Oct 24th to Oct 26th

Back at our house in the Vendee. Seems odd after the caravan, but we soon settle in. The Vendee Globe yacht race runs every 4 years, and this year is the one. It starts 2 weeks tomorrow, Sunday 9th Nov., from Les Sables d’Olonne, 15 minutes away. Today was open day, where the public could view all the competitors’ boats and absorb the razzmatazz of it all. So we went along and were duly impressed by the 30 sleek vessels on show and the vast array of sponsors’ displays in marquees on the quayside (3 Brits, but no Ellen MacArthur who won it last time).

Thur 16th to Mon 20th Oct

We found a splendid river & gorge right on the doorstep! The river runs past the campsite, so we decided to follow it upstream along a dirt road. In half a mile it became a ravine, and in a further half-mile, when it had widened slightly, we were astonished to find a large factory-type building containing a paper museum. We had a conducted tour, in English: the valley had been producing paper since 1381 and at its’ peak contained 38 paper mills! We continued up the valley afterwards along the track and found ruin after ruin of these ancient mills, all in an idyllic setting on the banks of the river. The river was, of course, the power source for the industry, which employed hundreds of workers and achieved vast output despite the location’s difficult access.

On Wednesday 22nd we’re leaving for the house in France where we’ll arrive on Friday, so this is the last entry for the time being. Lake Garda has been wonderful & still summer weather.

Tue 14th Oct to Wed 15th

The lake towns are served by a comprehensive ferry service, some taking vehicles. On Wednesday we caught the ferry to Sirmione, via several attractive stop-offs. Sirmione is a town on the tip a 3 mile peninsula projecting into the lake, and is olde worlde and, of course, touristy. Out of the town there are lovely views, Roman remains & caves.

Our water pump packed up a week ago & we were directed to a local caravan shop, which we couldn’t find. No problem, as we can use the showers on site instead of the caravan’s. Today the mystery was revealed: you enter the caravan shop through a high-class glassware shop. There is no signage whatsoever to indicate this arrangement on the glassware shop frontage. And they actually had what we wanted - a spare pump. The set-up must do wonders for their sales of caravan spares & equipment!

Friday 10th to Monday 13th

They started to arrive Friday afternoon… the weekend rally. They were rolling in up to 11.30 pm and carried on coming Saturday morning. Over 80 campervans transformed this quiet, out of season site into the equivalent of an Italian market. The rally came complete with whistley, testing-testing 1-2-3 tannoy. They were, however, most kind and, I suppose in recognition of our being “swamped”, brought us all kinds of wine, food & cake during Sunday’s communal lunch.

Monday. Today we went by train to Venice. Venice has all the worst and best elements of a top tourist attraction. Yes, crowds, high prices, shops full of souvenir tat but in a unique setting of islands & canals, incredible architecture on a huge scale and the sense of living history as it’s a working city. It adds up to a thoroughly good day out!

Wed 8th & Thur 9th Oct

Gargnano is just up the road, a pretty lakeside village and a typical example of the numerous settlements around the lake. Mussolini had a villa here from 1943 to 1945.
Thursday was our trip to Verona, by train. Verona is full of beautiful historical buildings from Roman times onwards, but is probably best associated with Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. The story has a proper historical basis and there were indeed two feuding families, the Montagues & Capulets, with events unfolding in the year 1302. The picture is of Juliet’s balcony in the Capulet’s house, as featured in the play. The arena was most impressive, looking like the Coliseum in Rome, but everybody’s seen pictures of that. Top marks for Verona in general: more history than you can shake a stick at.

Thur 2nd Oct to Tue 7th

Only one problem with the campsite – it’s closing this weekend. So we found the only site in the vicinity that appears to be open and moved today. It’s again in a beautiful setting and on the lake shore. We visited the local supermarket this afternoon. Strange how certain foreign names strike one as inappropriate: the supermarket was called UPIM, which to us had the same ring to it as UP YOURS! TESCO sounds positively welcoming by comparison.


The Roman villa on Tuesday showed how sophisticated life was 2,000 years ago. Items like pottery and jewellery were most intricate and artistically decorated. Walls were highly patterned and the floors mosaic, with underfloor heating in some rooms. No evidence, though, of Roman i-pods (i-Claudius-pods?) or digital TV (perhaps they had some other form of digital entertainment?). The villa is located about 15 miles from our campsite, on the southern shore of the lake, and within the picturesque town of Decenzano.

Monday 29th to Wed 1st Oct

Monday was a visit to the Czech Republic, the town of Kaplice just over the Austrian border. Gloomy town & gloomy people, by comparison with Austria: the communist legacy is apparent even now. Unexpectedly, as you crossed into the Czech Republic, there were 4 or 5 casinos and also a large building labelling itself “Sin City”! There were numerous tarts in miniskirts parading along the roadsides in the vicinity, hoping to be picked up by drivers - and succeeding!!!

Wednesday – move from St Gilgen to Lake Garda in Italy. It’s a stunning run through the Austrian Alps and the over the Brenner Pass into Italy. Austrian culture persists for about 40 miles on the Italian side, including the speaking of German as their main language. Lake Garda is beyond that area, and is the largest Italian lake (32 by 11 miles). It is surrounded by mountains except at the southern tip, which is where we are now located. We’ve just pitched the van with an excellent view over the lake, and the weather this evening is dry & mild – who could ask for more? (Cold beer just being taken out of fridge).

Wed 24th Sept to Sun 28th Sept

Wednesday we saw Liechtenstein Gorge, one of the deepest and longest in the Alps. It was made accessible in the 19th Century by the Prince of Liechtenstein who had tortuous walkways & tunnels constructed, hovering over a fast-flowing river. You walk up the gorge on these paths as far as a large waterfall. It’s spectacular and the pictures don’t really do it justice.

Sunday: sunny, warm & good visibility. The ideal day for a trip to the top of Schafberg on the mountain railway. Schafberg is the highest mountain bordering the lake at 1,783 metres (5,850 ft). From the top, an amazing 360º panorama of mountains & lakes spreads out as far as the eye can see. The railway has been running since 1893, still using some of the original steam engines (and staff!), and also services a hotel and café at the summit.

Still St Gilgen: Sat 20th to Tue 23rd

Saturday was Kaiservilla time. Franz-Joseph, the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a summer villa (=palace really) at a nearby town, Bad Ischal. He rose every morning at 3.30am, and was in his office at 4.15 to start conducting affairs of state. He had a house built down the road for his mistress for affairs of a different kind. The villa and contents are immaculately preserved and are still owned by the same Hapsburg family, of whom Franz-Joseph was a member. Their immense political power (but not wealth) came to an end with the First World War.

On Sunday we visited a local farmers festival, something like our harvest festival. Many traditional farming activities were on show , in particular beer drinking, and the picture shows the local choir performing. Disappointment: no yodelling. Note the choir’s traditional dress, but numerous people don these sorts of clothes as everyday wear. Knobbly knees at the ready!

Yesterday’s little trip was to the arboretum. With so many wonderful, stately trees in the forests here, we thought the arboretum would be the crème de la crème. But what a miserable set of specimens we found, tiny trees and bushes, some having died and disappeared leaving just the descriptive plaque. Jane said it ought to be renamed the twigoretum!

St Gilgen (near Salzburg): Tue 16th to Fri 19th

It’s only 3 hours to St Gilgen from Lake Starnberg. We’re in a sparsely occupied farm site with apple trees. e lake, Wolfgangsee, is 200 metres away and is surrounded by mountains. It’s very beautiful, and although the weather’s been mixed, we’ve sat outside in short sleeves on several days.


Visit to Salzburg on Friday: can be summarised as quality tourist tat. We’re deep in Sound of Music country here, so must expect Maria buses and the like, and lots of camera snappers. However, many impressive buildings and a wonderful setting for the town as a whole (hole?) retrieved the situation somewhat. In keeping with the international attraction of the town, we dined at McDonald’s.

Munich: Sept 10th to 15th

We’re now at Lake Starnberg, 20 miles south of Munich. The site is right by the lake, with the mountains of the Germany-Austria border somewhere in the misty background, through the slanting rain. It’s still very pleasant!

On arrival, we were shown to our pitch by a helpful German (BUT, he no English & we no German) who indicated the direction of water & chemical toilet points. The water was right next to the pitch- but where was the loo emptying station? After much searching, I found a sign bearing the legend “CHEMICAL KLOSET”.

However, to get to it, one had to walk through the middle of the restaurant’s outside dining area. Picture this: tucking into your bratwurst with a procession of campers squeezing past your table, each one clutching a full, sloshing caravan toilet! But all's well that ends well – they had relocated the bog emptying facility to another, but obscure, location. You people on main drains don’t know you’re born!

We visited Ruth in Munich both days at the weekend, most enjoyably. The weather was cold, only 7 degrees, but we saw the city centre and the Deutsches Museum. The photo is of one fascinating exhibit – a homemade aeroplane from the 80’s, intended to be flown from East to West Germany. It never flew since they were arrested the day before the planned fight, but it was later judged airworthy. We’ll stick with Ryanair!

France, Germany, Austria, Autumn 2008

Sept 5th to Sept 10th

The Blog awakens. Left home on Friday 5th in torrential rain & arrived at Obernai, near Strasbourg, in torrential rain. It’s perked up a lot since then & today was a sunny 26 degrees. Beautiful walks in Vosges mountains a few miles from site and many picturesque villages & towns, as per the photo.

This area of France is called Alsace, the home of Alsatian dogs, but very few are to be seen because they don’t actually come from Alsace. The locals speak a German type dialect because Alsace has yo-yoed between France & Germany, but the Germans themselves don’t understand it.

Strasbourg airport is not far, and, as the planes go overhead, we’ve waved to our travelling Euro-MP’s, the dutiful guardians of our euro billions, and I could have sworn I saw the Kinnocks waving back.

May 19th to May 28th

The maps are back in favour! We used them to plan a walk along a mountain footpath which gave us spectacular views over the dried river bed (rambla) below. The path was originally a single track dirt road but has fallen into disrepair from rain damage and undergrowth. There are several ruined dwellings dotted around the mountains which the road was evidently built to serve. It was totally quiet, apart from the birds, of which we saw crested lark, tawny owl, red-legged partridge, serrin, Sardinian warbler and a stonechat shrike, the latter being a first sighting for us.


Back on the site, Bob & Mavis, the tandem cyclists, are coming up with more amazing facts. Bob was explaining, as he knows about these things, about a chap who built a world-class racing bike out of a washing machine! I asked whether he was planning to similarly construct a tandem, for which he would, of course, need a twin-tub!

May 8th to May 18th

We visited the abandoned army artillery base again, 8 miles away. The batteries used to protect Cartagena harbour 10 miles distant, but in 1993 the base was abandoned intact. It’s sited on a beautiful headland and you can look at all the military buildings, guns, underground bunkers and shell storage areas etc. It’s got to be a health & safety free zone – but most interesting!


Although the walking locally is excellent, you need UK style Ordnance Survey maps to really explore. But the shops here don’t sell them. However, I did find a supplier on the net. A few days ago, the maps arrived, having taken 2+weeks (the service isn’t likely to challenge Amazon). They’re not bad, not quite up to OS standard, but my real gripe is that 3 out of the 7 maps are 90% sea! You can’t do without them because the campsite is actually on the join of 4 maps, 3 of which contain these vital strips of land.

April 27th to May 7th

Since the last entry we’ve been on a boat trip around Cartagena harbour. Cartagena is a large deep-water port that, as you can see, can berth the biggest ships. It is also the main base of the Spanish Mediterranean fleet so there were many warships around. Naval manoeuvres appeared to consist of a several vessels leaving the harbour mid-morning and returning by 6.00pm in time for pink gins. Any war would obviously be fought mañana.

The site here is very well run – but it comes at a price. That price is Crispello, one of the brothers that own the site. He’s the hatchet man and has been known to throw people off instantly (that’s actually not quite true, you get 10 minutes!) for misdemeanours such as feeding the feral cats, making any kind of noise during siesta time, or disagreeing with his son.

April 17th to April 26th

In Spain, a rambla is any dried up river bed. The nearest rambla is accessible a few hundred yards from the site and runs up into the hills for 6 or 7 miles, through a nature reserve. It’s actually used as a dirt road by the residents. There is an abundance of wildlife observable, anything from wild goats to eagles, and is a great place for a picnic.

The area is full of abandoned mines. The Spanish just walk away and leave things, so all the shafts and machinery are accessible. The spoil heaps are most colourful due to the different metals mined over the years. Great care is needed, however, as everything is in a state of decay, as well as the hazards of exploring unlit galleries leading into the hillsides!

More interesting characters: Bob and Mrs Bob. Their method of transport is a tandem on which they travel huge distances at high speed. I told Bob I wouldn’t have covered their trip of this morning as fast in the car. Bob really must be some athlete (he’s been in triathlon clubs) as Mrs Bob claims she doesn’t do much pedalling!

April 9th to April 16th

A quiet week with some pleasant walking. One favourite is along the coast from the campsite towards a fishing village. The picture was taken on the way. It’s not all idyllic (most of it is) as we had to run through dense smoke from bonfires of old tomato plants at one point.

We have some interesting people on site, Mr & Mrs Ken Dodd for example. Not the Ken Dodd, of course. Mrs K.D. often stops you, and in whispered and serious tones, tells you important news. The first time this happened, we thought she was going to say something like President Bush has been assassinated. What she actually said was: “Do you know, my towels have dried in less than an hour!”

Then there’s the German who always rides his bike up the hill to the loo block. On the way down, he pedals like fury and the bike zooms back along the rows of campers, scattering all before him. Any information on where to buy a bike stinger will be gratefully received.

NEW START : MARCH 2008

March 26th to April 8th

Left home Wednesday 26th March. Missed tunnel slot (i.e. the tunnel left without us) due to heavy traffic, but arrived at Chartres, as planned, some 400 miles.

Day 2, reached Pauillac, on the river Dordogne, where we stayed for three days. Saturday was glorious and we visited Rocamadour, one of the great medieval places of pilgrimage. All centres of pilgrimage had a holy relic, and the better the relic, the more pilgrims e.g. splinter of the true cross, miraculously preserved Saint etc. Rocamadour had a black wooden Madonna, fairly poor in the rankings I would have thought, and even that had disappeared to be replaced by a copy. But the town is spectacularly built into the cliff, as the photo shows.

Sunday 30th March arrived at campsite in Pyrenees, surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Slight downside was a Dutchman adjacent who spent ages setting up his mobile TV satellite dish with a high-pitched whistle direction finding device. He got his just deserts half an hour later when a storm blew up and bowled the sat dish down the campsite.

Tuesday, all fools day, arrived at our destination near Mazarron.

Odd, we said. Jane left a pair of shoes in the awning last night & there’s only one there this morning. As we were puzzling, a neighbouring camper asked if we’d heard the dog in the night. Dog? They don’t allow dogs on the site and even throw campers off for feeding the feral cats. Apparantly, this dog sneaks in from the village during the night and chews up any shoes it can find. Yes, Jane’s shoe was found nearby, duly chewed up.

Rest of the week taken up looking up old acquaintances, swimming and walking.