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UK Summer Adventures

15 September 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 2 Comments

Whilst we were waiting for Samson to be repaired, we did have some fun!

One evening, going through my parents old photo albums, I came across some lovely pictures of my grandparents, which brought back some lovely memories of Christmas dinners. Granddad Jim was always after any leftovers to take home for a late supper, called them “buckshees”!

Mum and Grandad Jim x
Grandad Pat and Nan Lil x

I also found an old school photo, which made me cringe! It was taken in Year 3 of primary school, so I was 9 or 10, and I do remember being one of the tallest in the class, and being made to kneel on a bench so reduce my height for this photo. (I’m top row, far right, top ponytail!) With the help of Facebook friends, and the connection to old school friends, I can now name most of the people on this photo!

We had several cuddles with Nelson, who is still going strong at aged 14 and loves living with Robin and Charlotte. He remembers us as soon as we walk through the door and call his name!

A visit to my Aunt provided me with lots of cuddles and nips from a litter of beautiful Spaniel pups, if only I could have taken at least one of them home……

But then Caity’s cat Luna, who she had only had for a month, produced her own litter of 5 cute kitties, so I have had tonnes of cuddles with them too.

During the “British heatwave” we bought a paddling pool, put it up in Mum’s garden and cooled our feet, just before the rains came!

I spent an evening with friends and family going to see a George Michael and Wham tribute band, not quite the same, but it was a fun evening!!

Several times, we indulged in our love for curries, having missed a decent curry abroad!

One weekend we went to a 1940’s re-enactment, very impressive display of old cars, age related clothing and even a wild bird display.

An afternoon at a local farm with Caity meant more animal antics.

We took a trip to South Wales to see Mother-in-law and took her out for a trip to admire Burry Port’s views of the Gower peninsular.

We headed up north and spent a few days with our friends Mike and Brenda, it was Mike’s birthday one evening so another delicious curry was devoured. Mike showed us the highlights of his home town, Warrington, two Wetherspoons pubs and some Golden Gates that were originally destined for Sandringham!

One evening we attended an ABBA tribute band, dressed up for the occasion, only to find it was an “AA” night, no Benny or Bjorn in sight!!

We took a drive to Liverpool, and did the whole “Beatles experience”, walked down Petticoat Lane, around the Albert Docks and went into the Cavern, listened to a band singing Beatles songs, and spent some time looking at a John Lennon and Yoko Ono exhibition in the Liverpool museum, very interesting.

The dirty Mersey!
John & Yoko’s scribblings.
Chatting to Eleanor Rigby.
It’s Cilla!!!

We spent a day in the walled city of Chester, and would highly recommend it, reminding me of the old buildings in Ross-on-Wye and Hereford. A very old town, heaving with black wooden buildings, upper walkways and beautiful architecture, all surrounded by a walkable stone wall.

Seen on the wall of a dentist’s surgery!

We also visited an amazing work of art, a canal boat lift! It’s called the Anderton Boat lift and works off two secure “tubs” of water which contain the canal boats, balancing each other out to make one lift and one drops! Quite a feat, lifting boats 50 feet from the River Weaver to the Trent and Mersey Canal, or vice versa, built in 1875.

Birds, bird watching!

In Peterborough, an exhibition of a whole Earth was held in the Cathedral to raise awareness of global warming, we had a job holding it up but we managed! My niece and her children came to stay for a few days, they survived camping during a heavy thunderstorm, so they can survive anything now! A long walk and climb around Nene Park tired us all out!

Witnessing the Hoover Factory fire
The new read end!
Leaving Peterborough.

We left Peterborough and stayed overnight in Folkestone, took a wander out to a War Memorial up the road, before catching the ferry from Dover the next morning.

Had an overnight stay before collecting Samson, and met two Swiss couples travelling on these beauties! Yes, I was jealous!!

Folkestone cliffs
WW2 Memorial
Loading onto the ferry!
And….we are on!

Samson’s Revival

4 September 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

So Samson made it in one piece from Croatia to Bicester where the lovely men at Mobile RV took apart the back panel and found we have had an issue with water ingress, which we were unaware of! So after discussions with the insurance company as to how much damage was caused by the “accident” and how much was from the water ingress, we finally settled on a 25% contribution towards the costs, which we were very happy with.

Eight long weeks later, Samson was returned with a new shiny back and side panel, new woodwork, and a new clean interior, the window opens nicely now and we are over the moon with the finish, and to have Samson back.

Post “accident” damage pictures

Internal lounge wall where the ladder was pushed through.

During and After!

The Last Post & Port

2 July 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

Steaming from Barcelona to Zaragoza to Bilbao – South to North – Literally!!

We spent 5 days chilling at Vilanova Park, a site we have been to before, just outside Barcelona, we caught up on shopping at our favourite supemarkets, Alcampo and Mercadona! Such small pleasures please us!!

We filled up with cheap fuel; bought several bottles of decent Spanish wine to take back to the UK; caught up with our washing and generally spent the morning doing chores then afternoons around the pool. The temperature was still hot, 35c and our air con in the trailer was playing up, the fan works but was only throwing out warm air so we had to rely on cooling the trailer by closing blinds, cooking outside and a big fan that we have keeping us cool at night.

Inside the trailer!
The busy pool at Vilanova

We have only ever been to Vilanova Park outside holiday season (October and March or April) and we so surprised to see such a difference, thousands of people everywhere, kids in the pool (Irish and French school holidays started mid June), iced cream and take away bars open and daytime and evening activities, through to a kids disco at 7.30pm and adult entertainment until midnight! Still very few staff, rushed off their feet. It was lovely to be recognised by one or two waiters!

Early Sunday morning we left Vilanova and drove 3 hours up to Zaragoza, a huge city in the middle of a desert like flat pain, often called The Windy City. On arrival, the temperature had crept up and reached 43c, with a boiling hot wind that made everything hot to touch, our outdoor plastic chairs, the crockery in the cupboards, and even our lounge seats were hot to sit on! We sat in the pool for a while, dried off quickly in the hot air, then had cold showers. Luckily the wind disappeared overnight and when we left Zaragoza in the morning the temperature was a cooler 26c!

Outside temperature when driving to Zaragoza
Tea break in a steaming hot car park
A Spanish Bull, Fort & Church on one hill!
Passing Navarette, where we stopped for a week 2 years ago.

Monday we took a slow drive up to Bilbao, stopping a few times for a break. We went from sea level to Zaragoza at 350m, to Rioja at 600m and back down to sea level at Bilbao!

The landscape changed from grey flat plains in Aragon (Zaragoza) to hilly wind farms through to lush green valleys in the Rioja area, surrounded by an impressive bank of cloud. This is why Rioja produces such brilliant wine, a flat plain with surrounding mountains, the warmth of sunshine and just enough moisture to produce grapes. We then went through the rocky mountain range, beautifully craggy and stunning but much cooler than we have been used to.

Another tea break! In the shade.
Mountain views
Zaragoza plains
Crossing the Meridian line
The rich Rioja landscape

We stopped at some services about 40 miles short of Bilbao and decided to try a bit of wild camping for the night, in the car park! Surrounded by lorries, we woke to 16c and fog!! First time we have ever done that, probably won’t do it again, far too noisy. We soon headed off to Bilbao Port where the temperature crept back up to 24c once we had got over the mountains.

Night time stop.
Woken to fog!

We were one of the last onto the ferry, and spent a lovely calm 24 hours heading back to England and no doubt, much cooler temperatures!

Waiting to board the final leg at Bilbao
One of the last to board.

And finally, to cap it off…….

So in the past week we have gone up and up and up to sweltering record temperatures then down to more sensible ones; up and down in altitude as well as fuel and beer prices! We had cabin numbered 8123 from Rome to Barcelona and 8321 from Bilbao to Portsmouth! We have travelled about 2000 kms on three ferries and driven only a third of the journey! We have been stopped by Customs to inspect the interior of the trailer and also waved on without any inspection at other borders. Overall a very interesting journey back to the UK.

This will be our last post until the end of August when we head back to Spain!

Travel from Split to Spain

29 June 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 2 Comments

We left Split mid afternoon on a Sunday and arrivef at the port, some 5kms away, first in the queue! After all the freight lorries were boarded we headed on, a fairly small ferry boat compared to others, for an overnight trip to Ancona in Italy. We left at 7pm and arrived at 7am, just as the city was warming up.

Leaving Camping Stobrec, Split.
First in line to board!
David reversing into his spot on the boat to Ancona
In place!
Split.
Journey No 1 underway, cheers!
Arriving in Ancona as the sun rose.

On Monday we drove 300 kms across Italy from Ancona on the Adriatic coast to the Mediterranean coast, heading to Rome’s port of Civitavicchia, 50kms north of Rome. We had not slept well on the previous crossing and as the sun was soaring up high, we stopped every 3/4 hour at a service area, had a pee and a drink or lunch, and tried to get half an hour’s nap in the cool of the airconditioned truck! Mid afternoon, the temperature outside had reached 40c!

Service station stop, so hot!!
Next boat, to Spain.
Ready to load….
Now in place.
Second part of the journey, ready to go.

We drove past some beautiful old cities crossing Italy, in particular Narni and Orte (stock pictures below), traditional hill top towns, split by gorges and rivers.

On board, we had dinner in the restaurant, a lay in the next morning (our inside cabin was dark and cool), coffee and croisant for brunch, lunch in the cafe, a few hours reading in the sun on the decks, all very civilised! We had a lovely calm 20 hour crossing from Rome to Barcelona, arriving just an hour late; we were one of the first in the freight section to offload so we hit the roundabout at the junction of the bottom of La Rambla and the port at 7.30pm, peak traffic time! David was very calm and navigated round with the other lorries, and we arrived in Vilanova just after 8pm, in time to pitch up easily, have dinner and a few drinks before a good night’s sleep!

We have had 5 days at Vilanova Park, caught up on our sleep, washing, shopping and chilling, we have had a few afternoons by the pool just reading and watching the world go by. We have been invaded by Irish, French and Spanish families, it seems school holidays start at the end of June for these kids, so we are pleased to be moving on.

Sunday we head inland for a night’s stop in Zaragosa, which is just about half way though our north coast bound journey, then Monday we head up to Bilbao for a ferry crossing on Tuesday morning, landing in the UK on Wednesday. It has been so hot here in Spain this past week, our air con is not working brilliantly, so we are hoping the weather is a little cooler in the UK in July!

Goodbye From Split

23 June 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

Split was our final destination before we return to the UK for some remedial repairs on Samson. From here we have travelled down to Dubrovnik, inland to Krka, and north to several smaller coastal towns.

The campsite we are on is about 5 miles south of Split, the area is called Stobrec, its an easy journey into the town but we are on the edge of a busy, noisy dual carriageway which turns into a racetrack at night and a competition for emergency vehicles during the day, to see who’s siren is the loudest! In the last few days, we moved to a corner plot, for an easy get away on moving day. The back is all ready to travel, gaffa tape is amazing stuff!!

The bay at Stobrec is not particularly clean and clear, due to the fact that for the past 2 years the mountains behind the town have caught fire and the soot and debris has been swept into the sea. This has not encouraged me into the sea, if I cannot see the bottom, I won’t go in. We have stuck to the campsite’s swimming pools instead or headed up or down the coast to cleaner bays!

The Town of Split

The town of Split is strange, it portrays an image of being a tourist attraction, again where Game of Thrones was filmed, with an “old walled Roman town”, a promenade full of bars and restaurants, and a busy port and ferry station, where ferries and ships head out to the islands, or over to Italy. The reality is very different.

The walled city is simply an enclosed area of shops, restaurants and cafes, but with some housing thrown in! The old walls and entrance gates are certainly spectacular and well maintained, but internally it’s very different, with walls being supported by scaffolding and crumbling away. The only building left that resembles an “old building” is the cathedral and its crypt and baptistry. However, these were very disappointing, the cathedral is very Very small with two modern stainless steel organs; the Treasury is a room filled with religious artefacts but with no explanation as to what they are or their age; the Baptistry is a small stone building with a simple baptism font in the middle, no explanation or anything else in it!!

The promenade is modern and full of bars, restaurants and cafes, heaving with travellers waiting for a ferry, or coach trips being guided round with a quick lunch stop. The outdoor “green market” was a mix of old weather worn locals selling their own produce, no prices, no English spoken, pay for it or move on and larger modern farming types, shouting their wares and prices, hassling you to buy.

The entrance to the ferry port is a strong mix of tourist shops selling boat tours or adrenaline inspired trips, souveniers and fast food, but you have to step over the hoards of traveller type teenagers and young adults loaded with back packs, dirty clothing and smelling of weed! A bit like Benidorm for hippies!!

As you enter the town, you are surrounded by high rise modern and not so modern tower blocks, decorated with graffitti and dumped rusting cars. Parking is at a premium in Split so we sometimes parked 1.5km outside the town and walked in, a real eye opener walking past smelly overflowing bins, piles of dog poo on every little patch of greenery and dirty rusting cars full of scrapes and dents.

The Croatians do not seem to be the best drivers, it seems to be compulsory to have a mobile phone attached to your ear whilst driving, and rear seat belts do not seem to exist. One evening we sat watching the traffic drive past and 1 in every 3 cars passing had a driver on his/her mobile, very few children in the back were in car seats or strapped in and only this morning we saw a saloon car with 2 adults in the front, 3 adults in the back, plus 2 children! Police enforcement of any kind does not seem to exist here!

So today, we leave Split but will certainly return to Croatia. Overall, we loved the northern part of Istria, did not like Split on the Dalmation coast and although we felt Dubrovnik was a highly expensive tourist trap, it certainly was beautiful. The whole coastline is amazing, if only we could win the lottery and return in our own captained boat to cruise the islands at our leisure…..well, we can dream!!