It's now been nearly 7 months since we left Australia and started our European adventure. In that time we have seen and done so much so the following is just a snapshot of what we have done.
We spent our first four weeks in the UK beginning with a visit to Belinda's brother and his family in Perth, Scotland. We had brought with us over 120 kgs of luggage, including David's bike, courtesy of Emirates, who kindly and possibly by mistake didn't charge us extra.
After leaving the bulk of it in Scotland we spent a delightful week with Belinda's father and his wife driving the backroads of Yorkshire, a week in Wales and a week in the Lakes District. We then returned to Scotland for a few days and then hopped on a plane to Dusseldorf, Germany. The objective now was to begin the hunt for a motorhome/camping car so we hired a motorhome (MoHo) for two weeks and took a drive down the Moselle River into France and then back to Dusseldorf.
It was on this trip that we first made acquaintance with the Niesmann-Bischoff showroom in Polch and met the person who was to make our dreams come true.
With lots of questions and few answers we decided to kill some time until the big motorhome exhibition in September, so we headed off to Greece to catch up with our good friends from Perth, Australia and do some sailing with them in Greece. We flew ito Mykonos where they were waiting to take us aboard for what would be a wonderful aquatic adventure.
Initially we had expected to spend around ten days on Miranna but the weeks went by quickly with delightful days visiting small islands away from the normal tourist routes. Our course took us Eastward and then North towards Turkey as we stayed in picturesque bays swimming, eating drinking and relaxing. The long days sailing were appreciated by some more than others and David was in his element at the helm and making constant adjustments to the rig.
On a yacht water is a scarce resource so showers are few and far between and regular dips in the crystal waters provide more than a refreshing swim. Without a hair dryer Belinda rediscovered her curls and by the end of six weeks we had taken on a new feral persona.
We entered Turkey through the Dardanelles and when we docked in Cannakale we were reminded how small the world can be when we came across a couple we knew from Bunbury. Carol and Terry had been sailing the world for three years and happened to be in Cannakale at the same marina. Carol had been a teacher at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar and our children are friends.
At Cannakale we left Acky and Patti but not before we all hired a car a did a self guided tour of the Gallipoli Peninsular.
The bus brought us to our next destination was Istanbul. This amazing city which we find every bit as exciting as New York was open for discovery. Our apartment in a residential area on the north side of the Bospherous and hence away from the tourist areas presented us with a side of Istanbul that we hadn't seen before. More wonderful cuisine and some memorable museum experiences left us with a promise to return.
An important factor in the routes we took was a desire to avoid spending time in the Schengen Zone. Our next commitment was to meet a group of ten expatriates in Croatia for a long lunch. The cheapest and most fun way to get there was to fly to Montenegro so we arrived, hired a car and spent a week driving the length and breadth of this pretty country. Pretty that is except for the coastline that has been spoilt with bland and congested developments.
Having book some "apartment" accomodation we learnt that this usually meant staying in a section of someone's home. This of course led to some strange experiences, especially when no English is spoken. In this beautiful country of only 250 sq. kms. there are amazing mountains, deep lakes, beautiful beaches and arguably the worst drivers in the world.
The bus trip from Montenegro to Croatia was scheduled to take five hours. After starting two hours late and delays at four border crossings we eventually arrived eight hours later then needed to catch another two buses to get to our destination, all for 25 Euros.
Sensing that we had overshot our stop we got off the bus and were kindly picked up by a passing taxi driver who dropped us to our apartment in the charming village of Kastle Novi. This village is one of seven which almost merge along the Dalmation coast. All have their own castle hence the name and we came here because our friends from Bunbury have bought an apartment here.
Being a thirty minute bus trip from Split makes it an ideal location, not to mention the great beaches and the delicious food served up at the local restaurant. After ten days we started to feel like locals and even managed to meet with another friend from Perth who's father was born in the region and was visiting on holidays. Small world indeed.
Some of the locals we were introduced to by our friends organised a couple of outings one of which we were just told was to "The Laundry". It turns out that we were taken to a clandestine still in a basement where we were treated to a seemingly endless sampling of home made liqueur. After a comprehensive loading of rocket fuel we were then taken by 4WD up a steep dirt track to a winery.
With views over the ocean to Split and a hearty meal cooked by the winery owners we took in the sunset while being entertained with tales of Croatian viniculture.
The sun was shinning so we hired bikes and rode along the waterfront towards Split which brought us to where filming was taking place for "Game of Thrones". Security was tight and whilst you couldn't get too close we were able see what was going on.
All of this fun was had while waiting for the Caravan Salon in Dusseldorf which was to be our big research opportunity and a make or break point for the whole MoHo plan. The Salon runs for a week and is the largest caravan and motorhome exhibition in the world. The figures are staggering and the event is overwhelming. After four days of literally running from one exhibiter to the next we had eliminated a lot of manufacturers. The sticking point was that we still didn't even know if we were allowed to buy a vehicle in Europe.
It is very complicated but it turns out that it is impossible for a non-resident to register and insure a vehicle in Europe. Aside from our Schengen issues that limit us from being in the EU for more than three months every six the motorhome dream was over.
Our only hope was the representative we had met months earlier in Polch who had said he could make it happen. We were still sceptical which in hindsight was unfair but Niesmann-Bischoff manufactured a vehicle that was upmarket but perfect for our needs. We agreed to make the trip to Polch (1.5 hours by car) the next week and view one of their showroom vehicles which was the configuration that we wanted.
Long story short, we bought the MoHo and the registration and insurance was facilitated by N-B. At last we had overcome the big stumbling block but we had to wait until late October for a few modifications to be made before we could collect it. As a showroom vehicle it already had a fantastic package of options but we thought air-conditioning (rare in Europe), an external gas outlet, a shower in the garage and a few other modifications would be useful for our needs.
Not wanting to waste our precious Schengen days we headed back to the UK (not a Schengen member) and initially spent a week in London. What a great city but sooo expensive. We decided to hire a car for two weeks and drove to Scotland to collect some of our gear then rented apartments in Devon and in the middle of nowhere in Bristol. The car was a fantastic Golf with full sports pack which was a delight to drive and at an unbelievable bargain price of 7 pounds a day plus insurance.
Both rentals were through AirBnb which may sound like an advertisement but it is a cheap and easy way to travel. No horror stories and each place we stayed was as described or better. In Devon we had a two story cottage in Apledorn that overlooked a tidal inlet and in Gloucester we had a lovely stone cottage on a horse stud. Very interesting.
Improbably we only had one day of rain and it was now early October but and that ended as we crossed the border back into Scotland where we had five days of rain. Sean and Alison's house is nice and warm, so we were very cosy and we were made to feel very welcome.
From Perth we sent most of our luggage across to Germany and with the wait of years of expectation we collected our new home on the 27th of October 2014.
It's now the 10th of November and we are well and truely settled into our mobile home. It's 9.23m long and 2.45 m wide and weight about 7 tonnes. Quite a handful and David is enjoying being a truck driver while Belinda is yet to drive the beast and is content with the role of spotting road signs that warn of roads that are too narrow, bridges too low or weight restricted roads. So far so good.
We have 17 more days left in the Schengen Zone and our only options are the Uk or Croatia. Deciding it is better to head south for the winter, yesterday we crossed north to south through Switzerland without stopping. It seemed that half the trip was through tunnels one of which was eighteen km long.
We are now in Northern Italy on a lake near Como. The only problem is that it has rained all day and you can barely see the lake. This was to be expected given the time of year but we really have no choice but to move towards Croatia.
The MoHo is well heated and cosy and we are loving the new space and discovering how to operate all of this amazing technology.
The plan from here will be to spend time in Croatia until we qualify under Schengen rules to re-enter and then head to Southern Italy os Southern Spain to find warmer weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment