9th Feb. Venice

Did Venice today. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't what I thought it would be. There are some places in the world that you visit and know you could return again and again, well Venice isn't.

The place is very busy, even this time of year, god knows what it's like in summer. The canals are crossed by bridges but of course they are stairs not ramps, so manhandling a bulky buggy up and down became a little wearing after a while!

The sights are all quite awe inspiring but to be honest, once you've seen one ancient church, the rest all follow suit.

Armed with our map we did the usual suspects, the grand canal, St. macs square etc. which were all good to see, it's another place to tick off the list!

The gondolas were quite interesting, simply to watch manouevering round quite narrow canals.

The shops are all very designer, selling all sorts of overpriced articles from the bizzar to bog standard Armani - Diane you would love it, just for the shopping.

I still have a lump in my throat from paying a tenner for a hot chocolate.! and " it wasn't that nice" apparently!!!?

Glad to have seen it but wouldn't rush back.

"After a heavy night in the camper, someone asked Katie if she was enjoying herself....."

8th Feb. Fusina

Left Garda today. Made our way down to Venice. We arrived at the site (Fusina) around midday, did the usual recky and not much else.
The boat over to Venice is every hour so we will spend most of tommorow doing the tourist route.

6th Feb Lake Garda

yes Ian's right very peaceful day. We decided too take Katie out in her pram for her 2 hour afternoon nap (not very Gina Ford!) but the little monkey only slept 20 mins and stared at everything for the rest. So by 5pm she was to tired to even eat her dinner. It was an early night for her. We had lovely pasta for dinner made by chef Ian and are now chilling with glass of red......ah this is more like it xxx

6th Feb Cossonne, Garda

Nothing major to report today, no accidents, no shit weather, no closed camp sites....ahhhhhhh! A sigh of relief.

We stayed at the same site in cossonne and I think were here 'till Friday morning when we head off for Venice, a place called Fusina which has it's own boats going round the lagoon, aparently!!...and yes I did check it was open, functional and all Ok. (we'll wait and see)

So back in Lake Garda. We walked along the lake today for hours. The lake is dotted every couple of miles or so with little villages which are connected by a walkway set just up from the beach. So you are kept well away from the traffic, thank god. These people a maniacs on the road, the rules are there are no rules, I've come to the conclusion.

The area is reallllly nice, very peaceful and quiet. Not too touristy, but I'm sure it gets busy in the summer.

So thats about it. A non problematic day in Italy, thats got to be a first.

Sandra in sunglasses, smiling (phone the newspapers) and little Katie chirping away to herself. Ahhhhhhh!!!

Katie

5th Feb. Lake Garda

sandra writes.....
u know its his phrases i love the most..ie."slight prang"."hay ho just get on with it" "all very comical"!!!i was traumitised..some mad bloody italian crashes into dare i point out MY SIDE OF THIS GOD FOR SAKING VAN! and ian says oh its fine. not only does he drive away with this wheel hanging off ....me and katie are out side a police station in the middle of nowhere like a refegee family waiting to be deported.I tell u it just aswell he booked us in to a fancy hotel last night..Any way we said this was going to be an adventure and it sure turning into that!!how long have i been away for?is the 2 months up yet?.....

5th Feb.Lake Garda

Well, bit of an adventure the past couple of days..
Yesterday was grim. I had to wrestle sandra not to jump on the first plane out of here.
To be honest the didn't start well and I should have known it was one of those days you just curl up and go back to sleep.
We left out stop over at angera on the Maggiore lake which was, well, closed for want of a better word. No water, no showers, at least we did get electricity! So on a not very happy note we set off for Lake Garda, can't remember the name of the fucking place because it was closed! Not only that, we had a silght car accident....my fault really!!?? We came to a cross roads from a very narrow street so coudn't tell there was a cross road until, yes you guessed it, some poor muppet hit the side of us. He didn't think to brake or anything, just bang!
So after two hours at the cop shop (i'm sure it should only take a few minutes but no one could understand eachother!! Bloody foreigners.) It was a bit comical, i can laugh now, but yesterday was very bleak indeed.
Hay ho, everyone is alright and the van has only minor damage, so its off we went. Actually, we ended up in a hotel in Verona last night as the thought of looking for somewhere else to stay yesterday was all a bit too much.
Today is another day as they say.. we decided to go back to lake Garda today but didn't really have anywhere to stay so I looked up some places and found a place called Lezise which looked hopeful. In Lezise the place I was looking for was closed-however, we thought we would just park up as we have everything we need.
Then I remembered, in my original plan we were to stay at this place called Cassone which was only 20 odd miles away. So having done Lezise Katie kicked off (tired) so we went for a drive...to Cassone.
Hale fucking lulia, the place is wonderful, clean and with all services, better still I think we're the only ones here....We'll be here a while!!! How's this for a view out your bedroom window?

Through the Alps

Well firstly, we have internet access! Sorry the posts are a bit mixed up but i'm sure you'll get the idea.
So today we left Lausanne for the Alps. The weather report said the outlook wasn't good for the next couple of days so we went to our planned stopover, had a walk, and then kept going over the Alps before it became inpassable (for us).
The scenery was quite spectacular. Sandra wants to go there on a skiing holiday...I did remind her it would still be cold!!

31st Jan.
Sandra speaks…
Well let me tell u….it starts very lux. and low and behold much in ians style we’re now in some god awful swamp site in the middle of France AND they don’t even speak English!! Imagine, should have bought that phrase book Fiona! We are some where near Dijon (as in mustard) its cold but very picturesque but the next time Ian suggests a holiday its going to be in the middle of summer NOT bloody winter…well they say it can only get better. Well it better or me and Jean are on a flight home and Robinson Crusoe is on his own!!! luv u xx.
Enough from her Maj.
Apart from that all is well. We plan to head off for Geneva tomorrow but we will see what the weather is doing, I don’t fancy driving this thing in the snow. So if all else fails we will just go south to Monaco. I’m quite sure St. Tropez will suit- in a hotel obviously…..Not!

30th Jan
We set off bright and early for Dover to catch the 10am boat. We arrived quite early so got put on the 9.15 so there was no hanging around. Katie in her now favourite pouch was as happy as larry to bounce about the boat watching anyone and everyone. We all went outside to wave to the white cliffs.
When we got to France we headed straight for our first port of call, Soissons. Bit disappointed by the site, “not quite caravan club standard!” came the cry. Oh well, can’t win them all.
The town is quite nice, lots of shops and cathedral type buildings. I’m afraid we didn’t do the tourist route. It was pissing with rain and I had no internet connection so there were far more important things to do!
We walked through the town, Sandra bought some cakes (quel surprise) and I looked for an internet café. In the end we ended up in the public library with my naff French trying to ascertain if they had even heard of the internet forget could I get a shot. We were ushered into a room with two computers and a woman manning her station. Looking the picture of a French resistance operative she took one look at us three wet tourists and pointed to a computer.
Luckily, Katie waited ’till we were almost finished before she kicked off to let everybody know she was bored. We made a haste retreat.
What was the urgency for a computer? Well, our next stop, Auxonne, wasn’t in the sat nav (I hadn’t put it in more like) and I didn’t have a map good enough to get me there, without having to do the customary 5 laps round the town to find the bloody right place.
Hay ho, we’re now good to go. 4 hours drive tomorrow….

29th Jan
Stayed in a place about 8 miles from Dover. The original plan was just to camp at Dover port but having had to join the caravan club it seemed a shame to not use it. The site was lovely and clean enough for her maj. Everything she could ask for - even an ironing board! Just don’t mention coin operated machinery. By the time Sandra had sussed out the instructions the washing machine ended up costing about a tenner! ;-)
It was just a place to stop over so couldn’t tell you much about the area.

28th Jan.

Well, Well, Well, Who would have thought Sandra would have enjoyed a campsite? Come on, hands up…We may even make it to the end of the week.
The town was lovely. Very olde worlde. Miss Marple type village apparently.
“We should stop here on the way back”…. I thought she would fly back. I didn’t even book her on the return ferry!!!!!
Still it’s early yet.