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Europe 2019
  • Fiona Ferrar

Europe 2019

A new trip by Motorhome in 2019 Read more
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  • Trip start
    April 12, 2019
    Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Flying away - day 1

    April 11, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    Our trip to Auckland went well. Jody took a plane on Thursday night and I took 2 buses and we were there in plenty of time. We had originally booked a plane that went through Bali and left earlier, but that got cancelled. We had selected our seats ages ago, but the new plane was a different design, so we didn’t get our 2 aisle seats that we wanted, tho I got one. Jody was more relaxed than I would have been about being 1 seat in, and there was a nice lady on the other side of her, and we ended up having a great flight. Both slept a bit, watched some movies, ate some food that was just fine. It was a bit odd tho that we got dinner around 10pm NZ time, and then they gave up breakfast at about 11am NZ time. We were both pretty hungry by then!Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Dubai arrival - day 2

    April 13, 2019 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We arrived at 5.30am feeling pretty good. Dubai airport took a long time to get through, but most of that was because we walked a long way. When we were supposed to arrive at midnight on our initial flight, we booked a non-cancellable hotel close to the airport. So we still used that to have a wee sleep before being able to check into our other one. They upgraded us to a 3 room suite with 2 bathrooms and a big bath. It would have been great to have that the whole time we were here. Neither of us slept for very long – maybe an hour, but it was great to have a lie down and a nice shower.

    Our 2nd hotel is around 800m from the Dubai Mall, but the room is much smaller being just one room with 2 single beds close together. But we chose it for the location which is great. We got all checked in around midday, and then really needed some food, so went off to the mall. It is still as huge as I remembered! Had a nice mixed grill thing for lunch, and found the supermarket for the yummy passionfruit that I had in South America. The aquarium is spectacular in the mall with sharks and lot of different rays.

    Before I came here I had googled different things to do. The global village looked good, but that was closing before I arrived. But, it had an extension so the last day was now today. So after recovering from our mall visit – feeling a bit jaded by then – we jumped into taxi and set off.

    As we were leaving the clouds were looking threatening so we put on light jackets, and my umbrella. It took 40 mins to get there, and by that time there was quite a bit of rain. The village was a bit like Epcot in Orlando. Lots of different countries had an entrances off the central area, and there were lots of culture specific foods and products. We went into several; Yemin, Turkey, Iran, South Africa but by that stage the rain was quite heavy with lots of thunder and lightening. Some of the cobble areas were a bit slippery, and lots of women walking around with their long black dresses getting wet at the bottom. I was surprised at all the honey stalls in Yemin, I had no idea that was a product from there, and loads of different varieties. The vendors were quite pushy about getting us to try the honey. I bought some dried fruit in Turkey, and at another stall just wanted a couple of figs, so held up 2 fingers. The man said 2 kilos? And I said no just 2. I think he was a bit disgusted about that, so gave me 2 figs and wandered off. They were very nice, maybe I should have got 2 kgs…. So after about 1.5 hours, we bailed. It was starting to get dark, and was getting harder to keep track of each other in the rain as it was mainly outside. We were pleased that we went to see it, and could have spent a long time going into all the countries, but in reality we had arrived that morning, hadn’t had a lot of sleep and weren’t really up to investigating it until the 3am that it was open to.

    So then took a taxi back to the mall because I seem to have managed to lose my cell phone charger cord. Very annoying as I am normally careful about that, and remember putting it into a snap lock back – just can’t find that particular bag. Lucky to have lost it when we were close to a mall that sells absolutely everything! We were feeling a bit wet – Jody’s denim shorts were soaked. So we watched 2 of the fountain shows, and then made our way back to the motel. I had vege sticks and watermelon for tea. Jody had a Macca's burger and chips (she could join our team in Tok!). She has been having trouble with cramp, so wanted some salt.

    We now have an exciting excursion planned on Monday which is different to what we were going to do, and we are both pretty excited about – must be for me to put excited twice in one sentence! More news about that later….    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Dubai - day 3

    April 14, 2019 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    After a nice relaxing morning just chilling out, we finally managed to get organised to take the hotel shuttle to the old part of Dubai at 10.45. We had thought we would need to take a taxi back, but the shuttle driver said he was coming back at 3pm, so that sounded great. We have had a bit of a problem working how much money we would need here, so saving some seemed like a mighty fine idea.

    It was nice walking through the old souks – some pretty amazing flowers, some of which were edible. Then I showed interest in some scarves – not always a good idea to show interest unless you want to be captured. So I bought 1 scarf there. Then we got stuck in a spices shop which had dried fruit – it was fun trying to guess what fruit they were, the avocado got us stumped. They also had various dried teas, so we had to buy some to test out in the motorhome. The price was 1 dirham per gram, ie about 40 cents. We decided then that we really did need to get some more cash, and found some ATMs by a bank. It took a while to persuade one to give up cash – didn’t like mastercard, but Jody had success with a Visa.

    Then we took the little boat across the Dubai Creek and headed for the gold souk. I did get some gold chains shown to me, but decided against them – around $500 NZ for the one I liked. But later on I found a nice gold plated chain, and Jody bought a cute little silver fish and necklace. Then it was back on another wee boat, and we had lunch river side. The lamb was really tender – I quite like this sort of food, nice spicy tender meat with rice, yoghurt and chutney.

    On the way back to the shuttle, we ended up in another shop as I wanted to buy some nuts. We tried more dried fruit there, and this shop owner was way less pushy and also sold scarves. We ended up buying 2 each, and liked the same ones, so just bought the same. Not likely that I will be going out to the same places as Jody with the same scarf.

    Back at the hotel we had a bit of a quiet time, and then went down to check out the pool. It was quite windy, and not super hot. Jody had a swim, but I didn’t bother. Then it was back to the Dubai mall again for dinner and watching the fountain show. We think by tomorrow we might have cracked the code for how to get out of the mall, and are getting better at finding our way around. Though this evening we ended up in the Fashion Avenue which I hadn’t seen before. That is the quickest exit to get back to our hotel.

    On the way our tonight there was a open top black rolls Royce with orange seats outside the hotel that we just had to admire. Then Jody asked if they were on their way to the mall? Hmmm, yep the answer was no!

    We have to get up at 3.30am tomorrow ready for our special excursion. Am hoping to have some pretty great pics to share with you all from that.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Dubai - day 4

    April 15, 2019 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    We both had a pretty crap night’s sleep, but still had to wake with the alarm at 3.30am for our early morning pickup to go chasing the sunrise in a hot air balloon! This wasn’t something that we had intended to do, but I had a lovely present from a friend with instructions to do something special with it, and Jody was keen as mustard so off we went.

    The drive took about an hour, and then it was very exciting watching our balloon being inflated along with 3 others. Jody asked our pilot where he was from (expecting it to be South Africa), and he was from NZ, and from Hamilton of course – used to own a hot air balloon company there and is involved in the Flying High for Kids World Balloon Project in the off season. We got good instructions for how to get into the basket, and when it was time piled on in. There were 4 sections in the basket, and about 6 of us in each section. Jody did well getting in first as we were very close to the handler with the falcon who was joining us on the flight.

    Neither of us had been up in a balloon before, and it was every bit as good as we had hoped. It was a bit windy, and conditions were perfect for us to fly across the whole of the conservation area. We did that at different heights, and could see different animals running around below us. The view of the sun coming up over the mountains in Oman was spectacular, and we got some great pics of a balloon eclipse as one of the other balloons was between us and the sun. The falcon was released to have a fly around, and then came back to the handler – Peter. Peter owns the falcon company, and explained to us how it came about that the falcons were part of the flight – sounds like just in the right place at the right time with the ruling Sheiks brother. There were falcons on the other 3 balloons as well, but they couldn’t be let off to fly at the same time as ‘they don’t like each other!’. Apparently in the wild falcons only fly for a few minutes each day. They are trained when really hungry, and don’t have a sense of bonding or loyalty with their handlers, they just respond to the fact that that person gives them the food. After returning to the Peter, he fed raw quail from his hand for the remainder of the flight.

    The flight took an hour, and we travelled around 20kms. The landing was pretty interesting though – apparently when it is under 10kms, the basket will stay upright on landing. With the wind at 20kms today, that was pretty windy apparently. Our pilot did a great job, we bounced a couple of times and were pleased we had obeyed the instructions for how we should stand ie knees bent, pulling back on the handholds, but it was quite rough. Then we stayed upside down for a while until we all eventually managed to extricate ourselves. So we missed the sight of the other balloon that didn’t land as well and ended up draped over a fence, and nearly on a building.

    Then we were taken to a camp and had breakfast which was just ok. I didn’t try the caviar, but the eggs and rice were quite nice. Then we were off in 1950’s jeeps for a wildlife safari. Our guide told us a bit about the plants in the area, and we saw quite a few onyx on the way. But this was pretty low key after the excitement of the ride. After that we were back in car on the way to the hotel – very surprised to realise that it was only 10am and were back at motel by 11.30.

    So then it was packing time as we have an early flight in the morning. We managed to do that and then chilled out for several hours until it was time for the hotel shuttle to take us to the beach. That was a great decision. I tried out a step paddle board, and was surprised at how hard it was. With a normal paddle board you use all of your body to power it, and can stop and have a rest if you want. With the step paddle board, you only really used your legs, and had to step constantly. The handlebars were a bit wobbly, so it didn’t pay to stop. I didn’t quite last out the full 30 mins (actually quite a bit less….). I had a nice swim after that, and then we went for a walk along the lovely boardwalk. The whole beach area had a great boardwalk and heaps of eateries. It would be a great place to stay with family. They also did gourmet gelattos which we couldn’t go past.

    After being at the beach for a couple of hours we caught the hotel shuttle back – it is very convenient having shuttles that go to the major places, and saves on taxi fares. The shuttle stopped at the Dubai Mall on the way back to the hotel, so we got off there and went to the restaurant that we had spied with a good view of the fountains. When we were seated I walked around the balcony a bit, and found that the next restaurant had an even better view. So we jumped ship and had a lovely meal at Todd English Food Hall. We watched 3 fountain shows which were pretty good, but it was a shame that in the 3 nights we had been watching, we only had one where we knew the song – Whitney Houston, I will always love you.

    So then it was time for our final walk back to the hotel – we have gotten pretty good at finding out way back by now. So a pretty big day after getting up at 3.30 am. Early tomorrow as well – 5.30am so can catch our plane to Rome.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Dubai/Rome/Poggibonsi - day 5

    April 16, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    We seem to both be a bit paranoid about being late for flights, so checked how long the taxi would take – possibly up to an hour. So we got up at 5.30, ready for the taxi on time at 6.15, and were at the airport by……..6.30! What time did we need to be there? 7.40. But, both of us were happy with that.

    Once on the plane we did have our 2 aisle seats next to each other. But when I went to sit down, the lady next to me asked if I would swap with her husband who had an aisle seat on the other side of the plane. I agreed to that (she got me on a nice Fiona day!), but then when I went to my new seat there was a kerfuffle about a double booking. So I said I am not interested in swapping a seat which is double booked. The cabin crew then got a bit confused as to who actually was booked in the seat, but finally solved it, and then I stayed nice Fiona and sat in the new seat. It was a 6 hour flight which went smoothly, and we arrived at Roma.

    Again because we don’t like missing flights or trains, we had factored in a possible flight delay, so we then had a 2 hour wait at the airport before we could catch our first train into Rome, then 20 mins to find our train to Florence, and then it was a very short 10 mins to try and find the platform for our final train to Poggibonsi. We weren’t quite sure how we would work out when we needed to get off the train, but the helpful train guard spoke English, and had an ipad with the route on it that Jody took a picture of. It was a short walk from the train to a restaurant, and we had our first authentic Italian meal which was really nice. Jody ordered a glass of wine which came in a little jug, and was 250mls for $3 NZ. I had bruschetta, and beef cooked with red wine and pepper and peas. Oh yes, Jody did have some food with that wine – lasagne.

    After our meal we asked for a taxi. I had thought it might be a bit of an issue to get one, so was great for the restaurant owner to try for me. He rang 4 different individuals to try and get one, and we had a choice of 20 euros with a 40 min wait, or 30 euros for now. Of course we chose now! So off to Hotel Semifonte which was a bit average, but lovely and warm. Quite a bit chillier here than it was in Dubai.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Nico and San Gimignano - day 6

    April 17, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Today was a very big and exciting day. We were picked up from our hotel (after a mediocre breakfast) at around 9am and got introduced to our motorhome for the next 30 days which we have called Nico. Nico is supposed to be a 6 berth, but Jody and I will be very happy that there is only 2 of us as we can’t quite work out how everyone could get past each other if there were 6 people staying. Nico is quite a bit bigger than my last motorhome hire, and I have to be careful when going around corners.

    First stop was PAMS where we loaded up with some shopping. Italian supermarkets are quite interesting, and it took us a while and a couple of extra trips back for things we had forgotten. We loaded up with water – around 20 litres, and got 1 pack of fizzy water for Jody. Of course later on we realised I had made a mistake and it was all fizzy, bummer! Lunch was strawberries and focaccia. Then we went to Decathlon in Sienna where we found a very helpful young man man who sold us bikes, and got them all set up. I love the colour of them – fluoro green, so easy to find. We might have both bought a few additional things in Decathlon, my jacket purchasing must be contagious as Jody bought 2.

    We had a bit of trouble trying to find the campsite that we wanted to stay at, but posted a message on the Justgo facebook page, and had several replies very quickly with links to the campsite. This campsite is near San Gimignano, and is quite nice tho it was a tight squeeze to get into the pitch – I think Nico is higher than Bob was as well with a luton at the front. We had a vague tidy up, and then went off biking into San Gimignano which is about 2kms away. Oh my golly what a lovely wee town this is. It is a UNESCO site, and I have wanted to visit it before, so pleased that I have now. It was good that we had the bikes with us, as it made it a bit harder to go into each shop and spend some money. We hadn’t taken our bike locks, so just watched the bikes for each other when we went investigating.

    The views over the valley are amazing. It is up on a hill, so we walked part of the way there with the bikes, specially where there were lots of people. But the bike back again was lots of fun with big downhills. Before we went out we were feeling a bit tired – quite hard work mentally navigating Nico on quite narrow roads – but by the time we came back we were both feeling invigorated.

    Jody cooked up scrummy chicken for dinner which we had with a salad. It is our intention to try and prepare most of our food, and the cooking facilities in Nico are pretty good.

    We haven’t quite decided what we are doing tomorrow. Jody has the map out which is a start. I am tempted to buy a leather jacket in Florence, and Jody wants a bag. We both love Florence, so may well get there. But, conscious of all the other places that we want to visit.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    San Gimignano and Firenze - day 7

    April 18, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Our day started with focaccia from the campsite restaurant with scrumptious tomatoes – why do they always taste better in Italy? - and doing our washing (I was down to my last pair of sox and knickers (just in case anyone wanted to know!). Then we got on our bikes, and headed back to San Gimignano. We went the long way up the hill, and managed to bike all the way. This time we remembered our bike locks, so chained them to a tree, and walked into the town. Jodie found a stunning wine glass in a ceramic shop – they had the most beautiful ceramic table tops. Then we found the markets, and got a wee bit carried away – who could go past pure linen tops for 10 euros? Not us, that’s for sure. We had to check out by midday, so didn’t spend quite as long in the markets as we would have liked, but that was probably a good thing. The ride back to the campsite was lovely again – biking around here certainly perks me up. Then it was up to Nico to carry us away again.

    Next stop was Pams supermarket again in Poggibonsi. We wanted to get some levelling blocks for Nico, but the shop next to Pams had lunch from 1 to 3.30 and was closed, so we lost our enthusiasm and went on our way after getting a clothes drying rack, washing bucket and some still water. We have a really good garage in Nico, the 2 bikes fit in easily if we want, and found today that we could leave an entire drying rack up. That will make drying clothes a bit easier. Then we set off for Lucca which is meant to be amazing.

    The drive went quite smoothly until we met our first toll station. I had warned Jody that these weren’t always plain sailing, but I don’t think she was mentally prepared for the trauma. We elected to choose the lane to pay by card, and that’s when the fun started. It wasn’t really that clear where to put the ticket, so Jody put in her credit card first. Then a man’s voice came over the intercom basically saying ‘what are you doing!’. Jody asked him if he spoke English, and the answer was no. But he managed to give a bit of help, and she managed to get the ticket in a place that just looked like a box to me, and then put credit card in the same box and then the gate opened. Needless to say at the next toll gate we chose the cash option, and there was a person sitting in the booth who could have helped us if we had problems. We did notice the wind a bit – Nico is pretty high and large in front with the luton, so hopefully we won’t be driving on any really windy days.

    While we were driving both of us lost our sense of direction, and wondered where the GPS was taking us – it felt like we were going closer to Florence than Lucca. So we stopped to check the GPS, and it was taking us on main highways, but yes we were going close to Florence. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, we both decided that we loved Florence, and as we were so close then maybe we should stay there for the night, so we did!

    We got to our pitch about 3.45, and there was a shuttle into the city at 4.30. That was about the time I realised that I must have left my sunglasses somewhere, as they were nowhere to be found. But we put the washing in the sun for a while, got our bags ready, and were on time for the shuttle. It was fun walking around Firenze, and I got to see my favourite places. The lindt shop beside the Duomo is always easy to find, and we had a gelato there as well just taking in the lovely view. Just such an amazing structure. We had looked in a few shops for bags and jackets on the way, but I had in mind the road full of shops where they make their own jackets. When we found that road, I went into 1 shop and found a really nice jacket there for 150 euros. I asked him to keep hold of it and I might be back. Then I went to the next shop, and found the perfect jacket – similar to the style of my red one at home. The listed price was 445 euros. But by the time he had convinced Jody to get one as well, we paid 320 euros for 2 jackets. We were both very pleased with our purchases, and put them on straight away as it had got a bit cooler.

    Then it was off to Mercato for dinner. That is a bit like the Stables in Auckland, but much bigger, and much noisier. I have figured out why I like Italians so much. It is because they are never reserved, and larger than life. Earlier today we were in a shop, and the older man and woman were having an argument very loudly across the shop. A middleage man then asked them to ssssh, which they totally ignored. Then he started saying something like customers in the shop, but they still ignored that. I think it was their son, and found it hilarious. There is always something loud going on. We had a lovely meal of Tuscan stew with roasted potatoes and grilled veges. We shared the 3 plates which was plenty for both of us. After dinner we tried to catch a taxi, but ended up walking to the train station where there was a long line of people waiting. I then googled it cos there was something in my memory banks – and yes, you can’t flag down taxis in Italy, good to know.

    So now back in Nico at 10pm preparing for bed. We don’t have to check out tomorrow until 2pm, so plan to bike the 5kms into Firenze for breakfast. I mentioned biking up to Fiesole, and Jody thought she could be quite good support crew, ie waiting at the bottom for me to come back down and to take a video. After that we hope to get to Lucca! Being Easter weekend we are a bit concerned about finding a campground with a vacancy.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Firenze and Lucca - day 8

    April 19, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    What a fun day today. We had tomatoes, avocado and basil on toast for breakfast, washed our towels (5 euros in the machine, and I had to ask for a bit of help, towels were very well washed as I put some washing liquid in, and it also added some automatically). Then we biked into Firenze on a lovely path by the river. I might have suggested we walk up the hill at some stage where it was really steep, but we managed it. We biked into the main centre, had to visit a pharmacy where I replaced the items I left in the shower in San Gimignano (though I have found my missing sunglasses). Then we headed for the Uffizi gallery to have a look at the David. Jody had stayed near this Piazza before, so knew there was a leather bag market around the corner, so of course we went to visit it. We did laugh a bit when we realised it was the same market that we had visited last night. And it was a sucessful trip – 2 bags and 2 glasses cases. Then it was off to raid a restaurant so we could use their toilets. So pleased to be travelling with a like minded person who is just fine with using the mens toilets – tho the man waiting for her didn’t seem to be so impressed.

    Then we went back to our bikes and realised we had chained them right next to a chocolate shop that I hadn’t been in before – Venchi. There was flowing chocolate running down one wall, and the chocolate was possibly even better than Lindt. We might have had an icecream as well as purchasing just a couple of chocolates (who am I kidding, who could get just a couple?). Then it was back on our bikes to get back to the camping ground. After getting ourselves organised packing away washing, having chicken wraps for lunch etc, it was 3pm – close to the required checkout of 2pm. I introduced Jody to the fun of filling water, emptying grey water, and the toilet cassette which went off without a hitch.

    Then it was on the road to Lucca, but we had to make a stop at IKEA first. I hadn’t been to that store before, and am thinking it is worth another visit. We bought some chairs, and a duvet for me. Oh and a stool, key holder, and could have bought so many other useful things. We intended to stop at a store like a mitre 10 on the way out of that shopping area, but only had a right hand turn, so couldn’t go back. I just stopped on the side of the road waiting for a decision point between 2 motorways while Jody got googlemaps. organised for where we were supposed to be going – that should have made me wary for the future! Then at the 2 toll stations we went through, Jody handled like a pro. Not sure that she is going to choose the card option any time soon tho.

    So about that future,….. Jody initially put in Lucca has the destination, and then when we were on the motorway she put in the actual address for the camping ground. Googlemaps sent us through the city walls of Lucca, and I stopped there for a few minutes cos it looked like only vehicles under 3m should go through, and Nico is 3.2m high. After a fair bit of car tooting behind us, we folded in the wing mirrors, and went through. Oh my golly, was that a bad decision. There wasn’t really anywhere to turn around, so we just kept on going, narrow streets, loads of tourists, gesticulating italians, and tight corners. I was just hoping that we weren’t going to find a height restricted exit, and that we were going to have to reverse the whole way back! Jody was watching the people around, and saying we were lost. I didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone, and just kept driving – though pretty slowly, why wouldn’t the tourists just get out of the way? We ended up in the main Piazza, so stopped in the middle and checked googlemaps. It seemed that it was still directing us to the middle of Lucca. So we set it for the campground address, and finally found out way out of the city centre – that was just such a relief! It took a while to get to the campground through some more narrow streets, but at least there were other vehicles around so we thought we were allowed there. I have googled ZLTs since then – Zone Limited areas, and will be expecting some sort of ticket in the mail in the future.

    The campsite is pretty basic, but there are lots of motorhomes here. There are 6 mhs owned by Danish people, and they have set up tables in a line. They invited us to join them, but really after that experience, we were heading for the wine, limoncello and chocolate! Jody cooked some sausages for dinner which were nice with salad. Then we reviewed the videos that she had taken, and after a bit of alcohol they just kept getting funnier. We really should have taken the most of the opportunity with lots of pics, but at the time we just wanted to get out.

    While I am typing this, Jody is reading people’s comments on her fb posts, and I am a bit worried that she will be wetting her pants – lucky we have a mine and her side of the table… she can do what she likes over there!

    We have booked 2 nights here – need to get over the trauma of today before I drive again. And with it being Easter, we knew there might be a bit of an issue finding places to camp. Lucca is supposed to be wonderful, but another Just Go camper had theirs broken into in a public carpark here which is why we have chosen to stay in a camp ground instead of just passing through and using the public carpark for the day.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Lucca and opera - day 9

    April 20, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Fine and 23 degrees

    Well I kind of prefer a clean towel, but…. so we washed all the towels yesterday except for Jody’s. Last night she kindly handed me a new towel. When I showered this morning I thought it smelt a bit off, and then when Jody was searching for her towel realised that yes, she had given me her manky old one that she had been using for days. Good times! Not a great morning for her in the cognitive stakes. She boiled the kettle, so I made her a cup of tea. Then she got a bit confused at the number of cups on the table – yep, she had already made herself one! Am hoping the day gets better…..

    After handwashing some clothes and doing our dishes and mucking around a bit, we didn’t head off on our bikes until around 10.30am. First stop was riding around the walls of Lucca – 5km circle. Lots of people walking, running and riding around the walls. On the outside of the walls was a huge area of grass with walking/biking tracks. Lots of people were walking their dogs there. We spied a market from the top of the walls, and thought we would head for there. But sort of got distracted by realising that we were by the entrance that we took Nico through last night. So we retraced our steps on the bikes – by golly we were lucky not to meet cars coming the other way with Nico. We found another market and had a look around there. And then were a bit hungry, so found somewhere to eat. Roz keeps telling me I have to try fresh pasta, so thought this place might be good. Hmmm, no-one else came in there to eat while we were there, and the pasta took forever and something went in the micorwave. Well it was edible, and not too bad, but won’t be going there again!

    One of Jody’s friends had suggested a Puccini opera that was on every night in Lucca. Puccini was born here, but it was only 80 years after his death that he was being celebrated here. We asked a number of places where this place was for the opera, and got sent all around the place. A couple of people said there are a hundred churches in Lucca, so we can’t know where they all are. In the end, we just had enough and decided to go and find the first markets that we saw from the wall. Lo and behold, the markets were beside the info centre that sold tickets to the opera – phew! So we bought them, and then went back to Nico – about a 3km bike ride.

    Jody retreated to her bed for a wee rest, but I thought I should go and investigate around the area on my bike seeing as we will be leaving tomorrow. About 400m down there road there was a stopbank, and a river on the other side. I rode the wrong way down the one way street by the river (bikes just go anywhere here!), and then round various tracks. I found a gorgeous spot by a bridge with the river going over a wee dam. Lots of people were walking and swimming dogs here. Then I went further and found the enormous carpark that we had been warned against. There were quite a few motorhomes parked in here.

    Then back to Nico where I made a yummy salad with bacon and egg in it. Then back on the bikes and off to town for the Opera. It isn’t something that I would normally do, but was rather interesting. There were a male and female singer with just 1 pianist who was amazing. It was held in a church, and it was rather cool in there but with great acoustics. It was just over an hour long which was good. And when we came out at 8.20pm it was only just getting dark, so we hightailed it back to Nico as we only had 1 bike light between us.

    So tomorrow we are intending to leave Italy – it has only taken us 5 days, we thought it might take a lot longer. We both love Italy, the shopping and scenery is amazing. But I am looking forward to going places that I haven’t been before. We have about a 5 hour drive, and will be going through lots of tolls, but Jody seems to have that pretty sussed now – as long as we use cash anyway!

    Ciao ciao ciao!    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Big drive and Visp - day 10

    April 21, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 0 °C

    Fine, 22 degrees

    We got up early – ie around 7am, but by the time we changed the water etc in Nico, picked up our fresh warm ciabatta and ate it, we didn’t leave until 9am. We were keen to stock up on supplies before we left Italy, but hadn’t factored in it being Easter Sunday and everything was closed. We do have a reasonable amount of food and water, so should be fine. Then we were off for our 5 hour drive to Visp – hmmmmm, how come we didn’t arrive until 5pm? The first part of the drive was on motorways that weren’t straight, and had loads of tunnels. We went up the west coast a bit, past Genova, then past Milan and the motorway got a lot better then, and I could use cruise control. We stopped for gas twice, and once in an Aire for lunch. After we drove past Lake Maggiore (which looked stunning), the roads got a lot narrower, and were pretty bumpy. Going through the Swiss border was a non event, we stopped as it looked like we should, but then had to ask a guard whether we needed to do anything, and he said no just go.

    I was a bit nervous about driving in Switzerland in case I got caught up a mountain. Jody did point out earlier today that we would have to go over a mountain pass, and we certainly did. It was sooo picturesque and I would have loved to stop and take some pictures. But we were both feeling rather tired, so just kept going. The road wasn’t too bad, but I did pull over many times to let cars go past. It was more of an issue going down, with a 10% gradient at times. I was very aware of how heavy Nico is, and how wide he swings on the corners, so was pretty careful.

    Our campground in Visp is just amazing. The pitches are on grass, and it is a short bike ride to the town centre. When we arrived, we were both very tired – I even had a wee lie down which is not like me, but I had been concentrating very hard for most of the day. Jody got keen though and hooked up the electric, took our bikes off the back, and encouraged me to go out for a ride. We sussed out where the train is that we will walk to in the morning, and found a Coop that was open for us to buy some meat, veges and fruit for dinner. Jody whizzed up some yummy hamburgers and we should be in bed early.

    Tomorrow we are intending to take the train to Zermatt which is a non car town at the foot of the famous Matterhorn. We should have loads of wonderful photos from that.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Zermatt and the Matterhorn - day 11

    April 22, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Shock horror, I set an alarm this morning. Only for 6.30am though so it wasn’t too traumatic. It always seems to take us a while to have showers, and get ready and then it was a bit of a walk to the train station, but we were on the train at 8.41 and arrived at Zermatt just over an hour later. The train ride was spectacular with the cutest wee houses, waterfalls, a river and boulders the size of houses. We found it interesting trying to work out how people could actually get to the houses with no roads. At the last 2 stops, people just got on with ski boots, masks and jackets already on carrying their skis. So we wondered how far they would have to go to get to the slopes once we got there. But no worries, people walked maybe a couple of kms from their hotels to the trains/shuttles etc with ski boots on. I had to take a video of the girls which went shopping in their boots. I used to find them really uncomfortable for walking, but that was over 30 years ago, so they might have improved a bit since then.

    Our first stop was the info centre. There are several different points where you can go up the mountain and see the Matterhorn. The lady there advised us to go up to Rothorn which is meant to be the best view, and is from the Italy side. When we were up there I read the guide, and there were actually more things to do at the other peaks, but we were happy with how our day went, so that didn’t really matter. We had a bit of a walk to get to the funicular, and were a bit confused at which steps we needed to go up. The guard said it didn’t matter, and that’s when we realised that people just stood at the stairs on either side, and boarded the funicular from there when it arrived. It went very fast and up a very steep track in a tunnel, so we couldn’t see where we were going. Then we took a small gondalar carriage up to the next station, and then a really large gondala which fitted maybe 40 people with their skis to take us to the top.

    Our first steps off the gondala were a bit hairy as it was quite icy, and we just had walking shoes on. We managed to find a wetter snow path to get to the building and restaurant. The Matterhorn was not on full display at any time that we were there with just the top poking out from time to time. There was another amazing peak that was in full sunlight the whole time – weird as they weren’t that far away from each other. We wanted to go down a wee hill to take some pics, but it was too slippery. Then I realised people were having lunch and not using their ski poles, so a very nice man lent us 2 sets. It was still a bit slippery, and I had my camera ready but Jody didn’t oblige me by falling on her bum. Never mind. It was just so peaceful up there looking around. Lots of skiiers came off the gondola and immediately hit the trails. We had lunch up there, and stayed for maybe a couple of hours just enjoying the view.

    On our way down we stopped at the next station and had a look around. The beginners ski slope was great with a travellator for people to go up on. There were 4 different ones, on different gradients so it would be easy to advance. Once at the bottom we looked in a lot of shops. Bought some amazing sox with really soft inners. Oh, and the first shop we saw just might have been a chocolate shop – golly these ones were super amazing!

    We were both feeling rather tired by this stage even though it was only around 3pm. We walked for a bit, then sat on the plentiful benches or steps, then walked for a bit more. We found these great wooden reclining seats in a park, and put our feet up for a while. I had been keen to try raclette, and cheese fondue while I was here, so looked at many restaurant menus to find one that did those. Finally managed it, and we had both. Well, I won’t be needing to try them again – just ok really, but lots of cheese. On our way to the train we saw these really cute stuffed toys in a window, so went in. They were very soft, and the guy told us they were made from the softest animal fibre from the south of france. I didn’t quite get what the fibre was but the price was incredible - about 700 euros! Then it was time for the train back again and a walk back to Nico. Got back around 7.30 which is good as we were both a bit knackered (and full of cheese!).    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Visp and Steimen - day 12

    April 23, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We had a rather leisurely start this morning. I have had a bit of a sore throat and cough, so trying not to overdo it. It also was raining lightly this morning so that made it easier to stay in bed for a while. So we left the motorcamp at around 10am, and then got a bit distracted at the Lidl supermarket in Brigg (I loved Lidl when I was in Croatia, so wanted to visit another one). We were then heading to Rowena’s place (an old friend of Jody’s who has lived in Switzerland for 27 years). We left Brigg around 12, and googlemaps said we would arrive at Rowena’s in 2.5 hours. And then the journey began….

    It started off quite well, the roads were a bit narrow but not in great condition. The view was amazing again with such lovely little buildings all around and lots of little villages. As we went along, there was more and more snow, and the roads got narrower though the view got better. We seemed to be heading for some really high snowy mountains, but there didn’t seem to be a pass. At one stage we were heading for a tunnel, and found a round red sign that looked like it was a stop sign. We sort of thought that maybe we shouldn’t go through the tunnel, so I got out and asked the car behind us, and they didn’t have any idea either. So I beckoned the 3rd car through, and they went down a narrow path beside the tunnel, the other car followed, and I went to as well. But then a car came from the other way, so we waited for them, and then went on the narrow path. It was a couple of kms long, and it was very fortuitous that no cars came towards us, as there really wasn’t any room. It looked like a slip had fallen over the tunnel which is why we wouldn’t have got through it. When we got back on the road, it looked like there was a petrol station. We drove past that, through the town and then headed again for the mountains. The snow was encroaching on the road, and there was only just enough room for us to get through. I started thinking that this road really wasn’t a goer, and then we came across another red stop sign – looked like the road was closed. So we found somewhere to do a youie houie (missed a good photo opportunity there!) and went back through the time. There was a sign pointing us back to Brigg, but that seemed a long way to backtrack. So I thought we could go back to the gas station, and see if there was another option. Lo and behold but it wasn’t a gas station at all – it was a car train! The next train was at 1.05, and it was 1.00. So we quickly bought a ticket, drove over to the guard who showed us where to drive and we were on. He then handed us an A4 sheet of paper with about 10 different languages – basically saying that as we were pretty high, we couldn’t drive into the covered part of the train and we would have to wait at the other end for them to help us off. The train journey was around 15 minutes, and all the cars ahead of us just drove forward to get off. The cars behind us had to wait for the guard to open up some side gates, and maneuver us forward and back to get us off. The pass we went under was called the Furkapass (not what we were calling it!), and apparently it is only open for 5 months of the year. I have just seen picture of it, and driving under seems a preferable option.

    So the road after the tunnel was still a bit snowy and not well repaired, but then we started seeing some signs that looked like a motorway – yeehaa! The motorway still wasn’t amazing, and we went down a huge hill with hairpin bends (pleased that Nico has a manual gear), and finally got to the bottom of that and got on a road that I could even set cruise control on. We stopped at a gas station off the motorway and had lunch – ie Jody heated up our meat patties and cut up some stuff to go with them while I lay on my bed for a while. And then it was off on our final leg to Rowena’s in Steimen.

    What a lovely place this is. Rowena is a kiwi, but married Paul who is Swiss, and they have lived in this house for 27 years. We had a lovely dinner – bruschetta, rosti, and fleisch kase (translates as meat cheese). Rowena and Paul had a good time laughing at the routes that we have taken so far. Apparently the St Bernhard pass that we did on the first day was one that not many people would take by choice, and today’s effort was even better. Paul has been great at helping us with our route for the next few days – maps out all over the table. Interesting for me trying to login to my google drive on their wifi as it only gives me German and French as language choices. But very lovely hosts with a washing machine, and we get to sleep in beds where we don’t need to use ladders to climb into them – a bonus! Nico is currently parked in their driveway, but is on a bit of a lean so when Jody went in there with her socks on she slipped from one end to the other.

    So tomorrow we intend to go into Lucerne either by boat or train depending on what the weather is like.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Lucerne - day 13

    April 24, 2019 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    So today I woke up feeling a bit worse, had coughed a fair bit overnight and then woke up at 9am. Rowena then took us on a wee drive around Stienen and we visited the swiss army knife factory - Victorinox – where we might have bought a few things. We both got a ceramic knife which is supposed to stay sharp for ages, and reduce the crying issue when chopping onions, and also several little knives which have lots of little gadgets. Rowena also took me to a pharmacy that had lots of natural remedies, hope they work.

    Then we had a stop at a café near Lake Lucerne, and decided not to take the boat as it was pretty rough. It was just under an hour on the train with 1 train change which was pretty easy and got there around 1pm. We spent the afternoon in Lucerne browsing the shops, taking silly pictures, and walked up the hill to a castle which had lovely views. Things really are pretty expensive here which was great as we weren’t tempted to spend any money. We caught the train back around 6pm, and Rowena cooked us a lovely meal of meatballs, pasta and salad.

    Oh, yes we might have found a chocolate shop as well. We both picked up a visitors guide, and 1 page had an advert for this shop, and by presenting the page we got 4 lindt chocolate truffles. Of course we had to visit that shop.

    So tomorrow I am hoping that the remedies work as we are on the road again tomorrow. Heading for Innsbruck, and stopping off in Litchenstein on the way.

    And forgot a funny story from yesterday. Rowena’s husband does a lot of skiing and pointed out the hill that he skis on that you can see from their house. He drives to the train to get there, and I asked when he put his ski boots on, and he said when he got out of the car. I said that he must be comfortable in them, and he said well I can’t drive in them! I think he would if he could tho.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Innsbruck - day 14

    April 25, 2019 in Liechtenstein ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We were up early today to say goodbye to Rowena and Paul. What fantastic hosts they have been, and it has been great to meet them and share many stories. Rowena is an amazing cook, and Paul has lots of stories about Switzerland. It was lovely staying in a house for 2 nights as well – not that we don’t love Nico!

    The road trip was fairly uneventful though it was extremely windy in parts – ie wind blowing hard (why does windy have 2 meanings?) Nico is rather top heavy with the large luton and the sideways wind really knocks him around. We did drive into Litchenstein (just because we could), and there wasn’t really a lot to see there. And then it was off to Austria, and our destination for the night which was Innsbruck. Our campsite was up in the hills, so we parked up and then took the courtesy bus into the city. That was after a wee lie down for me, my head cold has taken hold so am definitely below par, but hopefully it won’t last long.

    When we arrive in the city, we planned a route to the gardens. On the way we saw a number of interesting shops, and also had the most amazing views of mountains at the end of every road we looked at. The gardens were quite nice with lovely tulips. There were big sized chess sets with local men playing with them. Then we walked back into town and went into heaps of shops with interesting things to look at. Then we saw the Swarovski shop – lovely crystal jewellery, ornaments etc. We were in there for quite a while. We plan to go to the Swarovski museum park tomorrow on our way to Salzberg. I also found some raspberries for 2 euros, really yummy! There was this amazing shop where you could buy schnapps and fruit liquers and you chose your own glass bottle to be filled. The bottles were in a vast array of shapes so it was very interesting. I bought a neoprene cap from a outdoorsey clothes shop that had loads of lovely clothes which were quite different to things that I have seen before. I thought the cap would be good for out on the water as it is washable and floats.

    When we left the campsite, we thought the bus back went at 7.20pm. When we got off the bus we asked the driver where we caught it back from. He was very gruff, and when I first asked if he spoke English I got ‘NEIN NEIN’, and asking for where we caught it back was nearly too much for him. So we got back there before 7 in plenty of time, but there didn’t seem to be another bus back this evening. So we caught a taxi for 20 euro which wasn’t too bad.

    Jody is a pretty amazing cook, and cooked some lamb fillets to perfection which we had with salad and foccacia. I had picked up a couple of small movenpick sorbets at a gas station, and found that our freezer works rather well. We have stocked Nico with all sorts of tasty treats which we try from time to time. After dinner we had some planning time for where to next. We have that a lot more sorted than a couple of days ago, and even know where we expect to be for the next 3 days!    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Swarskovski Crystal Palace - day 15

    April 26, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Paul gave me a sachet of something to drink before bedtime, and I had an ok sleep the night before, but last night it totally knocked me out for 9 hours. Then I woke up feeling vaguely well again – yeehaa. So we had showers in the most amazing shower block. Each shower had a shower room, and an adjoining room with a basin so it was easy to keep everything dry. The showers were wonderfully hot with good pressure, and the whole shower block was heated. The motorcamp was a bit out of the city, and was surrounded by lovely countryside with tracks for walking and mountain biking. Lots of people were there with their dogs (and the campground even had a doggie shower). It would have been easy to stay there for longer, but we had plans.

    So off we drove to the Swarovski Crystal World. It took a bit to get there – thanks googlemaps! The workers might have been surprised to see us what for 90 secs at the red light, go through the one lane, do a youie at the other end and come back through again. But once we got there it was simply amazing. We didn’t quite know what to expect though had a map, and knew it had outdoor areas. We weren’t expecting the hour long inside tour through many different rooms and different experiences. I have posted pics of most of them, and they will hopefully remind me of how amazing it was. We were there for nearly 4 hours, and by that time the weather had really started to close in.

    Then we started on the drive to Salzberg, and the rain got pretty hard so it wasn’t a quick drive. We had fun rocking along to old music, and did our best James Corban kareoke impressions. We also drove in Germany for part of the trip which we hadn’t expected. We had sussed out a campsite, and it had a Spar 1km away. I was getting excited thinking that was Austrian for Spa – always love a hot swim. When we got closer we started looking for a supermarket (loving the Jody cooking!), and finally ended up with one, guess what it was called? Spar! But it was a good supermarket, blueberries for 1 euro, a large watermelon, and some beef and chicken for Jody to cook.

    The campsite is quite nice, and we got lots of information about what to do in Salzberg. But it is raining, so we are having a quiet night in, enjoying reviewing our pictures. Jody has liked having our SIM cards – so much that she has used 80% of the data on the first one, so we have changed her to a new one. Lucky I was prepared! She cooked a lovely meal once again, and I even felt well enough to finish off my first bottle of limoncello.

    Tomorrow we were going to go to Lake Bled, but the weather forecast is bad there, so the plan has changed to go to Graz instead. We might end up in Budapest earlier than expected solely due to the weather forecast. It would have been nice to have a look around Salzberg in the morning – it is a short bike ride there, but if it rains like it is forecasted too we will just be getting up and leaving.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Vienna - day 16

    April 27, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    It was only raining lightly when we got up, but we stuck with the plan of heading for Vienna, and left the camp ground before 10 – we just don’t seem to be able to shower, do dishes, sort out emptying water/toilet, and filling water before this time, lucky we don’t have any deadlines to meet! Driving was easy today, the roads were better, most of it was on motorways where the speed limit was either 130 or 140kph and Nico was quite comfortable doing around 110 with other cars just hooning past us. It drizzled on and off for the morning, but then our decision paid off as it at least became dry, though not very warm – around 8 degrees at lunchtime.

    We stopped once at a waterfall by a dam, and the force of the water was quite incredible. Googlemaps can be useful at times for searching on places of interest nearby, and we went off the motorway to find this. We also had a couple of stops along the way, including bacon and eggs for lunch at some random carpark stop.

    When we arrived in Vienna, I had the bright idea of going and getting our tickets for the Lippizaners which we are going to see next Saturday. I thought it might be a wee way out of town, and there might be somewhere to park (like the good parking at Swarkovski). Hmmm, maybe not. We ended up driving through the middle of the old part of Vienna, following horse and carts, driving through hordes of people and it brought back memories of Lucca! I don’t think we weren’t allowed there, but it certainly didn’t feel like somewhere that a big motorhome would normally be driving! When we got to our destination, there was definitely nowhere to park – maybe I should have emailled, or called to ask them. Oh well, then we pulled over as soon as we could, and googled where we might stay for the night. We ended up driving around 30 mins out of the City, and have a lovely camping ground which is next to the train station. I ordered an ACSI card before I left NZ which gives us cheaper camping in the off season. We have now used it at several sites, and is definitely saving us money. This campground is 20 euros per night plus 3 euros tourist tax. Everywhere we have stayed has a tourist tax – I can’t understand why NZ politicians think it would be so hard to accept in NZ. People here just expect it. At the non ACSI sites, I think the most we have paid is I think 41 euros which is around $55 NZ at a guess.

    This evening we went out for a bike ride – yes I am feeling better! It was a nice short ride, just to see where we were. It is still quite windy here. Tomorrow we will take the train into Vienna, and we intend to take our bikes on the train. It is a 14km ride into Vienna, and we have thought about doing that, and possibly might bike back but that depends on the weather, and how sore our bums are! We are going to stay here tomorrow night as well, and then we might head for either Bratislavia or Budapest.

    As you can see, our destinations are not fixed at all. It is sad that I will be missing our on Slovenia again on this trip – maybe next year Trish? But, it is hard to get keen on visiting there when it is meant to be raining all week.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Vienna - day 17

    April 28, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    A bit windy, but around 18 degrees

    We have both been sleeping really well in Nico. I didn’t actually wake up this morning until 8am, so a 9 hour sleep with no pit stops. Pretty unheard of for me, and I was very surprised at the time. But feeling quite on the mend now, and didn’t take anything to help with symptoms today. So we left the campsite around 10 with our bikes all ready to catch the train – first time I have done that with a bike. It wasn’t too hard as the carriage that could take bikes was clearly marked. We had to change trains once, and then we were in Vienna. It was a bit different taking the bikes up and down the escalators too, but we coped admirably.

    So then we were out in the sunlight deciding where to go. We had a few places in mind, and chose to go to the Hundertwasser village and museum. When I worked in Whangarei there was a lot of discussion about Hundertwasser as there had been fundraising for a building, and it was quite a contentious issue. I now have more of an appreciation of how wonderful his art is, and what an unusual approach he had to life. The toilets in Kawakawa are of his design, and I was asked if I had been to them today. We bought the audio cues at the museum, and that had heaps of information about him. It was great cos you could read it on the screen as well as listen to it (could scroll through it very quickly, and there were lots of pages). His art is very bright and vibrant, and not restricted to paintings. In Austria he has designed the exterior of a refuse incinerator plant which looks fantastic, and also came up with the concept of tree tenants which had some wonderful words with it which I can’t find – about having trees in your houses which don’t need to pay any rent as they pay in many other ways. We were there for quite a long time as both really enjoyed his art and concepts. His art reminds me a bit of Gaudi in Barcelona, and it was great to see examples of both everywhere in their home cities. We had lunch there – kumara chips with guacamole (odd, but nice), and some beef goulash with bread and a gherkin (yes, very odd!).

    Then it was off to try and find the Belvedere Palace and baroque gardens. It was a bit of fun riding around Vienna with one hand off the handlebars with googlemaps on my phone directing me left and right and all over the place. We stopped and took pics at a couple of places with stunning churches, and managed to find the gardens. That was pretty spectacular, and a very popular place for runners. We took lots of photos, and I have been trying to perfect my posing technique – there are lot of examples for me to follow! I think people think we are a bit mad, but it is a bit of fun.

    So after leaving the gardens, we went on a bit more of a tiki tour and saw a lovely fountain. Shortly after that as we were biking down a road, I chose to ride up a sloped path onto the footpath, while Jody thought she would be clever and jump her bike up a really high kerb. Unfortunately she was going a bit slow for that, and her front wheel landed in the dip, so she flew over the handlebars. After ascertaining that she was ok, I was convulsed with laughter cos it really was the most ill-timed jump. I was riding beside her at the time, so had a great view. Unfortunately when she got on her bike again, she realised that the derailer was poking into her spokes, so it wasn’t really rideable. So we found a place to lock the bikes up and went walking. Later on we devised a temporary solution with a New World bag and some dental floss to tie it up (kiwi ingenuity to the fore!).

    The we walked to Stephanplatz which is a bit of a big square with an extremely high church (maybe as high as the Sagreda Familia in Barcelona?). We walked around that, and had a look in the church. Then walked to another square and into another church where they were having a service. The priest was the one leading the singing which I thought was interesting. Then we decided to have an early dinner before taking the train. Jody had some enchilada type thingeys, and I had beef spare ribs which came with chips. Everything seems to be served with chips here. Last night we had Wiener Snitzel at the camp ground which came with a side of a potato dish as well as some chips. Then it was back to the bikes, and trying to work out how to get back to Nico. The train system here is similar to the London underground with a few interlinking lines. Our campground is beyond the Vienna lines so we had to take 2 Vienna trains, and then 1 regional one. It wasn’t too hard to work it out though, and we were back by around 8pm. Really enjoying the good wifi here, and are both downloading the NZDAC 2017 playlist form Spotify.

    There is a Giant bike shop next door, and that is our plan for the morning. It doesn’t open until 10am though, so we possibly might be staying here for another day. There are scooters for hire in Vienna, so maybe we could try them out – I have told Jody that if we do, I think she should take her bike helmet. She has chosen only to tell me now that she is a bit accident prone on holidays! Next time she looks like she is doing something unwise I might be yelling NEIN NEIN at her!    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Reading day in Vienna - day 18

    April 29, 2019 in Austria ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    Raining this morning, and the bike shop didn’t open until 10am. So Jody went off there while I was reading a book in bed (though I had been up for a shower). Hmm, bike won’t be ready until tomorrow, so we decided to have a lazy day in Nico hiding out from the weather. It wasn’t actually that bad from lunchtime, but by then we had settled in and had the heater on. We had vague plans about going into Vienna to a jazz club, but the jazz started at 9, and we would have had to be there at 7 for a seat, and leave at 10.30 to get a train so we flagged that idea. I did go out on my bike to find a supermarket, and managed to fill up my backpack, and bike back with a bag of chips down my jacket. Raspberries were 1.80 euros, and large blueberries were 3.80 – from Spain, and very tasty. Jody cooked steak and made salad for dinner, and we finished off the Movenpick sorbets that we picked up a few days ago. So all in all a total rest day, but our first one and it was pretty cold outside.

    Tomorrow we can check out at 2pm, so the plan is to set alarms, and be on a train at 8.30am in to Vienna. Funny, we didn’t pick our Lippizaner tickets up on Sat when we arrived as couldn’t park in centre, didn’t pick them up yesterday as it was Sunday, thought we might today (Monday), but then looked at our voucher, and Monday is the only day that we couldn’t. So we should be able to get them tomorrow, and that is next to the museum of illusions (similar to the one that we never got to in Dubai).

    Golly this morning seems a long time ago, Dubai must have been about a year ago!

    The pics are from the museum of illusions. It would be fair to say that we never quite got the hang of the door thing!    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Budapest - day 19

    April 30, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Vienna (raining), Budapest (fine)

    We did well with our alarms, and were in Vienna (Wein) by 9am. It was interesting at the Lippizaner ticket place as the queue was way out the door, and as it was raining there were lots of umbrellas out. We looked at the shorter queue, but didn’t see a person there, so abandoned that idea for now and went to Starbucks to get out of the rain. I had a hot chocolate (have learned to ask for them with milk rather than water), and Jody had a cappachino. The it was 10am and the museum of illusions was open. There was a group of around 20 teenagers that went in just before us, and it was interesting watching what they did with the exhibits. It is a fairly small museum, but had lots of cool things and we took a number of silly pics. I took one step on this vortex tunnel thing and thought it wasn’t for me, but Jody walked the whole way though she felt a bit sick after.

    Then we went back to see if we could get our tickets to the horses. The queue was even longer at that stage. We worked out that the practice sessions were from 10-12, and people could queue up for that whole time. We found a guy to ask questions of, and he took us to the front of the line but their machines were down. The lady explained that it wouldn’t be nearly as busy on actual perfomance days, so next Saturday we should be just fine to go in there about 9.30 and get our tickets. So the 3rd day in Vienna, and still haven’t got our tickets! Then Jody decided she needed some tights for lounging around in Nico, so we went shopping in H&S. That was a sucessful trip, but funny when Jody was in the changing rooms and I was outside playing on my phone. I thought the door looked slightly open, so called out to her but she wasn’t there. Had not even noticed me sitting outside, and was up on the next floor. Thank goodness for phones and mobile networks! So by then it was after 12, and we had to check Nico out by 2pm, so it was off to the trains again. It was raining pretty hard by that stage, so we were pleased to be on the underground. Catching the trains has been pretty easy for us – similar to the tube in London. But our second train stopped and everyone got off. Then we all seemed confused about which side of the platform we should catch the next train. We got on and off a couple of times, but then sat down and were pleased when the train headed off in the right direction.

    Jody then went to the bike shop to see if the derailer had arrived, but unfortunately not. So we decided to head for Budapest, and pick her bike up on Friday. This was a shame as we could have headed off yesterday if we had known it wouldn’t have been ready. Oh well, never mind. So it supposed to be a 3 hour drive to Budapest. It rained quite hard for the first part of the journey so it was slow going. But then it became dry, we crossed the border and Nico was happy sitting at 70mph amongst the huge number of trucks that joined us. It was very weird driving in Hungary as there was nothing really to see except flat fields. There weren’t any little settlements, and even 20kms out of Budapest we were driving through farmland. The we hit Budapest, and I really wished that I had had a reststop before we did. It took over an hour to drive through the city, and I was well and truly over it by then. The bad thought was that we will have to do the trip in reverse on Friday, but at least I have 2 days with no driving. Our campsite is a bit different, we drove in and stopped on the first pitch we saw and then went to find reception. We ended up staying exactly where we parked as it was level – not that it was nicely parked in the middle or anything and lucky neither of us have OCD.

    The girl at reception talked and talked and talked about things that we could do, and neither of us seemed capable of taking it in. We took away the brochures, and headed off to the university restaurant. My dinner of crumbed turkey with rice and grilled veges was really nice. Jody had pork which was extremely tender, but received boiled veges instead which weren’t quite so nice. But it cost us $10NZ for both meals so that wasn’t too bad.

    Now we are sitting in Nico with limoncello working out what to do tomorrow. It is May the 1st which I hadn’t realised which means that many of the shops are not open. All of the attractions should be, including the hot baths which I have been looking forward to. I think we will be doing the hop on hop off bus for a while as that seems to be an easy option. I didn’t have much concept of how large Budapest is, but it is similar to Auckland and will take us about 30 mins by public transport to get into the middle of the city. I am thinking I will be sleeping very well tonight as that drive was rather tiring. It was quite long, I was driving at speed and there was a lot of traffic. Nico is being very good though and responding to my directions quite well.

    Jody is just refilling her glass with limoncello. I am thinking we might have to find another bottle…..    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Budapest - day 20

    May 1, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Lovely fine day over 20.

    Overnight there was quite a bit of train noise in our campsite, and we weren’t that impressed by the chemical toilet just being a grill in the driveway where the other grey water was being emptied. Then one of the helpful people on the Justgo FB site mentioned that the site he preferred shouldn’t have been closed, so we re-looked at it. Not sure why we thought it was closed , but we were very pleased that it was wrong and were happily parked up at a new camping ground much closer to the city by 10.30.

    We took a train into the city (the Hungarian plan names are not the easiest to remember, but photos and maps helped us). Once there we realised that there was a big car race on in the city as well as it being a holiday on the 1st May. We saw a couple of guys with small green electric motorbikes, and ended up talking to them – nek minite we were hooning around on them. Although Jody is sworn to wear a helmet on her bike, there wasn’t one for these so we tried to be careful. We went over the bridge to the other side of the river, and then onto Margaret Island which is where lots of fitness activities are held. There was a lot of people there riding all sorts of tourist bikes and things. The parliament building is absolutely stunning, and we hope to have a better look at it tomorrow. We had one of the guys as a guide, and had the bikes for just over an hour which was a good amount of time. Then we visited lots of very funky little shops with funny hats etc.

    Both of Jody’s sons have been in Budapest before which is one of the reasons we are here. Matt had recommended an eating place which we spent a bit of time trying to find. We did find it, but there was no sitting down and a huge queue. On the way there we had seen a bit of an outside food hall, and ended up having a late lunch there. I had goulash on flat bread, and Jody had a pulled pork sandwich. Both were really nice. We had a good chat to a couple from near Manchester who were in Budapest for his birthday just for a few days. He was interested in Nico as he owns a garage.

    Then we decided it was time for some hot pools. There are loads of options in Budapest, so we chose the number 1 attraction which is the Szechenyi Baths. It took us a while to find a train station – googlemaps is not our friend, and was the source of much amusement with our lunch companions as they find it similarly challenging. But once we got on the right train, we got off at the right station and the baths were very close. We got a bit confused after going in as there were these little rooms with doors at both ends with both men and women going into. On the other side of the rooms there seemed to be a lot of nearly naked people running around. We finally figured out that these were changing rooms, and the lockers were on the other side. But people would push the doors open while we were in there (which we had done as well), so it wasn’t obvious when the rooms were full or empty. Once we put all our stuff in lockers we headed for the first pools which were inside. We found a cold plunge pool which we weren’t going to try, and then found a 37 degree one that we walked through as the tiles looked a bit slippery on our bare feet. Then we got outside and found the really large pool which was 38 degrees. We stayed in there for about an hour just watching and listening to various people – we both love crowd watching, and the different languages and looks of people were very interesting. Not many asians here, and a lot of slavic looking people. Also interesting that there wasn’t anywhere with free drinking water – quite different to NZ where everyone is encouraged to keep hydrated. Then we went to the inside pools and found a 38 degree one, and then finally the 40 degree one. That kept us warm while we changed in the little cubicals – and for me to find my sock which someone had kindly put on top of a shelf for me.

    Then back to the train again. We found that it is a really good plan to catch the train the wrong way so it goes to the end of the line cos then you are guaranteed to get a good seat which we then kept on until we got to the city centre – Deak Ferenc ter. The station by the camp site is called Nagyvarad ter – yep, those names just roll off the tongue! It took a wee while at Deak Ferenc ter to work out where to catch the train, and then when we got to Nagyvarad ter we went up 2 sets of stair cases before we chose the right one to walk 1km to our campsite. I don’t normally take 2 trains, and walk a km after doing hot pools! Once back at Nico we decided to check out the restaurant – I had veges and kumara chips, and Jody had chicken and grilled veges which was just ok. Then we polished off the rest of the limoncello, must make some plans to replace that! Actually Jody is quite a bad influence on me! It is quite nice listening to the NZDAC 2017 playlist – current rocking away to Mania by Michael Sembello (who knew who sang that song?)    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Budapest - day 21

    May 2, 2019 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Lovely and fine, over 20 degrees

    This morning we had planned to meet up with my friend Anna Eiffert at 11am. But we also wanted to go to the big city market, so decided to leave as soon as we woke up and do that first. Well I woke up at around 7.45 – I am amazed at how many nights in a row I have been sleeping for longer than 8 hours. My normal is about 6.5 hours. We were pretty organised tho, and left the campground before 9am. We are good at the train system, and Jody managed us through the train network rather than having to walk 1.2 kms to the market.

    The market was very interesting, and Jody and I split up as we had to leave there at 10.45. Lots of Hungarian food options – interesting meats, and loads of paprika. Upstairs were souvenirs, trinkets and clothes. I bought this wee linen jacket in white. Then I bumped into Jody and she bought one in a pinky colour. Then it was time to get another 2 trains which we did successfully, and found Anna by the big ferris wheel as arranged. Budapest is a city of 1.7m people, so we are doing pretty well getting around having been here for 2 days. I met Anna 6 years ago when she was taking an agility seminar in Texas which I attended with Clare Wellington and Allan and Elaine Rohde. Since then Anna has become a One Mind Dog coach, and is a really good teacher and handler.

    Anna found a bus for us to catch to go up to the castle which overlooks Budapest. Pest is on the flat side of the river, and Buda is on the hillier side. It was very cool up the hill as we could see both sides, and the castle itself was just amazing. After the castle we took another bus and had a bit of a walk to our lunch restaurant which Anna had booked. It was called Stand 25 and is part of the same company as the one michelin star restaurant called Stand. The food was incredible, and presented extremely well. It was lovely chatting to Anna and hearing about her growing up in Budapest, and about European agility. Unfortunately she had only come home yesterday, and is leaving again in the morning, so only had a short time with us, but it was lovely to catch up with her.

    After Anna left us, we made our way to the metro and took a seat working out what we were doing next. Lo and behold a sign appeared in front of us – Decathlon! Just one of my favourite European stores. So yep we just had to visit. I bought 2 pairs of togs for a total of $40 and a t shirt. Then we went to Starbucks – mainly to use the loo, but more working out of what we were going to do. We both felt a bit weary so decided that staying around for the evening river cruise was not going to happen. But looked up the market again and thought we could spend a bit more time there so took 2 more trains for that. It was good because we have now done the whole market and won’t feel like we were jmissing out on anything. I bought some wonderful large blueberries and tasty strawberries. We had been very disappointed in the strawberries in Italy, so haven’t had any for a while. After the market we walked down a road that looked like it had lots of eating places, and that was a great choice. Heaps of souvenir shops, and whatdeyeknow, some more clothes shops. Jody and I bought another linen jacket each, and a couple of other tops as well. They are so nice, and pretty cheap. We also stopped and shared a chimney cake which I had been wanting to try. Basically doughnut baked into the shape of a cone, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and filled with icrecream and cream. It was rather nice, but we won’t be needing to have another one. Then on the way to the next train station we went for a walk over the bridge to take some pics and then finally got on the train. We sort of got on a train going the wrong way, so had to get off again. That was paired with me making us get off a train which I thought was going the wrong way earlier in the day, but actually wasn’t. Lucky there are so many trains so it isn’t really an issue.

    So we walked 1 km from the train station back to Nico, and by this stage Jody was re-energised and buzzing. I suggested that maybe she take the train back into town and try out the river cruise but I didn’t get a positive response.

    When we got to this campground, we parked behind another motorhome, and the guy wanted us to move forward as much as we could. I was hoping he didn’t want anyone to park behind us, but at 9pm tonight that exactly what he was trying to do. We are going to leave in the morning, so don’t really want anyone behind us who might go out for the day. We managed to get him to find somewhere else to park, and will have to keep an eye on the situation in the morning. It is not the quietest campground, and we have been serenaded by someone playing some sort of horn this evening.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Bratislavia and Vienna - day 22

    May 3, 2019 in Slovakia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    The campground really was quite noisy with sirens going on overnight. We both woke up about 2am, and could hear the thumping of music way in the background, maybe a nightclub? But we got up relatively early, visited the very small farmers market next door (amazing strawberries tho), and hit the road before 10am. The drive out of Budapest was so much better than the way in – might have taken us ten minutes what took over an hour when we arrived. We stopped at a gas station near the border so we could use up our remaining forints before leaving Hungary. We had about $45 NZ worth, so it took a while for us to find enough to spend it on – lots of new things to try out now!

    Then we decided that as we were close and it was early we could drive through Slovakia and maybe have lunch in Bratislavia. We had to buy another vignette to be able to drive there, but when else will we ever be there? So the drive went quite well, we went into the city over a bridge saw a nice church. Then we saw a KFC sign, and I had been interested in seeing what it was like in other countries. So Jody put KFC into googlemaps – golly what a mistake that was! It directed us up this road, and then wanted us to turn right. None of the right turning roads had room for us to go down with cars on either side of rather narrow roads with buildings on each side. The road we were on started going a hill and was getting narrower. So I pulled over at the entrance of a street, and when there were no cars coming towards us I told Jody to get out and stop the traffic. She was very very good, and did a wonderful job holding all the cars at bay while I did a several point turn for a u turn in the middle of a narrow road. She then jumped in and we hightailed it outta there!

    Near the border we stopped at another gas station where we found some Adblue which is an additive that Nico has been telling us that he was running low on. Jody found a good bottle with a pourer on it, so we bought 2. We were a bit confused at the start as there was a bowser with adblue on it, and Nico has an adblue hole. But google helped, and this is a bowser where the adblue and diesel are mixed together, so lucky we didn’t use it. We both had a really nice bread roll thingey for lunch – our only purchases in Slovakia!

    So then we were off to Vienna again, and my golly our navigation could use some work. So Jody couldn’t remember the name of the camp ground we were going to, so I said it is written in 1B4 – the warwick exercise book that has a page for every day for recording useful information. After going through a few traffic jams and stops, we arrived at the camp site – hmmm, it wasn’t the one that we had been at before that Jody’s bike was in the shop nearby and that we had booked for tonight. Later on we realised that Jody had written down some random campground name in 1B4 – golly knows where it had come from. Anyway, then she put Donau Park, and we headed off for there. When we were close googlemaps said we needed to park and walk to our destination – what? Hmmm, googlemaps wanted more specific information ie Donau Park camping, so we were 6 miles away from our destination. So 3rd time lucky we hoped (ie I put our destination in my phone! Just kidding, it is very good having a navigator on board, and we always get there eventually). On the way we spied a Lidl supermarket so stopped there for some supplies. No limoncello, but I bought some schnapps to try for 5 euro.

    Finally got to the campsite, and Jody went to see if her bike was ready. Yeehaa, we are back in the biking business. So after a cup of tea and seeing as the rain was trying to hold back we went for a lovely bike ride for about an hour. Went down some trail to the river, and back via someones planted back yard. Then off on the track to Vienna which was lovely and went by the river. Then back via the main road to see the monastery. It didn’t rain the whole way which was great, but started shortly after we got back.

    Jody cooked us a lovely tea again with moroccan chicken, and we tried out the Mozart liquer little bottles and the Schnapps. Jody is keen to find larger bottles of the Mozart, and the schnapps is currently outside under the hedge, and will be left here in the kitchen in case someone is braver than me!

    So tomorrow we are off to see the Lippizaners. We have tried to get our tickets 3x so far, but tomorrow should finally get them as long as we get up at 7am, and get on our train as planned. After the performance we will be heading off to Stuttgart, but don’t expect to get all the way. Have no plans of where we will be staying for the night so that could be interesting.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Lipizzaners - day 23

    May 4, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 2 °C

    We are getting good at getting up if we need to, and were on the train at 8.30 as planned with our tickets picked up, and having breakfast in Starbucks by 9.30. Just before we were able to go in, we walked through more of the area and found some other amazing buildings that we probably should have known about before. Oh well, you can’t spend time at all of them. When we got to our seats we realised how great they were. We initially wanted to go a week earlier but couldn’t get the best tickets then. Today did work out a better day for us anyway.

    As for the performance – wow wow wow. They started with 8 of the younger horses which were still different shades of gray – they turn white when they are older. They just showed some simple exercises which was good. Then they had more experienced horses doing some of the complicated exercises while mounted. Then a session of experienced horses doing unmounted exercises with the horses leaping. Then a pair of horses doing synchronised exercises. Then a group of 8 experienced horses. What I was most impressed about was the leg changes at the canter, and their ability to turn tight circles leading with the wrong leg. The stallions looked extremely muscled and strong. It really was magical with each session introduced in german and english, and the use of lighting was wonderful as well. This was something I had wanted to see from when I was much younger, and I was very pleased that I have now experienced it.

    After the performance we went back to Klosterneuberg (camping near Vienna) and Nico. We were trying to drive as far as we could that day to Stuttgart where Jody’s son is living. We did pretty well – 570kms after leaving at 2pm, and ended up at Augsburg in Germany. The drive wasn’t too bad, though the first hour or so was on country roads in Austria before we finally got to the A1. Then when we got to Germany we were a bit confused about the speed signs, but were pretty sure that we were on an unlimited speed road by the buffeting we got from the speed of the cars going past. Nico was trundling along nicely at 70mph (around 112kph), and cars were just leaving us in the dust. We had fun watching them come up from behind and Jody was videoing them – anything to pass the time of day! It was also very interesting seeing the number of solar panels beside the motorway. The weather forecast had not been good, but the only time it really poured was when we stopped for lunch, and nicely just after Jody had filled Nico up with gas and gone into pay. The temperature got steadily lower and was 2 degrees when we arrived at 8pm. Now it says it feels like minus 1, yikes! We had been looking at different locations today and tried to stay away from the ones that were forecasting snow. We have worked out the heating in Nico now though, and are feeling toasty warm after Jody cooked some very tasty hamburgers with mince, bacon and eggs. The campsite is very basic, but is close to the motorway so we will be on our way in the morning.

    So there were no driving issues today with googlemaps, and we absolutely nailed the trains in and out. Such pros!    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Stuttgart and Freiburg - day 24

    May 5, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 -1 °C

    Well it was pretty cold last night, but we were snuggly warm in Nico. I did wear my puffer jacket and sox to go to the shower though. The showers and toilets were lovely and warm with no silly push in button on the showers that you have to use every few seconds. It was still only 2 degrees when we left around 10am. It took us around 2 hours to get to Stuttgart, and Jody’s navigation was impeccable as per normal ie she had to call Jeremy (her son) and ask him if he lived in a University as that is where her address took us. He said no, and then suggested that he come to us as he must have thought we woudn’t be able to work out how to get to him. So I then friended him on messenger, got him to send a link to his address and we were off again. About this time we had a discussion about her navigation skills, and what we have been experiencing is not unusual! Though she is pretty good at directions on motorways still.

    Anyway, we ended up going down a one way street, and at the start of it I suggested she let Jeremy know that we were close ie 200m away. We could hear him running down the stairs through the phone, and then he wondered how he would see us, hmmm I think it was pretty obvious when we were the only huge motorhome in the street, partially blocking traffic once again. Jody then got out to stop the traffic properly, Jeremy got in the back and we were off. It took nearly half an hour for us to get to a rest stop where they could say hello properly. We also had yummy hamburgers for lunch again courtesy of the chef (ie Jody, not the actual chef Jeremy who is now on board). While we were stopped, it started snowing.

    We headed for a camping ground near the Black Forrest. There was no-one on reception, the sign said find a pitch and can check in from 2-4. We found a pitch, used the toilet, and then decided that we would rather go somewhere else. So we drove for another hour and ended up in Freiburg which is near the borders of both Switzerland and France. We got a bit excited on the way as the temperature got into double figures. This is a really nice campsite, and the guy who checked us in is from Taranaki. Then we jumped on our bikes, and Jeremy hired one and we biked into the city to try and find some dinner. I saw a steeple in the distance and made my way there, and we were in front of an amazing cathedral which turns out to be the main attraction here. A lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays (actually most things are closed on Sundays in Europe), but we found one in that square that served German food, so we had some nice things for dinner – sausage, fillet steak, roast pork with potato dumplings and dark beer sauce. Then we biked back up the hill, but it is a lovely evening for that, although rather chilly.

    We had vague plans of Jeremy sleeping in Nico with us – the table converts into a bed somehow. But, luckily this campsite also has a hostel, so he is going to sleep in that. We plan to be here for 2 nights, and will be going out biking tomorrow. Tho there is a great market in the main square from 7.30 to 12.30, and we possibly might have to visit that first!

    Pretty amazing that 2 days ago we were in Hungary, and now we are on the western border of Germany. Budapest is just over 1,000 kms away, so maybe we have done a bit of driving! We drop Nico off in 12 days, and are currently 700kms from Calais. So we have a bit of time to explore near here – Basel and Strasbourg are both close, and meant to be lovely places.    Read more

  • Fiona FerrarEurope 2019Traveler

    Freiburg - day 25

    May 6, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 0 °C

    Well today was a really great day. It was beautiful and fine though pretty cool – think it got to double figures at one stage. Last night that I suggested that we do our own thing today, and that worked out really well. I got up earlier and went off biking after putting the washing on. Saw lots of fun sights in Frieburg before arriving at the market near that cathedral. I locked my bike up and looked around that for a while, then found myself at the galera for breakfast. It was really nice (and had a toilet included which is always a bonus), and had a charge per 100g for the hot food. Then I looked around a few more shops, found a shoe shop where I bought 2 pairs, and then made my way back to the market. There I found another bright green bike locked up next to mine – Jody and Jeremy had arrived there as well. I found them eating some sausage for breakfast, it is always too early for that for me. So I went off doing some more shopping looking, then biked back to Nico (unfortunately that is up a big hill), and put our sheets in the dryer. Jody and Jeremy then arrived back – Jeremy’s hire bike is not so good, so they are going to take a train to the town around 7kms, but I am going to bike there.

    So after our sheets dried, I went off on my bike to the next town, Kirchzarten, which is 7kms away. Unfortunately it is a gradual climb all the way there, but spectacular scenery being beside a river all the way. Rather funny that as soon as I got there, the first people I saw were Jody and Jeremy. We then went to a pub and had a drink (non alcoholic for me of course). Then we visited a supermarket and found such cheap berries – 2 euro for raspberries, and 0.89 for slightly older raspberries. I bought some, ate a punnet and then had to go back for more. Blueberries were 2.50 Euros for 500g – I was in heaven!

    Then J&J took the train back, and I got back on my bike. Biking back was great as it was all downhill. I stopped a few times to take pics, and got diverted a couple of times over the other side of the river for a look see, and then finally got back to Nico. I biked maybe 25 to 30kms today, so felt that I had done some exercise for a change. And then the evening really started….

    Jeremy and Jody had a card game that they wanted to play, but took forever to work out what the rules were. They even tried to ring someone in NZ to confirm – only 6am at that time! So finally we got playing, and they had an issue with the fact that I kept winning. What is their problem? There might have been a bit of Baileys and Cointreau involved as well. I don’t think Jody quite gets that I normally don’t drink at all.

    Jeremy cooked us this amazing meal with chicken – cooked in the frypan, and then the oven for around 2 hours with potato underneath it. It tasted really amazing, but I was having a bit of an issue spearing some of it on my fork, nice of Jody to com to the rescue. Then I tried to stand up – who knew that Cointreau and Baileys had such an effect?

    So I think we went to bed around 11.30 feeling slightly under the weather!    Read more

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