Tour around the cab

Venice Pictures (continued)

Some more pictures to go with the below post.

Venice

I remembered stories about Venice flooding, but unfortunately not at 7am
this morning as we got up and showered (at the shower block on the camp
site!) before getting the 8am boat to Venice which departed from just
outside. We remembered our big coats (well, Sophie needed a bit of
persuading to wear hers!).
We got to Venice for 8:20am and managed to get a look at most of the
sites and some of the shops before the floods appeared in St Marks
square and the duck boards came out for people to walk on. It was a bit
like a human version of Lemmings, watching them walk down duck boards
put out by locals to get deliveries only to find they had to come back
because it was a dead end! Most of the designer shops were away from the
floods, however, although we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't
get a Gondola. Well we could, but the rain started and we didn't think
it would be as romantic as it looked on the telly!
It was refreshing after coming through some more 'tourist' cities in
France to find a place which had lots of interesting shops which local
crafts rather then the 'tourist tat' like plastic fridge magnets and
etc. There were some fantastic stationary shops selling hand made
leather bound address books etc. We also picked up an Italian-English
phrase book and dictionary in a shop - something which we forgot to
bring with us!
However, all is not lost, we had a good few hours in Venice and are now
parked at La Sabbiona farm (website here:
http://www.lasabbiona.it/index.asp?l=2 ) where no doubt we will end up
sampling more wine/olives/local produce in the morning before moving on.
I just hope the weather gets a bit better - it's warm, just too bloody wet!

Traffic in Verona

So, we ventured into the city of Verona today and there seemed to be some kind of protest going on in the streets and there was police everywhere waving traffic through red lights .....

We were stuck driving around Verona in traffic for about an hour trying to look for somewhere to park but we weren't in luck! We ended up taking photos as we drove through the city centre whilst stuck in traffic. We wanted to go over to Venice the next day so we headed for a place called Fusia where we stayed that night on a proper camp site for 30 euroes!!! We didn't like paying that much but as the ferry set off the next morning every hour from 8am right outside the camp site we didn't have much choice.

We (me, Sophie!) did some washing as we got to the campsite at around 3pm so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to wash some clothes! My mum will be so proud - hand washing - I hate it, now I see my mum hates handwashing my diesel jeans every week!!!

At around 5pm the sun went down and we sat by the lagoon with a large glass of wine which was great. We are going to get up early tomorrow morning and catch the 8am ferry across to Venice, I am really looking forward to getting a proper shower in the morning but that means getting up at 6:30am, which reminds me of work!! We will update tomorrow night on our trip to Venice.

Lake Garda

So this morning we had a look at our eye witness guides for Italy and
decided to go to Lake Garda today. After looking at the satnav we
decided to take the toll road as it supposidly would have taken us 5 and
a half hours to get there but only 2 hours on the toll roads and after
our previous experiences of small country roads in Italy we decided the
toll road was the best option.
We arrived at Lake Garda and decided it would be nice to drive up the
scenic route which would take us into Garda itself. Weather not too
brilliant at the moment but we parked the camper up and walked round
Garda which was really beautiful (See pics above) there were little
narrow streets and the lake itself was magnificent and would have been
even better if it was sunny!
We managed to take a few pics before it got dark, I think we are going
to stay here tonight and take the bikes into Garda again tomorrow
morning if weather permits ......

Monaco, Monte Carlo and Italy!

The pictures have uploaded in the wrong order, but you should get the idea.

If you click on any of the pictures in this blog, they will enlarge :)


Italy - Tunnels and lots of them


First views of Italy


Monaco



By the way, the layout has changed slightly - you can blame Sophie for that!

After heading along the cost some more after Nice, we headed for Monaco. The coastline in the south of France spectacular - made even more so by the countless yachts and fast cars in the coast. We drove through the center of Monte Carlo and saw the Casino and part of the F1 track, but unfortunately couldn't find anywhere to park the camper, probably just as well as we had already spotted the Diesel and All Saints shops, as well as a big Zara and Guess plus just about every brand you can think of. There was some roads further out which we may park on if we choose to return via France rather then up to Austria and Switzerland.

We then headed for Italy, thankfully this border crossing was less eventful then the Swiss one, stopping only to attach the chevron board to the bike rack.

First observations of Italy for the few hours we have been here:

o Fuel is more expensive here, diesel about 1.21c rather then the 1.10c we have been paying.
o The infostructure is not as developed as France - all traffic lights in France are brand new, signs, well lit tunnels etc - Italy seems a bit more backwards in this regard.
o The drivers are even more mental and the roads are even smaller!
o The Aire's on the toll roads, however, are much better for campers - providing free water / waste / electricity. Thank's to Gordon for the multitude of hosepipe connectors we were able to fill up our tanks.

We are staying tonight for free at an Italian Green Stop site (sort of like the French Passion). When we arrived there was nobody here but a friendly (HUGE) Alsatian and a horse. Our 3G connection works here in Italy so we should be able to make some more frequent updates. We want to visit Rome, but we are going to stay at a site and get a train in as I think driving anywhere near to the capital is probably not a good idea!

Nice

Casino in Nice


Costal Road

It was a shame to leave the the beach and St Tropez behind, but when the french guy on the golf buggy came round for his 7 euros we knew it was time to leave. It was lunchtime after all and we didn't leave the site until after 1pm, spending the morning enjoying the sun and then sweeping / hovering sand out of the camper. At least it's clean (on the inside!)

We headed up the coast to Nice, a drive of probably only 80 miles or so along coastal roads and by for our most relaxing drive of the trip. It took us through Cannes (film festivals) and then into Nice itself.

By the time we got to Nice it was starting to get dark and with no Aire's listed in any of our handbooks we tried our luck at a few camp sites but they was closed. Our tact of following an Italian Camper on the seafront failed when he made a second U turn in front of us (probably thinking why he was being followed by a british camper!) and we eventually found a small parking area allocated for motorhomes for free using some pushpins we had downloaded off the internet. No pictures of the Neon lights unfortunately, but it was bustling with lots of people out and about.We were tired and hit the sack early, and aside from being woken by a camper van joining us at about 1am (which was more of a relief as we were no longer alone!) and a bottle bank being emptied at 4am, we slept soundly.

Hyres & St. Tropez

We set off for Hyres that morning as it was just up the coast from where we were. Hyres was nice, we went for a walk on the beach - it must have been around 20 degrees. We took a scenic route upto St. Tropez and filled up with diesel, we stopped along the way to take some photos as it was such a sunny day and there were so many beaches on the way there. We pulled up to an Aire which was 7 euroes to stay but there must have been around 20 motorhomes on the Aire already, it backed out onto the beach too which was great. We went for a walk on the beach at around 5pm just as the sun was going down. Now we sit with a glass of wine watching a film.

Sommiers & Arles

The next morning we left Sommiers and went to Arles. We parked up and walked into the centre to see the Roman Ampitheatre (see photos) which was amazing and bigger than we had imagined. We spent most of the day in Arles so we decided to keep on heading out of the centre and whilst stuck in traffic I looked for an Aire to stay that night. We drove through the centre of Marseille which we were looking forward to but we found out about half an hour later whilst still stuck in the Marseille traffic that it was so commercial and didn’t really have much in the way of tourist attractions.

We found an Aire called Caux-le-pins where there were already a few motorhomes parked up, to cut a long story short we had a good laugh watching a frenchman try and park a massive motorhome right next to us and then fail to see the side of the mountain and smash the back panel in, hilarious. His wife didn’t sound too pleased and I’m sure there were a few french swair words in there too!

Avigion & Sommiers

Ok, it’s Sophie again now, I will try and start off from where Adam left it a few days ago.

We were going to drive down to Marseile that day but we ended up stopping at a place called Avigion (See photos above) We parked up across the river from the tourist attractions were there were a few other motorhomes already parked up. We walked across the bridge (Windy!) and walked up to the Popes Palace (Palais des Papes) which was amazing, the view from the top was great.

We left Avigion at around 3.30pm and drove through Nimes which was another little town with tourist attractions dotted around everywhere – we didn’t stop in Nimes but we took a few photos as we drove through. As it was getting on into the evening we ended up driving to a French Passion sight in Sommiers which suprisingly didn’t take too long to find as the directions in the book were quite acurate. We parked up and walked a few metres to the ladies house, she spoke very good English so we had a look around her shop were we tasted some vintage 2001 wine which was only 12 euroes!! We obviously ended up buying 2 bottles, one red, one rose.

Lyon

Ok, so we haven't found a Mc Donalds yet for free Wifi - so the next blog update is going to be two in one!
We awoke about 8am to the sound of an air raid siren.... slightly disconcerting. When we went to purchase some more wine before we left, we found that the siren meant the river was in danger of bursting it's banks due to the amount of rain during the night and when we got into the village it was indeed very high.
Today we went to Lyon, Frances second city with the oldest amputheretre in europe dating back to 15BC. After finding somewhere to park right in the city centre (no mean feat with a 20ft camper, but much easier then in the UK - you just look for other campers!) we walked up 100's of steps to the top which made the treck to Edinburgh castle look easy - the views at the top however were rewarding.
Last night we stayed outside a farm shop which was just closing as we arrived. We parked next to a french camper, the first time we have stayed next to another camper since we started our trip.
I'm writing this latest entry while Sophie is driving (!) to Marselle, about 150 miles today. The scenery is changing and the houses are becoming more colourful.
We're doing well on fuel too - diesel is 1.10 euro and we managed 29.6MPG on our last tank full and we've just ticked over 1000 miles since leaving York. Long may it continue!

Searched!

Today has by far been the most ‘interesting’ day so far. We woke in Château-des-Prés after spending a night on the edge of the Alps. After breakfast we set off for Geneva after looking at some maps to find the best way to go. However both our first and second attempt was foiled by the freshly tarmaced road turning into a dirt track right before us and a french lady waving us down and shaking her head, judging by the state of her car we wern't going to get through in the camper! So we tried in the other direction only to find a german wagon stuck! So we turned round and headed back to Saint Laurent and picked up the bigger road.

After a wonderful scenic drive through the alps and the ski-resorts preparing for the first fall we arrived at the Swiss border. We trickled through the border traffic passports in hand when the guard at the border who first waved us through caught a glimpse of our UK plates and shouted for us to stop. We apologised (for what, we don’t know) and carried on to Lake Geneva. We only stayed for an hour or so as the city itself is much like any other and not really designed for a camper van! The journey out passed the border, however, was a little more interesting – having been pulled over to one side and having our camper searched by two border guards! They were in good spirits (unlike the guy on the way in) and after asking if we had any drungs (no!) or more than 10,000 euro (we wish!) we were let on our way – feeling a bit like naughty school children. It's good to be back in France!

The stresses of today were rewarded, however, when we arrived at our French Passion stop in Liergues. For anyone reading this blog who is not familar with French Passion, it is a book you buy for about £25 which lists about 1500 farmers, vineyard owners etc who allow you to stay on their land in a motor home for free. The hope is that you buy some of their produce but its never forced upon you or even offered in some instances unless you ask. We bought two bottles of Domaine Berger Des Vinges – one white and one red for 4.50 each – we drank the white and it was fantastic, needless to say we’ll be getting some more before we leave! I’m writing this looking out over vinyards and classic french houses. It’s a little wet, but beautiful. Tomorrow we’ll visit Lyon and I’ll upload this as soon as we get Wifi access from McDonalds!