Winter is Coming...

Having avoided winter for the last two years, we are now facing the ugly prospect of a British winter in London, as we head back to reality (and work). Sort of.

We certainly had our comeuppance the night we posted the last blog, bragging/complaining/smugly commenting on the heat. That night we experienced not the Mother, but the Extended Family of all thunderstorms. We were woken at about 3.45 with monster flashes of lightning and thunder exploding literally overhead (you know how you count after the lightning to see how far away the storm is when the thunder rumbles – well there was no time between the lightning and thunder and we didn’t need to open our eyes for the flashes). This went on for about three hours, accompanied by someone emptying about a million gigantic buckets of water onto the camper. No leaks though!

Amazingly, the campsite wasn’t washed away and we managed to pack up and push off in good time. As did almost the whole of Italy, it seemed. The road north was very busy and we took a long time reaching Lake Garda for an overnight, before heading into Austria. It was very hot again, by the way.

Our experience in Austria was, well, mixed. Having driven a long way over the Brenner Pass (much easier than we’d expected) in very hot weather (did we already mention that?), we reached our chosen site and turned up at the reception kiosk all smiles, asking if he had space for us for one night. The miserable old git couldn’t have been happier when he told us they were full, and went on to say we shouldn’t be in a campervan, but should be camping in tents. Gave us a right lecture. We told him he was in the wrong job. Bastard. Anyway, we found another glorious campsite overlooked by the Alps, just 15 kilometres further on our way. With really friendly people. Serve him right. Bastard.

We left Austria the next day and started our trek through Germany to Berlin, stopping at a lovely lakeside site and watching people practicing their water skiing skills, or lack of. Then Dresden (or just outside, via a short hop into Czech Republic – because we could)), followed by a long haul to Berlin, where we found another great site right by a canal, an easy ride by bus and train into the city. Again very hot.

Berlin is a big city. We decided to catch a hop-on, hop-off bus and hopped off at Checkpoint Charlie to follow the route of the old Berlin Wall. It was very hot and the wall was quite long, enabling us to see quite a lot of Berlin that the guidebooks don’t show you. It was a sobering experience, but well worth doing. As we caught the wrong train, we didn’t get back to our campsite till nearly 9 pm. Oh well.

The next day saw us cart across Germany to a strange little site just outside Hamburg. Rather foolishly, we listened to the seductive tones of our Google Maps lady offering us the opportunity to save minutes by taking a different route to the one we had chosen and ended up doing just what we didn’t want to - driving right through the centre of Hamburg, Reeperbahn and all! A bit stressful, it has to be said.

From Hamburg it was a trek across the border to Denmark and a place called Ronaes Strand – another lovely (but expensive) campsite on the island of Fyn. We had wanted to stop at a marina camping area in Middelfart, for obvious reasons, but it was full. Anyway, if we had, Gillie would probably never have had the shower ‘experience’ that she did. I’ll leave that hanging in case she wants to expand. If not, it’s something to save for countless dinner parties, no doubt.

The next day, we stopped at Korsør marina after the first of two really expensive bridges through Denmark and experienced one of the best sunsets we have seen in nearly two years of travelling – those of you who inhabit Faceworld will have seen a picture. I’ll include it again here for those who don’t.

After The second-really-expensive Bridge (‘Back to the Beginning’ etc), we drove into Sweden to visit our friends Hans and Eva from Claygate (actually they’re from Sweden and were staying in their summer house at Mellbystrand), where we spent two gorgeous days with great food and a never-to-be-forgotten canoeing trip on the lakes near Ybys. Thanks again for your wonderful hospitality. Looking forward to seeing you both again for our picnic in Bushy Park and the Jam Session from Hell!!!!!

Sadly the time came to say cheerio, and we set off for a long few days driving through northern Germany and on to The Netherlands for the ferry back from Hook of Holland. That’s actually tomorrow, as we’re sitting at another lovely marina in Ijsselstein for our last night. It’s a bit breezy, but pleasant enough to sit out and enjoy a couple of sherbets as we no doubt reminisce over some of the stuff we’ve done and seen.

Sitting on the ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich, finishing off. We hope you’ve enjoyed our journey and happy that you were able to share some of it – however vicariously – with us.

A few observations:

·      Italians are marginally worse drivers than Americans. Peruvians have a permanent death wish;

·      Most countries don’t understand the concept of the indicator, or indeed simple road ‘manners’;

·      We’ve read about 140 books between us – most good, some shite;

·      You can’t buy matches from a supermarket in Italy – even if they sell cigarettes;

·      Brexit: everyone who fucked up has fucked off;

·      Donald Trump is still a *&^%;

·      We caught up with old friends in seven different countries and made new ones in 22;

·      Added 52 Facefriends

·      Had over 9,000 likes for various posts and pix on FB (made that up – it’s been a lot, though!);

·      We took over 10,000 photos and have kept (so far) only 7,000+, so dinner parties will be a bundle of laughs in the future;

·      This is the 43^rd blog post, with over 2,000 page views and 1,000,000 readers (that last bit was a lie);

·      249,146 words written (that was a lie too);

·      From Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, we have visited 23 countries – including our brief return to the UK – seen seven Wonders (Natural and Ancient) of the World;

·      We’ve walked or bussed around more than 30 cities, Memphis and Lisbon stand out;

·      We’ve seen and done a lot, but we still have things to do, places to see;

·      Learnt more than 40 tunes on the ukulele (sort of), so beware if you see me holding something pink and shiny (no, not that!!!);

·      Driven 38,935 miles, or 62,660 km, or more than 1½ times around the circumference of the Earth, most of them in flip flops and shorts;

·      We still enjoy each other’s company even though we’ve been joined at the hip for nearly two years.

That’s pretty much it. It’s been a blast. Looking forward to seeing some/many of you soon. Please look us up if you’re in London. Lots of love x

PS.  The final PS!!  This is it; we set sail five minutes ago and are now leaving Europe.  Does this sound familiar?  I suppose we are ‘Brexitting,’ where did that terrible word come from? We are dressed in jeans, socks and jumpers, our waterproofs are near at hand as it was cold and wet in Holland when we woke up this morning.  A sign of things to come perhaps.  But no!  It is still July and Summer has only just started, even though it feels very Septemberish to us. 

We’ve been very lucky with the weather in northern Europe; Germany, Denmark and Sweden have been amazingly warm and sunny.  Perhaps we are carrying the sun on our backs and from tomorrow it will be ‘cracking the flags’ in the UK?  As we are heading to Edinburgh on Thursday and sitting in a field for three days near Banbury the week after, we certainly hope so. 

We’ve had a wonderful time for the last three months and seen parts of Europe that we certainly want to return to. Overall we’ve been away for 22 months, a trip of a lifetime and no regrets whatever.  However it’s now time to return to ‘real’ life, whatever that means.  We hope it means, sleeping in a bed without climbing up a ladder first, having our own personal shower facilities and not having to keep an eye on how much water is in the tank then having to refill it regularly using a hose! 

What we will miss is waking up in the morning and (having climbed down the ladder) sitting outside for breakfast, watching cormorants diving and splashing in the water a few feet from us.  Soooo many memories… turn the ferry round!! We’re quite excited really, about coming back and seeing all our friends and family again.  Emily will be joining us in a couple of weeks, so lots to look forward to and enjoy.

So it’s goodbye from me and it’s goodbye from him, thanks for being with us…xxxxxx

Rather amazing sunset at Korsor, Denmark

Inside the Monument to Murdered Jews in Berlin

Checkpoint Charlie - needs no caption

Part of The Wall

Another part of The Wall - now the longest outdoor art gallery in the world: 1.3 km

Friday night at Lake Garda - with added swimming costumes

Austria - a nice bit!

Czech Republic - because we could!

Tourist shot at Brandenburger Gate

Another lovely camp site

Crossing 'The Bridge'

Hans burning the sausages (not really)

Us eating the sausages (really)

Just to prove we did it! Sort of going round in circles!

At their lovely summer house in Mellbystrand

Inside their lovely summer house - with daughter Emma

Sticking the 23rd - and last - flag on the uke!

Ironic rain in Holland on our last day - yes they are deckchairs

Reflective breakfast by the waterskiing lake

Ciao Bella

Phew! Not wishing to rub it in to our friends and families suffering under an English summer (or Aussie winter), but it’s really fuckin’ hot here. Here, at the moment, is the Adriatic coast of Italy, where the temperature rarely drops below 30C, there’s no breeze, so even the simplest activity, such as eating and sleeping, become a trial. We’re not complaining, we’re just hot (and kinda looking forward to moving towards more temperate climes. Although, as our friends mentioned the other day, be careful what you wish for…).

The computer is also complaining, so will be writing this in short bursts.

We left you in Hyères, France, where it was just starting to warm up properly and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and moonrise on the Longest day, followed two days later by our Darkest Hour. All the Europeans we’ve spoken to since the referendum result are bemused by Britain’s (Little England’s) behaviour. Enough of politics already. (For the moment).

After Hyères, we drove a short way along the coast to St Tropez. Well, you have to really. Felt like we were in a Peter Sarstedt song. St Trop is, as you would expect, full of people with big yachts and fancy cars. €18 for two beers! Fuck that.

We hightailed out of there and drove on to Ventimiglia, just over the Italian border, with the intention of visiting Monaco from there the next day. But there was a rail strike on, so we wandered round a very hot market and went back to the campsite for an extremely unsatisfactory laundry experience. Nuff said.

Our next stop was a bit of a mistake, but definitely an unexpected treat. We were looking for a cheap site for the night near enough to Portofino so that we could visit. Well, with the help of our trusty book, app and phone sat navs (we use two sometimes as one gets a bit confused in the heat), we found a very nice basic, well, car park on the top of a mountain, sort of. It was miles from Portofino, but it was very near San Rocco, which is a delightful spot in the Portofino National Park, or something.

One of the reviews we read about this car park, apart from being quite cheap, was that there was a lovely walk down to the sea. But it was 900 steps back up! We did it and had to revive ourselves with several cold beers when we reached the conveniently-situated bar back at the top, which was invaded by very trendily-dressed wedding guests soon after we got there, so we went and looked at the bride standing in the square outside the church, while the groom was at the bar (this was after the ceremony, so it was ok). We then went to another bar and had more beer.

We had our tourist heads on proper after this and drove on to Viareggio. Well, Torre del Lago Puccini, actually. So named as it is the birthplace of the chap who wrote ‘Madama Butterfly’. It’s fair to say that we had a mixed experience during our time there. It was a very easy cycle ride to the beach, where we had to use the (dirty) public beach as we had our own chairs!

Also, as it was a short ride to the station and both Pisa and Florence were easily accessible, we decided to make this our base while we explored these two historic cities. Pisa was first. Short ride to the station. Lock the bikes up. Short train ride and hours wandering round visiting the sights and sites and of course, The Tower. It seems to lean more in photos that in real life (actually, it only leans 3.39 degrees, but it does look quite wonderful).

Sometime during our sojourn in TdL, we had to suffer the embarrassment of England’s defeat to Iceland – the lowest-ranked team in the Euro Championship. Serves us right, really. At least our rugby and cricket teams are showing the way.

Next day, beach – public again. We don’t mind mixing with the hoi polloi. Then Florence. Once again, short ride, padlock bikes in full view of houses and businesses, middle of the day (you know what’s coming). A very hot, but rewarding day visiting one of Italy’s loveliest cities. Back to Torre del Lago. No bikes. Some bastard’s nicked them. In broad daylight. More swear words (fill in your own expletives here).

On our last day here, we were lucky to catch up with one of Emily’s oldest friends, Katie, and her soon-to-be-husband Davide (hope I’ve got this right!) as they now live just 15 kilometres north of where we were staying, so we had a lovely lunch with them, before carrying on to Orbetello, where we witnessed Italy’s defeat to Germany in the football, so we pretty much lost what little interest we had in that silly sport and started thinking about Wimbledon…

More beach at Orbetello then the big one – Rome. It was, as expected, beautiful and, as previously noted, very, VERY hot.

We saw lots of stuff – all the famous sights – and walked and bused and tramed/trammed (?) all over. Weary and footsore, we made our way back to a very handily-placed campsite just near the city (€15/night – can’t complain) and prepared for the trip to Pompeii, which wasn’t at all bad as it happens. Hot though.

As we drove into Pompeii that evening (Thursday 7^th July. Keep up), we saw a poster advertising none other than Dave Gilmour playing IN THE RUINS THAT NIGHT. AND THE NEXT!!!!!! We parked up and thought we’d just, you know, check tickets. We could get some, but the best price was €328 each. Ah well, at least we can say we were in the same town when the first performance to an audience in the ruins for 2,000 years was going on there. (for the geeks among you, 1971’s ‘Pink Floyd Live in Pompeii’ was recorded without an audience.)

We visited the ruins the next day and could see no sign that one of the world’s biggest rock stars was playing that night. We saw lots of ruins though and ossified remains. Pompeii is actually quite awesome. Could give you loads of boring stuff now, but you can look it up for yourself. Just getting back into teacher mode.

The drive across to the east coast wasn’t as traumatic as we feared. Just hot. And we arrived in Rimini after a couple of overnighters in simple sites. Today we went to San Marino, which has a beautiful fort high up on the mountain. World Heritage and all that. The oldest and smallest republic in the world and well worth a visit. And it rained, with thunder and lightning. Not much, but eased the pressure. Back at sea level and it’s getting muggy again.

In the next couple of days, we head north and leave the sea behind for at least 10 days while we drive through Germany and on to Sweden to visit our friends Hans and Eva. There will probably be only one more blog post unless we change our minds and head east towards Russia and on to Vietnam and South East Asia. Who knows?

As we write this, Theresa May has just become our new prime minister. The last time we had a female prime minister it didn’t end well…here’s hoping she doesn’t follow in the footsteps of the Mad Bitch Cow. Arrivederci.

PS.  Oh dear!  The end is nigh…  How can two years have gone so quickly?  It doesn’t seem two minutes ago that we were sitting in our kitchen in Fleet, discussing just how are we were going to go

around the world in a campervan and we’ve DONE IT!!  Obviously there are zillions of places we haven’t been to, big gaps are South East Asia and Africa.  However we hope in the not too distant future to remedy this, but they will be shortish hops and not marathons like this.  I was feeling quite emotional when I said to Andy that we’ll never do this again, a sobering thought.  Cheer up, we’ve still got two weeks of fun and games in Europe and then it’s Edinburgh Cropredy and Putney, leading on to our new (temporary) life in London.

I must admit we’re a bit nervous about coming back to the UK, with all the disasters that are currently going on (as well as the horrible weather!)  Will it feel like a different country to the one we left?  We both feel so sad about the Exit and still can’t believe it’s really going to happen. 

I’m going to cheer myself up again by telling you about the wonderful Italian countryside.  We’ve been travelling through fields and fields and fields and fields of glorious sunflowers.  The gentle hills are covered with them and every now and again there is a red roofed farmhouse or a tiny village on a hill with a church spire sticking out of the top.  The sky is as blue as blue, with the light so intense.  It’s just beautiful (if a little hot!) 

There that’s better!  Another lovely thing is that Andy is getting better and better at the ukulele, I can recognize most of his songs now (eat your heart out David Gilmour!)

Bye for now, roll on Berlin, Denmark and Sweden…  G.  xxx  

 

Who's leaning more?

Part of the Basilica in Florence. And Gillie in her new dress!

As the sun goes down on the Longest Day (and the UK)

It's a marvellous night for a moondance...

Andy's just heard the result of the referendum

So, which one..?

The start of the long walk down. And another new dress

Rather pretty, we thought. Halfway down the steps

Back at the top and well-earned beer

Sunset at the top (good job Gillie's in shadow - she's 'glowing' with exertion

Ooer missus!

We were only allowed on the private beach when everyone (including the sun) had left

Dante's Seat, Florence. Sometimes he sits and thinks, sometimes he just sits

Where's everybody gone?

Guess where we are!

On a bridge over the River Tiber

Pope's gaff

'Three coins in the fountain...'

'Want one'

David Gilmour's not here. But I am!

Mt Vesuvius watches on

Still thought-provoking even though it's 2000 years old

bloke with big head and Vesuvius 

Not sure what this was at San marino, but a nice picture of Gillie's new dress again

2nd Torre (Tower) in S Marino

There's that dress again

Our first Spritz of the trip (not our last, I hope)