Ahh the fair city of Verona… For this stopover, we decided to stay in a city camping.

Benefits:

• close to everything
• very cheap
• no dealing with camping staff who want to know EVERYTHING

Disadvantages (top ones):

• no facilities bar a hose
• high concentration of other campers (although to be fair they were in the same predicament so not too pesky)
• cockroaches!

Our sightseeing started at approximately 5:30am as we thought we’d beat the crowds and get to see the beautiful morning sunrise light…Verona was incredibly beautiful, with gorgeous piazzas, views over the river Adige, remains of the old Roman theatre + archeological museum, churches and basilicas. You may have heard that Italians don’t hold back on churches but the ones we’ve seen in Verona were hands down the most beautiful. The Basilica of San Zeno and the Church of Santa Anastasia deserve a special mention.

So the early start had some obvious benefits as at one point it felt like we had the city to ourselves. The drawback was waiting at 7.55am at the door of a café to get a breakfast that involved eggs (very hard to find in any Italian city!). The town started to fill up with coaches of tourists in the late morning but we were determined to see Casa di Guiletta (not the real one but the pretend real one…) which was terribly busy and really spoilt the mood. To add to that, we had one of the worst meals in the history of food at the Piazza delle Erbe (shame on you, you know who you are). Top tip: in Italy, do not eat at any of the food outlets near the main attractions. After that monumental fiasco, we could not have been consoled even with pastries from the local patisserie so we boarded Murphy in a huff and headed for the sanctity of the countryside.

In an incredible strike of luck, we stumbled across an agri-camping in a vineyard, a stone’s throw away from Lake Garda. We stayed there for a few nights, taking in the lovely views, enjoying a great pool and our outdoor gym comprised of lanes upon lane of vineyards and orchards.

We headed for Lake Garda one fine morning but unable to find anywhere that we liked, we went on to walk around Limoncino  – which (as you may gather from the name) used to be famous for its farming of lemons. Lake Garda was very touristy so it was time to go back to the mountains. We enjoyed a day of driving through windy roads of Dolomites for the rest of the day, drinking in the incredible views (including snow) but found ourselves somewhere very high up with the mercury showing only 17C…with rain. That sounded too much like England so we pushed on past another of the big Italian lakes – Iseo (and caught a final glimpse of the floating piers installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude). In the evening, we found ourselves in Brescia, where our guidebook recommended a family-run hotel with an incredible view of the castle and top facilities – we were sold. Another day, another city. Such is the life of a traveller.

 

Running away from the crowds, we headed towards the National Park of the Belunessi Dolomites. The entrance to this area was absolutely spectacular. Dolomites peaks rise up very quickly and very high and are dotted with emerald-blue rivers and lakes. Paradise.

One of our favourite finds so far was the small town of Belluno, where we stayed for a night. It had the perfect balance of buzz and tranquility, which we were after – especially after encountering hoards of tourists at the seaside…

The town was a dream to walk around and discover. What made it even sweeter was finding an excellent authentic Italian trattoria. It’s sad to say it was the first decent Italian meal we managed to get (more on that in another post but – sic!). It was also the night that Italy lost to Germany in the footbal (don’t hate the player, hate the game).

Having struck Bond Voyage gold – finally getting somewhere soulful and close to nature, we ventured deeper into ‘bat’ country (mountains) and found a quaint little campsite by the Lago di Corlo Veneto. We also learnt we need to:

1. Stay way away from the crowds
2. Not frequent famous spots.

This posed some challenges to us – equipped with guidebooks and trip-advisoresque websites, where could we find such places?! Needless to say, a certain amount of luck is also involved, however, it seems to work out well around 75% of the time. If it doesn’t, we bite our lips and move on with a speed of a pastry disappearing in Rupert’s mouth.

The few days’ stay by the lake was everything. The peace and quiet, the tranquil mountain views, paddling on the lake, gentle hikes to the town and fabulous weather. We felt inspired and had plenty of time for reading, good deep conversations, we were getting into our groove. Even the cat seemed somewhat less crazy. 🙂 What could go possibly wrong? Well…we learnt that our solar battery power, without direct sunlight, only lasts <1 day. This means no power for our little fridge (!!!) and no lights…we couldn’t stay any longer L. The solar panel is also a little obscured by the surfboards on the roof…we had to think of a fix. We googled van conversion places in Italy…long shot but there was one in Vincenza, not far from Verona. Verona – could be nice, we thought. After all, it’s where the Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet takes place. Without leaving too much time to think it through we were on the road there to try and convince the conversion place to help us with an external power source.

The place was called C-lover and was staffed with the most helpful guys who explained how van electrics work and what we needed. Then…they said they wouldn’t be able to do the work for another 3 weeks…gah! We kept pleading and, with a little help from a little green dress (or perhaps because they also were kitesurfers?!), we managed to convince them to install an external power source so we can plug Murphy into the mains when available. After an hour or so, our van was bolstered up and with renewed hope we headed to Verona.

We bid farewell to the (adopted) Motherland with a degree of sadness. Four months isn’t enough to linger in all of the beautiful places we have encountered so far. We hit the road, excited about the treasures that lay ahead, and settled in for a long (if leisurely) haul south to Italy.

Austria’s Alps beautiful slopes soon banished any sense of melancholy. We had planned to pass straight through, but catching a glimpse the lake of Wortersee from the main road (and after a brief run in with the local constabulary for an incorrectly displayed vignette :/) we decided to stop and, at least, scout it out….which quickly morphed into an unplanned 2-day stopover! Crystal-clear emerald lakes fringed with villas, private jetties and small marinas combined with mountainous backdrops – the raw jaw-dropping beauty and understated sophistication of this place didn’t let us leave in haste.

Exploring the medieval castle (complete with resident vultures), we took in the scenic panaromas and watched the paragliders’ spiral diving down from the launch sites high above. Rupert’s paraglider had been abandoned in the UK due to lack of space. Something of a sore point.

After a second day spent paddling the shoreline and another lakeside lunch at the “Baad Sag” beach club we decided to press on with the certain resolve that we will be back here.

Passing through Vienna, the burden of having to find a new place to stopover everyday was starting to bite. After Google maps directed us to several camping shops (facilities somewhat lacking) we found a city campsite on the fringe of the Austrian capital. The sub-par facilities were gratefully offset by a popup restaurant operating out of the film studio in the adjacent industrial estate, owned by two young chef brothers. A surprisingly delightful dinner of raspberry-infused gazpacho soup, melting beef carpaccio and deep-fried local cheeses (note: in the context of The Bond Voyage, cheese is definitely its own food-group) was not enough to sway us to stay another night and explore Vienna itself. That we will save for a weekend break. *note scribbled in our scrap book*

Slovenia, much like Austria, was something of a surprise – one night nestled between the mountains with a wealth of mountain biking and hiking. The disappointment of Poland’s Euro 2016 defeat at the hands of Portugal (especially after Poland went ahead after 90 seconds) gave us the excuse we needed to pass on staying longer.

Now 10 days since we had been on the road, it was around this time that we decided that densely packed camping sites filled with huge motorhomes and speedo-wearing dads wasn’t what we had imagined, and not the experience / lasting memories that we are after (more on this later).

Feeling slightly saturated by mountains as our backdrop (how spoilt this sounds!) we set our sights on the Adriatic seaside town of Grado, Italy. Passing Roman ruins along the way we arrived excited to have our first glimpse of the sea since leaving the UK. Grado’s old-town is picturesque enough, although the main street is dominated by restaurants catering to the thousands of holiday-makers.

With the ‘autocamper’ parking areas resembling a trailer park (complete with hoards of bicycle-gang pesky kids), we again headed (somewhat trepidly) to the nearest beach-front campsite. An army of wall-to-wall motorhomes and excited mosquitos greeted us once again but we settled in. Despite the ongoing disappointment of campsite offerings (high season on the Italian coast is seething with people) the glassy sea offered spectacular scenery for an evening stroll and was very tranquil once the thousands of loungers on the beach had emptied.

After one tumultuous evening plagued by bike-riding children, manoeuvring caravans, ravenous mosquitos and the now obligatory near-naked middle aged men, we resolved to start afresh and seek out quieter, more remote areas.

Back to the mountains then 🙂

As we pass through each country on our Bond Voyage, we plan to post a list of reflections on that country. Nothing too serious, just a bit of banter.

Here’s one about Poland (slightly biased perhaps due to our family connections!):

1. People love to cut grass. Be it lawnmower or strimmer – you name it – the summer air is filled with mechanical buzz of people lovingly tending to their lawns.
2. You can actually watch the grass growing. Up to 1 cm a day. See point 1.
3. There are LOADS of churches. SJB’s hometown of Lomza actually has the highest number per capita in Poland.
4. They are still building more churches.
5. As a rule, the food is incredible. It’s an offence for a Pole if you don’t overeat at their table. It’s also very cheap and the portions are huge.
6. The summer weather is blissful and balmy 30 degree dry heat.
7. Roads can be terrible, as can driving etiquette.
8. The country is vast. If you think you can drive through it in a day, think twice and pack for a week.
9. There are actually long-haired hippies hidden in the south-eastern mountains – Bieszczady.
10. There’s loads to see and do – if you want to beat the British June blues, just book a flight and go… (driving from London takes about 2 days).

 

 

We descended onto Krakow for the weekend of – what turned out to be – Wianki music and Jewish Festivals. We took up an apartment in the Jewish quarter as a base for the weekend to relax and wash our muddy clothes (and faces).

Krakow was struck by a heatwave of 38 degrees Celsius that weekend and our pre-war apartment  turned into an oven. We found some pastimes, however, to relieve the diabolical heat.

First night we spent at Wianki festival – a “celebration of music”. Wianki in Polish means flower crowns and there were a lot of girls wearing them which added to the magic. We saw Fisz (Polish rapper), Swietliki and Grzegorz Turnau on 3 different stages in the old town. The atmosphere resembled that of a Notting Hill Festival.

We really had high hopes for Krakow but it somewhat disappointed us. It was very touristy and the whole city seemed geared towards that only, including the once-revered and cool Jewish Quarter. We did catch a great gig of a Yiddish music trio in the High Synagogue, though and gorged ourselves on Jewish delicacies (note: wasn’t as good as Jewish food in Kazimierz).

On Sunday we also visited Wawel – Royal Castle and a burial ground of Polish kings and onMonday visited the Salt mine in Wieliczka.

Both impressive though very busy and packed with tourists from all over the world. Most impressive was the underground cathedral cavern carved by the miners entirely out of the rock salt 100 metres underground. Yes. Really.

It was time to leave Poland and head for the Med.