Month: April 2018

13th April 2018 – 30th April 2018

We departed the overnight Ferry from Italy in Igoumenitsa Greece and headed for a spot on the beach that had been recommended. Now at 6am in the morning, in a country we had never visited and trying to find this beach proved very stressful. Our Sat Nav taking us down a road that was blocked and trying to turn round in the dark wasn’t easy but finally we found where we needed to be and parked up and slept for afew hours. When we woke we looked out to the most beautiful beach on one side and a lake the other, it was stunning. A beautiful introduction to Greece. We stayed here for 3 days as it was so lovely, before heading South to the island of Lefkada. The access to the island is by an amazing little bridge that swizzles and turns to let the boats out of the harbour, turns back again and all the vehicles are on the move, on and off the island. The main town of Lefkada is a Mecca for the sailing community with flotillas of yachts waiting to be chartered for the summer. We would quite like to learn how to sail and if they allow dogs on board we are going to try it out. The restaurants and bars are scattered around the harbour and it has a great vibe about it with the Saturday fruit and vegetable market, individual people selling what they have grown and a truck full of fresh strawberries that smelled devine. We also found Kalos the Vet who we visited to get Chloe a new flea and tick collar. He advised us of the dangers of Leishmaniosis to dogs and as we left with flea treatment and a new collar for Chloe, David raised his eyebrows and said, another thing for you to worry about (meaning me, who has to worry about something !). We headed out of the town and stayed a couple of nights in Ammoundia, right on the beach with a great Taverna which produced the most delicious lamb chops. We found a very small supermarket in the village, not sure it was open, but poked our headed round the door and suddenly the light come on in the shop and we were welcomed in. The elderly owners looked liked they had been there forever, just like the milk that was several weeks out of date ! However, we bought what we needed which was in date and waved goodbye. We have found the Greek people to be the most friendly and hospitable.

Our next destination on the island was a campsite, the co-ordinates stored in the sat nav and as we were going up a very small road near to our destination we passed a motorcycle who did a quick u turn in the road and out of his back pocket produced a brochure to his campsite. ‘You must come to our site he said, it is on a beautiful bay’ David and I looked at each other and thought how can we say no. He revs his bike and we follow, suddenly as the road gets narrower, the grip on my seat is getting tighter and the sweat on my palms is building. He turns right and there is a massive drop in the road, I scream to David ‘we can’t go down there !’ We stop, tell him our van is too big to get down there, he waves his hands and says it is OK and we end up following as we can’t turn round. At the bottom of the steep road is a rustic campsite that looks out onto the most idyllic bay, we park right at the front and as my heart starts to beat normally we look out and think what an amazing place. The site is empty, as the the season hasn’t started. There are several tavernas on the bay front but none are open and a couple of fishing boats that are moored in the bay. One evening I was outside with Chloe, it was pitch dark and we were walking among the 800 year olive trees that fill the site and  I saw these flashing lights; they were fire flies. I ran back and got David. We have been lucky enough to see these before in Malaysia, but to see them on the campsite was stunning. We stood there in the darkness with them flying all around, their little bodies flashing like fairy lights. It made that drive down the steep road so worth while. We stayed 4 nights at Santa Mavra before being escorted up the hill to make sure nothing was coming the other way and waved goodbye to Nikos. The roads in Greece are not too bad, better than Italy in fact, but as you wind round mountains and come into a village, the roads suddenly get narrower and if there is a sharp bend it makes it more difficult to manoeuvre our van. Luckily David takes it all in his stride and I just hang onto the seat.

We leave the island of Lefkada and head south into the Peloponnesus passing Patra and are currently at a beautiful campsite that had no steep road into it, and have been chilling in the warm weather for the last week. We leave for Olympia on Thursday.

06th April – 12th April 2018

We left Germany with a fridge full of bockwurst and crossed into Switzerland, stopping at the border to complete forms we could not understand, handing over €32 hoping that this would be enough to allow us to drive through Switzerland. Basically, if you want to drive in Switzerland you have to pay, but we think it is worth it. The scenery is beautiful and as we passed through the snow capped Alps in the sunshine, to our first stop in Brunnen a beautiful small town on the edge of Lake Lucerne, David said that this is the most stunning place we have visited so far. The sun shone, we were in the holiday mood and thought, let’s blow the budget have have two beers ! We did check the price before we bought them and at an exchange worked out just over £6.60 which we didn’t think was too bad for Switzerland. We spent only one night in Brunnen as we had now booked our ferry to Greece and had a time scale to keep. Next stop was Lugano, now all we can say is WOW. This is where the elite hang out. The most expensive jewellers, selling the most expensive watches we have seen, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci, Moncier, the list is endless. We wandered the streets, found a vintage market and then onto the lovely park. Chloe was happy, she had found some grass and we tasted the most delicious ice-cream. The cars just dripped money and it did remind me of Southend Seafront with cars cruising along the front, obviously these ones were slightly more expensive ! Switzerland is so beautiful and when we leave Greece we would like to spend some more time exploring the country. We then crossed into Italy, the 7th Country in less than 3 weeks. Our destination for our overnight stop was Igea on the East Coast. All we can say is, Italy have the worst roads we have come across so far in all our travels. Trying to avoid as many pot holes as we can and we had got use to this, after our visit back home for 3 weeks. But we can honestly say that Italy does have worst pot holes than the UK. Finally we arrived at Igea, thankfully with our suspension still intact. Igea is a seaside resort and was a ghost town when we visited. The season doesn’t start until mid May, nothing was open. But they were painting everything and anything getting ready for the season. The next day more driving and a trip to Lidl to stock up the fridge and finally we arrive at Bari Port to catch the 10 hour ferry crossing to take us to Greece. The crossing was overnight and we had sleeping on board, meaning that we could sleep in our own bed, but we were landing at 05.30am and so not so much sleeping was going to happen.  We boarded quickly and were surrounded by tightly packed lorries mainly from Bulgaria but in front of us was another Motorhome from the UK and a lovely couple Liz and Paul from Wiltshire. They were in their first Motorhome and had been travelling since last September and were heading to Patras further South than us, as we were disembarking at Igoumenitsa. It is lovely to meet fellow travellers, to share places we have visited and sharing the same passion. Talking of passion, Liz has the same passion for Baked Beans as us and craving them after 8 months on the road. Now we have a few tins, having stocked up before we left, and knowing that craving we gave them a tin. We hope they throughly enjoyed them

27th March 2018 – 05th April 2018

We spent a whirlwind three weeks with as many family and friends that we could get to see and left a day later than planned as we couldn’t believe where the 3 weeks went, time just flew passed. As we were leaving, me thinking have we got everything, passport, money, dog. David says as we are getting in the car ‘have we got my sausages?’ Always thinking of his belly !

Now to give you an idea of where we are going on this ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Part 2 adventure, we are heading to Greece through Germany, Switzerland, into Italy and catching a ferry to Mainland Greece. We plan on staying in Greece until the end of June and then when it is too hot, leaving on the ferry back to Italy and the rest is still to be finalised.

Back to current events, we caught an early tunnel crossing out of the U.K. and our first stop was to the beautiful little town of Gouda in the Netherlands/Holland, famous for it’s cheese. We stayed within walking distance of the town and spent a couple of days enjoying Gouda cheese, wandering around the many canals and windmills around the town and eating Gouda Cheese soup and cherry beer (well me !). As it was Easter, a chocolate Easter egg was on my radar and with David saying in the chocolate shop, have whatever one you like, I chose the largest possible. This lovely shop called OLALA (quite appropriate), had the large mixing bowls full of melted chocolate swirling round at the back of the shop, which David had to stop me diving into !

Our next destination was to Keukenhof Gardens. This spring garden, said to be the most beautiful in the world, only opens for 8 weeks a year and is filled with over 7 million spring bulbs. To make it even better, Chloe could go into the gardens as well and she became quite an attraction herself with the Japanese tourists wanting to have their picture taken with her. It has been on my bucket list to visit the gardens and it did not disappoint. With the cold weather the flower beds outside were not in bloom but the gardens still took our breathe away. The bulbs displayed in the indoor gardens were amazing, just stunning in colour and in full bloom. If you love flowers and gardening, try and get here once in your lifetime. It is the best garden we have ever visited.

We spent a further couple of days in the area, getting into the cycling mode of transport. It is such a joy cycling in Holland, at the traffics lights the cycle lane goes green before the car lane. The country is covered with cycle routes and everyone cycles, you feel safe, cars don’t cut you up and there are plenty of places to leave you bikes. We loved Holland.

Now as we want to spend some time in Greece and with our crossing booked we are on a schedule for driving. Next stop Germany. We stayed for two night just outside the small town of Ladenburg home to Karl Friedrich Benz, famous engine designer and posh cars ! It was Easter weekend and buzzing with people strolling around eating ice cream. Since we have been in Germany we are amazed how many people are eating ice cream ! It’s not as if we are having a heatwave here, very strange. We of course joined in, each consuming a small tub of ice cream and not sharing, much to Chloe’s annoyance. The following day we cycled a 14 mile round trip into Heidelberg. A tourist destination due to it’s landscape, Heidelberg Castle, the Philosophers walk and the lovely old town. Situated on the river and home to Germany’s oldest and Europe’s most reputable universities, we spent the day eating, drinking and being tourists. Again, Germany have designated cycle roads which we took through the lovely spring countryside. It makes cycling a complete joy and Chloe has now got into her mode of transport laying down in her trailer with David pulling her, just watching the world go by. What a life she has. On the way back we passed two small farms with little farm shops attached so we stocked up on some provisions, fresh fruit and vegetables. No sausages ! Talking of sausages the following day as we near the border into Switzerland we stop for a couple of days in the countryside and needing some fresh meat we walk to the butchers that I spotted on the way to our campsite. To say David was in heaven was an understatement, the shop was full of sausages and he left very happy after buying several packets of bockwurst. This shop also had a vending machine outside full of packets of sausages, just in case you fancy a midnight feast. ! I think David would quite like to live in the village of Burgunderstrabe.