TRENTO & South TYROL BREAK

TRENTO & South TYROL BREAK

JULY 16-22, 2016

16- SATURDAY
STAGE DAY
We left for Trento last night, and we reached Luigino, Paola and some other mates from Sangano for a pizza near Luigino’s house, our base for the first few days.

The Stage was held in the fields of Mt. Bondone, a very nice and pleasant, windy setting. We practised while Rosie was hiking the nearby mountains. I finally managed to learn a form I had always copied, but never actually understood, and I also learnt the Simon & Garfunkel song El Condor Pasa perfectly [the form we learnt is based on that song…]
In the evening, we all met again for dinner in a traditional restaurant, where I was wise enough to have only the first course, barley risotto. The portions around here are really HUGE and I couldn’t have gone through a second course too… Edio treated us all to dessert to celebrate his birthday!

17- SUNDAY
CANOE ON THE LAKE
Canoeing on the S. Giustina Lake in Val di Non I paired with Rosie and had a real job trying to keep our canoe on a straight course - she was ‘powering up’ in the front while I steer-paddled in the back, or trying to, but she must have an arm stronger than the other! We had great fun though, and we could go further along the canyons than last year, for the water was much higher.
Back ashore we had the ‘complimentary sandwich’ that, in my [and many others’] opinion, they’d better avoid - it’s all bread and a flimsy slice (one) of spek and another flimsier [if possible] slice (one) of cheese. Gimme a fruit juice and I’ll be happier!
In the afternoon we visited S. Romedio’s sanctuary through a nice trail cut into the sheer rock faces where Francesco had some trouble with heights, but still he made it through.
To end the day we had dinner with a local (Val di Non) speciality, the Tortel di Patate, a deep-fried large potato patty served with meats and vegs. Not really my cup of tea, for I’m not too keen on fry-ups, still, it’s ok on the odd occasion - and the shredded cabbage salad was FAB!

18- MONDAY
This morning we said goodbye to our hosts and moved on to Bozen, the Alto Agige-South Tyrol’s capital. The town is pretty, but, at 38ºC [100ºF], way too much for our likings! We took a short tour, visited a couple of sports shops, bought a map of Val Venosta, lunched on a bench with some traditional bread, and headed to one of Messner Mountain Museums.

The Museum complex consists of 6 different locations, each museum dedicated to one aspect of the mountains. This one is set into Firmian Castle, just outside Bozen, and revolves around the religious and spiritual aspects of the mountains. It’s quite impressive, with a large collection of artefacts from Messner’s travels to the Himalayas, and a large collection of paintings and pictures. Overall, we found it to be a bit ‘pick-n-mix’ though, for two of the towers of the castle ware dedicated to mountain exploration and equipment, that we found a bit disconnected to the religious aspect of the previous sections. in another of the towers was the story of Firmian Castle, that, although disconnected from the rest, could be interesting to explain the setting. Still, well worth a visit.

Here, although still in Italy, everybody speaks German as a first language, switching [reluctantly] to Italian when they see you don’t speak German…

Later in the afternoon, we headed for Meran, but the temperature didn’t drop a bit so we skipped the town altogether and continued to Val d’Ultimo [Ulten Valley] and the freshness of the mountains. We stopped at the very end of the road, by Lago Fontana Bianca [White Spring lake], where we parked under some pine trees by a small stream, at 1900m [6,240ft] - nice and cool!

19- TUESDAY
CIRCULAR WALK : RIF. CANZIANI - +600M [1968FT] - 7KM [4.35MI]
A great walk to this mountain refuge where we had some excellent food. We made a circular tour, reaching the refuge from our starting point, lake Fontana Bianca [White Spring], then we passed the dam on lake Verde [Green] coming back down the other side of the valley.
The mountains and views were spectacular! We started after breakfast at a relaxing pace as the level difference wasn’t that much [600m / 1968ft] and I managed it in 1.40hrs, including picture-taking! Considering I’m pretty out of shape it’s not that bad, as it normally took me 2 hrs to do that level difference. We encountered cows, horses and sheep that asked for a stroke on the head… ^_^


A lot of the lakes here have small dams to regulate the water flow.  The day was really great, with a warm sun and blue sky - we’re getting quite a tan!
Later in the afternoon we moved into a parallel valley, Val Martello [Martell Valley] where we’re qubing in the woods, near an impetuous river coming from one of the glaciers up the mountains. We paid a 24hrs parking ticket [€4.00] that allowed us to park anywhere along the road. While transiting from one valley to the other, we had to nearly go back to Meran, where we recorded 37ºC [98.6ºF] again - really unbearable! Fortunately up here, temperatures are nice and cool. Another quite tiring but fulfilling day!
We’re at 2000Masl [6562ft].

20- WEDNESDAY
CIRCULAR WALK: GLACIOLOGY TRAIL - +600M [1968FT] - 10.5KM [6.5MI]
We followed Luigino’s suggestion to do this trail, and how right he was! Stunning landscape, glaciers, rivers, waterfalls, amazing rocks! The tour was meant to take 4-5 hours, but we made it last 8 hours, we took so many pictures, and even just stopped in awe at the majesty of these mountains!!!

I was considering that, when you are surrounded by such beauty, you really forget about everything, and you are pervaded by a sense of calm and quietness.
The day has been quite tiring, what with also my left knee swollen for the day, but I’m extremely satisfied! I even managed some barefooting in a small lake where we stopped for lunch. What a day!!!  =D
Later tonight we moved valley again, reaching Solden [1860Masl / 6100ft] where we Qubed on the cableway carpark, together with other campervans. We couldn’t do any shopping, for the local Spar closes at 6.30pm and we reached it at … 6.40… shoot! So, we treated ourselves to a nice meal in a traditional restaurant - fantastic food and lovely atmosphere. We also managed to buy a carton of milk from them, for tomorrow’s breakfast! ^_^

21- THURSDAY
GLACIER SHORT TRAIL - +100M [330FT] - 2KM [1.25MI]
Both my knees are playing me today - the left one is on its way down, but the right one is giving me sharp pains… so we took it easier - we took the cableway up to the base of the Ortles glaciers and the refuge there. We choose a short trail taking us across the rocks [and some ice] up to the very edge of the glacier where Rosie ventured for a bit, but I preferred not to.The views from here are really great, in spite of the day initially overcast [we did get some sun in the end]…
The thing that strikes me the most is the amazing variety of rocks!!! Every step you take you can stop for minutes just to take in the different shapes, colours and patterns of these stones.And the funny thing is that what you see from a distance seems just a boring pile of brittle on the mountain slopes!
We enjoyed a meal at the refuge, where I had some amazing “canederli” [sort of meatballs made with bread instead of meat and with various fillings - it doesn’t sound much when describing it… you have to try them to believe it!] and took the cableway back down. During the descent we spotted a small herd of yaks that Messner originally ‘imported’ from Tibet quite some time ago. Sadly, we could only see them from a very high distance…

Back in Solden, we visited another of the Messner Mountain Museums, Ortles, cantered on ICE with lots of paintings about ice and glaciers, the Ortles mountain chain, and South Pole’s expeditions, from the first ones by Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen, to the one Messner himself did with another German mountaineer, when they reached the South Pole without aid [dogs, machines, or otherwise]. I bought a lovely Tibetan mala, made from decorated yak horn beads.
For the night, we moved to the Stelvio Pass, for tomorrow we’ll be going down to the Padana plain to Piacenza.
We found a nice spot, just before the Pass, with extremely nice views on the majestic mountains here. You really feel very small and insignificant, but at the same time, very much part of a wonderful universe! Before dinner I managed a few pics of a marmot eating on the slopes just down from where we are parked.
Wonderful nature!  =D  2750Masl [9000ft]

22- FRIDAY
What a good night sleep! I must say, our Quber really performs well. It should be just SLIGHTLY bigger to allow a little more freedom of movement, but on the whole it’s really a great way to travel. The sky has been overcast for most of the day and we even met some thunderstorms along the way.
On our way to Piacenza we stopped at Bormio, an unimpressive little town, and at Ponte di Legno, very nicely laid out on two sides of a river. We could just walk around the town taking pictures before a heavy storm collapsed on us, and we waited out a bit under a gazebo on the main square. When the rain subsided a little, we made it to the a nice restaurant where I had some “pizzoccheri”, a local pasta dish with cheese, potatoes and kale, and a nice craft beer. On our way back to the car, we bought some local cheese in a quaint little shop, to take to P+V to Piacenza [and a bit for us too ;)].

all pictures here: http://bit.ly/2aMeVL6

FRANCE - UK BREAK

FRANCE - U.K. BREAK

MAY 14 - 25, 2016


14- SATURDAY
We travelled all day - what AGONY!!! drive, drive,drive! We started at 6.30 this morning and arrived at the campsite in Cestas at 7.45 tonight. Hadn’t we had to get there by 8.00pm we might have taken it a bit slower… still, we made it, and rewarded ourselves with a nice meal and a pint at K2 restaurant.
We are staying at Camping Beau Soleil, in Gradignan. The campsite is very quiet and clean.
The journey was pretty smooth, we discovered a nice panoramic road that saved us 100km [62mi] and a total of 300km [186mi] on the motorway.

>> I really don’t know which is the best way to travel - in the car it’s ever so tiring, we should keep a looser schedule; by train you end up changing trains turning a 2-hour journey into a 5-hour one; by plane you waste most of your day in airports for just a 2-hour flight… the car should really be the best option as you can get exactly where you want to. I think it’d be a good idea to take a couple of folding bikes along, so to be able to wander about freely without displacing the van once at the campsite. BUT! we must plan for 400 odd km journey -tops- otherwise it’s too hard to drive longer than that in a single day!
Motorways are alright, but you don’t get to see much AND you always feel compelled to drive at great speed just to get it over and done with!




15- SUNDAY
STAGE 1 / DAY 1
A nice productive day! The room where the stage is held is really good - wooden floors and great sound. I’ve been “elected” by GM to take the minutes of the stage to make a report afterwards - just as I was happy I didn’t have to do any translating…
The convivial dinner tonight, at “La Regalade Pledran”, was also very nice - a good bunch of people, great food and wine, a very enjoyable night. We managed to get a lift to the restaurant and back as GM is staying in a hotel very close to our campsite…  :-)

16- MONDAY
STAGE 1 / DAY 2
The Stage morning went on very nicely - 5 of us practising and developing what we did yesterday, while the rest of the group practised the Bong. I preferred something softer, so I stuck to some Noi-Cong practise.
At 1.00pm it was all over, I gathered my Diploma and said good-bye to everyone there, with the good wish to meet again next year in Pledran.
Rosie came and pick me up, we grabbed a sandwich and we headed to Dieppe for the ferry home (albeit for a short break).
It was another quite long stretch, about 700km [435mi]. We managed them changing drivers a few times and we finally reached Dieppe, where we had dinner.
We should schedule a trip to Dieppe allowing some time to visit the town, as it seems really pretty and should prove rather interesting…

17- TUESDAY
The ferry crossing to Newhaven took the standard 5 hours and we disembarked at 4.00am, local time. After getting ashore we drove into a 24-hour McDonald’s to grab a coffee and dozed off for another couple of hours in the carpark.

We then made our way to Alfriston, checked the campsite for tonight, saw nobody, used the facilities for a quick morning wash, and headed to the Long Man of Wilmington. We took a nice walk on the Downs, circling the Long Man - a pleasant hour and a half or so walk. After sharing an apple, we drove to Herstmonceux Castle and the Royal Observatory. We arrived just as a busload of school kids were heading to the observatory, so we opted to start with the Castle. We took a nice walk in the park and gardens, and we shared a few biscuits in front of the Newton Sundial. By one o’clock we were ready to join a guided tour of the inside of the Castle, now a University. The chap guiding us through the history of the castle was very nice and shared a few stories with us. After the tour of the castle, we dedicated ourselves to the observatory - dedicated being the very appropriate word! The kids blissfully gone, we could test all the [kiddies’] experiments that were there - we had the time of our life! Of course, you might know how things work, or how a certain something happens, but to actually see it happening is really priceless!!! We had fun there for a couple of hours, and we saw the telescopes that are still in use today. A totally fascinating afternoon.
We were pretty tired by then, so we headed back to Alfriston for a proper meal. We went to “Ye Olde Smugglers’ Inne”, where I couldn’t resist a plate of Cumberland sausage and mash, washed down with a pint of Stowford Press, of course.
We ended our long day at our friends in Seaford, where they offered to put us up for the night, so, not having any other arrangements, we agreed to squat at theirs for a good-earned night sleep! Our friends, Emy and Sara, are very nice people - it was very good to have a chat with them and doing some catching up.





18- WEDNESDAY
Today it’s been raining on and off all day, as we moved to the East Coast, via the Dartford Tunnel. We couldn’t do much sight-seeing, but we did manage a short walk along the beach at Clacton-on-Sea. The town pier’s is very busy in the summer, but now it looks quite abandoned, with all the rides closed and under a cloudy sky…
We then moved on further North along the coast and, after much searching and many closed receptions, we managed to find a nice and quiet campsite for the night, Rose Farm Touring Park, and the landlady is ever so pleasant. We cooked some pasta and vegs, and took advantage of the free wi-fi to send out some check-in messages.

We must plan better camping-wise… there’s always something missing, maybe ‘cos we usually concentrate on the van itself. Our external tent proved alright to shield us from the wind, but we noted some needed improvements.






19- THURSDAY
Today we travelled North along the coast. After an excellent night at Rose Farm, we had breakfast with muesli and fresh raspberries [bought yesterday] - fab!
We lazed out of the campsite and headed to the sandy beaches of the North Coast. Along the way, we stopped for a walk on the beach where we met a small colony of seals - some just basking in the sun with the cubs playing in the water. What a nice encounter! It always fascinates me when we get so close to wildlife!
After the walk, we had a nice pub lunch at the Nelson Head - cheese Ploughman -something I hadn’t had in a long time- and a pint of red berry cider. Quite particular.
We then drove along the coast and found a campsite in a farm in Wells-next-the-Sea. Our Quber tent proved invaluable protection from a few drizzle showers we had in the evening, while cooking and having our meal of rice and vegs. :-)

20- FRIDAY
We moved out of the farm, still following the coast, and stopped along the way to walk on a huge sandy beach. It was low tide, so we could walk about, I guess, 1/2mi into the sea! We enjoyed lunch at a beachside cafe’, then we moved down to Cambridge and Duxford Imperial War Museum. They have a superb collection of airplanes, old and new, some of which are still working and fly at airshows all over the Country. What a day!

I’m always fascinated by imagining the life of people during WWII - it’s a historical period I can never get enough of. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit, that took us the best part of 3 hours! [and it could have lasted more if the museum hadn’t shut…]

In the evening we got to Highfield Farm Campsite and, not happy enough with the thousands of steps already walked today, we added another 1.5mi to check the local pub, The Six Bells Pub, and enjoy dinner there. We also treated ourselves to a nice apple crumble with custard cream - a well deserved reward!

21- SATURDAY
STAGE 2 / DAY 1
Quite a tiring day, especially on my back! The Stage was interesting, we learnt a new quyen and started to go in depth of Sulo KyMon that we already studied. All the while Rosie was out and about, museum-hopping in Cambridge.
The Viet training group consisted all of Italians plus Waldemar, the organiser. Fortunately Edio + Iva\s daughter was translating for the Its, so I was spared! The hall is a bit small, but we had use of the kitchen, so we could fix ourselves a sandwich and there was tea and coffee, and fruits available.
We met again for dinner at a Moroccan restaurant [odd choice]. The food was good, but we didn’t start eating till nearly 11pm, which is a bit too late for me. Anyhow, we left soon after finishing our plate for we were both very tired… and tomorrow we’re starting at 9am!

22- SUNDAY
STAGE 2 / DAY 2
A lot of theory at today’s session. GM has explained to us how to be a teacher, true to the values of Viet Chi. It’s been a very interesting couple of days. Master asked me how to work on text on PhotoShop, so I illustrated the use of text filters to him - collaborative learning!

The Stage was over at 1.00pm, so we said our goodbyes and off we went to Dover.
We still had some time to kill when we got there, so we took a walk up to Dover Castle, but it was already shut and we couldn’t even see the grounds… shame! The town looks otherwise pretty run down and dull -the weather didn’t help- lots of rubbish scattered about…
The harbour doesn’t have any kind of ticket/info office BEFORE customs, so, since we were very early for our ferry, we asked at the check-in [after customs] if we could board an earlier boat - we could, but not on the next one, so we had to exit the harbour, wait for 1/2 hour, and then go back in again, through customs and all. Anyhow, we managed to get on the 7.55pm ferry and we saved 1.5hrs on our schedule and I could drive into Belgium, where we stopped in a rather filthy petrol station for the night.
It’s my turn to do the driving now, as Rosie practically drove all the time in the UK… It’s been another quite long day, but fortunately we don’t have to keep any fixed time-table anymore, so we can take it easier  :-)

23- MONDAY
A wet day in Gent, Belgium. Raining on and off didn’t hold us back from walking through the town. We arrived at the campsite [Camping Blaarmeersen] this morning, stationed the Quber and took the bus into town - so, no bother with finding a car park and all that. We had lunch in a nice bistro-pub, just off the beaten (tourist) track, where we tried some Belgian specials… including a great Belgian beer, Tongerlo Blonde, 6 proof.

After a few hours wandering around, and quite an unsuccessful “concrete canvas” graffiti tour [2-3 really good works, but the rest mostly crap], we caught the bus back to the campsite. Tonight we’ll be going back after dinner to see the town by night, apparently a lights display worth seeing.

Overall, the central part of town is very pretty, lots of buildings have some similarities with the houses of Amsterdam, perhaps because also Gent has some canals criss-crossing it. There are lots of bikes going around. As soon as you leave the town centre though, you meet with very tall [some over 20-storey high], really horrible, blocks of flats with no apparent shops or services in the vicinities… such housing just give me a sense of oppression. Not that we saw many shops in town - the main feature being restaurants and cafes, souvenir shops, clothes shops and jewellers, but little in the way of food, for example. There are some old-looking shops, even a “red lights” street we bumped into during our evening tour [I will not comment on the sad display of that], but I haven’t seen anything that caught my attention…

24- TUESDAY
TRAVELLING SOUTH
We spent the day driving, me with a double-swollen knees and an outdated map that “made” us take a wrong turn on the motorway adding a  few kms to our journey… In spite of it all, we managed to find a nice campsite for the night near Chambery, only some 300kms [190mi] from Sangano. This way, tomorrow we can avoid the motorway altogether, and take a nice, SLOW, leisurely drive back.
We had a nice dinner in a kebab house in the village, just about 10min walk from the campsite along the river Ain.

A little note on Belgians - the impression I had is they are quite scruffy, pretty dirty overall, and rather dull. Loud and disrespectful - at least those we met in the Flemish part of the country we visited. I won’t pull my hair out to go back there, that’s for sure…

25- WEDNESDAY
We took the road left to do at a very leisurely pace, cruising through French villages. We purposely avoided motorways to enjoy some nice mountain views.
After stopping to walk to a waterfall, we bought fresh bread and some picnic material for lunch, that we had by the lake Du Bourge.

After a flying visit to St. Jeanne de Maurienne [and Opinel Museum], surely worth a little more time, we had our last French dinner in Lanslebourg, last village before the French-Italian border. On our way to Mont-Cenis we were stopped for “controle alcholemique” [alcohol test] - Rosie was at the wheel, but she only had a glass of wine over dinner, so no problem.
At 10pm we were passing out threshold, and by 10.20 we were in bed, quite tired, but very happy for these past few days in Europe.





all the pictures here: http://bit.ly/2aA3eUt 

San Fruttuoso - GE

July 20, 2013 

This morning we moved up along the coast to Santa Margherita Ligure. We pointed to Portofino to check if we could park there, only to find confirmation that the population there are just posh shits (and the only local car park have outrageously high prices, like €5.50/hr), so we turned back to SML, parked on top of hill for free, and took the boat to San Fruttuoso where we spent the day swimming.

San Fruttuoso

By mid afternoon we went back to the car and headed up north to visit the in-laws... and gained a proper bed in the process ...

Now we ordered a couple of softer mattresses for the Quber, so it'll probably be better to sleep in next time. At the moment the mattresses we use are pretty dense and they give us (especially me) some trouble with our chests, making it feel really heavy. Now with the new foams that should arrive next week, we should be ok, otherwise it becomes really difficult sleeping in the Quber for more than a couple of days...