Category Archives: Countries

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;).

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!

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!

Belgium, France

Where are they?…

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… Is something happening? Are they ok?
To answer the last question first: yes, we are ok. We are currently in the south of France, in Sevrier at the Lac d’Annecy, after having checked out two milongas in Brussels (rue de Dublin, recommended, nice place, good dancers, kind people) and some wonderful days with our friends Flop & Robert.  We were really spoilt and could have stayed another week at least to rest and get ready, but then again, when are you truly ready? We are discovering that while on the road, we learn the most and we find out where we want to have what and how we want it.
Think of shopping – how much food?, what kind of food?, we have a cooler, not a fridge, no left overs please! -, cooking, unloading the car, transforming it into our bedroom – where do we put the surplus stuff?, on the roof rack?, under the car? -, laundry, keeping the blog up to date, oh yes, and what about all that sightseeing we were going to do and the books to read, languages to learn and fun things to do?

Up til now, it has been a time to find our bearings, rest, and discover our rhythm. We are not there yet, but getting there. Every day we have a little bit more time to tackle something extra. Towards the end of the journey, we’ll be masters:)!

Belgium, Tango, The Netherlands, Uncategorized

What have we been up to last week

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Our first week on the road… still in the comfort of private homes and company of friends. We arrived in NL on Wednesday morning to meet up with Mariska and spent some lovely time over apple pie of Dudok in The Hague followed by finding the Iranian embassy closed (although not mentioned on their website and having had the day organised around their opening time between 14h and 16h), then joining Marlies, Jaap and Teun at Van der Valk in Nootdorp. What a match NL-AUS we enjoyed while having dinner and chit chats! Overnight in Nijmegen at my parent’s place, where we emptied the whole car. My goodness what had we all taken for this journey!
We hadn’t had time to put the chest with car parts and tools on the roof rack, nor anything else, so all was inside of the car. We are planning to get it all up on the roof when leaving Paris next week Monday.
Unexpectedly we made a return journey on Thursday to the Iranian embassy in The Hague again, with waiting time of 2.5 hours! We met some lovely people, millener, mathematician, researcher of apps on the human psyche etc. who were all on their way to requesting their visas. Mine would be ready by Monday.
A flits good bye to my family while on our way to the wedding of Renske and Mark. A delightful day, happy, emotional ceremony and a lot of dancing at the party. Saturday a family reunion; brothers, sisters, cousins of my father and their children and children’s children. It was an exciting day of meeting new people who are family. With all our trips to The Hague, we are now very familiar with the A15, the A12 and the A4;). We had a wonderful stay with Vera and Ab, with goodbye wave to friends in Amsterdam, after which we continued our journey to Brussels where we are currently. The Grand-Place and Manneken Pis have received our visit so far, as well as Bonsoir Clara to celebrate Helle’s birthday together with Hanne.
Tonight we’ll check out a local milonga.

Countries

The Route: Azerbaijan is out/in

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The more and more we read and research, the clearer our journey is becoming. I am going to collect my passport tomorrow and then it is time to get the visas going. And for this we’ll need our itinerary as we’ll have to give dates of when exactly (approximately) we’ll be visiting a given country.

One of the decisions we have made, is that we’ll leave Azerbaijan aside on this journey. Or have we? Road police lurking behind every bush and tree (or so the research says), not really welcome with a right-hand drive car and the most ridiculous traffic rules make that we are thinking twice about to visit.  To be continued!