Mount Olympus.

Tuesday 28th April. Ancient Dion 40.17352 22.49121.
We are parked up tonight in the car park outside the archeological park containing the ancient city of Dion. We set off this morning from Zampetas and stopped first at Katerina in search of a cash machine, we drove through the centre of Thessalonika on the way which has, as you would expect, plenty of banks but trying to park is an impossibility. Cars and vans are parked two deep on both sides of the road and the bus lane is just one big car park. The driving style is a little anarchic whilst policeman stand at junctions blowing their whistles trying to create some kind of order out of the chaos. It's great fun unless you live and work in the city which must be a nightmare.
A bank was found in Katerina after we left the van in a Lidl car park and walked into town. Money dispensed and we stopped for fredo cappuccino and watched the world go by. It's still predominantly agricultural country around here and you can tell from the number of stores selling everything from tractors to chain saws and the number of beat-up pick up trucks driving around. We pushed on to Dion and stopped first at the archeological museum and after persuading the ticket seller that we were pensioners and entitled to the reduced entry rate we explored the three floors holding antiquities from Roman and Hellenic times. Our ticket entitled us to also visit the remains of the ancient city just down the road and we spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering around the site until closing time. There have been settlements here since the 5th century BC and Alexander had a few parties here before setting off to do battle. The city subsequently become a Roman outpost but unfortunately earthquakes in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD forced the inhabitants to leave. Archeologists have done a pretty good job in unearthing the city and there are fourteen different sanctuarys, baths, villas and theatres but the plants and weeds have pretty much taken over at certain places and I guess there's not too much money about at the moment to find the wages for a few guys with strimmers. Nevertheless the site is well signposted and there were plenty of information boards in English to help us get an idea of what the city must have looked like. The main paved streets are still intact in places and it was inspiring to think we may have been walking in Alexander's footsteps. Dion isn't really mentioned as a "must see" archeological site in the guide books but I'm glad we came and would recommend a visit if you're ever in the area. Another advantage for us is that by the time we left the ancient city the car park was empty; the couple of coaches that were here when we arrived had gone so we parked up, waved to the curators when they left and I can't really imagine anyone is going to move us on tonight.
Of course the whole area is dominated by Mount Olympus and whenever you turn a corner and look up the snowy peaks are there. The mountain was venerated by the ancient Greeks and at nearly 3000metres is Greece's highest mountain. You can hike up but our plan is to drive up to Prionia which would appear to be as far as you can go before the road runs out so tomorrow promises to be a hairpin road day par excellence.
Wednesday 29th April, Plaka, nr Litochoro 40.10315 22.56353.
Tonight we are parked up on the sea wall at Plaka, just outside Litochoro with a view across the sea to Halkadiki. We left the ancient city of Dion this morning and drove up Mount Olympus until the road stopped at a little over 1200 metres at Prionia. I'm running out of words to describe the roads we travel in Greece. Today's drive was breathtaking, one moment the snow capped mountain towered above us and as we turned a hairpin the fields below stretched out to the sea. Up and up until we reached the monastery of Dionysios. The monastery was built in 1546 but was completely destroyed during the Second World War but a remarkable rebuilding programme has been under way for a few years now so it's part monastery and part building site. The site has the usual "no hard hat, no boots, no hi-viz, no job" sign outside but they were quite happy for us to wander about in T shirts and sandals with bits of masonry falling around us and the workmen all wished us "kalimera!" as we admired their skills. A path from the monastery took us through wooded slopes, over the river that supplies the water to Litochoro, to the cave of Dionysios. Inside is a small chapel which would maybe hold 6 people and is complete with religious artefacts and icons. We stopped for coffee at Prionia and filled up with water before heading back down the mountain. There are hiking routes leading further up the mountain but it was a pretty steep ascent from where we were and we decided to save the climb for another day.
Yesterday afternoon and evening we thought we were being invaded when we heard what sounded like heavy artillery. All was explained this morning when we drove past the firing range and the barracks for the 24th Armoured Division!
We wandered around the pretty town of Litochoro for a while and then took a chance and drove off by the shortest route to the sea. We were lucky and found this spot with a taverna alongside with a couple of customers enjoying a late lunch. We went back this evening for a meal and got chatting to the owner and, inevitably, the conversation came around to the current Greek financial crisis. We asked what he thought of the current government and he didn't dismiss them but thought perhaps they were a little young and possibly a little naïve. He said there were many reasons for Greece being in the situation it finds itself in today and rather than just going cap in hand to their creditors they had to come up with some new proposals to satisfy the ECB and the EU. I mentioned that the money was going to run out when they made their big social security payments in the next few days and he said that one of the biggest problems was pension payments. He told us that people employed in the army, police and the old telecommunications and electricity industries had historically retired after twenty years service with a large lump sum, maybe fifty or a hundred thousand euros or more, and then received a substantial annual pension. This was no longer sustainable he said and I could only agree with him but we couldn't agree on a solution as to how these pension payments could be reduced. Obviously the financial crisis here will not be solved by a reduction in pension payments alone and I asked whether he thought Greece would leave the eurozone in the coming weeks or months or if he thought it would be a good thing to do so. He shrugged and said that whatever happened it was going to be hard but thought that maybe going back to the Drachma might be better in the long term. We chatted for a while longer but felt guilty as he wasn't fully open until the end of the week and he was travelling back to Katerini tonight where he lived during the winter months and we were delaying him. We checked if it was ok to park for the night - "This is Greece, you can park here for 365 days a year if you so wish". A lovely man who gave us a bag of apples as we left and checked to make sure we had plenty of water and anything else we might need for the night including the WiFi password.
Although we have WiFi it's a little slow so no photos today but when we have something better I'll post some of the pics from Mount Olympus.
Pat.

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The Brothers Zampetas

Monday 27th April 40.502689 22.970953.

Just a short drive today to Zampetas repair shop and overnight parking place. You can stop overnight here even if you're not having any work done and there's everything you could want. Toilets, shower, WiFi, Electricity,washing machine, water and it's all for free. We arrived about 10am and by half past two they'd repaired the bodywork, fitted a new tap and waste in the kitchen, put a new seal on the roof joint, fixed the air leak on the air suspension and even repaired the mirror which I clouted on the way here this morning. I can't speak highly enough about the guys here.

As a bonus there are two English couples here as well and we swapped stories of where we'd been and where we're going. One couple have been here a week, having a few repairs carried out and then waiting for a green insurance card from England so they can continue their journey back home via the eastern Adriatic. They've been travelling for eighteen months now through Scandinavia, Western Europe and Turkey and told us that Finland is a "must see" country. It was a good atmosphere tonight with several nationalities sharing a bar-b-q.

There's plenty of water at Zampetas and I was shamed into washing the van this afternoon once the repairs had been carried out. I wouldn't say the van was gleaming but at least you can see what colour it is now and a few hundred dead bugs have been removed.

I haven't been able to post photos since we arrived in Greece so I'll make up for it now courtesy of Zampetas WiFi.

Our ferry from Italy.

 

The Taverna where we stopped overnight in Kalpaki.

 

Vikos Gorge.

 

 

 

The road to Mikro Papingo.

 

Our overnight stop near Agapi.

 

Overnight stop at Agios Pandelimonas by Lake Vegoritida.

 

Tomorrow we are setting off for Dion; we've been here four days now so it's time we visited some jumbles of stones. Sorry, sites of archeological interest.

Pat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hard work today for some, but not us.

We drove today from our parking place outside the bar. The bar got busy last night with what looked like farm workers turning up in beaten up 4X4 pick ups and battered Fiat Puntos and their derivatives. Meanwhile a half dozen tricked up BMWs and Mercedes with blacked out windows cruised up and down the street. At times it felt a little like the Wild West.

This morning we drove through miles and miles of fruit orchards and nut trees, most of which were in flower but unfortunately we didn't know enough about the trees to identify them. We arrived here in Agios Vasilios 40.6666 23.11906,about midday. When we stayed here last year it was a run down children's play area and picnic spot, overgrown and litter strewn but today....... It looked like all the village had turned out on a big clean up programme. There must have been nearly a hundred folk with strimmers, lawn mowers, chain saws, shovels and brooms. I don't know what time they started but they finished about two o'clock and the place has been transformed. The kids swings and slides had been replaced or repaired, there are now planters with flowers in and the rubbish has all been swept up. Well done to the folk of Agios Vasilios!! Unfortunately they've capped off all the water taps that were here before but an exploratory walk up to the village and we soon discovered a tap, I don't think you are ever more than a mile or so away from a tap in Greece.

Today is the hottest day since we arrived, it must be in the high twenties today and whilst it looks like there are some interesting walks around I think we'll wait till the sun drops a bit before we go exploring.

Well, we didn't explore because I followed the Arsenal-Chelsea game on a live update feed and then it was time for supper. At least we're not playing for fourth place these days, we're going for second! That's the thing about football, there's always next season.

Apologies for the absence of photos lately but we should have some decent WiFi tomorrow so I'll try and upload some pics from the last few days.

Pat.

 

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No fish but fresh eggs.

Saturday 25th April Agios Pandelimonas 40.72347 21.75073.

We are parked up this afternoon opposite a bar/cafe next to Lake Vegoritida. We share the car park with mostly Albanian or possibly Macedonian cars, we're not too far from the Albanian border here, maybe just 40 miles or so and only 15 miles from Macedonia. This part of Greece is not the tourist Greece. A lot of the towns and villages feel like frontier towns, just a Main Street, maybe a cafe or taverna, a mini market and, of course, at least one church. It's farming country both livestock and arable and a lot of small vineyards. But the Greek hospitality is the same. When we arrived a lady was washing the floor in the bar but saw us and asked if we wanted anything "A couple of beers maybe?" - "Of course, please, sit outside and I'll bring them to you". We asked the usual question "Would it be ok if we parked here?" she spoke little English so we made the "sleeping" sign to her and pointed to the van. And, of course, we got the usual reply "Yes, of course, why not!"

So we sit here and watch the world go by and everybody gives us a toot on the horn or a wave. Not too many motorhomers stop here I suspect. Last night we stopped at a picnic spot next the river Alaikmonas close to the tiny village of Agapi 40.05295 21.55903. It looks like there was always a picnic area here but recently new stone paths have been built and water points installed. But nothing is completed; the paths suddenly stop, the stone tables and chairs have no tops or seats, big stone slabs await the wooden structures to finish them off. I guess this work is not a priority now and the money has run out for luxuries. But it was still a beautiful spot which we had to ourselves, the river water was crystal clear and flowing fast straight down from the mountains. I did a little fishing but...... no fish for supper. Earlier yesterday we left the Taverna in Kalpaki and as we were preparing to set off the lady from the Taverna went to feed the chickens. She came back and gave us three fresh eggs "For you, Bye-Bye, Thank you" I'm sure as we travel around Greece I will have more stories of Greek hospitality and generosity.

We drove up to the tiny hamlet of Vikos to visit the viewpoint for the Gorge, the world's deepest at 900metres and running for 12km. It was breathtakingly beautiful and when I have some decent WiFi I'll post a picture or two. From there we drove in a big loop around the Pindos mountain range, the highest peak is over 2600m high and that, and a few others still had plenty of snow on the tops.

Tomorrow we set off to get somewhere near to Thessalonika so I can take the van to Zampetas on Monday for a few repairs. I'm almost becoming a regular customer! We know of a place to stay near Koronia Lake which is maybe 45 minutes away from the repair centre but the beauty of motorhoming in Greece is that you don't need to do too much planning - there's always somewhere to stop where you will be made welcome.

Pat

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Greece at last. No sausage but cake.

Thursday 23rd April. Kalpaki 39.88362 20.63271.

Our ferry was due to leave Ancona at 2pm yesterday. It left at 4.30pm. Not a big problem and it was entertaining to watch the "crew" loading the lorries, cars and motorhomes onto the ship. They sent a guy who didn't seem to know what he was doing off for food and he returned with the orders all mixed up. People were looking at their sandwiches and slapping him round the head. Then they sent him for Peroni. In England they would all be sacked. Meanwhile the boss man was trying to load the ferry and whistling and shouting at them. One minute nothing was moving and the next all the lines were moving; Italian chaos. Finally we were all on board and the guys on the actual ship do a great job, they direct you with shouts and hand signals until you are all parked up like sardines with no wasted space.

We booked the ferry months ago but they get booked up pretty quick and we only had an inside cabin. It was a long, long way from the garage access and although the engine noise wasn't too bad the AC unit was very loud indeed so not much sleep last night. Never mind, this morning we sailed into Igoumenitsa in bright sunshine and we were lucky; we were amongst the first vehicles off the ship. A quick diesel fill-up and we set off for Vrosina, a small village in the mountains between Ioannina and the coast. It's springtime now and the many shades of green on the trees on the mountain roads were amazing. A break for a sandwich and coffee in a car park above the village with a 360deg view and we set off for Kalpaki. Just outside the town is a museum dedicated to the battles between Greece and Italy in 1940/41. A woman in the cafe in the town said we should visit and that a soldier would show us around. Sure enough a young soldier stood to attention as we arrived and showed us around and with the aid of a large map demonstrated the Greek strategy and victory. His English was not too good, although better than our Greek, obviously, but we were pleased to meet each other and he was enthusiastic in his role as guide.

The other reason we came here was because our friend Bernd said that the butchers shop and taverna next to the museum sold some wonderful sausage, Loukaniko, and that if we stopped for a meal we would have no problem parking for the night. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon and bought a beer, asked if we could park "Yes, of course, why not?" and said we would come back later for something to eat. The taverna has a lovely garden at the front and and an enclosure with chickens, three Bambis and a small dog all happily co-existing. The disadvantage to this, of course, is the dog and cockerel will wake us up tomorrow at some ungodly hour but hey, an early start is good. At 7pm we returned licking our lips, we ordered some salads and, of course, Loukaniko. The proprietor came back two minutes later "Sorry, no sausage. None left. Sausage kaput!" But this was a blessing in disguise as we ordered lamb's liver which was delicious. Of course no one orders a pudding in Greece because you know a complimentary something will always be forthcoming and this evening it was home made orange, lemon and honey cake. Now we know we are in Greece.

Pat.

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From the Lake to the Sea

Tuesday 21st April. Ancona 43.59982 13.48567.

Regrettably there will be no discussion of Critical Theory today but be warned, I may return to it later! Instead I'll just tell you where we've been for the last few days.

We left Montevarchi and our friends Allende and Gramsci behind and set of for a campsite at Castiglione del Lago on Lake Trasimeno (43.13458 12.04382), a pretty campsite right next to the lake and when we arrived the lake was like a millpond. Without the mill, obviously. By the evening the wind had got up and by morning one could have surfed across the lake. We arrived on the Saturday and after setting up we had a bite to eat and then I set off on the bike to explore. I discovered a local football match and sat in the stands with fifty or so partisan supporters and enjoyed 40 minutes including four goals. Back to the campsite for the big match; FA Cup semi-final, Arsenal vs Reading. We made hard work of it but we're through to the final where we can defend our cup against Aston Villa, I'll need to find a taverna with a telly or some decent WiFi on the 30th May.

Sunday found us in Gubbio (43.35095 12.56502), a medieval town on a hillside in Umbria. Coincidentally there was a football match at the stadium next door but Phil put her foot down and it was the next day before we discovered that the local side had drawn 1-1 with their rivals and attracted a crowd of over 1,000. At the same time there was a dirt bike rally around the town and we arrived in the main square in time to see the final section which entailed the riders driving over a heap of sandstone rocks. Very big sandstone rocks. A bit like showjumping but without the refusals. Very impressive.

With Gubbio being built on a hillside it was inevitable that the best bits would be at the top of the hill. We scorned the lift and climbed up to the Duomo (Cathedral) and then to the Ducal palace which was worth the entrance fee for the wood panelled room alone. Although the room had been recreated as the original is in a museum in the USA somewhere it has been panelled in a trompe l'oeil effect which was truly amazing. Different woods being used and inlaid to create the effect.

Monday was Phil's birthday and we set off again to explore more of Gubbio. The Palace of the Consuls is a museum housing Roman archeological remains, examples of pottery and ceramic work and the Eugubine tablets which comprise seven bronze tablets dating from the 3rd - 1st centuries BC. These are described as the most remarkable epigraphic heirlooms of pre-Roman Italy. To be fair Gubbio has a fascinating history and it's interesting to walk through the alleyways between the tall limestone buildings. The city is also famous for the annual race from the Piazza Grande to the Basilica of Saint Ubaldo. The Corsa dei Ceri is held annually on the 15th May and entails three teams devoted to three saints running up the mountain carrying a statue of their Saint mounted on a timber support and weighing just over a quarter of a ton! Crowds throng the narrow roads and pathways and occasionally the statue is dropped which looks pretty scary.

 

 

After a pleasant birthday lunch we took the cable car up to the Basilica which was great fun. The cages come around and don't stop. You stand on your mark and a helper kind of throws you in, slams the cage and off you go. The views get better and better as you ascend to 900metres and look over the Apennine Mountains.

We really enjoyed our couple of days in Gubbio and would recommend it to anyone passing this way.

Today we bade farewell to the city on the hill and headed off to Ancona where tomorrow we catch the ferry to Igoumenitsa. I've hit the cash machine and we have extra cash in the event of a Greek exit from the eurozone so we should have enough money to last should they shut down the cash machines and start printing Drachmas again. I was going to say that most people following this blog will know my thoughts on the Greek financial crisis so I wasn't going to repeat them but maybe there's someone here interested in my views so here we go. I think it's a given that Greece should never have been allowed into the eurozone but if they were guilty of fiddling the books to gain entry then the folks at the ECB, IMF and in Brussels were guilty also of not auditing those accounts professionally and adequately. Tax avoidance and corruption is endemic in Greek society and this was known but in the rush to enlarge the eurozone these facts were overlooked. Now we have proud Greek people scrambling through dustbins for food, unable to obtain medicines they need, homeless in many cases and living truly miserable lives. As is always the case the folk suffering now did not cause this crisis but they are having to pay the price for the corruption that they had little part in. I find it disgraceful that there is nothing less than a humanitarian crisis occurring now in Athens and other towns and cities in Greece. Hopes were high after the election of the Syriza party in January but they are now finding that the bankers and the EU are far more formidable and resolute in their efforts to ensure Greece "toes the line" than they ever could have imagined. Whilst the bankers were happy for Greece to join the eurozone with just a cursory glance at their accounts now every proposal the Greek government suggests to "comply" with EU demands is examined in detail and then rejected. This crisis is not just about Greece repaying its debt. It's also about the EU looking at a left wing government (and a Marxist finance minister) and looking over its shoulder at elections in Spain this year. To allow concessions now to Greece would make it impossible not to allow concessions in the future to Spain, Portugal and Italy. Would the voters in those countries vote for a left wing government if Greece won concessions. Hmmm. One could say that we are living in interesting times if those times weren't so desperate and tragic for the many people suffering.

I apologise if I sometimes get a bit carried away on what is supposed to be a travel blog but we don't travel in a bubble and the day we no longer think of other people or have a humanitarian outlook or see the injustices in this world is the day to worry about us. See you all in Greece.

Pat.

 

 

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Football, Marxism and the black rooster.

Friday 17th April. Montevarchi 43.53115 11.56785.

We are parked up tonight outside the Gastone Brilli Peri Stadium, once home to Montevarchi Calcio Aquila 1902. Regretably this once proud football club, which never progressed beyond Serie D, was relegated in 2011 from group E and subsequently declared bankrupt. From the graffiti it seems like the supporters were a nice bunch of lads and it's a shame they can no longer battle with their main rivals Prato, Poggibonsi and Lucchese.

The stadium was obviously renamed at some point during the 1920's or 30's after the famous Italian racing driver Count Gastone Brilli-Peri whom it is claimed had a heart of gold and a face permanently scarred after an accident during the tour of Italy motorcycle race. Count Gastone is the only racing driver I can think of to have had a hat named after him. He wore a hat similar to a flabby basque (no helmets for these boys) and today these hats are known in Italy as a brilliperi. He died in a practice run for the Gran Premio di Tripoli in 1930. The race was won by Baconin Borzacchini (a name you don't hear every day) in a Maserati.

The streets near us here are named after the usual suspects; Verdi, Puccini,Michelangelo,Da Vinci, but we are parked in a special place between Piazzale Salvador Allende and Via Antonio Gramsci. Allende was the first communist to be elected president of a South American country, Chile. That was always going to end badly with tricky Dicky in the White House and, sure enough, in 1973 Allende was deposed in a coup d'état sponsored by the USA and led by Augusto Pinochet and was assassinated by the CIA in the presidential palace. The Chilean people then endured seventeen years of a brutal military junta under Ronnie and Maggie's new best friend. We often look nowadays at Cuba as a beacon of communism with its education and healthcare reforms in spite of US sanctions. But the improvements Allende brought to the lives of poor Chileans was remarkable. Amongst other reforms Allende introduced legislation to establish the Chilean NHS, the first program in the Americas to guarantee universal health care. He was also responsible for a raft of progressive social reforms, safety laws in factories, maternity care, a minimum wage and free lunches for schoolchildren. Culture and the arts were not forgotten during this period. State sponsored music festivals and tours of folklorists were accompanied by cheap editions of great literary works produced on a weekly basis and culture came into the reach of the masses for the first time.

Talk of culture brings us nicely to our second hero - Antonio Gramsci, one of, if not the most important Marxist thinkers of the twentieth century.

His theory of Cultural Hegemony is relevant today and suggests that Capitalism maintains control not just through political and economic coercion but by establishing a hegemonic culture whereby bourgeois norms and values become "common sense" values of all. Working class folk then identify their own good with the good of the bourgeoisie and help to maintain the status quo. A tragic analysis when you think about it. There is much more to Gramsci's analysis than that outline. He also critiqued economic determinism, the pessimistic, fatalistic interpretation of Marx. Of course, our fat friend Benito and his fascists were having none of this and in 1926 Antonio was sentenced to five years in confinement on the island of Ustica and a year later sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. During this time he wrote more than 30 notebooks and 3000 pages of history and analysis. He died in 1937 aged 46. He's one of Alexie Sayle's heros I believe which puts me in good company. We feel safe tonight with the spirits of these two men looking over us.

Our journey today in Tuscany took us through Chianti country and of course we had to stop and buy a bottle from a vineyard. When we stop at vineyards in France we usually buy more than a bottle but we made the mistake of stopping at a vineyard producing Chianti Classico, identified by the black rooster seal on the neck of the bottle, and at the outrageous price felt we could only splash out on the one bottle and that was the cheapest in the vineyard! Recommended with pasta we were advised and as we had bought some ravioli yesterday that's what we had it with. We weren't too sure what the ravioli filling was so we translated the packaging with the aid of the word lens app. I'm sure something was lost in the translation because I'm pretty sure we weren't really eating "sweet anus". I can report, however, that both the ravioli and the wine were delicious.

Pat

 

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Noises in the night

14th April Santa Margherita Ligure 44.33629 9.19498.

We are parked up tonight between a football stadium and a busy, noisy railway line but we are glad to be here. Our plan this morning was to drive to Genova and stay the day, parking for the night at a Sosta shown in one of our guides. After battling through the traffic we arrived to discover the Sosta no longer exists. No problem, we had a plan B which was to stop just beyond Genoa at Bogliasco at either of the two Sostas there, but they didn't exist either. We are at plan C which apart from the van shaking every time a train goes by was a good choice because we are a twenty minute walk down to a delightful harbour town. We've followed the coast road since we arrived in Italy passing through small resort towns and the drive has been pretty enough but slow going. It took us four hours today to travel seventy miles; most of the roads have a 50kph speed limit and there are lots of traffic lights

16th April Lucca 43.85077 10.48623.

I mentioned above that our stop a couple of days ago was next to a railway line. We thought the trains would stop at some point but they didn't. Freight trains ran all night and woke us up every time one went past. But it wasn't just the trains that disturbed our sleep, we also had to contend with barking dogs, a clucking chicken (yes, at 11.30pm), a donkey an owl and two sets of church bells both ringing the hour and chiming the quarters. Of course a blackbird woke us up in the morning. Probably a place we won't stop at again. Last night we stopped at Levanto 44.17412 9.61785 (next to another railway line I kid you not) it's a sleepy little coastal town that looks like it could be busy in the summer months. We walked up to the medieval castle which the guide books said was extremely well preserved and well worth a visit. Unfortunately the castle is now a private house, well private castle to be accurate, with tall trees obscuring three sides and a high wall on the remaining side so not much to see at all really.

Today for the first time since leaving England we took a toll motorway because I was fed up of spending half the day up and down hills negotiating hairpin bends. I never thought I would type such a sentence as that but the reality is that whilst driving over mountains affords some of the best scenery it is tiring and after a couple of days I felt like a change and some easy driving. We chose Lucca as a stopping point for two reasons. Firstly, because if you look at it on the map it is shown as being completely surrounded by greenery and looked intriguing and secondly and rather more mundanely, we needed a campsite with a washing machine. I won't mention how much they charge here but the guy on reception really should be wearing a mask and a striped jumper. As it is he has the air of a man who learnt his customer service skills at a funeral director's. I suppose telling us the overnight rates in hushed tones whilst wringing his hands and contorting his face to an expression of such sorrow made a change from the usual smirk. Anyway, Lucca is surrounded by greenery because it still has it's original ramparts and gates and entrance archways and fields all around. Founded by the Etruscans and becoming a Roman colony in 180 BC the city has a long and intriguing history. Once in the town it's a maze of narrow streets and courtyards and mostly pedestrianised. The cathedral of St Michele dominates the main piazza and although many of the streets are full of designer shops and expensive restaurants the smaller piazzas were charming and if it wasn't for the telephone cables strung above and the glass fronts to the shops the place would look the same as it was built centuries ago. Tall buildings with louvred shutters, ancient archways and massive old wooden doors. The birthplace of Giacomo Pucini is suitably adorned with statues of the composer and there are plenty of colleges with music drifting out of the windows as we wandered past. It's certainly a place we would visit again if we passed this way.

The Cathedral at Lucca.

 

The folk commemorated on the facade.

This way to Puccini's head.

Lucca's doors.

 

 

Tomorrow we set off for Montevarchi where rumour has it we will have a free overnight stop which is as good a reason as any to visit.

Pat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Italy

Monday 13th April. Finale Ligure 44.16529 8.33786.

We like Finale Ligure, we stopped here last year in early summer and the small seaside town was very busy. Today was the reverse, all the shops and most of the bars and restaurants were closed as it's Monday. We were looking forward to lunch in the local Osteria but it was closed too, as were all the bakers, so we wandered to the town square for a cold beer. The bowl of crisps was a nice touch, as was the complimentary plate of antipasto but we all know that there's no such thing a a free lunch. Two small beers - €6, ouch. But never mind, the square was pretty, the sun was shining and all was well with the world.

We came back to the Sosta where we had parked and were quickly relieved of €18 by the attendant which was another ouch moment. It's the most we've paid for an overnight stop since we left England and it's not even a campsite but it is located next to the sea so I took the opportunity for a bit of fishing this afternoon. No luck and so the seafood with pasta which I'll shortly be preparing is from the freezer. Phil took the opportunity for a bit of sunbathing but I'm sure she was secretly admiring her hunter/gatherer out of the corner of her eye.

Last night we stopped at San Remo in what is basically a large car park with the Motorhome services a quarter of a mile away (43.80329 7.74737) and as it was Sunday decided against walking in to town. But the town has a great cycle path that follows the coast line for miles so I gave my bike its first real outing. The path was busy with lots of families enjoying the warm sunshine and I managed twelve miles without knocking anyone over or falling off, scared a few folk, mind. Legs were a bit jellyish when I got back but I slept well last night. It's just as well there was a cycle track because I wouldn't dare ride my bike on the roads around these parts. When we left Nice yesterday it seemed that every cycling club in France had turned up for a spin, together with everybody in the area who owned a high powered motorcycle. Add to this the rubbish standard of French drivers (yes, I know I'm generalising but can only speak from experience) and I feared for their safety a few times but we didn't see any accidents. Here in Italy there are as many cyclists and also billions of scooters. My strategy in the Motorhome is to follow my line and trust in the skill of the boys and girls buzzing around me on their scooters. It's worked ok so far and although I'm fairly confident the thought of riding my bike round here scares the life out of me.

We've been blessed with some great weather since we reached Provence and now we are in Italy it's really warming up. Plenty of folk on the beach today in cossies and I'm back in shorts and flip flops, yay.

Here's where are.

 

Pat

 

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Provence and the Cote D'Azur

Saturday 11th April. Castellane 43.84613 6.51534 and St-Laurent-du-Var 43.68538 7.18530

We've spent the last day and a half in Castellane, rafting and hippy central. I've always thought that rafters, climbers and potholers were hippies with muscles and a work ethic. Anyway, they tolerate us old folk and we bought some nice salad ingredients yesterday at the bio vegetable shop and some out of date sheep's yoghurt which the nice lady didn't want to sell to us. I said we would take our chances as it was only a few days out of date and she reluctantly knocked a few cents of the price and slipped it into our bag. Before we could embark on this epic shopping trip however we had to tidy and clean the van. Well, that's 15minutes we'll never get back again. Five minutes to tidy and ten minutes to clean. Castellane also boasts a laundrette and we took the opportunity to catch up on the washing. It all sounds a bit mundane doesn't it, but the drive from Banon was anything but. First scouting around the Montagne De Lure through tiny ancient villages and then from just south of Digne-les-Bains climbing up over the Col des Leques at just over one thousand metres before dropping down into Castellane. Today was market day and before setting off we bought some asparagus, fresh ravioli and goats cheese so that's tonight's dinner sorted.

We had planned to stop in Antibes tonight after first stopping for a look around in Grasse, the perfume capital of France if not the world. The drive over the lower Alps was again spectacular, part of the Route de Napoleon, and I guess it wouldn't have been too hard for him, sat on a horse as he probably was, but it must have been gruelling for his foot soldiers. The highest point was nearly twelve hundred metres. The road is popular with motorcyclists too and they roared past us on the hairpins and had vanished before we could blink, exciting stuff. Unfortunately all the car parks we came across in Grasse had height barriers so we didn't stop but pushed on a bit further to Antibes where we knew there was an LPG station. Now, I don't have to fill up too often with LPG, I've got two 18kg tanks, but we were down to half a tank so we pulled in to the filling station. I've got all the adaptors for different filler nozzles for different countries but it's always a hassle at LPG pumps. Today was no exception and, once again, someone had to come out of the office to help me fill up. Is it just me? Do other folk have these problems? Anyway, all gassed up and off we went to the Aire de service at Antibes. The car park, and that's all it is, a car park, was outside Marine World which, presumably is why they wanted to charge me €24 for an overnight stay plus €3 for water!!! We politely declined their kind invitation and drove another five minutes to where we are now, another car park with water and it's free.

We didn't want to stay at too many of the places we'd stopped at before but Banon was a "must stop" because of the bistro, Castellane because of the laundrette and here at St Laurent-du-Var because we weren't going to pay €27 for the privilege of stopping in Antibes! Tomorrow we were going to visit Sospel on the old royal road between Nice and Turin but after a bit of research discovered that it was pretty much flattened by the Germans during WW2 and there's not too much left of interest now so tomorrow we'll cross the border into Italy heading for San Remo (we've been there before also). The Cote D'Azur between Cannes and the Italian border has all "those" places - Antibes, Nice, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Monaco, Monte Carlo beloved of novelists and playboys but the traffic is horrendous, there's never anywhere to park and the whole area is pretty Motorhome unfriendly. I guess we should have come here in the fifties but as we were just toddlers then I doubt we would have appreciated it but anyway I doubt that we'll come back this way again.

No pics today, poor 3G

Pat

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Heading South

Monday 6th April Tournon-sur-Rhone 45.07337 4.82163.

We left St Etienne this afternoon after a weekend of celebrations. My eldest grandson celebrated his 18th Birthday and my eldest granddaughter celebrated her 15th. All our family and an aunt and uncle came over from England and we stopped the weekend at a boarding school with access to the kitchens and dining room and once we had finished decorating the room we had a superb dining room/dance floor. My French son-in-law is a great guitar player and the birthday boy plays bass, together with the singer and drummer they play regularly with,we had a great band. There were over sixty guests from all over France and England and a great time was had by all. If you told me I would be going to bed at 3.30am after dancing for a couple of hours to a mix of heavy rock and Russian techno I wouldn't have believed you but the challenge was on to outdance my grandson's friends and we nearly did it. Nearly. But those kids had 50yrs on us so it was no disgrace to leave them to it in the wee small hours.

Today we travelled from St Etienne along the D8,D2,D82 and D86 which was a beautiful drive through some lovely countryside. Rising to 1000m where there was still some snow and then down to follow the Rhone to Tournon-sur-Rhone where we are parked up for the night. Our plan for the next few days is to head further south to Provence and then follow the Mediterranean coast around to Italy. We have a couple of weeks before we leave Ancona on the ferry bound for Igoumenitsa. Today has been a beautiful sunny day although the wind is chilly but the forecast is for sunshine for the next week or so and we should be hitting 20deg in a few days time.

No scenic photos today but here's one of the family.

 

Wednesday 8th April. Banon 44.03980 5.62969.

We stopped here in Banon in August last year and had a delicious meal at a Bistro, Les Vins au Vert and as we were heading this way decided to stop and sample the menu again. The establishment is also a Cave a vins and the proprietor, Pierre Edouard, knows his wines. The plat du jour is served on a large slate and today comprised of truffle flavoured ham, Lyon fennel flavoured saucisse, corn soup, a vegetable flan, sardine pate, two types of goats cheese, pannacota with raspberry coulis, chilled creme anglais flavoured with apricot and pineapple and a mini gingerbread cake, mmmmmm!! We let Pierre choose our wines and he didn't put a foot or a glass wrong. Pierre and his wife remembered us from our last visit and when we got chatting they told us they had sold the Bistro and were looking to buy a vineyard a little further south in Le Luberon. Lovely people and we wish them well in their next venture.

Last night we stopped at Saint-Paul-Tres-Chateaux, just on the edge of the medieval town (44.347512 4.770146) and overlooked by the Alps. We arrived just as the weekly market was packing up but managed to buy a rotisserie'd chicken and then wander around the old town and visited the Cathedrale Notre-Dame which was possibly the smallest Cathedral we've visited but all the more impressive as although it was built in the C12th and C13th it still had some mosaics and frescos from an earlier church and reused some Roman building materials. It was a simple but majestic cathedral with a human scale; a building in which you could pray and worship and, I think, all the better for the absence of the ornate decorations usually seen in the larger cathedrals which I think serve not as a tribute to God but as a reflection of the wealth, power and arrogance of those who commissioned those buildings.

Cathedral Notre Dame.

The plan today was to drive along through the vineyards of the Cote du Rhone and then up and over Mont Ventoux. The first half of the journey went according to plan and we enjoyed some fantastic scenery with the vineyards sloping up to small villages and buildings in a honey coloured stone but as we left Malaucene and started our ascent the signs informed us that the road was ferme. A quick five point turn and we retraced our route before skirting the mountain to the north along the D40. The vineyards gave way to lavender fields and the scenery screamed Provence!! This region is probably our favourite in France, the mountains, rivers and gorges together with the fields of vines and lavender are just so beautiful and the smaller towns and villages beg to be explored. Of course the weather helps and as we've travelled further south over the last few days we've enjoyed blue skies and sunshine. I think tomorrow it might be time to get the shorts out of the wardrobe.

Cote du Rhone vineyards with the Alps in the distance.

Maybe the white stuff on top is why we couldn't go over the mountain today?

 

Pat

 

 

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Hospitals and Mustard

Tuesday 31st March. Cormot-Le-Grand 46.96191 4.64267.

First stop today was a visit to the Hotel-Dieu des Hospices Civils de Beaune. A hospital established in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to the Duke of Burgundy and his wife Guigone de Salis. The concept, founding charter and construction are equally impressive and although much of the original internal furnishings and tapestrys have been lost, a reconstruction in the 19th Century was carried out according to the original plans. The barrel vaulted Grande Salle with it's painted beams and 30 hospital beds is looked over by a chapel which could be screened off to avoid the patients observing the funerals of those beyond the help of the nurses and physicians. Rolin insisted the hospital be built over the river to provide fresh water and to carry away waste and this idea contributed to the escalating costs of construction as vaults were built to channel the river under the building. A fascinating couple of hours and well worth the entrance fee especially as the audio guides were included in the price.

The Hospital.

Plat de Jour at a local bistro, back to the van for dry clothes as it rained all day and then off to the Fallot mustard company's factory for our 3pm tour. Unfortunately the lass in the tourist office had marked the location in the wrong place on the map so it took us a while to find the factory and joined the tour ten minutes late. Never mind, we only missed the explanation of the life cycle of a mustard plant and enjoyed the rest of the tour, discovering that the name "Dijon mustard" cannot be protected and consequently the vast majority of the Dijon mustard we buy is in fact produced from Canadian mustard seeds and probably produced in Canada. The city of Dijon has three remaining mustard factories producing some 85,000 tons of the stuff but our little factory in Beaune, which still mills seeds using mustard seeds only from Bourgogne manufactures just a couple of tons per year. If you want the real stuff, which is delicious, look out for Moutard de Bourgogne which is a protected name and must contain only certain ingredients. And keep your mustard in the fridge! Keep it in a cupboard and it will soon lose it's flavour. We were given a few small complementary jars and also bought some more with interesting flavours as well. I must admit that the generic Dijon mustard we've been buying in supermarkets for years was pretty insipid and lack lustre compared to the mustard we tasted today.

Only 6,000 deliveries per year.

 

A short drive brought us back to a pretty parking spot next to a babbling brook in Cormot-Le-Grand, a vineyard which is part of the France Passion scheme. Unfortunately the owners of Domaine Boisson are nowhere to be found at present. I hope they turn up before we leave so I can make a purchase of their delicious Crement de Bourgogne.

Wednesday 1st April St Etienne.

Madame Boisson was found this morning and kindly sold us some wine and then it was off to St Etienne to stay with our daughter and her family for a few days. It's her eldest son's 18th birthday today and a party has been planned for this Saturday. It's the first time all our family will have been together for a few years and so we are all looking forward to getting together and celebrating the birthday.

The last time we came here in the Motorhome I managed to smash one of our windows whilst reversing into my daughter's courtyard. It was a very expensive and time consuming process finding another one so we decided against parking in the courtyard this time. There are a few fought over parking spaces outside the house and the plan was that we would arrive and our daughter and her husband would move their cars and I would have a parking space. Good plan. I arrived but as they were moving their cars I was blocking the road and had to pull over next to some bollards to allow a car to pass but unfortunately the bollards fought back and for the second time some expensive damage was done to the Motorhome.

 

If we ever come back here I'm catching the train!!! It looks like the Zampetas brothers in Greece will have some more business from me in a few weeks time.

Pat

 

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