Calais, France

Are you wondering why we caught the ferry from Greece to Italy? I will explain…

Our original plan was to drive through Albania and some of the ex-Yugoslav countries to Germany, but because of the snow and cold weather that we had encountered in Greece, and because we had a ferry booked from Calais to Dover, MJ was concerned that we could find our travel plans affected if we encountered bad weather. So instead we decided to catch a ferry from Igoumenitsa to Ancona in Italy and then we could travel quickly through Italy to Switzerland to see some friends before we head into Southern Germany to say some final Farewells.

And that is what we did. We booked an overnight ferry, which wasn’t cheap, but as we have discovered, no ferries are cheap! We landed in Ancona in the evening and had planned to drive up to San Marino to overnight in a Stellplatz, but because the ferry was late arriving in Ancona, by the time we got to San Marino, the Stellplatz was shut, so we drove around till we found an Industrial area where we camped on the street.

Our next overnight stop was in Milan where it was still bitterly cold and very grey. But we spent a day walking around in Milan – I must just add that by this time, Nick is getting very close to the limit for Cathedrals! Yes, that means that we visited the Cathedral in Milan, as well as walked through the streets till we found La Scala which is the world-famous Opera House. I had hoped that we might be able to score a tour through the Opera House, but sadly, with our timeframes, that wasn’t possible.

From Milan, it was up the Autostrada towards the Italian-Swiss Border and a drive through the San Bernardino Tunnel. We will definitely be coming back to Italy in better weather. Italy is rather like France in that they provide a very good system for Motorhomes (emptying toilets and grey water, and getting fresh water) at no charge at service centres on the Autostrada (Italian motorways) which makes it easy to free-camp in the countryside. We just have to wait for Spring 2016!

We were also taken to the top of the tallest building in Switzerland – “Just like Centrepoint Tower in Sydney” we were told! It is the Prime Building which is 413 feet (127 metres) tall or 36 floors. There is a nice cafe at the top with a great view, but Centrepoint Tower it ain’t!

From Zurich, we headed down to Lucerne to catch up with Dawn & Werne, and we caught up with all the news of their family! The Lido Campground in Lucerne was open and we stayed there – it’s a great location but it isn’t cheap! It’s only a short walk to the Lucerne Lake and around the corner is the Verkehrshaus (Transport Museum) where there were lots of different trains, cars, but it was soooo cold. Did I mention that it snowed whilst we were camping in Lucerne? Time to head up to Southern Germany for a few last goodbyes.

It was interesting driving through Switzerland – we were ready to throw our GPS out the window! She decided to take us through the mountains to Lake Constance (Bodensee) – now normally that would be a great way to travel, but when you are driving a large, front-wheel drive motorhome and it has been snowing… need I say more? Then she wanted to take us into Austria and put us on the Autobahn, but as we didn’t want to buy another Austrian vignette, we wanted to stay on back roads until we hit Germany where the Autobahn is free. Once we were in Germany, we had to bypass 20 exits off the Autobahn on our way to Crailsheim and our GPS insisted on telling us, as we approached every interchange, that we had to leave to Autobahn and travel down goat tracks!! Naturally, we ignored her, but she was a trial!

We also managed to catch up with Sybille who we had met in Mongolia – she used to be the owner-manager of the Oasis Guesthouse in Ulaan Bataar, and then it was over to Darmsheim to see Sabine and see if she had fixed her coffee machine, which had died on our last morning with her a year ago (Jan, 2014). We managed to get one cup of coffee, before it died AGAIN! We spent the day buying spares for our bicycles and looking at replacement coffee machines!! Sadly, after 10 years of sterling service, I think that her beloved Krupps Coffee Machine has reached the end of the road!

Just one more country to go – we have to cross France to reach Calais, but as we had managed to accrue a day, we decided to travel via Verdun to see some of the First World War sites but, once again, weather was conspiring against us! Because of snow, we couldn’t reach the campground, or the Ossuary, or the Forts that we had hoped to visit. We did visit one of the Cemeteries in Verdun and saw the runners-up for the French “Unknown Soldier”! I know that probably sounds strange, but the French had eight candidates for the position of “Unknown Soldier”. The successful candidate is buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe and the remaining unsuccessful candidates are all buried in individual graves in the Faubourg-Pavé Military cemetery.

As the weather wasn’t be very helpful (too much snow), we continued driving across France until we reach Reims where we were able to use an Aires du Camping for a night. It turns out that we were in town on the night of a big soccer (football) match between Reims & Lens and the stadium was just across the road from the Aires. We were surprised at the level of security that was in place for the football match – streets were closed and the police were armed to the teeth! We had a walk around Reims, including Reims cathedral which was the Cathedral used for the coronations of the French Kings! Because we were there on a Sunday, all the Champagne Caves were closed (sigh!) but MJ is planning on a return visit with her drinking buddy!

Our last night in France was camping in the Port of Calais – weather still cold but no snow, but it was also very windy! Thankfully that didn’t really affect the Channel Crossing and we arrived safely in Dover.