4745 returned from garda

Well we got back monday, and i need a rest! really.

We arrive on site at camping belvede, manerba, on sat 26th and were a little
surprised to be shown to a mobile straight away {11am} usually 3 or 4pm.

To say the journey down, was eventfull is prety close to the truth, you see
we had left for the crossing on friday morning at 6am to catch the 10.40
cat from dover to bolougne.After we had crossed over the dartford bridge,
i noticed the car was smoking...black smoke, huge clouds of the stuff so i
took appropriate action, turned the radio up, no i slowed down and as long
a i didn't push the throtle open more then very lightly it seemed ok.

This meant that the rest of the journey would have to be done at a snails
pace! 70mph was ok on the straights but any inclines whatsoever meant
slowing to 50 or even 40mph because if i hit the throttle the black smoke
returned!

We had been planning to take a route that meant getting off the m/way at
riems and going cross country to basle via nancy and colmar, but because we
know of the hilly terain near to colmar, i decided it best we stick to the m'way
and its 2/3 lanes.
This also meant that our planned route in Italy, from the border across to
como and a maintain route to the lake was also a no no!

So saturday we arrived and spend the rest of the day on site, the weather
was surprisingly hot and our mobile facing the lake got a good blast of the
late sun every night.

sunday.

Up early to fetch the in laws from bergamo airport, surprise surprise,we were
late, well its better than waiting around.

did a bit of shopping at a penny? supermarket, the bbq meat being pretty
good value, but you can never be sure what it is.

monday.
We took a walk around the menerba bay area shoreline, which includes awalk
into the lake itself! as there is a island off the peninsular about 200 metres
away, and there is a walk way where the water is pretty shallow, a foot at
most, although you can see that stepping to anyside by more than a couple
of feet would have you up to your neck in it.

The island itself is pretty popular with sunbathers and it has a small peak
where you can finally get a pretyy good look of the lake in all directions,
something you cannot do from inside the bay.

tuesday.
decided to take the in laws to see verona, so we made a pack up and got
there around 11am. the weather was again good and warm.did all the major
sites, but was unable to cross the fortified bridge! we had picked a day when
it was closed till 17.00 due to work being done! work? and Italy in the same
sentence! just our luck, worse still we had walked from the closseo towards
juliets house and upwards to the market and duomo,and had crossed over to
the otherside of the bridge, thinking we would cross back at the fortified
bridge, more bloody walking !

Verona was nicer than i remembered and the square behind the mkt,which
was being renievated was very impressive,as were many of the facades
throughout the city.

wednesday. this should have been a rest day, but because we had spent the
full day before in verona, [we had planned to do a couple of small towns aswell} we decide to visit desenzano and simione and pecheria.

not really much at desenzona, although as we had parked up next to the
wharf and had noticed a large boat leave and one arrive, we made enquirers.
from here you can get a boat to all the major places. riva at the top of the
lake, is a 2 and a half hour boat trip!

We decided to take the 20 minute crossing to simione 18 euros for the 3 of
us return, which did'nt seem bad.

Now i know simione is very commercialist, never the less it is a gem of a place
only mistake we made was finding that there is a roadtrain that runsfrom top
to bottom of simione for 1 euro each way. we found out after walking uphill
to the top! would rather have got a lift up, and walked down.

thursday was the inlaws last day, and a friend of theirs was staying at lemone
so arrangements were made to meet for a morning coffee! more bloody driving
and when do i get my restday?
So we drove the 30 miles up the lake through some tunnels, that i believe
should have been finished by now what with all the spikey bits, and narrow!

lemone itself was a very windy place, but pretty, with its narrow streets and
plenty of shops, i even got to do a bit of bartering for a handbag the missis
wanted. saved 5euros! bet anyone else would have saved 10.

It was still b4 midday so i decided to carry on eventually arriving at trento.
Strange place i expected more, a few nice churches, the main square and a
few austrian looking buildings, just expected more,i had even bought a map
but unlike the one for verona it was a proper map rather than for tourist,and
although we found a few placards around trento [should be atleast 30]we
had no idea were or how to get to them all, no arrows and they were
re pavinging the streets[we had seen 1 set of painted footprints]

friday.
up early to take inlaws to the airport back by 9am and went back to bed til
11am, didn't feel too well,i blamed the salami tostie i had in trento!

This was also our last night on site, so we rested.

saturday.
we leave the site,and being as our crossing is on sunday at 23.55! we had
planned to stay in aosta that night,again because of the car decided against
it so we were driving towards milan,not knowing what we were going to do.

we hit bad traffic, accident and lost over an hour! for once i didn't mind as
i really didn't know which way we were going home. I remembered that i had
read about belinzona [italy in switzerland] so we gave it a shot. lovely place
and as ticino [the region] had been having a festival there was even entertainment in the main square.

sunday morning we carried on even going into germany and into france at
stasburg, weather started to change really windy and stormy and we had
a crossing in this at midnight! Text the inlaws to see if eurotunnel was doing
any specials, just incase [two years earlier the midnight crossing was
cancealed ] anyway we arrived at the port at 9pm to be told there was a 2
hour delay, not bad really.
crossing wasn't bad either only a few up and downers.

The car? turns out the entire exhuast was full of carbon? £70 later its never
ever ran this good. well it should be ready now for next year.

Me i need a rest/holiday, never worked so hard....