Europe take 2

April 2018 - April 2024
Suddenly 15 degrees feels like the tropics, trying to keep cool for a change! Read more
Currently traveling
  • 34footprints
  • 9countries
  • 2,207days
  • 159photos
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  • 2.2kmiles
  • Day 53

    Dunkerque

    June 1, 2018 in France ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    A few km from my last stop in Bergues, or so I thought had I not inadvertantly pressed the go by bicycle option on my GPS. I discovered my mistake after travelling the wrong direction in the fog for 20 minutes and ending up facing a footpath beside a railway line. Surprisingly I made up lost time and not only got to the harbour on time but well ahead and they let me board the earlier ferry which was about to leave. So a head start when I got to Dover, and only 800 km to Edinburgh! So long Europe, au revoir, auf weidersehen, dovedenja, ahoj, zbogom,viszontlátásra, vaarwel, and ÄddiRead more

  • Day 51

    Bergues northern France

    May 30, 2018 in France ⋅ 🌫 15 °C

    Another find on my travels. This is the advantage of having the freedom to get lost, or park near somewhere else you want to go to, and find a charming French town with a wonderful historic centre. Whilst walking to the centre I went past a park which first of all caught my attention as the football match betwwen teenagers was mixed teams of boys and girls, but then a curious archery competition got my interest when two large crane-like structures were lowered to the ground, what appeared to be apples were attached to branches of the metal structures and then tilted upwards (about 100ft) and the archers then stood below and fired straight up...and what goes up, invariably comes down!Read more

  • Day 50

    Dudelange, Luxembourg

    May 29, 2018 in Luxembourg ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Overnight stop here, was fortunate to meet Andre a professional picture restorer and artist, with whom I had the most interesting conversation. He too has a personal converted van with just the basics and shared a similar philosophy on travelling in Europe. Andre was very much an old hand at this game having been to Croatia at least 47 times. one of the joys of this trip has been the people I have met along the way, and in particular fellow travellers, sharing stories of travel adventure and life experiences, and tips on putting a mobile home together (quite literally).
    This town has the most amazing skateboard and BMX park I have ever seen, and ironically of course on a hot sunny evening when conditions are perfect, it is deserted. Dudelange also contains a wide variety of architectural styles, fom the classical (French style) grand hotel to the bizarre house with projections in all directions, and being the winner of smallest balcony in the world ever, to the cinema /Arts centre CNA, which could stand for the opposite of CND as it appears to be promoting the attributes of a nuclear fallout shelter as concept in building design!
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  • Day 49

    Dachau (near Munich)

    May 28, 2018 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    On return trip, stopped at Dachau (had my last Zumba class here in 28 degrees!) On the basis that a picture is worth a thousand words, here is my thousand word blog.

  • Day 46

    Split (excursions)

    May 25, 2018 in Croatia ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    Two fab, if exhausting, days out leaving from Split. Blue cave and five islands including an hour and a half transfer by (very bumpy) speedboat, and a day at Krka national park with the beautiful waterfalls.Read more

  • Day 45

    Split

    May 24, 2018 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Dubrovnik, it aint. A modern city of strange and interesting high rise flats, The Diocletian palace at the hub of the city is very interesting not the least because people have been allowed to build and settle inside a UNESCO protected Roman ruin. We followed the sign to the "beach", a term which has been lost in translation as it is a concrete pier, and even the part which looks" beachy" is in fact fairly sharp gravel- a theme that is repeated throughout the country and its islands, there does not appear to be a gram of sand in the whole of Croatia, which is rather a shame (and self delusion) given the beautiful Adriatic ocean. Just remember to take wet shoes with you to walk into the water. Saw for the first a dog the other day for which the Dalmatian region is famous, or should I say I spotted it!Read more

  • Day 40

    Stobrec, south of Split

    May 19, 2018 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Well this is as far south as I am travelling, Isabella arrives in Split in a few days so I have arrived early to get the lay of the land, find out the times of local buses, sort out any excursions and locate the nearest Lidl. Stobrec has some interesting history, but is really the little brother/sister of Split which I have yet to visit. This town is host to a very good camp site with terrific amenities. Sitting between the mountains to the east and the sea to the west it is an ideal seaside holiday destination. Been cycling, swimming and practicing a bit of Zumba ( hope to get to a local class on Monday night), although best practice session was in Bibinje where my stage was a concrete pier and my audience was the Adriatic, or so I thought until I spun round to see the actual audience hanging over the fence. Stobrec like so many coastal towns has morphed into what is standard fare these days, pizza restaurants and cafes, nice enough...
    I am currently parked beside a mobile home which is massive, larger than a single deck bus with sides that extend out once it is parked, the sort of thing Aerosmith would use to tour America, it must be worth £100,000 easy, oh and an Audi as the tow car. The family sit around a full size wooden dining table for meals and hang around there most of the day. Is that what camping is about? if I had that money I would also be sitting around my dining table which would just happen to be in the Azores!
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  • Day 37

    Zadar

    May 16, 2018 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Classic old city centre surrounded by modern urban city. Sort of town you could actually see in most countries nowadays. Hard exterior with a chewy Roman centre, as they pretty well conquered and settled in most parts of Europe at some time. The old square is testament to this with examples of stone columns and remains kept under glass.The narrow streets are both a delight and welcome shade from the unusually hot May sun, and refuge at a bistro provides food and drink in the form of pizza and beer...see I told you there was a Roman influence here. Much of the old town is taken over by cafes, bars and restaurants as one would expect and the local specialty for souvenir shops appears to be bags of lavender.I have made the trip in by bus to see, or rather hear the sea organ, which is a hefty musical instrument made of marble some 70 metres long and kept in constant harmony (sort of) by the motion of the ocean. It is not exactly Handel's water music, more random and dare I say organic organ music. Still it pulls in the punters and every organ pipe has its very own Chinese tourist posing for a picture of an attraction that is principally auditory.The monument to sun is also located here which is a huge bank of solar cells that absorb energy by day and come to life at dusk. I am unable to attach a video, but look it up on YouTube. The bus station so called as it has two bus shelters is the origin of the expression organised chaos, despite all the buses having numbers they pull in at any point along the pathway and you have to search for your bus by constantly searching up and down a line of up to 8 buses, some have numbers on the front some on the side and some on pieces of card. I miss my bus as I can't find it and an hour later almost miss it again. Home at last, not quite I have a 2 km cycle ahead of me and it has just started to rain. There have been a lot of spectacular thunderstorms in the region lately and this is a doozy! ...still miss the worst of it.Read more

  • Day 34

    Bibinje

    May 13, 2018 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Now this is more like it, this coastal section of my trip was always going to be my summer holidays by the sea after my trip of culture cuisine and eh.. camping. More to follow but these pictures kind of say it all. Got to go dinner is on the table!Read more

  • Day 32

    Selce day 2 by

    May 11, 2018 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Didn't see a lot of this town, I was asked to lend a hand (or battery in this case) to a fellow driver in need, we had a couple of beers during the course of the attempted repair (professional required), however this turned into drinks, then dinner which turned into 2am. Next day Stephen and Beth and neighbours showed me a bit of the town, including a large house, once planned to be a restaurant before the unpleasantness between Serbians, Bosnians etc(sorry but don't understand what really happened or how it came about) anyway this neighbour returned after things began to return to normal, to find their property had been occupied and trashed.The husband was heartbroken, fell into a depression and subsequently died, and the wife has neither energy nor money to rebuild, and so this house remains a lingering derelict and sad reminder of terrible times. In the spirit of Irony Stephen shows me a run down property near to the main Street, which just happens to be the former headquarters of the Communist party when they were having a go at Croatia, or whatever they called it. If ever there was a time for a coffee break this is it.Read more