Italy Pics

Wednesday, 24 September 2008 00:35:00 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Italy

Spain and the Sea Food Platter!

We picked up sticks and moved to Spain. Within the day we had found a Mercedes garage and Phil got some parts and mended Nessie.  We went to the Costa Brava - to a campsite named Nautic Almata which was perfect for water- sport enthusiasts – especially when wind was on the menu!!

Again – warm, sunny and breezy was the order of the day.......we took a beach- side pitch and the children were in their element swimming in the Med again – from another side! This campsite closed for the season on Sunday 14^th September and we were found out that the Spanish schools returned  back on the 15^th September after a very long summer vacation. Jemma and I had our hair cut (Jemma’s  for the 3^rd time this adventure) and mine cut short because I find it too hot for long hair!!

So-as this campsite was closing - we had to move again –we would have stayed longer if we could! We found a campsite which we have visited and enjoyed in our previous travels –in the Costa Daurada near Tarragona –  La Costa Del Sol. It was ironic that we have travelled this distance and our receptionist was from Bideford -15 miles from our home in North Devon! It is a small world after all!!

We had an enjoyable and eventful day down at the beach – some 70 metres from our pitch! We were hounded by the “Lookie Lookie Men“and within the space of 10 minutes Phil was offered a watch, a shirt, sunglasses and a Tia massage!! Phil continues to blame my white legs for the “Lookie Lookie Men” – as they seem to be some sort of magnet?!

Jemma made a hasty exit from the sea after being stung by ‘something’ and on closer inspection the stings were all in a line – indicating a Jellyfish sting. Out came the bag of remedies kindly given to us by our neighbour – Lin  (a qualified Medical Herbalist) – before we left- and we have to say that the bite lotions and potions have been used often!!Thank-you very much!!

We have decided to avoid the use of washing machines now that the weather is so hot and so the children now take it in turns to stomp on a basket full of washing .............this does wonders for the feet and is a much cheaper option. It also helps to show the side of life which is ever important to the lessons of Macswayround!! (there is not always a Zanussi in sight!!)

We also enjoyed a lovely time in the swimming pool here-lots of new extensions to the swimming pool area – including a Jacuzzi from 4 years prior!

Time to move through Spain again – but we were able to give Nessie her first well deserved bath before we left La Torre Del Sol. We drove not far off 300 miles that day to get to a campsite near Alicante – on the Costa Blanca – Camping Internacional La Marina.

In our opinion this campsite has one of the best swimming pool complexes with Jacuzzi and sport and fitness facilities ......... even with a pool- side bar! There is also mega good 24 hour security too – which is very important to us at this time – as I’m sure you can imagine.

We are waiting here for the post as we have ordered another new extra security device- online. This is in our mission to make “Macswayround” even safer and to save the wear and tear on Phil’s Hardwood baseball bat.

There have been creative activities here- which the children have thoroughly enjoyed (as there is limited space in Nessie) and Phil does not appreciate Glitter and glue everywhere–but they have certainly had their fix here!  There have also been weekend evening entertainments for the children and Jemma even went along sporting her new traditional Spanish dress!

We have even had time for monopoly –and you know how many hours that can go on! Our children are very keen on making money for their next travel adventures and Ben has even  started writing plans for his travel route when he goes round the world- when he’s a grown up! He is trying to raise some funds for this by pricing up his belongings and sitting at the edge of our pitch -selling his wares! He has named this “Macs Mini Market” -which is very scary – because that’s exactly what his Dad did some years ago at school. Tonight- he actually came home with a profit! Yesterday he made 2 euros profit and today he has come home with 13.75 Euros, bought 4 ice-creams (for himself and Jemma) and his Dad a beer at the pool-side bar!

It may be difficult to imagine – but time is flying by so fast here -the day is almost done before it starts....Phil is practising his Diablo skills (or lack of them!) until they are good one day! The children say they are very good until I start to watch – and then it all goes wrong?!

We treated ourselves to a meal in the restaurant and have now seen how important it is to learn the local tongue! We ordered - what we thought was Steak and vegetables - only to be presented with a whole seafood platter! Fish filled the entire plate from octopus rings, tuna steaks, langoustines, shrimps, salmon and hake (to name but a few !!) We ploughed our way through this – Phil was in his element, although I ate the octopus rings just to get the off my plate! I have to say that they reminded me of chewing gum............ and Phil did his “Mr Bean on Holiday” impression with the shell fish – much to the children’s delight!

Afterwards – when we were very full of fish – the kind waiter came and laid us some more cutlery. We were then given our steak and vegetable dish! This took quite some ploughing through and we did not need to eat for quite some time! Our neighbours at the table next door were laughing and I suggested to them that it might be a good idea if we learnt some more Spanish - at least we might know what we were ordering!!

We have tried out a ‘new’ energetic game- called “Padel”. We have found out that this sport is very popular in Spain and Mexico and is just beginning to get known in England. We have not heard of it before but it is a fast paced combination of Tennis, Squash and Racquet-ball, with even a bit of Table-Tennis thrown in!!

The game is played in a court about one third of the size of a tennis court with surrounding back and side walls – similar to that of a squash court. The ball is similar to a tennis- ball, however the racquets are solid paddles rather than string racquets. You must serve underarm with a bounce before the serve and you are allowed to play the ball off the walls too! This was great fun!

FACT-OID:

·         We drove past hundreds of acres of Salt Lakes on our approach to La Marina – many shallow flat lakes with mountains of salt nearby!

WILDLIFE HIT:

·         Real Life Flamingos at the road side –in the salt lakes on the approach to La Marina!

Wednesday, 24 September 2008 00:10:46 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Spain

We are on a roll !!

Saturday, 20 September 2008 01:10:28 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Croatia

message to all.............

We would like to point out that we are thoroughly enjoying our time in Europe, throughout every country, and that the writing in our blogs is purely made up of our experiences in those countries at that time – they are never intended to offend anybody.

Please enjoy the latest photos and await a new blog very soon – Thank-you ..........

Friday, 19 September 2008 21:47:04 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Spain

National Park in Croatia - pics

Friday, 19 September 2008 16:22:30 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [1]  Croatia

and there's more!

Thursday, 18 September 2008 22:16:41 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Austria | Germany | Poland | Sweden | Slovenia

Hooray - maybe pictures will happen!!

Wednesday, 17 September 2008 22:36:20 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  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 16^th 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)      Comments [1]  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)      Comments [0]  Croatia