Here we go Again.

January 17th 2013

Well there's a bit of catching up to do as I left this in the wilds of Croatia with a distinctly poorly member of the group who was having a great deal of trouble driving, on account of gear changing with his right arm being agony....alert readers will have spotted that he drives a lefthand drive vehicle, so there's a lesson to be learned.
From Croatia we had planned to visit Venice, always a pleasure, and we pitched up at a very pleasant site at Lido di Jessolo. P&M went straight to the hospital where x-rays revealed a detached muscle and he was told to rest it and take pain killers. We ended up staying for 11 days at Lido as the sun was shining, we were on the beach and Venice was a short ride away on the ferry which we could cycle to or catch a bus, and the local farm shop across the road had an excellent selection of fill-your-own-bottles of wine at €1.25 a litre and they would also fill 5 litre wine boxes as you waited, so a few of those came home when we left. Had 2 trips into Venice which was heaving with visitors even at the end of September and it is surprising how much a day out in Venice can cost, even if you go prepared. Eventually D&M set off home first as M. wanted to go shopping in France (?) and they had to have the dog vetted, followed by P&M a few days later who were going to be driving on the motorways very slowly and resting inbetween. If they got into difficulties we would not be far behind and could help out.  
We left Lido on Oct.8th and after all the sunshine had a rather miserable trip home getting colder and wetter by the day. Started at Locarno, over the Simplon Pass to Lac Leman, Bad Sackingen on the Rhine and then following the Neckar river - stopping at Rottenburg, a visit to the Porsche factory at Stuttgart (where we had the best meal of the whole trip), Eberbach for 3 days to visit Heidelberg and onto Trier. Apart from the day we went on the train to Heidelberg, the weather was cloudy,misty, drizzly and cool and we should have stayed in the South for longer but for wanting to help Paul in case of problems. We also had a week longer to stay as when rebooking after the kidney stone episode we added another week for some reason.So we stayed at Spa in Belgium for 2 days which was more than enough and then a night at Gravelines where the fridge finally packed up before  catching the ferry home on Oct.19th.
Great trip, lot of fun, destruction of preconceptions re Croatia (ie. not a land full of murderous bandits waiting to rob, plunder and sell our wives into slavery), marred by P.'s accident which curtailed our journey somewhat and setting off for home too early when the sun was still shining. Will definitely return to Croatia again and continue down to Dubrovnik, probably giving the Istrian coast a miss next time.