Nov 06

After Venice we headed out to Verona, with the intention of spending an afternoon in the city & then finding somewhere to sleep around Lake Garda. We managed to park ok in the city, about 15 mins walk from the centre for only 4 euros for the afternoon. It was a bit stressful driving around a city with one way streets trying to find somewhere to park though.

Verona was lovely & it is somewhere we would like to go back to. There were a lot less people than in Venice & more interesting things for us to do, plus it was a lot cheaper. We paid £1.30 each for a museum with random things in, £2 each to explore the Roman ruins & £2 each to visit the ampitheatre which was massive. It is supposed to be the 3rd biggest in the world & is better preserved than the one in Rome.

From Verona we headed out to the Lake Garda area & found somewhere to sleep in a car park in a quiet town. Unfortunatley all of the car parks around the edge of the lake have barriers up to stop campers from going into them. When we woke up the next day we drove a bit further on to see if we could find somewhere to spend the day & the night but all around the lake were hotels & houses, you could barely see the lake at all. We were dissapointed & drove round the whole of the lake but it was all the same! Again this is somewhere that you would want to avoid like the plague in the summer. Part of the area around the lake was a national park according to our map, but again that was all hotels & houses. We decided to move on & go to the campsite at Bologna. After 6 nights free camping we needed a shower & some electricity for our fridge & to do some washing.

We managed to get to the campsite through rush hour traffic on the motorway, despite the poor directions in our Rogers Guide (Don't buy one as it is rubbish!) Rogers said the prices were from 16 - 27 euros a night & we were hoping for the former as it is November but it was 23 euros which is pretty expensive for us. We stayed there anyway as we didn't have much choice. We had a shower & did some washing & then had dinner at the bar at the campsite. We both had pasta as a started (the way they do it in Italy) & then I had camembert cheese with vegetables on top & Matt had a pork chop with veg on top. Mine wasn't that nice but it was the only veggie meal on the menu. We also had some very nice wine with the meal which was 7 euros for a litre!

We have enjoyed Italy very much so far & there is lots of lovely food everywhere including just in the supermarkets. The quality of the fruit & veg is superb also. The other good thing is that in bars they give you bowls of snacks & snacks on the bar for free. Last night we had peanuts, chestnuts & amaretto biscuits, plus there were olives & breadsticks & other yummy treats. We are going to go to a bar tonight for a couple of drinks & snacks! Also pizza is very cheap. We had a massive slice each at lunch for £1!

We are in Bolonga today & it is a very busy city with loads of traffic jams. There are some interesting buildings & we went to a free photography exhibition this morning. There are lots of nice shops but it is not much good for us as we are not buying anything!

We are hoping to spend a fair bit of time in Italy & we are going in to Tuscany next, to Florence, Pisa & Sienna & to spend some time in the countryside.

By Chloe

We got to Slovenia & went to the are of the first intended campsite. There was a Roman Cemetry & a cave nearby that we were interested to see & hoped to do some walking. When we got there the cemetery was closed & we couldn't find the caves & the area looked pretty boring so we decided to move on to our next campsite, which wasn't too far away.

When we got there it appeared to be open as the barrier was open but there was no one around in reception, there was a layby just outside so we decided to park there & see what happened later in the afternoon. When it got dark no one had turned up so we just spent the night in the layby. It was very quite as the road was a winding country road that literally led to the campsite & there were only about 2 cars that went by all evening. We were a bit stuck as these two campsites were the only 2 that we knew of that were open in Slovenia & we wanted to visit the capital, llubljana & we could get a train from the train we were in. So we left the van outside the train station & got the train to the city. We had to get the train at 7am as it was either that or 11am. The city was very nice & we did not see any tourists. We had a walk around & saw several Roman ruins & some nice buildings. There was an international film festival that had just started the day we got there & we got tickets to see a Japanese film, Survive Style 5+ which had subtitles in English & Slovenian for £2 each. We got the train back & spent another night in the same area by the campsite but in a different layby.

We decided that we best move on as most things we wanted to do were closed. Also we wanted to mobe to where it was warmer. It has been lovely & warm the last few nights in Italy & sunny during the day (except today!)

When we got to Italy it was quite late in the day & we didn't want to spend £20 a night to stay at a campsite in Venice without making the most of the time there. We decided we would find somewhere near the coast to sleep & then go to the Venice campsite first thing in the morning & leave the van there all day whilst in the city & stay for 1 night rather than 2. I choose a town called Caorle by the coast & we drove down there. We spent a while walking along the beach which was really nice as we hadn't seen the sea for 2 months! There didn't seem to be anywhere good to sleep & it can be a bit tiring driving around looking for somewhere so we decided to go to the Venice campsite anyway. As we were leaving Caorle Matt spotted a car park full of campers & we decided to check it out. It turned out to be a free car park with no restrictons on campers & as it was a Saturday everyone was there for the weekend. It seemed to be a well know spot as the number of campers steadily grew & we spent the night with 45 other motorhomes! We stayed there for a total of 3 nights as the town was pretty nice, with amazing old buildings & the sea. It wouldn't have been nice in summer though as it was full of hotels & would have been jammed with tourists.

The car park that we stayed in was right next to the bus station & also had public toilets so we were able to get the bus to Venice & have as much water as we needed & empty our chemcial toilet. We even managed to wash our hair in the van sink! We got the bus to Venice for £8 euros each which was a 2 hour journey, again we left at 7am & got back at about 6.30

Venice was a nice city but it was full of English people & very packed. What was good was that there was no cars. We enjoyed walking round & taking some photos. I didn't enjoy paying 1 euro to go to the toilet (66p!) which was the most expensive so far as you have to pay to use the toilets in most places including in some bars & cafes that you are buying food in! We got 2 water buses around the town which enabled us to see some of the sights from the water.

By Chloe

We headed next into Hungary we wanted to be in a city for Matt's birthday so we went first to Budapest. The campsite we went to was not as it was described at all in our guide. The washer & dryer were not there & neither was the 'warm welcome' that we were supposed to receive. Also the toilet block was unpleasant as it smelt really bad due to a lack of ventilation & rotten wood. The owner was very unpleasant & actually said he would rather we weren't there as it wasn't worth his while having just one guest as it disturbed him for his work! We only stayed for 2 nights, which meant only one day in Budapest - but to be honest that was enough.

We didn't really like the city that much. There was nothing special about it & even the views of the city weren't that great. It didn't have a nice atmosphere either. We went to some thermal baths in the morning but didn't stay long due to concerns over our valuables. We walked up to the castle & citadel & then walked around the souvenir street to get some presents. We did have a nice meal in a small restaurant. I had a vegetarian platter with rice & veg etc & Matt had a Hungarian dish of pork, peppers & potatos in a paprika sauce, with a nice bottle of wine. When we headed back towards the campsite it had started lightly snowing again, but this turned to sleet & all the snow that had been on the ground had gone by the morning.

We headed towards our next campsite in Hungary which was situated in a small town by the bank of the Danube. We had a small walk around the river & to the town but there wasn't much there. The lady in the Tourist Information centre gave us some leaflets in German but they weren't much use to us. The toilet block was very cold with basic facilities. We stayed for 2 nights & then headed to Austria which is where we are currently.

It is really just a stopover to break up the journey to our next campsite which is in Slovenia. There is nothing of interest here other than a pretty expensive internet cafe & a couple of supermarkets. We were hoping to do some walking but there are an english speaking couple on the site & they have said that there is not really anywhere to walk without a map & from walking up to town it seems to just be farms. The weather here is a bit better though. It is very sunny & warm in the day but cold & frosty at night. We did manage to do some washing finally though - I did 4 loads so we have nice clean clothes now! Matt can now change the pair of pants he has ben wearing for the last week!

Tomorrow we are going to leave to go to Slovenia. We are going to 2 sites which are either side of the capital so we hope to have a day trip out to Ljubljana. One of the sites is near some Roman Relics & the other near some limestone caves so we should have more to do. It is very difficult now as there are very few campsites open all year & the ones that are aren't always in places we want to go.

When we arrived in Slovakia it started snowing pretty much straight away and didn't really stop the whole time we were there! The campsite was lovely & for winter the toilets & shower were basically the bathroom of a small house & were very warm. There was also a room with cooking facilities, a tv & chairs we could use so we did to keep warm! It reached -5 during our first night there & when we woke up we realised why as there was a couple of inches of snow! We headed off for a walk up one of the nearby mouuntains which was really fun & it snowed the whole time, getting really heavy when we reached the top.

The next morning when we woke up there was even more snow but Scooby started just fine. We had to move on as this was the only campsite we could find open in Slovakia!

It is somewhere that we would like to go back to in the future to explore further & we did get to see lots of nice countryside whilst driving through. We picked up some trekking poles in the nearby Tesco which we needed whilst hiking in the snow! We have found that you can buy pretty much anything in the hypermarkets here, like soya milk. But some things are quite expensive like tortilla wraps have been pretty much 2 pounds as pack in most countries. We haven't been able to find marmite though. The alcohol has been very cheap & we have noticed that cigarettes are about a 1 pound a packet in most places.

We haven't had internet access for a while so haven't been able to do any blog entries. We spent a total of 4 days in Krakow at a nice but fairly pricey campsite. The city was quite nice but not as good as Prague!

We spent our second day at a swimming pool complex, Park Wodny which was very fun with lots of raucous flumes. We also went to the cinema and saw The Lost City which was by Andy Garcia. I thought it was ok and it was about Cuba which I have an interest in. I enjoyed the music & dancing in it but Matt hated the film! On our third day we went to the Wiezlica salt mines which was ok but quite pricy (10 pound each for a guided tour). We really don't like guided tours and it was frustrating being barged by people trying to push in front of you & being blinded by constant flashes. We have noticed that no one seems to spend time looking at anything. They just take a photo, turn round & take another photo & then look at the photos they have just taken on their camera rather than just looking at what's in front of them in the first place!

Next we went to a campsite near the south of Poland in a small mountian range Niedzicka. It was an empty campsite with nice facilities again but there was nothing at all to do.

We wanted to do some hiking ut it poured down with rain the whole time we were there. Overnight there was hail and gales and in the morning we had frozen water in our water bucket outside & some water had found it's way into one of the cupboards & frozen. We decided to move onto Zakopane which is basically a ski resort. As we were driving there we saw snow on people's cars & when we arrived the ground was covered in snow & it was very cold. We took a walk into the town adn we both brought very warm hats with ear flaps & fluffy boots to keep our feet warm in the van. On our second day we took a walk up one of the smaller mountains, Mount Nosal in the Tatra mountain range. It was a fun hike. We decided we would go further South to warmer weather so we headed to Slovakia