And time slowly passes.....

January 24th.2013

The weather is distinctly iffy. When the sun shines it is very hot but we have had a lot of cloud, some cold winds and an exceedingly violent storm last weekend with winds of 55pmh plus. Fortunately it had been forecast so hatches had been battened but it still caused a few problems. Social life is very bubbly, and more people than ever are attending events .The management put on their usual free meal in honour of the Conil festival which consists of the whole town joining a procession of decorated wagons loaded with the entire stock of alcohol from the supermarket and walking to the next village where they have a bbq in the woods.Its called the Romeria de San Sebastian but was unfortunately cancelled on Sunday as the high winds meant that they couldn't get the floats decorated in time but it may kick off next Sunday although the forecast is not looking good for that.But the lunch was still good anyway. We play boules with Tony & Sabena when the sun shines & canasta with Harry & Joan when it doesn't.The Gf does pilates and I'm doing Tai Chi twice a week. Harry has started a Progressive Whist night,after a reasonable showing last year, which is even more popular this year and makes a very convivial evening. We've walked and cycled( weather permitting) into town and along the beach and have several offers of joining others for mass electric bike rides....the popularity of electric bikes increases every year, and they can even be hired in town now. The Gf is still wary of cycling if the wind is cold after last year when she was laid low with sinus and throat problems, so cycling is mainly on hold at the moment. Nick,Barbara,Dave & Geraldine arrived on Friday, in time for a very rollicking night at the restaurant with music by an aged rocker called Chris Cody who was excellent . We are not having success at the quiz. Wednesday night saw 118 people participating, 30 teams which is probably a record and we came 5th. We scored 39 and the winners scored 43 and we could have equalled them if certain peoples had been listened to. Our new partners, Paul & Caroline are ex-schoolteachers and their input should be better. I caved in to Picasso as the answer to 'Spanish painter 1904-89 who was born & died at Figueras' when I knew full well that Picasso had died in France, in the 70's & was 90+, and that Dali must therefore be the answer but they seemed so positive. There were other examples but I'm sulking so move on.
Last note on the weather, people who arrived yesterday spoke on having driven from Calais in 6 days and  had snow for 5 of them right down to Caceres, which is only a days drive from here. At least its much warmer than home.
 

OFF TO SUNNY SPAIN

January 17th 2013

who came down twice, spent a lot of The Fridge......had problems in September when the fridge wouldn't switch to 12v power when driving. Not a huge problem as it worked on gas and mains whenever we stopped, but not right, and then on our last night in France, it stopped working on gas and defrosted itself. So took it down to Chelston in Taunton in November for repairs - and had the filler connector for the refillable autogas bottles moved from inside the locker to outside to keep the french happy. The fridge problem was an electrical relay from the engine that had died so was soon fixed, but the fridge still didn't seem to be getting cold enough when I got home. This is a long story and I'm getting tired of typing.......found a Dometic engineer in Norwich time and eventually replaced everything on the fridge except the carcase and seemed to have it working...it was a brand new fridge by now. However, when we came to switch it on prior to loading up and leaving for Spain it certainly wasn't anywhere near cold. Frantic phone calls to our man in Norwich finally isolated the problem to having the winter covers on the ventillation ducts which was preventing a satisfactory airflow.....normally the covers go on in October and remain in situ until the spring but it seems the very large fridge we now have only requires vent covers when the temp. is below 10c. as there is a large gap between top & bottom ducts. So they are off all the time now and the fridge works and this may have been the problem from the start.
Stop me if this getting too technical.......

Down to Folkestone 6th.Jan. and through the Tunnel on the 7th at 07.50. Weather cloudy all the way to La Suze s/Sarthe (Lemans) and next day to Bordeaux. The continued work on the N10 seems near to completion and depressingly we passed a large Toll Station being built so more expense there next year. Decided to continue past San Sebastian where we have stopped before as we were making good time, and onto Vitorio Gasteiz, capital of the Basque country. Adequate but subsequently noisy aire in town but nice tram ride to historic centre which is worth a detour. Salamanca the next night where it was warm and sunny for the first time but the mist, cloud and drizzle returned the next day all the way to Zafra, another new stop on the route. Scrubby Aire in the showground complex but for some reason we followed 2 german vans round the back to find a quieter but more vulnerable place to park. Turned out ok but I still don't know why I let the Gf persuade me to go there.. Mist and fog next day down to Seville where we stopped for to top up the gas bottles (LPG is not readily available in Spain and the closest to Conil are Jerez & Seville, so best to fill up whenever possible) and then the sun came out as we passed Cadiz and arrived Conil about 14.00. Refueled, stopped at the supremarket for fresh supplies ( 2litre wine up from €2.17 last year to €2.70 but the usual Rioja down from €1.79 to €1.64 and Cruz Campo beer on offer at €1 for 2 550ml tins.)
Conil looking good, La Rosaleda fuller than it was this time last year and lots of old faces. Spent Saturday & Sunday getting straight after 7 days of travel (GF very tired & weary). Obviously without P&M to partner us in the Wed. quiz we had to find new blood and were happy to find Paul & Caroline, neighbours last year, had also just arrived and were happy to team up. Came 4th out of 22 last night with 39/50 and the winners only scored 41/50 so we are in the right zone...I said that the ribbon on the VC was purple but the Gf overruled me and that the Road to Istanbul was not a Hope&Crosby film otherwise we would have tied for 1st and we know how bad that could be for us..... 

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.
  

Ok we won't close down.

After throwing a hissy-fit over irritating comments from u-know-who I have been persuaded by nice comments from others to continue with my 'diary' as it appears to amuse. I have also set up a new facility now available whereby i can post by email which may solve some issues I've had in the past..so this is by way of a test run. Should it work i will finish off the Croatian trip in the next few days.

ADRIATIC HIGHWAY....

21st.- 24th.September

Left the lakes and headed south through scenic countryside towards ZADAR, turning up the coast slightly to STARIGRAD PAKLENCA and found a terrific campsite on the coast where we were lucky enough to get pitches right on the beach. Only downside is that Paul missed the step getting out of the van (no, he was sober) and has done serious damage to his shoulder and gear changing is agony let alone lifting beer & wine glasses and opening bottles has had to be delegated to Marianne. Actually its quite serious and we are now reorganising things so that he only drives on motorways and rests the shoulder  by stopping longer on sites......

Love STARIGRAD. Close to ZADAR where we took the bus to on Sunday. Nice town. Alfred Hitchcock said that Zadar had the best sunsets in the world and from Starigrad, about 20 miles as the crow flies, I feel he might be right. The bus trip was hilarious. Outward leg charged at 41 kune each, no ticket issued; return leg 5pm on a packed bus taking mostly students back up Rijecka and as we didn't have reservations it nearly caused a riot as we sat tight looking bemused and people with reservations had to stand and the conductor calmed everyone down ( I thinK ) pointing out that we would be getting off in half an hour into a 4 hour journey. In the end I had a long conversation with a nice Croation lad from Zadar whose parents owned a restaurant and who
was returning to uni after the weekend at home to study archeology. Saw no future in Croatia and was planning to emigrate to Canada or Australia and said he was typical of his generation. Scathing about the EU and saw joining the Euro as a disaster. Parents were suffering as tourism, on which this country seems to exist, was slowing and takings were less than 4 years ago. We have seen practically no agriculture and little livestock and he confirmed that most farms are little more than smallholdings feeding one extended family with no surplus for market even though there are fertile regions.....apparently potatoes all come from Moldova.

We feel that Croatians are a very happy bunch of people who are always smiling  and for whom service is a pleasure. Everybody speaks some english, even in country stores and most speak very good english. Campsites are very good and the facilities mainly modern, clean and always an abundance of hot water. We have never felt threatened and everyone we have encountered has been cheerful whilst relieving us of money - the country not being cheap and probably on a par with France (except in attitude). Food is plain, grilled mainly and lots of fish along the cost as you would expect but service is quite exceptional and a pleasure.

Paul's shoulder made the group decision not to go further south an easy one and as a long term decision to spend a few days in Venice had already been made we spent longer in Starigrad than we planned. This was no problem to me as I have fallen in love with the place and will return, I hope, many more times. The national park, Paklenica, is famouse for westerns being made there and I would like to explore more.

We left there with regret, heading north to OPatija and Lovran which we had passed through on the way to Krk and which looked like nice places.

Paul went the long way round on the motorway, we took the pretty route up the Adriatic Highway coast road which was the most spectacular 100 miles or so I have ever driven.
Dramatic coastline, sheer drops, mountains and views across to the islands of Pag,Rab and Krk.Not sure about driving down it, as that would be on the side of the road where the drops are (and the road was unguarded in some Places) but we had a great drive.

Fairly scrubby campsite at MEDVEJA but we all turned up, Paul in pain but a few beers revived him........beers are now bought in 2 litre bottles for about £2 which seems very civilised but which don't seem to last long.

43 YEAR WAIT IS OVER

KRK TO THE LAKES.......20th

A very pleasant sojurn on the island of KRK, some interesting walks past the naturist beaches of which Croatia has a great many.....the sign for one includes the letters FKK....and our evenings have fallen into a very predictable pattern. The sunsets continue to amaze and the weather is very warm and sunny, the town of PUNAT a short walk away and is a pleasant stroll. We did intend joining one of the many cruises out to other islands but they all stopped on the Tuesay we had put aside for it which was predictable as we were leaving the following day.
Stayed on KRK from 15th-18th and then headed inland to the lakes at PLITVICA.

THE PLITVICA LAKES AND NATIONAL PARK

We first heard about the Plitvica lakes in 1969 and planned a camping trip that year to what was then Yugoslavia but events conspired against us and the adventure was postponed for 43 years as it turned out. In the meantime, the lakes became a Unesco World Heritage site, Yugoslavia disappeared, Croatia went to war with Serbia and access to the lakes was denied by the Serbs, who mined the area and murdered the workers, between 1991-995 and we had 2 children, celebrated their marriages and rejoiced in the birth of our grandsons, so a lot of water had poured over the waterfalls..........
With so much baggage I had approached a visit here with some trepidation in case it disappointed. It did not and the 43 year wait was worth it...

There are a series of 16 lakes, fed by the Karana river, which drop about 600 mtrs. through a gorge, like a series of canal locks. The make-up of the water and the limestone is a unique combination which carves out channels and caverns in the rock to produce wonderful waterfalls.  Wooden walkways allow you to cross the lakes and the walk along the lakesides and hillsides; electric boats cross one of the largest lakes and after we had spent 6 hours walking from the bottom to the top there was an electric shuttle bus to take us back to the bottom ( in hindsight, taking the shuttle to the top and walking back down would be a good option, but at least our way meant that although walking uphill we did have the waterfalls in front of us all the time.).

The lakes are a national park now so camping etc is highly restricted. The official site is expensive, large, busy,fairly naff and 7kms from the lake entrance but a shuttle of free coaches arrives at 9am to transport happy campers to the entrance returning at 5pm.. for those not wishing to spend all day, a local bus runs hourly or taxis abound.

We arrived the first day in sunshine but it rained all night, not stopping until 6.30am. We had thought that the visit would have to be postponed another day but the forcast was right and the sun came out and the heavy overnight rain meant that more water was pouring over the falls than usual, so win-win. We were well stocked up with picnics but the catering in the park was of an excellent quality and reasonable price with pig-roast and spit-roast chickens at a huge log cabin complex beside one of the lakes and geared up very professionally for the thousands of visitors......even at this time of the year there was constant stream of coaches disgorging tourists from every corner of the known globe.....I personally took many photographs for young japanese,koreans and americans as you do...but I would not like to be shuffling along in the high summer when the pictures make the crowds look unbearable......bad enough in parts in September. But a great experience and I cannot rate a visit more highly. Go see for yourselves.

Wed. the 20th was Margaret's birthday and a very pleasant evening spent at the restaurant on the campsite where we had a great meal for around a £100 for the 6 of us.

Entrance to the lakes complex was 110 Kune a head 0r £12, which included hopping on and off as many boats or buses as you liked, all of which ran constantly with little waiting about so very efficient and we all thought good value

ALL TOGETHER NOW........

NOTHING WRONG WITH LUXEMBOURG    ....  13th.SEPT 2012

It's a well known fact that fuel is cheap in the Duchy, as anyone who has queued behind 200 lorries trying to get into a Luxembourg service station will attest so any trip south benefits from including a visit.

After days of sweltering heat, copious beers and plenty of wine, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that D&M were in Trieste and closing fast.....an ambiguous text which now appears to have been truncated lead us to believe that they had postponed starting yet again due to illness in the family but this was not the case. As we had planned on moving to PULA on the wednesday, it was decided that they would go straight there and we would join them. Rovinj to Pula was only an hours drive but complicated by the necessity to find a decent supermarket as essentials (beer and wine) were running perilously low, as were luxuries like meat and veg. Croatia does not seem to have a terrific supermarket network and the local Kozumo brand is very disappointing. Pula is the largest city on the Istrian peninsular, has a major traffic problem exacerbated by a major roadwork project on the main through route and signposting to supermarkets/trading estates is abysmal. Paul has a Garmin satnav which made a political decision to ignore the existence of Croatia when we crossed the border from Slovenia so he has to follow me closely or rely on Marianne to read a map ...plus alot of new roads have appeared in Croatia since I last updated the Tomtom and in trying to avoid the roadworks in Pula central by attempting to swing round the city to enter via Pula South, the Tomtom had us in the middle of nowhere for most of the trip. The net result of all this was we got separated trying to find the local Lidl (not my favourite but the only super/m of any size) and they ended up in downtown Pula in the roadworks..........We were eventually reunited at Lidl and fully stocked found the campsite and D&M. Good site on the coast (rocky)and great views. Much rejoicing to be quorate and much beer and wine consumed to celebrate and swap stories.
Mass visit to Pula by bus to see the roman amphitheatre which was rather spoilt by it being set up for a weekend of ice-hockey (it is wonderfully preserved and in constant use as a concert venue.......flooding & freezing it for icehockey is a first but it did detract from the overall view and was somewhat bizarre).

3 nights at Pula then a short trip to the KRK on the island of the same name. D&M shot off to the Lidl for supplies whilst Paul followed me, the planned route being to take the scenic coast road (which was indeed very scenic) but he misread the signs at the first junction and managed to get on the motorway heading back to Italy. This road eventually joined up with the motorway to Rijeka so he took the long toll road through the mountains and a tunnel to meet up with us at the toll bridge to the island of KRK, 46 Kune or about £5 for a motorhome. Island not very exciting to start with but when we reached the town of KRK the views were spectacular again, and we stopped 2 nights at a campsite overlooking the town and within walking distance ( bit of a slog back though). Excellent old town, very busy, lovely harbour where we all had a riotous sunday lunch followed by much sleeping off.

On Monday a short trip PUNAT, the other side of the town of KRK to another lovely site on the waters edge of a very pretty bay surrounded by hills.

Beer has now been found to be quite cheap, especially the local Ozujsko in 2 litre bottles 5% and 22 Kune (£2.40) which disappear very rapidly. Wine is perfectly acceptable but nothing decent under £3.....the girls tried some litres of white at under £2 but were not impressed and they still have 2 litres to get through. Paul & I found a wine shop selling red wine in 5 litre plastic bottles at £2 but as they wouldn't let us try it we gave it a miss.