Well this is the last blog of our journey and I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures as much as we have enjoyed them, or most of them should I say.

In Belgium the rain was so bad that poor Blossom got stuck in the mud in the campsite and we had about 20 people pushing her to get her out. The one thing that has spoiled this latter part of our trip has been the constant rain.  We travelled along the border of Belgium and then dipped into France beside Dunkirk and spent the night at an aire in Bergues.  When we left the aire the next day we headed for the motorway to get to the ferry port and ended up in going in the wrong direction, typical us!! Just as well we had given ourselves plenty time to get there. Anyway once we got back on the motorway and heading the right direction we finally got to the ferry port. There was a sign that said “if you have a reservation or sailing in the next 2 hours use this lane if not wait in the car park” Ok so we did have a reservation but we were not sailing until 6pm and it was 3.30pm. When we got to the little window we were told that we should have gone to the car park until the ferry at 4pm had left. They gave us directions of how to get back to the car park. We passed through border control and were given further directions but somehow we ended up where the queues were to get on the ferry!! Only we could manage to get it wrong. Off I went to the office to see about getting our tickets and I explained our situation about where we had ended up and the staff in the office were a bit puzzled about how we managed to get there but told us to move to the side until that ferry had gone and come back and get our ticket then. Nothing else to do but put the kettle on and have a cup of tea.

The crossing was quite rough and the ferry was late in leaving so we didn’t get back to Dover until nearer 8pm and arrived to more rain and fog. We stopped at a CL (Caravan Club Certified Location) just outside Folkstone.

Next day we headed off to meet up with Wendy and Mick who we first met up with near Barcelona, seems like a lifetime ago already. They stay in a small village near Bicester, the countryside and villages round about there are really pretty.  We had decided to buy another motorbike to take back with us to Benidorm, one which we could both ride, so as Wendy and Mick were both at work we ended up going bike shopping. We got a fantastic bargain of a month old Suzuki Gladius in a bike shop in Peterborough, bit of impulse buying as we hadn’t meant to spend so much. The plan was to pick up the bike on the way back to Benidorm but you know what our plans end up like… NO PLANS. 

We now needed to get a bike trailer and a towbar fitted to Blossom. All this was going to take time and we were happy to wait. On Saturday Wendy and Mick took us into Oxford for the day and we had a look around the Ashmoleun museum and then had a wander about the streets around the University where we came across filming of the series Lewis and both Kevin Whatley and Lawrence Fox were there.

Now we had some time on our hands and that left us with too much time to think about how to get the bike back to Aberdeen rather than leave it in Peterborough. So we have run around middle Englandshire looking at trailers and finding out about towbars and you will have guessed by now we have got the bike on the trailer behind the van. In-between getting the trailer, towbar and bike we have collect the 70kgs of stuff sent back to our friend John’s address in Nottingham and met up with my brother at Meriden which is at the centre of England and we have now travelled back to Scotland and have stayed with my brother Ian and his wife Ann for a couple of nights and will be home tonight in Aberdeen so feel free to give us a call and we can bore you to death with our photo’s. 

TTFN for the last time……

17 July 2012

On Tuesday 10^th July we set off from Oberwsel with our newly repaired again tomtom.  We didn’t really know where we were going as our cheap campsite card is finished for the summer. We headed for the Mosel and had a lovely drive towards Zell then south along the Mosel to Bernkastel – Kues where we had hoped to spend the night as the wine museum has around 150 local wines which you can taste. Unfortunately they must have had advanced warning of our arrival and the motorhome parking was for during the day only, no overnight stops. So off we went further along the river to Piesport. Stopped at a nice little stellplatz, right on the riverbank. It was actually a nice day with no rain, for a change, so we got the bikes off the van and went for a cycle. Not too much around this area to see, well there is the Mosel and loads of grape vines,  so we opted for a stop at a hotel for a drink, had to try the local wine for future reference. Anyway the hotel was locked up but there was a pub in a garden across the road which was open so over we went.  The pub was run by the 2 ugly sisters and I reckon poor cinders was locked in the hotel. They were the weirdest people I have met on this trip, there was absolutely no expression on either of their faces except the one where there is nobody in. No matter how many times we smiled at them there was no response and they seemed fascinated by our attire, shorts t-shirts crocks and flipflops, they just kept looking us up and down, weird.

Wednesday we went further south towards Trier, which is supposed to be really nice, but when we got to the stellplatz we didn’t like the look of it and decided to head into Luxemburg instead.  We had only travelled about 10 minutes and we were in Luxemburg but we had thought it was a lot further away.  More rain again I think we are getting the same weather as you are, the rain is so heavy that we can’t even go out and about to see what there is at the places we are at. The Luxemburg countryside is very much like Scotland with weather to match. We stopped for the night at Medenach which is just north of Larochette. The campsite was really expensive at 37€ a night, so we only stayed one night. Next day we headed to Ingledorf which was only about 20k away but the site is cheaper and has free wifi. Just as well we had wifi as we were stuck in again because of the rain. The rain continued all through the night and we didn’t get much sleep as it was so heavy. Still raining next day and we have decided to go back into Germany but first we went and drove by radio Luxemburg which brought back memories of having my trannie under the pillow at night and listening to Radio Luxemburg. For all of you who are too young to remember those days a trannie is not a transvestite but a transistor radio.

Now I know you don’t believe we had a plan but our plan was to head north in Germany and then west into Holland then into Belgium then France so we went east from Luxemburg to Gerolstien and again it is raining heavily so no sightseeing here. On Saturday we drove to Andernach on the Rhine, another stellplatz right on the riverbank. More rain!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway our plan has now changed, see best not to plan ahead.

We have a new tenant moving into the house for a six month lease ending on 1^st February and following a call to my mum on Saturday she informed us that she didn’t want us staying with her until February but we could stay for a short period. With nowhere else to go we made the decision to return to Benidorm for part of the winter as we can live there as cheaply as at home. So this is where our plan now changes we are no longer going to Holland but we will head through Belgium and then home as we have a few things to sort out before we go back to Benidorm. So you will all be glad to hear we should be back in Aberdeen soon so check your social diaries and see if you can fit us in for a visit as we will be away again mid October. We stayed 2 nights at Andernach and then we headed to Belgium to a site at Ottepe, just south east of Brussels. 

We have booked our ferry back to the UK yesterday and we will arrive at Dover on Wednesday 18^th July at 7pm.

TTFN

8 July 2012

Friday 29^th June and we are back at Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  We spent some time exploring the towers on the town walls and walking along the ramparts.  There is a music festival on in the town and we stopped to listen to an American brass band playing, in the square, and then into one of the churches to listen to the choir. Later on we went in search of the summer beir festival, which of course turned out to be a big disappointment, they only had about 3 different beers to try.

On Saturday we continued along the Romantic Road to Kitzingen and stayed on a stellplatze by the river. It was so hot in the afternoon around 34 degrees which inevitably led to another thunderstorm during the night.  Sunday we drove to Beitigheim Bissingen to a small stellplatz near a car park. We went for a walk around and on returning to the stellplatz noticed a dodgy looking character looking at the van. He went back to a car where there were another 3 dirty dodgy lookers who all seemed to be living in the car. Kev wanted to go to watch the final of the football in the pub along the road but we didn’t want to leave poor Blossom on her own in case they were waiting for us to go out again. I did offer to stay behind but we just watched the footie on our telly.

Because we were near to Stuttgart our plans were to go to the Porsche and Mercedes Museums but they are both closed on Mondays and it was still raining so we decided we can do that on another trip. We were going to go down to the Black Forrest and then into Switzerland but at the last minute changed our minds and headed north. One of the deciding factors was that the b….y sat nav is f….d again and we have to stop somewhere to contact tomtom and send the device back again, same fault as last time. We have chosen to stay on a site right on the Rhine at Oberwesel. The views are fantastic.  Anyway, the tomtom was picked up on Tuesday and should be back tomorrow, Monday, so we will have to decide where to go next, think we are heading for Paris.

TTFN

Rothenburg, we bought a cuckoo clock but not this one

Munich

Schloss Hohenschwangau, next to Neuschwanstein

28th June 2012

Thursday 21 June and we have travelled to the end of the Romantische Strasse (Romantic Road) in Germany. We are at the end because we are going from the end at Fussen in the south to the start at Wurzburg in the north. We have stopped for the night at Hopfensee just outside Fussen at an all singing all dancing campsite which cost 38€ a night. This is the only campsite in the area and we had to use a washing machine for the wet clothes and carpets etc. 

Friday we visited the fairy tale castle of Neuschwanstein and in true Griswald style the turrets are covered in scaffolding so sorry no pictures of the beautiful castle. We took the tour of the castle after walking a mile uphill to get there. The castle is actually only around 140 years old and only four rooms were ever completed.  The building work started in 1869 and King Ludwig 11 moved into his completed rooms in 1884 and only lived in the castle for 172 days when he was declared to be mad and sent to a mental hospital where he died two days later. The building works stopped the day he died so the castle was never completed. We stopped for the night at a stellplatz (freebie) in Friedburg.

Saturday we headed for Munich and on the way we went to Dachau Concentration Camp. Don’t know what to say here as I still can’t get my head around it all. This was the first camp built and was an SS training ground. The camp was built and in use from 1933 until 1945 and there were 27 Britons held at the camp. In total the records show that more than 200,000 people were held here but there were many more which were not recorded and the total of deaths is unkown.  We had an excellent guide who was born in the town of Dachau and has met many camp survivors and was able to relay their terrible experiences to us. The sheer horror of what went on here is felt throughout the camp as you walk amongst the buildings and the crematoriums. The purpose built killing place is hard to describe and is hard to believe that somebody thought up all these punishments and means of killing people. I am still quite upset writing this and still can’t believe what I had seen. We carried on to Munich city to the campsite and I managed to programme the sat nav twice to the wrong place but got it right the third time. Couldn’t think straight.

Sunday we headed for the city. When we arrived at the centre there was a fun run on so a lot of the streets were closed off. We watched the Glockenspiel clock strike at 12 noon on the carillion tower in Marionplatz then we went to a Greek/Austrian festival and then passing a few more sights we ended up at the Hofbrauhaus beer hall where pork knuckles and dumplings were ordered along with some black beer, yummy. More sightseeing and on to the English Gardens. There is a river runs through the gardens and as it passes through a bridge the speed of the water is so great that there are people surfing on the wave caused by the turbulance. More beer at the Chinesisscher Turm beer garden whilst listening to the brass band playing, then the day is over all too quickly and we head back to the campsite.

Monday we stopped at a stellplatz at Sulzemoos which was right next to a huge motor home dealership. We spent the afternoon looking round brand new Concord Motorhomes, which cost around 200,000 €. Pity we haven’t won the lottery. Tuesday we head off to Donauworth and again stop on a stellplatz and have a wonder around the town. This was described as having the most beautiful road along the Romantischstrasse, still looking for it! Wednesday we have arrived in Rothenburg ob der Tauber now this is a place worth visiting, it is really pretty. The buildings here are so oldie worldy and the whole town is enclosed within medieval walls and ramparts which you can still access.  Today we have only gone 13km to Geslau to a campsite to do the washing and have a proper shower and tomorrow we are going back to Rothenburg to a folk and beer festival.

TTFN

Augustiner Beir Garden, waiting for the rain to stop

Some of the Sound of Music sights, I'm playing the part of Maria

Dooms Day

Monday 18 June and we are travelling to Salzburg. The quickest way to Salzburg from Innsbruck is to cut through Germany. We had a small panic because we kept seeing signs to get a vignette for the motorways, which we thought meant the German motorways, so we stopped at a big service station that was advertising them for sale. We then realised that it was the same vignette that we had already bought and that you don’t need them in Germany, they just fleece you at the toll booth instead. Arrived at Camping Sam in Salzburg quite late in the afternoon, as we had had to sit in a traffic jam for over an hour. First thing we did was book the Sound of Music Tour for the next day. Kev had not seen the film the whole way through so we borrowed a copy from the site owner to watch in the evening. After watching all the extras Kev is now an expert on the Family Von Trapp. I’m going to put him forward for Mastermind.

Tuesday we had a really good day, in the morning we did the Sound of Music Tour and in the afternoon we went down a salt mine.

Wednesday started out good, the sun was shining and all was well with the world. I spotted a black squirrel looking so cute and called Kev over to have a look, you can hear the soothing music playing as we watched the little squirrel nibbling his nuts when out of nowhere came a big ginger cat which killed the squirrel. That was the start of the day of doom when I nearly died, that may be a slight exaggeration. Anyhoo off we went for a nice cycle into Salzburg, only 4k along a lovely riverside cycle path. Went to more Sound of Music sights and a wander round the old town then onto the highlight of the day the Augustiner Bier gardens. The beer was great and the selection of food available was from whole trout to pork hocks, rotisserie chickens, prawns in batter 40 different salad accompaniments, various sausages and so it goes on. After our second beer the thunder started and then the heavens opened. Salzburg had the worst rainfall in an hour since records began. Most of the cellars in Salzberg were flooded and water was coming back up the toilets. Funnily enough I had asked at reception where we should go should we get lost “no problem there just follow the cycle path” I was told. We waited an hour at the beer garden with no sign of the rain stopping so we decided we would just have to get wet on the cycle home. Off we set laughing to start with at how wet we were and how funny it was cycling through huge puddles of warm water. We got so far on the cycle path and then we came to a barrier blocking the path but because we didn’t know any other way to get back we thought it couldn’t be that bad so we started along the path. Now I know you’re all saying “that was a stupid thing to do when the barrier was down”. Well yes I do agree with you in hind sight it was really really stupid. When I had cycled up to my waist in water and then couldn’t peddle anymore, and also couldn’t see the cycle track, I decided that we might be in serious danger of being washed away, so I quickly turned my bike round shouting to Kev not to come any further. Yes notice I had to go into the water first. As I got off my bike to turn it round I lost my flip flop but managed to catch it as it came to the surface and floated by. Still lashing rain, thunder and lightning we continued onto a road but had no idea where we were or how to get back to the campsite. Now remember I did ask in case we got lost how to get back. We stopped at a hotel and dripped puddles all over the reception and a really nice carpet, there were 3 people telling us different ways which was not very helpful. So we carried on, in the rain, thunder and lightning until we came to a service station where again we dripped puddles everywhere. Again their directions seemed to be useless to two people on bicycles. We made a decision to leave the bikes at the garage and get a taxi but a very nice lady gave us a lift back, also the nice man at the garage gave me a dry t-shirt as I looked like I had just won the wet t-shirt competition. And no it doesn’t end there!!!!! I had left a roof window open when we left in the morning as the temperature was 32 degrees but that was the least of our worries because when we got back to the campsite where we were parked was flooded. It was about 18 inches deep and almost into Blossom. So we unplugged the electricity cable in all that water and moved Blossom to higher ground. I have a basin which I keep my plants in and it was floating about the pitch. We then had to mop up all the water inside put the soaking carpets outside and eventually have a cuppa and off to bed. That was some day.

TTFN

Innsbruck and Natterer See campsite

17 June 2012

Leaving Italy behind we crossed the border into Austria at Brenner and headed for Innsbruck. The weather was again really unkind to us and as we were heading through the mountains Kev had to tape up the roof light to keep the torrential rain out. 

When we arrived at the site at Natters the staff couldn’t have been more helpful providing us with silicone and a ladder to repair the roof light. This site is fantastic, I think I have been away too long now as I get excited about really nice shower blocks and if there’s a good washing machine. The showers are the nicest we have seen, so far, so nice you want to stay in them for ages instead of the usual hurry in and out again.  There is a cinema room which opens up so that it is open air, a viewing deck where you can sit and watch the sunset over the Alps also a free bus service to Innsbruck. Our pitch has a view over the lake which is stocked with huge carp, catfish, terrapins, tadpoles and other fish. There is also another swimming lake but it is also full of tadpoles and not sure what else so I won’t be going for a dip here.

On Thursday we took the bus to Innsbruck and went to the old town for a wander about. The most famous landmark here is the Goldenes Dachl, a building with a golden roof, but of course it was covered up for renovations, typical. For lunch I had to try the Wiener schnitzel and Kev had the pork hock accompanied by some really nice beer.  After lunch we took a cable car to the top of Hafelekarspitze, a mere 2334m above the city of Innsbruck. The views were stunning. There was still some snow at the top so I didn’t manage to go right to the top as my trainers kept slipping. Kev carried on up to the summit in his crocks, shorts and t-shirt after all it was like a summers day in Aberdeen at the top, 15degrees. While I was waiting for Kev a glider came round the corner of the mountain only about 50 feet away at the same height as I was standing. The sound it made was really weird as the wind passed over the wings, quite earie as that was all you could hear up there apart from the bells on the mountain goats.

We had only planned to stay for 2 nights but we are enjoying the peace and quiet and facilities on this site and have decided to stay until Monday and then we are heading for Salzburg. The weather has changed and it has been about 30 degrees on Friday, Saturday and today so we are topping up the tans.

TTFN

Rasun in the Dolomites

Roncegno and Montibeller

Lake Garda and Costodoro

A taster of Venice

Tavullia - The Official Valentino Rossi Fan Club

Making ourselves at home at Monte Torto

12 June 2012

Saturday 2 June

Moving north again we travelled to Casenuove, near to Osimo, and stayed on another vineyard, Monte Torto.  Our hosts were just on their way out but told us to park beside the vineyard and to make ourselves at home and to use the garden area if we wanted. The workers had all gone home and we had the place to ourselves. The vineyard is at the top of a hill, so peaceful and with stunning views. Firstly we had tea in the courtyard and then I lazed about in the hammock, well you only have to tell us once to make ourselves at home.

Sunday, another MotoGP, so we headed for Urbino the birthplace of Valentino Rossi, Kev’s hero. Urbino is a small hilltop village with some beautiful architecture. We had some lunch and watched the race. There was a farmers market in the square where I tried some ice cream with cheese on top. Sounds weird but actually tasted quite nice. We found out that the Official Rossi Fan Club was in the town where Valentino now lives at Tavullia, about 40K away, so off we went to Tavullia. Well where else would you join the fan club but at the head office.  Kev is now a member of the Valentino Rossi Official Fan Club, he looked so chuffed. Of course we then had to go next door to the shop and buy some merchandise. We carried on to Montecolmbo, near to Riccione, and stayed on another farm/vineyard which had a restaurant so we decided to eat there. The food was delicious. There were 4 tables, us a table of 4 a table of 9 and the family table and we all ate the same meal and drank the wine made on the vineyard. I bought some wine and some home produced honey from the cantina (farm shop).

Monday we headed towards Venice, it was quite a long drive and there was torrential rain again. We headed for a site at Sottomarina, next to Chioggia at the other end of the bay from Venice. We found out that you could catch a ferry from the port at Sottomarina to Venice and we were told the journey would only take an hour so rather than drive further up the coast we opted for the ferry.  Tuesday we went for a cycle around Chioggia and on Wednesday we took the ferry to Venice. The ferry left at 9am and we had a 20min cycle to get there, bit of a shock to the system because we don’t normally get up until about 9am. The trip took 2 hours so we arrived in Venice at 11am. The ferry journey was good though as it stayed close to the coast there was plenty to see and of course the sun was shining.  Firstly we went for a look around to get our bearings and then went for a gondola ride, well you have to don’t you. We decided to share the gondola as it worked out a good bit cheaper. We then walked round St Marks square and had a look round the shops. I had wanted to go to Murano to get a small piece of glass as a souvenir of Italy but we opted to look for a piece in the shops at St Marks as we didn’t think we had time to go to Murano.  When I say I wanted a small piece that’s what I got as the glass is so expensive. We then took a Vaporetto, water bus, up the Grand Canal and back down again and that was all we really had time to do as the queues to get into the tower, basilica and palace were so long we didn’t have the time to queue. I didn’t think that Venice was as dirty and smelly as people have said but maybe in the height of summer it is.

Thursday, headed for Lake Garda and stopped overnight at another vineyard, Costodoro at Bardolino, west of Verona. We drove through Verona, as I had wanted to go to Casa di Giulietta to stand on Juliet’s balcony, but we were unable to find a parking space so we carried on to the vineyard.  When we got up on Friday morning we went to the cantina and had a wine tasting and ended up buying 12 bottles of wine, well it was really nice and a bargain.

On Friday we moved to Camping Bella Italia, at Peschiera and our pitch is about 20 meters from the lake itself. We got the second last available pitch and there were still people queuing up after us. The site has 1200pitches, Restaurants, shops, you name it they’ve got it, it’s like a small village.

Saturday we cycled to Peschiria and had a look around and tried to get information regarding a trip around the lake by boat. Amazingly there are no such trips. You can get a ferry to Riva at the other end of the lake but it costs about 60€. The weather here is really muggy and visibility is hampered by the haze so if we took the trip we wouldn’t see much of the scenery anyway so we decided not to do this today.

Sunday the rain was on again so we just stayed on site.

Monday we travelled to Roncegno, just east of Trento, and stayed at Agriture Montibeller in a cherry orchard. The cherries were within picking distance of where we parked so of course we picked a small basket of fresh cherries. The farm also produces apple juice, herbal tea infusions, jams and cider vinegar. These are all sold in the farm restaurant. During the night we had another thunder storm and it rained the whole night and was still pouring when we left. We were told that the rain has ruined most of the cherry crop as the rain splits the cherries and then they can only be used for jam.

Today it has rained all day. We have travelled further north of Trento through the Dolomites passing through Bolanzo then Brunico and ending up at Monguelfo. The drive was really nice, the countryside changed to steep hillsides covered with vines and dotted on the hillside are alpine style chalets. The churches all have spires instead of domes and there were some spectacular castles on the tops of the hills. Once we got to the site I discovered that the rear roof light was leaking all over the duvets. As there has been no let up in the rain we have put a tarpaulin over the roof until we get a dry spell to re seal the window. When I get home I am going to apply for a job selling lucky white heather.

Next blog from Austria, I hope.

TTFN

Breakfast berries from Biagio