Back to Italy it is then!
We had planned to have a short getaway with C&J mid-March, but sadly my job threw a spanner or two in the works so we put it on hold and at the time of writing, there are no plans.
We initially planned to travel to Croatia for a three week trip, but weighing everything up (cost and time), we decided that we'd go back to Italy and see more of it, spending less time dashing round and more time sight-seeing and chilling. My-Maps links below:
We're going to chance staying at the same car park in Dover for the night, and hope we don't get stuck in the biblical flooding we had last year. (Biblical for us, and nothing compared to some of the disasters we've seen around the world). It's then a Short dash to the ferry and a 2 hour trip to Dunkirk, before a 6 hour 30 drive to Strasbourg, (same site as last year and maybe we'll leapfrog ze Germans again to get in. After an overnight stop and an earlyish start, we'll make our way to Friedrichshafen and the Zeppelin Museum for lunch, before making our way to our next stop, via Stuben, where we'll attempt to get a better video of the switchback without knees and cups spoiling the view. From there it's on to our next stop; Last year (our 2025 blog), we did lots of 'splash n dash' runs and found the Ferienparadies site at Natterer See near Innsbruck, and really liked it, but sadly only stopped for the night. So this time, we'll be stopping for 2 nights and pop into Innsbruck for the day.
From Innsbruck, we'll head to a remote diner with views over the South Tyrols before making our way to the bottom of Lake Garda, (not the underwater bottom, just the southern end), for a couple of nights of chilling by the lake at Lido Campanello and a trip to Colombare to visit the Grotte di Catullo e Museo Archeologico di Sirmione (Roman Villa Ruin) and Castello Scaligero di Sirmione. They'll sound lovely if pronounced by an Italian, but to my mind, that's a lot of words when we can do it in two or three!
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| Grotte di Catullo e Museo Archeolo... (Roman Villa) |
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| Castello Scalig... (Scaligero Castle) |
And so it begins, and we were both so ready for the time off work.
(If you're following and don't get to see any photo's, we're at the mercy of a decent mobile or campsite Wi-Fi, so sometimes, uploading them is a struggle.)30th April - D-day -1;
I received an email from DFDS; did I want to change to an earlier sailing. Took a look and there was a 2am sailing that would get us into Dunkirk for 5am... Perfect! No rush, no panic, just a leisurely drive to Straasbourg.
1st May - D-day:
We paked and got everything ready for the trip. I checked the newly installed fan / vent, the one we decided we would defo need for this trip. The fan / vent which Conway and I spent the best part of the Easter holiday, fitting and finishing. The very same fan / vent, that would stop us from cooking at night, if the weather is good. Yep, that one... Well, it decided it wasn't going to play ball and threw an AE5 error, which, after Googling, indicates an obstruction or possible low or unstable power... Sarah also did some Googling and found that the fix was a complete replacement of a motor and possibly the drive shaft. Buggery, buggery b*ll*cks! By the time I'd gotten to take a look at the mechs and tried to access the mechanism, (I only took the four fitting screws out the sides and demounted it, before seeing that it would be a job that couldn't be completed in an hour or so and put it back in place). I then emailed Morgan Motorhomes, where I purchased it from, explaining the situation and hoping we could either get a replacement sorted before I returned the unit or at worst, a trip to their workshops in Grimsby. Whatever though, it wasn't going to ruin our holiday and we'd have to make do without the fan running, (we could raise it manually though, so some ventilation would be better than none.
We drove down to Dover without getting any of our previously discussed 'pre-trip kip', due to trying to get the fan fixed. Just as we came up to Ashford, we saw a couple of flashes of lightning; "Oh no, not again", we both all but screamed; the last thing we wanted was another storm on the night of our departure. Luckily, it blew over quite quickly and by the time we parked there was nothing to see of it. We also arrived earlier than expected and sailed through both checkpoints and check-in by 23:45, much to Sarah's chagrin and had to sit in the van for 2 hours prior to boarding. But once we boarded, found ourselves facing the exit on the main deck, so plenty of headroom and a fast disembarkation to boot, woohoo!
However, a note to anyone using their phone for navigation, whether on the phone or Android Auto, Apple Carplay; reboot your phone before getting off the ferry. Not sure if it was just my phone, but could I get it to give me any directions, nope, not a hope until after a reboot. Once that was done though, all was good and we pushed on.
On reflection, a 2am sailing was probably worse than the planned 6am crossing, as we were both knackered and had to stop a couple of times just to rest, so any time gained on the earlier crossing, were lost in the stopping for a safety break.
Top tip 3009, if you see cheap fuel, stop and top up, otherwise you'll be chasing the cheapest when you really need it and risking fuel anxiety.
2nd May;
Dunkirk to Kehl, just the over side of the Rhine to Straasbourg. A 6 and a half hour dash for the first stint. It's not that we didn't fancy stopping anywhere for the night in France, but there didn't seem much point as a standard day was going to be 4-5 hours driving and a 6:30 hour drive wasn't so bad. However, we arrived in good time, didn't upset any queueing Germans and got setup in time for some dinner and a stroll along the banks of the Rhine. Which turned out to be a pleasant hour, taking in some of the atmosphere and sights:
- A coal or other fully laden barge, steaming upstream, which threw me, as I was expecting the river to flow right to left from the Kehl side (North to South). But it was flowing South to North, which messed with my brain a bit.
- An old tree trunk with 50 or so brightly painted bird-boxes attached to it in a kind of spiral pattern.
- An abandoned UFO... Yep, there is a Flying Saucer, on the banks of the Rhine, who'd hae guessed.
- Obviously, it's not a real one or if it is, then we have very little to worry about come a full scale Alien invaison.
We had our showers and retired early for the night and slept like logs forgetting to set an alarm... Ooops!
3rd May:
We both woke at 8am to the sound of a yappy dog. realised the time and got up to get all packed and underway for 9:30am, the time was critical, as we wanted to stop at the Zeppelin Museum at Friedrichshafen, have a look around and grab some lunch. By 10am it was clear we were out of practice with our packup and packaways, as we were a shambles and decided to give the Zeppelin museum a miss, to give ourselves time to get to Natterer See, our next destination. This last minute change to the itinerary, screwed with Google and the route plan went out the window; instead of Kehl to Friedrichsafen, to Stuben for the switchback treat just before Innsbruck, we found ourselves at the Konstanz border crossing to Switzerland and we hadn't got a vignette for Switzerland (I'm a tight-wad and didn't want to give the Swiss any money for allowing me to spend an hour in their country). A few choice words at the screen as we desperately tried to convince Google that the bast way to Natterer See, (Stuben was out the window now too), was not to try crossing any Swiss border but go back round the lake. The time we saved by not doing the museum, had withered away and we made it to Natterers See, 30 minutes after they shut reception. But give them their dues, there was a welcome letter and instructions to our plot, stuck to the door.
We parked up and setup then had dinner in the onsite restaurant, before returning to Woody for the night with some music and a cuppa, whilst I blogged the last couple of days...
The campsite really is a great place to stop for a while and they know how to run it well. The site has been here for over ninety years and is very well setup as you can imagine. one of the walls behind reception is dedicated to camping vehicles throughout the years, with a section dedicated to VW campers of all variants and sizes. Another couple have sections for demountables and Conway & Jane would love that.
May the 4th, Star Wars day!
Today we're off to Innsbruck to do some sightseeing. If you stay at the site for two or more days, you get a free pass for the bus and discounted access for some of the attractions in Innsbruck. We were up and on the 09:19 and into the city for 09:38, a quick trek from the bus station into the city centre and we were making use of our 24hour Innsbruck pass. Firstly the Royal palace, which we thought would only take an hour os so at most, after two hours, we decided we needed to get a wiggle on, if we were to see any of the other things there, like the Golden Roof or do one of the attractions we've started to make a point of on our travels; The Top of Innsbruck, a short train ride from the centre to the first Cablecar station, followed by a 6 minute ride to the 3/4 point at Seegrube and another 2 minute ride to the top. There was still quite a bit of snow around and some of it was over a foot thick. It was a bit windy and at 7C, a bit too chilly for Sarah, but I loved it and the views were spectacular from almost the top of the Hafelekar @ 2,269M. With that cablecar ride under our belt, the rest of the trip will seem more level than Linconshire. We just missed the last call for seeing another of the sights, but that can wait for another time.
We decided that we'd done enough to make the Inncsbruck card worthwhile and caught the 401 back to Natterer See, so we could have dinner and chill, which is what we're doing as i write.
Tomorrow, it's off to lunch at a little cafe at the side of a mountiain pass on the way to Sirmione on the side of Lake Garda, where we're staying for a couple of nights, but the weather is looking like it may be a bit wet, so we may be playing backgammon or hunt the waterproof poncho...
