On the move again.....

After six nights of being lulled to sleep at night by the gentle lapping of the sea on the beach 

we thought it was time to move on to pastures new, not too far this time, about one and a half hours journey south to a campsite near the Krka National park.
We have had some lovely days out exploring the area on foot and on our bikes, but we have to wrench ourselves away to continue on our journey.
And what a beautiful day! Lovely hot sunshine!
We arrived at Camp Marina (not far from the popular resort of Sibenik) and after lunch we set out on our bikes, it was downhill for 3 miles to the National Park where we cycled along the lake side for a while before heading back for the slog uphill back to the campsite - we will be extremely fit by the time we get home. The views were spectacular and worth the hard work cycling back up the hill and tomorrow we have booked to go on a guided trip through the park so I'm sure there will be plenty more to see then.

Photos as promised!

At last! Having walked the half mile into town for some free wifi I can show you the promised photos...

Washing day with a difference! (It all dried perfectly!)

We arrive at Starigrad and get the best view on the site!

Sunset from our window

Lovely, but a bit chilly!

A chance to relax before heading out exploring on our bikes.

So that's it for today, we're heading back to the van for our slow cooked chicken. Hope you like the photos!

Back soon xxx

We arrive in Croatia!

We left for Croatia on Saturday morning, travelling in the rain again, we seem to be ill fated this holiday when it comes to the weather! Luckily the rain stopped when we arrived at Camping Bor on the outskirts of Krk town. Krk itself is actually an island accessed by a huge bridge which we paid 46 kuna to use (about £5) It's a popular holiday destination and there are lots of campsites, apartment for rent and large supermarkets - one of the big chains here is called Plondine and of course we have passed by signs for Lidl along our route - my favourite!
In the afternoon we walked down into the town and had a cold beer in a bar on the quayside.
At this point I have a lovely photo for you but unfortunately Google update has failed and my photos are not available for me to upload so you will have to use your imagination here, sorry.......
The town was full of bars and restaurants as well as lots of tourist nicknack shops, the quayside was full of touts selling boat trips, so although it was quite pretty it was not our type of place we like to visit, we prefer to be off the beaten track a bit more.
Our site had every facility we needed including a washing machine so we took advantage and spent Sunday morning doing our laundry before going out for a walk after lunch, now imagine a photo of all my washing hanging around the motorhome.....
During the night we had massive thunderstorms and the rain on the roof was deafening it was so heavy! And although it was sunny on Monday morning, more dark clouds were looming so we decided to leave Krk and head further south to Starigrad near Zadar. We travelled in more heavy rain but when we arrived our luck changed - the sun came out and the lovely young lady on reception of Camping Plantaza gave us the best pitch on the site - right on the seafront! We really couldn't wish for better and later when we went to the Tourist information we were given loads of info about walks and cycle rides in and around the area. Just down the road there is a National Park which we can visit, maybe we will linger longer here....

Here I have photos of the lovely view from our pitch and me swimming in the sea for you, but you will have to wait until next time..........

Wifi permitting I will be back in a few days....

One more day in Slovenia........

Well we decided to stay for another day, so after a few chores (cleaning mainly!) we headed into Kobarid town to the WW1 war museum

What was really good about the museum was that all the displays had explanations in 4 languages including English, so we could really understand what the exhibitions were all about. The massive battle here in Kobarid was between the Italians and the Austria/Hungarians and was fought in the mountains, it must have been incredibly tough on both sides especially during the bitterly cold winters.
By the end of the war neither side had won the battle, what a terrible waste of so many young lives.

After lunch we decided to try some local food - goulash with dumplings, which was delicious and very filling.

Sitting in the restaurant it was surprising that the Slovenians speak to each other in Slovenian and English, switching easily between the two languages, I can't say I have ever heard that in any of the countries we have visited. We certainly haven't had any language problems because everyone speaks English so well.
We needed to walk off the lunch so we wandered along the river again before heading back to the campsite for a cup of tea.

We have been pleasantly surprised that Slovenia has a lot to offer the tourist and we will come back again for more hiking, cycling and maybe kayaking!!!
Tomorrow we leave for Croatia and the island of Krk, the next campsite doesn't have free wifi so it might be a few days before I'm back blogging again, but I'll be back just as soon as I can!
It's lovely to know that you are reading our travelling tales, the host site for my blog tells me how many 'hits' I'm getting each day, I just don't know who you are!!! (Apart from Mike! Thank you for your support xx)
So don't forget to let me know you've been by - just say Hi.........
Back soon xxx

Three countries in one day.....

On Tuesday we walked along the riverside the 4 miles to the pretty Austrian town of Gmund where we stopped for coffee and apple strudel with cream - delicious!

We wandered around the town for a while then headed back to the campsite before it started to rain. It was time to pack for the next days' journey into Slovenia.
We set out on Wednesday morning driving from Austria through Italy (briefly) then into Slovenia.

The border between Italy and Slovenia 

We had chosen a campsite at a town called Bovec, but when we arrived we didn't like the site at all, so we decided to head on to another site about 20 miles on. We are so glad we made the decision as it turned out to be a lovely site, right on the riverside with very friendly helpful staff. Camping Koren at Kobarid in the west of Slovenia. There is also free wifi in the reception area which means I can keep my blog right up to date!
We are surrounded by beautiful mountain scenery, the most striking thing is the colour of the water, it's a fantastic shade of turquoise, and set against the pale limestone rocks it is quite spectacular.

The area is rich in history too, being the centre of a massive battle during WW1. We walked from the campsite to a wonderful waterfall and enroute there were restored observation posts and gun emplacements set into the hillside
Today (Thursday) we did what we love to do and cycled along a quiet road to Tolmin - a town 10 miles along in the river valley. There wasn't that much to see there, but we did stop for coffee before we found somewhere to sit and eat our picnic lunch.

I believe that back in the UK you're having a bit of a heat wave? Well we are finding the weather here warmer (and much dryer than Germany!) but it will be even better when we hit the Adriatic Coastline in a couple of days time!
We are intending to head to Croatia and the isle of Krk in the next couple of days, but the forecast for the weekend is for storms, so we may have a rethink before heading in that direction. That's the best bit of having no itinerary, maybe tomorrow we will stay and go into Kobarid to the WW1 museum and there is a cheese museum too, perhaps we could visit that too - do you think it's full of mouldy cheese???

We take the Ausfahrt out of Germany

After 2 days on the motorway travelling across Germany we decided to have a day off the roads before continuing on with our journey. We would have lingered longer in Germany but for the atrocious weather - it's rained since we left Luxembourg on Thursday morning, it's about 10'C colder than the UK and torrential rain does not lend itself to sightseeing. We stopped for 2 nights at a campsite situated on Lake Cheimsee, not far from Salzburg, which would be picturesque if only the sun would just shine for us!

Luckily we had a couple of breaks in the rain so we could go out for a walk along the lakeside path on Friday evening. Then Saturday morning we walked the couple of miles into the nearest town, Prien, for a few provisions, we thought we were going to be unlucky as all there seemed to be were hotels and tourist shops selling postcards, but then suddenly there on the brow of the hill was a LIDL, I never thought I could get so excited about a shop.
We had planned to take the bikes off the back of the van and go out for a cycle ride after lunch but nature was against us and the torrential rains came again so we stayed in the van and planned our next destination in Austria then watched a film. Sometimes we wonder about this motorhoming lark, splooshing about on a sodden field not knowing quite what to do! During the evening the rain on the roof was so loud we couldn't hear the TV even on maximum volume, it was like sitting inside a popcorn machine!

And no wi-fi!

Despite the noise of the rain we slept well and Sunday morning we drove for 3 hours into Austria to a lovely site not far off the motorway to Slovenia. This site is located on the edge of the Hohe Tauern National park and at last the rain eased off so we could enjoy the superb scenery.
Austria has lived up to all our expectations, it really is like all the pictures you see - rugged mountains covered in pine forest with beautiful waterfalls, the water falling down to the river of cold clear water running through the valleys. All the Austrian houses are beautifully kept with massive window boxes full of colourful flowers, the smell of the log burning stoves reminding us of Christmas.
Today (Monday) we cycled alongside the river up the valley, had a picnic lunch then cycled back (about 16 miles of easy cycling in all) In the meantime, our dinner of Chicken Provencal was bubbling in the slow cooker. To us this is what motorhoming is all about!

We have booked into this site for 3 nights so whilst we're here we can plan our next campsite somewhere in Slovenia as well as getting out and about in the beautiful countryside.

As I write we are now back with free wi-fi in Slovenia so more updates tomorrow!

I'd love to know you are reading my blog, comments please if only to say Hello and let me know you're there! 

Speak to you soon!

Germany and all roads lead to Ausfarht.....

Well dear readers I have to say that I'm not finding blogging as easy as I thought it would be! It's the technology you see, if only I could get my IPad (Apple) and my phone (android) to share photos it would make my life easier. I use Google+ for photo sharing which should work in theory but I have 2 accounts with Google+ , one account for the me at home and one for the travelling me! Trouble is it now thinks I have some kind of split personality.
I also encountered the problem with 'unexpected' data roaming charges. I thought I was so clever buying my little Mobile Wifi device and locating a SIM card from a company promising the best rates for roaming in Europe, USA & Canada, having been charged 70€ for a single days' use I feel pretty sick! I have been in touch with Roamline and they wondered if maybe I created a Wifi hotspot (whilst I was stuck in the traffic on the Belgian motorway) and this may account for the high usage. Sadly they didn't offer any kind of refund...
Ah well, lesson learned, I think everyone knows to turn off their data roaming on their phone when you're abroad but when using other devices it's best to really understand the charges - 0.20€ per mb sounds reasonable doesn't it?

So,a little update on where we are now and the curious title of my blog...
After 3 nights in Luxembourg we are heading to the Black Forest area of Germany. It was with great delight we filled up with diesel this morning in Luxembourg at 1.18€ a litre, that's under £1 a litre - Yipee!! Not much else to say about Luxembourg that I didn't say in my last post!
We kind of expected the German autobahns to be fast and smooth but sadly all we encountered were frequent roadworks and contra flow systems, still, the Belgian roads won the prize for terrible road surfaces and congestion, we were glad to escape!
When we first joined the German motorway I saw a number of slip roads leading to the town of Ausfahrt, but then it seemed odd that ALL roads off the motorway lead to this town, then the penny dropped and we realised that Ausfarht is the German word for 'Exit' on the motorway. Apparently I'm not the first to think it's all a bit strange as you can even buy a "All roads lead to Ausfarht" Tshirt!

Grand designs Luxembourg style!

As I write it's torrential rain so I suspect we may not spend too long waiting for the clouds to disperse but head on to Croatia and hopefully some sunshine

I promise I will have more photos for you soon, any suggestions would be helpful!!

Belgium and beyond....

It's been an eventful few days since my last post. We set out from our Camperstop on Monday morning expecting to be at our chosen campsite in Luxembourg in time for lunch. Sadly this was definitely not the case as a fatal accident on the motorway meant we were held up in traffic for FOUR hours! 

All I can say is that at least we did make our destination unlike the poor soul in the motorway crash who didn't.
We were very pleased to arrive at Camping Krounebierg in Mersch,Luxembourg, soon settling in and freshening up. We have certain things we look for in a campsite and this one just about 'ticks all the boxes'. Usually we look for good reviews on the website as well as walks and cycle rides from the site, we also like a close proximity to a village or town so we can do some shopping or find a coffee shop. 
After a lovely peaceful nights sleep our day was spoiled by an email from Roamline with an invoice for 70€ for data usage on my mobile wifi device yesterday - EEEEEK!!! Roamline advertise themselves as cheap data  and in my ignorance I had no idea that updating my online blog with a few photos, checking Facebook etc whilst stuck in traffic would cost me anything like that amount! I have been in touch with them and it seems the invoice is correct. All I can say is I won'tbe using my Mifi any more!! Most places have free wifi and you won't miss me for a few days when I can't update my blog will you?
Luxembourg is a lovely country, very tidy and well kept and I like the architecture of the houses which are often a bit unusual. We have a pretty view of the countryside from our pitch

Yesterday we cycled along a cycle path all the way to Luxembourg City and back which we thought would be about 20 miles round trip but ended up at 32 miles! Needless to say we didn't do a lot of sightseeing but what we did see of the city was very interesting. We saw the old sector which was down in a valley with high city walls surrounding the area. If I could sort out getting photos from my phone to this blog I'll show you but for now I'll say adieu! 
Oh before I go.. Can you tell me what you call a person from Luxembourg? I really have no idea......

 

Our journey begins......

After days of packing we're finally on the road.
Here's us  driving on:

And here's us driving off:

What an effortless way to travel! From arriving at the Eurotunnel  it took less than an hour and a half before we were driving off in France. Our route meant that we were soon in Belgium enroute to Luxembourg. Our plan was to find a camperstop after a few hours of driving and this proved to be a bit trickier than we anticipated. The Satnav has the Camperstops pre-loaded, we then need to do a search for one nearby. Unfortunately the first one we tried was non-existent! Now that's not fun at the end of the day. We decided to try for the next one 7km away and this, although not perfect, proved to be ok for an overnight stay.

So we spent our first night somewhere in Belgium (a place called La Louviere) with our favourite first night meal of pork pie salad followed by settling down to watch an episode of Breaking Bad with a cup of tea (see we have all the home comforts you know!)

So tomorrow we leave Belgium and continue on our way to Luxembourg
Au Revoir!

Six days to go and where to head for?

A lot of people ask us if we book our campsites before we go on our trips and the answer is 'no', the main reason being that by not booking we have the freedom to stop for a few days longer at the places we are enjoying, but move on from those we might not like so much. We always travel out of the high season and find our sites using a Dutch club called ACSI, they provide you with a book of inspected sites and allow season fixed rate discount card whereby the price of the pitch is set at 14, 16 or 18 euros including electric  hookup.
We also have the ACSI app for our IPad which you can use off line including readings all the site reviews.
We have also recently started using Camping Cheque which operates a similar fixed price system for loads of sites across Europe.
We have never had a problem finding sites with vacancies so have no worries about just turning up at a site, although sometimes we do email ahead just to be on the safe side!
So these last few days we have been looking at the sites, reading the reviews and just getting an idea of where we want to go in the first few days.

Our initial ideas so far are to head from Calais to Belgium and on to Luxembourg for a few days then continue our journey into Germany and the Black Forest. We read that the Black Forest is no place for dieters with delicious meat and sausage meals followed by their famous gateaux! Sounds like a good place to start our holiday - although hopefully we will be able to burn a few calories out walking and cycling in the countryside!
I'd love to hear from any other motorhomers out there who have gone on similar trips and what their experiences are. Do you have other means of finding places to stay? 
Back soon!
Angie