. After regaining our strength, we took a very interesting drive past the “Cone Houses” of Alberobello. These unique little stone houses with the cone roofs date back centuries and are very picturesque as they dot the rolling countryside. Some have been incorporated into newer and much larger homes and some have been renovated as is for use as vacation property and such. Stone fences separate the random shaped acreage sized yards between them and it all comes together to make a visually delightful drive along the twisting narrow roadway. Moving on we stopped to examine an old exhausted stone quarry turned into a venue for sculpture artists (In the appropriate photo below, can you find me standing at the base of the limestone wall?). Great acoustics!
Have you ever heard of a town called Matera? Considering it’s one of the oldest towns in the world dating from the Neolithic age (about 7000+ years ago) you’d think it would be a place we could all pinpoint on a map, but instead it’s relatively unknown and under appreciated. But all that may change soon as they are now in the process of fixing it up and renovating these cave dwellings and converting them into comfortable hotel rooms, homes and restaurants. Built on the side of a deep canyon wall the relatively newer facades leading into the caves give it the appearance of just an old city but in fact this site predates the Roman and Greek splendour by thousands of years. 30,000 people actually lived in this place called “Sassi” right up until 1953 when they were forced out by the government due to poor sanitary conditions. Left abandoned for years the place is now starting to get the attention it deserves in part due to exposure it’s received from various movie roles. This is really a very cool place and we feel privileged to have seen it before it’s covered with wall-to-wall tourists.
From Matera we followed the beautiful Mediterranean coastline to the Sicilian Ferry crossing and enjoyed a quick trip over to the Island. Driving south west on these very narrow roads takes a lot of time and concentration, it’s been a real challenge to my driving skills. In some congested locations only one or two inches separates the motorhome from other vehicles and various other obstacles, like front doors and pedestrians. To make matters worse as we twist and squeeze through each town along this so called highway, there doesn’t appear to be any driving rules enforced and it’s a complete free-for-all. It’s like letting hundreds of various high speed vehicles loose in a parking lot and then throwing in a few thousand Vespas to keep you on your toes. Sicily itself seems to be a real mixed bag and we’re still becoming accustomed to the Island. It’s sand and lava beaches are very beautiful and it has lots of really positive features but many of the towns and cities that we have seen so far seem a bit run down and much of the infrastructure is in need of attention. The people we have met so far have been really nice and very gracious especially when they find out we’re Canadian. So far the “God Father” has not contacted us and that always makes for a much better trip. We hope to experience a lot more of what Sicily has to offer in the next few days before heading back over to the mainland with our sights set on Pompei and Rome.

Road Ramble: “The Ferry Gong Show”

One last look at Greece, zip onto the ferry, nine hours later, hello Italy… so we thought! Despite the fact we made reservations and paid our $500 fare two weeks in advance, when confirming travel details the day before our sailing from the Port of Igoumenitsa, we were informed our 22:00 passage had been switched to a different carrier and our new sailing time would be three hours later at 01:00. Feeling somewhat apprehensive, we arrived at the Ferry terminal nine hours before our new boarding time and were informed our tickets would be printed and ready for pick-up at 22:00. At 21:30 we returned to the agent and were coldly informed that we could not sail on the 01:00 ship as it was full, but space was now available on the 01:00 Ferry, 24 hours hence. After numerous and painful visits to the various terminal agents during all this, we were beginning to understand and sympathize with the pushing, shoving and shouting that appeared to be common place in the long and disorganized lineups. By this time in our ordeal we had met a number of other travellers that were having similar experiences and in a few cases folks had been waiting for days to sail out. Some desperate individuals gave up on the Ferry system and decided to drive the long, long way around to Italy. We were starting to become very concerned and anxious as we watched the parking lot fill with “sidewalk campers” of all types and sizes. Our options were limited and so we joined the community in our comparatively “luxurious” accommodation and settled in for the long haul. During our time in limbo, we actually met some very nice people and despite the language barrier, managed to share some great home grown mellon with some travellers from Turkey. About 27 hours late, we could barley contain our excitement as we drove aboard a well used Ferry pointing in the direction of Italy. The next challenge we had was to find a place to “stretch-out” for the 9 hour overnight sail. People raced aboard and quickly staked out prime sleeping real-estate and then proceeded to inflate air-beds and stretch out blankets and such. Every conceivable place with the exception of zig-zagging walkways was consumed within minutes and many unfortunate souls ended up having to stay/sleep outside on the deck all night long. I managed to find what may have been the last prime sleeping spot on the boat in a non-obvious busy little corner half under a table and slightly behind a room-partition. Looking back now, it’s hard to imagine why were we so excited about scoring this very questionable little living space on a Ferry floor. At about three in the morning I looked around the room in amazement, it sadly gave me the false impression that this really did look more like an evacuation from Greece. After this 43 hour Ferry experience, I will never complain about the BC Ferries again; except they cost too much!

After winding our way through Greece for the last month we’re now about to board a ferry from Igoumenitsa, Greece to Brindisi, Italy. We have loved almost everything about Greece with the exception of a few observations mentioned in my last blog post. Greece has it all, amazing historical sites, breath taking landscapes, warm water sunset beaches and wonderful people, we’ll definitely miss the laid back lifestyle of Greece. Our only regret on leaving is missing the islands of Mykonos and Santorini. We planned on seeing them both but became concerned about where we could safely leave our motorhome for a few days. When we checked into the last minute peak season overnight trips available to us, it was the extreme cost that replaced our first concern. We finally decided that a relaxing cruise through the Greek islands and into Turkey someday would be a much better option, and value, for us.
Since the last blog we have spent most of our time on the impressive Peloponnese Peninsula, home of the Spartans and the birthplace of modern Greece. After crossing over the grand canal built near the end of the 19th century, you enter the neighbourhood of civilizations that date back over 3500 years. Our first stop was the very strategic and important ancient city of Corinth that at one time had a population of 750,000. Conquered by the Romans and reconstructed by Julius Caesar himself, these fabulous ruins are the largest Roman township ruins in Greece today. Corinth, under Roman rule, also had a reputation for licentious living and St Paul was put on trial here in AD52 for challenging this promiscuous lifestyle. As impressive, if not more, was Olympia the site of the first Olympic Games. These ruins (still being excavated) are also massive in scope and they include the ultra important Temple of Zeus, God of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order, justice, and “The father of Gods and men”. What a feeling of awe one gets just walking around this ancient sacred site. The 1700BC (Bronze Age) Mycenae ruins and tombs were also amazing and were only discovered in 1874. What a splendid view from it’s mountain top location. On the more lively side, was the really fantastic traditional town we visited called Nafplio with it’s massive fortress Palamidi looming above it. This was the first capital of liberated Greece in 1829 and through the ages was a major battle zone between the Turks and the Venetians to control it’s critical trading port. Another very cool and traditional town we visited was the small coastal town of Lefkada which happens to be a major windsurfing and sailboating recreational area, and a great place for Margot to shop for souvenirs. We pre-booked our ferry crossing for August 28th and because we moved up the coast a bit faster than expected, we found ourselves with a few days of unplanned down time to suffer through. We managed to find a beautiful campground located on an impressive sandy beach bay near the wonderful old Greek town of Parga that could easily be accessed by a fishing boat water taxi for an evening out. After five days of relaxing, we’re now looking forward to sailing West and exploring the southern boot of Italy, but saying “good-by” to Greece is not easy.

Road Ramble: “Food”

This trip was never intended to be emphasize by food. Sure, we want to experience as much of the local traditional cuisine as possible but the real focus has been on exploring the many treasures of Europe and historical places you find them in. Having said that, over the last seven months, we have truly enjoyed many great specialty meals in some wonderful local establishments. But, the majority of our meals have been motorhome based and they range from a “sandwich-to-go” to chicken and ribs on the BBQ. Lots of stir fries and pasta dishes served with a salad, beer and wine. Our breakfasts are simple, like toast and peanut-butter, or a banana and yogurt with a spot of tea to wash it all down. Without an oven or a microwave to work with, Margot has done a fantastic job of cooking up a storm and producing some very interesting meals with just a 3 burner stove to work on. I try to help out when I can by firing up our very impressive little break-down gas barbecue that you actually wash-up after every use.
Grocery shopping can be a bit of a challenge considering the ever present language gap and the fact that every store has a slightly different selection presented in a slightly different configuration. We like to patronize the small local grocers but have also found a few larger chain outlets that do make life a bit easier when we can find them, but it still amazes me as to how much time we can spend in one store looking for refried beans for Margot’s burritos. As far as selection and price are concerned, we have been pleasantly surprised and on average would compare them to prices in Victoria. The big exception to this is alcohol where a decent bottle of wine can be had for 5-6 dollars, and a half litre of good beer will set you back about a buck fifty. Lucky for us, this one has the potential of dramatically helping in bringing us in on budget:-) All-in-all we’ve had a great food experience so far, we’ve had no related health issues, we’ve eaten some very fine meals, and we’ve enjoying a varied selection of the “commoners” food like gyros, pizza, breads and pastries. Going out for dinner is still a treat for us and as we continue this wild adventure we’re looking forward to sampling many more traditional foods along the way… bon appetite!

We drove inland from Mt. Olympia some distance to pay a visit to the famous 13th century Monasteries of Meteora. Like everyone that comes to admire these treasures perched atop sky -high rocky outcroppings we were duly impressed. Some of the dozen or so ancient monasteries and convents are still in use and inaccessible to the general public but we managed to tour three that were open for viewing. From Meteora we drove to the “Centre of the Earth”, Delphi. This ancient sanctuary dates back to the 6th century BC and is located in a strikingly beautiful location high on the side of a mountain overlooking a carpet of olive trees to the distant ocean. From our campsite on a cliff we sat back with a glass in hand and enjoyed the view and the stars until midnight. Delphi is the home of Apollo and for much of it’s colourful history has played a significant religious, social, and political role in the Greek and Roman worlds. The ruins are in great condition and you can almost imagine yourself dressed in a toga and strolling along the “Sacred Way” past thousands of statues and treasures on your way to the amphitheatre or Athletic Stadium. But, with all the hot weather we needed to treat ourselves to some beach time, so we headed for the famous beach area south of Volos. Good decision as the campground we found was one of the best sites so far with great facilities, great restaurant on a sandy beach and really warm water. We planned on spending two nights and pushed ourselves away after four. Since entering Greece the weather has been very hot and on most days the thermometer approaches the forties range so walking about and exploring things during the day has been a thermo challenge. Luckily we’ve had a few great campgrounds with good beach access to the warm Mediterranean to help us bring the body temperatures back to normal. Not that we’re complaining, it cools at night for a good sleep and I don’t think I’ve had a tan like this since I was 12 years old. After driving south (on some pricy tollroads) and checking out the Temple of Poseidon at Sounio, we drove on into Athens. How does one describe Athens?… Historical treasures like the spectacular Acropolis with it’s Parthenon as a crown and the Temple of Zeus with Hadrian’s Gate nearby are truly outstanding in every possible way and combined provide enough reason for making Athens a must see.
But, unfortunately Athens has two sides and outside of the main tourist areas the extreme beauty of the city is tarnished by signs of poverty and urban decay. In fact, in many parts of Greece we were surprised at the amount of unsightly garbage just thrown about and left at the side of roads and highways. Compounding this problem is the vast amounts of unsightly graffiti on just about everything, even in the most remote areas. All of this left us with the impression that Greece could do a much better job in presenting itself and is desperately in need of a national cleanup campaign. In parts of Athens this problem is even more exaggerated and combined with a few other social factors, it can actually become concerning and uncomfortable for a couple of wayward tourists. Certainly we have met many, many wonderful people in Greece and have visited some strikingly beautiful places along the way but overall I would say that Greece has a serious social environmental issue that needs to be addressed and when it does, this country will be even more amazing. Perhaps the person in charge of the Metro in Athens could assume a leadership position for this national task. If the few Metro stations that we used were typical, they could act as a perfect starting point for a positive cleanup campaign as they were completely graffiti clear, were the cleanest we’ve seen in all of Europe, and felt very safe to be in… Go figure!

Note: I was just reviewing the blog and discovered that the chronological order of the photos has been somewhat scrambled during the downloading process. This has happened before and can make things be a bit confusing to follow. I don’t know why this is happening but I’d bet it has something to do with slow and questionable wifi. Sorry!

Our original plan was to zip around the corner from Venice and slide down the Adriatic coastline towards amazing Dubrovnik while taking our time along the way to enjoy the seaside. From Dubrovnik we planned to cross over the mountains through Kosovo and into northern Greece. Scrap that plan!… Kosovo it seems is still considered to be somewhat of a hot spot and after being warned off by a number of very reliable sources we decided to completely avoid the area and altered our malleable plan accordingly. So, from Venice we did zip around the corner slightly, but only as far down as the northern coast of Croatia for a night, and then turned north east for a speedy autobahn drive to Budapest, Hungary for a quick visit. We were quite impressed with Budapest and spent the better part of two days exploring the sights on both sides of the Danube. I never knew that on the west side of the Danube is the city of Buda looking east across the river at the city of Pest. The two are linked by a number of impressive bridges and now collectively make up what is known as Budapest. We did the Big Red Bus tour as things are a bit spread out and really got a good feel for this still merging tourist Mecca. Despite the thirty plus degree heat, we were determined to try the local Goulash soup and we weren’t disappointed at all, who would guess that cold Hungarian beer goes so well with it. From Budapest we turned south for another autobahn slide through Serbia and Macedonia to Thessaloniki, Greece. We did however encounter a few unexpected twists in this quick slide south. Along the way we drove through Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia and into Greece each with long wait border crossings (going in and out). We drove through 10 highway toll booths with significant wait times as well (costing a total of about sixty dollars Canadian). One autobahn accident with a 30km traffic back-up and a little construction to boot. All-in-all, I would guess that we spent about 6 hours in lineups. Because of the added time we couldn’t complete the drive in one day and ended up on a dark rainy mountain road very late in the evening and too close to the border of Kosovo. We decided it best to stay the rest of this night in an isolated but busy hotel parking lot with designated area for motorhomes along with a few other tired RV travellers.
After the turmoil of Yugoslavia breaking up with the years of unrest that followed, much of this part of the world is still considered “Emerging” and the depressed economic conditions of some towns and villages that we saw, can attest to that. We thought we might stop for a night in Belgrade, Serbia but the feeling we got driving in on the freeway through many rundown buildings and endless graffiti unfortunately turned us off wanting to stop. I know you’ve heard this before but… It’s times like this that you’re reminded of how fortunate we are to be living in a country like Canada. Crossing into Northern Greece we were also surprised at the number of closed businesses and slightly run-down areas. Hopefully Greece’s damaged economy will completely bounce back soon and when we drive south towards Athens we’re hoping to see some evidence of that happening. Greece is beautiful and fascinating in every way possible and we’re really looking forward to exploring as much of this amazing country as we can. For now we’re sitting in a slightly over cramped and lively oceanside campground just below Mt. Olympus. Warm water, colourful lights, great restaurants, shops and people activity to entertain us until we decide to move along.

Road Ramble:

It’s surprising how many pictures we’ve taken so far and how quickly they all add up. We are now in the neighbourhood of about 4000 saved pictures and someday I’m sure we’ll look at each one of them at least one more time, unless the kids want to see them a few extra times… (I hear what you just said Cameron!). Our basic Nikon camera has been working great and other than burning up the battery charges rather quickly we haven’t had any real photo technical issues, until recently when trying to download photos for this Blog. Lucky for us I don’t think it’s a camera problem, it seems it has more to do with a bad SD memory card instead. Unlucky for us, I think we’ve lost a number of pictures including some from Budapest and our drive south to Greece. Can you hear the crocodile tears hit the motorhome floor. I do plan on bringing the SD chip home with me though and hopefully our good friend Dave, who is the master of all things computer, can magically retrieve some of the lost and locked up photos inside (Yes, that was a “heads-up” Dave). Unfortunately however, this Post is therefore minus a few interesting photos that Margot was quite excited about of Budapest and the drive through Serbia and Macedonia. Just incase you are interested, At some point I will talk about the details of our basic camera and photo management in the Nuts & Bolts section.

After visiting the Olympic museum in Lausanne, we drove into Geneva and found a good campsite right on the lake about 20 minutes from downtown with a large contingent of German campers in attendance which turned out to be a great bonus for cheering on Germany to their big World Cup win. We enjoyed a warm sunny day looking around the city centre checking out the waterfront and admiring the great selection of exclusive personal banks available to us if we’re ever in need. Geneva itself is a very beautiful and business-like city but I have to say that the most exciting part of Geneva for us was our fascinating tour of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) just outside the city on the French border. This truly amazing international project of gigantic proportions is the largest and most complex machine ever built by mankind. The particle beam accelerator smashes protons together to recreate conditions similar to the “Big Bang”. In doing so scientists attempt to prove and disprove theories of physics that could provide key answers to the origin of the universe and lead to a single Universal Theory. The specific details of this machine and it’s potential discoveries are truly mind-blowing and if you read more about it, you could be easily fooled into thinking it’s just good science fiction.
We burst into Italy driving through the 10 km long Mt. Blanc tunnel and into the beautiful d’Aosta Valley. Italy has been a real “change-up” from northern Europe as things seem a bit more random and laid back south of the Alps. The locals have been very friendly and we’re quickly adjusting to the casual Mediterranean influenced lifestyle. Milano was a big and bustling city with some very interesting sites to see like the worlds largest Gothic Cathedral across the square from one of the most prestigious high-end shopping malls in Europe. The old castle was cool as well. We were very impressed with historic Verona and even managed to squeeze in a visit to the home of Juliet (of Romeo & Juliet) which has become quite a popular tourist attraction. But the best part of Verona for me was a walk through the beautiful 2000 year old Coliseum (3rd largest in the world) that’s still in active service featuring world class performances throughout the summer.
We lucked into a great campsite on the peninsula across from Venice in a place called Punta Sabbioni. We bought a metro transit pass for the bus-like ferry system and have spent the last four full days exploring Venice and Islands. You cannot help but be impressed with this place, it really is magnificent and romantic too, if you don’t mind sharing it with a few others. When Bert and I were here in the fall of 72 the streets were mostly empty with the exception of a few guys selling freshly roasted chestnuts. Today, Venice reminded me of a busy shopping mall in Edmonton on the 24th of December minus the panic purchasing. Margot really enjoy all the Murano glassware shops and I enjoyed the air conditioning they provided. Despite the large crowds of international tourists and all the street sellers trying to earn a living, it really is a very impressive and exciting place to be that we’ll always remember with fondness. And then the rain… on wash day!

Road Ramble:

You may be wondering why you keep seeing us dressed in the same repeating set of clothes week after week but you’re just too polite to make a nasty comment or ask why. Overall I think we did a good job of packing “flexible” clothing for the different seasons with the concept of layering in mind and I think we carried over the right quantity too. We tend to unpack and utilize certain clothes that work best for the present weather conditions but when they are in need of laundering, we have very limited space available in the motorhome for storing dirty clothes. Therefore, we try to launder our clothes regularly and then conveniently hang them back up in the handy dandy closet for quick reuse. It looks bad in the photos, but it is practical.
Doing laundry on the road has been a bit of an issue for us. Most of the campgrounds have at least one washer and dryer available but they are often busy (summer especially) and are very expensive. Two loads can easily cost $25 dollars or more to wash and dry with no guarantees about the condition of the clothes when finished. We can’t quite figure out why staying clean is so pricey over here but we do understand why so many people tend to use clothes lines. I’m sure we could have bought and paid for our own machines by now, if we could only figure out how to drag them along with us. By the way, I had almost forgotten how nice it is to climb into bed with freshly washed bedsheets that were dried in the warm sunshine.

Despite major amounts of rain lately, you might say that Switzerland has been a highlight for us. Continual breathtaking alpine panoramas with lush green slopes looking more like groomed parks than typical farm fields. Quaint villages sprinkled about between immaculate lakeside cities like Geneva, Lucerne, Zurich, Bern, Montreux (with its amazing medieval castle “Chateau de Chillon) and Lausanne (the IOC Olympic Capital) all add up to one impressive and very beautiful country.  The Swiss people are friendly and helpful and we have been treated wonderfully. The only downside so far has been the inflated cost of just about everything and the somewhat limited camping availability compared to neighbouring countries. We were told the minimum hourly wage in Switzerland is very high and that’s why a simple cup of coffee at Starbucks can cost about $8 with a pizza and beer for two costing about $100 Canadian. We tend to eat at the motorhome as much as we can and shop the supermarkets for our culinary inspiration. Margot has done a fantastic job of learning to cook a variety of interesting and tasty dishes in the limited motorhome space. Campground choice has been limited and sometimes nonexistent, like in Basal and Davos. The famous ski resort village of Davos has special meaning to me as this is the town I worked in for a part of the winter of 1972 at the Davoserhof Hotel. So I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t spend more time showing Margot around because of the limited camping issue. Sneaky street camping was not even a remote possible considering the preparations that were under way for the yodelling contest. Now you may be thinking “Big Deal!”… and you’d be right. This small alpine town, in two days time, was about to host 10,000 yodellers from around the world and 100,000+ supporting spectators. You can imagine the temporary infrastructure going up to handle all this and the resulting organized chaos in the streets as we drove into the village. Parking was tough but camping was impossible so we headed over the mountain to Klosters where Bert had worked (and learned to ski like a pro) hoping, but unfortunately not finding, a place to camp.  We had to quickly move on before darkness so it looks like a return visit to Davos/Klosters is now on our bucket list.

Road Ramble:

Since my first ramble stated off on the topic of “Safety”, I can’t think of a better topic than “Health” for my second one. We were in a Zurich and it was late, about 1:00am and a large group of us campers were sitting in a  designated viewing area beside the lake watching the World Cup Soccer “shoot-out” between Holland and Argentina on three big televisions placed on posts in the water. To expedite my late trip to bed, I grabbed my floss, and while watching the soccer action, I began the mindless task. Bad safety judgement on my part; as the intensity of action on the screen grew, so did my flossing, Just as the Dutch scored the winning goal, I felt that awful sensation of a rough tooth from under a now missing dental cap. Margot grabbed a flashlight and we scoured the grass for my dental work to no avail. I went to bed excited for Holland and ticked about my tooth. It must have been a good balance because I slept well and when I awoke, I give the ground search one more try in the brilliant sunlight. After a few minutes of working a strategic “search grid”, I amazingly found my tiny white “cap” nestled in the grass about ten feet away from where I was sitting (Wow!). We were told that dental work in Switzerland was very expensive so we decided to drive back into Germany where we found a very kind dentist.  He actually specialized in tooth implants but after hearing my sad story he took pity and invited me into his chair. He was a pro… Zip-Zap! he had everything back to normal and we were on our way with a dental bill of only 46 Euros. Considering our free Stellplatz for the night and a cheap diesel “filled-up”, we actually broke even on the ordeal. Yes, It’s a happy ending to this frightening story, but I end with this dental safety warning to all of you… do not floss your teeth while watching horror movies or gripping sporting events.

I didn’t plan on preparing a blog post this morning but for some strange reason the wifi connection here at our stelpllatz is working exceptionally well so before racing off to visit the famous Neuschwanstein Palace (Located Southwest of Munich), I decided to quickly piece together this photo-blog update. questionable and unreliable wifi connections continue to be a challenge for us so we try and take advantage to the good connections when we can. Doing everything on an iPad also adds a little extra complexity to the blogging experience  

Here’s a quick overview of our last few days. We left Paris and made a stop at Fontainebleau Palace to visit Napoleons favourite home. It was quite impressive and well worth the days visit. We then drove onward to Nancy, France which turned out to be one of the nicest little cities that we’ve visited so far. Nightly they put on a spectacular light show inside what’s considered to be one of the most impressive central square in Europe, and from our limited experience, we could agree. The animated laser-light and sound show is projected onto five grand buildings that frame the square and from under the night sky it was a really great experience. We had a nice look around the wonderful city of  Strasbourg but unfortunately our time here was marred by an all-night “Rap-driven-Rave” just outside our campground that almost drove us crazy.  Anxious to move on, we turned our attention South towards the Alps and in doing so we realized our opportunity to explore the beautiful Black Forest region and popular Lake Constance area.  From this Neuschwanstein stellplatz we’ll continue our drive East along the German (Bavarian) Austrian border, and then we’ll turn 180 degrees and drive West again through Austria to Innsbruck and then on into Switzerland. As we do move along, I’m hoping for more of this reliable wifi to help keep our travel progress posted. Wishing everyone a warm and wonderful Canada day.