Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

I did say that snow was forecast - but I don't think anybody really believed it! 

Anyway, here's the evidence. We are only at about 900 metres, so quite a surprise to wake up and find ourselves in a Christmas card. It will melt quickly as it's quite wet snow and only about 1-2 inches.

Boris in his first snow!

Campsite

Don’t Mention the War!

We are in a brilliant campsite in the Alto Adige in the shadow of the Dolomites – but more commonly known as Süd Tirol. This bit of the world has only been a part of Italy since WW1, and it shows. The first language here is always German, rarely do we hear Italian spoken. The architecture is pure Tyrolean with a touch of Bavarian. I have to remind myself that we are still in Italy.

Local town of Seis

Austria??

The campsite itself is full of Germans. There are about 3 Swiss, 1 Austrian, 1 Italian, us, and around 300 Germans. The standard greeting is ‘Gruss Gott’, which always makes me chuckle, as I think “what’s God got to do with it? Maybe He had a hand in building the bathrooms which are the best we’ve come across in our travels so far – really luxurious. In fact the whole site is fantastic - location, staff, views, facilities – 5 star all round.

Campsite

The weather has been hit and miss – more ‘miss’ really as I was wondering if the Dolomites actually existed, being covered in clouds most of the time. One would teasingly poke its head out occasionally only to disappear again. Even the valley below would play tricks on us. We did some low level walking to neighbouring towns, etc waiting for the cloud to lift.

The walking trails here are wonderful – well signposted and easy to follow, so we have made the most of it. Day 4 we were rewarded with a fine day so took the opportunity of taking the cable car up the mountain to 1800 metres to start our walk.

The ‘Dollies’ really showed off that day – absolutely stunning scenery all around. Our 13 km walk was mostly at around 2200 metres, and being very Austrian, a café or a restaurant when you needed one.

Our high mountain walk

We stumbled on a wine and food festival in one of the towns, so naturally joined in the fun. Plenty of food and winetasting stalls, complete with oom-pah bands, lederhosen and dirndl skirts.

Band member taking time out!

The towns here are all impossibly neat, with balconies groaning under the weight of geraniums and petunias. There’s barely a leaf out of place or a deadhead to be seen. Firewood is obviously cut with a tape measure to hand.

Geraniums!!

The food is fusion Italian/German – and it kind of works. It’s not a food marriage that would normally spring to mind, but red wine risotto with speck tastes OK!

Today we did some serious wine tasting in the heart of the Alto Adige wine region. The cellar door bloke at Alois Lageder winery really knew his stuff and we must have tasted about 30 wines – such variety. Lovely cool climate Chardonnays, Pinot Blancs, Gewurtztraminer and quite a few indigenous varieties of variable appeal. Foolishly we bought a case of wine that I of course had to stuff into nooks and crannies – might never find it again.

Sadly, we leave tomorrow. The forecast is poor (snow tomorrow night), and we have been told that the Campsite at Lake Bled in Slovenia is not to be missed. It closes on October 15, so we’ll head straight there. Will spend about 10 days or so in Slovenia.

Photo of campsite bathroom entrance for Maggie!!

La Dolce Vita

Yes, we’ve been in Italy for 3 weeks, but before I rave on about it, a bit about leaving France.

We spent 4 days in the Vercors, doing some brilliant walking. This is another stunning area where we could have spent weeks. We had our last Sunday lunch in France in the tiny local village at a wonderful restaurant. Another memorable meal.

Walking in the Vercors

We crossed into Italy in a rather dramatic fashion through the Alps at Colle dell’Agnello, 2744 metres. More amazing scenery that I won’t go on about, I think you all know what the Alps looks like. I was quite excited as this was my first true alpine crossing, no boring tunnels for us.

Alps!

Half in France, half in Italy

First stop in Italy was Piemonte and the associated wine regions of Barolo, Barbaresco and the Langhe in general. We hired a smart looking Lambretta scooter, thinking it would be the very thing to zip around vineyards. Wrong! First one got a flat tyre so we missed our afternoon appointment. The second one was so ratty we feared for our life and handed it back. We did our usual trick of visiting wineries and buying too much wine, then having to stand on my head to fit it all into Boris.

Beautiful Barolo Vineyards

Wine tourism in the area is well organised and the wineries are very welcoming, happy to spend time with you, open their precious wine and show you their secrets. Being a wine geek, I took more photos of vineyards and tanks and barrels. I won’t bore you with those!

From there we drove across to Verona to meet our friend Sam who is currently travelling the world thanks to a happy redundancy. We spent most of the time at Lake Garda. After spending a few days at the southern end, we escaped the tourist hordes and headed north. Did some great walking and had an ongoing scrabble contest. Sam won as usual. In fact, I blame Sam and the scrabble for not updating the blog.

Dinner at Lake Garda with Sam. This is the campsite restaurant, slumming it as you can see.

We had to leave Boris in Brescia (not far from Verona) to get a few ‘issues’ sorted out. We needed a new fridge door, a new window and a few handles needed replacing – stuff like that. Plus some boring mechanical things to be done on the blue bit. So, instead of hanging around Brescia, we decided to head for Venice by train.

We booked the world’s most expensive, but rather dull 3 star hotel - 250 euros a night (gulp)!! Venice was booked up and that was all we could manage, but it was in a brilliant location - spitting distance to San Marco and a stone’s throw from the Rialto. The Japanese and American tourists were out in their thousands, blimey we couldn’t breathe. We did the obligatory Palazzo Ducale and from then on avoided tourist areas.  This meant I saw bits of Venice I hadn’t seen before and we had a grand time touring the back streets, finding wonderful but empty churches, and of course getting lost.

Dear Old Venice

I’d read recently in a magazine that a grower had started a vineyard in Venice. How could we resist a challenge to find a vineyard? So we took the ferry to the island of Mazzorbo (right next to Burano) and there it was, a tiny walled vineyard growing the ancient white wine variety of Dorona. No wine has been made yet, so sadly we didn’t get to taste it.

Venice doesn’t change. It just looked a bit more faded than my last visit 5 years ago. Of course we managed to eat very well with rabbit and porcini featuring strongly. It’s porcini season in Italy and we are being little piggies, sniffing them out wherever we can.

We were so happy to get Boris back and settle back in our little home. We drove directly north to the Trentino area and camped in a cloud (I think it may be No.9). It’s cold up here and the mornings definitely have an autumnal chill. We’ll do some hill walking here and head even further north into the Dolomites, maybe even Austria, before heading to Slovenia and Croatia. Don’t panic – we’ll be back in Italy in early November.

Today we went into Trento with it’s magnificent Duomo where the Council of Trent met in 1545 to be see what could be done about the pesky Protestants and their Reformation. I wish I’d kept count of the number of Cathedrals and churches we’ve done- must be hundreds!

So once again we’ve overindulged and are back on our water and veg diet.

Famous Last Words

Ok, I know, the blog posts are getting fewer and further between. It simply means we are having fun and can’t be arsed writing about it.

I last left you in Dijon and from there we headed back to the Rhone, to see the bits we missed on our way up. We camped near Tain L’Hermitage and our brilliant spot had views across to the famous Hermitage vineyards of Chapoutier and Jaboulet etc.

We could look directly across the river to ‘La Chapelle’, a wonderful wine (and chapel) that Lawrence had a great collection of until I came into his life. It’s a bloody good drop of Syrah. Sadly, we can’t afford to buy more, and we simply don’t have anywhere to store it.

View from campsite - Hermitage vineyards and La Chapelle on the hill.

We celebrated our second wedding anniversary here, and because we couldn’t find a restaurant with a decent wine list open on the day, we decided to cook our own. We bought a fab bottle of Hermitage, opened a good Champagne to start and finished with a Jurançon doux – oh and we had some food as well (confit de canard and delicious cheese).

We spent the Monday walking through these famous vineyards, examining vine training and techniques, always fascinated. One is not just allowed to walk through, but actively encouraged with pathways and good signage explaining varieties and even vinification techniques. Sheer heaven to wine wankers!!

Me at La Chapelle

Next stop was ‘The Ardeche’, a mountainous region on the eastern edge of the Massif Central. The plan was to do some walking, but I had some odd virus and wasn’t up to much. We managed one lovely (but easy) walk and of course a few lunches and brilliant scenery.

The Ardeche

We then headed back to the Gers to catch up with Alison and David (remember the house Au Petit Lombard?) and spent the weekend drinking rosé and soaking up the sun.

Sunny sunflowers in the Gers region

Millau Viaduct on the way

We then spent almost two weeks in the French Pyrenees staying with my sister Pip and her hubbie Mike who have rented a Gîte there for 3 months. Remember the ones who rode from the Black Sea to the Atlantic??? Yes, the mad ones.

They are now ensconced in a tiny village in a truly beautiful area south of Foix. The region is filled with soaring peaks, small villages and thousand year old churches. We spent the 2 weeks cycling up hills to pubs and cafes, and cruising downhill home. The walking in the area is wonderful and we did a memorable walk following a stream that became cascades and then a majestic waterfall. All this exercise of course, was rewarded by lots of good wine, the odd beer and a few good lunches.

Hiking in Pyrenees with Pip and Mike

We did a quick foray into Spain, (having said “we won’t be back” – famous last words) via Andorra. Andorra is everything we’d read about, overdeveloped, low rent ski resorts and cheap gin (which is why we were there!). The drive through the Spanish Pyrenees was simply stunning, breathtaking, so different from the greener, softer, French side. We spent the night in a low key Spanish town and raided Mercadona (favourite supermarket) for good cheap Spanish wine.

Pyrenees Waterfall

Sadly we had to say au revoir, and head to Toulouse. Can you believe we needed to get new tyres on Boris?? No, I can’t either. Anyway, the ones we had just weren’t up to the weight of the vehicle. One more bottle of wine and they might burst. So we spent 2 nights in Toulouse to get this sorted and managed some cycling along the canal in the Centre Ville and a bit of sight seeing. Most of this was spent in the Mephisto shop. For those of you with a shoe fetish combined with a need to wear to ‘old ladies shoes’, Mephisto is the business. I could have bought 20 pairs of these stylish shoes but since I already own 2 pairs of Mephistos I had to restrain myself and allow Lawrence to buy one pair.

We are now in Aix-en-Provence, a surprisingly lovely town, on our way to the Vercors for some mountain walking, or so we hope. After that, wait for it, we will head to ITALY!!!

Flower Market in Aix-en-Provence

After spending 2 years doing Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and the UK, we are FINALLY going to Italy!!! “Hallelujah!!” I hear you say. I couldn’t agree more.

And introducing….

(Drum roll please)

Boris the Bimobil – here it is. Our latest home away from home.

Boris

We finally picked up the new vehicle on Friday July 26, only a week later than we’d hoped. There were a few technical hitches, but we got there in the end, albeit a bit rushed.

Bed and Dining Area

Kitchen, Bathroom and Wardrobe

It was 37 degrees the day we took possession and despite best laid plans of being organised, everything was running late and we were sweltering. So basically we threw all our stuff in and headed for a camping spot for the night.

Ignoring the chaos, we sat and quaffed a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate and sat back to admire our new home. This was quickly followed by a bottle of Gruner Veltliner and more admiration. Judging by my head the next morning, maybe we had a little something to finish. We spent the weekend trying to get organised and trying to keep cool. We were largely unsuccessful on both counts.

As part of our ‘getting to know our way around our new toy’ initiations, we put up our awning in anticipation of a thunderstorm and relief from the heat. What we got was a gust of wind from nowhere that made short work of our BRAND NEW awning. So, back to Bimobil factory on the Monday to get a new one fitted – oh dear. Not a great start.

Anyway, 2 weeks later we are feeling at home, and have found places for most of our stuff. I was panicking on day 1 thinking we’d a made huge error of judgement as to how much one little Bimobil could hold, but, as I am the ‘Master of Packing’, everything now fits.

We spent 5 days in Alsace, exploring pretty, pretty towns, vineyards and of course, the wine. The sweltering weather continued, and we were just too darn hot to do much. I know, I know, some people are never happy, but really it’s been one extreme to the bloody other.

Alsace - geraniums are compulsory

Currently we are in Dijon and have had a marvellous time driving around famous town and vineyards, and riding along the Canal de Bourgogne. Finally the weather has cooled down, but we are getting thunderstorms.

Beautiful Burgundy

My friend Steve, wine guru, Professor, Master of Wine etc, has moved to Dijon (from Champagne) and we’ve been able to catch up for dinner (he’s also a very good cook). We took him a bottle of wine that he hadn’t tried before from the Portuguese region of Colares – I think this is a first! Apparently he did teach me about this wine in class, but I’d completely forgotten. The student redeemed herself by supplying 2 bottles of it!

From here we head south to finish off the Rhone Valley. Someone's got to do it.