Tuesday 27 September - Shopping !

If you have ever wondered where all the market stalls have gone that you would find in town on market day, wonder no more, they are all here in Italy.

In fact just across the road from the site. Hundreds of them but very much like Peter Kay's buffet of chicken legs, egg butties, quiche, repeat, except it was leather belts, undies and phone cases.

Then it was back to the beech for an afternoon of sun.

Monday 26 September - waterlogged roads

Can't come all this way without visiting Venice Island so it's a bus ride to Punta (port) Sabbioni (Sabbioni) where we got a warm welcome from Stephen

Then the ferry across the busy channels to San Marco (Saint Marks) square 

Then it's limbo dancing under the selfi-sticks

Grid lock on the cut (canal)

Those stolen horses 

If you've been to our house, you will perhaps seen this view on the dinning room wall I took 13 years ago, different cast but same buildings

Tea break at the nick (Police Station)

Sunday 25 September

Another chill day, how many more bloody mossies need feeding. Fun factoid- it's only the female mosquito that bites.

Saturday 24 September

Chill day, Cheryl on the beech, Mart at Lidl and then feeding the mosquitos.

Friday 23 September - Goodbye Austria, hello Italy

Up at the crack of 9am and away by 11am to Italy. Fantastic drive over the Brenner Pass, views are amazing. About 120 kill o miles in total to Verona where we joined another motorway which took us to Venice. €8 for the Austria stretch and €38 for the Italian bit.

We have now done just over 1300 kill o miles since leaving Calthwaite.

Arrived at the site at 6pm - Europa which is at Cavallino on the Adriatic peninsula which is just East of Veinice island. Big site with private beech and large water park. Shops, restaurants etc on site and plenty of shower/toilet blocks. Pitch is fully serviced with cable tv but only BBC, CNN etc. news in English. Wifi is ok and just good enough to stream catchup tv.

Tattyvan all sorted just in time for an Alfresco Friday beer:

Thursday 22 September - Igle Piggle

No clouds today and temperature expected to reach 23c so it's loafing around until noon when we take a drive across the valley and up to a village/town called Igles. On route we passed through a village we stopped at 4 years ago. We also stopped off to get a view of Brenner Pass motorway bridge we will be using tomorrow.

The photo does not show you just how high the bridge is. As I don't like hights, I will be driving across it with my eyes closed tomorrow.

Another view from the same spot:

Breathtaking

Anyway, back to the site to enjoy the sun only to find its playing hind and seek behind the trees, bugger.

Considering have bbq fish for T from the man made lake on the site:

Site details:

Natter See nr Innsbruck 

Big site with excellent facilities, very clean

Good fully serviced pitch 

€19 pn but I paid an extra €2 for a lux pitch? yeah done!, tax was another €3.50pn

Wifi €5 for the 3 nights and we paid €3 pn to hire a sat decoder so we could watch German & Austrian tv?

Would stay again but standard pitch is good enough.

Wednesday 21 September

Ride into Innsbruck to do the touristic things.

And then Aldi/Hofer for some serious shopping - local vino €2 but a steak €39.99 so we are having bbq burgers and wine for T.

Tuesday 20 September - Tyrollean welcome

Onwards for another 240 kill o miles to Innsbruck. Again a nice journey along the A7 into Austria. Wundefull applestruddle at the border for lunch 

and then the A7 changes from a dual carriage way to a winding road up and down the mountains. Alpine views fantastic.

Arrival at Camping Natterer See which is 5 kom uphill from Insbruck. It has its own man made lake with restaurants, bars, shop etc. Sucked into paying €2 pn extra for a bigger pitch with a view but for about €22 pn we have electric, water and drainage on the pitch and a 50m (55 yards) walk to the 5* toilets, showers etc. An extra €3 for cable tv but although loads of channels, only English news channels. 

We have now done 1,070 kom on the road from Calthwaite. 

Monday 19 September- Moving on

So we leave the fab site at Bitsburg to head 230 kill o miles south to Ellwagen for a stop over. Before we hit the Autobahn, road works diverted us 10 miles north adding an extra 20 kill o miles. Mostly a good journey on the auto-bah, nice to see loads of roadworks keeping the route to the south smooth except the one which took 1 hour to make 1 kom.

Anyway, arrived at Azur camping, Ellwagen at 5:30pm, nice lady on reception and a good overnite pitch which we didn't even need to unhitch for. Nice and cheap restaurant on site, veinerschnitzel 6 ways! Light rain but nuthin to worry about.

Sunday 18 September - day of rest

Bit of rain overnight but site soon dried out, bit of washing and time to update the blog before watching the Grand Prix. Nice piece of beef for the bbq tonight.

Site details:
Camping Prumtal, Oberweis
€19 per night for hookup, water, drainage and wifi
Restaurant, bar, shop, bakers, heated swimming pool all year round
Located in a valley with a fishing river running through
Grass pitch but very worn (end of season)
Good access from autobahn
Cleggers 5* award for friendliness, facilities and cleanliness

Saturday 17 September - Luxembourg

20 kill o miles scenic journey to Ettlebruck in Luxembourg

There's always a church you have to photograph 

Plenty of pavement cafés and restaurants but unfortunately most of the shops closed 👍.

Back to the site for a couple of Bitburg lagers by the side of the pool, 25 degrees, just as the heavens opened. Ah well, must have another until it stops.

Catch up on Coronation Street via the wifi. 

Friday 16 September - heading south

About 240 kill o miles to Bitburg via Brussels. Belgium roads busy but Brenda the satnav got us through. She didn't however spot the 1 hour tailback for roadworks near the German border.

Today's site is at Oberweis, 5 kill o miles outside Bitburg and 10 from the Luxembourg border. Very friendly reception, perhaps because we didn't block, and brill pitch with water, drainage and good free wifi. The shower block is amazing

The picture does not do it justice, water feature in the entrance which is touch less card operated. Spotlessly clean and with better facilities than I've seen in many 4* hotels. 

Thursday 15 Sept - quiet day

The thing about Belgium beer is it gets you in the legs first🤓

Still scorching hot so stopping another night but had to move the tattyvan to another pitch as the site is full. Nice receptionist tells me it's the first year they have been full in September.

So quiet day sitting out by the van while I feed the mosquitos.

Site details:
Kompas Camping, Westende.
€17 per night plus taxes = €19 for hookup pitch.
Bar, cafe and shop closed in September, need to drive to shops but only 10 min walk to tram.

Wednesday 14 Sept - Ostende delights

Tram ride €3 into Ostende, scorching hot so a walk along the promenade to find a beer or 2 at a beech bar

Lady next to us practicing for the gurneying contest.

Then took us back to the Rood bar which we frequented 4 years ago when we stayed in Ostende, different waiter but same excellent Belgium beers.

Cheryl amazed I found the place, me forget where a bar is, I don't think so.

Tuesday 13 Sept Westende at Ostende

Crossing was good, excellent buffet dinner, the only but was we we last off the ferry so hit the road at 11am.

Weather too good on the coast (30+) to head up the Rhine so first detour from the route to Westende which is about 5 kill o miles along the coast from Ostende.

Plenty of entertainment getting to the site as there are loads of roadworks and detour signs are not in Cumbrian.  Got to within 200m of the site and had to unhitch and turnaround. A very helpful van driver pointed out the I was blocking the road and he couldn't wait, well guess what, he had to. Then got to a 5 lanes end junction and had to reverse to get the right one, again a very helpful driver stopped and pointed out to Cheryl that this was not a good place to park a caravan. Eventually arrived  at the site but as we came in from the wrong end, we missed reception. I stopped at the barrier to look for reception when again a very helpful lady explained to Cheryl that the caravan was blocking, and you can't block. This lady turned out to be the night receptionist who was later again very helpful in giving us wrong directions for the local shop.

Anyway, site brilliant and everyone else very friendly. 

Monday 12 Sept and it's go, go, go

Apologies for nicking Murray's catch phrase but it is a go for Monte-Carlo. Easy route today to start us off:

Sailing on the 5pm ferry to Amsterdam, clogs at the ready.

just another 2,600 kill o miles to go

This Autum our goal is to tow the tatty-van to Monte-Carlo by way of Germany and Italy in the hope that we can enjoy some late sun and soak up some post Brexit vote European culture.

The route is very sketchy and will depend on the weather and how the mood takes us but so the co-pilot/navigator has a clue where to point me, the below is a first stab as to how we will get there:

Unfortunately Bella only barks in English so she has decided to stay at home and I will be ghosting the blog for her.  

Mart