After our camper van trip to John Ogroats and back, we flew to Thailand for a month long tour of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. On the second week, we met and travelled with Jet and her family.
Category: Countries
-
Slovakia, Austria, Czechia and Germany
After leaving Hungary, we travelled through Slovakia, Austria, Czechia to Bavaria in Germany. We only stopped in Bavaria.
Bavaria was stunning, I would not have been at all surprised if Hansel and Gretal had come skipping down the street holding hands. We had a meal at a local restaurant. What could be better than eating sausage and sauerkraut in Bavaria? Well, maybe it could have done with a little less of those tummy bugs. I was sick for 24 hours, luckily Patty ate something different.
We had a short drive the next day for obvious reasons. We stayed at the Grimm’s family farmstead. A working farm with a restaurant and selling their own wine. I had bread and water, Patty had a flan, which turned out to be a thin crust pizza.
-
Budapest with Ed Sheeran
We left Slovenia for Budapest, it’s a beautiful city, we found campervan parking within walking distance of the arena, we had tickets for Ed Sheeran.
John went to the house of terror. It’s a museum dedicated to telling the story of Budapest under the Arrow cross (Nazi afiliated) when Jews were rounded up and sent to a gheto and then on to extermination camps and later when they were ‘liberated’ and came under soviet control. This was a time of fear, suspicion, reporting your neighbour, people disappearing, anything but free. I have often wondered how much of the news we heard in the West of soviet oppression was western propaganda, and how much was true. I have no doubts now it was as bad as we were told, if not worse.
On a lighter note… Ed Sheeran was great.
-
Slovenia and Croatia
We have decided that Slovenia is by far the nicest Country we have visited so far. It’s beautiful, clean and well cared for. Most residents seem to take great care over their gardens and window boxes.
We visited some limestone caves and a castle built in a cave entrance. The caves were massive, they use a train to take you deep into the mountain, then there is a 90-minute guided walk through a labyrinth of caves.
The castle was 9km away and equally spectacular.
Next was Croatia. The plan was to cross the border, stay in Zagreb for a day or two, and then on to Hungary and Budapest. After the beauty of Slovenia, we were unimpressed by the dirty, industrial, graffiti ridden Zagreb. We stopped long enough to get something to eat, wander around a market, and drive back to Slovenia.
The bright note about our day in Croatia was seeing a billboard advertising an Ed Sheeran concert. Patty found out he was also playing in Budapest Saturday, and she managed to get some bargain tickets online.
We have spent the last two days at a winery, and we plan to cross to Hungary tomorrow.
-
Dolomites to Slovenia
We spent about 4 nights in the Dolomite mountains walking, relaxing in the river and skinny dipping in a water hole.
We are currently at an animal sanctuary near Ljubljana. We plan to cross Slovenia from West to East and go into Hungary toward Budapest.
Slovenia has been really nice. It’s clean (it scores well on the Patty clean scale), it has well maintained roads, and it appears to be doing well economically. The scenery is stunning, and with only 2 million people, 60% forest coverage and lots of mountains, it’s stunning.
-
Verona and Venice
Continuing our travels North, we visited the beautiful but very different Cities of Verona and Venice.
Statue of Juliet in Verona Verona is where the play Romeo and Juliet is based, you may of heard of it, it was written by a guy called William Shakespeare. We visited Juliet’s House (probably not original) with the famous balcony (definitely not original) and a non original replica statue of her outside, apparently the original was removed because of wear from too many boob grabs. The shop however was selling original souvenirs made in China.
Juliet’s Balcony In the evening we went to my first opera. It was in the old (original) Roman arena, so in the open. About half way, the rain started, they paused the show so the musicians could save their instruments. 10 minutes later the rain had stopped, they were back and the show restarted… for about 10 minutes. A few spots if rain…. the show stopped again… then they came back and restarted…. rain and stop again… we gave up and caught the last bus back to the van.
Next was Venice… now we had low expectations of this, we thought it would be very touristy, smelly and dirty. It wasn’t, it was touristy for sure but the way the city runs with boats and hand carts instead of cars and vans was fascinating. Even DPD and DHL have their our boats. It was also very clean, something Patty especially liked.
We are now on the Southern edge of the Alps at a beautiful area alongside a river. We will stay a few days before moving on to Slovenia and possibly Croatia.
-
Tivoli – Villa D’Este
Today we visited Villa D’Este in Tivoli which is a large Renaissance villa from the 16th century famous for its gardens full of fountains and water features. It inspired the Tivoli gardens in Copenhagen .
Tomorrow Patty’s son arrives with his partner and we will spend a few days in Rome with them.
-
What happened in Wales?
Last October we stopped sailing in Lady Cindy with the intention of moving to West Wales to complete a three year work contract. Six months later, and we are travelling in a camper van around Europe, and eventually further afield. So what changed?
Mainly, the job was not as described. I was expecting to be given responsibility, trusted to manage my time, given responsibility for a small budget to get projects started etc. This was not the case and eventually, after being denied an opportunity to discuss issues with the trustees, I resigned.
While in Wales, Patty and I bought a Renault Master based camper van. Soon after buying it, it developed an engine problem, that is a long story but the bottom line is that we have had a new engine installed as well as new injectors, turbo, clutch etc. We have also done various improvements including a new bed, new water tank etc.
Our plan is to tour Europe this year, starting where we left off in Lady Cindy, Fiumicino, Rome. At the end of the year, we intend shipping the van to South America where we intend to tour next year. There is more planned that we will reveal nearer the time.
-
Day 82: Home
My first sight of the UK was the Isle of Wight in the distance. I am from Southampton so I know the area well. It was a real homecoming feel to sailing around the island and into Portsmouth Harbour.
-
Day 81: Ferry Home
I am on the ferry from Santander in Spain to Portsmouth in the UK. The boat seems to be full of bikers who have been riding the Pyranees. You can tell they are bikers because they are all over the aged of 50, have beards and black t-shirts. Strangely many have Yorkshire accents.