Wheels Around Europe . . . . . . . : May 2018

Thursday, 31 May 2018

Exploring Istria

As much as we liked our site at Aminess Sirena Novigrad, especially the direct assess onto the sea, the birds (still unidentified and unseen) rather made us question weather we should stay longer and in the end, the temptation to discover the delights of Istria won us over.

We were not disappointed, we drove through rolling hills of lush and fertile landscapes to a town in the hills called Groznjan.

In the past the town has been popular with artists and musicians and regularly held festivals.

Now it is more of a tourist destination for it`s quaint traditional Istria buildings, but it makes a fascinating stop for a couple of hours.
Today there was a small market selling all kinds of second hand / collectable stuff.

It has very narrow cobbles streets with pretty Istria stone buildings and courtyards around every corner. Lots of shops selling local olive oil, truffles, wine and preserves.

There are also spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.

We stopped for a drink at a café and had uninterrupted views of the surrounds.

A lovely way to spend a morning.

I had planned to go on to another hillside village called Motovun but there was a road closure and the detour was quite considerable so we decided to give that a miss.

So we continued our journey south to the famous port town of Rovinj.

The Romans built this port on an island which was joined onto the coast in 1763 by filling in the channel between Rovinj and the mainland.
Tonight we are parked up at Camping Porton Biondi (GPS 45.09588 13.64152)

It`s quite similar to the site in Novigrad with tiered levels up from sea level, It`s not too busy so we managed to park fairly low down towards the sea.

We haven`t seen much of our surroundings yet apart from a brief walk down to the beach with Louis, but we will explore tomorrow.

After tea we all showered including Louis who went in the doggie douch ! These are quite a common site around here and certainly make washing your dog a lot easier.

The climate coutinues to suit us much better than Italy did, still far less humid for some reason and makes sleeping so much more comfortable.

I meant to mention last night, the reason for the food photo was Sue was served her food, chicken and chips, with two knives, so we asked for a fork and she was brought another knife !!!

Eventually a fork was produced.

My Sea Bass was delicious by the way.

Another strange one, today in Groznjan, Café Latte served in a pint glass with a straw no less. At least it was a good measure and a good coffee for £2.10 especially with those views.

Groznjan Street Market

Groznjan views

Groznjan

Groznjan views

Groznjan

Groznjan views from cafe

Cafe Latte in a pint glass, with a straw !

Groznjan

Rovinj campsite

Rovinj

Wednesday, 30 May 2018

A chilled out day in Novigrad

We had a much more restful nights sleep in Novigrad than we had been getting in Italy.

It is a good few degrees cooler and very much less humid that where we have come from, a climate much more comfortable.
The cost of living is so much less than rip off Italy and to be frank, the people seem friendlier too, so a winner all round.

Novigrad is a very relaxed and chilled out sort of place. Today we did very little except relax in the sun and admire the view of the bay.

We did have an unidentified and very large bird perch in the pine tree that we shade below, and it thought those Englanders would make good target practice for poop discharges throughout much of the day. The worst episode being shortly after I had got up from eating my breakfast, and it thought it time to empty it`s entire bowel contents right where I had been sat.

After clean up operations I decided to put some laundry in the campsite laundry machines. I shall spare you the trauma descriptions but it was horrendous ! Nothing could I get to work at first attempt. Numerous trips to reception were made in an effort to resolve these problems, never had I thought laundry could be this much of a challenge, I think I would rather smell !

The girl in reception thought I was a retard and the technician she kept calling out was pretending not to speak English.

By about 2pm I had one load of washing that had done two wash cycles, don`t ask, two attempts at tumble dry but was still wet. I had reached my limit and could take no more, I decided to dry the rest on a line, that was until said bird took aim and pooped on my nearly dry, freshly laundered t shirt.

I have just cancelled my subscription to RSPB.

Anyway, I put that behind me after a bottle of beer.

This evening we took the coastal path and walked into Novigrad and had a meal in a sea front restaurant watching the sun setting. Later we had a walk around town and it is a very laid back place, an attractive working harbour and in the town square there was some kind of event on with a live band and children dancing to the music.

All in all a very good day, once I`d forgotten about my woes.

A large (0.5L) beer at £2.72 helped no end !

Some shots of Novigrad and the beachside campsite.

At special request by Alchemey Dental Practice, Stoke, Louis in his Doggyhut trailer

Tuesday, 29 May 2018

Istria Peninsular Croatia, here we come

Our night in Padua wasn`t the most peaceful we could have hoped for as the road near the Sosta seemed to be a bit of a short cut for Padua commuters and a rail line nearby became quite busy in the early morning. The cost was only 8 euro including electricity and water and became even better value when I received notification on my Revolut card that the payment I made on entry had been refunded ! I`ve no idea why but it`s very welcome to receive a freebie.

The Revolut card is excellent in that respect, it is app based so you need a smart phone to use it but every time it is used you receive a text alert to tell you. They also offer excellent exchange rates so you can load your card with £`s and do the exchange at any time when the rate is good. The rate is usually slightly better than buying currency at say Post Office or ASDA currency exchange. It can also be used at ATM`s.

I agonised all evening over which way to head today, south towards Florence and Pisa or more east towards Slovenia and Croatia. There are still thunderstorms in Slovenia so it was decided we would forego the delights of Tuscany for now, and head to the Istria Peninsular in Croatia.
I also struggled to find campsites in Tuscany that I liked the sound of, so more research needed there. I hope we can get to Tuscany on this trip, but we`ll decide later.

We left, but not before checking emails from Camping Venezia Village to see if my fridge part had arrived……. It hadn’t !

So off we set towards Croatia, and yes you guessed correctly as I did, as we were on the Autostrada, along comes the email to say the part had arrived in Venice. Too late to do anything today.

We arrived in Novigrad, Istria, at Aminess Sirena our selected spot, and what a lovely place it is. I think most of the Istria Peninsular is good but after the campsite we had in Rosolina Mare, this is like a breath of fresh air.

Much more to our liking. Rosolina Mare was ok, but this is so much nicer without the happy hippy Italians. I can`t really put my finger on what it was about that site but something was slightly amiss for us.

We got a pitch here about 60 yards from the sea, nestled in amongst the pine trees for some shade, we could have gone closer but being a tight wad, I wouldn’t pay the extra !

Free fast wifi too, great showers and a ten minute coastal path walk into the small town.

Anyway I`m very happy to be here for a few days, I think were going to like it. So much so that I might even speak to Venezia Village and see if they will post that part here ?

So await the next instalment of tracking the ebay package across Europe !

I didn’t take any photos today but plenty will follow tomorrow.

Monday, 28 May 2018

Padua … Take two

We left the campsite at Rosolina Mare this morning and set off for Padua.

We were here last week in heavy rain so barely even got out to look around and I`m so glad we made the effort to return even if we are really just killing time waiting for this dam part !

When we arrived it looked like they had just had a rain shower and we feared the worst, surely we couldn`t be rained off here again ?

We need not have worried, the shower freshened things up and the sun soon came out and it was another hot day.

The old town has some very beautiful historic buildings and is a very old University town. The University now is quite large and it has a very strong influence on the city. There are a lot of students about and they are clearly very well catered for in Padua with lots of sushi restaurants and juice bars.

We parked close to Prato della Valle which is a large square with an oval shaped park with a moat around the island and around 70 classic stone statues standing guard around it and a central fountain. It is a very elegant park, perhaps the most elegant I can think of. There are good views of Abbey de Santa Guistina although the buildings next door are undergoing renovation works.

We wandered the lanes and went to the famous Cappella degli Scrovegni.

Built in 1303 by Enrico Scrovegni, hoping to spare his dead father, a usuer (Usury is, as defined today, the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. Originally, usury meant interest of any kind), from eternal damnation in hell, as described by Dante in his poem Inferno. Who know`s if he succeeded ?

It is decorated inside by famous fresco`s by Giotto between 1303 and 1305. They depicted Christ`s life and apparently had a great influence on classic art in the years that followed. Anyway we couldn’t go in, you have to buy tickets in advance and numbers are strictly limited.

From the exterior it is the plainest chapel you could ever imaging and certainly doesn’t look 14^th century. I even checked Google maps to make sure we were stood next the correct building. It`s also undergoing renovation so was covered mostly by builders equipment.

So it was an enjoyable day, the city is quite compact and easy to explore without any great excursion and I`m very glad we returned to visit this fine city.

Tonight we are parked up at the Sosta on the outskirts of the city (GPS 45.44205 11.89188). Just one other Belgium motorhome as a neighbour for tonight.

This dam part still hasn`t turned up, if it doesn`t arrive at the Venice campsite first thing in the morning we will head off as we can`t wait around here any longer. We`ll have to make other arrangements, maybe if I ask nicely they will be willing to forward it to another campsite if we stay somewhere a few days ? Or to UK.

So that plan didn`t really work out well.