We spent a great deal of yesterday tapping on Matt and Mugi’s knowledge of the area for ideas of places to go. One of the places they really recommended was a winery that allowed RV’s to stay on site. We love these agrotourism places and will often go out of our way to stay at them so we decided that we would stop here today.
Matt and Mugi our hosts at Scoturk Camping in Durres. We are going to run into them again in the future.
We said our goodbyes to Matt and Mugi as well as Ashley and Paul, and headed down the road to the winery. It was a short trip and we ended up pulling in to the winery well before noon. They were expecting us as Matt had called ahead. After we got settled in we headed up to the restaurant on site for a Sunday lunch. The food is mostly from the farm that the winery sits on or is locally sourced. We were guided thru our choices by a very knowledgeable and attentive waiter. The meal was excellent and the dishes seemed to be a good representation of local cuisine. After lunch we took a quick walk around the winery before settling in for a nap.
Albacina winery our destination for today, a great agrotourism site.
When we first sat down we were the only customer, but as the day went on the restaurant was very busy with Albanian families having Sunday lunch. We enjoyed watching the coming and going of what was often three generations of a family, and in one case four generations. We have seen these multi-generation meals on weekends throughout the mediterranean countries, it is something we really admire and hope we can emulate one day.
Turkeys and chickens inside the vineyards. We had a delicious plate of chicken legs for lunch, later Ton asked if our chicken had once been out in the vineyard, I only shrugged.
Lunch was so good, we decided to go back up to the restaurant in the evening to try a couple of new Albanian dishes that had seemed interesting at lunch. Once again we really enjoyed the dishes and the preparation. Up to today we had not had great luck with our food in Albania, but Albacina showed us what great food there is in this very interesting country. As we were sitting there the sun set below us to cap off a great relaxing day.
Sunset during our second meal at the winery.
The past couple of nights we have been sleeping in an urban environment with a busy nightlife. Tonight the only noise we heard when we went to sleep were the crickets chirping in the field.
Last night we decided to stay another day and relax with our new friends at the camp ground. We had made some loose plans to go to a restaurant recommended by Matt and Mugi. It turns out that Paul and Ashley had also decided to extend a day for the same reason. So at breakfast we decided we would head to lunch with them.
The view would have been great except for the haze.
To get there required a taxi so with the help of Matt and the coffee shop at the corner we located someone to take us there and back. When we arrived the views of the city were great though unfortunately it was a bit hazy. The restaurant turned out to be huge and doubled as a wedding venue and horse arena. There was a lot going on.
One of the brides and her bridesmaids.
Unfortunately the food was a little underwhelming, and for the first time since we arrived in the Balkans the portions were quite small. We enjoyed talking to Paul and Ashley about their experiences touring in their van. We had been following pretty parallel tracks thru the Balkans and it turns out we had stayed at several of the same sites. They are hikers so they spent more time on trails and national parks than we did, but otherwise we had very similar interests.
A street scene from Durres.
After we returned from our disappointing lunch Ashley announced she was still hungry so we sat down at the coffee shop next to the campground and split a couple of pieces of cheesecake and a pizza. They are headed home on Tuesday from Tirana and have arranged to park in a campground near there. It was interesting to compare their experience in shipping an American registered RV to Europe and touring vs ours of purchasing a European one and using that. There are plusses and minuses to both, but after talking to them we are satisfied with our decision to purchase here.
The night before we had gotten a thorough briefing on the town from Matt and Mugi the owners of the camp site on how to use the transit system and what to see in Durres. Scott and Ashley from Massachusetts volunteered a good restaurant for lunch. This place has a nice feel as all of the campers have abandoned their RV’s and instead cluster around a group of tables under an awning with Matt and Mugi presiding over the place and Mugi feeding everyone tea and snacks. Because of that everyone chats and has fun together, and we have had more interaction with our fellow campers here than at any other place we have stayed in Europe.
Sunset from our campsite Scoturk Camping.
Durres has been a port city since before the Greeks so it has a long history. At various times it has been Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Venetian. The ride to town was easy, when we tried to hand the driver our 80 Leak he just waved us on the bus. It turns out Albanian busses still have conductors who manually collect the fares, something we have not seen anywhere else in over 20 years.
There were a group of mostly older gentlemen holding an impromptu chess tournament in one of the parks downtown.
The downtown was bustling with people. The shops were mostly local businesses. There is very little left of the older buildings as they were mostly torn down during the communist era. There are a couple of Roman era ruins in the town. The biggest one is a 2nd century amphitheater that was uncovered in the last 60 years. It includes a church that was added when the city was converted to Christianity. There were some interesting mosaics in the church.
Byzantine era mosaics in the church at the amphitheater in Durres.
The main mosques in town are also new as the older Ottoman era mosques were torn down under the communists. While a few of the women wore head coverings the majority of the women were stylishly dressed in copies of the latest Italian fashions. The town had a very secular feel to it.
This building and pier were left over communist era buildings probably built as tourist attractions then, and definitely tourist attractions now. They bore a close resemblance to the buildings we saw in Bari.
The waterfront promenade was very nice but quiet in the shoulder season. We had lunch in an upscale restaurant where we were the only customers and after a little more walking headed back to the campground. When we arrived at the campground Matt, Mugi, Paul and Ashley were sitting around so everyone brought interesting alcohol we had all gathered on our travels and we all sat and talked until after sunset. It was a great end to a good day.
We had a sleep in for the morning, and after a nice breakfast headed into Bar. Bar is interesting as the old town is far inland and the town is now centered on the port and waterfront. Unlike other towns Bar is not on the tourist map, and does not have much of an old town to attract people. The harbor is primarily focused on commercial shipping and while it is well protected it is not scenic. In a coastline of beautiful scenic cities, Bar is definitely blue collar.
We had a good time today watching the workers in the Marina hoisting boats in out of the water.
A lot of the town infrastructure seems to still be from development during the communist era. There are a lot of concrete block apartments, and a couple of communist brutalist buildings that were probably built as attractions, but now seem ungainly and strange. It would be interesting to look back on the opening to see what the intent of these buildings were.
This building has a prominent position in the city. It is concrete block circular building resembling a sombrero. We couldn’t figure what it was built to be originally. Now it has a grocery store and some nondescript shops on the lower floors. The upper floors appear to be empty.
In the afternoon Tito picked us up and took us about 30km down the coast to Ulcinj which is an old fortress built on top of another spectacular harbor. We enjoyed the walk around town and the fort but Tito was disappointed when the museum of the fort was closed because he wanted to walk us thru it.
Looking down the coast from the walls in Ulcinj.
Our next planned stop was a seafood restaurant recommended by our friends Cory and Ovi in Ulcinj, but it was also closed. Tito than said he knew a great restaurant on top of a mountain overlooking Bar, that had both good food and a spectacular view of Bar and the coat line. The drive up was an adventure as most of the time the road was a single track with either walls or a steep drop off on one side. Every time we met another vehicle someone had to give way or back up. I enjoyed the ride mostly because it wasn’t me dealing with the problems. Unfortunately when we arrived at the restaurant it was also closed. In the end we returned to the same restaurant as last night to enjoy another excellent and low cost meal.
Tito and I enjoying our meal and a couple of beers.
Today was about taking care of two bits of business, we needed to see if we could get our Carte Grise from France, and find a place to look at François’ headlights. Tito had arranged to pick us up at 3pm to take us around town so I had the morning to get things figured out.
At first it was a frustrating start as we were having a hard time with the internet which made it tough to call France. We eventually worked the internet out and after a couple of emails and phone calls we learned that our Carte Grise was still being processed but they could provide us with an official document telling the border guards that it was not our fault we had a copy but the French Governments. It seemed just weird and French enough to be true so we are going to proceed with our two new documents.
I also spent the morning trying to figure out what was going on with François’ headlights. I could not get them to work and most of the evidence pointed to a bad switch which would require a part. More research showed that the only Fiat dealer in Montenegro was in Podgorica which is about 80 kilometers from here. There was one mechanics shop in Bar that specialized in Italian Cars and had good reviews so our plan was to take it by tomorrow.
When Tito came at 3 I told him about our plan for the lights and he recommended we go by now to make sure he could take us tomorrow. He also said he could explain the problem to them in Serbo-Croat in case they did not speak English. When we arrived weirdly the guy did not speak either Serbo-Croat or English, but only Italian. This did not phase Tito who seamlessly switched to Italian and explained the problem. After some tinkering around it turns out that somehow both low beam light bulbs had burned out simultaneously, so the fix was easy.
What had started as a potentially frustrating and hectic day turned out to be relatively easy. The day ended with Tito taking us to a very good and inexpensive restaurant where we all enjoyed a good meal with some excellent local wine.
We added our 6th country of the trip today. We are now parked in the marina in Bar Montenegro with a nice view of most of the Montenegrin Navy (4 ships). Our second border crossing was not as uneventful as the first, but it is our fault.
We are supposed to be traveling with a document for François called a Carte Grise. Our original Carte Grise went missing during Covid and the location we use for storing François changed so we needed to modify our Societe Civile and after that was complete change the address on the Carte Grise to reflect the new address. For a lot of reasons the documents were not ready when we arrived. We discussed our options with Eurocampingcar and decided to go with copies, it was not ideal but we thought with explanation the copies would work.
Our first stop in Montenegro was Kotor.
The first border crossing in Croatia was a non-event as they did not even look at our passports or vehicle documents. Today in Montenegro we pulled up to a very quiet border crossing and handed the guard our passports, and he asked for the vehicle documents. He typed our passport information in, and then looked at the documents and said: “Montenegro requires original documents”. There was a pause while he looked at me, then he stamped our passports and handed back our documents and our copies and repeated “Montenegro requires original documents.”; but pointed into Montenegro. I asked may we enter, and he replied “Have a good day.” So we are in Montenegro trying to track down our original documents from Eurocampingcar, before we go to Albania.
The border crossing was slightly tense but it was worth it to be rewarded with views like this.
The other issue from yesterday was every time we entered a tunnel Ton would tell me to turn on the headlights as it was very dark, and every time I would look at the dash and the little headlights on icon was shining brightly. When we arrived in Bar for the night we moved into our spot after dark and Ton was right the headlights are not on despite the nicely lit icons, the running lights work, the high beams work, but the low beams don’t. So we will be spending some time trying to iron that out.
We enjoyed today, because tomorrow is going to be a work day and not one for visiting.
In between the drama we visited Kotor. Kotor is on an incredible body of water that looks a lot like a Fjord, but is technically not a Fjord but a flooded river valley. Still it is beautiful and Ton enjoyed the views while I was busy driving a very twisty, but wide road. As we pulled into Kotor it looked very interesting but we knew it was going to be crowded because there was a giant cruise ship looming over the town.
Up close these things are immense. We guessed that this would hold around 4000 people.
Kotor had the most impressive ruins of an immense wall and fort running up a nearly vertical mountainside. It was quite a feat of engineering when they built it. The town walls connect to the mountainside walls. We walked the town walls, and while it is possible to climb to the top, we passed on the opportunity.
Part of the city walls going up to the mountain above the city.
Kotor has a thriving cat population and has latched onto that as a tourist trade opportunity. The cats are cute and act like it is their town and we are lucky we let them use it. Everywhere we have visited in the Balkans the town and campground cats have been well treated. Since we are now cat people thanks to our sons cat Dottie we have enjoyed watching them play and beg for food with a dignity that only a cat can muster, while they are asking for food they make it clear that it is our privilege to feed them.
The town has embraced their cat population as a way to sell merchandise.
Kotor was the first city we have visited in Europe that is primarily Orthodox Christian. We took a look inside to get an impression of the difference in the art and layout of the churches. Our initial impression is that the art work is a little more austere and stylized than in Catholic and Protestant churches.
The altar of the Orthodox church in Kotor, most of the art is from the 1990’s after the fall of the communist government.
We enjoyed Kotor it is less developed as a tourist destination and feels more “authentic”. But it has recently hit a lot of lists as the new hot destination in the Adriatic, so already most of the storefronts are now set up to meet the needs of tourists and not the locals. It feels like a mini-Dubrovnik which is not all bad.
The main square in Kotor.
We are now parked in the Marina in Bar, Montenegro. Our friends Cory and Ovi kept their boat here during Covid and recommended that we stay here, they even introduced us to a friend of theirs who set us up with our own space with electricity. After we arrived Tito met us at the marina and directed us to our spot. As he was on duty for the night we got to spend a couple of hours talking to him.
The weather channel got it right. After one more absolute downpour last night from about 9pm to midnight, the storm we have been in for the last 8 days broke and today while it was not bright and sunny was dry.
After two days of being cooped up in François we were ready to get out. The bus ride into town was simple and cheap, and the instructions on how to get off from the campground were easy to follow. Ride the bus until there are no more cars on the road and get off. The old town in Ljubljana is pedestrian only.
We think it was a political rally as there were speakers and a little bit of light chanting. But it seemed pretty good spirited.
We arrived to find a pretty sizable political rally going on in the main square of the town. There were 30 or so Slovene cops standing around watching and looking a bit bored. We decided to check out another part of town and come back to the square when the rally broke up.
The Ljubljanica River near the center of the city. It is a great place for an afternoon stroll.
We strolled down the Ljubljanica River for about half a mile on both sides. It is lined with cafes and nice buildings that were part of a riverfront renovation in the 1800’s. The work was done mostly by one guy and he did a great job. There are frequent bridges to cross back and forth from one bank to the other. So if you see something interesting on the other side you never have to go more than a couple of hundred yards to find a bridge to cross over. In a continent of great cafe scenes, Ljubjana more than holds its own.
One of the many bridges across the river. You can see that all of the rain over the last week has the river running fast and turbulent.
After our initial stroll we decided it was time to try a coffee in one of the cafes. Ton had picked out a small cafe called Čokl. We found it next to the funicular up to the castle. We each asked for an Americano and received a thick aromatic espresso with a tiny thimble of hot water that we could add ourselves. It was delicious. As we were leaving there was a Slovenian couple waiting to grab our table and they confirmed that this was the best coffee in town and a real bargain at €1.60.
The funicular up to the castle. Our coffee shop was on the street to the funicular. We really recommend it.
Across the street from the coffee shop was the Saturday Market. We enjoyed poking around in the different sections of the market for awhile, though in the end we did not buy anything.
European open air markets are always a treat. This was a large one.
By now the political rally had broken up so we headed back to the main square via the Dragon Bridge which was completed in 1901 despite there being a prominent engraving on the bridge saying 1888. I overheard a guide saying it was the first steel reinforced concrete bridge in the old Austro-Hungarian empire and was built here as an experiment as no one would care if it collapsed in Ljublajana, but it would be a scandal if it collapsed in Vienna.
One of the dragons on the Dragons bridge.
When we returned to the main square the rally had indeed broken up and the police and crowd had moved on. But we decided the square was kind of a bore without the rally so we moved on also.
We found this street containing the old synagogue for the town. It was one of Tons favorite photos for the day.
By now we had been up and down the river a couple of times so we headed to the restaurant Ton had picked out last night. It is called Druga Violina which translates to Second Violin. They had a simple set price menu where you picked from one of three very reasonably priced multi-course meals. When you sit down there is a sign on your table telling you to please be patient as they employ developmentally disabled people as servers. We really enjoyed our meal and decided it may have been the best value meal we have had in Europe.
Everything you see on the table plus a desert cost less than €20.
After lunch we walked down the main shopping street and out to a park. By then we had a few miles under our belt so we headed back to the campground for the night.
A local brewery chasing the non-Slovenian beer crowd finally helped us to crack the pronunciation of Ljubljana.
We really enjoyed our day here and I think Ljubljana would be a good place to relax and take a break for a few days as it is easy to get around and has a nice laid back vibe that we both enjoyed.
One of Ton’s favorite photos of the day. Ljubljana has a nice laid back vibe that we really enjoyed.We’re not sure where this tradition started but we now see these locks on a bridge in every city we visit in Europe.
As you can see from the photo at the top of post there has been a lot rain in the last few days. Last night we were talking about what to do today as the forecast called for more rain, particularly in the afternoon. Ton pointed out that we were here for 60 days so we did not need to go out and get soaked. So this morning we slept in. We will head into Ljubljana proper tomorrow.
Another view of the Sava River near our campground. It is high and running really fast.
We finally got up and moving about around 11am, and of course the sun was out, and it hadn’t rained in a few hours. We decided to head over to the nearest grocery so we could see what Slovenia had to offer for food. We were walking down a busy suburban street when Ton saw a couple of apple trees below us on a steep hill. We were talking about them when we heard a voice talking to us in Slovenian from the middle of the tree. It turned out to be an old gentleman who had climbed up the hill and was gathering some apples. He spoke to us in Slovenian, and Ton spoke to him in English, finally sign language prevailed and she got him to pose for a nice picture.
This old gentleman was a good sport and posed for Ton as he was picking apples. The bank the trees are on is quite steep.
While we shopping in the grocery store Ton asked if they had any lactose free milk. Of course I have no idea what Lactose or free is in Slovenian, but one of the grocery store workers heard the question and volunteered that they did and took us to the milk where she explained all of the different options. We ended up buying a couple of liters. She then said if we had any more questions please come find her.
We have a challenge we have done since we arrived on our first trip to Europe. When shopping for wine in grocery stores we have a €2.99 limit on what we buy. Most of the time we get a very serviceable local wine, and occasionally a really good wine. Today we found a very nice Slovenian wine for €2.20 with the bonus that it was 1 liter instead of the normal .75 liters. It went really well with our French sausages from Costco and our Tabouleh from Auchan in France.
Our €2.20 liter of Slovenian wine. We bought it because we liked the label. It is delicious.
Actually the rain did not kick in in earnest until about 4 o’clock, so I felt bad. But once it did it really rained so I felt a little better.
The rainy weather continues to be an issue. Most of our trips during shoulder season we have pretty good weather, but alas not on this trip. Last night we were trying to make plans. We thought about spending a few days in Slovenia, but from what we read, outside of Ljubljana, most of the best activity is nature oriented. Unfortunately it is supposed to carry on raining for another four or five days, so hiking in parks and along beautiful lakes did not have much appeal. So Slovenia is going to have to wait for a future trip to get more of our attention.
We decided to continue heading south with a planned two day stop in Ljubljana as it is supposed to be a pretty city. As we were packing up in Salzburg the sun came out, and for the first half of our trip down the Austrian Autobahn we had good weather and spectacular views. A little bit of optimism about the weather crept into our discussion, until about an hour before crossing into Slovenia the skies opened up again.
The neighbors moved to another site when they returned from town due to the standing water on their spot.
By the time we pulled into the campground for the day, it was pouring heavily with occasional claps of thunder. The heaviest rain we have seen during this week of rain. Any thoughts of getting out and exploring today were dashed. Instead we hunkered down and did some planning for Croatia, and trying to figure out how to pronounce Ljubljana. As we were chatting we realized that Slovenia is our 4th country in 5 days.
We had decided we were going into Salzburg today no matter the weather. The weather was bad as it rained nearly all day and it was pretty cool. Looking on the good side it never rained hard, just kind of drizzled all day.
It was so cool and wet that even the horses had their Gore-tex on!
Salzburg besides being a pretty city is known for two things, Mozart and the “Sound of Music.” Everywhere you go as a tourist you are offered opportunities to experience both of them. We of course joined in, focusing mostly on Mozart.
The statue of Mozart in Mozart square, though we did learn it was not very historically accurate as he was actually left handed and quite short.Mozart’s birth home. It is now a museum dedicated to him.
During the peak of Salzburg’s wealth from the salt mines that gave its name it belonged to the Vatican as an independent city. As a result it has a great many churches for a city of its size. We walked around and took in the exterior of most of them, but didn’t bother to go inside any of them. We often debate paying the admission fees when they are in place for the churches. It is obvious that the maintenance costs for these great buildings must be extraordinary, but we have been in so many now that we usually don’t bother going in when it costs money.
The cathedral in Salzburg reflecting the Italian influence of the Vatican which controlled the city for much of its history. Another of the churches at the end of the very posh shopping street that goes thru town.
The highlight of the day was lunch. Ton had told me that she missed German dumplings so I had picked out a restaurant that was famous (on Trip Advisor!) for its huge bread dumplings. When we arrived they seated us at a table for 8 and said they would be seating another group with us. Luckily for us they were two lovely couples, and a very well behaved dog. I was confused at first because some of their conversation was in German, and then they would switch to proper British accented English. It turns out the older of the two couples were an English-Austrian couple, and the other couple was their daughter who had grown up in England but married a German and lived in Munich. So we had the best of all worlds as they could coach us thru the food and the beer. We had a great time talking to them and helping celebrate the fathers birthday. The food was good, the beer was good, and the company was great. The perfect formula for a memorable meal.
The interior of the restaurant we had our lunch in.
During the conversation they learned Ton was from Thailand, and they laughed and said their dog was originally from Thailand. They had gone on vacation there and the dog was a street dog that hung around the apartment they were using as their base. Over the couple of weeks they were visiting they fell in love with the dog and figured out how to bring her home with them. Her name is now Lucky (actually the German equivalent of lucky that I’ve already forgot.) Ton was tickled to meet another Thai at our lunch, even if she couldn’t talk.
Ton was really taken with this sculpture on the outside of the Cathedral. It was entitled the Cloak of Conscience.
As we were walking around we saw several works of art that we really enjoyed. They varied from the very serious and moving to whimsical and cute.
These two sculptures were part of a series. They were entitled the Man on a Ball, and the Women in a Wall.
We had spent our entire day on the rich side of the river so after lunch we crossed over to the working class side of the river. Historically the ruling class lived on one side of the river, and the workers lived on the other side of the Salzach River. So the side with all of the monuments feels quiet and touristy, and the working class side now feels modern and bustling.
The river today divides the historical preserved side of the city from the modern commercial side.
Our last stop was the gardens that surround the town hall. It was a little late in the year, but there were still some flowers looking a little worst for wear.
Part of the Mirabell Gardens.
Our last stop was the Gnome Gardens. Their were originally 21 Gnomes carved out of stone and placed in the gardens in the 1600’s. In the early 1800’s they were sold off to individuals. The city has been trying to reacquire them and at this point has managed to regain 18.
Today was another long driving day in bad weather. All together we covered nearly 400km’s (around 250 miles). The trip was all on the autobahn. The only issue today was it rained pretty much all day, sometimes heavily. Despite that we arrived at the Stellplatz (RV park) in Salzburg about 2:00.
We are about 15 to 20 minutes by bus from the center of Salzburg. The debate we had when we arrived was whether to head downtown today or wait for tomorrow. That debate was ended by a sudden downpour that told us to wait for tomorrow. About an hour later the rain let up and we decided to head out to a mall we saw driving in.
What we thought was a mall was a bunch of wholesale stores for different fashion labels. We quickly realized it was not for retail customers, but for buyers. On the way back we noticed two other large building that also contained wholesale shops for clothes. So I guess our non-descript Stellplatz is in the center of the fashion design center for Austria.
We walked back to the Stellplatz, and enjoyed watching the arrivals of a bunch of our fellow RV’ers. It is always fun to watch people arriving and parking their RV’s for the night. Even though it is late September and the weather is pretty poor by 5 o’clock the Stellplatz was full, and people were improvising overflow parking.
Tomorrow we are heading into Salzburg for the day rain or shine. Ton is really looking forward to comparing Austrian potato dumplings with their German cousins!
Another day more or less in transit. This is an unusual trip for us as we are spending the first few days focusing on covering ground to get to where we want to start really looking for adventures. Ton saw we were passing by Stuttgart and told me there was a major US Army Garrison there and she wanted to use big American washing machines. So our first priority today was laundry, with some shopping for American stuff in the military stores on the base. These long trips have a different rhythm than one or two week vacations.
When we arrived at the Army base I was startled to see a bunch of Marines running around. When I was a Marine we had very little presence in Europe, but that was a long time ago. Today there is a headquarters for US Marine Forces Europe and Africa right next door to where we were washing our clothes. Somehow seeing the young men and women from the service I served in gave me a good feeling and brought back very pleasant memories.
Herenberg was a pretty sleepy little town, but it did have a nice square. The church in the background had the onion dome roof that seems to be common in this area.
It took a few hours to take care of everything, and we headed for a parking area in a small town near the base. We got the next to last spot in the Stellplatz so we have electricity for François tonight. Our neighbor is a friendly Brit who told us he loved traveling around the western US, particularly Montana and Wyoming.
Ton liked this list of services from the barber shop on the town square.
After we got settled in we decided to head into town to look for some German staples that we liked from our previous trip. The town is cute and has some nice half timbered houses, but overall was pretty sleepy. We found the Lidl Grocery and now our refrigerator is truly stuffed with a mix of French, German, and American favorites to tide us over for a couple of weeks.
We had visited Strasbourg on a previous trip and had really enjoyed it despite the weather being really poor. We decided to give it another look today despite the weather forecast calling for rain.
A statue to Guttenberg the inventor of the printing press. The inscription on the book he is carrying says “And there was light”.
We woke up a little late to some rain tapping on the roof of François, and by the time we got organized to leave it was 10:00. The drive to Strasbourg was 400km’s (about 250 miles) but the road was largely good without too many small villages to slow us down so we made good time and arrived at the campground in the city about 2:30. We were a little surprised to end up in the overflow parking for the night as the main campground was full. As we were having a late lunch Ton and I were entertained by watching a Dutch couple shift their motorhome from spot to spot around the overflow trying to get their satellite dish to work. By the time we left for town they still had not found a spot where they could connect.
Three of the canals in Strasbourg merging. The towers were part of the original fortification system for the town.
The walk to town was about a mile and a half along a nice canal. The old part of Strasbourg is built on an island in the middle of I’ILL River with several canals splitting the island on one end. It is very picturesque. It also has a beautiful collection of half timbered homes.
Some of the half timbered homes along the bank of the I’ILL River.
The cathedral is very elaborate, and one of the larger ones we have seen. While we were walking around it the bells were sounding for quite an extended period of time. In fact they were going for so long that Ton thought it might have been a recording and not the actual bells.
The main entrance to the Cathedral in Strasbourg.
We spent quite a while walking around downtown enjoying the sites and watching the people, which is always fun. Strasbourg is the major city in Alsace and this region has always been a border region between Germany and France, and has changed hands multiple times in the last 300 years ago. It is an interesting mixture of German and French culture and food.
Ton really liked the cute animals representing the types of meat you could get in the butchers shop below.
After a couple of hours of walking around we decided it was time to head back to François for dinner. We got back just as the rain arrived so today turned out really well.
Every French city seems to have a carousel in the downtown. This one dated to 1904.
We also watched the Dutch couple move their motorhome one last time in an attempt to connect to the satellite. As we went to the shower we noticed their dish was locked up, and their TV was glowing inside so the 5th time was the charm for them.
We are still in Migenness waiting for our power cord to arrive and recovering from jet lag. Each trip it seems to take just a little bit longer to get over the jet lag. As much as we don’t want to admit it we are getting older.
Today will be short and sweet as we did not do much. I am still falling asleep early and waking up early and Ton is still falling asleep late and waking up late, though she did fess up to not wanting to get out of the warm bed delayed her getting up this morning. The temperatures have been in the high 40’s overnight gradually warming up to about 70 during the day, which is nice except François is a little cold in the mornings. While we are talking about the weather, it is going to put a crimp in our travels. Everywhere we want to visit between here in France and Zagreb in Croatia is supposed to have rain for the next ten days! We finally decided that we are Oregonians and a little rain is not going to hold us back.
We had a couple of short walks today, and that is about the extent of our activity so there is not much else to talk about. Hopefully the power cord will arrive tomorrow as promised by Amazon and we can get on our way.
There is not a lot to talk about today. Ton and I are both jet lagged but in different ways. I am falling asleep very early in the evening around 8 am and waking very early. Ton is having a hard time falling asleep and ended up waking about 10:30.
Since I was up early and didn’t want to bother Ton I went for a walk into town. It turned out it was market day. Ton usually loves these town markets so I thought I would go back to François and see if she wanted to go. She was still asleep so I went for another walk.
Later in the afternoon we both headed into town, but by then the market was closed, and you would not know it had been bustling with vendors in the morning, just a small cleaning crew putting the finishing touches on washing the floor.
We know we are back in France when we see our first Petanque game.
After a visit to the local Aldi to buy some more groceries we followed the canal the town is famous for and came across a group of seniors playing Petanque. Ton tried to take a stealth photo of the group but one gentleman saw her and began teasing her in a friendly way, until he realized she did not understand his French and it was all wasted on her, so he gave a big Gallic shrug and turned back to the game.
We ended our lazy day with a nice pasta meal, and an early bed time for me.
We have returned to the campground that we spent our last night in France in June. It is located pretty close to where we store François, and we really like the people. Our loyalty was more than paid back as you will read later.
This trip had a little more adventure to it than normal, but nothing too dramatic. We decided to try a slightly different route to Paris than in the past. We had been flying a shuttle to Seattle and taking a direct flight to Paris from Seattle. Portland has a direct flight to Amsterdam, and then you connect to Paris. Since it is still two legs we decided to try leaving from our hometown. Everything was on track until the Friday before we left we received an email from KLM saying they had canceled the flight from Amsterdam to Paris and we should contact Delta to get a new flight. I called Delta and the lady who answered said that KLM had not notified them that they had canceled the flight, I told her I had an email from KLM telling me, she asked if I could wait on hold while she called KLM to see what was going on. After about 30 minutes on hold she came back on the line and confirmed that the flight was canceled, and asked if we would mind being rebooked on Air France a couple of hours later, which was better than I expected. The slight delay however, meant though that we could not make it to Sens in time to pick up François, so we ended up in a hotel near the airport for the first night.
Then after we unpacked I realized I had left the power cord for Greta the Garmin at home in Oregon which is a huge problem because as much as I complain about her she is our second most important tool for getting around over here. We visited 5 stores in an attempt to find a replacement with no luck. Ton confirmed it was available on Amazon so as it was getting late we decided to try to figure out how to get an Amazon account set up in Europe and order one for delivery here. When we checked into the campground I explained our problem to Leo the campground manager, and he immediately volunteered to order one using his Amazon account. So our new power cable should be here on Saturday, and once again the wonderful people at Confluence Campground in Migennes have made us very happy.
The cover photo is a greatest hit picture not from Sens. Today was a simple drive up to Sens where we took care of a short list of shopping we wanted to do for some friends, washed François, and returned him to Eurocampingcars.
After that we hung around the hotel and had some Chinese for dinner. The last day is always kind of boring and a let down after having been on the move for a couple of months. But we are already looking forward to the next trip which we are thinking will be Croatia and Greece.
Today was packing and final preparation for turning François in tomorrow. I went for a quick walk in the morning down to the canal to see what boats had put in for the night. There was an American flagged boat, and a New Zealand flagged boat side by side. So there are a lot of different ways for foreigners to see Europe.
After packing Ton asked if we could do a shopping trip so that she could try to find a couple of gifts for friends. So we prepared François for travel and headed into a mall in Auxerre. The shopping trip was a bit of a bust as she didn’t find what she was looking for, so we will try again tomorrow in Sens.
The rest of the day was about preparing for the trip home and eating huge meals as we tried to empty the fridge. We did find time to relax in the evening with a good bottle of wine from Southwest France.
There is very little to talk about today. We spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and taking inventory. Ton wants to have a written inventory at home of what we have here so we do not pack things that are redundant. Because we had been gone so long we lost track of what we had here, and found several items we had brought over were not needed. Ton decided to make a list of what was here to take home so we can pack a little leaner next time.
The couple who manages the campground love Thailand and when they found out Ton was Thai they went out of their way to tell her how much they loved the country. They are planning their vacation there for latter this year and have already visited before. The manager told us that his dream job would be in tourism in Thailand.
The plan for today was to go to Auxerre. I picked it last night because it was the first city we had visited in France. The first time we visited we couldn’t get into the campground because it didn’t open until two days later, and ended up staying in a campground just out of town. Today we had a short drive on nice country roads until we were about 20 km’s from Auxerre when the dreaded Deviation (detour) sign appeared. This time the deviation took us an extra 35km’s out of our way, but eventually we arrived at the campground. But as we pulled up the place was a zoo with bicycles everywhere. We didn’t know but there is a big bicycle race in Auxerre today, and of course the campground is full. It looks like we are not meant to stay in Auxerre.
Cafe with Burgundy tiled roof in Megannes.
We had planned to move to Megannes tomorrow to work on cleaning up François before our departure. So after a quick look at our options we headed over a day early. Megannes is a small town along the Bourgogne canal. It has a nice dock for canal boats and looks like a popular spot for people to put in for the day.
Part of the canal port in Megannes. The boat in the left side was flying an American flag.
The town is a typical small town in France with a big church, a couple of nice looking cafes and a small grocery. But it does have a really large train station for some reason.
The canal of Bourgogne, now used almost exclusively for recreation.
As we were walking back from town the wind was dead calm and the air was suddenly full with tens of thousands of gnats. For the entire walk back we were in a cloud of gnats, fortunately they were not the biting kind, just the get in your mouth, eyes and nose kind.
