Category: Europe (Page 6 of 20)

Venice Part 2 – Robin & Charlotte

5 May 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

Visit to Venice Part 2 was with Charlotte and Robin, they came to Venice for the weekend, arriving on the Friday in the rain! Luckily Saturday was sunny and dry and warm, so we were able to do the full tourist thing….

Drinkies in St Mark’s Square (at an extortionate price) served by liveried waiters and with a band playing in the back ground, a visit to San Marco’s Cathedral, a tour of the canals on a Gondola, a visit to the Hard Rock café for a cocktail and then a tour of the Doge’s Palace, a magnificent Palace built in 1340, extended and reconstructed several times following fires up to the 18^th century.

St Mark’s Square

Venice in the sun.

The Doge’s Palace

The title “doge” was the title of the senior-most elected official of Venice (and Genoa) and was the equivalent of a Duke without being a Duke. A Palace was built on the site of the current Palace in the 9^th Century but was destroyed by fire in the 10^th century. Over the centuries, it was home to the Great Council, the Council of Ten and the Senate who all served the Doge.

Before the 12th century there were holding cells within the Doge’s Palace but during the 13^th, 14^th and 15th centuries layouts were changed to increase the number of cells. Due to the dark, damp and isolated qualities they were known as the Pozzi (the Wells) In 1591 more cells were built and due to their position, directly under the lead roof, they were known as Piombi. The cells were covered in lapped larch and basic, with little light or air.

The current building was linked to the prison on the other side of the Canal by The Bridge of Sighs, a two way tunnelled bridge, linking the magistrate’s courts in the Palace to the Prison.

The famous name of the bridge dates from the “Romantic period” and was supposed to refer to the sighs of prisoners who, passing from the courtroom to the cell in which they would serve their sentence, took a last look at freedom as they glimpsed the lagoon saying “I will never again see my beautiful Venice”.

The internal courtyard is surrounded by the palace and St. Mark’s Basilica, which used to be the Doge’s chapel, in the centre of the courtyard stand two well-heads from the mid-16th century.

In 1485, the Great Council decided that a ceremonial staircase should be built within the courtyard, called the Giants’ Staircase. The design included alternate bands of Istrian stone and red Verona marble to create one single monumental approach from the Piazza right into the heart of the building. Since 1567, the Giants’ Staircase is guarded by two colossal statues of Mars and Neptune, which represents Venice’s power by land and by sea, and therefore the reason for its name. Members of the Senate gathered before government meetings in the Senator’s Courtyard, to the right of the Giants’ Staircase.

Original pillars in the cellars.
The Golden Staircase.
One of the Council’s Chambers.
Part of the Armoury.
Original artwork of the Council’s Chambers in operation.
And as it is now…..
The courtyard and Chapel.
The Bridge of Sighs…..
Looking out as a prisoner…..
Looking at the tourists 🙂
Entrance gate opposite the Giant’s Staircase….

Looking out from the Palace down one of the entrances.

The Gondola Ride.

Starting point.
Heading out onto the Grand Canal.
In front of the Rialto Bridge.
The Bridge of Sighs.

General views.

Near St Mark’s Square.
Hard Rock Cafe Venice.
Return boat trip.
Snow on the Dolomites.
Fun in the bar at night.
Something is tickling Brenda’s fancy!!

Venice Part 1

29 April 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

Our Arrival

When we plot a new route, we do (99% of the time!!) check the sat nav and when our route from Lake Garda to Venice showed message “includes toll/ferry roads” we thought, yes, toll roads, that’s fine, and we ploughed on. The sat nav is set up to show us as a “Lorry, 15m long and 3.8m high”!

Our eventual arrival in Venice was delayed by a couple of hours when, as we approached the City, the sat nav decided to send us the shortest route – using a ferry from the main town across the lagoon onto the peninsular where our site was! We had not anticipated the ferry crossing and had no idea whether we could board it or not, so we continued past the ferry port into the town, however, the military police guarding the entrance to Venice realised, as we did, that we had made a mistake and turned us around, only to add another 70kms to our journey all around the edge of the lagoon!

We got there eventually, got to our pitch right beside the Adriatic Sea, and were joined by Mum and Dad for a couple of days. We established later that we could have got onto a vehicle ferry at a cost of €75, which would have taken half an hour, instead of the 1.5 hours to took to drive round the coast!

Having been on the site a few days, we were suddenly surrounded by Germans in their motorhomes. We selected a large pitch, away from the facilities, in a short road of 5 pitches on either side, all looking towards the sea, so when a small Eriba caravan parked right behind us, in our shade, without a view of the sea, we could not work it out. Maybe he was posing to capture a photo of little and large! Then another German in an old dirty rusty scrappy motorhome parked in front of us – we wondered what we had done to upset them!

The peninsular is a long sandy stretch of land, home to 31 camp sites ranging from 2* to 5*, small to huge in size, and several hotels, a few bars, several restaurants and small shopping areas. Nothing else! The beach is the attraction, 30kms of gentle sandy slopes into the Adriatic, with camp sites offering their facilities such as sun beds and umbrellas, cafes, dog only beaches and games areas.

Venice City

Venice City is an island, it is said it was built by fishermen, who sunk wooden posts into the soft sand in the Lagoon and built on top, creating a road free canal city, accessed only by over 417 bridges.

On a Friday, we took the passenger ferry from our peninsular the other side of the Lagoon to the island of Venice, disembarking right by St Mark’s Square, along with half the population of China and a boat load of Germans off a Viking River cruise ship!

We saw St Mark’s Square being prepared for a ceremony, what a wonderful place to hold a university graduation. The Basilica was closed when we were there, so we made the most of admiring the exterior, the covered old cafes and hotels skirting the square and the beautiful buildings and narrow streets that fed off it.

St Mark’s Square waiting for the Graduation ceremony.

One café advertised “hot tea at €9.50, Americano coffee €11.00, Espresso €10.00 and Cappucino €12.00”. However, you would have had silver service waiters and a brass 3 piece ensemble playing softly in the background. We didn’t stop.

Venetian gondolas were full of Chinese/Japanese people or young students, they looked idyllic but were pricey, a 20 minute journey around the canals will set you back €80 for up to 6 people, €100 when it’s dark! It would seem that 20 minutes is ample time to see all the sights, as the drivers know all the short cuts to all the famous bridges and locations. So we made do with our feet and walked several miles through the city to the north part of the island and made our way back to the south by river taxi.

Considering the age of the city, it’s in fairly good shape, some buildings could do with a scrub to remove water marks and mildew but that would detract from the age and look, and would possibly harm the exteriors which are often very decorative plaster or carved wood and full of stained glass windows. Lots of buildings are baroque style, full of ornate carved wood, most are water front, tall and narrow, creating busy narrow water ways and alleys.

General Pictures of Venice

The Bridge of Sighs…..
Clock tower in St Mark’s Square.
Venice Basilica.
Mooching in the Arcades.

Gondolas by the Rialto Bridge.
The Grand Canal.
Easter Eggs!
More of the Grand Canal.
Mum and Dad playing silly buggars 🙂
St Marc’s Church.
Venetian glassware from Murano.
One of the old cafe’s in the square.
If only I had the space, and the bank account, to have these!!!

Bridge of Sighs from the other side.
A Venetian ballgown.
Entrance to the old Armoury.
A cruise ship leaving the harbour.
The Doge’s Palace exterior.

Lake Garda Revisited

22 April 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

We arrived at Camping Bella Italia in Peschiera, Lake Garda and was greeted by the friendly security guard who remembered us from last year, calling Samson an “elephant carrier” as he couldn’t describe it as a motorhome or caravan!!

Last year we spent several weeks here exploring the small lake side villages, this time around, we were with my Mum and Dad, Heather & Mike, so were able to share the views with them.

We took them to Bardolino and Lazise, where last year David and I spent our anniversary, we showed them the beautiful ports and walled towns. Bardolino was in full bloom with amazing flower displays.

We spent a day out at the Museum Nicols, a private collector’s display of over 100 vintage and classic cars, over 100 motorbikes and bicycles as well as old sewing machines, typewriters, cameras, vanity cases, gramaphones, radios and other memorabilia.

We also took the local ferry from Peschiera to the top of the lake and back again, a whole day out, stopping at most of the villages. We disembarked at a town near the top of the lake called Malcesine, where last year in October David & I took the cable car to the top of Monte Baldo and watched paragliders launching from the ridges, but this year in April, the cable car was full of skiiers, taking advantage of the snow on the top! It was colder than last year so we decided to skip the cable car and visited the castle instead, catching a bride and groom being photographed in the grounds following their ceremony in one of the rooms within the castle.

We did climb to the top of the bell tower, just as the bells chimed! Fabulous views, despite it being a little foggy which also gave us a lovely sunset.

Lake side view
A local wine
Mum & Dad’s arrival.
Bardolino in bloom.
Grappa tasting at a local diner.
Museum Nicols.
Our anniversary hotel in Lazise.
Dad contemplating another beer….
Cheers dears!
Mum happy with Gin and Nuts!
Lake views.
Malcesine in winter.
Lakeside lunch in Malcesine.
Scaligero Castle in Malcesine.
Boatman in the sunset.

Romantic Turin

13 April 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

We took a train from Asti to Turin, stopping right in the centre of the city. This is an unusually romantic place, lots of tall baroque buildings with ornate iron arcades that looks like they are still in the 1920s and where everyone wanders, there is no hurrying, very few tourists, lots of local Italians, dressed up to the nines, supping Martinis in swag covered bars. There are so many cafes here, full of silver service waiters serving Madames and their handbag dogs a smidgeon of amaretto biscuit with their tiny espresso.

In the “old quarter” buildings rise up in tight blocks forming dark narrow walkways, all similar in design to the next but with a splendour that comes with age. One part of the town was demolished 100 years ago to do away with the slums, and rebuilt in the same style so it’s very hard to tell what age these buildings are. So many historic buildings dating back to the Savoy Family (equivalent to the Royal family) are now museums, 26 that we could count, as well as 10 churches and basilicas, and 16 theatres!

The Royal Palace is now a large museum, originally built in the 16^th century and modernised in the 17^th century and includes a chapel which was built to hold the Turin Shroud. It has a huge armoury but we didn’t have time to do the guided tour, supposedly 2.5 hours.

We did view a private Egyptian exhibition, the dig in the Nile area started in the early 1900 by an Italian archaeologist and continued by his team and his legacy until the late 1990s. We saw interesting items found in whole burial areas, complete mummies and the items they were buried with, the mummies dated back by 4000 years.

We also found one of the roads that The Italian Job was filmed on, Galleria San Federico, but was sadly disappointed to learn that although the Fiat factory rooftop race track does still exist, the old factory is now a large modern shopping centre with the track on the rooftop and is accessible at a price. There is no reference to this iconic film in the city, not even in the National Museum of Cinema, based in Turin’s Mole Antonelliana, a building originally built as a mosque but now home to yet another museum.

Turin is a slow moving, beautiful, romantic city on the banks of the River Po, and we can highly recommend it as a relaxing and informative city break location. Just don’t take your wallet (beware of the endless designer shops) and make sure you love coffee, and eating!

The main square’s two prominent churches.
Interior of one to the left…..
And the one to the right…..

The Palace

A typical street scene.
Turin’s town hall.

Spain to France to Italy

13 April 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

SPAIN

SWe had a few days in a site just between Figueres and Capmany about 10 miles from the border with France. The site was spacious with lots of large pitches and very quiet, surrounded by vineyards and oak forests, at night the site was very dark, plenty of bats and owls about. We had a few windy days here, even though we were protected by the tall trees…..we were rocking, so to speak!

Capmany is a tiny village but well known in this area for being home to not one, not two, but three winemakers and distributors! A small castle type building houses accommodation, a pub and a shop are all that are here, the area is surrounded by oak and cork trees, as well as the odd vine and olive tree. We also found almond trees in flower, such a beautiful scent.

Snow capped roads crossing the border into France.

The site was also a few miles away from the motorway and the town of La Jonquera, which cannot really be described as a town. There is a small traditional village a mile away with the same name but the main attraction here was the massive supermarkets and tobacconists, perfect for motorhomers and lorry drivers stocking up on bulk alcohol, tobacco, clothes, electronic goods and traditional Spanish products. We could not get over the size of the bottles available in the supermarkets, 1, 1.5, 2 and 3 litre bottles of every possible alcoholic drink you could think of and several you may never have heard of!

A 3 litre bottle of Jack Daniels for €79 !!! That’s one hell of a hangover bottle!!!

People, mainly French speaking, had trollies full of huge sacks of meat, vegetables and everyday household products, the staff on the tills spoke French first then Spanish then English so obviously a popular day trip destination from France.

Port Bou, a village on the French/Spanish border, view from the Church at the top of town.

The journey from Spain into France was an easy one but Narbonne to Lake Garda was 1,655kms, broken up into jumps of 360, 300 and 280kms, always stopping halfway for a refreshment break. We find it quite funny looking at the lorry driver’s expressions as we pull up alongside their 18 wheelers!! Along the way, we also passed several snow capped mountains, experienced sun and rain, saw blue skies and grey clouds, green fields, grey industrial areas and brown rocky hillsides.

FRANCE

FIn France we returned to a site we have been before just off the motorway at Narbonne called La Nautique where we had a few surprise visitors from Bonterra – our lovely Dutch friends Kees and Reik stopped overnight on their way back to the Netherlands, and our even lovelier Dutch/Hungarian friends Chris and Mary stopped en-route to their overnight stay, stopping long enough for a bite and a drink and a quick walk around the site before continuing their journey.

From left, David, Kees, Reik, Mary, Chris and me xx

We moved onto Frejus for just one night, despite emailing the site weeks in advance, when we arrived on Sunday morning there were no staff on reception at all! Apparently they do not man the reception desk at weekends until the end of April! A kindly German man let us in and in the morning we paid and moved on.

We tried a new site in Antibes, called La Vieille Ferme (The Old Farm) which turned out to be lovely, housing several RVs and permanent home to a Welsh couple from Tredegar, we felt at home!!

A traditional hill top village alongside the road.

We explored Antibes marina the first day and was star struck when we saw the world’s largest Superyacht, called Dilbar. It dominated the skyline due to its huge size and gold colour. We established it is owned by a Russian billionaire, is only 3 years old, 156 metres long, houses 40 passengers and 80 crew and has not one but TWO helipads and an indoor swimming pool on its top deck! It only cost a cool $600 million US Dollars!!!! We spotted a people carrier on the 4^th deck, gold in colour of course, to perfectly match the yacht!!

Spotted in the Marina car park.
Antibes Fort.

Antibes is an attractive place, comprising the old seafront village and a more modern smart area behind the old town on the Cote D’Azure. Here the sea is soooo blue, blue is not a good enough description, try azure, turquoise, deep aquamarine, cobalt, navy or indigo and all shades in between. The old town has lots of medieval stone walls, a fort and beautiful tall buildings looking out to sea. We had several lovely hours wandering around admiring the beauty, sadly we did not spot any celebrities….

ITALY

The drive from Antibes in France to Asti in Italy took just over 4 hours, boy do the Italians know how to charge on the tolls! We paid €85.90 from Narbonne to Frejus and another €136 from the French/Italian border to just outside Asti. And all because we have 8 wheels on our vehicle and are over 2.3m high!!

An Italian tunnel, with traditional village overhead!

We returned to a site in Asti that we stayed at last year, again the owners welcomed us back before they were officially open. It was so cold at night, a real shock to the system after a warm Spain and hot France, we had to put our heating back on!!! One day we did sit outside in the sun until about 6.30pm!

This was our temperature most evenings, 2C!!!!

We did venture into Asti one evening and found a wonderful Indian restaurant, recently opened, where we had such a lovely meal. David tried a new beer, it did not have any additional effect on his prowess that night!!

We ventured into Turin from Asti, another day, another blog!!!