All posts by Stefani

Italy, Venice

Back to Italy: the same mistake?

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From Motovun in Croatia, we took the road to Buzet and entered Slovenia through the ‘back door’, a scenic route. A short while later, before you know it, we had entered Italy again. Immediately to Venice, or shall we visit this Venitian square in Udine first and find a camping in that neighbourhood? Ok, let’s do Udine and then we’ll see. This has turned out to not be the smartest way to play, as a camping might not turn up. The square in Udine had a stage set up which was being taken down, and at the tourist office, they sent us back 35km for a camping. We had received a list, and decided to go south, kind of in the direction of Venice, and find a camping there. Camping Girasole turned out to host a festival evening till 2am, not really what we were looking for, so we continued. Maybe in Bibione more luck as more focused on families. What do they have there? Whole ‘camping’ village with all the entertainment you can image! And at quite a rate!!! So again, not what we were looking for (at all). Our idea of camping and the Italians ideas differ here and there and a price of EUR35 per night at least is out of the question (we are travelling 9 months)!
So, the same mistake as we had made already before, just going in a direction and hoping to find a camping along the way. We need to prepare! It’s high season and campings are pretty full, so it would be smart to get organised;).

In the mean time, time had passed on and it was passed dinner time already, so we decided to get a pizza (what else?) along the road and pull through to Venice. Arriving at a camping, we decide on another night of wild camping (much easier and more at ease than the first time;)), and check in at a camping the next morning. Setting up on a pitch, having breakfast and getting ready for a visit of… Venice!

Croatia, Italy, Slovenia

Following Slovenia: Croatia

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Arriving from Slovenia, the motorway in this case, into Croatia, what was noticeable was a small village on a mountain ridge, not seen in Europe (yet). We arrived in Porec, which was our destination for a tango festival. But oh, how disappointed we were straight away: Porec seems to be a very pretentious sea side town, with campings more expensive than France, Italy and Slovenia! They clearly are looking to make money and nothing else; even at the ‘tourist information’ (something everyone can set up and which profession is not bound to any rules, so there are many to find in town – which one is the official one? There apparently was only one and he was overly busy with all the tourists who flood the place for ‘doing nothing, beach, drinking and fun’ – typically what we would be looking for;)).
After spending some time looking around, we found another village, Motovun, a lovely little Middle Age village 40min drive from Porec, where we decided to spend the night. We met some very nice Austrians, Gerhard & Christine, who recommended a delicious place to eat in the neighbourhood, restaurant Kodoba Dolina, a 7km drive away in the middle of nowhere. Fried squid for £3.50 and hand-made noodles with goulash for an equally good price. All topped with a home made ‘Schapps’ and cherry liqueur and some sweets, on the house.

We left the next day, although Motovun could have been lovely to visit. We felt too disappointed by our initial arrival and wanted to go back to Italy, on our way to friends.

Slovenia, Uncategorized

Why Slovenia?

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From the Dolomites in the north of Italy, it was a natural continuation of our journey. But then again, there were many more reasons: to experience its very friendly and helpful people, who spoke English well; calmer and less stressful driving (than in Italy); to tank up with cheaper fuel (than in Italy); to see gorgeous nature and scenic routes, rivers with water in them (opposite to Italy where the rivers are (nearly) dry) and to visit the country of our dear absent friends Mateja & Katarina.
* Dawitt-die Jause (www.dawit.it) coffee/lunchroom at the border from Italy to Slovenia and our meeting with an older Austrian couple. Coffee is half the price here to 15 min down the road in Austria where they live. Next to that it also tastes much better here! The place is family run, very welcoming, homely and clean. Delicious cheese and cold cuts and artisanal items for lunch or to take away (great gifts!).
* Radovljica: delayed lunch on a parking, which at the end of it had one bench overlooking a beautiful valley, well worth the wait.
* our meeting with the Belgian coupe in Radovljica while enjoying the view and absorbing their willing offering of information about the region and where to stay.
* Bohinjsko (lake) Jezero
* Ukanc
* the Czech university group on excursion, who kept our morals high by playing and singing Czech folk songs while it was the whole evening pouring down with heavy rain at the campsite.

The next day we continued our journey once the rain came pouring into the area again, not stopping unfortunately in Ljubljana, but moving on to Croatia in search for the sun.

Reasons enough to visit Slovenia and look back on a wonderful two days.

 

 

 

Dolomites, Italy

A walk in the mountains

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And what kind of mountains… the Dolomites in the north of Italy. The most important thing of the day that I had forgotten to write about in the previous post. Important – as it had taken me quite some convincing, but then it was of course my sweet husband who wanted to go further than planned;). We had a delightful walk up on one of the mountains of the ‘Five Peaks’, a well-spent 2 hours as break to our day and to get some exercise again;).

Dolomites, Italy

Italy

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We have been warmly welcomed by our friend Ghazaal, who introduced us to her friends Siavash and Ali for a delightful stay in Torino, after we found our chosen camping had closed down and we would have been sleeping ‘in the street’ or it would have become our first night of wild camping. Instead we were offered kindness and chats in the comfort of another home which welcomed us.
Torino is a very lined/squared city (such as cities in the USA) and has several big squares, as well as the biggest square of Europe (when studying Urban Planning you know all these things!).  And then there is the river Po, for many a solace in this place.
After a magnificent breakfast and although pouring rain, we decided to continue our route through the north of Italy. Friday 4 to Saturday 5 July we spent on a camping just under Como.

And the next day… scenic routes along the Como lake! Small roads, challenging Italian drivers, but beautiful views, with a cup of cappuccino in Blevo, a little town at the lake. We went to Iseo, at Lago Iseo and found a camping at the lake, of course an invite to stay although its price was more than we had ever paid so far! Well worth the view, despite the loud Italian crowd which also stayed at this camping. Very idyllic, we found a spot between two olive trees and set up our table and chairs: guarantee for dinner at the lake!
And although the Netherlands was playing in the evening (World cup against Costa Rica), and our wish was to enjoy the starry sky for a while, we were in bed by 22h50, in for a wonderful nights sleep.

On Sunday we continued our journey to ultimately Nova Levante-Welschnofen. We had wanted to stop earlier, but the two campings we passed asked ridiculously high prices for a night’s stay (EUR 38!), that we decided to continue to the place we had had in mind in the first place and that we would see what we would find there. A parking in front of the tourism office awaited us, with on the other side of the river a little recreational area, even with toilets! They were open when we arrived, locked when we returned from our walk in the village after our dinner. A pity, but nevertheless, we decided to stay in the car, in the parking and try out our first night of ‘wild camping’. Quite scary I found, my mind busy and challenging to fall asleep. We have curtains all around, so nobody can see us, but still, what if…???
We were awake at 6h20 (a first this early!), moved all our stuff from the passenger front seat into the back and drove off, to stop straight away again for some breakfast at the local bakery (Naeckerly); delicious and a wonderful way to leave this hospitable village – Nova Levante!

For the last two days everything has been indicated on the road in both Italian and German. So finally I realised that the two names the cities here are made up of, are also Italian and German and that a city is not called i.e. ‘Bolzano-Bozen’, but Bolzano in Italian and Bozen in German.

Today we ended up at our last night in Italy for a moment; we are in Forni di Sopra in the Dolomites of northern Italy. The drive today has been spectacular, the mountains rugged and rough and the passes many (three in total, with the highest 2239m and the one with the most ‘tornanti’ (hairpin bends) had 33! So much for the incredible safe driving of my husband, thank you!!! At times so close to the edge and with crazy on-coming traffic, I was grateful that Saeed drove. But he, a fantastic driver is nothing without a great navigator next to him;).

Gifts

The Wilhelmusje & Gifts

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Wilhelmusje
From our dear friends Janine and Gerard, we received our ‘masqotte’: the Wilhelmusje. Promise to be made: explain in every country what this is and take a photo with it in each country we are passing through. And so we did in NL, BE and FR. For all you lovely readers: ‘Wilhelmusje’ is a Dutch play on words. The national anthem of my country is called the ‘Wilhelmus’ and a ‘mus’ is the little house bird everyone knows, the sparrow.
This Wilhelmusje has been introduced for the Worldcup this year (please correct me if I am wrong) and can be bought everywhere in NL.
It is orange, because our royal house is called ‘Van Oranje’ (from Orange) and therefore our national colour is orange.

Saint Christopher
As protector of travellers, we received a St Christopher from my mum and Gerard for safe keeping on our journey. Very precious to take, as this one used to be from my grandfather. We are keeping it in our home to make sure this special place is protected while we are on the way.

Marlies’ gift bag
We received a delightful bag with several items from Marlies. It contained the following:
– a spiralled rugged little notebook so we can write things and tear the page out if we need to give it to someone
– cleansing wipes (2 packs!), which made Marlies so happy on their world journey and I am sure they will come in handy on our journey too, as Saeed has been lying already several times under the car getting his hands quite dirty;)
– Dutch mini-stroopwafels for when we are feeling homesick
– and a delightful card with very meaningful, personal message from Jaap & Marlies to be read in times of trials and tribulations so it can cheer us up

From Rachid we received a string of crystal red peppers to protect us.

It all started with a little, blue bird I received from Elisabeth… flying away to other corners of the world!

Thank you all for your thoughtfulness!
Also all of you who had wanted to give us something for our journey, your thoughts alone are plenty, thank you for spending time with us ‘en route’.

France

France

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Tricky those drivers on the road tail gaiting you constantly. Annoying as well as you want to take it easy and not feel pushed the whole time. Although initially we wanted to stay in Paris a few days and do the ‘tourist route’, we clearly didn’t fit in the underground parking and don’t have the confidence yet to leave TLC in the streets, this might come over time and with experience;).

We’ll leave dancing along the Seine for our dedicated visit to this wonderful city.

So from Paris, we moved on to buy a ladder (see To answer your questions…) and food for the evening before continuing to our first camping stay. We arrived in Souppes sur Loing, just under Nemours at a delightful camping with wifi… but only near the router! This turned out to be the same wherever we go. Hence with all the rain we are experiencing and not being able to sit under a cover, a little challenging to be online.
In Souppes, although bad weather, Saeed kept his head cool and got us going with the roof rack. What needs to go up there? Well, uhm, the chest with tools and car parts, the jerry cans and the water can, and what else? Our suitcases with clothes??? Ok then (not realising we would be banned for the coming week to the same clothes we were wearing, due to rain and no chance to take the suitcases off unless under severe weather conditions and with the necessary consequences).
After these items went on top, we should have some more space in the car; it seemed however that not much had changed. It is clear that we hadn’t figured out yet how to go about our stuff, but this would come!

The next morning, although dark clouds were hanging over us, Saeed made our first cup of tea on the stove, which worked beautifully! Immediately after having consumed our breakfast, rain poured down again. But we still have to rig the stuff to the roof rack and put the tarpolin on! In between rain drops, we managed to firstly secure the items with ratchets and a wire with padlock to the roof rack, and then secure the tarpolin with rope. We would drive for half an hour and then check if all was happy. Once on the road, it all seemed happy, so we made our way to our next stop: a camping in Sévrier. Time for our first dinner at the camp site. As we had bought some fuel for the stove, it now became much happier and our meal of rice with meatballs in delicious sauce, made by the great Chef Saeed Khostip-eman, tasted better than ever!
Every day there is something new we are adding to our programme, be it cooking, going through boxes and rearranging so more can be put in, putting things in a practical way in the hanging pockets in our ‘bedroom’, putting two plastics bags into one and ultimately gaining space.
After our first night of cooking, I rearranged our two baskets of cooking equipment so we have the essentials together in one and do not need to get both baskets out of ‘storage’ when cooking. I know, this sounds simple, but as we had not had any time to prepare the car practically before departure, we are discovering and rearranging on the go. It seems to work!
And we become happier with the day. It also slowly creates more time to start doing other things… such as writing on our blog, emptying the camera hard disk, go through the photos and hopefully soon upload them!

TLC, Toyota

TLC & Toyota dealerships

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Here we are, driving around in our TLC (Toyota Landcruiser Colorado) and while getting around, finding out how this new home of ours operates and functions.
In Nijmegen, at Toyota Scholten (http://scholten-nijmegen.nl/), we had some diagnostics done due to some little concerns. The service we received was tremendous: we received a list of part numbers and detailed quote, so we could make a well-informed decision. As we would have to do another return Den Haag-Nijmegen to get it done (after having done an extra unforeseen one to hand in my passport at the Iranian embassy), we decided to take the information with us and see that we’ll get it done somewhere on our way instead of especially driving back and forth for it.
Then when in France, we tried our inverter for the first time. Fuse blew! So we changed the fuse under the bonnet. Cigarette lighter still not working… neither the radio! My incredibly smart husband knew immediately that there must be another fuse somewhere in the car. But where? We needed some help and travelled up and down the town of Moulins, waited until at 14h the ‘Feu Vert’ car place was open again (everything closes between 12h and 14h in FR), they sent us to the Ford dealer down the road, who sent us to the Toyota dealer in the other direction!
Finally we arrived at Toyota Saga Moulins (http://saga-moulins.concessions-toyota.fr/), where we were asked to wait a moment. But then we received value for our waiting: the other fuse box is simply located under the dashboard, changing another blown fuse in this fuse box made all cigarette lighters work again, as well as the radio. When the mechanic looked at our inverter, he also noticed that the + and – poles had been incorrectly connected (not our mistake!), and so within 10 minutes, all our worries were solved and our TLC gave us tlc again. And for a smile alone!

Thank you Toyota Dealers, you have been fantastic support so far.

Q&A

To answer your questions…

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Dear Mariska, we bought a mattress in Zaventem, BE, and are currently sleeping safe and sound in our new ‘bedroom’ (in the car). More comfortable than expected, although sleeping on slopes is a bit challenging;).

Dear Flop, no photos yet of our new decorated ‘bedroom’, but once we get the hang of uploading photos simply and quickly to our blog, you’ll be the first one to get the grand tour!
Also for Flop: in the end we only stayed one night in Versailles and moved on from Paris; we’ll leave a decent visit to this city up to a special city break once settled again.

In the mean time, we found our telescopic ladder at a Bricorama just outside Paris (reasonable price too!). Makes it far easier to get to the roof rack, put stuff on it and take it off again, although we haven’t had the chance to do that as of yet due to rain and not enough time. As it will be our first time to take everything off since we put it up last Sunday, we might need a few hours of sunshine to ensure we repack and put all back on the roof before the next shower of rain appears.

Any further questions? Once a week (or month depending on the number of Qs coming in), we’ll hold a Q&A session;).

Lots of love,

S&Sx

Camping, France

What happened since Belgium?

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From Belgium, we entered France. Up to Paris! Or so we thought. We had the luxury of staying overnight in Versailles with Anne (ever seen that immense palace???) and be welcomed with a festive dinner by Rachid Koraichi. The next day, a lighting visit into the city to see the wonderful exhibition of Association Schams at the town hall of the VIII arrondissement (http://tidjaniaschamstemacine.blogspot.fr/), where we met our dear friend Dominique. She took us for a coffee, followed by a walk to the Arc de Triomphe. Photo moments, lovely chats and a stroll back through the the park made us decide to leave this beautiful city and come back another day for an extended visit without the worries of a full car to take care of.

Off for our first night of camping!