Monday 3rd Sep: Well the time to leave Camp Park
and Slovenia, slightly sad really as we have been very well looked after by
Darja, an excellent hostess, who has a really good, quiet and clean site which
is ideally placed for touring the whole area – Maribor for the oldest vine in
Europe, the 3 wine producing areas, mountain ranges galore for hiking, climbing
or skiing, castles to spare for visits, Lake Bled and the many other scenic
areas. It must be remembered that most attractions are just a ‘day trip’ from
the central region due to the size of the country. The RV and our good selves
were ready to go at 9.30 am so we made our farewells to everybody (including
our small furry friends) and for what seemed a long time we ‘hit the road’ for
Italy. It felt a bit weird at first (touch of camp fever) but once we started
rolling down the motorway and climbing some monster mountains it was back to
normal, the beast did great and coped with everything thrown at it. Before
leaving Slovenia we filled up the RV (fuel costs in Italy are high) with 266ltrs of diesel, which worked out at
£1.15 per litre – just as well due to Slovenia having made the top of our toll
charges table, the equivalent of 27 cents (21.6p) per km of motorway travelled.
We made it into Italy before spending the night in a very large service station
with a truck park – cheap site fees again. We struck Venice from the itinerary as Linda does not do water and we were told that most of the place is not dog friendly. The day was a bit of a bad weather
day, whilst being 23C we had rain, thunder, sun and cloudiness.
 |
| We said goodbye to all our friends. |
Tuesday 4th Sept: Not too bad of a night stop, a
bit of coming and going but we both got some reasonable sleep and were ready
for the final 100+ miles to Florence by 8.30 am. Unfortunately for Linda (she
does not like high mountains and their bridges over massive ravines – tunnels
are OK though) the final part of the journey included yet more rather large ups
and downs, beautiful scenery especially coming into the Tuscany region. The
beast continued to amaze and found the climbs, with the trailer and the Jazz on
the back, no problem at all. The first impression on Italy’s road tolls are not
too bad, we were warned that they are a bit expensive but seem to be much less
than Slovenia – suppose it is relative really Slovenia higher tolls, lower fuel costs and Italy lower tolls
and higher fuel costs. We arrived safely at 11.00am after 354 trouble free
miles – except for the strange noise just after leaving Prebold which turned
out to be the sound on the reversing camera, not having had it on before we
were not used to it and the volume must have been turn up during our cleaning –
don’t you just feel foolish! A quick
setup on a not too good a looking site but we will see, no pool or WiFi – not
good. A pleasant evening on the side of a hill overlooking Florence/the start of the Tuscany region. The day
started off with a bit of rain but picked up later and we found the sun again
in Italy during a 27C day.
 |
| At least it was hard standing. Florence |
 |
| View from the site in Florence |
Wednesday 5th Sept: Admin/Rest day planned with a quick recce of the local area, just as well as the day started off dull and overcast. The immediate area is a bit basic/construction site ish and does not look like it will be suitable for Neil’s run so Linda has banned them on safety issues. A quick ‘look see’ of Florence did not impress us, very nice but not really outstanding – maybe a longer visit is required to appreciate the place. The normal rations shopping trip was completed but Linda was not impressed with the bread selection - hard as bricks. We finished the day with planning for tomorrow’s visit of Pisa and on a friends recommendation Lucca. Fortunately the weather improved a bit and brightened up with a bit of sun and reached 29C. Still not impressed with the site especially as they seem to have an abundance of flying ants with lethal bites, we have though met a few fellow Brits – tour guides for Contiki 18-30 tours that transit through the site – and had a good chin wag. The site is ideally located with good views, near to the motorway (too near at night for the noise) but falls a bit short of its PR.
 |
| View from the site in Florence |
 |
| Just a bit too near the road |
Thursday 6th Sept: Early start as the visit to Pisa is one of Linda’s long founded must/love to see the leaning tower ambitions, so excitement is high – Neil and Daisy are just going for the ride. Well, unbelievable – whilst not everybody’s cup of tea the tower and cathedral in Pisa was to quote in the younger generations words, awesome! It had been well worth the wait and we spent ages walking around and drinking in the ambiance of the place. Plenty of photo opportunities but of course the damn dog took centre stage again with all and sundry, Japanese mainly, wanting to take a photo of Daisy. Unfortunately most of the rest of Pisa was a bit disappointing and is not as attractive and looked a bit jaded and in need of some attention but at least we have managed to tick another ‘bucket’ wish. The day was starting to heat up a bit and the brilliant sunlight soon brought 32C up on the temperature gauges so we decided a quick dash to Lucca was called for. Lucca was a nice surprise for us (thanks Clair) as we had not originally planned to visit this very pleasant and interesting town with its historical town centre having been maintained intact over the many years. Hence the quick visit was stretched a bit to allow us to see all of Lucca’s sights and have a traditional Italian pizza, al fresco style, in one of the squares, no problems as we did not have far to travel back to the site and were not in a rush to meet up with our not so friendly ants. We did get back early enough to allow us to complete all pre-move preparations for tomorrow’s move to France and complete 3 countries in one week; at least we will soon have caught up on ourselves.
 |
| Guess who and where? |
 |
| Pisa Cathedral and of course the 'leaning' tower. |
 |
| Giglio's Theatre Lucca |
Saturday 8th Sept: After not too bad of a stop, some Portugesse truckers decided to have a discussion group outside our bedroom window, not rowdy just disturbing, but packed up at 11.00pm so most of the night was peaceful. Set off for Nimes at 8.00am and drove down the French Riviera coastline, passing by Monte Carlo, Nice, Antibes, Cannes, St Tropez (all well outside our financial bracket) before heading across country to Aux en Provence, Salon and Arles getting into Nimes at about 2.00pm. We spent the rest of the day setting up, getting to know the site, repairing a cracked trailer lens cover - whoops, Linda got the blame as she was guiding me and resting up after a busy 10 days - 3 countries, 3 sites, 2 overnight truck stops, 788 miles and an arm and a leg in toll charges. Another nice day weather wise, sunny and hot - 35C.
PS: Please note that whilst in the Aux en Provence we did NOT take any photographs!
PS: Please note that whilst in the Aux en Provence we did NOT take any photographs!
No comments:
Post a Comment