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Saturday, 20 September 2008
Friday, 19 September 2008
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Hooray - maybe pictures will happen!!
Wednesday, 17 September 2008 22:36:20 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) Denmark | HOME | Poland | Sweden | Netherlands
Adventures in Italy.........
The night ferry crossing took 8 hours to get us from Split (Croatia) to Ancona (Italy). Phil had an interesting experience boarding Nessie onto this ferry as he had to reverse all of the way –and it was at an angle of 90 degrees! He had about 4 different Croatian blokes shouting different instructions at him – I think I’m glad Phil was driving!!
When we landed in Italy we drove to a site near Rimini –Camping Riccione. We were too old for this site! it did not seem family orientated to us –more for groups of teenagers enjoying their “boom boom “ music...the lads were even ironing their white jeans in the laundry room before they hit the club for the night! We wondered if there were any friendly, happy people around here – but it did get better as time went on during our time in Italy! We only stayed one night as we felt out of place and also had pitched right next to a very busy railway line. It sounded like an earth quake every time a train passed!
We did have a strange incident when a lady pulled up in her car on the site and asked Phil if we were an ambulance and if he was a doctor!? She had seen the picture of the air ambulance on the side of Nessie and had assumed that we were an ambulance and she had a passenger who required a doctor. When Phil tried to explain that we were not an ambulance..... she sped off........
Next we moved to Tuscany (nearby Florence) and stayed at camping Village II Poggetto. Here the staff were extremely amenable and let us have a lovely flat area to set up Nessie. The children were given sweets on our arrival and we were given a bottle of wine to remember them by as we left as they were extra interested in our trip and wished us well– thank-you very much!
We took the bus from just outside the entrance to the centre Florence – we were very pleased with this option rather than to have to try and find somewhere to park Nessie for the day. This journey was slightly hair- raising for Phil – who much prefers to be in the driving seat -but at least there was air conditioning!
In one day we obviously did not see half of what the historical city of Florence has to offer but my Gran has spoken to Phil in the past about how she had always loved Florence, and we could see why. The architecture was amazing and as a capitol of the arts there were many exhibitions and museums to be seen - if we were not trekking young children with us!! We did see the amazing marble cathedral and refresh ourselves with a few mouth watering gelatos throughout the day!
The other important feature that we saw was the Ponte Vecchio – the most ancient and characteristic bridge in Florence. The bridge, which was already in existence in Roman times might now be referred to as the golden bridge! Towards the end of the 16th century it was granted over to the goldsmiths and still today you can only find jewellers shops across the stretch of this bridge! These were the sort of jewellers where the displays are sparklingly exquisite and there were not many signs of any prices marked on these precious gems!
We continued our journey through Italy and stayed in Pisa. Our campsite was within walking distance of the town and was dedicated to the tower – being called Camping Torre Pendente. The Leaning Tower (bell tower) of the cathedral was very interesting to see and we took some very original photos of each of us holding the tower up! Works to strengthen the tower took some eleven years to complete and the tower was only re-opened to the public at the end of 2001.
Our third and final port of call in Italy was back to the coast , heading towards France. We found a lovely site again with a warm welcome – Villaggio dei Flori – in Sanremo. We had an eventful journey as we got caught up in the Genova traffic system . We were then committed to driving through the city and found ourselves on a very long bridged flyover with a maximum weight limit of 2.5 tons – (and we know Nessie weighs in at 4.5 tons)- woops! Phil was trying to keep a good distance between the car in front and the car behind us for fear of the bridge collapsing! Nessie is too heavy yet again! We wondered why there were no other lorries, caravans or campers in sight! We had to go with the flow of traffic and pray.....that no police saw us! We even had to negotiate a tunnel that was only high enough for Nessie if we kept in the middle lane and it was not lit up at all! Quite nerve racking after bright sunlight, but we managed to find our way out of the city and back onto the motorway – in the direction of Monte Carlo.
The children enjoyed lots of snorkelling here with Daddy and sang and danced to Italian songs during the evening entertainments. Jemma and Ben made friends with a nine year old Italian lad and Phil was very surprised when he came to call for Jemma at 10.15pm!! When we said that the children were already asleep, he went off and returned with his mum! Luckily she was able to speak some English and we talked about our trip. When we left the next morning she came over to say goodbye and gave us a bottle of her own homemade speciality 2003 vintage wine – another big thank-you!
We managed to make contact with school through Skype and it was great to see everyone back in Pyworthy and to catch up.
We moved to France, as you know, and the rest, as they say – IS HISTORY!
FACT-OIDS:
· In our experience – indicating at a roundabout or junctions is a thing of the past in Italy.
· Again – in our experience – patience while at the wheel is not found in the Italian vocabulary!
· We set a challenge in the first few days of being in Italy – to find a happy and friendly Italian!! (but it did get better!)
· The top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is caught up with a helicoidal scale of 293 steps.
· It was from the top of the Leaning Tower that Galileo Galilei carried out his experiments around the laws of gravity.
· The maximum slope from the top to the centre or the base of the tower is 5.22 M.
· The increment of slope until 1993 was 1.2 every year and now, after consolidation jobs the tower has an inclination reduced to .38 per year. (these facts are as found on information at the tower!)
WILDLIFE HIT :
· An Octopus and cuttle fish while snorkelling, and swimming with an enormous shoal of small fish.
Wednesday, 17 September 2008 22:10:51 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) Italy
Croatia to Italy bound.............
Here’s a quick catch up.....
We took the short journey from Seget to Split and spent some time exploring the city before catching the night ferry to Italy.
I tried out some special sun oil that a lady had sold me in Trogir market. We later found out that it was possibly made from a local fig tree concoction and is used to help tan the skin – can’t think why she zoomed in on me?! Mixed with carrot (?!) -it can also be used as a sun block. As we walked by a lady selling her own figs she offered Ben a fig. He loved them and ended up sitting next to her at the stall and scoffing fresh figs! We did end up buying a huge bag full and Ben came away happy!
Anyway - In Split we visited the Diocletian’s Roman Palace. These underground rooms are among the best preserved monuments of the Roman building heritage in the world. The palace is a rectangular building (215m by 180m), with four big towers at each corner, four gates on each side and four small towers on its walls. These underground rooms were very cool- ideal for the climate and just another example of Roman thinking beyond its time! There were many examples of advanced craftsmanship in the construction of this building – only using manual skills and many hours of labour. (We have seen many more examples of this during our time in Italy too).
FACT-OID:
· Thinking back to Slovenia for a moment –we forgot to mention that (in our experience) if you would like to buy some shoes – the price displayed is for only one shoe!
Wednesday, 17 September 2008 22:06:46 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) Croatia
Sunday, 14 September 2008
EMERGENCY BLOG
During the night of Thursday 11th September 2008 we camped the night at a rest area in the Montpellier area of France.
We were careful to ensure that we were not isolated and there were other campers, cars and lorries also staying the night all around us...........We spoke to a friendly French couple next door to us and they also felt safer to know we were staying the night right by them.........
We cooked a lovely meal including jacket potatoes in the microwave which used lots of the power out of Nessie’s batteries and drew them down. During the night the lights tripped and as we didn’t want to disturb people in the night –we waited to sort this out in daylight.
During the early hours of Friday morning I was dramatically woken by Phil shouting at full volume...... (which is very loud). He had been disturbed by a very faint rustling noise and came to -only to see a male youth standing right there inside Nessie. As Phil screamed “RIGHT THATS IT “and jumped out of bed to grab his base ball bat - the thug (and this is my polite version) scrambled out past the steering wheel and out of the driver’s door. As we had no lights Phil took a few seconds to undo the double locked side door and got out as ‘he’ crossed the road and another thug came running from behind Nessie to join back up with him........and they were gone.......it had all happened so quickly.....
Obviously the children were awake by now and we were all very shaken by the incident. We continue not to be able to understand the mentality or nerve of this ”........... “ to be able to break and enter knowing that there were people inside ......It was all carried out so very quietly and beat all the extra security measures that we had in place ....(at that time).
Within half an hour we had established that ‘he’ had stolen Phil’s wallet, Phil’s watch (this had woken Phil as he had heard the attached chain rattle), Ben’s wallet, Jemma’s bag (including her purse) and (as we have since discovered )– a cowboy hat. (We hope that we know about everything.....)
Our friendly French neighbour telephoned the police for us and was very apologetic to us when she was told that there were no police available to send out and we could go to the next town and report it in the morning- if we liked, but they were not at all interested. The attitude of the French police has completely disgusted us, as we also asked a group of 8 policemen nearby to help us and none of them were interested either. When it became light we realised our next problem – a toll ticket that we had no cash to pay for. We talked to a couple of German lads who were parked behind us and had also slept the night, and they offered to lend us some money and then follow us to the nearest cash point to be paid back. This was really kind of them and we kept in touch car to car with our walkie- talkies.
We went and found the nearest police station and were eventually told that there was no point in writing a report because it would be in French (?). We were offered no sign of an incident number and just told to report it when we returned to England – how does this work? When we explained that this wasn’t going to be for quite some time – the French policeman stood there and shrugged his shoulders.......we found this unbelievable.........
We tracked down a Mercedes garage and Phil had mended Nessie before the end of the day and Phil’s bank cards were cancelled with one phone call to Cardguard within half an hour too.
We have all done lots of talking about this incident and probably thought of nothing else since...and “they” have been called every name under the sun. Our privacy and safety has been compromised .It will take us time to recover but we have taken this as our warning which we got away with lightly (total value £250’s worth, to date).We have learnt a BIG lesson and now have even greater security measures in place. It is now not possible for anyone to break and enter Nessie in the same way. Phil has devised noisy safety devices and chains and we have motion sensors that will be switched ON when we are in or out. We have an extra routine that we will be vigilant in conducting every single time......
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and we have decided we need a dog – the best security ever-Jessie would have sorted him out. We will not let this incident ruin our adventures.......take our advice (again in Hindsight) and avoid nights on the road in France.
The next blog will continue with happier times as we catch you all up with the end of our time in Croatia........until now.
Take care until next time.......(and remember not to rely on the French police for anything).
Sunday, 14 September 2008 09:29:40 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) France
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Maybe Not..............
Slight technical hitch with the photos (on my part)..........Back soon!............
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 22:30:04 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
AT LAST - some photos?!
Family McKenzie begin the adventure....
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 11:56:02 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) Croatia