On the Road Again ! Poland - Slowakia - Austria - Italy - Greece........and back.

[nicholsong]

Mani Peninsula.

We had touched places in the Mani before but this time we filled-in more bits, including deeper into the 'Deep Mani'

Conclusion is that we were generally disappointed, although there were good spots. It is quite barren, as expected, and there are a lot of Byzantine churches if that is your thing.

Where there is much sign of life it is of the touristy style with beach umbrellas and sunbeds, but not many natural beaches with a family-run taverna, but we did find one very good one, which was just 2km from what I can only describe as a 'French-style beach club', which we scootled away from very quickly.

The huge exodus of people from the Mani is now being replaced by tourism, but in my opinion not the the sort that attracted people to Greece for its natural beauty - sunbeds do not grow naturally like tamarisk trees!

Some of the less attractive places are even having the cheek to charge higher than normal prices - but to us only once.

The best food we had was in a taverna in Kardamyli which was recommended by an English friend who lives in Athens. The food and service was exceptional; they served wine in 1/2lts and the prices were what one expects to pay in Greece - result we stayed another day, another excellent meal.

I doubt we would return to the Mani.

I think our next trip to Greece will include one or two of my favourite islands - ones without charter flights, because I assume flights more recently to Kalamata have changed the tourism on the Peloponnese and Mani in particular.

We have 9 nights ahead of us in W. Peloponnese, which will include 2-3 spots we like and then Patras- Bari for a few weeks in Italy to look forward to, we hope.

Geoff

 

[barryd]

Hope the weather is holding out Geoff. Tornados in Aldershot yesterday apparently and the forecast for Devon next week where we are moving on to today is awful.

I always liked the quieter islands although we were very fond of North Eastern Corfu. Durrell's Corfu that is.

 

[nicholsong]

Hope the weather is holding out Geoff. Tornados in Aldershot yesterday apparently and the forecast for Devon next week where we are moving on to today is awful.

I always liked the quieter islands although we were very fond of North Eastern Corfu. Durrell's Corfu that is.

Barry, weather. Is fine - quite a lot of cloud last two weeks but suits us with temps now mid 20s. Only few showers.

Season is over for Greeks but not tourists so according to where we are tavernas may or may not be open, but I have resident cook if needed

 

[Jon Stewart]

At last we have got away for first time since November last. Trip earlier in year was cancelled because if illness in the family.

We left home in Katowice this morning, crossed into Slowakia and are now parked up in our familiar spot in Trencin by the river and thankfully in the shade.

Dinner on board this evening then off to Austria tomorrow to another favourite spot and a favourite restaurant.

We will post from time to time.

Geoff and Basia

Have a great trip.

Would be nice to have food photos, so we can create a to-do list of restaurants! Nudge, nudge!

 

[nicholsong]

see that have not posted about our trip since 21st Sept. That is because what is relaxing for us in our favourite spots in Greece could be boring to others.

However now I have some more special reports - mostly good.

Maybe I will start with getting lucky today and then revert to the others. Today we came down to a village in the foothills of the Monti del Matese. We did not fancy the steep/narrow climb to the official CP, but entered the small village square, where there happened to be a double parking end space for us with an excellent view to the West across an agricultural plateau and mountains, the furthest of which I estimate to be close to Montecassino of WWII fame. We had just parked and were discussing veg/fruit shopping when a fruit/veg truck drove into the square to sell. Lucky or what?

Now to backtrack.

Our last days in Greece were relaxed - beaches, swimming, favourite tavernas, including an evening with MHFun 'Lurkers' with no user name, since Jim pissed them off.

Then 1730 Patras-Bari ferry. Camping on Board.
We were one line away from starboard 'window' and there was space for us to set up chairs as a 'balcony' Unusually we did not leave the vehicle deck, ate in MH and slept well.

Bari arrival: 55 mins. to disembark. An Italian had warned us to high-tail it out of Bari, which we did, but still took 30 mins. Bari is now off our ferry routes.

We headed towards Alberobello to see Trulli houses but stopped at a cemetery with a toilet block outside, which took 1 1/2 cassette. Alberobello was full of tourists even in Autumn, so we skidaddled out.

Two stops later A Gem! Agrotourist Restaurant in countryside. We parked in grove of small oaks with 4 MHs spread around. Fixed menu of 4 excellent courses for €25ea and 1/2 lt wine for €2.50. We could have been in a city restaurant for 3 times the price.

Couple of OK stops, then we headed into the Monti del Matese. Stopped on village parking with excellent view, day and night of Volturno valley. Basia went off to find recommended restaurant for evening, to be told kitchen closes on Sun at 1600 so we go for Lunch. Very noisy with families out for Sun lunch with kids, but excellent food - two whopping veal steaks(1 cm thick for Basia and large chunks of lamb for me, all in great sauces with fresh crisp roast potatoes.

Next day over the Col, 11km, tp a plateau with a lake and gravel parking. This is 3,000' up and across to 6,000 peaks. Total tranquility. Some cows and sheep beep herded along the lakeside and that was all. This morning we woke at 0700 to 50m fog which burned off by 0900. Then sat out admiring the magnificent view till cloud and bit of wind decided us to head down to this village.

After what I saw as a disappointing Puglia - bad roads, dull countryside and unattractive towns, I now feel we are in the Italy that I imagine and expect.

Our itinerary has changed because our friend from Katowice cannot guarantee to be in his Ialian residence as he is 'selling something', so we are even more free to choose our routing - Decisions! Decisions! Might just hang around here?

Geoff

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[nicholsong]

Minimal interest in my last post, so I will confine this to saying that we are sitting in sunshine about 100' above a lbeautiful lake. In Italy in about 20C.

 

[CAB96]

Minimal interest in my last post, so I will confine this to saying that we are sitting in sunshine about 100' above a lbeautiful lake. In Italy in about 20C.

Ooh, whereabouts?

 

[Jane And Rog]

Minimal interest in my last post, so I will confine this to saying that we are sitting in sunshine about 100' above a lbeautiful lake. In Italy in about 20C.

Didn’t see your last post, even though I think I’m following yoiur thread. The agrotourist restaurant sounds great - do you have details?

 

[Pugsy]

Sounds like a great trip and you are getting about a bit and seeing good and bad.I guess if you did a similar trip again it would be even better as you could head for all the good spots
Why the rush away at Bari ferry, Is it a bad area for tourists?
Or a target for thieves?

Cheers Cris

 

[nicholsong]

Ooh, whereabouts?

Borgo San Pietro

Didn’t see your last post, even though I think I’m following yoiur thread. The agrotourist restaurant sounds great - do you have details?

Tenuta del Grillado a bit N. of Santeramo and is on P4N.

Sounds like a great trip and you are getting about a bit and seeing good and bad.I guess if you did a similar trip again it would be even better as you could head for all the good spots
Why the rush away at Bari ferry, Is it a bad area for tourists?
Or a target for thieves?

Cheers Cris

Grim city terrible traffic - 30 mins. to clear town from port. Lots of Gendarmerie standing on street corners. I did not stop to ask questions.

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[CAB96]

Borgo San Pietro

Tenuta del Grillado a bit N. of Santeramo and is on P4N.


Grim city terrible traffic - 30 mins. to clear town from port. Lots of Gendarmerie standing on street corners. I did not stop to ask questions.

Thank you.

I love looking on the map at where people are travelling, even if I might never get there.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Borgo San Pietro

Tenuta del Grillado a bit N. of Santeramo and is on P4N.


Grim city terrible traffic - 30 mins. to clear town from port. Lots of Gendarmerie standing on street corners. I did not stop to ask questions.

Thanks!

 

[nicholsong]

Since my last post we have experienced the following :-

Two cultural site visits - enough for this trip.

Two Municipal sites with all services, incl. EHU, FREE - UK towns note!

Four days of fog, rain but sun out yesterday and today, like British summer day. Sitting outside all day until I forced myself inside to catch up on posts, because too bright to do it outside.

We are in no rush to go North until weather changes,

 

[nicholsong]

Today's experience.

We woke in fog, but decided to motor up to the castle(closed) CP.

Fog cleared 1200. Views West to Florence and East across juncture of two valleys and hills beyond in glorious sunshine and 23C.

Not bad for 29 Oct

Who wants campsites?

 

[nicholsong]

We have had wall-to-wall sunshine continuously, after morning fog, for 4 days now.

We had 2 days in a small town Bibbiena with an ancient centre and I ticked off one of my bucket-list items of sitting in a piazza where there are no tourists and watching the locals go about their business. We spent 2 hours and a couple of glasses of wine doing that in the sunshine - bliss.

We also had two excellent evening meals there.

Bibbiena was a town with narrow streets, slow cars, clean, CP with escalator to the old part, well-signed. Obvious 'Civic Pride'. All to be applauded.

So far Italy has fallen into two parts: from Bari and Puglia up to Umbria and then Umbria and Tuscany.

The first part did not suit us as I reported earlier, but Umbria and Tuscany great , even when the weather was not good.

We are now on our 3rd Sosta with free services including EHU and here there is everything including toilets, all built recently. Bit difficult to spend money though as bars and restaurants are about 1 km away.

We have now done our last mountain pass which was 35 difficult kms, but from here it will be the boring northern Italian plains. Our next stop will be a farm for olives, oil and wine.

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[CAB96]

Sounds idyllic!

 

[nicholsong]

We are still on the road, now between Venice and Udine.

Nov weather has been very kind, fog most mornings but cleared to sun rest of day

Today exceptional, we have been under blue cloudless sky all day. I have been in shorts and shirtless since 1100 now 1400.and temp 26C.

We are on a pretty Aire near a river where the footbridge was preceded by a Roman bridge.

Weather forecast to be same tomorrow, so will probably stay another day = every day nearer to the shortest day is a bonus.

 

[nicholsong]

We did stay another day and while warm and sunny was not shorts warm.

Today we ser off in sunshine, went over the pass at Tarvisio into Austria and we were immediately under low grey cloud.

We went from a max temp of 19C to here, E. off Klagenfurt, of 2C with 0C forecast for tonight. I have checked the clothes peg on the Truma dump valve !

 

[nicholsong]

TRIP COMMENTS AN CONCLUSIONS

We finished the 3-month trip on Mon 18th Nov.

This is a summary.

.Countries:-

GREECE

It has been my favourite country for holidays for 40 years, both flying/island-hopping, sailing there for 30 years and now our third visit in the MH.
The main attraction for both of us is the sea and fish tavernas, relaxed atmosphere, market produce etc.

Downside in a MH is cassette emptying. We took 3 cassettes, but in reality only used 1 1/2, mainly because at half-way of 4 weeks we were parked at taverna with good outside toilet block.

ITALY

Previously we had only done dashes down to Ancona and back for ferry to Greece.

The best of Italy was the food. The worst the roads and drivers - none made for relaxing.

This time we returned Patras-Bari to see more. We found the Puglia area boring and Bari a nightmare - 55 mins. to disembark and 30 mins. to clear the town.

We enjoyed the countryside in Umbria and Tuscany, but north of there it is flat and boring right up to the hills N. of Udine.

AUSTRIA

Places to stop are often at sports complexes outside towns/villages, so no restaurants.

Big downside is the tolls over 3.5t. Tarvisio to Bratislava cost is €120 each way. I shall look at going from Bratislava through Hungary on normal roads and paying Slovenia tolls next time.

SLOWAKIA

Tolls are a dream. Into office, pay €12 for whole country for 10 days and Reg No. put in camera computer and on your way in 4 mins.

Just one stop, easy but getting cold on return trip.

WILDCAMPING

"No campsites were damaged/used in the making of this trip"

We had not one official nor private comment nor complaint about where we parked in the whole 3 months, from 15th Aug to 18th Nov.

MH PERFORMANCE

MH performed well, except for a failure of the DIN 12v socket on the kitchen fascia, but that was just an inconvenience, and a spluttering water supply, one day which solved itself.

OVERALL CONCLUSIONS

It was our first trip longer than 5-6 weeks and it proved that we can successfully do trips of this length or longer. The only thing we did not test was doing laundry, because we took sufficient bedding and clothes to last, but in Europe I am sure we could manage laundry on a longer trip.

We did find the trip back in the last week a bit depressing with short days and cold temperatures once into Austria, but that was because we lingered longer in Italy than intended, under blue skies and warm sunshine.

BUDGET/COST

Do not ask, but happily to say we came in €1.500 under expected, so even with fixed costs of running the home apartment we probably only spent €2-3,000 over normal expenditure, which for a 3-month holiday is OK in my book.

Now to plan a quick flight to the sun in Feb and then next MH trip - France/Spain, Norway, UK, Greece again - or all of the above?

 

[nicholsong]

One more post-trip comment.

I mentioned before that one aspect of longer touring that we did not test was using laundrys. because we had sufficient bedding, towels and clothes. We have been back 10 days now and the washing machine seems to have been running every day. Fortunately we have had some sun so not had to use the spin-dryer.

We have decided that on a trip of that length in future we would do laundry en-route, including drying and ironing for some items, whatever the cost.

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