Back to the Mountains

We have been very busy over the past month or more with a royal visit from Alison’s mum, a great time on the French and Italian rivieras and a wide variety of touring.

But first of all, we are back in the mountains, this time the Dolomites in the north of Italy. We are writing this 1400 m above sea level at Camping Vidor at Pozza di Fassa near Trento. The camp was recommended by a German couple we met in Levanto, Herbert and Dagmar. Thanks guys!

This is easily the best camp we have seen so far with luxury bathrooms, a great restaurant, wonderful facilities for all campers and a terrific German style spa centre. It is also the most dramatic location of all the places we have stopped at. The snow capped Dolomites are literally all around us. Those of you who remember Silvester Stallones’s movie Cliffhanger will be surprised to know that it was filmed right here, not in the US. We can see the peaks where the first scenes were filmed just a few kilometers from our camper. Occasionally some of those stolen thousand dollar bills blow past on the breeze! (Only Cliffhanger fans will understand.)

We came here intending to stay a few weeks if the weather was good but will stay just one week. The only problem is that the resort and the village are both almost deserted as we are between seasons. We are amongst just 3 or 4 other vans in the camp, all of them German. (This seems to be the trend everywhere we go with probably 80% of campers being German.)

The restaurant is busy because it’s about the only thing open anywhere in or near the village which is just a few hundred meters down the road. The locals are all busy chopping and neatly stacking firewood and most shops are closed. We even struggled to find a simple cafe to have lunch in a few days ago but you can see the place will be jumping as soon as it starts snowing. Skiers can ski 1220 kms of trails from where we sit.

When we arrived the temperature was about 6 degrees and falling. We had a great dinner in the restaurant and when we came out it was down to minus 3. We woke up the next morning to about a centimeter of snow. It was magic but a bit chilly (which is a bit of an understatement!) This camp has terrific electricity (in some camps the electricity has been so bad that we haven’t even been able to boil our electric kettle!) so we have been able to run our reverse cycle aircon almost non-stop (except while we sleep) and this has been really effective. But it has warmed up and most days this past week have been about 15 and with utterly cloudless skies but down to below zero each night. Our days have been spent catching up with house jobs, walking in the mountains, shopping in town and chilling out in the spa almost every day.

The high altitude affects us a bit. We have to be careful of opening anything that was last opened at sea level. A tube of mayonnaise burst its contents out the other day as did a sun screen bottle. The contents become pressurized at the higher altitude. It also takes a good deal longer to boil the kettle. The air is also incredibly dry. It’s all a bit strange.

We have settled in really well to a different, long-term nomadic lifestyle. We speak to many travelers but they often cannot grasp the difference between us. Whilst they are almost always holidaying in one way or another, we are living in our camper and moving from place to place. Maybe the difference is only subtle but it is difficult to explain.

It will sound strange to many people but we always seem to be busy. There never seems to be enough time in the days for all the things we want to do, including updating our blog. It is surprising how long it takes to do simple things such as a run to the supermarket, the washing, the dishes, and the housekeeping. We have also slightly changed our style and are now spending more time in each place, trying for a slower pace of life.

We spent a busy but fun 12 days with Alison’s mum in September. Before her visit we spent a few weeks checking out some good camps (and some very bad ones!) to be sure they suited an older traveller. We settled on one in France on the Cote d’azur and another in San Remo Italy. They proved to be ideal. From San Remo we used a tour guide to take us into the mountans and to Monaco for day trips. All of us living in the camper proved a challenge but manageable.

The French site was close to St Tropez so we hired a car for a few days and toured the hot spots of the coast. The traffic was always amazing, but it’s all part of the fun. St Tropez was full of big motor yachts and with the smell of money in the air. We all had a great but exhausting time.Margaret is forever in Alan’s good books after bringing 2 jars of Vegemite with her! She also delivered the DVD set of Downton Abbey, a British show similar to Upstairs Downstairs. What a great show. We have had some wonderful nights feeling very British and with Alison playing the lady of the house exceptionally well and, of course, Alan being the butler, Carson.

One of the tours we did with Margaret took us to St Paul de Vence, a medieval hilltop town in the mountains. We saw that it was an ideal place to return to for our wedding anniversary and we did just that a few days after dropping Margaret off at the airport. We had a great lunch in a fabulous and outrageously expensive restaurant. It was kind of weird paying as much for a glass of champagne as we normally would for a whole meal but it was worth every euro. Alan had carrot soup with foie gras, the best soup he has ever tasted.

We spent a few days in and around Nice after Margaret’s visit then headed back to Italy to visit the Cinque Terre. The drive of about 250 kms took us through what seemed to a 100 tunnels and over a similar number of viaducts, many of which were hundreds of meters in the air over steep-sided valleys. The last 15 kms was as steep and winding as a road can get and still be drivable.

The Cinque Terre is a string of 5 small fishing villages that cling to the incredibly steep mountain sides. We camped at Levanto, a great little town, and explored the villages by train. On one of the stations we had our first brush with Italian crime and had our camera pick pocketed out of our backpack. Alan felt the thief’s hand in there but he was gone in a flash, disappearing like magic into the station crowd. But if that’s the worst thing to happen to us, hey! The bummer is that we lost all our Cinque Terre photos, luckily though we had just down loaded all the pics from Margaret’s visit.

It was then off to Florence for a short stay and a catch up with former neighbors from Melbourne, Cheryl and Alf. Of course Florence is a fabulous city but we had been there before and so just spent one day in town. Sometimes we go with our instinct and instead of the usual tourist spots we went to the Gucci museum. What an amazing collection of products. The dresses were simply stunning, works of art. The exceptional security meant you could get right up close to everything and without any glass in between. (For those that don’t know this is a statue of David, not Alan on a cold day!)

Our camp was right beside the Piazza Michelangelo on the hill overlooking the city. Anyone who has been there will know it as it is a large concrete piazza where every tourist bus stops. We walked there about at about 3 o’clock and discovered a beautiful small terrace just below the main square. We spent the afternoon and evening drinking great wine, enjoying the live music and watching the sun set over Florence on a truly balmy summer’s day. A fantastic experience.

Lunch with Cheryl and Alf in a little restaurant well away from the tourist zone was great. It was the first time we have really spent with any Aussies in our travels apart from the very occasional short conversations with passing travelers. In fact Aussies have been rare with the only exception being at the Cinque Terre towns where a lot of the tourists were from the US, UK and Australia and not many were from the usual European countries.We moved on to Siena, just south of Florence, again a town we had been to in 2006 but wanted to spend a bit more time in. Siena, whilst being a tourist town, is not overrun with busloads of them and is far more of a working, real-life town than Florence. It has one of the world’s most over-the-top cathedrals, all black and white stone and conspicuous excess.

This area is the Chianti region so, naturally, we took a winery tour. The tour took us through some great medieval villages and the fortress town of Monteriggioni where there was a display of vintage Lamborghini cars. The 2 wineries we went to for tastings were great fun. One was a really beautiful place, all stone buildings, surrounded by steep hillsides and set amongst thousands of olive trees and vines. We learnt a lot about Chianti and have since managed to put that knowledge to very good, practical use – cheers!

We have used our time in the Dolomites to plan the next phases of our travels, something which is surprisingly difficult. A big problem for us is that most of the campsites in Italy and France have now closed for the season. We were thinking of Majorca or Ibiza in Spain for our winter destination, but there is nothing open. France is almost a no-go zone with very few sites open. Northern Italy has a few places open near the coast but not much inland. We are looking for somewhere warm and so for this winter we are heading to Spain. We expect to be there for a few months before returning to France in late February.

It’s a bit hard for us Aussies to adjust to the extreme seasonal world of Europe. As an Italian local here told us, it is almost unheard of that an Italian would have holidays in October so the tourist places simply close down.

From here we head down to the coast tomorrow and some warmer nights – we hope! We have probably sorted out our long term travel plans but they are definitely subject to change without notice! So we’ll update you soon. About the only thing we are pretty confident of is that we will come back to Camping Vidor next September and are then planning to head to Venice in late September for our wedding anniversary (can’t believe we are planning where we will be next September!)

Cheers A & A

Life Onboard

Life in a motorhome is a bit unusual so we thought we’d give you a few insights into what it is really like.

In fact it’s a bit like living on a yacht. The floor moves when you walk around, you have the same sort of restrictions with water, gas, cooking and space. And you can go almost anywhere you want (on land of course!)Probably one of the best things is that the view from the front door changes as regularly as you want it to. If you want a different outlook, just drive up the road for a bit. And it’s a difficult thing to explain but no matter where we are, inside always feels very much like home.

Berty2 is our second van so we can’t help but compare it to Berty one which we spent a year in in 2006. Generally it is bigger, better, newer and more comfortable. This time around we have improved on all the house basics such as living space, storage space, gas, heating, water, toilet, shower and seating. We also have a much more robust vehicle and much greater carrying capacity.

Whilst it is possible to free camp across most of Europe, we prefer to stay on campsites each night. We have done one overnight stay on a free France Passion site at an olive farm but mostly it’s campsites for us. Typically we have paid about 20 to 30 euros for a night so far in Germany and France. On the French coast near St Tropez the rate rose to about 40 and up the road in Italy it hit 57.

Usually, your base fee will get you electricity, water, waste dump facilities and washrooms. But not always. Often you need an upgrade of power and this will cost a few euros. In Italy we had to pay an extra 6euros for 6amp power, that was on top of the 57! Highway robbery but then that’s the norm with tourism in Italy!

The camp facilities range from very basic to deluxe but the price you pay for the camp is not necessarily an indication of the standard of the facilities. Some washrooms are great with big showers and unlimited hot water and others have elaborate timer devices to limit every drop of water. Some have shower sprays that make your shower a true ‘fairy piss’ experience.

A basic of motorhomes is the need to dump waste water and replenish fresh water. Whilst that should be pretty simple for most camps, it is surprising how many do not allow you to do it, usually due to poor access to the service point. One camp in Germany had a pallet of tiles blocking the drive. A common problem is overhanging trees which completely block access to the dump point. Others restrict how much water you can take on or they charge you for it.

We have a good tank system with about 90 lt of fresh and about 80 lt of waste. Higher fresh and waste water capacity would have been good – but you can’t have everything and Berty2 ticked almost every box when we found her so this is a minor complaint. We can go about 3 days comfortably and up to 5 if we are mean with it. Waste water can get a bit smelly after 5 days though, particularly in the warm weather! Many motor homers do all their dish washing at the camp sinks but we prefer to live a normal life so we wash dishes in our own sink but this means we run out of water sooner.

Our toilet is a standard cassette type and is really good. We also have a spare cassette which is unusual and very handy. For those of you who have no idea about these things and don’t want to know, please close your eyes while you read the next paragraph.

Of course there are toilets nearby in most camps but it can still be quite a walk to them so we use the onboard facilities quite a lot for number ones and occasionally for number twos. The cassette is pretty much smell proof. We use the Thetford powder sachets, a more expensive chemical but much better than the liquids. It goes into the empty cassette, add a bit of water, mix and slide it into the hatch. It’s good for about 2 or 3 days, everything is dissolved then it’s emptied into a special chemical toilet at the camp. Easy!

We are also lucky to have a larger than usual fridge and freezer. We also brought our fantastic Engel portable fridge from home and that sits in the garage running on 12v. Now we know you all think the little fridge is full of beer and wine but it is actually really handy for milk and food after a big supermarket run – still you would be right – it is also full of beer and wine!

Most camps are within reach of the local village or main attraction and the bus service. Some are tucked away in the countryside and have no access to anything. Often it is hard to figure out the location before you get there, even with Google maps and the camp’s website. Some camps have pools, bars, restaurants and supermarkets, most have a small shop selling milk and bread as well as basic supplies, sometimes at amazingly inflated prices such as 90 cent beers for 2.30 in one spot.

Generally, it is easy to stay at a camp and enjoy the local surrounds. You can usualy bus into the bigger towns and cycle or walk locally. In Eguisheim, Alsace for example, the village was just 300m down the road, the nearest we have ever experienced. Annecy had a 35 kms bike path around the lake and here at San Remo there is a 24 kms cycle path running along the spectacular Italian coast.

Cooking is all gas for us although some people use electric griddles and the like. We have even seen campers with the new portable induction cooktops but no doubt they would flip the power switch in any Italian camp! We have a small gas oven, 4 burner cooker and a griller. We have been on the road for 3 months and are still using our first gas bottle. Our gas system is terrific and will switch to the second bottle automatically. That should happen in about a month.

We don’t need heating at the moment as the weather is reminiscent of Singapore here on the Italian riviera but at times we have used our gas heating and it is really effective.

Our aircon is reverse cycle and it heats very well but not as quickly as the gas. Cooling is fantastic but we don’t use it very often and occasionally it flips the power off. This means a trip to the office and a wait while they come and sort us out. Once we tripped everyone who was in the same power grid on a camp in France. That even impressed the camp maintenance guy.

We are well set up with technology. A control panel tells us how much fresh water and how much waste water is in our tanks. It also tells us the inside and outside temperatures and the status of our 12v and 230v power. All very handy.

Our Dutch Droam Internet connection means we have easy access to banking, info about campsites, weather, local tourist attractions etc. The Droam gives us a seamless service when we cross a border and has worked in every spot except high in the mountains at Castellane. Fantastic! We still use the camp wifi service sometimes but often they want to charge us for it and it is usually a very slow connection.

One of the best changes we made before leaving Australia was to switch to an iPad. This has made life so much easier. For example we have an app which finds supermarkets nearby. Just turn it on, it determines your position then shows a google map with every supermarket within about 20 kms including their address. Just punch the address into the GPS and away you go. We even get the London Times every day, much cheaper and easier than buying the dead-tree version at a newsstand.

We switched our phone to a TravelSim before leaving Australia and we can highly recommend this American system. The phone works anywhere in the world but without roaming charges. It is pre- paid and you can monitor the cost of calls, usually about A$1 per minute. A great system.

We also have a great entertainment setup. One of the best things we brought from home is our Bose sound dock. So we have terrific sound that fills the van when we watch movies or listen to music from the iPod. The TV is a bit small but it is a motorhome after all. And this time our movies and TV shows are all on portable drives not DVDs.

Cleaning is still a bit of a job in a motorhome. We have a little dust buster and a broom for basic floor cleaning, but when we need a more thorough job we use car washes for the vacuuming as they have long and powerful hoses that can reach through the house. Campsites are always dusty places so it’s a never-ending job. Clothes washing takes all day even with our little Akai twin tub machine in the garage. It’s also hard work as the water has to be carted in and carted out by bucket. It’s Alan’s exercise routine! That said, we only need to do a washing day about every 2 weeks, so that’s not too bad…and we are getting quicker the more we practice!

Shopping is fun. We are at least a meter longer than Berty one and this means we do not easily fit in many spaces. It’s not unusual for us to drive into a supermarket carpark and find it to be impossible to stop, especially in Germany. But most of the time it’s easy as we soon learn which kind of supermarket is likely to have a suitable size park for us. That’s why Lidl is really popular with the motorhome world. You can always park even the biggest vans in a Lidl.

Identifying the products is sometimes really challenging. A leek and potato soup turned out to be leek and scallop soup – for those of you that know about Alan’s reaction to scallops this was probably our worst shopping goof! And you no sooner master the French labels and you’re off to Italy and have to retrain yourself.

Of course we routinely eat and drink things which are exotic and expensive in Australia. Our current “house” wine is a fabulous Riesling from Alsace and costs about A$4. We are currently drinking french milk – unpastuerised and not homogenized, just filtered. It is really great milk! In Germany the berries were amazing as were the cold meats and sausages. And, of course, you simply can’t beat the French for cheese options!

A good rule is to eat and drink the local produce. In Alsace we passed the Kronenburg brewery and camped just a few kilometers up the road. The beer from the local shop was incredibly cheap, fresh and fabulous. In Australia most imported beers are actually brewed in Queensland by CUB and the critics say they don’t taste like the real thing. We can absolutely confirm this to be the case. But it also applies in Europe. Many so called imported beers such as Heineken are brewed locally under license and do not taste the same as the real deal.Cheeses, cold meats and fruit and vegetables are typically really good quality. It’s always difficult to judge price comparisons with Australia but France seems to be more expensive than Germany. The Brits we meet tell us that France is very expensive for them but they tend to focus on individual products. We on the other hand, just look at the spend at the end of each week and everything seems to be an absolute bargain.

Italy is an expensive tourist destination but yesterday we went looking for a nice lunch restaurant in San Remo, a major seaside spot. Following our rule of eating in areas away from the tourist trade and where the locals eat, we found a great little place. Lunch was 30 euros (about A$41) for pasta starters, involtini for main course with coffees and a bottle of good local wine. It would cost double that in Australia.

From here it’s back to France to pick up Alison’s mother for a 12 day visit to show her the real France and Italy.

Climb every mountain…..

Although we told you about our daredevil adventures in the skies over Annecy last time we did not have all the pictures. So take a look at what the lake looks like from 800m in the air.We stayed for a total of 18 nights in Annecy, 16 of them at Rives du Lac, right on the lake with its own little beach. The 35 kms bike track was fantastic and allowed us to commute the 7kms into town many times for lunch, dinner and even breakfast. The track runs past lots of little villages and interesting places, a real winner for everyone.

Annecy is at the edge of the French Alps and within easy reach of Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak so we just had to take a closer look at it.

A bus tour took us to the bottom of the mountain at Saint Gervais, near Chamonix then we went by tram (how very Melbourne!) up to the glacier. It was no ordinary tram, climbing very steeply to 2380m. That’s more than 100m higher than mt Koziosko. We then walked up further, probably to about 2500m and had lunch at what must be one of the highest little cafes in the world.

The mountain was a sight to behold and it was right there in front of us. Once again we were really lucky with the weather with perfect blue skies and high 20s. We spent the whole day in the meadow at the edge of Mont Blanc which towered another 2000m above us. We were literally surrounded by spectacular snow-covered mountains and visited every so often by the local goats. An incredible day.

French camps often have what they call “animations”, typically a band or DJ with music. At Annecy they had a music night every Tuesday and we joined one just for a laugh. We all needed to take everything down to the beach – table, chairs, plates, glasses, wine, but not food. Dinner was provided. Now, we have large wine glasses which we brought from Australia and the French, surprisingly, usually drink wine out of the oddest, and often the smallest glasses you can imagine, even in a restaurant. And most people in campsites are actually camping as opposed to us “living” and they usually have plastic glasses. Believe it or not the French found our glasses so impressive that they took photos of these crazy Aussies and their massive glasses. It’s a strange world.

After Annecy we headed higher into the Alps wanting to experience some of europe’s highest and most challenging roads and most spectacular scenery. First leg was to Valloire, one of the most famous tour de France sections, and no doubt one of the toughest. We seemed to climb forever to reach the town. The main section of 16kms was all uphill and very winding and steep. The roads were busy with cyclists tackling the tour section for fun. Some of them were struggling but most were doing amazingly well. We were stopped by the road for lunch when one German guy peddled over assuming we were German. At least we were able to be his water stop as he sure needed it.

After Valloire the roads just got steeper and we went even higher, up to 2600m. You’d have to be in a plane to be that high up in Australia. And all the time we were surrounded by snow capped peaks, dramatic drops, occasional tunnels and perfect weather for it all. This is the sort of place that few car drivers ever see but it was great fun doing it in Berty and she handled it with absolute ease.

The roads were generally very good but at times very narrow and always steep, up to 14 degrees for long stretches. The switchback corners are incredible and at times we were on very close to full steering lock. There were a few other motorhomes but only a few. Even the cars were traveling really slowly as the smallest error meant a serious problem. We only saw one car that had come to grief but it showed how unforgiving the edge of the road can be.

Our trip from Basel to the Riviera covered more than 700 kms, of which about 200 kms where through the highest mountains. We pretty much followed the borders of Switzerland and Italy all the way down to the coast so we have certainly seen the mountains.We spent a few days at a lakeside campsite near Embrun. It was a beautiful spot, surrounded by mountains. One of its features was a concrete beach which was a swimming spot for the clear waters of the lake. It was at least a very durable beach!Up until now we have always stopped at campsites, paying from about 20 up to 43 euros a night for a pitch. We joined France Passion which is a sort of club which allows us to camp at farms and vineyards across France for free. All they ask is that you check out their produce and maybe you will buy something. Our first France Passion stop was an olive farm near Les Mees in Haute Provence. We arrived about 4pm and what started out a bit strange with language problems and a bit of hesitancy on our part soon became a magical night.

It was very hot, about 40. We parked up beside the olive trees, set up our table right in the grove and settled in for a quiet night. Instead of the usual bustle of hundreds of campers we had just 3, all of whom were quiet French families. We had the best spot at the edge of the grove. It was a special night with the table carefully set, the bottle (s!) of wine cold, a great salad dinner, a little soft music, candlelight and a beautiful place. We are definitely fans of France Passion. Oh yes, and we spent 30 euros in their shop!

One of the great things about France and Germany is the lack of flies and mosquitoes. Whilst we do have the occasional wasp do a flyby, we are rarely bothered by bugs, inside or out and this makes for a comfortable life eating and generally living outdoors, something we cannot say for Australia.

Our final stretch in the mountains was to Castellane in the Gorge du Verdon. This was a spot we stayed at in 2006 so it was a change to actually know where to go and what to expect.

Whilst the drives in and out of Castellane were not as high in altitude as others, they are seriously scary and spectacular. These are roads that feature in movies. They have solid rockbridges over the roads, dramatic drops off the sides, low rock walls instead of safety barriers and amazing mountainous gorge views in every direction.

Perhaps most fantastic of all is that you come down out of the mountains and in just a few kilometers of downhill road you are suddenly at the coast and amidst the traffic and buzz of the Riviera. Actually, you’re stuck in traffic but at least there are bikini girls everywhere! (Any guesses who wrote that!)

We stopped for a night at a big camp just across the bay from St Tropez. And yes, it was hot at St Trop! The camp was massive and expensive, the beach heaving, and it was way too noisy. We must be getting old. We were going to stay for a few nights but left after one night and headed for an old favorite, Camping Le Dramont at Agay, near St Raphael. It almost felt like being home as we spent a week here in July 2006.

From our pitch you can see the sea, the massive yachts moored just off shore, and maybe, just maybe, the lights of St Tropez. We have been here a few days just swimming, snorkeling, drinking great wine and generally chilling out. From here it’s off to Italy for a brief visit. We will only stay in Italy for a few days and then head back to France. We are doing some research prior to a visit by Alison’s mum in early September. We will spend a couple of weeks showing her the French riviera and maybe a little of Italy as well.

One of the things we love about Europe are the supermarkets. The choice/range of produce is hard to imagine, particularly in the French supermarkets. Most aussie travelers tend to fly in and out of countries, eat at cafes and restaurants and so other than a quick stop at a small store for maybe water or some basics they wouldn’t experience a large supermarket – what a pity – they are a tourist attraction in their own right. Oh – to be able to eat anything you wanted without the consequences, just the pastry section alone would make you cry with joy…..and then there is the seafood, cheese, deli, etc.

Anyway…stay safe everyone…until next time, A&A

Alsace to the Alps and a Lucky $2

The view from the front door continues to change. We’re writing this from beside the beautiful lake at Annecy in the French Alps. As always there is so much to tell you including some freaky, lucky finds and some daredevil adventures.

We spent nearly 2 weeks in Eguisheim, Alsace. The campsite was set amongst the vineyards and just 200m from the medieval village which is rated as one of France’s prettiest. It’s all flower pots hanging from windows and little pockets of grape vines in every spare corner – 6 here, 4 there. The focus of the region is wine and they do it really well with tasting and sales shops everywhere. The camp also had a local winery do a little talk and tasting every Wednesday evening so we had a bit of fun there and bought some fabulous wines.

Dinner in town one night was the regional speciality, Tart Flambee. This is a kind of pizza but made with the thinnest possible pastry and is absolutely delicious.

Eguisheim is overlooked by the Three Chateaux up on a hill. They are just old ruins really but with a great view. We walked up there and looked out over the Rhine valley and Germany, just a few kilometers away. Coming down, we took a wrong turn and finished up in the wrong village, 3.5kms from where we were meant to be. Naturally, they also had a few winery tasting spots. So we stopped, tasted, and were amazed. We humped 9 bottles (which was all thought we could carry) back home – luckily it was downhill! The wine was so good we went back for more but in the motorhome this time – 9 bottles just wasn’t enough.

We had some great times with Phil and Sonya from NZ in Eguisheim. They do 6 months at home and 6 months in Europe each year. Not a bad plan guys.

We had lunch a few times in the same local restaurant, a quiet looking place until you went inside and saw about 100 locals feasting on the 9 euros (about A$13) 3 course lunch. Unbelievable value and fabulous food.

We did a little day trip from Eguisheim to Colmar by bus. Colmar is such a pretty town. We had a drink in one canal-side spot that was so picturesque that the tourists were taking pictures of us! We felt like movie stars being pursued by the paparazzi.

Next stop was Basel, Switzerland, although we stayed in a camp 4kms away in France. Basel is on the corner of France, Germany and Switzerland. The camp was on the Rhine and just a 10 minute walk across the foot bridge took you into Germany. Walk another 2 minutes and you went into Switzerland through a border control point, or you could go the other way and avoid Germany. One day we cycled from France into Switzerland then along the river to Germany then back into France.

Basel was having a military tattoo, winding its way through the narrow streets of the old town. They held this event just for us (and about a zillion locals and tourists). We know this because the Australian Army band turned out to play and so did the Tasmanian Police band. There is something about us Aussies. The army band was stopped because of a delay in the parade. After waiting patiently for a while, as all the other bands did, they decided to entertain the crowd close by and quietly played a French tune, probably the national anthem. They had the crowd clapping, singing and cheering them big time, it was a pleasure to watch!

We had been told that Switzerland is expensive and boy was that on the mark. Two very ordinary coffees and two tiny ice creams cost 15 euros, about $22. No wonder there are so many Swiss people holidaying in France. We had planned to have lunch there but it would have cost a small fortune.Right at the border crossing into Switzerland is a huge supermarket in Germany. It seemed to be chokers with people stocking up and crossing back into Switzerland. We saw them apparently declaring their supermarket dockets and paying at the border point. But the price difference would have been staggering as Germany is so incredibly cheap for just about everything.

This supermarket was the biggest we have ever seen, anywhere. It was about the same size as a typical large Aussie one but was double story! Yes, you pushed your trolley up the moving ramp to the first floor. So it was at least twice the normal size, even bigger than Costco. We went in to buy a few packets of chips and came out with a coffee machine!

Yes, our trusty Nespresso machine has been leaking and repairing it would have been a real struggle. The model was discontinued years ago as it is designed to make cafe lattes and the Europeans don’t drink their coffee that way. So imagine our surprise when we see a brand new demo machine exactly like ours going for a song – 99 euros. It was a bargain too good to miss so we headed to the checkout (without the chips as we couldn’t carry those and the machine) and it turns out our bargain was even cheaper at 49 euros, way to go!

Then we returned to our campsite and to the most remarkable find. There in the grass was a coin which Alan had seen when we first arrived the day before but took no notice of. But then he picked it up and discovered it was an Australian $2 coin, dropped by a previous camper. What a freaky thing to find!

From Basel we did a fast run down to Aix-les-Bains, a spectacular drive along the edge of the Alps. We did 490kms, about half of which was on toll roads. The toll bill was 66 euros, not something you pay in Australia. But the alternative would have been hundreds of kilometers further and several days driving. Beautiful spot on the lake but the town and surrounds were not that great so we moved almost immediately to a spot near Annecy, beside the lake in an area that is truly beautiful and with lots of different things to see and do.

We intentionally chose the back roads for the 50kms drive to Annecy and were well rewarded. At some point a sign said “trucks not recommended, next 22kms”. The road was as skinny and windy as they come but what a view with the lake in the background and the Alps all around. Annecy attracted us partly because of the lakeside bike track which runs for 35 kms. It’s a dedicated path which winds from Annecy, past the lake, restaurants and villages and into the woods beyond. Bikes usually have priority so when it crosses a road the cars actually have to give way to you. And, remarkably they do! The path follows an old train track for much of the time including through an old tunnel. What a hoot.

This is a great example of how they have taken a useless strip of land and made it a major tourist attraction. The path is all bitumen with a line down the middle and is wider and in better condition than many local roads. It’s so popular it’s almost a bike autobahn. A few nights ago we cycled into town after dinner (about 7kms) had dessert and a glass of wine and then pedaled home in the dark. A new experience for us but great fun.

Annecy is a beautiful old town, famous for the old prison which is in the middle of the canal. There are a number of canals which meanders through the village. The French really know how to preserve the old quarters and not bugger them up with ugly new developments. Yes, the ugly new developments are all built just around the corner!

We did a lunch tour on a boat on lake Annecy, a real tourist treat which could have been a bit of a ripoff but turned out to be great. We had a fabulous meal and a memorable few hours dreamily cruising along and taking in the scenery. It was worth every cent.

We have spent some of our days here socializing with two Brits, Bob and Mo, over in France for their 2 weeks holidays. Once again it has been great to have a few drinks (more than a few actually) and a lot of laughs with a great couple.

Every so often it’s time for a nice lunch. We found a picturesque spot just up the cycle path from home, right on the water and with a great feel to it. We stopped for a glass of wine one day and knew we would come back. We did just that a few days back. It’s a fish restaurant and Alison ordered the “petite poissons” not really knowing what she would get, other than the obvious “small fish”! She got about 80 little fish, smaller than a pier fishermen’s bait, lightly brushed with flour and fried. They actually tasted really good but it was a bit weird, eating whole fish.

Yesterday was an adventure day for us with a paraglide off a mountain and over the lake. OMG! This is a big feature of the region with dozens of businesses running tandem jumps from spots all around the lake.

What a hoot. Within minutes of getting out of the mini bus at the top of the mountain we were all harnessed up, running a few tentative steps to the edge of the abyss and, no this can’t be happening, we’re airborne! Alan went first, turned around and caught sight of Alison as she made her big leap. The flight was actually pretty relaxed and calm until the pilot said what about a few aerial tricks. Next thing you are twisting like you’re in the corkscrew winds of a tornado. It was truly wild! Between that and the 40 kms cycling we were both ready for a good night’s sleep!

We will stay at this site for another few days as we have booked a bus tour to Mont Blanc, then we’ll head deeper into the French Alps for a little while before heading to the French Riviera.

Cheers A & A

Auf Wiedersehen Germany …… Bonjour France

It’s time to say goodbye to Germany. Since picking up Berty on 1 June we have covered almost exactly 3000 kms in her plus about 1500 in rental cars that we did back in May. So we’ve seen a fair bit of this beautiful country. This is Alan about to head off for a short jaunt on the autobahn …..only kidding, it is actually Mika Hakkinen’s actual race car, which was on display at the Mercedes Benz museum.

Germany is a little different from other countries in Europe. Outside of the main tourist cities such as Berlin, they don’t seem to have much international tourist activity. They certainly do very little to attract non-German speaking tourists. Outside of Berlin, we have seen only 3 brochures in other languages. Typically the campsites have been 95% German campers plus a few Dutch people. We have seen only the occasional GB vehicle and hardly any other nationalities. Although, that said, not speaking German didn’t prove to be a problem as nearly every one we met spoke at least some English.

We’ve seen all sorts of camps from the most basic rural spots to huge holiday parks. One of the joys of motorhomes is that the view from your front door changes regularly and sometimes can be quite spectacular.

We spent 5 days at a big camp near Baden Baden, Freizeitcenter Oberhein. Now when we say big, we mean at least 3000 spaces, mainly for caravans and motorhomes. It had 2 full-on restaurants plus a beach bar, a supermarket, 2 lakes (great for swimming and complete with beaches) and the biggest camp site showers we have ever seen. Oh yes, and a little train for the kids.

Our spot was 1 km from the front gate, but handy to the beachside bar. We toured the camp on our bikes and it was about 3.5 kms just around the main roads. Not the sort of place we see back in Australia.

Unfortunately the camp was too far from Baden Baden to allow us to get there so that part of the plan didn’t work out. But we used the bikes for trips around the area including a great lunch in the nearby village and a trip to the supermarket.

Our bikes have proved to be fantastic. They are Hybrid Giants with a battery and electric motor which boosts your pedaling. They made our first flat 25 kms trip so easy. Whilst you still have to work the bike, the motor means you can enjoy the trip a lot more and you are not wrecked at the end.

They have only 3 gears and 3 different assistance levels so they are simple to use and look like an ordinary bike. On flat ground and on the lowest motor level they have a range of about 60 kms. On hills the highest motor level allows us to actually get somewhere instead of just looking up at the hill and turning back. A little computer tells you how far and how fast you are going. Really cool! Alison clocked above 35 ks going down hill – even on a bike she is a hoon!

We have seen a few English speaking people on bike tours recently, including a couple from Brighton who spotted Alison’s Melbourne City Baths tee shirt and stopped for a chat. They all have a common theme – they are always lost and tell stories of how they have pedaled miles in the wrong direction because even the locals don’t know where they are. If you’re thinking of a bike tour be sure to do your research folks.

One of our stops was Bad Durkheim, a small town. The weather was good so we went to the local swimming pool for a dip. Aussie pool designers should have a look at what the Germans do. The pool was a huge complex of indoor and outdoor pools, spas, slides, waterfalls, gardens, cafe etc. There were at least a dozen different places to swim including an outdoor warm saltwater pool only accessible by swimming under the wall from an indoor pool. And all this in a place that has a really short summer.

We have continued to enjoy great meals in Germany. One of our last restaurant nights was memorable. It’s always a challenge trying to figure out the menu when you don’t speak the language but after a couple of months in Germany you start to get the hang of it. Alan chose lamb filets and Alison elected to go with an unknown item. Liver has never been her favorite but that’s what she ordered – her mum would have been proud of her, she actually ate some of it and Alan donated some lamb!

Supermarkets in Germany are not as good as the French ones but they are still filled with fantastic food. An annoyance is the recycling system. For example, a 4 can pack of beer will have 2 prices, 2.99 for the 4 beers but 25 cents per can for the container. So you pay 3.99. You get your euro back when you return the can to the space age recycling machine which reads the code on the can or bottle then spits out money or a chit which you can redeem at the shop. Such a lot of technology and effort instead of just sticking it in the recycle bin.

Speaking of technology, some Brits we met recommended a trip to the Technik Museum at Speyer. Speyer turned out to be the best small town we have seen in Germany. We even lucked on to the Pretzel Festival and had umpa bands everywhere, a mini Moomba and pretzels flung at us from all angles.

The museum was a hoot. How often do you get to walk on the wing of a Jumbo jet? They have an old Lufthansa plane there and we did the wing walk. Perhaps the highlight was a U-boat. This German sub has been left pretty much as it was when it was in use and you are free to walk right through it. Fantastic – although, as you can see by the picture below, Alan is looking a little freaked out at the thought of being in this sardine can! They even have a Russian space shuttle, looking remarkably similar to the NASA versions. Great to see and have a peak inside. Amazing to think that the technology in that space craft was probably less than that used in the recycling computer at the local supermarket!

We hopefully have sorted out our Internet connection with the purchase of a Droam system from Holland. This will give us an onboard permanent connection in virtually every country in Europe for about the same price we payed in Melbourne through Telstra. Our German SIM was cheap but sometimes very slow and a real challenge to set up.

The Internet, and technology generally, are so important when traveling, as we found recently when we had a banking problem. We still meet people who refuse to have a GPS because of horror stories run in the British press and who don’t want Internet. But our GPS is fantastic and the Internet can show you where a camp is and what the local attractions are, and do it in English. We have been to some great spots thanks to wikihood and Google maps and a quick look at the Speyer website confirmed it was well worth the visit. To hell with the old fashioned way.

We have arrived in France and will spend our first week here amongst the vineyards in Eguisheim in Alsace. In a funny way, it feels as though we are not exactly home but at least back in more familiar territory. The town is a beautiful mix of old and quaint buildings and sits below a hill with 3 chateaux built in the 11th and 12th century and almost totally surrounded by vineyards – couldn’t ask for a better start to France! We walked from the town up to the chateau yesterday, see pictures below. After a little detour….got lost on the way back down, but managed to find a very nice wine tasting spot to ease the pain….we arrived back at our camp 3.5 hours later with 9 bottles of very nice wine and slightly sore feet.

It’s early days yet but our (read Alan’s) highlight of France so far has been the shower block. When we arrived the showers were very busy, Alison could not find an empty cubicle so joined Alan. A shower together is a most unusual event in a camp site. It took us 2 days to figure out that there were ladies showers as well – they were well hidden – and that Alison had been showering in the mens shower up till then! A bit later we met a NZ man who was in another cubicle at the time we were giggling like a couple of (very soapy) kids. He told us how he went back to his van and complained to his wife that she never did anything like that!

Keep well folks, cheers A & A

Bavaria…or bust

Sorry for the long time between blogs. We have been busy tourists and it is surprisingly challenging getting the blog together with just an iPad.

Finally we have left the familiarity of the Hamburg campsite and have seen a bit more of Germany, a very beautiful country. A strange thing about steady travel is that you very rapidly become familiar with a city – you know the transport, the supermarkets, the roads, the best wine shops (Jacques in Norderstedt), but off we went into the great unknown.

We decided on a quick run south with 500kms on the first day then another big day to get to the outskirts of Passau, near the border of the Czech Republic.

A day out in Passau taught us that it is wise to not bother being a tourist on wet Sundays. Basically the town was closed, still a pretty place but locked up tight as everything is on Sundays in Germany. Except for churches and the occasional museum.

Passau has a very large cathedral with the biggest cathedral organ in the world with 17,774 pipes. Occasionally when we travel we get lucky and we just happened to wander into this church in time for the last 10 minutes of the organ recital. The huge organ just filled the massive church with layer upon layer of very loud but beautiful music. It was really something and almost made us want to go to church every Sunday – almost, but not quite!

We also toured the glass museum, a private museum in a hotel. It had tens of thousands of glass items from all over the world and with examples going back through the centuries. Highly recommended, we could see ourselves drinking wine out of many of the glasses.

Our drive from Passau took us through Austria even though our start and finish points were both in Germany. This caused a small problem.

In all our travels we play a Uno competition in every country, we call it the World Uno Championship. Uno is a simple but strategically tricky card game that our skipper, Richard taught us on our sailing trip along the Queensland coast in 2005. (Thanks Richie, we’re still playing.) So even though we spent only a half hour or so in the country we had to find a park and play 6 games. So we spent that trip to Austria in a council truck park beside the dumpster. (Alison won every game!)

Passau was a detour on our planned route to Berchtesgaden, in the Bavarian alps. Unlike our usual approach of playing it by ear, our research took us to this area primarily to see the Eagles Nest and to check out the alps. The campsite (Campingplatz Winkl-Landthal) told us via email that they were well placed to visit everything by local bus and they were right. All the sites are just a quick bus trip away and tourists get a pre-paid bus pass for unlimited local travel. And bear in mind that all these places are way up in the mountains. We were happy to bus rather than negotiate the roads in Berty.

Our first real stop was a lifelong ambition for Alan, the Eagles Nest, 1800m up in the mountains, in Germany but overlooking and virtually completely surrounded by Austria.

Hitler built it to impress dignitaries, not so much by the building itself but by the location and the fact that they could have 2000 workers spend more than a year constructing a lunch spot to beat all others. That’s what it was; just a few rooms – a kitchen, a dining room and two lounge rooms, plus a covered terrace and an open terrace area. But what a spot for lunch and that’s just what we did.

The weather was perfect, in the high twenties and with a few scattered clouds but with snow on the peaks just for an added touch of Bavarian style. We did an English tour of the building and the guide told us it had been snowing just 2 days ago and most days recently had been whiteouts with no view.

In this entire region the views (if the weather permits) are just astonishing, and in all directions. And just when you think it cannot possibly get any better, it does. Even our campsite had the most spectacular views, including one of a mountain shaped like a witch lying sleeping on her back (check out the picture if you don’t believe us – great nose, eh!)

A trip to Lake Konigssee is a must for every tourist around here and our Eagles Nest guide recommended a boat trip to the end of the lake then a walk to the small lake just past it. Well worth the walk she said. We had a magical day with a ride up the mountain in the chair lift then a boat trip along the lake. A stop half way at St Bartholemuse provided an excuse for a beer in the beer garden – a most spectacular setting on a perfect day.

We took the guide’s advice. Most boat passengers only go as far as St Barts and stop for lunch. We went on after the beer, all the way to the end and then walked to the next little lake. It would be impossible to imagine a more picturesque spot. On the return boat trip we were treated to a thunderstorm, thankfully the seating area on the boat was fully protected from the wet weather and yet still able to give you great views of the mountains and lake in such dramatic weather. Fantastic!

We spent 6 days in Berchtesgaden and there was so much to explore. Alan went to a very ritzy spa in a nearby town but Alison chose to skip it. Lucky because the only sign in English was “no clothes please”! It turned out to be a fabulous place with an incredible array of saunas, spas and steam rooms. The Germans really know how to spa in style.

We also did the salt works tour. Sounds dull but it turned out to be as good as any tour gets with two luge rides for us all, a boat ride and a few train rides; all underground. The luge was a hoot. It’s the way the workers get down the mine fast; ride the luge!

After that we moved on about 200 kms to Schwangau and King Ludwig’s fairy tale castle. We beat the tourist crowds by walking there early, about 5kms from our campsite. What an amazing sight up there on the hill and the walk through magical countryside was fantastic. The castle was great inside but probably was more exciting to see from a short distance away.

We walked to a nearby town for a great lunch of schnitzel and German wine beside the lake and with not a tourist in sight. That lunch was better than most but German restaurants seem to always be good. We got home exhausted after about 15kms. We have since bought bikes but more of that later.

We have had a mix of weather ranging from hot and sunny to cool and wet but always with the typically German atmospherics we have seen everywhere here. The air is usually thick and misty or humid. It’s hard to explain but it is the same everywhere and really adds to the feel of the country. A few days ago it was about 37 degrees, today about mid twenties.

The driving has been good. Alison does some most days and has had some fun times in little villages and on the autobahn. The autobahn is tricky as we travel at about 100-105, most cars do about 130-150 but occasionally there will be a car doing 200+ and they really scream past. The traffic volumes are hard for Aussies to imagine and are probably about 50 times what you see on the Hume highway. But it does not always flow smoothly and we have been caught in 14km traffic jams for hours. At least we can duck into the house for a loo break!

We did a day trip by bus and train from Berchtesgaden to Salzburg Austria. What a pretty city but we had our first dud meal there.

Next major stop was Stuttgart where we went to some trouble to go to the Mercedes Benz museum. A 2 hour bus and train trip (including a long sector on the local school bus!) was well worth it. Naturally Alison thinks they are just cars but we lucked onto our own guide for nearly 2 hours and had a great time. It seems the Mercedes team invented just about every kind of vehicle.

We liked the story that their race cars were always white until a race day when the car was 1 kg over weight and could not compete so they scraped all the paint off, down to the silver metal, solved the weight problem and won the race. From then they always raced silver cars.

We are still finding Germany to be a bargain. It is still fun to buy the occasional bottle of Australian wine at rock bottom prices. Currently we have Wolf Blass red which would sell in oz for about $25 at $9.50 from Aldi. Almost every bottle of wine is great quality and great value. Even in a restaurant the wine prices are maybe half or even one third what you would pay in oz.

We have just bought bikes – 2 Hybrid electric models with tiny motors that boost your pedaling. We’ll update you all later.

We are now in the Deutsche weinstrasse area – give you two guesses (no, make that one as everybody knows what we are like) what that is! We have sampled the local produce and as usual we have not been disappointed. Surprisingly, this area also produces some really, really good reds. The plan now is to spend a few days at a camp near Baden Baden, which is supposed to be a really pretty area and then make the jump to France.

By the way, current Uno world championship score stands at 5/4 in Alison’s favour!

Cheers A and A

Back to Hamburg

We left a cold and drizzly Belfast and headed back to sunny Hamburg, the plan being to pick up Berty2 from the dealer, spend a few days sorting out any bugs, pick up the gear we shipped from Australia and then really start our travels. Things have gone well enough but not entirely according to plan.

The journey from Belfast to Hamburg should have been a 90 minute flight but took a day and a half because no direct flights were available. It had to be a bus to Dublin then a flight to Frankfurt (on everybody’s favorite, Ryan Air), then a night at an airport hotel, rent a car and drive the 620kms to Norderstedt. We had hoped to go by the super fast ICE train from Frankfurt but found out too late that you must book 7 days in advance and it was full anyway. The drive was another high speed one at up to 150kms/hr on the Autobahn but the weather was very wet and stormy which made for a long day and overall, a very long and tedious trip from Belfast.

We had our last night in a hotel in Norderstedt, and it was a really nice one, the Wilhelm Busch, before picking up Berty the next morning, Wednesday, 1 June.

Lundbergs had prepped the van really well but there were some small issues to sort out and the legal weight paperwork had been done incorrectly at 3.5 tonnes instead of 4.25. (At 3.5T we would have a carrying capacity of only 350kgs and would be over the limit all the time.) They assured us that would be fixed soon and we set off on our first driving adventure.

Our first major problem was that we had our home and a few borrowed plates and cooking gear from Lundbergs, but no food, bedding or even a towel. We had shipped most of what we need from Australia but all that gear was still waiting for us at the port and we could not pick it up until Monday, five days away. And to complicate things just a bit more, it was a public holiday on Thursday with virtually everything closing. (When the Germans say holiday they mean HOLIDAY, no work, everything closed.)

Our first day was one of life’s real challenges. A new and large vehicle and a drive of about 80kms through all kinds of traffic and streets, many of which seemed like Chapel Street and the back roads of South Yarra only narrower. Of course, Alan, who is a bit inclined to exaggeration, was saying from the driver’s seat of his big new van that all the roads, even the Autobahn, looked like a skinny side street to him. And the discovery that German supermarkets have tiny carparks. After many, many tricky turns, stressful moments and more than a little swearing we finally reached our camp and were able to shop for the basics in the local supermarket.

We spent 2 nights at Grobensee in a slightly rundown campsite beside a small lake about an hour from Hamburg. It turned out to be a really nice wooded area and a very friendly camp. We had no outdoor furniture but both neighbors offered us their spares.

One very charming German man wrote us a wonderful note in perfect English (while we were out walking) offering us their chairs and table set while they were out for the day. He is typical of the friendly people on campsites. His written English was perfect and his spoken english was very good although some things got a little confused in the translation. He was telling us about their travels and how, when they go away for a longer trip, they put their dog in a “dog asylum”. Mind you, we also thought little Hanna the terrier was a wee bit crazy.

We moved from the camp beside the lake to the camp beside Ikea because it is only a few minutes drive from our van dealer and there were a few things still to be sorted. It was only supposed to be for a couple of days whilst we picked up the goods we shipped and sorted out a few small bugs in Berty2. It has turned out to be longer than expected, in part due to the weight error taking longer to fix. We will end up being at the Ikea site for about 11 nights, but that’s ok as it has given us time to really sort out the van and find the right home for everything. In the first few days we made full use of the Ikea restaurant and have shopped there almost every day buying everything from pillows to plastic crates. We’re just about on first name terms with even the strawberry seller in his little hut near the front door. This picture is the first time Alison cooked a meal in the van.

On Monday it was time to collect our gear from the shipping agent at the port of Hamburg, and what a massive place it is. We rented a Mercedes C220 wagon and promptly had our first disagreement of the trip. Would it be big enough (the car, not the fight) to fit all the gear in?

George, our GPS, did us proud and steered us right to the shipping agent’s door, deep within the confines of the port. We queued with the German truckies and eventually our gear appeared, toppling off a wobbly forklift pallet. And yes, it was all there and it all fitted in but only just. It could be said that Alan was so keen to be sure to get it all in that he disassembled the seats and left Alison sitting with her knees around her ears so as not to have to hear the magic words – “I told you it wasn’t big enough!” We then simply drove out of the port, through what was no doubt the wrong exit and back to Berty2.

Our motorhome has a garage about a meter wide and the full width of the van. Alison loves the garage so much it is now known as Alison’s shed. As you can see it is pretty much chokers with stuff, even a washing machine. The Internet is great. In Belfast we managed to buy a plastic twin tub machine for about A$130 from a German supplier and had them ship it to our dealer. Washing costs a fortune in campsites, about $8 per load (washing only) so it will have paid for itself in about a month. It was actually a ‘housewarming’ present from Alison’s mum – thanks Margaret!

Hamburg is a money town. Even the Ikea carpark has Maseratis in it. Last Saturday we had a day in town and did the obligatory harbor boat trip and lots of shopping. Alan counted about a dozen Ferraris along with one of those super sportscars that have no name, attract crowds and cost millions. Typical was this Bentley parked on the footpath outside the Emporio Armani.

The local neighborhood around the camp can be fairly described as German quaint, even the street names confirm this: Rumpelstiltzkin, Hansel, Gretel, etc. But we have managed to negotiate the local bus route and then the underground into town a couple of times. Even better was that we managed our way back once after a big day, drinks and dinner and armfuls of shopping.

We are still waiting for the final legal paperwork to come through on the van’s carrying capacity but it is just a day or so away and we are having some minor modifications done to the van. So it is a bit of a waiting game while we get these things sorted but Lundbergs are still looking after us really well. In the meantime we have taken advantage of the spare time and explored the sites of Hamburg, which is a really pretty city and is also one of the largest ports in the world!

More about life onboard in our next blog, and on Friday we’re off to Bavaria and hopefully warmer weather as Hamburg has turned a little cool over the last week or so.

Cheers A & A

Germany to Belfast

Greetings from Belfast.

After finding Berty 2 we needed to sort out the details with the motorhome dealer. Stefan, Jorg, Ulla and all the staff at Lundberg Reisemobile in Norderstedt near Hamburg have been really good, sorting out all the little issues with a complex vehicle. And perhaps best of all, their English is excellent. They needed about 3 weeks to fit the extras and service the vehicle so we left them to it.

We then took our little Skoda rental car down past Berlin to the Spreewald area for a few days break then up to Berlin.

Now to us, the autobahn is something you have to see to believe but way to go! Alison in particular had a ball at 140 + kms. Whilst there are speed limits in some parts of the autobahn, most of it is either 130 kms or no limit. WOW. And the strange thing is that it is actually much safer than Aussie roads where you spend most of your time checking to make sure you are not 3 kms over the limit. In fact we did a 400km trip in no time and so easily. It did help that the other drivers on the road are very courteous – none of this driving up your bum. The trucks are limited to a maximum speed of 100km and so they are always in the right lane, leaving the left lane for the high speed vehicles. Also, the roads are well designed and made. Wake up Australia.

We picked a hotel right in the center of Berlin, about the equivalent of across the road from Federation Square in Melbourne. Yes it was fun driving there but we were somewhat relieved to leave the car. Only trouble was after driving it into the car park and checking in at the desk we discovered it had be filled with fuel otherwise a €3.50 per liter penalty applied, roughly a A$130 penalty. So out again into the wilds of Berlin, up to the service station and back again.

Berlin was fabulous even though time was a little limited and the weather had turned from the warmth of Hamburg to cold and wet. The grand old buildings of the Hitler era were built to impress and even overwhelm and they still do. The Germans are skilled at the symbolism of the past. They have left many reminders of the old regimes there so as to try and ensure the same mistakes are not made again. Most of the old buildings are still riddled with shrapnel and bullet holes in between the obvious bomb repair work.

There is a section of the Berlin Wall that they left intact and it is over the remains of the old Gestapo building. The wall has been turned into an outdoor museum with a great history of the Germans in world war 2 and the wall. They don’t hide it or celebrate it but they make sure everyone can see it for themselves. Alan could hardly believe he has finally walked the streets of Berlin and seen the wall, checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate.

Everywhere we went in Germany we had really good food and wine and sometimes exceptional food and always at amazingly cheap prices. In Wedel we paid €38 (about A$55) for a full meal and wine in a very good restaurant that would have cost us at least $120 in Melbourne and on top of that they gave us lots of freebies – starters, dessert and booze. Except for the freebies, it was the same everywhere.

All round, we are surprised at the low prices. We increased our budget for this trip by 50% from 2006 but it seems that EU (but not UK) prices have hardly changed much and the dollar exchange rate is great for us. We can see just how inflation has been eating away at our money in Australia.

Now it used to be that we sort of measured how good a country was by how good and cheap the wine was or how pretty the girls were (Alan’s measurement, not Alison’s) but now it’s probably measured by how easy it is to get Wi-Fi. It was the most convoluted battle but we managed to arrange a pre-paid SIM for the iPad for Germany with the help of the staff at Saturn in Berlin but what a hassle. Thank god for google translate and a very helpful sales guy who spoke very good english, as the card had to be registered on the web (entirely in german) and then only after it was put into a mobile phone to receive an SMS registration code. Try doing all that when you can barely say good morning in German!

We left Germany to do the family thing in Belfast. From Berlin to Dublin via Ryanair, then bus to Belfast. Ryanair is now the biggest airline in Europe but they did not get there for their comfortable service. It’s all about charging you for everything and penalizing you for anything they can. We had a lot of difficulty printing our boarding passes for example. Just how do you do this when you are on the move? And if you don’t then it’s a €40 penalty, each! And the scrum at the airport is something we can live without thank you very much. And when you weigh it all up with fees for baggage, drinks, food (and soon the toilet on the plane will have a coin slot on it) it’s actually not that cheap.

As always, the weather in Belfast is atrocious but we don’t come here for the sun. Don’t be fooled by the picture, we borrowed it from google images! Belfast never seems to change much. It still has the same green in the countryside and one of the world’s prettiest and liveliest downtown areas with a city hall to beat most others. And, it still has Marks and Spencer and supermarkets that put Aussie ones to shame. Every time Alan comes to Belfast he is amazed at the quality of fruit, vegetables and ready prepared food here. We routinely eat the world’s best raspberries, strawberries and all sorts of fruit and at good prices. The ready made meals at M & S have to be seen to be believed, with literally hundreds of options to choose from. And the bananas are cheaper than in Australia and they definitely do not grow them here!

We are also benefiting from the strong Aussie dollar here. Lunch for 4 yesterday in Ireland’s oldest pub with French wine and a few extras cost about A$110 and it was superb. But it is pretty obvious that, to the locals, prices have really climbed in recent years and the economy is suffering.

You Aussies will not like to hear that a bottle of Wolf Blass Chardonnay that would sell in Melbourne for about $22 to $25 costs about $8 here.

Now Belfast is a city of beauty parlors. There is almost one on every corner and some are more than a little weird. We loved the one at Connswater shopping centre where Alison stuck her feet in a fish tank and dozens of little fish (no not pirañas) ate the dried flesh from her bones. Yikes – an experience not to be repeated apparently! And what about the shop that sells tan pills? Don’t worry about there being no sun to tan you, just take a pill. According to the before and after shots it really works. Why don’t they multi-task it a bit and make tanning beer?

But you never know. Belfast may soon change as it has one of the world’s largest construction projects happening. They are spending a billion pounds on the Titanic quarter, similar to melbourne’s docklands. This is one of europe’s biggest building projects and is in a city the size of Geelong.

Next stop is back to Hamburg via Dublin and Frankfurt to pick up the van, stock up at the supermarket then claim the goods we shipped from Australia and which are due into Hamburg in the first day or so of June. It’ll be a bit of luck to link it all up nicely but we will try.

Cheers, A and A

Australia to Germany

Greetings from Germany.

So far everything is going really well with our crazy, grand plan to tour Europe for a few years in a motorhome.

We started with a flight to Singapore, economy class on Singapore Airlines and they were fantastic, with great food and service but it helps when the plane is barely one third full.

We stayed two nights at the Marina Bay Sands, and it was amazing. Level 37 with awesome views across to the city, a room the size of our Queen St apartment minus the spare room, breakfast on the level 57 terrace in the dead-still, balmy Singapore air. Breakfast was a feast with countless options, with more than 30 varieties of fruit alone.

The deal we took included afternoon tea and evening cocktails, all free. So breakfast, an all-you-can-eat arvo tea and unlimited free drinks and snacks until 7pm meant a high old time. Check out the pool at this hotel, it is huge. The hotel is built as a cruise ship straddling the tops of 3 towers, each 55 stories high. They say it is the world’s most spectacular hotel and who would doubt them. Singapore was a beautiful city with a special time spent at the Botanic Gardens and a ritzy dinner at the hotel’s flagship restaurant.

On then to Hong Kong for 2 nights. This time at a more conventional but very quirky hotel in Kowloon. Hong Kong is such an easy city to be a tourist in with a magical pickup system that gets you from the airport to the train and then to your hotel shuttle bus in no time flat and with very little cost. And it all runs every 10 minutes day and night. If only every city was so easy.

Hong Kong is such a wealthy city with flash cars (I saw my first Maybach) and flash suits everywhere.

Next stop London. We switched from economy travel to British Airways first class. That’s the way to fly with your own bed (doona and all!) fabulous food and terrific service.

We arrived in London, hassled with immigration over Alan’s visa and lost. We tried for a permanent residency style visa but had to settle with the one they issued in Australia which is for about 2 years.

We decided not to linger in London as we wanted to focus on buying our motorhome so we went straight to Hamburg. After the first class leg into London Luftansa was a let down with them stuffing up the connection in Frankfurt and us missing our connecting flight. Frankfurt airport is as big as a Melbourne suburb and we ran and bussed through it unsuccessfully to catch the flight.

Our research showed us that Germany is the best place in Europe to buy a motorhome. They have more to choose from, substantially lower prices and left hand drives. The dealers usually advertise that they speak English and the only real hurdle to overcome is the registration, but that’s an issue in every EU country.

We had the advantage of this being our second time around so we knew what sort of van we wanted and how much to pay for it. We also had been able to narrow down the best starting point for our search and a few likely dealers. The internet is amazing! Alan’s cancer scare and surgery put a spanner in the works and limited our research but we were still ok.

So we landed in Hamburg, spent the night there, rented a car and drove to Wedel to stay at a great B and B for a few days. This is just a little part of outer suburban Hamburg but close to the shipping channel and with great restaurants and friendly people. It proved to be the perfect base camp.

Incredibly we saw only 2 dealers and looked into just 6 vans before seeing Berty 2. We had actually seen the van on the Internet in Australia but did not realize just how good it was. In our research we also did not focus on particular vehicles so as to avoid disappointment if the perfect van was sold before we arrived. So on day two of our search we saw it and paid the deposit. So here’s what we bought:

Laika Kreos 3005, 7 meters long, 2006 model with 25,000 kms on the clock and in perfect condition. It’s on an Iveco which will be rated to 4250 kgs so will have a huge legal carrying capacity and lots of power. We have added air-conditioning throughout, an awing, extra power points, replaced the one leisure battery with 2 new ones and added lots of little extras like leveling ramps and cables. We also added a reversing camera to make life a little easier. This is a really well built van with large capacity everything including storage, water, fridge and even the sofas. We are still trying to figure out how many bottles of wine we can fit in the huge garage!

There is always the problem of registration. In 2006 we bought our first Berty in Tipperary, Ireland and had to contend with not having an address there as well as the annual vehicle check. That time around we used the dealer as our address and did not worry about the Irish inspection as we knew we would sell it before the year was up. This time we plan to keep it for at least 3 years. It’s all about your relationship with the dealer and how comfortable you feel. It worked well last time and we are confident it will again. The alternatives were very complicated and involved registering it in Northern Ireland where we have an address but would mean annual MOT checks in Belfast.

So we have left the registration in the dealer’s name and also arranged insurance through them at very reasonable rates as they also run a motorhome rental business. Berty 2 will have German plates but an Aussie flag and Aussie stickers but no doubt we will always be greeted with a Guten Morgen everywhere we go.

Berty 2 is perfect for us and was a real bargain. The combination of the style of vehicle that we wanted (with the bed above the driving cab) being a little less popular now in Europe, the 2006 first registration and the Aussie dollar exchange rate all worked in our favor. She will be ready for us about 1 June.

Next stop some touring in Germany.

Cheers A and A

Welcome to our new blog for Berty 2

Hi everyone. Keep an eye on our blog as we will start updating it very soon.