Slovenia

Jul 16 – Jul 18

 

Lake Bohinj. An outdoor person’s paradise. It has everything. Great hiking trails ( I did a short 45min walk up to a waterfall while Matt ‘watched the car’!), mountain biking, paragliding and plenty of water sports. Campsites are crowded (it’s illegal to free camp in Slovenia) but they’ll fit you in. We arrived quite late having driven up through the mountains from Venice. A great drive, very steep in parts, but there were also lots of cyclists. I am still amazed at the cyclists. Both the ones that ride on these crazy mountain passes and the ones that cycle 170km a day with all their clothes, tent etc strapped to the bike. I’m proud when we do our 20km!

 

Our day on Lake Bohinj consisted of a ride along the lake into town and back, a swim in the lake, a hike and a stroll around the town of Bled before finding a campsite on the other side of the river. So cruisey! Unfortunately torrential rain spoiled our plans of a nice bike ride up the mountain the next morning. Instead we got chatting with some of the other campers. Campsites generally have such a great friendly atmosphere. Can pretty much start chatting with anyone about their car/camper or their travels. And everyone has an interesting story or good advice. Definitely one of the few pluses compared to travelling in hotels J. Though I spose it is a big plus. [Can you tell I’m getting just a little bit sick of the car J]

 

So our stay in Slovenia was short. Just 2 nights, but it’s a beautiful spot. If we weren’t on a longer trip we would have spent time on some of the many 4WD tracks or rafting/canyoning or if I could get over my fear of heights, the spot where they were paragliding looked amazing.. Couldn’t really risk damage to car or selves. Only ½ way though.

Italy

July 4 – July 16

 

Aaahhh Italy. My third visit to Italy, but I am just as sure as the first time, that it wont be my last. Can’t quite pinpoint exactly what it is about Italy, but I just love it. Everyone is so laid-back, beautiful towns and scenery and of course there’s the food and coffee.

 

We headed North-East from Southern France through the Piedmont region to Milan. The area is known for it’s gastronomic delights, including Barolo wine, truffles amongst others. But for some reason everything was shut. Couldn’t work out if it was a public holiday or if everything is normally shut on a Monday. Either way, wasn’t good for my mood! Until that is, we found a great little co-op that was open... heaven. Except that because of the heat, the fridge isn’t working the best so couldn’t risk buying too much food.

 

Not much too Milan unless you’ve got a deep wallet and a big wardrobe to fill with beautiful clothes. I had to do with browsing and window shopping. The Duomo and the surrounding streets are beautiful, but a few hours was more than enough for us to get around. We rode our bikes in from the campsite, about a 25km round trip. Nice and flat so a relatively easy ride but so so hot. Lovely sweat patch on the back from the bag once we got back.

 

Next Stop, Lake Como. Again, loved it. Didn’t spot any famous faces, but then I’ve been known on a few occasions to walk directly past and even bump shoulders with quite famous people and not notice. Our campsite was right on the shore of the Lake, about 10km from Bellagio. Awesome view. The Espana v Deutschland match was on while we were there. A crowd of about 60 crowded outside watching a little tv. Great atmosphere, especially with quite vocal fans from both sides.

 

Could spend a week just exploring all the villages around the lake. Although the area is known for it’s famous locals, it just doesn’t have the same pretentiousness as the Southern coast. Much more relaxed. I was also surprised at how quiet the lake was. Maybe we caught it on a slow day, but was expecting to see a lot more boats and other watercraft on the Lake.

 

Como is also known for its Silk industry. My Lonely Planet (2010 edition) suggested a local silk producer to go and visit. The guide even had an interview transcript with the owner discussing how the Como silk industry will never die out, as people are aware of the quality etc etc. Turned up at the factory / outlet... It’s closed down. Moved to Switzerland. Another Aussie couple had turned up when we did, though they’d walked up from the town, not driven like we did, so were not impressed at all that it was not open. Strangely, the cafe inside the non-existent gallery is still open for business.

 

Cinque Terre (5 towns). We stayed in a town, Moneglia, just North of the Cinque Terre National Park. Prime land demands high prices, accounting for the steep camping prices for very little space. Suppose when there are cliffs and steep hills down to the sea it’s a bit hard to sprawl out. We walked to 4 of the 5 towns, only missing out on the last one, Monterosso. Really wanted to do the whole 5, but it was just a little too hot and the legs were starting to feel like jelly. It is a great walk though. Magnificent views and beautiful towns along the way to catch your breath and fill the water bottles up. Thoroughly enjoyed the swim in the bay at our last stop, Vernazza, as well. If I didn’t have to get on a train to get back to the campsite I would have walked straight into water fully clothed. Which is pretty much what Matt did, and forgot to empty the pockets J

 

Drove through beautiful Tuscany via Chianti and Florence on our way to Bologna. Where we stayed 3 whole nights. The most time we’ve spent in one spot since England. Bologna is not as touristy as most other places we’ve been so far. Most likely why we liked it. Not too many historical sites either. It’s all about strolling through the markets, particularly the food markets, drinking coffee. Two of my favourite past-times! We also learnt how to make hand-made pasta at La Vecchia Scuola. No machines involved, just flour, eggs, a rolling pin and lots of effort with the arms! Enjoyed eating the pasta (Tagliatelle, ravioli, tortellini) afterwards as well, which they served with 2 bottles of wine, an orange liqueur, coffee and chocolate cake. Yum Yum. Looking forward trying it out again at home.

 

Bologna is also where we were to watch the final of the World Cup, Holland v Espana. Nice close game, was hoping Holland would win or that it would at least go to penalties.. oh well... There was such a huge Dutch crowd at the campsite too, am sure they would have gone crazy.

 

Final Italian stop was Venice (after a brief stop at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello), where we caught up with Garry. Didn’t do too much sight-seeing having been there before. Caught the ferry into town, wandered around, got lost, ate gelato. Actually I think that’s exactly what I did last time I was there!

 

#End

A little bit of France (and Monaco)

Jul 3 – Jul 5

 

Had a couple of days in Southern France. Got to St Tropez around dusk and funnily enough had difficulty in finding reasonably priced camping grounds. We ended up in what we think was a dam catchment area, about 50m off a small local road. A surprisingly busy road it turned out, mostly due to some guy in his Ferrari taking some friends for joy rides up and down the street. We had a boar come visit as well... actually made me feel safer, less likely to get other unexpected visitors... just so long as I didn’t need to get up and go to the loo in the middle of the night.

 

Drove into St Tropez the next morning, for coffee and croissants. Ended up just getting takeaway. Felt very underdressed and unmanicured even at 7:30 in the morning! There was a great little bay just outside of town where we had a morning swim... even had sand. I remember Southern France as having only rocky beaches, but turns out that’s only from Nice Eastwards.

 

Spent some time in Monte Carlo, got a few photos of the car outside the casino next to the Ferraris. Camped just inside the Italian border at a dodgy little campground, whose owner pretended to speak bad English. Dinner in a quaint little town, Mataro (between Monaco and the Italian border). Great, reasonably priced cafes and a night market that was still going at midnight when we drove back past.

 

Unfortunately didn’t win big at the casino...

Hola Esapana!

We ended up spending a bit longer than originally intended in Spain, for relaxation, the sights and in part made necessary as repairs were required on the car.

 

First stop was the Costa del Sol where some kind friends let us stay for the night, which turned into 3 as it took a few extra days than planned to get one of the front trailing arm bolt replaced. This was mainly because it was a public holiday in Benalmadena where we were staying (though oddly only in that small part of the Costa del Sol, not the towns neighbouring). The San Juan Festival. There was a night of drinks dancing and fireworks on the beach, along with some odd traditions, swim as it turned midnight... walking over hot coals... There was also a night where lots of women were wearing traditional dresses, and we saw a local flamenco show in the square.... Thanks to the Greenans for showing us around town and for having us stay!

 

 

From there we headed North, to Grenada where we had a great look around the Alhambra...

camped in an olive field (and visited by the farmer in the morning as a bit of a hurry along we think J)

 and on to Madrid via Toledo.

 

There were 2 highlights for me of Madrid... firstly the Museu de Jambon in the centre of town.... really good Tapas... from 1EUR. We just stood and ate in the deli downstairs but there was a constant queue for the seating area upstairs... very, very popular and little wonder....

2^nd highlight was seeing a bullfight. Didn’t really intend to go. We got off at the Metro stop just to have a look around the ring itself, to compare to the one we’d seen in Sevilla, but as we exited we noticed there were ticket queues... as Matt was checking prices, someone was a bit too slow noticing an available ticket booth and Matt jumped in and bought the cheapest tickets available (in the sun, at the back). I’m glad to have been... if only to confirm that I didn’t like it. I like the theatrics of it, the skill of the Matadors... but I could not watch the swords and daggers strike the bull... or the bull charging the horses (that are now armoured).. we left after about 40 mins... though we definitely weren’t the first.

We stopped in Zaragoza (nice quaint town) and Montserrant (odd rocky mountain range) on our way across to Barcelona.

I loved Barcelona, but Matt preferred Madrid. I loved the Gaudi architecture, all the little shopping streets and that city beaches were within a couple of kilometres of the centre. Loved sitting in a little bar in a quiet part of town and watching the Spain v Portugal match with the locals. Didn’t so much enjoy realising we didn’t have much time to get the last bus back to the campsite and having to really power walk/run across town! Given that Spain had just played, the city was strangely quiet. Perhaps because we were in the touristy part of town, or they watch the matches at home.

After breaking down on the highway leaving Barcelona and spending a night in a hotel in Mataro we started heading to France and Italy. Stopped in Girona and Figueres on the way and bush camped next to a dam near the border. A really nice spot, including the 4W-Driving required to get down there!... and finding the tarred road the next morning. Got interrupted by some police who were looking to get rid of some people spear fishing, but other than that, probably the best free camp so far.