Wednesday 28th August 2013 – Kastraki, Greece

With the clocks put forward another hour, we were up at 05:30 and only half awake when we disembarked at Igoumenista just after 06:00. We wanted to take the old road rather than the new motorway to Yannina but they don't signpost it. We guessed the direction and were able to get further directions when we filled up with fuel. If you want to do it, turn left out of the port and head north along the coast, past the archaeological museum and eventually a road sign confirms the E90/E92 to Yannina. It is a very pretty route and in good condition. We were able to find a spot with a lovely mountain view to have breakfast and watch the sun gradually light the scene as it rose over the mountain behind us.

After a quick supermarket stop in Yannina, we again took the old road (E90/E92) towards Trikala. This was not such a good idea. The motorway has been open for some years now and the maintenance of the windy old road has been sadly neglected. We called in very briefly at Metsovo, a very traditional Greek mountain village that has always been a tourist resort but has become much more visited since the new motorway made access much easier. It is popular in the Summer as a cool (temperature) resort and in the Winter as a cool (temperature and fashion-wise) skiing resort. It was in Metsovo many years ago that we saw a traditional wood-fired bakers (Fournos) still in operation. Once the bread had been cooked, the villagers arrived with all sorts of food prepared in traditional large round open tins covered with a cloth. They carried the tins balanced on their heads and passed them over to the baker who placed them in the oven to cook using the heat remaining from the bake. A very green, ecologically-sound method of energy conservation practised well before this became fashionable. Now, I know what you are thinking, Martin but be approaching 100 years old, but I can assure you that we saw this less than 30 years ago. It was this that inspired me, many years later, to build a wood-fired oven in my back garden and to start baking bread for friends. I often use the residual heat to cook food, sometimes in one of those traditional round Greek tins. We have been back to Metsovo a number of times since and on the first return visit the traditional Fournos had closed. Now it is a tourist gift shop but it still retains its, rather faded, 'Fournos' sign.

Returning to the old road we continued towards Trikala and the road was in an even poorer state of repair with a landslip blocking two-thirds of the road at one point and no attempt had been made to clear it. By the time we approached Korydallos we had only seen one car travelling in the opposite direction and nobody followed us and then we saw why. Across the opposite carriageway was a road block showing 'STOP' and a no-entry sign! There certainly wasn't anything indicating a road closure at the Metsovo end, honest officer! At this point there is a T-junction with the motorway in one direction and Trikala/Kalambaka in the other direction. We took the latter and soon arrived at our destination – Kastraki and the fascinating Meteora one of our favourite places in Greece. Here giant rock formations, some over 400m high, thrust out of the plain and in the 10^th Century these attracted hermits who built cells in caves or on the tops of the peaks. By the 14^th Century this had developed into monastic communities with monasteries perched on the rocks and only accessible by using rope nets winched up the cliffs. This is a beautiful area with a wealth of history and architecture and well worth a visit if you can make it. For more details and photographs, see earlier entries in the Henrietta Hobby Blog - 21^st April 2011(Greek Easter) and 20^th May 2008 (part of our 14-month Odyssey).

We found a well-shaded pitch (it was 35°C when we arrived) and had a late lunch. We then discovered that the Italian weather pattern was repeated here – cloud building in the afternoon followed by a thunderstorm although we found out later that it was their first rain since July. The barbecue is cancelled, it is courgette omelette for dinner!

I wasn't going to include any photos of Meteora because I have put them in before but I went for a walk and the light was so good after the storm that I had to include some.

P.S. If you are travelling this route, I would suggest travelling on the old road to Yannina and then using the motorway until the junction for Trikala/Kalambaka(/Korydallos?).

Photos: Rocks tower over the village of Kastraki – there are three monasteries in the picture but you will find it difficult to spot them; A long view of one of the rocks with hermits' caves and monastery (recently restored) below; A closer view of the hermits caves and monastery – note the ladders used for access to and between the caves; One of the two tortoises that I encountered on the walk.

Tuesday 27th August 2013 – Superfast XI, Italy / Greece

An early start to go to the first aire to dump and fill before heading for the ferry at Ancona. Instead of believing the sat nav, we foolishly decided to follow the very clear signs to Ancona via the Autostrada. We realised too late that, instead of taking the obvious route directly south on the E55 to join the motorway, we were directed north and then west, adding about 45 minutes to the journey! It was a good job that we had allowed plenty of time.

When we boarded we were pleased to find that we were put on the open part of the deck rather than under the superstructure. It has been very warm in the last few days and we were looking forward to enjoying the breeze as we were sailing. However, before we sailed it was very hot in the full sun.

After lunch and a tour of the ship, which in contrast to the poorest P&O ferry that we had ever been on, turned out to be the best Greek ferry that we had ever travelled on. Very well furnished, lovely lounges and restaurants and very smart staff. Superfast Ferries and particularly the Superfast XI get our vote.

I purchased some wifi credit and caught up with emails whilst Jane returned to Henrietta. This turned out to be fortuitous as just as she arrived it started to rain and both roof windows were open. By the time I arrived, it was pouring and the deck was awash. Then the thunder and lightening started!

It was still raining after we had finished dinner but we picked a time of slightly lighter rain to run to the door to the upper decks. It has become a tradition for us to have an ouzo on the ferry over to Greece, so we went into the very smart stern bar and were entertained by a spectacular, continuous lightening display that often lit the sea to the horizon. When we attempted to return to the motorhome, the deck door opened to display a torrential downpour and a couple of inches of water on the deck. We went for another brief tour and fortunately the rain had abated slightly so that we only got wet and not drenched during the 15 metre dash to Henrietta.

We went to sleep with the rocking motion of the ship, the throbbing of the engines, the patter of rain on the roof and flashes from the lightening. We woke in the middle of the night to the most tremendous clap of thunder above the ship and a waterfall of rain on the roof. In all the storm must have gone on for more than 9 hours.

Photos: Leaving Ancona for Greece – Henrietta is the Hobby motorhome on the open deck.

Monday 26th August 2013 – Ravenna, Italy

What a lovely city! And full of history with no less than eight UNESCO World Herritage Monuments. A single €9.50 ticket allows access to five of the sites whilst another is free so we had our day planned. Revenna city centre is very compact and, as it was only a 20 minute walk in, it was easy to see all of the sites in one day. The Tourist Information Centre map was excellent, showing all of the sites in the city and allowing us to plot a route between the UNESCO sites that included other interesting locations.

Every site had amazing 5^th and 6^th Century mosaics of incredible quality but my favourite was the Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo. It is famous for its mosaic of the Three Wise Men but there is so much more and all as vibrant as the day they were made.

It wasn't just the UNESCO sites, the whole city is intriguing and we could have spent much longer wandering around the streets.

The sightseeing was interrupted by a very welcome break at lunch time for a pizza – we couldn't leave Italy without having had one!

Ravenna is on the list for a possible stop on the way home – there is much more to see!

Photos: On our journey yesterday we saw two church towers that were definitely not straight and this we named 'The Leaning Tower of Ravenna' – we are beginning to think that the Italians don't understand how to construct foundations!; The Three Wise Men mosaic.

Sunday 25th August 2013 – Ravenna, Italy

Driving on a Sunday morning in Italy is a delight. Up until mid-afternoon the Italians seem to be at church or with their families for Sunday lunch as the roads are quiet and the town and village streets deserted. We drove through pretty villages and past ancient farms until we arrived at that giant of a river – the Po. A vital trade route for millennia, the Po also poses a risk to the local inhabitants with serious flooding having occurred on many occasions. As a result, the Italians have built massive banks to keep the water from the surrounding land. In 2011 we stayed on an aire on the flood defences overlooking the Po. It was a lovely position and we really enjoyed our stay so, as it was now time for lunch, we decided to see if we could find a picnic spot. Just outside Melara we took a road straight up the bank following a sign to a car park. This turned out to be just over the other side of the bank and held a large number of picnic tables, two barbecue emplacements and a large number of cats. A larger number of cats than you would expect to find in the middle of nowhere!

It turned out that a local charity had set up a refuge for abandoned cats. It was very well organised with two sheds as living accommodation and plenty of food in evidence. The cats looked very well fed and healthy and did not pester us at all while we ate. Signs in many languages told us that the adults were sterilised to ensure that they were not overrun with more cats!

On again until we reached the city of Ravenna, full of history and interest, we hoped!

There are a number of motorhome aires in the city and we found the first one that had water and dumping facilities. It was however on a one-way system and was obviously going to be quite noisy on weekday mornings and evenings. We parked up and set off on foot to find another aire that was very close. Failing miserably, Jane spotted a Tourist Information Office next to the Mausoleum of Theodorico and we asked about the aires. The staff were very helpful, telling us all about the best sites in the city and also about the different aires. It turned out that the second aire that we were trying to find was just behind the office and was in a very quiet position. We picked up Henrietta and headed to the new aire.

We were told of a few restaurants by the tourist office lady and chose one slightly out of the centre and about 10 – 15 minutes walk from the aire. The Ristorante Pizzeria Naif was an excellent choice. They offered a tasting plate with melon & ham, skewers of prawns & baby squid, lasagne, roast pork and vegetables. They were simple dishes but wonderfully flavoured and together with some of their house wine, it was just what we wanted – a real taste of Italy.

Photos: The picnic site on the River Po taken from the road along the flood-prevention bank; A view of the Po from the picnic site – people were sunbathing on the beach on the opposite bank and the large sign is to inform people cruising on the river that there is a tourist attraction in 500m!

Saturday 24th August 2013 – Travagliato, Italy

We were expecting this to be the longest driving day of the journey to Ancona. After a quick visit to the market that was still setting up in the car park next to the aire, we set off for motorway just north of Mulhouse that took us over the Rhine and into Germany. Just a short drive down the east bank of the river and by 09:30 we were at the Swiss border at Basle. Here we bought the vignette that allowed us to drive on the Swiss motorways for a year - €40 (£35) with 6 Swiss Francs change. We realised just as we were passing it that the last motorway service station in Germany sold the vignettes and we suspect that there we would have been able to buy one for an exact Euro amount rather than getting change in Swiss Francs.

Compared to France, the Swiss motorways were quite busy but trouble-free and we soon started to see a change to alpine scenery with snow-capped mountains and near-vertical fields. The route took us past the very pretty Lake Lucerne and we were soon approaching the Gotthard Tunnel. Very early in Switzerland we had seen signs telling us that there were 5 km queues for the tunnel and this was still the case when we approached. The Swiss control the cars going into the tunnel in an attempt to avoid stationery traffic and traffic lights allow only 20 or 30 vehicles at a time. We played cat and mouse with a British open-top sports car in the next lane but, to mix the metaphors, the tortoise won and we left the hare behind us when we entered the 17km of tunnel. The temperature in the tunnel gets very high - today it reached over 39°C and 34°C inside the van. Together with safety and fumes, this is one of the reasons for stationary queues in the tunnel but we still found ourselves in one. It was a relief to reach the daylight and to open the windows to let in some fresh air. I should think that it was quite unpleasant in that open-top sports car in the tunnel especially when we came to a halt.

A very long descent took us down to the bottom of Lake Maggiore and the Italian border. Then it was on to Lake Como and here we left the motorway to head across country. Actually, country is not the correct word. I had forgotten how urbanised the area around the lakes is. Towns and villages run into each other without any glimpse of countryside. It appears that the Italians have caught the French Roundabout Disease and we must have negotiated 10 in the space of 5 miles that our, admittedly old, sat nav did not know about. They seemed to want to make some more artistic than the boring round shape, so they had built them in an elongated oval shape with extra scalloped edges. Pretty they might have been but it made them much more confusing to navigate. There is something to be said for boring when it comes to roundabouts!

We had picked out the south-west shore of Lake Iseo as a suitable stopover. There were two aires shown on our Italian aires book and one campsite – ideal. However, one aire (a car park) no longer accepted motorhomes and an official 'sosta di camper' (motorhome aire that charges a fee) has turned into a lido. Furthermore, the campsite no longer existed. The book showed some other possibilities over the other side of the lake but we knew that we could hit the same problem there so we decided to head in land to an aire in an area unlikely to be popular.

The aire at Travagliato (S.W. Of Brescia) is very basic but it does have water and dumping facilities and is quiet.

It had been hot and humid all day with the mountains shrouded in thick haze but the humidity increased after we arrived at the aire and the sky got blacker and blacker. We knew what was coming and we weren't disappointed. A massive and very long thunderstorm followed and the van was rocked by the very strong winds. The rain lashed down, the lightening was spectacular and van trembled with the vibrations of the thunder. And it got cooler – lovely!

Photos: One of the baker's stands in Thann market. The large loaf weighs about 12 kg and took 1 hour 30 minutes to cook in a wood-fired oven. We bought a loaf of their Pain Ordinaire which was anything but ordinary – it was excellent!

Friday 23rd August 2013 – Thann, France

Still on the plains of Haut-Sommes long straight roads passed huge border-less fields. Roman roads then a fenced in field with the Mediaeval ridge and furrow pattern – a preserved field?? When we first came to France there were only a very few roundabouts – all 'priorite a droit' when anything approaching from the right had priority. Then the French decided to adopt the British roundabout and, with the zealousness of the converted, they put them everywhere even in the most rural of locations where the chances of two vehicles approaching within the same minute is extremely slim. It was therefore a delight when the Sat Nav announced “continue for 50km” which meant that there were no turnings and no roundabouts for a whole 30 miles!

There were two more archaeological sites on our route both near Naix-aux-Forges. We couldn't find the first but managed to find the second although wished we hadn't! It turned out to be 1.5 km along a stone track, including a section up a steep hill. It was another Celtic oppidum and the site that we couldn't find was, probably, a more interesting Roman temple however it was a long walk to the site and we didn't have time to visit it.

With Henrietta no worse for her stone-track experience, we ploughed on using the smoother asphalt of a proper road.

We arrived at the pretty town of Thann on the River Thur where we parked up in the aire next to the river. We had time to explore the town and to chat to our British neighbours, Simon and Julie. They are from Devon and run an unusual business – Legionnaire's Disease Prevention.

Photos: A unique War Memorial in the very small village of Naives-en-Blois, carved in stone it shows a soldier looking out over the sandbags of a WWI trench; Houses on the River Thur in Thann.

Thursday 22nd August 2013 – La Cheppe, France

Most of the day was spent on quiet, die-straight roads (often of Roman creation) through intensively-farmed countryside. Round bales littered the fields like a giant's game of bowls whilst other fields boasted massive straw buildings made of traditional rectangular bales.

I had noted an archaeological site called 'Attila's Camp' close to the Roman road on our route and we decided to investigate. It turned out that there was also an aire at the site and, as it was late in the afternoon and not far from our planned stopping place, we decided to join the one other motorhome at the aire. We had enough time to investigate the site and discovered that it had been misnamed by some over-romantic 17^th Century historians. It was actually a fortified oppidum (meeting or market place) built in the 1^st Century BC. By 850 AD it had become the most important fortified camp of the Catalaunes Celtic tribe. A double bank and ditch surrounded a huge area but, except for the ditch and inner bank there is nothing else to see. However it gave us some much needed exercise after the long drive and, in the lovely warm and sunny weather, it was a lovely walk around the bank.

Photos: Attila's Camp - a view from the inner bank over the ditch to some of those huge straw bale buildings.

Wednesday 21st August 2013 – Lumbres, France

It was an easy journey from Somerset to Dover to catch the P&O ferry. We were unlucky to catch one of the older ships and it had the smelliest and dirtiest toilets that we have ever had on P&O. That said, although the furnishings were a little tired, the journey was comfortable.

As we often do, we chose to stop for the night at the aire in the Leclerc hypermarket in Lumbres, close to St. Omer. We arrived 10 minutes before it closed – just enough time to buy supplies for our dinner.

The spot that we always park in gives us views over a pastoral scene of trees and woodland but it is harvest time. As dusk fell, amber flashing lights showed the positions of farm vehicles heading on the roads to and from the farms. In the middle distance a cloud of dust hovers above a combine harvester and as darkness falls, we watch the headlights of the harvester and accompanying tractor as they track up and down the field.

Henrietta Hobby sojourn to Turkey in Autumn 2013

We have wanted to travel to Turkey in our motorhome (Henrietta) for some time and are looking forward to our longest journey since our 14 month European Odyssey in 2007/8.

The trip will take us through France and Switzerland to the Italian port of Ancona. Here we will catch a ferry to Greece and, after visiting my brother and sister-in-law for a few days on the Greek island of Skopelos, we will head into Turkey.