As I was saying to Niki: The problem with most interesting natural phenomena is that they kill you!’ We are in the midst of a quite strong Bora, which is the result of the extremely cold temperatures (which resulted in yesterday’s big dumping of snow) over the interior (Justinian Alps, to be precise) and the lower Adriatic. Wind speeds last night had gusts well over 80km/h – not nearly close to the record of over 300km/h recorded down the road a few years ago, but still enough to keep the van rocking and rolling through the night. Forecast is for worse to come …
Caught a bus into the centre of town this morning – well done Niki – and took a walkalong the piers and promenade in front of the Square of Italian Unification. It was freezing with very strong gusts of wind blowing us sideways – sort of reminiscent of Cape Town! In Trieste they too string ropes and chain to provide handholds for pedestrians. Given the low temps and strong winds we can be forgiven for cutting our visit short and heading back to the van. The be fair, perhaps not the most interesting old town we’ve walked through. Two big pluses were the excellent (and very cheap) coffee, and the excellent (and very cheap) bus service – Italy continues to nail both of these. Some other areas – driving – are still to be worked on.
So we are settling back in the van – some sun occasionally streams in – and catching up with reading and perhaps a TV series. Plan is to get to Aquileia and see the ruins tomorrow before camping outside Venice tomorrow night and spending some time in the city. Italy is proving to be difficult to do free camping as we have elsewhere in Europe, and campsites are relatively expensive and not too well appointed – oh, and diesel is super expensive, almost €1.60 a litre compared to the €1.19 we paid in Austria – no sign of yellow vests, though…
And, continuing previous posts on epic restoration failures, let’s take a closer look at this disaster in the city’s main square. To be fair, almost all the figures in this work have been botched to a similar degree … You might want to click here to see some of the classic fails.
48 hours of non-stop rain and sleet finally came to an end as we began packing up to move on from our unexpectedly amazing campstop at Allweglehen. Interesting to note that high season prices are €43 per night, or €15 per night for campervans parked at their bottom parking area. €12 off season was just fantastic and goes some way to explaining why we stayed 2 nights.
Firstly, in the interests of fairness and not aiming to offend any particular nationality I’ve tried to be even-handed. So it is with no particular malice that I note that Austria is the place to which Germans without a sense of humour are exiled. Of course that excludes the Schwartz’s!! It’s been a long time since the person behind the till greets you and your order with ‘Ja?` Nevertheless, a great morning spent at Austria’s premier tourist venue, the Festung Hohensalzburg. And quite spectacular it was too, in good tourist-type condition, audio-tour provided with the entrance ticket, and lots of non-smiling guides preventing you from wandering off their beaten track.
The morning started with Niki, having set her Google Maps setting to ‘Athletic’, completely missed the great funicular trip from the Dom (Cathedral) to the top of the fortress. Instead we huffed and puffed up a winding path. All that was missing were the kids doing an ‘are we there yet’ kind of whine. Layers were removed until the daypack was filled to overflowing and finally we arrived to a gorgeous view over the old town. Quick point: the last section of the path must be a 30% incline.
A walk through the small, but well-preserved old town led us to a bar and lunch, before heading back to the van. Some shops just proved to be really interesting: This shop sold dirndl and lederhosen. I was reminded on Niki’s dad telling me a story from his school days in Port Elizabeth, when he was caned, but wearing his lederhosen, was the envy of all boys undergoing similar punishment (seriously, let’s name it for what it was, abusive torture).
Around the corner, a bespoke knife maker. Now I don’t really like jewellery, but watches and knives are what I find beautiful – and this was simply stunning. I was quite speechless, and had a little quiver when picking up one of the mid-range knives (€6000). Top of the range knives were €18000 each. You can, of course, get a complete kitchen set …
On the road again and 5 minutes later we turn into a 5 star campsite overlooking stunning valleys and snow covered peaks. In fact, the campsite itself is pretty snow covered. For €12 we now have: Electricity, fresh water, heated outside pool looking off into the Alps, a stone t
Contented-Campers.com 