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18 April 2023 - Cornwall to Dover
Today is the start of our 3 month road trip to the Greek Islands. We are driving down to Greece through France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia. Then we return to the UK on the coastal route through Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and northern Europe.
We will be having a lot of stop offs on the way so that we can see some of the most interesting places in these countries. We will have just over one month in Greece and the rest of the time will be spent driving there and back.
We wanted to do a road trip with our own car as flying is so much hassle and at the moment car rental costs are very high. It is also very convenient having everything in our car for the whole trip rather than lugging it on and off planes, trains, buses and rental cars.
The other determining factor was that it seemed more exciting to do it this way. We have never been to Serbia, Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro before and driving down enables us to visit these countries.
The drawback of this road trip is that our Ford Focus is almost 10 years old and I am not very mechanically minded. Two months ago our car broke down due to the clutch. Then when we had a major car service we were advised to change the cambelt and auxiliary belts. Altogether this work cost GBP 2,300 and hopefully it will mean that nothing goes wrong with the car during our trip!
Today we drove from our home in Cornwall to Dover and it took about 6 hours. We are staying at the Premier Inn near the Eastern Ferry Terminal. The cost of the room was GBP 45, which is a good rate these days. See my blog "UK to Greek Islands Accommodation - Part 1" for further details.
Once we reached Dover we drove over to the nearby National Trust car park (GBP 5) for the white cliffs of Dover. We did a nice 1.5 hour walk along the top of the cliffs. The views of the cliffs weren't that great and I expect that we will see the cliffs better from the ferry tomorrow morning.
For supper we had a takeaway from Tony's Fish and Chips on the London Road. Tony is quite a character. The portions were massive and the quality excellent. Hopefully the cliff walk will have burnt off a lot of calories!
19 April 2023 - Dover to Troyes, France
The departure time of our ferry to Calais was 09.10, but we had to be there at 08.10. We got up at 06.30 and got to the docks at 07.50. It didn't take us long to get through French passport control. We were then surprised that our car was searched and we even had to open up the hood of the engine.
We were pleased to discover that the passenger areas in the ferry were empty and it was therefore very peaceful. As the ferry pulled away we went out on the deck to see the white cliffs of Dover. Unfortunately it was a bit of a grey day and the white cliffs didn't look their best.
It was only a 1.5 hour ferry journey and before we disembarked at Calais I turned on our new TomTom sat navigation device. I selected the route from Dover to Troyes in France that I had set up before leaving home. In the past we have used the inbuilt sat navigation system in our car, but this only covers the UK. Our inexperience with the TomTom soon caused problems!
After a short while the TomTom directed us to a payment booth that we thought was for the motorway. We were very puzzled when the machine asked us for a reservation number and therefore decided to go to another machine instead. I suddenly realised that we were queuing up for the channel train back to Dover!
I had to ask the driver behind us to reverse back so we could get out of the queue. We managed with a lot of difficulty to get back to the main road and then the TomTom kept directing us back to the channel tunnel! Our confidence in the TomTom was sinking.
I decided to delete the route and just enter Troyes as a destination and it was to our great relief that it resolved things. My mistake was starting the route on the TomTom in Calais rather than Dover. I thought that the TomTom would realise we had already completed the Dover to Calais portion of the route. It hadn't and had been taking us back to Dover so we could start the pre-set route from there. We lost 35 minutes due to this issue.
After that the journey went well on excellent toll autoroutes that cost us Euro 37.60. We could drive at 130 kilometres an hour most of the way and it took 6 hours to reach Troyes. Luckily we filled up with petrol at Dover as we later discovered that petrol is more expensive in France.
At Troyes we are staying at a Kyriad Hotel for Euro 84 a night. It is very nice and hopefully it will stay quiet so we can have a good night's sleep. It is only a 10 minute walk to the old centre of the town. See my blog "UK to Greek Islands Accommodation - Part 1" for further details.
Troyes (pronounced like trois) doesn't seem to be a very well known tourist attraction. However, it has a fantastic, and sizeable, medieval centre of timbered houses. Better than anything I have seen in the UK.
We spent a couple of hours wandering around and looking for cheap eating places at the same time. We found a popular small Thai restaurant called Koboon and our dinner cost Euro 26. I had my favourite Thai dish of Pad Thai and Lani had something a bit more adventurous.
Tomorrow we are going to Bern in Switzerland for 1 night and it should be about a 5 to 6 hour drive there.
20 April 2023 - Troyes, France to Bern, Switzerland
We both had a very good night's sleep as the hotel was very quiet and the bed extremely comfortable. I really dislike thick duvets and this hotel had a nice light one and the pillows were great. We could also open the window which is no longer possible at many hotels.
We left Troyes at 09.00 in sunshine and were hoping to stop for lunch at one of the good service stations along the auto route. Unfortunately we had to leave the auto route before midday.
A bit later we stopped at a large Intermarche supermarket and ate in their restaurant. It was really busy and we ordered the plat du jour of roast chicken for Euro 9. We could have had the 3 course set meal for Euro 13, but we didn't need the extra calories and thought it might take too long.
The scenery had been mainly flat across France, but as we got close to the Swiss border it became hilly. As we got onto higher terrain the temperature dropped from about 15 centigrade to 3 centigrade and it lightly snowed.
There was no one manning the French/Swiss border, but there was an unfriendly man selling the Vignettes for the Swiss motorways. They should cost CHF 40, but it cost a bit more as we paid in Euro and lost on the exchange rate.
The motorways in Switzerland were so much busier than in France. Bern was the first city we had driven through since leaving the UK and it was also busy and congested. It didn't help that our TomTom sat nav took us to a factory rather than to our hotel! We had to use Google maps to find our hotel.
We are staying at the new Los Lorentes Residences hotel on the outskirts of Bern. The rooms are very good and have small kitchenettes. I was a bit worried as there is a huge skate park behind the hotel. Luckily no one was using it which may have been due to the rain. See my blog "UK to Greek Islands Accommodation - Part 1" for further details.
There is an Aldi next door to the hotel so we bought some food for an early supper. It soon stopped raining and we took the nearby tram into Bern at 18.00. All hotels in Bern give their guests a Bern pass which allows free transport on the trams.
I came to Bern on business in 1990, and really liked it, but Lani has never been to Bern before. I therefore thought it would be a good stop off on our way down to Greece. It wasn't as special as I remembered it but it could be because the weather wasn't great and I was tired.
We spent 2 hours walking along the 4 main streets in the historical centre. Luckily it now stays light quite late and it was getting dark just as we returned to our hotel at 20.30.
21st April 2023 - Bern, Switzerland to Vicenza, Italy
I had intended that on the way to Vicenza we would stop off for a few hours at Sirmione, which is a town on the southern shore of Lake Garda. Unfortunately the weather forecast for Lake Garda showed rain until 17.00 and we decided not to do a stop over there.
The journey from Bern to Vicenza is meant to take less than 6 hours. As we weren't allowed to check in to our accommodation at Vicenza until after 17.30 we decided not to leave our hotel in Bern until 11.00. I therefore informed our host at our apartment at Vicenza that we would probably arrive between 17.30 and 18.30.
That turned out to be widely optimistic and we didn't arrive at the apartment until 20.30. We had a 45 minute hold up at the Gothard tunnel and then another 45 minute delay at the Swiss/Italian border. We have no idea why we were held up at the border as we couldn't see any cars being stopped.
Due to these delays in Switzerland we ended up on the motorway at Milan around the evening rush hour and the traffic was horrendous. After that we experienced some dangerous driving well above the 130 km speed limit. We therefore weren't too surprised when there was a serious accident near Verona which delayed us by at least another 30 minutes.
We were exhausted by the time we reached the apartment in Vicenza. Luckily we found the apartment easily and the owner of the apartment was very pleasant. We went to a Pizzeria restaurant just a minute's walk away from the apartment. The pizza was very good and cheap (Euro 7 each) but I had a couple of beers to relieve the stress and they cost more than my pizza!
As our car was parked on the street we unpacked it completely and only went to sleep at midnight.
22 April 2023 - Day Trip to Verona
We slept until 07.45, which is late for us, and after a relaxed breakfast we went to a small supermarket just a 5 minute walk from our apartment. As a result we didn't set out for our day trip to Verona until 10.30 a.m.
We decided to drive to Verona as it was easier than taking a bus from our apartment to the train station in Vicenza and then taking a train to Verona. It was only a 40 minute drive to Verona and we parked in a large multi storey car park just outside the old city.
Several travel blogs had recommended buying the Verona pass for Euro 20. So we went to buy them at the tourist office next to the Roman amphitheatre. It turned out not to be a good decision as the amphitheatre was closed for a few days and it would have been cheaper just to pay the entrance fees at the remaining attractions.
We were surprised and disappointed there were so many tourists in Verona considering it was only April. The majority were Italians and it was probably a combination of nice sunny weather, a Saturday and the following Tuesday being a public holiday for Liberation day.
We spent about 5 hours wandering around Verona, but we were feeling a bit tired and jaded from the previous days' long drive. We decided to climb the 368 steps up to the top of the Torre dei Lamberti to avoid the charge for the elevator. We were rewarded with good views of the city from the top of the tower.
We also visited the Duomo Cathedral, Castelvecchio (castle) and the Basilica di Santa Anastasia. We skipped Juliet's balcony as it was just too crowded with tourists trying to get their Instagram or Facebook photo of it. Any way in reality it is only a 13th century inn!
23 April 2023 - Day Trip to Vicenza and Padua
We both woke up feeling a lot better and well rested. We took a short bus ride into Vicenza and wandered around the historic centre for a couple of hours. Fortunately it was far less busy and less touristy than Verona . As it was a Sunday we didn't go inside any churches. Like yesterday the weather was sunny and a very pleasant 23 centigrade.
I would have liked to have seen inside the Teatro Olimpico, which is Europe's oldest surviving indoor theatre, but tickets cost Euro 11. There were museums open, but we aren't very interested in visiting museums and it is also expensive. We enjoy just wandering around and admiring the architecture of the town from the outside.
We bought some sandwiches for lunch and ate them at a park. Then we took a 20 minute train ride to Padua (Padova) on a very nice and modern train. Padua is another very historic town and is lively as it is a university town.
I really liked Padua and although it was lively it wasn't overly touristy like Verona. The main attraction is the Cappella Degli Scrovegni chapel which is famous for its' art work. However, you have to book in advance and it is expensive. We spent a couple of hours wandering around and then returned to our apartment by train and bus.
24 April 2023 - Day Trip to Venice
After having had 2 very good days of weather we woke up to rain and it lasted until mid morning. As soon the rain stopped we drove to Venice and arrived there at 12.00 after a 50 minute drive. We parked at the Tronchetto multi storey car park which costs Euro 25 per day.
We had thought about taking the train there, but we would have had to take a bus to the Vicenza train station and the train only runs once an hour. Going by car was therefore more convenient but more costly.
It is possible to take a water taxi from the car park to St Mark's Square but it costs Euro 9. We decided instead to do the hour's walk there in order to save money, but also to see a bit of Venice on the way. The route was reasonably well marked and there were also many other people on the route.
When we got to the Rialto Bridge it was really crowded and it continued like that to St Mark's Square. I dislike being in places with so many tourists but Venice is so special.
We had brought sandwiches for lunch as we had been told that food was really expensive. I am sure the restaurants are expensive, but slices of pizza could be bought for Euro 2.50 which didn't seem bad.
We had booked tickets online for the Doge's Palace in order to avoid queuing and the tickets cost Euro 15 each. Our reserved entrance time was 16.00 but they allowed us to enter at 15.30.
I am not a big admirer of paintings after being dragged around Florence's art galleries as a teenager. However, I found the Doge's Palace to be very spectacular due to the opulence of the art work on the walls and ceilings of all the rooms. The prison cells were the exception!
We took 2 hours to wander through the Doge's Palace. Afterwards we walked over to the ponte dell'accademia which has good views along the Grand Canal.
We didn't feel like walking back to the car park so we bought 24 hour water bus passes for Euro 25 each. We can then use these passes when we come back to tomorrow. It took us 45 minutes on the water bus to return to the car park. The views were great from the standing area at the front of the boat and it was easier than walking!
25 April 2023 - Day Trip to Venice
We woke up to rain and thunder and the rain soon became very heavy. We therefore relaxed in our apartment until the rain stopped at 10.30. The weather forecast was for rain until mid afternoon but we decided to start driving to Venice and hope for the best.
Unfortunately we soon drove into very heavy rain on the autoroute to Venice and unlike some other drivers we kept our speed well below the 130 km per hour speed limit. We reached Venice at about 11.30 and sheltered in the multi storey car park!
We had an early lunch in the car and when the rain eased off at midday we set off for the nearby pier for the water bus. It was a 45 minute ride to the cathedral at San Giorgio Maggiore along the wide Guidecca Canal.
Initially we sat inside the boat and sheltered from the wind and damp, but there were no views as all the windows were misted up. After a while we moved to the open area at the back of the boat to take advantage of the views. Luckily the weather was really improving.
There was no entrance fee for the cathedral and we decided not to pay Euro 8 each to go up the tower. All these entrance fees really add up, particularly when you are on a 3 month trip! The interior was very impressive and from the outside there are excellent views across the lagoon to St Mark's Square.
We took the short water bus ride over to St Marks Square and had another look around. It was just as busy as yesterday! Then another short water bus ride over to the church of Santa Maria della Salute. Entry to the church was free, but there would have been a charge to go up the bell tower if it had been open.
We spent a couple of hours walking around the nearby area of Dorsoduru. The weather was now sunny and warm so we treated ourselves to gelato. Thankfully this area is far less busy than the areas around St Marks Square and the Rialto Bridge.
At 16.00 we decided to call it a day and took a 30 minute water bus ride back to the car park. The water bus route back was along the very spectacular Grand Canal with ancient buildings on both sides.
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