I feel Slovenia

written 9th April

Dober Dan! After only three days, I have a new favourite country.  Slovenia.  Even better than Portugal.  Who would have thought?!  And I have run out of both adjectives and superlatives to express how lovely I think it is!  so you will have to make do with the beautifuls, stunnings, gloriouses and fabulouses scattered at all too often intervals throughout the post

To my shame, it is again a country I had never considered - I mean at least I knew where Portugal was, even if I never thought about it - I hadn't even realised until about four days ago that we couldn't drive straight from Italy to Croatia and that we would have to drive through Slovenia en route. And it seems that quite unfairly, it is overlooked by a lot of people.  Fortunately the Lonely Planet raved about it in its short chapter - even the rough guide might like it here! - and luckily we had enough days in hand before Will may or may not be jetting back to the UK for the short visit from an airport in Northern Croatia to give it a whirl.  And I am so glad we did as we have had possibly the best three days of our trip so far.  It is a close run thing between beach living (evil genie's notwithstanding) and the clear air and stunning scenery here in the Julian alps.  so there you go.

Slovenia is a tiny country, half the size of switzerland, perched on the edge of the east, sandwiched between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, but is packed full of 'geography' from the snow-capped mountains of the north, to the coast and beaches of the south-west and the wine-growing plains to the east - all my favourite things in a small space - I was obviously always going to like this place!

Credited by some as being the founders of modern democracy - given that Will is insistent that what we have now is not democracy, far from it... -  apparently the Slavic ancestors of today's Slovenes (I thought they were Slovenians and that Slovene's were evil, body stealing baddies from Dr Who!)  first had a system of elected leaders back in the 7th century, a french study of which was used by Thomas Jefferson as a basis for the American Declaration of Independence.

Since then, as a nation, they have had a chequered history of occupation, annexation and border-shifting - ruled for centuries by the Austrians, with a brief interlude of Napolean (he was a busy man!), then occupied by the Italians and then the German led Austrian-Hungarian army during WWI, it was divided after the war when part of the country was given to the Italians as reparations, part stayed with Austria and part joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.  It was then occupied by the Nazis (albeit with partisan protest) during WWII, and Slovenia finally regained much of its land from Italy after the war, losing only Trieste, which remains Italian.  As part of Yugoslavia, Slovenia contributed 20% of the GDP despite having only 8% of the population, but, feeling marginalised by the Serbian controlled government, they finally broke away from Yugoslavia after a short civil war in 1991, joined the UN in 1992, the EU in 2004 and adopted the Euro in 2007.  There, I feel I have made amends for my ignorance and feel better about knowing things now!

The Slovenes are now busy welcoming the world to their beautiful country.  Everyone we have met is friendly and speaks english, their shops and tourist offices are open at all sensible times (ie, from early, until late and they don't shut for hours in the middle of the day!) and they are reinventing themselves as the adventure holiday capital of Europe, capitalising on their stunning landscape with ever more extreme ways of walking it, climbing it, paddling it, rafting it, hanging from it and generally throwing yourself of it in adrenaline-pumping ways

It's fantastic.

After a final night in Italy, in a motorhome filled carpark in the border town of Gorizia (our first and last proper aire in Italy!), we crossed over with no fanfares via an insignificant checkpoint in a back street area and there we were.  Slovenia.

It immediately felt different, mountains as opposed to the relentless flat plains of the long drive of the day before, jade green milky rivers, sunshine (!), clearly signed roads (we don't have satnav maps for slovenia so this is a very good thing!) and queues of italians at the first petrol station we came upon - got to be a good sign!


Having checked the weather and finding it to be promising glorious-ness, we headed straight for the town and lake of Beld, described by the LP as 'an emerald green lake with a picture perfect church on a tiny island, a mediaeval church clinging to a rocky cliff and some of the highest peaks in the Julian alps as a backdrop, Bled seems to have been designed by some god of tourism', over the wiggliest mountain roads we could see on our big atlas. 

And it was beautiful. 

Bright sunshine, cerulean blue sky, tall snow-capped  mountains encircling wide green valleys filled with little alpine chalet style villages.  The villages might be alpine but the landscape reminds us so much of the Canadian rockies where we spent a fabulous, unforgettable week as part of our honeymoon. 

Simply glorious. 

Now we were out of chaotic italy and ever mindful that I am shortly to be left alone with Jules and am very out of practice, I even insisted on some driving - an experience neither Will nor the clutch enjoyed very much as I stalled for the third time on a 1 in 12 switchback corner or roared up said slope in 2nd - well, I couldn't see enough to keep the speed up, and the gear change has got increasingly difficult over the last month or so! - so will took over again - after having adjusted the clutch -

and we were soon up on the mountain pass in the snow,

before descending to the the lake.  Which was every bit as lovely as promised, even if it does clearly know it.  On arrival and more map checking, we were somewhat regretting not turning the other way at Tolmin and coming via Bovec and over the 1600m Vrsic pass when we met some a dutch couple in a converted VW transit with a three-month old baby (!!) who had tried to come that way and found it still closed - not to worry then!  In fact, we later found,  it always remains closed until may so one for another time.  We will have to content ourselves with the 1200m pass we did find :)

It is clearly tourist-ville central but not too horrible for it and we had a lovly couple of days wandering round the lake

- flat easy path which only takes a couple of hours - up the to castle (but not in),

into the church where we found the most amazing newly done frescos







- makes you realise how fantastic all the other frescos we have seen recently must have looked when they were new! 

And some sitting and strolling and generally relaxing. 

We stayed the first night in Bled, not really sure if we were allowed, so ended up cooking in the dark before blacking out all the windows so we could watch some telly - with the towel hanging between the front seats and the sunshades and fold flat seats obscuring all the windows it was a bit like sleeping in a den you've made under the dining room table with blankets when you were small... :)  It also meant we couldn't really appreciate the yellow-ness of our saffron risotto so will have to try that again :)

Moving on from Bled, we went to nearby Bohinj Jezero a much bigger but less developed lake, 28kms to the south

where we walked round a bit of the peaceful lake path








in the fading light before finding a lakeside layby for the night under an inky black, star studded sky - perfect

In the morning, talk about room with a view!  The sun was once more shining and lake was mirror-still, perfectly reflecting the surrounding trees and mountains - just stunning.

We set out from the village of Ukanc, planning an easy one hour walk on path 3 to the Slap Savica (Slavica Waterfall).  it was indeed easy, a lovely stroll through on a well defined woodland path,

with perfect gingerbread houses and tweeting birds, but when we got the the waterfall, we found they wanted to charge us so decided against and set off once more for the further 1h45m trail 29 to the lake above.  Looked easy on the map anyway...

This is where our adventures became even more reminiscent of our Rockie mountain honeymoon, and particularly the fabulous day we had at Lake Louise.  On that trip, we had once again set out in t-shirt weather on an easy lakeside walk around the just thawed lake, which was all well and good, before deciding to return by the upper path where another lake and a cafe was promised.  Again, it didn't sound too far so off we set, with just a light jumper, two oranges and half a sandwich each.  Three hours later, we reached the top, having lost the path, ended up in snow up to our thighs and having had to scramble up a near vertical snowfield...  where we found the cafe was closed, three proper hiker types who looked at us aghast at the way we had come and how ill-prepared we were, and a nice gently sloping, well gritted path back to the bottom...  As I say, a fabulous day ;)  it was simply the most beautiful place I have ever been though, and the walk was much fun :) 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-and-becky/sets/72157600297047890/

Anyway, yesterday, we were slightly better prepared (well, we had fleeces, but only two oranges and no sandwiches) and it was warmer and the path was mostly not snowy and well signed but also much, much harder... started steeper

almost immediately and by the end was mostly rocky ledges and steps, defined in
some places with tree trunk steps (where you could tell those apart from the fallen trees!)

and excitingly, iron pegs and foot holds across sheer rock in others, this was more a case of scrambling up, on hands and knees at some points and seemed to take much longer than the 1h45mins indicated. 

We were just despairing of ever reaching the top when we rounded a corner into a snow filled valley and an easy (well level!) trail through the snow












to the prettiest of frozen lakes

- magical, so worth the effort! 

The views on the way back down were glorious

















- to give you an idea, we walked from the righthand corner of the lake you can see in the picture and this was taken from about half the distance and 3/4 of the way up! -

but down was not much faster and some of it was done on my bottom - only twice unintentionally... :)

So our 2h stroll turned into a 6h hike - we did indeed make it all the way to the top in 3h and back down in 3h despite the amount of sitting we did! - but well worth the hard slog and cold wet feet - mine were wet from snow and in trying to liberate some lake water to drink, Will disappeared through the ice up to his ankles... we ate clean snow instead :) - for the the fabulous views, the glorious peaacefulness and the slightly smug feeling we have :)

We parked last night in an area marked on our new free map of Slovenia - the tourist office here is brilliant! - as being a camper stop, just below the 1200m pass and after an undisturbed night are now wending our way back down the mountains in glorious sunshine en route to the capital city, Ljubljana

So we have had our idyllic sunny mountain lakes mini break - just in a different country from the one planned and without the company we had hoped to have for it...  -  I have also  discovered some hitherto unknown muscles in my thighs which are screaming this morning but otherwise, all good :)





The tourist office slogan is indeed correct - I do feel Slovenia!

Farewell to la Dolce Vita

written 6th April

It is a bit hard to write a best of's for Italy.  I was pondering this all day yesterday on our long trek east from Peschiera del Garda to Gorizia, in sunshine but through flat, uninteresting, industrial countryside.

Out of everywhere on the trip, Italy is the country we have been to the most (well certain places) in the recent and not so recent past, relatively speaking, so is definitely more familiar in someways than other countries.  But it is easy to think of Italy as a homogenous whole country - chaotic driving, art and architecture in all their forms, fine wine, oodles of pasta, pizza and gelato, job done - however on this trip we have really found that each region we have visited is very distinct, especially in terms of landscape and architecture. 

Due to the weather and various time constraints, it has been a bit of a down and back up again trip on the west coast, rather than the two-stage, round trip we had originally envisaged, but we have got further and seen more than we thought we would in the time available and have pretty much enjoyed it all and with the possible exception of Montalcino, there is nowhere we haven't liked or wouldn't recommend to others - taking account that we had good advice for Pisa, go, see, silly picture, leave!

In terms of best of's, the only things I can really come up with are:

Rome - fabulous, everyone should go once

The Sistine Chapel - worth every penny of the ridiculous ticket price, but go on a bright, sunny morning for the real wow factor

If you are looking for heavenly coast line and only have time for one, go to CinqueTerre and walk, rather than drive the Amalfi coast.

Pompei is good but don't miss Herculaneum.

Vesuvius is good, but don't miss Solfatara

Pasteum is an overlooked gem for those with an ancient history fascination

Umbrian and Tuscan hilltop villages in the sunshine are lovely - especially those with fine food :)

There is a lot of art, everywhere, especially in Florence, pace yourself!


I have learnt a lot about La Dolce Vita though, which will stand me in good stead for years to come.  In particular:

How to better use Will's coffee machine (a nespresso machine which was apparently the only wedding present he was allowed to choose...).  Turns out, I really like coffee - very short, very dark, very sweet - and the Italians make the best coffee of any nation so far but I have been making espressos too long and cappuccinos in the wrong order - add the frothy milk to the espresso and stir, not the other way round - so no wonder I didn't like it before.

It is true that after about 11am, cappuccino is just not the thing - we both came away from a coffee shop one late morning wishing we had had espresso!

Although there are rules that certain pasta shapes should go with certain types of sauces - have had this verified by an actual italian! - pesto and sun dried tomatoes goe with all of them (we have bought six different shapes of pasta in three weeks and we have only scratched the surface even alphabetti spaghetti and campervans!) and is far nicer than emergency pasta

I prefer Grand Padana to Parmesan (and its cheaper!)

I prefer Prossecco to Champagne (ditto!)

The best gelato comes from towns with no tourists, in shops where the icecream is piled in a mountain, way beyond the confines of the tub, the pistachio is olive coloured and the flavour is indicated by a chunk of whatever it is (pineapple, chocolate, kinder egg) stuck in the side.

Nice olive oil is worth every penny - we now have two, one for cooking and one for bread dipping and won't go back! - but the stuff which has been preserving sundried omatoes in is also delicious - a meal in itself with bread, once you have put the tomatoes in your pasta

It is worth the effort to make risotto with actual risotto rice - don't know why I haven't before - really does make a difference!


So, we have eaten well, drunk well, enjoyed fine company - both honorary van dwellers and random strangers - and become a little more cultured and educated (I have read the Iliad, half of the Odyssey and have Dante queued up) but is definitely time to be moving on.  Food and petrol are expensive and we have a had an elegant sufficency of paintings, sculptures and architecture (I can now tell my renaissance from my mannerist, my gothic from my romanesque from my baroque!).  It is a shame we probaby now won't get to the untamed toe and stilletto heel of this knee-high boot of a country - as the guidebooks say, 'banditry is no longer common in the far south'... hmmm - and will probably have to leave Sicily for another trip.

so onwards, leaving the known, western world behind us and in the the exotic and uncharted central east...

pictures all the way back to rome!

slovenia tomorrow - not sure what internet availability will be like.  all v exciting!

just in case there isn't any for a while, here is how we celebrated our last night in italy...

adventures of jules camper van pasta!

well it had to be done... ciao

What we did on our holidays

written 5th April 2010

Buona Pasqua everyone!

We have had visitors!  Honorary day time van-dwellers no less  :)

Four lakes in four days and four nights of fine food, fine wine and excellent company, can't ask for more from an italian lakes mini break. well, except for nice weather to enjoy it all in  - sadly most of the views were through slightly steamed up, rain spattered windows :(  but you can't always have everything... and a fine time was had despite the weather

It started well, when we picked Kathryn and Austin up in glorious sunshine from Bergamo airport and set off bound for Como where we found their hotel, somewhere nearby to park and pizza in quick succession, but sadly the next day was horrible.  Grey and foggy and wet.  So much so that you couldn't see the other side of the lake, and it is not a wide lake :( 

Lake Como is an inverted Y shaped lake, with two legs which meet about halfway up with Como at the foot of the western one, Lecco at the foot of the eastern one and Bellagio in the crotch.  The sides are all fairly mountainous and still with snow on the tops, when you could see the tops that is...

We set off up the western shore to Laglio, to see our friend George (Mr Clooney, Sir to the rest of you ;) )  but sadly he appeared not to be at home to visitors - even those travelling in such fine style.  We were sure that we would find him, propping up the bar in some local, old men's cafe and that, had he been in, he would have been up for a roadtrip, Kathryn and I would happily have taken him for a ride at any rate... ;)  Such a disappointment, I mean, he must be here, who would be in horrible LA in unbroken sunshine when they could be in beautiful Italy in the rain...

So instead we went to the tourist office in Tremezzo in search of leaflets and things to do in the wet where a rather lugubrious woman said that she had only opened the previous day so didn't know where anything was, couldn't give us very much in the way of leaflets, and didn't really know why we might want to be here anyway.  When asked about what was good to see and do, she sort of shrugged and said that the west coast is very pretty and charming in the summer but there was really not much here.  She supposed we could go to a villa but really that was about visiting the gardens so in the rain we would be wasting our money. And everyone knows it always rains in the first week of April - well, not any of the websites I read two months ago when this trip was first discussed, and which in fact said that in March/April, we could expect 20 degrees and probably sunshine...  In fact, she suggested, the best thing to do, was not be here at all but either get a car ferry to Bellagio, where we could go shopping in the typical streets, or go to switzerland where we could go shopping in a big hypermarket/mall.  hmmmm

Still, with no better plan, and the weather getting worse, we decided to try switzerland reasoning that it was on the otherside of a mountain so bound to be different and anyway, they might organise their holiday weather more efficiently there...

They don't.  And it wasn't.  And Lugano town is a bit sterile and full of banks and expensive looking shops.  but lake was pretty enough and the tourist office lady was much more smiley and upbeat and we had simply the best hot chocolate ever - more like slightly runny mousse than liquid drinking chocolate mmm mmm mmm - but there is only so long you can look at watches and swiss army knives (no cuckoo clocks to complete the stereotype... ;) )

so we headed back.

And as we did, it magically cleared up and the sun even came out - hurrah!  So Jules heroically roared its way up the 1 in 12 switch-backed hill - even with 4 people, a full tank of petrol (surprisingly much much cheaper in switzerland, so worth the trip after all!) and a full tank of gas, it just keeps going up! - to Brunate, high above Como, where we found the last parking spot on the bend in the road that is the punto panoramico

and fabulous, fabulous views.









We celebrated the sunshine with tea and traditional easter cake

and toasted the sunset with apperitivi of prosecco and olives - well you have to follow the local customs for the full-on foreign holiday experience! -

before heading out for local speciality of Polenta in a mountainside restaurant.  Simply delicious - massive clouds of wholemeal, sticky, puddingy stuff with various meaty toppings, nothing like the nice but rather pallid slabs of white polenta I have had before - mmm mmm mmmm

As promised, the sun did put its hat on the following day, so we set out to play on the lake, having planned a boat ride to Bellagio, then a walk part way back along the Dorsale path, which runs from Brunate to Bellagio and was described in the leaflet as "a beautiful hiking trail...it's an easy trail following mainly mule track and cart paths.  From it you can enjoy beautiful mountain scenary."  All sounded good!

Our first mistake was not looking at how long the boat took from Como to Bellagio - about three hours, we realised, halfway in - but it was beautiful, despite the bitingly cold wind and Will's even more bitter complaints about being forced to "enjoy it".  To be fair to him, for a  good while, we were the only people brave enough to be up on top, woolly hats and everything but I maintain that you just can't appreciate the view from inside and it wasn't raining!

But is was definitely worthwhile for the villas and stunning views and we were soon joined in our foolhardy, tourist bravery by Tom, Ben and Dave, three americans on a business trip to Italy from Minnesota who had picked the right day to have a free day in the lakes before their early flight home the following day.

It turned out that they were all embedded electronic engineers, and Dave even has a ford campervan thing with which he goes regularly goes wild camping in the US - what are the chances, an american electronic engineer with a US marque van imported from Germany to the US, meets an english embedded electronic engineer with a German marque van, imported from the US to England on a boat on an italian lake...  So the conversation ranged happily and variously from chips to engines, campervans to RVs and all manner of subjects in between - all jolly good fun!

Bidding farewell to our new boat riding friends, we treated ourselves to a hot chocolate with a mountain of cream in a sunny, vine shaded pavement cafe,

 wandered the typical streets to the very point of the pointy bit

and then set off on our walk.

Our second mistake was trying to do the walk with only the very vague instructions from the only book the tourist office in Tremezzo had had on offer (the lady in the tourist office in Bellagio was too busy talking to her friend to want to help us).  Our third mistake, was attempting the walk in the opposite direction from that described in the book "Follow the track down to the village then it is a 25min walk to Bellagio along the road" does not help you find the path.  Our fourth mistake was thinking that the only sign we found indicating a path pointed up the stepped path, rather than along the residential street just next to it...  and so we went wrong at the very first instruction and, we later realised, to do the walk properly, you start at the top of the funicular at Brunate then the aforementioned easy path goes up and down a bit from there before descending to lake level again at Bellagio.  From the other end, you obviously have to get all that altitude on your own.... 

but it was all very lovely, even if most of the way up we were on the road (or scrambling up hillside to short cut switchbacks),

and when we did finally find the path, it was dappled

and foresty

 and strewn with wild flowers.

We did get as far as the snow-line - well, some vestiges of snow in a shady hollow, good enough for us! -

 before turning back down the actual path  - which is quite well signed once you are on it!! -

and back to the first village for a well earned beer in the half an hour before the last bus home.








Turns out, you can't buy bus tickets on the bus. obviously. You buy them in bars and tabacchi.  but not in this particular bar/tabacchi right next to the bus stop.  oh no, that would be far too easy. to get a ticket, you have to walk back to the centre of Bellagio. But fortunately we were able to look foreign and stupid enough that the driver let us on saying we could buy tickets 'on the road' whatever that meant, so for the first time this trip, we didn't miss the last :)   and we weren't the only ones who didn't know about the tickets thing either.  I guess it happens a lot with stupid foreigners...  And it turns out that buying tickets 'on the road' means that halfway home, the bus stops and the bus drivers shouts a lot, until you realise that he means that you need to hop out here, go to the bar and buy bus tickets.  At least that's what we assumed he meant - we sent Will and made sure we stayed on the bus as hostages, just in case the driver thought he could dump us all there and drive off without us - which of course he didn't :)

So home, safe and sound and visitors for home cooked pasta dinner - for the full van dwelling experience :)

Sadly, after only 27 hours of loveliness, the weather was thoroughly broken again in the morning and remained that way for the rest of the holiday :(  We drove right around Lake Como, past Lake Annone to Lecco then up to the top at Colico and back down the other side in search of sunshine but only found rain and fantastic icecream - so not all bad!  

Even the typical streets we tried were just a bit damp and weren't as nice as those in other regions.  

We even went to a whole other lake, Lake Iseo yesterday - a smallish puddle of wetness which randomly contains Europe's largest lake island, so there you go - 

which had stunning geography 

and a properly precarious shore road and windy switchback panoramic road, 








but it was still wet and misty and the icecream wasn't as good :(  

We did, by complete chance, get to watch the end of the grand prix, in one of those curious bar/tabacchi places, paricularly to Lombardy it seems, which is more than half betting shop and where there are about a million different lotteries and scratchcards with a new 90 ball lottery draw every 5 mins, with a count down on a big telly - where does the money come from??  Still GP was exciting!


We did have a lovely meal at Ristorante Sociale in Como on saturday night but still only managed two out of the supposedly typical four courses - well, most of us only managed two,  Austin had chocolate salami pudding and was kind enough to let me nibble a bit, mmm chocolate salami...) - and more homecooked van food by a lake on sunday before a late flight home as well as copious coffee so we have suffered our way through the weather in fine style :)  and we are very grateful for the things bought from home, and the use of the lovely shower!

but all good things come to an end.  back to work for some, on to pastures new for others - Slovenia tomorrow!

It's one small drive for a Van...

...one giant roadtrip for Vankind!

With a little help from Austin, our air-cooled veedub expert friend, we have made it much further than we thought we would!

The journey was pretty uneventful - although a bit steep on the fuel consumption!  As with bandits in southern italy, the guidebook had said 'Vicious Knid attacks are no longer common', which implies that 'Vicious Knid attacks do happen'!  Thanks rough guide - I hadn't even known I should be worried about Vicious Knids until you told me not to!  

But it was all ok and the satnav plotted an easy route to escape velocity so we were able to slingshot out from the earth's gravitational clutches in no time - much easier than navigating the variously one-way-and-then-not-one-way-can't-turn-right-on-a-light-controlled-junction-when-the-cross-road-is-one-way-going-right crazy system that was Porto city centre!

We had also been a bit worried about an aircooled engine when there was no air to cool it but fortunately, once out of the atmosphere, Will was able to switch it off and gently coast down to the shores of the Sea of Tranquillity - all that practice on windy cliff and mountain roads whilst really, really, really low on fuel has paid off!  And as I have said before, Jules does just seem to keep going no matter what we ask of it - clever little van!

It was even sunny on the moon!  Hurrah!  Makes a change from all the uncertain weather recently.  Although it was a bit chilly out and there was something not quite right with the shadow cast by the van...  Very odd

The landscape was dusty grey, pockmarked with massive craters - a bit like the crater of Solfatara but bigger, and without the bitter lemon smell, the steam and the massively expensive bubbly mud

so we had to get out for a bit of an explore.

It's a funny old place, bit lacking in atmosphere if you want my honest opinion - which, as you're still reading, I presume you do! - but good for a stroll nonetheless and the reduced gravity is brilliant fun!  

Took a bit of getting used to but we were soon bounding around all over the place - fantastic!  More mountain goat like than ever :)  fortunately Jules is heavy enough - especially with all our stuff in! - just to keep going but there was some fun to be had with some of the bumpier bits!

and the view of the earth was simply stunning. 

I mean, Wow.

Definitely worth the detour! 

It was very quiet and a bit eerie but there were some other dune-buggy vehicles parked - although we didn't see anyone around - and we couldn't see any restrictions so we figured Jules would be ok whilst we went for our walk.  And it was so all good.

The only slight annoyance was all the stuff left behind by previous visitors - some stumpy legged platform things covered in foil and flags and things - honestly, people are inconsiderate, they could have  taken their rubbish home with them!

We would have stayed longer than just a morning but by this point we quite fancied a coffee and there was a distinct lack of cafes or bars - missed opportunity there I say! - and of course our gas stove wouldn't work for tea :(  

But there were at least no tat shops, not even a hawker.   Having seen the tat at vesuvius it would be all, moon rock this and moon rock that, all carved into completely irrelevant shapes - dogs, wolves, transylvanian castles - and covered with lurid glitter.  They would probably even try to sell you a bit of land on the moon with your name on it if they could.  Tourists, it seems, will buy anything, even LED lit perspex Towers of Pisa's!) and being out of season, it was at least quiet.   It is probably another of those places which is horrible in high season.  I think it gets so crowded they even have you park elsewhere whilst they shuttle you in for some exorbitant cost - just ridiculous who needs that...

Anyhoo, need coffee so time to be on our way.  The satnav seems a bit lost - just keeps trying to point upwards - but to be fair, we are using freedownload maps which are five years old so that often happens on new roads - it is a good job its conversation is limited to "turn right" and "turn left", otherwise it would spend a lot of time squealing about being in fields... "getontheroad" "getontheroad", "noyoumisseditwhatareyoudoing???"...  

Just need to find a way to get started we'll be away....

Next stop, earth!