TT26 - thinnc.co.uk

Transcription

TT26 - thinnc.co.uk

Terry’s Travels
TT26-1
And so to Europe
Mercie was waiting for us at Pam’s near Torrevieja.
We got into Spanish mode immediately by going out
to have a pan of paella for dinner between the three
of us. Our second night was to a busy bar to enjoy
cheering Man U win, especially good fun amongst
Chelsea supporters. Dinner followed at 11:40pm—
only in Spain. We hit the motorway to visit my only
boss’ memorial in Calpe’s lovely cemetery. We then
continued into a windy France with blustery 40mph
winds along the coast near Sete. We had hoped to
meet our friends who live in France but when that didn’t work out we headed for Monte Carlo. Our motorhome owning friends Robin & Norrie had been to
the massive Harley Rally in St Tropez. We passed
Cannes where the film festival was taking place, it
was now raining heavily.
Using texts and a GPS we met up in a lay bye overlooking spectacular Monte Carlo with the musical
sounds of the F1 racing cars sounding fantastic. I
took Robin on my bike so we could ogle at the fast
cars and even faster women that are drawn to this
unlikely speed event. When you add a wet surface to
the normal narrow roads you cannot imagine a race
taking place.
It’s the place to be seen and the place to be seen
having obscene amounts of money. The cars were all
something else and when you add the designer
dresses, shoes belts, bags it’s not at all hard to see
people in tens of thousands of pounds of clothes. It
was great to see it all. The race was announced to be
a wet one and Robin and I scurried back to Robin’s
new Hymer where we could rough it by watching on
TV (free) and staying out of the rain. We had a ball
watching Lewis win on the narrow streets as we
munched our delicious sandwiches.
June 4th 2008
Ron & Clare’s Memorial, Calpe
40mph winds—Sete, France
Monte Carlo on F1 day
We went separately across into Italy as the fast cars
started to whizz past—Porches, Maseratis, Lambos,
Ferraris, Bentleys, Jaguars and Mercs and some I
couldn’t put a name to.
Do have a good look at the last photo, this is a
McClaren Mercedes (not common) and note the body
language of the two posers casually looking at it. In
this one small square alone there must have been
several million pounds worth of cars. Whilst on the
subject of money Europe is EXPENSIVE now...
Flash cars and flash?
next travel plans: Europe May 20th in Mercie,
Spain/France/Italy/Croatia/Slovenia/Austria
Mid July: back in UK. Brands Hatch & S of UK
Oct : NZ via Dubai/Malaysia/Thailand/Brisbane.
April ‘09 UK via Tonga/Mexico/Cuba
Many more photos with captions and previous travels on my website www.THinnc.co.uk
Terry’s Travels
TT26-2
The Italian Riviera
June 7th 2008
Ceriane was our chosen site at the start of the Italian
Riviera. Not a great setting but proved to be excellent
value for a couple of nights. A bike ride down the
coast confirmed that it just got better a little further S.
Around the campsite was a huge number of greenhouses packed with flowers but the coast looked a bit
scruffy just here - despite this there was a Ferrari garage next to the Lidl (cheap supermarket) and I even
saw a lap dance club sign. Perhaps that was the draw
for our fellow campers—look at first photo carefully.
5 likely lads in rented camper
Our next chosen ACSI (discounted) site was full so
we went to Camping Aranella on the Italian Riviera.
We met back up with Robin & Norrie and squeezed
into this site with a brook running through. It was a
beautiful location near the village of Deiva Marina,
itself a lovely coastal setting. The weather was perfect following the rain.
Portofino was almost 2 hours ride N, not a great distance but windy roads through long winding tunnels
which were quite cool early in the morning. Clear sea,
breathtaking views and time to chat as we waited for
the lights to allow us through the tunnels. Parking in
Portofino was a challenge even with my bike and
Robin’s scooter and we walked down into the village
of Portofino. What a most scenic setting with the various coloured buildings surrounding the small harbour.
A massive private yacht came in with pristine crew
rushing to have it even better than shipshape and
Bristol fashion. It had an on board swimming pool but
we didn’t get to see the grand daughters ride their
Barbie bikes.
I made a beer last 50 minutes at 1 Euro per 10 minutes! in the stylish pavement cafe before we got a
front table at the keyside restaurant. Yes we had chosen Michael Winner’s favourite place and maybe “his”
table. We had just three starters with water and the
taste was simply fantastic, Robin and I had chosen a
mild curry tasting Ravioli.
The ride back was even better in the scorching heat,
we stopped to look at a new model Ducati 696 motorcycle, very stylish Italian, before having a beach cafe
to ourselves to sip a Cappuchino coffee. The tunnels
were a welcome cool going back - what a super day
out. Di was ready to be taken to dinner at the surprisingly good camp restaurant, on the terrace.
Stylish Portofino
from “our” table—not Michael W’s
They’re lovely Grandpa!
Terry’s Travels
TT26-3 Muddy Mugello
We headed next for Pisa in heavy rain to meet Gary
at the airport. We were getting used to relying on our
new GPS Sat Nav, a new model TomTom 730T. Di
has christened her Sadie despite her BBC style voice.
She got us there perfectly and the rental car was a
new Alfa 147 Diesel - excellent. Europe feels expensive now with the pound only buying around 1.20 Euros, the diesel in Spain was around 1.30, in France
1.40 and Italy 1.50 and I’m told 1.60+ now in Holland.
The rain was still falling as we parked at the circuit,
we cooked in Mercie.
Rain fell very heavily for practice sessions for the motorcycle races. The racers were hero’s in these appalling conditions. Many of the spectators are there
for the laughs, letting off steam and fireworks, riding
their scooters and bikes and of course drinking. One
tent had a circle of inverted bottles pressed into the
muddy grass as a garden. In fact the weather came
very good and we had a wonderful Mugello, even dining at the Fattoria di Palagio restaurant where we saw
Loris Capirossi one of the Italian stars.
June 10th 2008
Carrara marble a la M. Angelo
Muddy Mugello Circuit
Gary returned to the UK, Robin & Norrie headed for
Rome and Di and I headed into the wonderful Tuscan
hills, it was wonderful with the bright yellow broom on
the hill tops. There were many bikers on these excellent small roads S65, S610 before we arrived near
Ravenna at Camping Romea, it was manic being a
bank holiday. I rode the bike into Ravenna and got a
bit lost (no Sadie!) but it is a very interesting bit of
coast with shipping and refineries.
After driving the excellent slow touring road S309 our
next campsite was the very appropriately named resort of Malcontenta, we chose the Camping Fusina to
get WiFi access, it was a joke. Being on the lagoon
looking towards Venice seemed fantastic until the
mossies started to bite. In fairness I was able to ride
along the causeway into Venice which was a busy
traffic jammed approach with multiple rail lines alongside, very different to approaching romantic Venice
from the sea.
The SP42/SP59/SS14 gave great touring through
lush flat farmland until heavy rain started we pulled
into Camping Mare in Sistiana. In good weather this
site would be good—but the promised internet was
kaput and they had fresh baked stale bread......
Typical new house
The big ships pass our site
Terry’s Travels
TT26-4 Slovenia to Croatia
The band of rain was still following us but cleared as
we took the scenic coast road to and from Trieste.
New roads took us to the Slovenian border and we
were soon climbing into the hills. The petrol station
was very busy but worth waiting to fill Mercie at about
1Euro per litre. Soon we were into Croatia and
headed for the coast. The rain was heavy again and
the mucky pools needed care on the small coastal
roads. We had read that Camping Umag took ACSI
cards and had WiFi. This is a massive site and we
had a choice of pitches, some were a bit muddy. We
chose a site alongside some Dutch caravans. The
evening cleared and we walked the coastline, quiet
and lovely in the sun.
Our Dutch neighbours were very welcoming and we
got to see the motorcycling on their TV. The Euro
2008 football competition started and with this, a
large pool, bars with TV, restaurants, an amphitheatre
with entertainment, clear sea and quiet roads to motorcycle on we have settled for a while having decided to spend more time in Croatia than Italy.
June 12th 2008
Italian cycling style!
Adriatic coast Camping Umag
England did NOT even qualify for this competition
and I have to bear watching a Croatian beer advert
(they knocked us out!) which shows Robinson our
(goalkeeper?) let in a VERY soft goal—it’s so embarrassing.........I must put it on U Tube.
Fruit and vegetables are excellent here and pork is
cheap. The small lovely town of Novigrad is 10 minutes S on the bike and the bigger and busier Porec is
about 30km South. All this is on the Istrian Peninsular
that we enjoy so much. The high season prices start
this weekend and many boat trips are available even
one back to Venice. A beer and a wine here are 2.30
as opposed to 5.50 in Italy!
Breakfast at Camping Umag
One of the interests on a Campsite is that your
neighbours keep changing. We now have a German
couple opposite—both men look to be in their eighties. So not Derby and Jones but Fritz and Hans.
I helped our neighbours Martien and Wil fold a heavy
outdoor mat. I understood that it was going to the bin,
I picked it up ready to dump it in the rubbish but Wil
stopped me—she was giving it to her friend a Dutchman called Bin! This caused great laughter in the
Dutch community! Third photo by Wil.....
Novigrad Marina
Terry’s Travels
TT26-5 Bad weather
It’s been awful weather with lots of rain and even a
cold snap. I talked to two English couples who had
rented motorhomes for a month “it’s a long way for
poor weather” - but they expect to buy and do more,
we hope to see them. We have been inside Mercie a
lot and the computer, hifi and library have had a lot of
use. I am reading Jeffrey Archer’s trilogy of his time in
jail (a good read). Mercie is a similar size to his early
cell but we are FREE to leave to visit the bars and
restaurants and it’s been brilliant to share Euro 2008
with the Germans, Dutch, Croatians a few Poles, Italians and French. We seem to be the only English that
can stand having our legs pulled. We wear orange for
Holland and wave a Croatian tea towel at the appropriate times.
We decided to stay at Camping Umag for all our time
in Croatia since it has been excellent with good staff
and service and places to motorcycle to. There are a
lot of children and we enjoy seeing them have fun at
the mini disco. This builds into a noisy and bedlam
giant Okay Cokay which works in all languages.
June 17th 2008
Porec on Istrian Peninsula
Mini ferry carries mini dustcart
I now have a copy of the ACSI DVD with 8,600 campsites and recommend this to anyone travelling
Europe, this also gives info on Turkey where we hope
to travel to next year. In fact my target is to visit as
many countries as my age. Croatia is a great place to
visit if you want a quieter less commercial type holiday.
A Polish couple moved opposite and have provided
the latest fun for us all. She was very noisily shouting
at her husband as he reversed (many times) the caravan. The building then started and 6 hours later had
an awning and an extension, Di commented on a Polish city and I sent word when the chandelier was being fixed. The following day was erecting the TV dish,
also hours of a task annoyingly with much noise too.
The Dutch don’t like the Germans and the Poles, the
French not anyone at yet the Euro is so strong......
A week ago I got toothache, I got an appointment for
the following morning, Sunday at 9am, by 9:10am I
had a diagnosis, X-ray of the infected tooth and prescription. This was 14 pills for £10, at least the drug
company made them look good value by making
them big enough to choke an elephant. They seem to
have worked so far—and the dentist didn’t charge.
Soil makes good red mud too!
Croatians celebrate soccer win
Current travel : Spain/France/Italy/Croatia/
Slovenia/Austria/Czech/Germany/Holland
Terry’s Travels
TT26-6 Summer South of Alps
June 27th 2008
We heard that summer was arriving—and it did, with
wall to wall sunshine and 26-28C it was paradise
again. We explored the nearby coastline and decided
that San Lorenzo was our most favourite small place.
It has a population of around 250 but has a small
church and harbour. The population probably grows
to around 1,000 in the peak period. It is joy to ride on
small quiet roads all around the area and the laid
back attitude makes it a great place to drop out and
relax.
San Lorenzo on Istrian Peninsula
We had lunch in an upmarket restaurant as a Father’s
Day treat on the San Lorenzo coast, it felt like our
own villa with expert chef and a maid. We had the
best seafood we have ever eaten. The tools for cracking the crustaceans were necessary and lunch became a very relaxing two hours gazing over the garden and sea.
Riding the hills inland gave the impression of great
pride in the land and flowers and fields of lavender
were quite a sight and smell. Each Thursday the
campsite has an exhibition and tasting of the locally
grown hams and wines and there were ladies expertly
making fancy lavender pouches. The children were
now becoming quite tanned from the use (10 hours
per day) of the extensive pool complex.
Amazingly we stayed for 18 days at Camping Umag
including a holiday to celebrate “ the Day of the AntiFascist Uprising” which packed the park with lots of
families having fun and we were very sorry to leave,
we had made friends and enjoyed the friendly feeling,
the cost was about £325 total some of it peak season.
We learned about a Camping Istria card for an even
lower price (apply in advance).
We took the scenic motorways A1/A2 to reach our
next chosen site of Terme Catez in Slovenia. This is a
big site with thermal pools and lots of aqua park playthings. We had learned of another general holiday
(Slovenia Day) so we booked in here for 3 days.
Once again this gave the chance of people watching.
We have seen very few Brits or even people from
countries other than Croatia and Slovenia. The motorcycling has been a great way to explore the small
roads and my little bike is doing about 90mpg
(20+km/litre) with over 3,000km ridden and only 10
months old it’s great motorhome transport.
A rare sight in Croatia
Field of lavender
Evening at Camping Umag
Terry’s Travels
TT26-7 Austria Euro 2008
June 28th 2008
Terme Catez was an excellent centre to explore the
delightful area in Central E Slovenia. There are pretty
churches in even the smallest country villages. You
get the feeling of space and fertility with crops growing everywhere. Slovenia uses the Euro where Croatia has its own Kuna, both countries significantly less
expensive than Spain, France and Italy. More and
more you find that English is the most used foreign
language amongst all the European countries as they
open up and people travel more.
Terme Catez with campsite
The old un-restored buildings are getting less and
less and many of the new houses are very stylish indeed with the good use of colour which greatly contrasts with the drabness of the old communist regime.
The photo shows the renovations in one particularly
pretty town of Benize. Di and I parked the bike and
wandered around before enjoying a coffee in one of
the many pavement cafes in this College town.
On a 200km motorcycle ride I visited Celje and a
magnificent castle before returning on minor roads via
wooded mountains. It gave the feeling of New Zealand with motorcycling at its very best. My companion
was Sadie (the GPS) and although I only needed to
check once it gave a secure feeling since the signposts are not very clear on the small roads and only
rarely do you get any distances. The East Europe
mapping proved very good.
Austria was our next country and we entered close to
Maribor. Extensive development of the road and Customs caused some delay for us but the queue of lorries would have kept them waiting for over an hour. It
was hot and we decided to look for an ACSI campsite
early. Leibnitz (S of Graz) was what we chose and
has been so excellent we have stayed three days. It
is a most beautiful town of similar size and feel to our
beloved Nelson in New Zealand. We have used a bar
that is part of the Admiral (betting) group to watch Eurosport and talked with friendly people.
Even better a giant screen in High Definition has
been showing all the Euro 2008 and we will be there
tomorrow for the final—Spain to win! There is a lot of
other happenings in this lively and cultured town and
the information centre has helped very enthusiastically—even sending us to a WiFi cafe, its fast and
free and with great coffee..........
Shows renovations everywhere
Slovenian countryside
Leibnitz Austria Euro 2008
Many more photos and earlier travels on my website www.THinnc.co.uk
Terry’s Travels
TT26-8
Leibnitz & Traisen
The final of Euro 2008 was amazing in the arena,
what was so surprising to us was at least 90% were
cheering for Spain and even booing Germany - this in
a German speaking country adjacent to Germany.
When we had walked back to the campsite many
were still sitting outside enjoying the balmy evening.
Leibnitz (like Nelson) www.leibnitz.at has many activities, the photo of the main street shows the finishing
line of a mini marathon and earlier there was many
other sports related activities with the street closed
and a live band. Motorcycling around all the Province
was a joy, it was subtly different to Slovenia with
more organisation and affluence. The countryside
again was extremely verdant and the crops looked
big and healthy with many smelly farmyards to ride
past.
The campsite was different feeling to others that we
have stayed at. It feels more a transit site, perhaps its
because it is close to the Slovenian border. It also
seems to attract a high proportion of towed caravans.
We helped one German couple who looked as if they
were in their 80s to hook up but a large proportion
have remote controlled battery powered wheels to
easily move the caravan (around 2,000 Euros). A
bread van calls around 7:30, a very popular service.
At weekends the pool and sports facilities that are
alongside are extremely busy and there are plenty of
tanned bodies around.
About 3 hours touring, motorway and big tunnel W of
Graz then superb route 20 and we arrived early at the
next place we fancied - we hadn’t booked and had
plenty of choice sites at Camping Terrassen. To drive
in Austria you buy a 10 day Vignette sticker for €7 up
to 3.5 tonne (we just fit) - cheaper than tolls!
The motorcycling using Traisen as a touring centre is
amazing. The area we chose is between Saltzburg
and Vienna (about 50km away). One pass was
around 4,000 feet and our excellent terraced campsite is at about 1500 feet with solar heated outdoor
pool. Overlooking the small town of Traisen we hear
the occasional steam train whistle and the oompah
band practicing. The church clock tower is very tuneful too. The best Austrian sound is from the tinkle of
cow bells as the immaculate cattle graze on the rich
high meadows. The temperature has been perfect
and you can almost drink the air.
July 3rd 2008
Leibnitz main street
Near Traisen Austria
Biker stop
Fabulous biking road 21
Terry’s Travels
TT26-9
St Polten
July 7th 2008
The photos show why we enjoyed the campsite so
much and from there we rode to St Polten which is
the regions main City. It was a great place to visit and
we caught it preparing for it’s biggest music event of
the year. The main square had pavement cafes and
the mix of people to watch was very diverse. A big
stage was being rigged and you can see the flowers
are a big part of the impressive Austrian life - it all
seemed far removed from the recent awful publicity of
the monster who imprisoned his daughter.
From “our” terrace
We decided to move on and use Mercie wild camping
in a temporary car park near St Polten’s city centre.
We had an afternoon visit hearing local brass bands,
ate lunch and then returned to Mercie for a siesta to
prepare for the big night out. We got back around
7pm and things were hotting up. Two major stages
with bands changing every hour or so plus many
other smaller venues. Punk in one, jazz in another,
children’s events in another and we came across another that was presenting dance. This was especially
thrilling to watch and we stood entranced for the
whole performance which was to such a high standard. A much bigger selection of photos will be added
soon to my website and this tells the story far better.
What was so good about the whole event is that the
full spectrum of ages were having fun and socialising.
There were wine stalls, several hog roasts and even
an ox roast. Crepes were being cooked and of course
the usual sausages, frankfurters and the odd carton
of pommes frites to go with the beer that was being
swilled. We made our way to the main stage to hear
one of the stars and then back to the smaller square
where a hefty artiste in her 60s really had the crowd
singing and laughing. It was jammed everywhere by
now and we were tiring so walked back to Mercie to
get our heads down. Just as we were dropping off a
HUGE explosion nearly blew us out of bed - it was
fireworks time midnight. The crowds eventually drifted
away and emptied the car park (a few cars were left
by the prudent drinkers) and we slept.......
When we wild camp we normally leave as soon as we
wake and we were on the road by 5:15am ready to
greet the rising sun. It was in my eyes for a while before we swung N and had terrific touring driving roads
S33, S35, S53 and S52 which brought us very scenically from Austria to Brno in the Czech Republic.
Camping Terrassen
St Polten market
One of concert stages
Terry’s Travels
TT26-10
Brno
July 9th 2008
Just over the Czech border was this amazing sight,
we bought our Vignette and Sadie (our GPS) took us
right to the campsite, small and simple sloping down
to the lake. We felt like plutocrats amongst the mainly
campers. Our neighbours were two young girls who
arrived to camp by mountain bike. We hadn’t seen
any Brits for some time but there were Polish, German, Latvian and one Australian couple.
I came across a local event and admired the local
costumes and music. Wine and nibbles were being
handed around. The photo shows the incredible detail
in the costumes of both men and women.
Di and I walked along the lakeside and came across
a big Beach Volleyball event. This had Brazil and
Canada competing with male teams from all Europe
and was all super professional in both competition
and presentation. The cheer leaders leaped into action after every point to the accompanying music. We
watched the exciting semi final but since the final
clashed with F1 we chose to watch Lewis Hamilton
win the very wet British GP. Beach volleyball in a
landlocked country was an amazing bonus to catch
and watching live was very entertaining. The men are
hunks which attracts the ladies to watch........
Just over Czech border
Male Czech traditional
We were at Brno (it’s not a touristy place) mainly
since we hope to return for the MotoGP. I rode the
bike towards the circuit, heard bikes and finished up
riding an offroad track around the perimeter. It is a
spectacular location with space, trees and altitude
changes with easy access from the motorway.
The contrast of the Czech Republic being left behind
as the rest of the countries we have visited progress
was very marked. Old buildings and unused newer
ones told the story. The currency (Koruny) is 30 to the
British pound - a year ago it was 42. No longer does it
feel especially cheap but people are friendly and
there is good food in the supermarkets. Good beer is
cheap and the ladies great lookers - even without the
beer!.
Sadie took us to our next campsite Camping Oase
near Prague via the uneven motorway, we hit heavy
rain and pulled off to another lake to make lunch. This
scenic lake had no access to a view and I risked a
minor road - which proved to end in a forest.
From campsite Radka
Beach volleyball
Terry’s Travels
TT26-11 Sachsenring Germany/UK
July 18th 2008
Heading to Prague airport suddenly we were seeing
big traffic jams. Jet2 came in on time and we were
soon on the motorway N via Chomutov and crossing
into Germany. Again the scenery was stunning with
excellent roads as we headed to Chemnitz and to the
circuit. The campsite seemed better organised and
we got a good flat pitch amongst the 35,000 or so
campers alongside the Sachsenring for the MotoGP.
After the weekends racing Gary returned to the airport and we headed along the A1/A2/ before arriving
at our chosen site Camping Naumberg in a quiet
rather twee German village of that name. The architect designed site was excellent and value at €18.
There are lots of ancient houses but the renovations
seemed a bit over the top with painted pointing.
Our last night in Mercie was just across the border in
Holland at Camping Roland at Afferden. Nice enough
but €30. Shopping in Tiel didn’t have much appeal
with the Euro being so strong but it was pleasant to
watch the busy river traffic before heading to Europoort and the night ferry to Hull (UK).
Riding a surf board
Cycling is very popular in CZ
Drizzle and 12C at 8am didn’t make us too welcome
back in England as we drove the busy M62 to our
base in the UK. Unpacking/cleaning and taking Mercie for some work and a service so she is ready for
her next adventure made for a busy day.
The 8 week trip had been great and very varied, the
highlights being meeting and making friends, the two
MotoGP events and Euro 2008 as well as the variety
of 9 countries. We especially enjoyed Croatia and
Austria. Sadie (the GPS) proved a marvellous travel
companion with the mapping of both Western and
Eastern Europe in detail and we will take her again.
The extra costs on the trip due to a very (and
strangely?) strong Euro were quite noticeable and of
course diesel is like liquid gold now but still cheaper
in Europe than the UK. Vignettes are an advantage
over paying toll charges where you can.
Whilst back in the UK I plan to meet contacts (made
using Friends Reunited) from my childhood that now
seems aeons ago.......
Terry
Kawasaki entertains at MGP
Ecologically aware campers!
Mid July: back in UK. Brands Hatch & S of UK ,
Nurburgring, Brno - then ???

TT26 - thinnc.co.uk

Transcription

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