Another Euro road trip thread - picture heavy
Discussion
Picture and text heavy as I appear to have got a little carried away and written a short novel!
Following on from my thread on last year's road trip, here's one on my trip this year. Similar but different countries and a few more miles. Bringing the poor little Aygo to just shy of 70,000 miles weeks after its 2nd birthday.
Started off as per usual on the Eurotunnel in the small hours of the morning
IMG_0153 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
The first day saw us heading down the autoroute and into Germany and the Black Forest - a place that has made me appreciate the beauty of rural Germany. Prior to this, I'd only ever driven through Germany really and effectively saw it as an autobahn.
IMG_0159 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0163 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
The next day saw us leaving early for Liechtenstein, going over some mountain passes including the Stelvio and arriving in Venice late that evening. I was pleasantly surprised to experience Stelvio with little tourist traffic as I have memories of sitting in a steady stream of people carriers with roof boxes on my last visit.
IMG_0169 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0172 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
From Venice, we headed along the coast towards Bosnia and Herzegovina. Stopping by in Trieste and some coastal towns in Slovenia before heading over the mountains into Croatia and on towards the border with Bosnia spending the night in the first town over the border.
IMG_0176 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
Croatia became more and more sparsely populated as we neared the Bosnian border and the architecture took a change towards a lot of ruins and houses which appeared habited yet unfinished with windows missing, this continued well into Bosnia.
IMG_0177 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We also had a disused airbase marked on a map as a place to see and stopped by but encountered a police van guarding a bunker we wanted to visit hence we didn't see as much of this as we'd have liked to.
IMG_0178 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0179 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0184 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
The following day saw us heading through a little more of Bosnia and real poverty started to show in places. This was also the first day the OH began to moan at the amount of pictures I appeared to be taking of houses in various states of decay.
IMG_0197 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0207 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0216 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0240 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We then proceeded to head back over the hills into Croatia. This took two border attempts as we were turned around at one border having been told it was for local passport holders only, which you wouldn't have guessed judging by rather recent looking road.
IMG_0254 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
Croatia allowed us to get back onto a motorway with the hope of passing through Dubrovnik and reaching Montenegro by nightfall.
IMG_0275 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
This Porsche parked across from us in the centre of Dubrovnik and we later saw the same car in Montenegro and later Albania. I did wonder if its a PHer on a road trip or a stolen car making its way to Albania.
IMG_0274 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
The border crossing took longer than anticipated that evening so it was dark by the time we entered Montenegro. We spent the night in the car at a petrol station, awoken by two men inflating all 4 tyres and washing their car with the little water nozzle at 1am and then by a policeman who seemed keen to charm the blonde petrol station employee - they were still outside when we woke 4 hours later.
We took a mountain road over Montenegro but didn't see as much as we'd liked of Montenegro as we had no roaming and spent most of our time there lost whenever we ignored the sat nav and turned off into a town to look for anything really! Montenegro showed signs of development in progress mainly with resurfacing roads. Whereby you could happily do 100kph on a fresh stretch and suddenly have to emergency brake as they hadn't quite finished and you were suddenly on an unpaved track.
IMG_0282 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0285 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0289 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We reached Albania the same day, having started the day in Montenegro rather early. Albania was a step back in time again and we were welcomed by goat farmers and plenty of 124 series Mercedes - including the learners. Driving standards also began to deteriorate but it worked quite well once I adjusted to the sheer chaos - especially in an urban setting. We left Albania having realised we didn't take many pictures as I think we were simply in awe of the change in culture from what we were used to/had seen thus far. Housing was however similar to what we were by now used to with plenty of derelict ruins littering the landscape.
IMG_0304 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0308 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0310 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
Note the stripped Mercedes shell in the above photo.
IMG_0315 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0318 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We crossed into Greece in the evening, welcomed by goat farmers yet again, and stayed in a remote town in the mountains - the only town for miles around and it had plenty of charm.
IMG_0324 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0328 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0332 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We then made some progress through Greece and ended up in Thessaloniki for the night, partly because it was late and partly because the trots had immobilised us somewhat for the night.
IMG_0341 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0345 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
FullSizeRender by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0362 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0371 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
A typically Greek service station
IMG_0380 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
A typically Greek goat farm
The next day saw us pushing on for what was going to be the most easterly point for this year's road trip. This part of the trip came with a minor hiccup but more on that later.
IMG_0383 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0384 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0389 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0391 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0397 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We made it to Kilibahir where we intended to take the ferry over to Cannakle and onwards through Bursa to Istanbul and through Bulgaria and Romania, potentially going through Moldova and Ukraine.
We didn't really enjoy the culture in Turkey. We didn't enjoy the people who crowded us as the only foreign car at traffic lights and persistently banged on windows trying to sell their lovely bells and souvenirs. We didn't enjoy the child who started throwing water at the car when we said no to his window washing. Nor did we enjoy the unpleasant stares from every passing car or the man who threw a strop after washing our windows at a petrol station after we went in and paid in the shop - presumably he expected a tip of sorts.
We made the decision to abandon going further into Turkey and turned around and headed back for Greece as the nearest border - the border we crossed earlier that day.
We reached the border in the evening and after a short wait reached passport control and went through without a hiccup. We proceeded to the customs booth who requested passports and car documents - this they were provided with. We were asked where we'd been, as is usual, we pointed to where it was on the map as we couldn't remember the name of the town. We were asked to pull up on the left past the customs office.
The customs officer then proceeded to tell us to empty the car and handed back our passports. He then proceeded to ask for our car documents and wouldn't take the answer of "you have them". We then went back and forth with him asking for them and us telling him that he had them. In between chain smoking and blowing cigarette smoke at us, he made a half arsed attempt to search through the customs booth before concluding "we give them back".
We were then made to wait for around half an hour, with all our luggage on a bench between passport control and customs. The customs officer then told me to "go right behind truck". Rather confused by what this meant and not speaking Turkish, he got in the passenger seat and guided where I had to go. Leaving the OH standing there with all our things between the two booths. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit petrified at this stage. It then dawned on me that their intentions were to X-Ray the car.
After the X-Ray, another officer proceeded to rip up the back seat and carpet in the car, breaking clips in the process, before asking if I was an English student, confirming I had no drugs or alcohol, smirking and saying I was free to leave.
IMG_0401 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We repacked the car, at this point I was expecting our V5 to miraculously reappear but no. After asking several more times all we got was a "we give them back" and to pack our things and go. Realising this was getting nowhere, we attempted to call the embassy but as it was out of hours, and we really wanted to get out of there, we proceeded to the Greek border. We handed over a photocopy of the V5 - as this was all we had - the border official simply said "I do not believe this" to our story, laughed, and let us go.
I don't know if this was a one off or what they'd get from our V5 but a Google showed no other instances of this and all the hotels back in Greece were surprised to hear of our story.
We stayed in a spa hotel as a bit of a treat and proceeded to Thessaloniki to wait for our replacement V5. This was ordered on Monday, was at our home address on Thursday and at the hotel in Thessaloniki on Friday thanks to UPS.
We spent a few days around Thessaloniki, mainly lounging by pools and seeing the sights. It has left me wanting a crunchie again as they were still used as daily transport by the locals and were everywhere. We are still peeling from the sunburn from sitting around. We made the decision to take the ferry overnight to Italy and change our plans as we were a little fed up of that particular part of the world and were no longer that keen on seeing Bulgaria and Romania on that occasion.
IMG_0432 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0426 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0420 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
On Friday afternoon we left Thessaloniki for Igoumenitsa and took the overnight ferry to Brindisi - an experience in itself! With the ferry docking feet away from where we were parked and people making makeshift beds in every corner of the floor on the ferry. After some delays we left at 4am and arrived in Brindisi at noon the following day. We spent an hour waiting for authorisation from the port alone as we came in far later than expected due to the late departure.
IMG_0445 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
On arrival in Italy on Saturday, we debated going over to Sicily but decided to instead head up the west coast, first stopping by in Craco which was found by the OH on Pinterest or some other social media. I was surprised by the amount of Pandas - new and old everywhere - the only part I've really seen of Italy so far has been no more south than Venice really so it did actually make sense to do this on this trip seeing as we were level with the south of Italy anyway.
IMG_0450 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0451 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We didn't manage to gain entry into Craco as there is a charge but nowhere seemed opened to take our money and the gates seemed only open for the local resident donkeys.
On the descend down the mountain we were greeted by more goats. Actually. Nearly crashed into a herd of goats as they were being led round a blind bend. Quite convenient as I've always wanted a rural snap of the car with a herd of goats.
IMG_0455 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0457 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0457 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
Yet again, we seem to have not taken that many photos until we reached the Amalfi coast. Which greeted us with wild fires and many road closures meaning we came very close to running out of fuel as there seemed to be a road closure on the way to every petrol station. In the end, we headed back over the mountains, not completing the Amalfi coast loop and taking a more main road down to Sorrento.
IMG_0466 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0476 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0480 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
The next stop was Naples, which I expected to be rather touristy and scenic but from what we saw was a bit of a s
t hole. Maybe we came through at the wrong time. A fire from Vesuvius was somewhat alarming but an accidental check of the news suggested it was the Mafia starting wildfires - nice!
IMG_0481 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We then proceeded to Pompeii - far larger than we'd anticipated. Dodged a rip off merchant who directed us to a carpark signposted "free" off the main road outside. After parking up and walking to the top of the drive, he asked for €15 and would provide us with a map and a guidebook. I said we'll be okay and asked to pay for just parking - to this he replied €10. I said no thank you, we'll park elsewhere. He was adamant parking is expensive at €4/hour and tried to sell his parking to me at €7 and €5 but I politely declined and left. Cue I imagine some expletives under his breath in Italian. We later found parking in the street for €4 for about 3/4 hours and got the same guidebook and map in the ticket price for Pompeii.
There are too many photos from Pompeii to put up on here and I imagine everyone takes the same ones but if there's interest I will upload mine to Flickr.
IMG_0482 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0538 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
The next day we made our way north towards Rome, taking in Vatican City whilst there. Finding out about the ZLT zones in Italy moments before on a Google search by accident.
IMG_0548 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0552 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
First time I've seen a Twizy on the road, plenty of them all around the cities there.
IMG_0554 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
The next day saw us in Florence and Pisa, again not many photos as I think we were busy simply taking in the sights.
IMG_0554 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr 
IMG_0557 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
We were both surprised by how small Pisa was and how the square seemed like the only tourist attraction there.
IMG_0558 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
IMG_0559 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
The last stop was Portofino for dinner before heading back home the next day over the mountains again. We did the Great Saint Bernard Pass but for some reason I am lacking pictures of this.
IMG_0560 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
That sums it up, until next year.
Following on from my thread on last year's road trip, here's one on my trip this year. Similar but different countries and a few more miles. Bringing the poor little Aygo to just shy of 70,000 miles weeks after its 2nd birthday.
Started off as per usual on the Eurotunnel in the small hours of the morning
IMG_0153 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThe first day saw us heading down the autoroute and into Germany and the Black Forest - a place that has made me appreciate the beauty of rural Germany. Prior to this, I'd only ever driven through Germany really and effectively saw it as an autobahn.
IMG_0159 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0163 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThe next day saw us leaving early for Liechtenstein, going over some mountain passes including the Stelvio and arriving in Venice late that evening. I was pleasantly surprised to experience Stelvio with little tourist traffic as I have memories of sitting in a steady stream of people carriers with roof boxes on my last visit.
IMG_0169 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0172 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrFrom Venice, we headed along the coast towards Bosnia and Herzegovina. Stopping by in Trieste and some coastal towns in Slovenia before heading over the mountains into Croatia and on towards the border with Bosnia spending the night in the first town over the border.
IMG_0176 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrCroatia became more and more sparsely populated as we neared the Bosnian border and the architecture took a change towards a lot of ruins and houses which appeared habited yet unfinished with windows missing, this continued well into Bosnia.
IMG_0177 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe also had a disused airbase marked on a map as a place to see and stopped by but encountered a police van guarding a bunker we wanted to visit hence we didn't see as much of this as we'd have liked to.
IMG_0178 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0179 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0184 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThe following day saw us heading through a little more of Bosnia and real poverty started to show in places. This was also the first day the OH began to moan at the amount of pictures I appeared to be taking of houses in various states of decay.
IMG_0197 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0207 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0216 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0240 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe then proceeded to head back over the hills into Croatia. This took two border attempts as we were turned around at one border having been told it was for local passport holders only, which you wouldn't have guessed judging by rather recent looking road.
IMG_0254 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrCroatia allowed us to get back onto a motorway with the hope of passing through Dubrovnik and reaching Montenegro by nightfall.
IMG_0275 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThis Porsche parked across from us in the centre of Dubrovnik and we later saw the same car in Montenegro and later Albania. I did wonder if its a PHer on a road trip or a stolen car making its way to Albania.
IMG_0274 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThe border crossing took longer than anticipated that evening so it was dark by the time we entered Montenegro. We spent the night in the car at a petrol station, awoken by two men inflating all 4 tyres and washing their car with the little water nozzle at 1am and then by a policeman who seemed keen to charm the blonde petrol station employee - they were still outside when we woke 4 hours later.
We took a mountain road over Montenegro but didn't see as much as we'd liked of Montenegro as we had no roaming and spent most of our time there lost whenever we ignored the sat nav and turned off into a town to look for anything really! Montenegro showed signs of development in progress mainly with resurfacing roads. Whereby you could happily do 100kph on a fresh stretch and suddenly have to emergency brake as they hadn't quite finished and you were suddenly on an unpaved track.
IMG_0282 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0285 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0289 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe reached Albania the same day, having started the day in Montenegro rather early. Albania was a step back in time again and we were welcomed by goat farmers and plenty of 124 series Mercedes - including the learners. Driving standards also began to deteriorate but it worked quite well once I adjusted to the sheer chaos - especially in an urban setting. We left Albania having realised we didn't take many pictures as I think we were simply in awe of the change in culture from what we were used to/had seen thus far. Housing was however similar to what we were by now used to with plenty of derelict ruins littering the landscape.
IMG_0304 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0308 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0310 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrNote the stripped Mercedes shell in the above photo.
IMG_0315 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0318 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe crossed into Greece in the evening, welcomed by goat farmers yet again, and stayed in a remote town in the mountains - the only town for miles around and it had plenty of charm.
IMG_0324 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0328 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0332 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe then made some progress through Greece and ended up in Thessaloniki for the night, partly because it was late and partly because the trots had immobilised us somewhat for the night.
IMG_0341 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0345 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrFullSizeRender by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0362 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0371 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrA typically Greek service station
IMG_0380 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrA typically Greek goat farm
The next day saw us pushing on for what was going to be the most easterly point for this year's road trip. This part of the trip came with a minor hiccup but more on that later.
IMG_0383 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0384 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0389 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0391 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0397 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe made it to Kilibahir where we intended to take the ferry over to Cannakle and onwards through Bursa to Istanbul and through Bulgaria and Romania, potentially going through Moldova and Ukraine.
We didn't really enjoy the culture in Turkey. We didn't enjoy the people who crowded us as the only foreign car at traffic lights and persistently banged on windows trying to sell their lovely bells and souvenirs. We didn't enjoy the child who started throwing water at the car when we said no to his window washing. Nor did we enjoy the unpleasant stares from every passing car or the man who threw a strop after washing our windows at a petrol station after we went in and paid in the shop - presumably he expected a tip of sorts.
We made the decision to abandon going further into Turkey and turned around and headed back for Greece as the nearest border - the border we crossed earlier that day.
We reached the border in the evening and after a short wait reached passport control and went through without a hiccup. We proceeded to the customs booth who requested passports and car documents - this they were provided with. We were asked where we'd been, as is usual, we pointed to where it was on the map as we couldn't remember the name of the town. We were asked to pull up on the left past the customs office.
The customs officer then proceeded to tell us to empty the car and handed back our passports. He then proceeded to ask for our car documents and wouldn't take the answer of "you have them". We then went back and forth with him asking for them and us telling him that he had them. In between chain smoking and blowing cigarette smoke at us, he made a half arsed attempt to search through the customs booth before concluding "we give them back".
We were then made to wait for around half an hour, with all our luggage on a bench between passport control and customs. The customs officer then told me to "go right behind truck". Rather confused by what this meant and not speaking Turkish, he got in the passenger seat and guided where I had to go. Leaving the OH standing there with all our things between the two booths. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit petrified at this stage. It then dawned on me that their intentions were to X-Ray the car.
After the X-Ray, another officer proceeded to rip up the back seat and carpet in the car, breaking clips in the process, before asking if I was an English student, confirming I had no drugs or alcohol, smirking and saying I was free to leave.
IMG_0401 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe repacked the car, at this point I was expecting our V5 to miraculously reappear but no. After asking several more times all we got was a "we give them back" and to pack our things and go. Realising this was getting nowhere, we attempted to call the embassy but as it was out of hours, and we really wanted to get out of there, we proceeded to the Greek border. We handed over a photocopy of the V5 - as this was all we had - the border official simply said "I do not believe this" to our story, laughed, and let us go.
I don't know if this was a one off or what they'd get from our V5 but a Google showed no other instances of this and all the hotels back in Greece were surprised to hear of our story.
We stayed in a spa hotel as a bit of a treat and proceeded to Thessaloniki to wait for our replacement V5. This was ordered on Monday, was at our home address on Thursday and at the hotel in Thessaloniki on Friday thanks to UPS.
We spent a few days around Thessaloniki, mainly lounging by pools and seeing the sights. It has left me wanting a crunchie again as they were still used as daily transport by the locals and were everywhere. We are still peeling from the sunburn from sitting around. We made the decision to take the ferry overnight to Italy and change our plans as we were a little fed up of that particular part of the world and were no longer that keen on seeing Bulgaria and Romania on that occasion.
IMG_0432 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0426 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0420 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrOn Friday afternoon we left Thessaloniki for Igoumenitsa and took the overnight ferry to Brindisi - an experience in itself! With the ferry docking feet away from where we were parked and people making makeshift beds in every corner of the floor on the ferry. After some delays we left at 4am and arrived in Brindisi at noon the following day. We spent an hour waiting for authorisation from the port alone as we came in far later than expected due to the late departure.
IMG_0445 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrOn arrival in Italy on Saturday, we debated going over to Sicily but decided to instead head up the west coast, first stopping by in Craco which was found by the OH on Pinterest or some other social media. I was surprised by the amount of Pandas - new and old everywhere - the only part I've really seen of Italy so far has been no more south than Venice really so it did actually make sense to do this on this trip seeing as we were level with the south of Italy anyway.
IMG_0450 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0451 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe didn't manage to gain entry into Craco as there is a charge but nowhere seemed opened to take our money and the gates seemed only open for the local resident donkeys.
On the descend down the mountain we were greeted by more goats. Actually. Nearly crashed into a herd of goats as they were being led round a blind bend. Quite convenient as I've always wanted a rural snap of the car with a herd of goats.
IMG_0455 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0457 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0457 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrYet again, we seem to have not taken that many photos until we reached the Amalfi coast. Which greeted us with wild fires and many road closures meaning we came very close to running out of fuel as there seemed to be a road closure on the way to every petrol station. In the end, we headed back over the mountains, not completing the Amalfi coast loop and taking a more main road down to Sorrento.
IMG_0466 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0476 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0480 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThe next stop was Naples, which I expected to be rather touristy and scenic but from what we saw was a bit of a s
t hole. Maybe we came through at the wrong time. A fire from Vesuvius was somewhat alarming but an accidental check of the news suggested it was the Mafia starting wildfires - nice!IMG_0481 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe then proceeded to Pompeii - far larger than we'd anticipated. Dodged a rip off merchant who directed us to a carpark signposted "free" off the main road outside. After parking up and walking to the top of the drive, he asked for €15 and would provide us with a map and a guidebook. I said we'll be okay and asked to pay for just parking - to this he replied €10. I said no thank you, we'll park elsewhere. He was adamant parking is expensive at €4/hour and tried to sell his parking to me at €7 and €5 but I politely declined and left. Cue I imagine some expletives under his breath in Italian. We later found parking in the street for €4 for about 3/4 hours and got the same guidebook and map in the ticket price for Pompeii.
There are too many photos from Pompeii to put up on here and I imagine everyone takes the same ones but if there's interest I will upload mine to Flickr.
IMG_0482 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0538 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThe next day we made our way north towards Rome, taking in Vatican City whilst there. Finding out about the ZLT zones in Italy moments before on a Google search by accident.
IMG_0548 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0552 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrFirst time I've seen a Twizy on the road, plenty of them all around the cities there.
IMG_0554 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThe next day saw us in Florence and Pisa, again not many photos as I think we were busy simply taking in the sights.
IMG_0554 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr IMG_0557 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrWe were both surprised by how small Pisa was and how the square seemed like the only tourist attraction there.
IMG_0558 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrIMG_0559 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThe last stop was Portofino for dinner before heading back home the next day over the mountains again. We did the Great Saint Bernard Pass but for some reason I am lacking pictures of this.
IMG_0560 by Kamil Burczyk, on FlickrThat sums it up, until next year.
One thing we learnt from last years experience was to not pre book hotels as it doesn't work very well for a trip of this scale and you find yourself unable to set the right pace with pre booking. I was especially thankful of this decision as if we'd booked for Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria as planned it may well have ruined the trip for us and financially had a hit too as most hotels don't have free cancellation close to the check in date.
We'd just drive around until we were tired or it was late and then find a hotel or kip in the car if there were showers at service stations.
We'd just drive around until we were tired or it was late and then find a hotel or kip in the car if there were showers at service stations.
I think we went through 10 countries and roughly 5000 miles.
Everyone we spoke to prior to the trip was impressed with Turkey and we have some friends with property out there. I presume they must be in a more tourist centred part perhaps - all in the south. We had intended to drive down to Antalya initially but quickly decided that's probably a little bit further than we could really be bothered to go on this particular trip. Perhaps our experience was just a one off.
Everyone we spoke to prior to the trip was impressed with Turkey and we have some friends with property out there. I presume they must be in a more tourist centred part perhaps - all in the south. We had intended to drive down to Antalya initially but quickly decided that's probably a little bit further than we could really be bothered to go on this particular trip. Perhaps our experience was just a one off.
What an amazing trip, thanks for sharing.
I'm disappointed to hear about your Turkey experience though. It's a country I visited eight years ago and had a great time, even beyond the tourist spots. We stopped for petrol and the owner invited us to stay for a cup of tea.
We have always planned to return and explore it more because it looks like a magnificent country, particularly in the centre. Maybe recent political matters have soured the mood, or maybe we just got lucky.
I'm disappointed to hear about your Turkey experience though. It's a country I visited eight years ago and had a great time, even beyond the tourist spots. We stopped for petrol and the owner invited us to stay for a cup of tea.
We have always planned to return and explore it more because it looks like a magnificent country, particularly in the centre. Maybe recent political matters have soured the mood, or maybe we just got lucky.
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