“Chocolate and Cheese”

Feeling stretched with our budget we decided to stay for just two nights in Venice, so we had to make the most of our one full day in the “City of Water” We found a great little apartment in the old Jewish Quarter which was centrally located, quiet and very atmospheric.

On the way from the flat to our local coffee shop

Blessed with low-season tourist levels and gorgeous weather, we spent the day walking the city and getting slightly lost as usual. We managed to hit some of the big tourist spots like the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza San Marco (decidedly low on the pigeon front) but the lack of tourists meant that we were able to walk right into St. Mark’s. We marveled at the millions of Byzantine mosaics that adorned the Basilica as well as the horde of oriental objects that were bought to Venice after the conquest of Constantinople.

A Venitian gondola - look closely and you'll see that we are not on it

Our budget limited us to avoiding certain indulgences, so instead of a traditional gondola ride we opted for a vaporetto trip down the Grand Canal at sunset. Although the vaporetto was crowded, it was as beautiful and romantic (well, almost) as any gondola!

Sunset over Venice with hints of Istanbul thrown in for effect

November is the beginning of Venice’s “high water” time, and on the morning that we left town, the water was splashing over the sides of the canal onto the sidewalks. Everywhere we walked we saw the raised walkways ready to be called into action at the first sniff of a flood. We loved our brief moment in Venice and would definitely return one day – the architecture, the water, the decay – stunning in all its faded glory.

As we were on our way back to England there was really no way to avoid mountains, unless we followed the coast back through the South of France again. We figured that if we were going to risk life and limb by driving the camper over the Alps we might as well stay for a while!

So it was up and over the Grand St. Bernard Pass to spent five glorious days in Leysin, Switzerland. Leysin is a small village situated at 1,200 meters with fields and misty mountain views in all directions; we visited in the low season but in the winter the village comes alive with skiers.

Leysin - It's prettier than Hackensack. Some seriously beautiful sights served up on a daily basis.

The views from our chalet alone were just incredible, and it was so quiet that the only noise the locals complain about is the sound of the cow bells! The snows had not yet arrived so one day we hiked down a very steep and treacherous valley path to the medieval town of Aigle, stopping for a delicious picnic lunch in one of the pastures on the way. Our knees thanked us when we took the cog railway all the way back up to Leysin and thanks to Swiss efficiency the train arrived and departed bang on time.

The cog railway back home - thank you Switzerland for not making us walk back up the valley

The next day we decided to get a pre-season feel for winter sports by taking a family curling lesson at the local ice rink. At the start of the lesson we were warned in French that “Curling may not look like a dangerous sport but it is….you can easily slip on the ice and hurt yourselves really badly”. We only had one fall and a few minor bruises here and there but it was so much fun, and much harder than it looks (just staying upright on the ice was a major challenge in itself – click below to see how it should be done).

To celebrate our new found sporting talent, the curling lesson was followed by another local tradition…..our first delicious fondue at La Fromagerie.

This is Leysins’ local cheese making restaurant and as we didn’t really know how much to order and how the whole fondue thing worked it was a bit nerve racking to start with. However, once we were full of bread and melted cheese we all decided afterwards that it was just another reason to totally fall in love with Switzerland

Fondue at La Fromagerie - whoever drops the bread in the cheese pays the bill

 

“Carry On Wayward Son”

We set the sextant, aligned the charts and set off on a north westerly bearing for the long drive home across Europe to England, with the plan to sell Ollie Bernard Vladimir McTavish Ludwig Camper Van Bake Oven on arrival.

Before we left the area we stopped in to visit Kate Cartwight, an old friend from Claygate and Esher College days, who now lives in the town of Meldola with her two boys Luis and Thom. We stayed close by in the beautiful town of Bertinoro at a warm and cozy agrotourismo owned by Kate’s friend Betta. http://www.lacanadolce.com/chisiamo.htm

Bettas farm - a lovely place to stay unless you have a campervan

Although Betta was away in Peru we were treated like family by her lovely parents, and we got some quality animal time with Mingo the dog and Pilou & Deena the cats. Betta’s mum Lorena offered us a crate of fresh persimmons from her orchard in exchange for adopting Jule….(it was tempting but after careful negotiation in broken Italian we were able to leave with a camper full of fruit AND both children)

Mingo - destroyer of footballs

We had a great time with Kate and the boys, proper cups of tea, giggles and chats were thoroughly enjoyed. We got to meet and dine with her British friends Thad and Chris (hope the tooth replacement went smoothly Thad), and we went to the cinema to see Tintin in Italian complete with a whispered running synopsis of the story by Kate.

Kate, Thad and Chris (top) Luis and Thom (bottom)

It has been a while since we reported on the thrilling misadventures of our camper van. He has been behaving well mechanically (touch wood) but the road to Betta’s farm was long and steep, and proved to be too much for an underpowered, overweight, rear wheel driven van . To cut a long story short we managed to get down the hill with no problem but we couldn’t get back up the hill without smoke and spinning tires, so the next day Bettas’ dad kindly called his neighbor with a tractor to help get us out.

Once the tow out started it was a slow but otherwise effortless extraction and we were amazed at how incredibly powerful a tractor can be. The best thing about it was that the tractor was made by Lamborgini AND driven by a bloke who looked like he should have been one of the Rolling Stones.

Towed out by Charle Watts in his Lamborghini

 

“Que sera, sera”

Early morning and we are sitting by the sea, sipping a coffee and watching the sunrise over the headland with the glittering morning lights of San Remo in the distance.   A few days earlier we made a mad dash over the border from France and even though we are  just a few kilometers over the Italian border, this country already has a sunnier, funkier and more relaxed feel. The small Italian villages cling precariously to stunning mountains, the sea is bluer and suicidal Vespa drivers are everywhere.

Not a Vespa at all but this Moto Guzzi was SO cool! (We thought of you Capt. Phil)

Italy has the added plus point of being able to provide our first fresh pasta in what seems like months. Every time we would go to a restaurant in Spain or France and were tempted to order pasta, we would come to our senses with the reminder that we would be sick of pasta once we hit Italy. So it was a sad goodbye to strange cheeses, french patisseries and good bread and a big happy hello to pasta, great coffee, chocolate and gelato.

Lela Mae looking slightly alarmed by her Gelato

On arrival, the realization struck home that we can’t actually speak a word of Italian, (except for what we have learned while ordering in Starbucks) so we have decided to pick up some basics by booking into a Italian language course for a week long intensive. The package comes with one week’s local rental apartment which will be bliss! Believe me, it has been only been three months in Ollie (with a couple of breaks here and there) but you do start to miss a living in a real house after a while.

It has been great having our camper van Ollie aka “Bernard Vladimir Mc Tavish the Third” as he has allowed us to have an extended stay in Europe minus the cost of expensive accommodation.  Having said that, last night over a plate of pesto and a bottle of Asti Spumante, we came to the dread realization that we are not really “camper van people” and that it is time to put Ollie up for sale on eBay and for us to move on.

Just think folks, this COULD be you. Watch eBay for more details

This decision was made after we had an emotionally exhausting drive from Aix-en-Provence to Italy.  Our GPS took us up onto a tiny winding mountain road and we were reminded, once again that we were driving a beast. We tried to stop for groceries at the Carrefour in Nice but Ollie was too large to park anywhere, and we didn’t even attempt to stop in Monaco for lunch as the thought of navigating the roads was too much.

The beautiful village of Badaluco...up a tiny winding road

What this adds up to is the fact that we now feel that we are tied down to exploring non mountainous locations and staying in campsites that support motorhomes. This in turn means that we are always surrounded by elderly retired Germans, Dutch, and French campers. They are very friendly and helpful but it’s not really our scene to be honest.

So we rented a little Fiat Punto for a few days which allowed us to go exploring the area unhindered by road width, height restrictions and altitude. This included an amazing evening visit to Monaco, where we walked around the principality, had dinner on the beach and soaked up the yachts, Ferraris and the amazingly clean and beautifully manicured streets and landscaping. Lela has voted Monaco her “number one place to live….evahh!”

The opera house in Monaco. Lela Mae's chosen summer residence

Yesterday we drove our Punto 3000 feet up into the mountains to commune with the mountain goats and meet with the weird “local witch lady” who poured home made violet coloured Grappa down our throats to steady our nerves for the drive home.

Armed with our soon to be gained mastery of the language Italy beckons us onwards.