1. Calais to Duga Resa

Introduction

Well after what seemed like a long cold winter we are on the road again. This year we are heading for Croatia. Why? Well Sarah came to the former Yugoslavia on holiday some 30 years ago and says it was very nice. Other people have also praised the beautiful coastline. So we are giving it a try. We plan to take in several national parks in addition to the coast.

Wednesday 1 April 2015

We started our 2015 European Tour with an early morning ferry from Dover to Calais.  We’ve driven the road from Calais to Champagne a few times times but this was the first time we were struck by the lack of any hedges or trees.  This is cereal farming on an industrial scale.  French farmers around here don’t seem to be concerned with preserving or creating any wildlife habitat.  

Troyes

We arrived mid afternoon at our overnight stop 'Camping de Troyes' in the Champagne region. After a warm greeting from the manager things went downhill. It didn’t seem as if any maintenance work had taken place during the winter so it was looking a bit ‘down at heel’. As we had arrived early we had in time for a walk around the town which is in the shape of a champagne cork!   It is a small town almost exclusively of medieval half-timbered houses, very attractive.   It also boasts an excellent market that was still open so we spent a fortune on food for dinner.   Any visit to a French market is expensive but worth it.

Thursday 2 April

An easy drive to the village of Neydens which is in France but very close to the Swiss border and Geneva.  There was a warm welcome from the manager of ‘Camping Columbier’ who showed us to our pitch. This is a nice site with views towards the mountains beyond Geneva.

Friday 3 April

As it was Good Friday the site owner felt we would be okay driving into Geneva as it wouldn’t be busy.   It wasn’t as the whole of Geneva appeared to be coming the other way to stock up on petrol and do their supermarket shopping in France as it is so much cheaper than Switzerland.  However, we did have one or two difficulties.  We had to avoid the motorway as we didn’t have the required vignette (a pass you buy to cover the cost of driving on the motorways that the Swiss have instead of tolls).  The sat nav was fairly insistent that we should go on the motorway but eventually we got to Geneva only to be met with the most confusing road layout.

There were more lanes and sets of traffic lights than you could shake a stick at. You needed 360 vision in order to scan for other cars, trams, cyclists and pedestrians each with their own set of traffic lights. After driving around in circles for a while we eventually found a car park.    We probably didn’t see the City in the best light as it was cold and foggy and the City was largely shut as it was a public holiday. 

However we did walk the promenade along the lake and take in the fountain and had a stroll around the very elegant old town window shopping in the very expensive shops. Having been to Geneva I don’t think I’ll add it to my return list. A bit sterile for my liking and very expensive. Full of very well dressed people in very expensive looking clothes looking like they are going to a wedding party.

Saturday 4 April

Set off this morning for Italy.  Very quiet on the motorway but we had to queue for 40 mins to get into the Mont Blanc tunnel.  We queued in a temperature of 2 deg C and frozen snow. We came out the other end of the tunnel in Italy and into warm sunny weather.  

Before we left a number of people asked us if had booked sites ahead and we had replied “no we haven’t booked it is very quiet at this time of year”. Last Easter we were in Annecy in the French Alps and there were about 2 other vans on the site.   How wrong can you can be!  We arrived at our first Italian site at about 3.00pm and the site had 5 pitches left.   Half an hour later and we wouldn’t have got on our preferred site.  

It is a lovely site right on the shore of Lake Maggiore with good sized pitches and a good restaurant.  The site was occupied by 20% Italians, 60% Germans, 20% Swiss and us – the only British van on site.   We had forgotten how close to Germany and Switzerland the Italian Lakes are.  Most of the Italians left on the Monday.  It was German school holidays so they stayed a while longer, drifting away over the week until by the following weekend the site was only about ¼ full.

Sunday 5 April to Saturday 11 April.

We spent a very enjoyable week on Lake Maggiore.  The weather was sunny and warm, though cool at night and there was still snow on the tops of the mountains making for a beautiful backdrop.  The other sight of note everywhere we went were the flowers.   There were camellias, rhodendrons, and magnolias in flower everywhere you looked.  

One day we took a trip to the Islands of Bella, Madre and Pescatorie.  The first two boast fine villas and beautiful gardens with views back to the mainland. 

The garden on Madre is home to an enormous Kashmir Cypress planted in 1862.  In 2006 a tornado tore through the garden and uprooted the tree.  Rather than chopping up the tree for firewood they brought in cranes and winched it upright and secured it in place with some very sturdy steel wires and then watered it continuously for 2 years.   It is still going strong.  The gardens are home to a number of white peacocks.  

Getting between the islands was a bit of a free for all.  The Italians don’t believe in queuing.   When a boat arrived there was a mad scramble to get on but that is all part of the fun!

Another garden we visited was at Villa Taranto in the town of Verbania which we had read about in the Lonely Planet Guide.  

The guide was a little misleading about where it was so we had a bit of a walk to find it but it was definitely worth it.    In addition to the flowers already mentioned it had tulips, daffodils, cherry blossom, wisteria, and a fine collection of Acers.  The garden was started by a Scotsman who bought it from the Savoy family.  Well worth a visit.

One day we took the Lake Maggiore Express.  This involves taking the commuter train from Stresa or Baveno to Domodosolla then taking a panoramic narrow gauge train up into the mountains and down into the Swiss town of Locarno at the top of the lake.  

Locarno

After a few hours in Locarno you take the passenger ferry back down the lake to your starting point.  The ferry takes 3 hours but calls at many of the villages on the lake so you get an opportunity to see most of the lake without moving.  It is a long day.  We left Baveno at 9.15am and got back at 7.00pm but well worth it and you certainly get your monies worth out of the public transport system.

Locarno Ferry

We had a couple of walks we wanted to do.  One was to take the cable car to the top of mountain behind the town of Stresa as recommended by Sarah’s Dad.  Once at the top we were going to walk down.  However, it turned out the cable car is out of commission for maintenance and could be for the whole season.   A very helpful lady in the Tourist Information Office found us a bus we could take about half way up and we walked down from there giving fine views over the lakes and its islands.  Another day we took a bus to Belgirate from Stresa and walked back high above the lake, visiting a number of villages untouched by the tourists flocking around the edge of the lake.  It was a good walk but I think the route had been updated since the book we had had been written.  However, we made it.

Sarah also managed to do plenty of washing this week as it was cheap and the weather was good.

Sunday 12 April.

Set off for Venice.  All was going well until a woman passed us on the motorway somewhere near Milan gesticulating that we had a problem.  We stopped on the hard shoulder and discovered the number plate had fallen off the caravan.   Presuming she had seen it come off we came off at the next exit and went around again but couldn’t find it.    We made a temporary one from envelopes and a cornflakes packet and carried on.  The campsite is in Venice Mestre just off the main road behind two car dealerships but you wouldn’t know.  There lots of trees and many different birds and it is surprisingly quiet.   It has the most amazing toilet and shower block, more like something you would expect to find in a spa.   Unfortunately Sarah feels that this is peaking too early and nothing else is going to match up.  I rang Red Pennant (the Caravan Club Insurance Service) to tell them about the number plate.  They said they couldn’t do anything today as it was Sunday but would ring back in the morning.  They did ring back at 10.30am on Monday (9.30am in the UK) to say the new number plate was with the courier and we should receive it in the next day or two.  At about 12 noon on Tuesday they rang to say the campsite had just signed for it.  How is that for service?

Monday 13 April to Wednesday 15 April

We had 3 enjoyable days in Venice.   There is a bus stop 5 mins walk from the site and a bus every 10 mins directly to Venice.  The journey is only 10 minutes and drops you in Piazzale Roma from where you can catch a vaporetti (water bus) to anywhere.   It could not have been more convenient.  

Murano

On the first day we took a trip out to Murano where the glass is made.   The island is a like a mini Venice.  We saw a brief demonstration of glass blowing and viewed some amazing and some grotesque glass creations.   Most of the amazing things we couldn’t afford and you wouldn’t want to risk taking them round Europe in a caravan!   Sarah looked in many shops and came away with various pieces of jewellery. 

Burano

We then moved on to Burano where they make lace.  Very pretty but what do you need lace for these days? We don’t tend use dollies or lace tablecloths anymore.  Of more interest were the houses which all painted in bright colours from purple, to pink, to orange – a bit like Tobermory.  The journey back seemed to take in a tour of the entire lagoon, but at least we got value for money out of our 3 day transport ticket.   The second day we did the central sights around St Mark’s Square .  We also went across to the island of San Giorgio and went up the bell tower there (cheaper than St Mark’s). 

You got a fantastic 360 degree view of Venice.  

On our last day we took an organised tour (as recommended by Leanne).  The theme of the tour was wine and cicchetti (Italian tapas).  The tour guide (Giovanna) first took us on a short walking tour of Cannaregio (the area of Venice in which she was born and still lives).  Showing how easy it is a get away from the crowds by simply crossing a few bridges and walking a couple of streets further back from the main street. 

We then crossed the Grand Canal by gondola.  This gondola service is provided where there is no bridge and literally goes from one side to the other (at least we can say we have been on a gondola).  This took us to the Rialto market.   Over the course of the next 2 hours we visited a number of bacari (wine bars) to sample local wines and cicchetti.  You would never find these bars on your own.  They are tiny (one was just like a corridor).  Most have been there for centuries.   Many open at 8.00am for the market traders.  We sampled prosseco, vino bianco, merlot, cabernet, among others each accompanied by tasty morsels.  These were mainly fish based but alternatives were provided for the none fish eater in the group (me).  We finished with Vino Santo (sweet wine with biscuits to dip in it).   

Some of these bars provide a service of filing our own bottles with wine from the barrel.   It was a great way to see another and more authentic side of Venice.   After the tour we took the vaporetti down to St Mark’s Square to view the Grand Canal and then walked back long the back streets to Piazzale Roma and the bus back to the campsite.

Thursday 16 April

Left Venice to set off for Croatia.   To get to Croatia you have to drive through Slovenia.  For the motorway you require a vignette and though we did not intend to use the motorway you never can tell what might happen so we bought one just in case.   We didn’t need it.   The road through Slovenia is a single carriageway that goes through the mountains (they haven’t got around to joining the various bits of motorway together) so a little slow going.  However, it wasn’t as far as we had anticipated and we were soon in Croatia.

We seem to be the only people in Croatia at this time of year.

 I know we don’t speak any language other than English but we are fairly familiar with France and Italy so it was strange to enter a country where we don’t know a single Croatian word.   Not been a problem so far.  Most signs are in English as well and everybody seems to speak English.   Followed the sat nav instructions from the motorway to the site (big mistake).  Ended up driving miles on a single track road often with a drop on one side, round some very tight bends and through a number of farmyards.  A bit like driving through the back lanes of Devon but worse. So my nerves were somewhat shot by the time we reached the site.   It is a pretty site on the banks for a river in a small village about 40 miles from Zagreb.  Owner and barman very friendly.  To calm my nerves we went to the bar and had a beer. Welcome to Croatia.

We are a few miles South of Karlovac and Duga Resa. Two names which I remember hearing about in the coverage of the civil war here. Some of the apartment blocks look as though they haven't been repaired but people are living in them.