November 1, 2024 Portland OR

Our fall trip is over. The flight home was uneventful and even a little luxurious. KLM recently took over the Amsterdam to Portland route from Delta. When we booked the flight on Deltas website I noticed that Business Class was about the same price as we usually pay for economy plus so we enjoyed the luxury of business class. KLM must have been trying to fill the plane for one of their inaugural flights, it was nice to see how the other half lives.

We added one new country to our list in Switzerland, and continued our fondness for Italy by spending some unplanned (originally) time in Italy. Since the purpose of this trip was fall colors we found the best colors were in Bled Slovenia.

We are looking at our options for the next trip. This could include a trip east towards Hungary while taking in Berlin and Vienna which we keep missing on our trips. We are also looking at going south towards Morocco.

We are still enjoying traveling this way, and I see a few more trips in our future before we wrap up our European adventure.

October 31, 2024 Amsterdam NE

Today we dropped François off at the Tulip Farm for storage this winter. We took our time leaving the campground in Amsterdam as the airport hotel will not let you check in early so we were trying to time our arrival for 3pm.

François getting his pre-storage bath at the truck wash near the airport.

We did some last minute clean up in the morning, and packed all of the dry food and paper away in plastic boxes to try to keep the mice away this winter. Finally around 11:30 we headed over to a truck wash near the airport to give François a good wash before heading to storage.

One of about 10 storage buildings that used to be used for Tulip farming.

After the wash we headed over to the Tulip farm, we had to detour around what looked like a pretty nasty motorcycle crash on a narrow road near the storage, but arrived about 1:30 at the storage. The storage we use used to be a Tulip farm and the old buildings that used to be for growing Tulips have been converted to storage. We have outside storage as the inside storage is completely full. The last step before we left was to set a couple of mouse traps just in case.

Our final stop for the day was the airport Ibis Hotel, where they were kind enough to let us into the room at 2pm instead of making us wait until 3pm like last time. Ton spent part of the afternoon doing a final rearrangement of the bags while I enjoyed Dutch TV.

October 30, 2024 Amsterdam NE

Today Ton packed up our bags and we both did a little cleaning in preparation for putting François in storage tomorrow. We had a couple of nice conversations with some old friends Ovi and Cory, and our new friends from Singapore. The day was damp and dark so it does feel like it is a good time to get going to Portland which is probably also damp and dark, but it is our damp and dark.

The campground we are staying at is shutting down all of the camping facilities (showers, washers, and the little general store) tomorrow, but you can stay here without the facilities during the winter . The price drops quite a bit and it looks like a lot of people will be taking advantage of the aire that this place will become tomorrow, as it is as full as it has been since we arrived.

October 29, 2024 Amsterdam NE

Another day of cleaning and organizing for our trip home. We did meet a nice couple from Singapore who we chatted with for awhile. They did Germany and the Netherlands, and in a separate leg rented a RV in Iceland and did the circle route there. It was fun talking to them.

Otherwise Ton worked hard, and I took a couple of short walks. The Heron in the picture spent most of the day hanging in the canal behind François fishing.

October 28, 2024 Amsterdam NE

We have returned to the campground that we started the trip at. When we arrived in September the place was bustling. They are closing down on the 31st which works well for us as we are leaving that day. But now instead of bustling it is very quiet. With the rain and damp everyone who is here is pretty much staying inside their campers so it was a pretty quiet place.

The canal right behind François. There is a big park on the other side of the canal.

Ton spent the day organizing things for the trip home. She spent some time taking an inventory of what we are going to leave behind as she has learned this helps us when we are packing to come back so we do not carry stuff from home that is already here. François has a lot of storage for his size, but after 6 years we are using a lot of the space we have, so we don’t need any duplicates. She was also looking at all of the stuff we bought on this trip to bring home and sizing up how to pack it.

Our preparations now include putting all of the dry food and paper products we have into plastic boxes to discourage another invasion by mice. We hope this does the trick.

I spent most of the day staying out of the way, but being available to lift things if necessary. We are starting to have big meals to get rid of all of the stuff in the refrigerator. So I did try to get in a walk in the morning to prep for the extra food.

October 27, 2024 Amsterdam NE

We were able to enjoy an extra hour sleep this morning as Europe changes time one week earlier than the US. The traveling part of the trip ended today as we made our way back to our base in Amsterdam. We will be spending the next few days cleaning up and preparing François for storage for the winter. The drive over was easy and the high light of the day was some more Grocery Tourism in the grocery store near the campground.

October 26, 2024 Bonn GE

We were up early to get on the road to Bonn. But there was a delay while we tried to figure out who to pay for the previous night. The previous day we had called the campground, and they told us that they would give us a code to get in the gate. When we arrived there was no one at the campground. After we settled in I sent a text and asked how we should pay. We didn’t have an answer in the morning, and after waiting awhile we gave them a call and they told us to leave the money in a mailbox near the gate.

The Cathedral in Bonn with an interesting sculpture in front of it.

It was a busy drive from Frankfurt to Bonn, but we still made good time, and arrived a little before noon. The campground was open and fairly full, but once again no one was there to tell us what to do. After a while we found a note saying pick a spot and come pay us after 1pm.

Bonn is the birthplace of Beethoven.

Bonn is most famous these days as the birthplace of Ludwig von Beethoven. Bonn was also the capital of Germany when it was divided between the east and the west. Bonn was picked I assume because no one saw it as a permanent candidate to be the capital once Germany was reunified as it is a small city of around 320,000.

The downtown Saturday market is getting ready for Christmas.

We were both hungry and we wanted a typical German meal, so we headed to a Donner Kebab shop. The food was great and the place was buzzing so we enjoyed our meal.

Bonn is the home of Haribo.

Ton had been reading about Bonn on the way down the autobahn and told me that the third thing Bonn was famous for is being the birthplace of Haribo which I guess is the most popular gummy bears in the world. So as we were walking down the street we saw a giant Haribo store and headed in. Despite the fact that neither of us has ever had a Haribo gummy bear we ended up with about €20 of candy to take home as gifts. Also, the Haribo candy made in Europe is healthier than that sold in the US as they use a more natural sweetener.

Our selection of gummy candy to take home.

We then headed to Beethoven’s house to see where he grew up. It is a typical town home on one of the main streets of town. We discussed going in but it was getting late in the day so we started to head back.

The home Beethoven was born in.

As we were heading towards the bus stop we saw a nice beer hall and Ton said this was our last day in Germany and we hadn’t had a beer. I didn’t need any convincing so we toasted the German beer industry and then headed down to the bus stop.

On our way down to the Rhine we came across these kayakers hauling their kayaks back to their car.

Our campground is right on the Rhine River and on our way back from the bus we took a detour to walk down and take a close look at it. Across the river was an old castle and a new castle. At the base of the castles were vineyards that had turned golden.

The old castle, the new castle at the top of today post is just to the right.

October 25, 2024 Leeheim GE

We had a plan for the next three days. We were going to drive a long way today to reach Frankfurt, visit Frankfurt tomorrow, and possibly meet our friends Tracey and Tony on Sunday.

The first part of the plan involved driving 450 kilometers (over 300 miles) on the autobahn.

The first part of the plan involved a 450 kilometer drive on the autobahn that I figured would take about 5 hours. Despite some construction, that part of the plan came off almost to the minute as we pulled into the campground after 5 hours and 2 minutes.

The view from our campground this evening.

Then the plan came unraveled. We travel in shoulder season so if a campground is open they usually have plenty of spots. The last two stops we stayed in gigantic campgrounds that could hold hundreds of RV’s, and there were less than 20 people staying at both of them. So I was shocked when we rolled into the campground near Frankfurt and was told they had no places for the weekend. This is the first time in 4 years that we were turned away at a campground.

The fall leaves are hitting their peak, in a few days most of them will be on the ground.

We spent the next 1/2 hour trying to find another campground that was open near Frankfurt without success. I even took a look for a hotel, but François is not very hotel parking lot friendly. Ton finally came up with a campground that google said was near us. When I put it into Greta Garmin she said it was 46 kilometers from where we were. I gave the campground a call and they were open and had plenty of spots, so we were off.

Another picture from the road.

45 minutes later we rolled into our new campground and of 40 spots available we make the third camper, so there are plenty of spots available. It is a nice campground on a lake, but it is quite a way out in the country. I checked on getting into Frankfurt by public transport and it would take 2 hours each way so that is not going to happen.

Geese on the lake.

We took another look at hotels, but none of them seemed feasible. So we reluctantly decided that Frankfurt would have to wait. We sent an email to Tracey and Tony apologizing. Tomorrow we are going to continue west and our new plan is to stop in Bonn on the way. I emailed the campground we want to stay at so hopefully we will not repeat today’s events.

François recovering from his 500 kilometer plus day.

October 24, 2024 Bad Felinbach GE

The drive today started in heavy fog as we left the campground in Vallach, and ended in heavy fog when we arrived at Bad Felinbach. But for about an hour in between the fog banks the weather was superb.

Entering a tunnel on the Austrian autobahn on the foggy/cloudy part of the drive.

The Austrian autobahn is very nice, but the stretch we were driving on was undergoing a lot of repair or expansion work. So we would speed up to about 98 kilometers (the real speed limit is 110, but I have adopted a self imposed speed limit of 98.), but then have to slow down for construction to speed limits of either 80 or 60 kph. About 25% of the drive in Austria today was in construction zones.

Because we were driving slower on the autobahn Ton was able to get a lot of nice windshield shots.

Along the way there was a long tunnel of 8 kilometers (5 miles) thru a large mountain when we went in one side it was foggy, when we came out the other it was sunny.

This castle was located at the entrance to a narrow river gorge near Salzburg Austria.

There was a stretch where we admired a mountain range with several tower like peaks. They really caught Tons imagination. There was peak in the center that was shaped like a tower that Ton said she imagined was the home to an Austrian god like Zeus.

Ton was captivated by this mountain. The tower like rock in the left center really captured her imagination.

We have visited Salzburg before and while we were tempted to stop for the day we ultimately decided to press on and get a little closer to Munich. We ended up stopping in Bad Felinbach in southern Bavaria which has a nice campground. Any town with Bad in its name means it has thermal baths. We are not bath people so we decided to just relax and have a short walk near the campground after we settled in.

Looking across the pastures to a small village near our campground.

Tomorrow is going to be a long driving day as we are going to try to push all the way on to Frankfurt.

October 23, 2024 Villach AU

The trip is winding down. From now on we will be more focused on our progress towards Amsterdam than what cool place we can go see. This is the part of the trip that I don’t like as the feel for the days changes completely. Now we are focused on contacting the storage, finding a place to wash François, mouse proofing François (something new), washing everything we are going to leave behind and all of the other mundane things that go with leaving Europe behind. The rhythm of the travel changes as we pick our places to spend the night based on the proximity to the freeway, instead of its proximity to somewhere interesting.

A grey day on the lake, but with no wind the surface was like a mirror.

Having said all of that we don’t need to rush to Amsterdam and will be able to take the trip in short bounds following the A3 Autobahn thru Germany. The weather forecast for today was rain all day, and I really like this campground, and our lakefront spot so I convinced Ton that we should just have a day of rest before setting out.

Since we had time Ton wanted to knock out some laundry. So once again we got to wrestle with an European dryer, this time a German made one, once again without going into the details the results were unsatisfactory and frustrating. One day when I am really bored I am going to do some research on European dryers and why they seem to be designed to leave the clothes damp after spending 90 minutes running.

October 22, 2024 Villach AU

We are staying in an exceptional campground. It is not the kind of place we usually go to as it is gigantic with around 400 spots. But because the season is almost over there are only around 15 people here. Because of that we are parked 15 feet from the edge of the lake. The facilities are modern and clean, and the wifi is as fast as at home. Like in Switzerland it comes with a pass that allows us to use all of the bus and train facilities in the state. We loved this in Switzerland and were happy to find it here also.

Waiting for my free bus ride into town.

While Villach does not have a reputation of being a tourist town we decided to go into the city center today to check things out. Truth is we probably would not have done that if we had to pay for the bus.

Walking to the bus we saw this large group of mushrooms by the size of the road.
The mushroom cluster was giant as you can see with the perspective of my hand.

The bus drive into town was very quick because it did not have to stop at any of the 10 bus stops after it picked us up. Villach was very heavily bombed during WWII and about 85% of the buildings in the town were destroyed. Because of this the majority of the buildings are built in a modern style so the feel is not that different to a like sized city in the US.

The main street in Villach.

The town had two churches that were listed as places to see. One was about 100 yards from the bus station so we started there. We then walked to the other church which was about 1/2 a mile away on the main street of town. It was a pleasant walk, and the main street is pedestrian only which allows for window shopping and a nice relaxing stroll.

Two old guys sharing a beer.

After about an hour we had seen what we had come to see in Villach. The local brewery called Villach Brewery was located next to the first church we had stopped at and it had a beer hall on site so we decided that would be our lunch stop.

The brewery we had lunch at was next to this church.

The beer was good and luckily we decided to split our goulash as the portion was immense and more than enough for two. After we finished our lunch we had an hour to kill before the next bus back to the campground which we spent doing grocery tourism. Ton confirmed that prices were higher in Austria than Slovenia and we did not find anything interesting to buy.

The scenery from our campground looking at Lake Ossiacher.

In defense of Villach Austrians don’t come here for culture, they come here for access to the outdoors. From Villach you have lakes, rivers, and mountains to play on and in. You fish in the summer, and you ski in the winter. Villach is a place to stay to do those things. It reminds me of Bend Oregon in that way.

Mother Nature is what makes this area special.

October 21, 2024 Villach AU

Today was a day for taking care of François. We have now owned him for 6 years and put about 65,000 kilometers on him, and spent over 300 nights sleeping in him. He has been a good truck. There are a few small things that needed to be fixed and there was a Knaus dealer just across the border in Villach Austria. So our plan for today was to show up there and see if we could get some work done.

François parked up next to a beautiful alpine lake in Austria.

We did some shopping in a the two Slovenian groceries near our aire before leaving as Ton did some research and found that grocery prices were 30% lower in Slovenian than Austria. After stuffing the refrigerator full, she reckons we have enough food to get us to the Netherlands, though I know we will still visit some groceries before the trip is over just for fun. We also topped off the gas tank, and filled our propane. The diesel price was the lowest we have seen in quite a while €1.49 per liter.

Toasting sunset on Lake Ossiacher.

The drive over to Villach was less than an hour on good freeways, and included an 8 kilometer (5 mile) tunnel. We arrived at the dealer about 10:30 and went in and asked if they could help with any of our problems. A couple would involve ordering parts and would take a few days to solve, but they agreed to look at a couple of the other issues. All of these issues are very minor, and almost fall into maintenance rather than repair. They asked us to come back at 1 pm after lunch and they would take care of us.

A couple of fisherman getting ready to go out on Lake Ossiacher for some night fishing.

The RV dealer was located in an area with some stores, so we spent about an hour window shopping in several stores. But after being so happy with the price of fuel in Slovenia, the first Austrian gas station had diesel at €1.47, two cents cheaper than we paid in Slovenia. We then had a romantic lunch in the parking lot of the RV dealer before reporting in for our 1 pm appointment. They spent about 90 minutes taking care of a couple of the issues and allowed me to observe what they were doing so I could take care of it myself in the future.

The nose of François is sticking out of the far left of the picture.

We had picked out a giant campground on a lake near Villach. It took about 20 minutes to get there from the dealer. The check in process was enhanced by a charming front desk person. She said they were pretty quiet so she assigned us a waterfront spot. As you can see from the pictures we are right on the lakes edge. Sunset is coming earlier and earlier, and today it was around 6pm. By the time we got settled in, it was nearly sunset. We went for a walk just before the sun went down, but Ton got some really nice photos. This place is one of the best campgrounds we have stayed in and tomorrow we will have the pictures to prove it.

October 20, 2024 Bled SLO

Our plan for today was exactly the same as yesterday, but hopefully with blue skies. But, when we woke it was just as foggy as yesterday so I was worried. Ton looked at the BBC weather and said that the sun was going to come out around noon so we should just relax until then.

The castle on the rock that we could barely see yesterday.

Ton took her own advice and relaxed for a while and then got up and made a nice soup to warm us up as it was a little cold this morning. So far we have made it the whole trip without running the heater in François despite almost every day having a high in the low 60’s and a low in the low 50’s. But this morning we were tempted, as it has been damp the last few days and it would be nice to dry things out a bit. Tonight will be a test as the low is supposed to get down to 42.

Lake Bled’s answer to Venice’s Gondolas. These hold about 20 people and are propelled with two oars that are pushed. The rowers get these boats going quite fast despite the heavy load they are propelling.

The BBC was right and about noon the fog began to lift, and we could see signs of blue skies thru the fog. So it was back to the lake for us.

Not only could we now the castle on the rock clearly, but a giant mountain behind Lake Bled appeared that we had no idea existed yesterday.

When we arrived at the lake front the skies over the town were blue, but looking towards the island there was still some fog on that end of the lake.

We both liked this depiction of the last supper which is less stylized than the traditional one with all of the apostles in a line. In this painting Judas is shown skulking out of the meal and does not have a halo.

While we were waiting for the fog to completely lift we decided to head to the church in town as it featured prominently in a lot of our pictures. It was a short but steep climb to reach it. But we both liked the art in the interior so it was worth it.

A boat load of people departing for the island.

When we left the church we debated whether to climb to the castle on the rock. I consulted Google and it told me it was only 450 meters to the castle from the church, but the elevation change was 150 meters which is almost 500 feet. That led us to pass on that option. We then discussed riding out in the boat to the castle on the lake, but it would have cost €36. So we decided to just repeat yesterdays walk and contrast the views between the foggy day and the sunny day.

The view of the church on the island was much different with the Kaminskoe-Sanvinjske Alps in the background.

The trails around the lake were a lot more lively than yesterday when the majority of hikers were tourists. Today the good weather brought out a lot of local families to join the tourists. There were a lot of 3 generation family groups on the trail. There were fewer fisherman out today than yesterday.

With no power boats on the lake there are no wakes to disturb the water. Also the water is crystal clear.

The first half of the walk went quicker than yesterday as we were looking into the sun which made the photographer in the family unhappy, so there were fewer photo opportunities. We reached the halfway point in about 40 minutes.

There were a lot more of the row boats in use than yesterday.

We stopped in the same coffee shop as yesterday at the halfway point. It was much more crowded than yesterday and instead of sitting inside we opted to sit outside in the sun, and I added french fries to our order of coffee.

Ton loved this hotel. She took a picture of it yesterday but was not happy with it so we were on the lookout for it the whole walk to get a new photo.

The second half of the walk had the right lighting for Ton so we were just as slow as we were yesterday. The views were amazing again, and we kept seeing things today that were invisible yesterday which was fun.

One of the two small villages on the west side of the lake. Both are basically a cluster of hotels and restaurants.

We completed the walk in about 4 hours today including our coffee break and the side trip to the church. But it was another great day and we enjoyed seeing Lake Bled in the sunshine.

Back at our starting point for the day.

As we were walking back to the campground the road leaving town was completely jammed with cars and tour busses. Everyone who had visited for the day was heading home, we were glad that we were staying put for the night.

October 19, 2024 Bled SLO

Lake Bled in Slovenia was on our list of places to visit before we left home. It is listed by many as having the best fall colors in Europe. But our unplanned diversion into Tuscany and Umbria almost knocked it off the list. But our last day in Umbria we looked at the logistics and the weather and decided to go for it.

Lake Bled is said to have some of the best fall colors in Europe.

The weather forecast today was not great, heavy clouds. The drive over to Bled from Ljubljana was easy on a good freeway and we arrived at our aire within 45 minutes of leaving. The problem was that the town was pretty will socked in with fog.

The fog was pretty thick all day. The castle on the cliff on the left would come and go all day as we walked the lake.

As we were walking to town from the aire I told Ton we could always extend a day as the weather forecast for tomorrow was supposed to be better. She answered me with a skeptical we’ll see.

The centerpiece of the Lake Bled is this church on the island in the middle of the lake. The castle on the cliff is just peeking out of the fog.

When we reached the waterfront, Ton took one look and said we should stay tomorrow. The lake is beautiful and the fall colors are in their prime.

This is the only motorized boat on the lake, and the motor was electric, I think it belonged to a government agency of some sort. The cruise boats are paddled, and the rental boats only come with oars.

We decided to wait to visit the island until tomorrow hoping for a little clearer skies. When there is a hike involved in our plans I usually get a lot of questions from Ton about, how far, how long, how steep. Today I didn’t even propose we hike the lake, she just took off.

Part of the 6 kilometer hike around Lake Bled.

This is one of the best walks we have ever been on. To walk around the lake is 6 kilometers ( about 4 miles), and is said to take about 90 minutes. It took us over 5 hours including a coffee break half way. Part of the reason is we are slowing down a bit in our old age, but the main reason is that it is an incredibly beautiful walk that frequently brought us to a halt so we could take in what we were seeing.

Some of the row boats you can rent.

Ton was in heaven. She took so many pictures that she nearly killed the battery on her phone. About half way we had to connect her to the portable phone charger we carry for just these sort of emergencies.

About 3/4 of the way around the castle popped out of the clouds for a few minutes.

Not only is the lake photogenic, but it is a pleasure to walk around. For most of the way around it is pedestrian only, there are no roads anywhere near the lake, and with no motorized boats, and no road noise the only sounds you hear are natural.

The fog washed out the vibrant fall colors, but added a mystery to the landscape that I liked.

There were a lot of very well equipped people fishing as we walked. We stopped and asked one of them about the fish. He said there were pike, trout, and carp in the lake. Some of the pike were over 3 feet long, the trout were about 2 feet, and he said he once caught a carp that weighed nearly 70 pounds.

One of the many people fishing with the church in the background.

While this is a popular, and pricey vacation destination the crowds today were not too bad. It is a popular stop for tour busses as the aire we are staying in is next to the staging area for the tour busses and there were always 10 to 15 in the lot all day. But the trail itself was not super crowded.

The church on what is reportedly the only island in Slovenia is always present as you walk around the lake.

After five thoroughly enjoyable hours we returned to the waterfront for Bled. I asked Ton if she wanted to walk thru the town, but she said no we could wait on that. So we headed back to François and had a hearty meal as reward for out efforts today.

The city of Bled at the end of our walk.

October 18, 2024 Ljubljana SLO

Every time we come to Ljubljana it pores, I mean rivers are flooding levels of poring. We had thought of staying in our campground in Italy today. But last night it rained so hard it knocked out the electricity. When we got up in the morning the very nice owner delivered us a bag of bread and helped us get the electricity going again, but then informed us that the Po River we were parked next to was supposed to flood a lot of the campground over the next 24 hours so we decided to move on.

I checked the weather for the area and it looked like we had a 4 or 5 hour window to move between down pours so we quickly packed up thanked Rico the owner and headed for a town just in Slovenia which had a promising looking campground to wait out the storm. The 4 or 5 hour widow between rain didn’t pan out and while it didn’t rain the whole way we had a lot of rain and one down pour that had traffic down to about 40 miles per hour as everyone tried to see thru the wall of water falling to the ground.

We crossed into Slovenia and went from a Latin based language that we can often decipher to a Slavic language that while written in Roman letters appears to us to be nearly unpronounceable i.e Ljubljana or Cska. We are now completely illiterate. The only good thing is the young people here are taught English from a very young age and are not shy to use it, so if we are really struggling we just look for some one who looks under 30 and ask them for help.

The other thing that is interesting is we have gone from what Americans would consider to be European sirens on emergency vehicles back to the sirens we are used to at home, American sirens are for some reason favored in the old Communist countries of Europe. This is both part of the fun and part of the challenge of traveling in Europe.

Enroute we decided to switch our destination to a campground in the capitol city of Ljubljana so we could take a nice warm shower before hunkering down for the day. Last time we were at this campground the Sava River was at flood stage, this time it looks a little bit less threatening but still pushing flood stage.

October 17, 2024 Polesella IT

We had a decision to make last night about where to go next. We had pretty much wrapped up the places we wanted to see in Italy. A quick calculation showed that we had about 12 more days to check things out before we want to be back in Amsterdam. We spent a couple of hours looking at itineraries and weather forecasts and landed on Lake Bled in Slovenia as our next stop. It by many accounts has the best fall colors in Europe so we are excited.

That meant a roughly 700 kilometer dash in shaky weather. There is a big front passing thru Europe for the next three days and while it looked like we could get a long drive in today before it hit, we may end up stuck for a couple of days after that.

We picked a place a little less than half way to Lake Bled because it had great reviews on Park4night our go to app. The drive went off smoothly but right before we exited the freeway Ton realized this might be our last shopping day in Italy so I promised I would stop if we saw a grocery. Right after we paid our toll there was a COOP super center so we went in there. Ton and I spent the next hour scooping up some of our favorite Italian foods to consume and a few things to take home with us. The end result was the biggest grocery bill since Costco in Paris, and a fridge stuffed with food.

The campground had incredible reviews but it turns out to be basically someones really nice backyard with a view of the Po River. The owner is really nice and the other two couples staying here seem to be enjoying themselves fishing in the rain. So even if we are stuck because of the weather we will have a nice view.

October 16, 2024 Orvieto IT

Today was a day of Funiculars and Churches. We visited Todi and Orvieto which are two towns perched on top of steep hills and full of churches.

The town square of Todi with a very modern sculpture in the middle of it.

At our wine tasting last night we sat with an Australian couple who spoke highly of Todi and really recommended we visit it. Ton and I talked about it on the walk back to François but had decided to pass. But when I looked at the route from Montefalco to Orvieto it turned out it passed thru Todi so it became a no brainer to stop for a couple of hours.

The stain glass rose in the Cathedral in Todi.

The hill Todi is located on is quite steep and it began with an 18 degree climb for about 2 kilometers where I used all of the gears François has including first for the last 100 meters or so. It was the first time he has ever struggled so much taking on a hill. Once we parked in the lot we still had to take a Funicular up another 300 feet or so to the main part of town.

The altar of the Church of Nunziatina.

If the weather had cooperated the views would be stunning, but it was fogged in. At the end we caught a little break and Ton got a picture of the valley below the town thru the fog which is at the top of the article.

The Church of Nunziation.

The main square in town was nice as was the cathedral. The town was pretty quiet and with the gray skies and the gray stone of the towns buildings we were looking for a little color. The Church of Nunziation filled that void with its interior. It is a beautiful church. After the church we decided to head back down to François and over to Orvieto.

Looking down from Orvieto, while still gray at least there was no fog in the valley.

After settling into our air we walked over to take the funicular about 500 feet up from the train station to the platform at the base of the town. Our first stop was the Duomo or Cathedral. It took over 300 years to complete and there have been multiple renovations that have resulted in new art being added to the exterior.

The front of the Cathedral with art work mainly from the 1700’s , as well as stone bas-reliefs from the 1300’s lower down.

It is one of the larger cathedrals we have visited and it is considered one of the most beautiful Gothic Cathedrals. The combination of art work and stone bas -reliefs is quite impressive.

The side of the cathedral with the distinctive gray and white stripes the Cathedral is known for.

The main hall of the interior is sparsely decorated except for a series of large sculptures of Saints that run down either side of the worship area. The columns are quite large and geometrically aligned so that they give the impression of a forest.

The large columns supporting the roof were one of my favorite features.

While the main hall is sparsely decorated the two chapels that form the cross in the design of the cathedral are spectacularly decorated by many of the masters of Italian art.

This is a painting of the dead Christ with two local saints in attendance. The painter used his two sons as the models for the saints.

A lot of time now we make a quick pass thru a Cathedral and move on. But the chapels in the Orvieto Cathedral grabbed our attention.

This painting depicts people being sent to hell.

Each panel was fascinating. They were painted by several masters of Italian art including Michelangelo’s teacher. The art in the Orvieto Cathedral was said to be the inspiration for Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine chapel.

More art work from the Cathedral.

We spent so much time looking at the paintings that we both walked out of the Cathedral with sore necks from looking up. Ton had a hard time selecting the pictures to send me from the many she had taken. I think she was also getting a little revenge on the Assisi Cathedral for forbidding photos.

Because the art work was from several different centuries there was a great deal of variety in the styles and the use of colors.

We spent another hour or so taking in more sites in Orvieto. It is a much larger city than I expected. But the architecture was much like that of other cities we have visited lately.

A palace in Orvieto which does not appear to be in use at this time.

We returned to our Sosta (aire) by the rail station for the evening to try to figure our next stop. Last night we were in a quiet Sosta next to vineyards, tonight we are parked about 200 yards from a high speed rail track between Rome and Milan with bullet trains going by at 130mph every 10 minutes or so. Not quite as charming.

October 15, 2024 Montefalco IT

Today we visited two small Italian towns famous for their wine and olive oil, though that is a claim made by many Italian towns. The first stop was Bevagna which Ton said was known as a relatively flat town to walk as it is located in the valley.

A very cute street in Bevagna.

We spent about an hour giving Bevagna a pass thru. It was a nice town and worth a walk. We then moved on to our destination for the day Montefalco. It is known for a red wine that is only produced in a very small area between Montefalco and Bevagna. Sagratino grapes are not widely grown because it produces relatively little fruit.

A field of Sagratino growing next to the Sosta we are staying in tonight.

We found the very nice municipal Sosta in Montefalco at the base of the town. It was a throwback to our early days traveling in Europe as it only cost €5.75 for a night including electricity. Towns often provide these facilities to attract tourists to stay in the town hoping they will spend some money. In our case they were right as we ended up spending well over €100 between lunch and our visit to a winery.

The town hall in Montefalco from our seat in a cafe.

Ton had found a winery near town that offered tours in English with a light snack. We headed over there to see if they had any space, and luckily they did. We had a couple of hours to kill before the tour so we headed towards the town center to see if we could find a place for lunch. There was a nice cafe right on the main square so we ordered a lasagna and a cold plate of local meats with bread. We intended it to be a light lunch but we forgot about Italian portions.

The main street in Montefalco.

After our light lunch we returned to François to rest before heading over for our winery tour. I almost fell asleep, but at 3:15 we set out for our tour.

The cellar at Montioni winery.

Montioni winery is a new winery having gone into business in 1987. They started out as an olive oil producer in the late 1970’s. They produce mostly red wine, and of course specialize in Sagratino wines. The tour was pretty brief before we sat down for our wine and light snack.

Our light snack at Montioni winery.

The wine was very good. We were joined on the tour by an Australian couple and a young man from Germany. We were all on extended vacations and enjoyed talking about our experience in Italy. We asked where the German guy was staying and he said the name of a village. The Australians asked him if it was nice, and we all laughed at his answer, he said it was charming but after two weeks of charming Italian villages they were all starting to feel the same to him. The reason we all laughed is both the Australians and Ton and I had had the same thoughts in the last few days but didn’t want to say it because we were not Europeans. So it was good to hear it from a European.

Another charming Italian village.

After the visit we headed back to François for a relaxing evening in another charming Italian village.

October 14, 2024 Assisi IT

After a lot of walking yesterday, we decided today would be a day for logistics. We were up bright and early to get our laundry done, but despite arriving to the washers at 8am someone had beat us to the punch. We went back to François and took care of some other cleaning and sipped our coffee. By 8:30 we had our load in the washer which was a Maytag complete with American English labels on the buttons to push. Right after we put our load in two other people showed up with dirty clothes so we were not the only ones who decided today was laundry day.

By 9:15 the washing was complete, but we were now waiting for the dryer to be freed up. Unlike the Maytag washer the dryer was Italian and European dryers take a much more leisurely approach to drying clothes. This one didn’t even have a display to show how much time was left so we had no idea how long the wait was going to be or how long it would take to dry our load. I spent the next hour waiting for the peoples clothes in front of us to finish and helping a Belgian woman understand the workings of the Maytag including explaining the American term Permanent press to her.

Finally the dryer stopped and we gave the person whose clothes were in it a 10 minute grace period to turn up. When they didn’t I went to open the door but could not get it open. The original button or handle had broken off and it was jury rigged with a cord to pull on. But I was pulling pretty forcefully and could not get it open. I tried pulling straight, up and straight down to no avail. So stymied by the door I trudged off to the office for advice. When I explained the problem to the maintenance guy there and told him I was afraid I would break the latch, he just laughed and gave the most Italian answer, Pull very hard, and if you break the latch it will be good so that we can finally get the door fixed.

So back at the dryer we pulled very hard and the door popped open. We unloaded the clothes, and loaded ours. While Ton was loading the clothes I cleaned the lint filter, and replaced it. When I closed the door to start the dryer it would not latch, so I thought I had actually broken the latch, so now I trudged off muttering bad words about Italian appliances. When I got to the office they gave me another token for some reason, and said they would send help. While I was doing that a German guy wandered by and saw Ton trying to close the door, he quickly figured out that I had replaced the lint filter the wrong way and it was preventing the door from latching, so by the time the maintenance guy and I arrived the dryer was going. It was now about 11:00 am.

I started checking the dryer every 1/2 hour and at 12:30 it was still spinning away. I opened the door and checked and the clothes were pretty dry, but not up to Tons standard of dryness. So I continued the dryer watch.

We were under some time pressure because the restaurant at the campsite has been tempting us since we arrived. It has been very full for every meal, and the menu and prices looked good. It is open for lunch from 12:30 to 2:30 and I was beginning to wonder if we would make it.

Finally about 1:15 Ton pronounced the clothes dry. After folding the clothes and putting them away we headed to the restaurant at 1:45. It took approximately 5 hours and 45 minutes to wash and dry one medium sized load of wash. I hate laundry days.

The restaurant specializes in grilled foods and features this giant wood fired grill in the dining room. They were cleaning it after lunch.

The lunch was as good as advertised, we each had a first course with me picking a Polenta with sausage, and Ton having spaghetti. Our second course was a plate of sausages that we shared. My Polenta dish was huge as was Tons spaghetti, so it took a while to finish up the grilled sausages when they came. We were done with our lunch about 3:30. The nice thing about Italian restaurants is they will never push you as meals are for socializing and enjoying the food.

My Polenta with sausage Ragu. It was delicious.

We finished cleaning up François and relaxed after our laundry ordeal.

October 13, 2024 Assisi IT

We slept in this morning and woke up to the good news that the Oregon Ducks had won a thriller against Ohio State, so the day began on a happy note. After a hearty breakfast and a good cup of coffee we headed down the hill to Assisi to go to the St. Francis of Assisi Basilica.

The front of the Basilica with a statue of St. Francis on horseback.

We had thought of going to the Basilica tomorrow as the weather was supposed to be better for pictures, but when we checked the website for the Basilica it said they were closed for a special event. It turns out that Assisi is hosting a meeting of the G7 committee for disability on Monday. As a result the security at the Basilica was extremely high with every type of police officer in Italy present from the local police to the national police called the Carabineri represented, even the Finance Police and the Italian Army had a couple of representatives on hand.

A monument to four religions, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The kids loved ringing the bell of peace.

We arrived at the end of the last mass of the day so we had to wait until it was over before entering the church. We spent some time wandering the grounds, and came across a garden attached to the Basilica that had some nice artwork in it.

We weren’t the only ones killing time, this group was having lunch and a chat while waiting.

The Basilica is divided into two churches, the lower one contains the remains of St. Francis who is the male patron saint of Italy. You usually have to pay to enter but we were lucky that it was free today.

The entrance to the lower church that contains St. Francis remains.

Ton was very frustrated by their no photo policy. She thinks that most people will have only one chance to visit a place like this and as long as they are respectful and do not use flash what is the harm in allowing them to preserve the memory. The lower church has really beautiful art work by some of the greatest masters of Italian art. It is quite beautiful, but you will have to take our word for it.

Going from the lower church to the upper church you pass thru the Friary of St. Francis which hosts the brothers of the order who work at the Basilica.

The upper church is larger than the lower church and is used to hold the masses on site. The art work is not as impressive as the lower church, partially because the upper church was heavily damaged during the earth quake of 1997 when the main dome collapsed.

The complex of the Basilica including the two churches and the Friary.

Assisi is built on a very steep hill and you are either walking downhill or uphill. So after our visit to the Basilica we found a place advertising €5 panini’s. We shared a table with two women from Peru who convinced us to try a glass of the local wine (it did not take much convincing), we enjoyed our conversation in Spanglish about Italy and Assisi.

A modern day Friar Tuck.

We spent some time people watching on the streets of Assisi. Today we heard much more Italian being spoken, though American English was a close second.

This is either art, or an object for a bonfire in an upcoming Festival.

Finally after stalling as long as we could we decided to make the long climb back to our campground. Today we probably climbed the equivalent of 1000 feet as well as 15,000 steps. So when we made it back to François we were ready for a rest.