Wander Lost

Tag: visiting

  • 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.

  • Agropoli to Gaeta

    Dotty and I have been slowly heading North back up to Fiumicino to dock the boat from the 15th. Most of my free time, and there has been a lot, has been spent working on an Android app. More on that later..

    I was woken this morning with a call of ‘hello there’ bleary eyed, i popped my head out the open hatch above my bed to find a swimmer next to the boat. He asked to rest against the boat, he had swum well over 300m from a hotel complex ashore. I invited him aboard while i made coffee. His dry bag, which was full of water, contained his now wet cigarettes and a bottle of wine 🤣, did i mention he’s from Dublin? 🤣 he is on holiday with his girlfriend and went for a morning swim. We had a good chat and i took him back by dinghy.

    In case you are wondering how Patty is getting on in Argentina..

    She never dressed like that on the boat 🤣

    I have now booked my journey back to the UK. It involves a £500, 33 hour journey using a taxi, 7 trains, a sleepover at Geneva station, crossing Paris by metro, a pet transport minibus through the channel tunnel and two more trains to Southampton. Well the alternative, was a 6 hour journey with two flights from Rome to Southampton via Amsterdam. That cost half as much, but dotty would have to travel as cargo 🤔 imagine her howling in the hold 😳.

    At Southampton i will visit family and stay in a pet friendly hotel. I also pick up a car my uncle is kindly donating before driving back to wales. Friends have kindly arranged temporary accomodation while i look for something more permanent.

    I have been developing an app called ShipsLog, the clue is in the name as to what it does. I am at the stage where i am using it myself snd ironing out bugs/making improvements. Watch this space for more information

  • The wild west of Italy

    We have reached Salerno where Patty needs to leave for a few days to go back to Barletta. I will probably stay here and work on a phone app I am developing but may move South toward Scicily. The weather forecast is all over the place with some models predicting more storms. One unforecasted storm blew through last night forcing us to leave the anchorage to seek shelter in Salerno harbour.

    Salerno

    This coast would be beautiful and well worth visiting if it were not for the Italian boaters. I would strongly advise any cruisers to avoid this coast in July and August. The marinas are stupidly expensive, €100-€160 per night, some places even charging €50 or more to just stop and fill with water. Luckily we have a secret weapon for that and have got free water (we did tip the marineros). We have an Italian speaking woman to soften up the invariably male marineros 😉. The other major problem is the sheer number of power boats going past between 10am and 8pm causing wash. It is very uncomfortable rolling on an anchor and as the waves come from all directions, a stern kedge anchor doesnt help. The Italians have no sence of courtesy on the water, they speed through anchorages, anchor too close to other boat and pass far too close.

    On the plus side, the scenery is stunning, water is beautiful South of Naples, at night the anchorages are like mill ponds and we sleep with the hatch open and star gazing.

  • Terme di Baia, Pompei & Vesuvio

    Terme di Baia
    Fig tree growing upside down
    Pompeii
    Vesuvius crater

    While the ankle is not 100% back to normal and I’m wearing a brace, we have been able to start exploring.

    While we were anchored off of Baia we were able to visit the site of the baths. They’re well preserved, but there wasn’t too much information, and what there was lacked organization. We also loved that there weren’t too many people visiting. We were able to stroll around at leisure.

    We then moved Lady Cindy and are currently anchored near Torre Annunziata. First order of business was to visit Pompeii. It was great. Google Maps failed us on finding our way there with public transport, so we took a taxi (I wasn’t sure how my ankle would hold up, so we were being cautious), but after a full day of exploration we did find our way back with the train. We rested for a day (John had a productive day on his app project) and went to Vesuvius yesterday.

    We made our way to Vesuvius without hitches but the challenge came in trying to get the tickets online. Let’s just say that a British ex computer consultant and an American have difficulty dealing with the inefficiency of the websites (among other things 😁). Kudos to a member of the security team present there that helped us through all the steps of acquiring the tickets (and there were many…, including getting a text code in an area with extremely poor mobile signal)

    We’d planned an early visit to avoid the heat, ended up starting out at 10:30 but there is a micro climate in that area that’s much cooler than at sea level. We were a bit worried that the fog would not dissipate (I could not see the crater when I visited in March), but as you can see from the pictures it was totally clear when we got there.

    We may try to get to Herculaneum tomorrow, before we start heading toward the Amalfi coast.

  • Driving in Italy

    Last week we hired a car, drove from Fiumicino, through Rome, across Italy to Barletta around Barletta and Trani and eventually back to Fiumicino.

    As an ex driving instructor, I feel I am qualified to have an opinion, not just on Italian drivers but also the road system. For those who want a summary… it’s madness 😳… here’s why.

    First of all let’s point fingers at the beaurocrats. Apart from the motorways, most roads are in dire need of maintenance being full of pot holes, raised by tree roots and no or worn out road markings and signs. The last one explains a lot of the Italian driver’s behaviour.

    It’s difficult to keep to a speed limit if you don’t know what it is, giving way at a junction is optional when there are no stop or give way lines and pedestrian crossings? Good luck with that one. On that topic, Patty and I were harassed by a driver scowling at us and reving his engine. He was stopped on the crossing held up by traffic ahead. We started to cross in front of him and the traffic ahead of him started to move, he was angry we were holding him up more. Bear in mind Patty was limping with an ankle injury 😳.

    On one section of road there was a speed limit that kept changing between 50kph and 80kph. This was a very straight, wide road in a rural area. The safe speed could easily be 100kph along the whole stretch. There were half a dozen speed cameras on that road.

  • Mahon and Mayonaise

    I have sailed from Mallorca to Menorca and currently anchored in what to me is heaven. I am just outside the port of Mahon at a sheltered bay surrounded by post Napoleonic fortifications (1848). The bay is protected on all sides from the wind.

    Anchorage below the fortress of Isabel II on La Mola in Mahon harbour

    I arrived yesterday and went out on the dinghy this morning to explore and take Dotty for a walk. I was thinking I could come back to the fort later without Dotty to explore. No need, dogs are allowed in 🤗. It was fascinating and another example of humans spending huge amounts if money, time and effort in building weapons and defences that barely saw a shot fired in anger. It was built to house massive front loading cannons, just before breach loaded guns were invented with greater accuracy and range, making the whole place obsolete. It did continue as a defensive position but never as it was designed for.

    Mayonnaise I hear you ask? Or did you not read the title of this post? Well a French guy named a sauce after Mahon when he returned to Paris. The same sauce we now call Mayonnaise. I love these little social facts you pick up in strange places.

    Mayonnaise History

    I am in no rush to leave here, I want to go and explore the town while I’m here. I may use the dinghy for that, or I may go to the marina next week. The winds are in the wrong direction to sail to Sardinia until at least the middle of next week.

  • A week in the USA

    I had an opportunity to fly to the USA and spend a week with Imke who fits saddles in the New England area. As this coincided with ex crewmate Nellie being in Barcelona and available to doggy sit Dotty, it was too good an opportunity to miss. So here I am in Dover, New Hampshire, USA have just finished a 4 day road trip around New England.

    It has been a really interesting and fun few days and I have learned a lot about horses, saddles, and the importance of having a correctly fitted saddle. Even I could see the difference in the way a horse rode from before and after Imke made small and subtle adjustments.

    It’s not all been work though, we have had a lot of fun too. We stayed in a motel one night by the sea and moved the mattress onto the balcony to sleep under the stars. The next night we stayed at a friend’s house and went out to see a live band playing at a distillery. Tonight we plan to go out for a meal with Imke’s daughter and her boyfriend.

    I have seen some beautiful locations and pretty houses and towns. It’s a lovely part of the world and I am so glad I got the chance to experience it.

    All good things must come to an end though, tomorrow I fly back to Barcelona, pick up Dotty from Nelly then get the night ferry back to Mallorca. That should be the end of my little adventure… 🤔 except its not 🙂 Imke will be flying out to Italy in June when we will spend time together sailing.