>
Merv-IOM
Subscriber
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2011
- Messages
- 2,284
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Isle of Man
- Member No
- 2,034
- RV Type
- A Class
- Model
- Winnebago Journey DL 34 HD
- RV Experience
- Since 2011
Italy was lovely and much cheaper than we'd imagined, first stop was on a small campsite at Aquileia, near Monfalcone. By sheer good fortune the town turned out to be full of ancient Roman ruins – a fantastic place to wander round, right up our 'strasse' (as they say in Frankfurt)! Apparently it was large and prominent in antiqity as one of the worlds biggest cities with a population of 100k in the 2nd century AD! The museum there was stuffed to the gunnels with all kinds of remnants, a staggering amount piled up all over the place.
We back tracked a little from there to meet up with some friends on a free aires at Staranzano for a night (they'd been to Azerbaijan & Georgia!) - much beer and mucho prattle ensued.
Onwards, we then sauntered down to Cavallino (nr Venice) to a campsite for a week (we'd booked previously), feeling happy it was now 1st September and all the bloody tourists had gone home........WRONG!
When we arrived the site was thronging with Germans and their extremely annoying, noisy brats. (it turns out their offspring, and future world rulers, go back to school around the 14th September and that particular coast is the nearest beach to the fatherland - drat!). Grrrrrr, oh well ne'er mind eh? A week listening to poolside music, screaming kids, fitness workouts for the over 70's dressed in brightly coloured, tight but ill fitting shell suits (expertly led by an overtly gay African bloke in similar garb) and accompanied by loud, crap music was worth enduring as our visit to Venice was fabulous! Besides, the trenches fell silent at midnight so there was some respite from the din.
We bought 2 'all transport' tickets from the campsite which covered the bus to and from the Punta Sabbioni, the ferry from there to Venice and back plus any of the the vaporetto's up and down the grand canal – 24 euros a piece – a bargain! We made good use of them too......
We spent hours wandering around the lovely city seeing all the regular sights and some not so popular and enjoyed every minute. It was a very hot, long day and by the time we'd walked all the way up through the old town and caught a vaporetto back to the ferry port area, we were gasping for a drink. Me, being the romantic type of chap, spotted a nice bar, with seats/tables and a pianist in the sunshine in the middle of St Marks square, and suggested that we rested and quaffed a few cold beers to recover and soak up the atmosphere. Sandra jumped at the chance and as we parked our bums into the chairs a waiter arrived with some menu's – but without a seconds thought I ordered 2 beers and a bottle of agua minerali immediately – we were, after all, parched. After he'd set off to fetch our drinks, we looked at the menu only to notice that the beers were 15 euros per bottle and 8 euros for a small bottle of water!! YIKES! We glanced at each other in horror and, with blood draining from our faces, we looked for the waiter. Luckily no sign of him returning, so we legged it sharpish before he returned, blending into the crowd with me wearing a bright green t-shirt and Sandra in her fluorescent pink top..........phew! It's been a long time since we've legged it from anything, let alone an extortionate drinks bill! No need to be concerned about our welfare tho, because we walked about 100m away, back to a small bar we'd been to earlier (pizza and 2 drinks for 22 euros) and had a couple of drinks there, safe in the knowledge we wouldn't need a mortgage to settle the tab. Venice is ace!
Time for a trundle, this time to a camper stop at Desenzano del Garda, right on the lakeside – a lovely spot. 10 mins to Desenzano itself, with it's bustling market and beautiful setting, and 10 mins the other way to a Lidl and Simply supermarkets – we couldn't have been in a better place - with views to die for. (made even better by the fact that Simply had Gorgonzola cheese on special offer, yum yum).
From there it was an overnight halt on a free aires at Ovada on our way to San Remo, a nice enough place with free dumps and water but not much else.
San Remo – wow! Somehow it conjured up all sorts of fascinating things in our heads, only to disappoint somewhat. It was a nice enough town, but nothing special. You could lie on 'beaches' (I say beaches, but they were really mounds of gravel near the sea) for the princely sum of 90 euros per day for 2 sunbeds and a parasol thrown in!! A bargain if you ask me...... The aires/camperstop was nothing more than a gravel car park (right beside the sea I'll grant you) with a filthy water/dump station behind the football ground – all for 15 euros a night. We didn't bother doing our ablutions and shot off after 2 days, over the border, to Biot, near Antibes, France.
The campsite at Biot (Les Frenes) was perfect – small, friendly and 200 meters away from the train directly to Monte Carlo! Needless to say we caught the train to Monaco and had a fabulous day there – lunch on the harbour, a lap of the circuit (on foot), a stroll round the marina, a visit to the Palace and the surrounding gorgeous buildings. Lovely jubbly. (We were going to drive down there for a lap but couldn't as we'd run low on juice and thought it was more prudent to fill up with cheaper stuff elsewhere). One thing of note though, on watching the royal guards outside the palace, is that no one (bar none as I can think of) can do military marching or changing of guards as good as the British do. The palace guards in Monte Carlo were actually chewing gum as they shuffled about. Good grief you can imagine what Her Majesty would have to say about that?
We stayed a few days before heading ever west/southwest, bound for Arles. This place looks really interesting as it's also full of Roman ruins etc but when we arrived there wasn't a patch of spare tarmac anywhere! It was chokker as there was some kind of fair or other going on so we had to head further west to the nearest aires at St Gilles (small village with parking beside a canal and nothing much else). We were feeling a little miffed at not being able to stay in Arles until we met our friends again (from Staranzano) on Narbonne plage, when they informed us that the the place (Arles) has been swamped by flash floods that very night and loads of vehicles got washed into the briney!! Phew again........
Our trundle entered the final phase when we entered Spain, staying on free aires at Viladrau, Asco, Andorra, Torrebaja and Ucles until we got to Aranjuez, near Madrid. A lovely campsite in another lucky find of a town. Apparently it's where the old Royalty had a palace there (in fact it was all palace at one time) and also where the revolution began. Another plus was the direct train from there to Madrid centre! Yes, one more city visit but by this time we were 'citied' out and only spent a few hours there before flagging and heading back to the peace and quiet. We did, however, find a lovely Belgian bar near the centre which serves a jolly nice lunch for a reasonable price!
From there it was aires again at Alcazar de San Juan, Dona Mencia before spending a week at Pueblo Blanco campsite at Olvera (we had some camping cheques to use up before Xmas). If you ever get that way, do pop in – the pitches (especially at the top) are vast, fully serviced and have breathtaking views......but it can get a little windy! We were lucky and had not a breath while we were there.
From there it was a very nice run down through Ronda towards Estepona on our way to La Linea de Concepcion, Gibraltar and cheap booze! Three days and seven trips in and out of the 'rock' replenished our stocks enough, so we finally headed for our winter 'home' at Camping Roche, Conil de la Frontera.
A few stats if you can bear anymore drivel....
We visited 24 countries
Covered 9,831 miles (15,821 km)
Used 924.27 gallons (4201.83 ltrs) of Diesel
Average MPG = 10.63 (pretty good for a 12 ton RV)
Used only 1 liter of engine oil (good old Caterpillar 3126E engine) and no gearbox oil!
Travelled on 7 large ferries and several small ones (in Sweden & Finland)
Cheapest diesel was 97p pl (Algeciras, Spain) & 98p pl (Poland)
Dearest diesel was £1.24p pl (Jokkmokk, Sweden) & £1.34p pl (Nottingham, UK)
Blew Arvey's horn in every tunnel (odd but true)
Used 11 currencies
Toured 15 cities
Had pizza once
and used 3 large boxes of Rennies! (bloody pizza!)
That's it, no more.............until next year!!
We back tracked a little from there to meet up with some friends on a free aires at Staranzano for a night (they'd been to Azerbaijan & Georgia!) - much beer and mucho prattle ensued.
Onwards, we then sauntered down to Cavallino (nr Venice) to a campsite for a week (we'd booked previously), feeling happy it was now 1st September and all the bloody tourists had gone home........WRONG!
When we arrived the site was thronging with Germans and their extremely annoying, noisy brats. (it turns out their offspring, and future world rulers, go back to school around the 14th September and that particular coast is the nearest beach to the fatherland - drat!). Grrrrrr, oh well ne'er mind eh? A week listening to poolside music, screaming kids, fitness workouts for the over 70's dressed in brightly coloured, tight but ill fitting shell suits (expertly led by an overtly gay African bloke in similar garb) and accompanied by loud, crap music was worth enduring as our visit to Venice was fabulous! Besides, the trenches fell silent at midnight so there was some respite from the din.
We bought 2 'all transport' tickets from the campsite which covered the bus to and from the Punta Sabbioni, the ferry from there to Venice and back plus any of the the vaporetto's up and down the grand canal – 24 euros a piece – a bargain! We made good use of them too......
We spent hours wandering around the lovely city seeing all the regular sights and some not so popular and enjoyed every minute. It was a very hot, long day and by the time we'd walked all the way up through the old town and caught a vaporetto back to the ferry port area, we were gasping for a drink. Me, being the romantic type of chap, spotted a nice bar, with seats/tables and a pianist in the sunshine in the middle of St Marks square, and suggested that we rested and quaffed a few cold beers to recover and soak up the atmosphere. Sandra jumped at the chance and as we parked our bums into the chairs a waiter arrived with some menu's – but without a seconds thought I ordered 2 beers and a bottle of agua minerali immediately – we were, after all, parched. After he'd set off to fetch our drinks, we looked at the menu only to notice that the beers were 15 euros per bottle and 8 euros for a small bottle of water!! YIKES! We glanced at each other in horror and, with blood draining from our faces, we looked for the waiter. Luckily no sign of him returning, so we legged it sharpish before he returned, blending into the crowd with me wearing a bright green t-shirt and Sandra in her fluorescent pink top..........phew! It's been a long time since we've legged it from anything, let alone an extortionate drinks bill! No need to be concerned about our welfare tho, because we walked about 100m away, back to a small bar we'd been to earlier (pizza and 2 drinks for 22 euros) and had a couple of drinks there, safe in the knowledge we wouldn't need a mortgage to settle the tab. Venice is ace!
Time for a trundle, this time to a camper stop at Desenzano del Garda, right on the lakeside – a lovely spot. 10 mins to Desenzano itself, with it's bustling market and beautiful setting, and 10 mins the other way to a Lidl and Simply supermarkets – we couldn't have been in a better place - with views to die for. (made even better by the fact that Simply had Gorgonzola cheese on special offer, yum yum).
From there it was an overnight halt on a free aires at Ovada on our way to San Remo, a nice enough place with free dumps and water but not much else.
San Remo – wow! Somehow it conjured up all sorts of fascinating things in our heads, only to disappoint somewhat. It was a nice enough town, but nothing special. You could lie on 'beaches' (I say beaches, but they were really mounds of gravel near the sea) for the princely sum of 90 euros per day for 2 sunbeds and a parasol thrown in!! A bargain if you ask me...... The aires/camperstop was nothing more than a gravel car park (right beside the sea I'll grant you) with a filthy water/dump station behind the football ground – all for 15 euros a night. We didn't bother doing our ablutions and shot off after 2 days, over the border, to Biot, near Antibes, France.
The campsite at Biot (Les Frenes) was perfect – small, friendly and 200 meters away from the train directly to Monte Carlo! Needless to say we caught the train to Monaco and had a fabulous day there – lunch on the harbour, a lap of the circuit (on foot), a stroll round the marina, a visit to the Palace and the surrounding gorgeous buildings. Lovely jubbly. (We were going to drive down there for a lap but couldn't as we'd run low on juice and thought it was more prudent to fill up with cheaper stuff elsewhere). One thing of note though, on watching the royal guards outside the palace, is that no one (bar none as I can think of) can do military marching or changing of guards as good as the British do. The palace guards in Monte Carlo were actually chewing gum as they shuffled about. Good grief you can imagine what Her Majesty would have to say about that?
We stayed a few days before heading ever west/southwest, bound for Arles. This place looks really interesting as it's also full of Roman ruins etc but when we arrived there wasn't a patch of spare tarmac anywhere! It was chokker as there was some kind of fair or other going on so we had to head further west to the nearest aires at St Gilles (small village with parking beside a canal and nothing much else). We were feeling a little miffed at not being able to stay in Arles until we met our friends again (from Staranzano) on Narbonne plage, when they informed us that the the place (Arles) has been swamped by flash floods that very night and loads of vehicles got washed into the briney!! Phew again........
Our trundle entered the final phase when we entered Spain, staying on free aires at Viladrau, Asco, Andorra, Torrebaja and Ucles until we got to Aranjuez, near Madrid. A lovely campsite in another lucky find of a town. Apparently it's where the old Royalty had a palace there (in fact it was all palace at one time) and also where the revolution began. Another plus was the direct train from there to Madrid centre! Yes, one more city visit but by this time we were 'citied' out and only spent a few hours there before flagging and heading back to the peace and quiet. We did, however, find a lovely Belgian bar near the centre which serves a jolly nice lunch for a reasonable price!
From there it was aires again at Alcazar de San Juan, Dona Mencia before spending a week at Pueblo Blanco campsite at Olvera (we had some camping cheques to use up before Xmas). If you ever get that way, do pop in – the pitches (especially at the top) are vast, fully serviced and have breathtaking views......but it can get a little windy! We were lucky and had not a breath while we were there.
From there it was a very nice run down through Ronda towards Estepona on our way to La Linea de Concepcion, Gibraltar and cheap booze! Three days and seven trips in and out of the 'rock' replenished our stocks enough, so we finally headed for our winter 'home' at Camping Roche, Conil de la Frontera.
A few stats if you can bear anymore drivel....
We visited 24 countries
Covered 9,831 miles (15,821 km)
Used 924.27 gallons (4201.83 ltrs) of Diesel
Average MPG = 10.63 (pretty good for a 12 ton RV)
Used only 1 liter of engine oil (good old Caterpillar 3126E engine) and no gearbox oil!
Travelled on 7 large ferries and several small ones (in Sweden & Finland)
Cheapest diesel was 97p pl (Algeciras, Spain) & 98p pl (Poland)
Dearest diesel was £1.24p pl (Jokkmokk, Sweden) & £1.34p pl (Nottingham, UK)
Blew Arvey's horn in every tunnel (odd but true)
Used 11 currencies
Toured 15 cities
Had pizza once
and used 3 large boxes of Rennies! (bloody pizza!)
That's it, no more.............until next year!!
Last edited:
