Rain RaIn go away!
If the rain in Spain falls mainly on the Plain, then the Torrents in Turkey target Taffy! By the time we reached Unye poor Taffy was black. The rain has followed us each day and even now on a lovely little campsite overlooking the Black sea a thunderstorm is passing by. The drive from Istanbul took 3 days and we are now about 2/3rds the way across turkey. It is a very big country. The road here is currently being dualed and we have driven over 500kms in non stop roadworks. We will never complain again about English ones. The towns are all modern clusters of flats and don’t look very...
Read MoreLast stop in Europe – Istanbul
We loved Istanbul. It is everything the guide books tell you and more. Being able to walk into the city in 5 minutes was excellent, though our plot up beside the sea sounded a lot more idyllic than it was. The car park was where the local lads brought their dates each evening until about 2am. They seemed to think the best way to impress them was to deafen them and the van would vibrate every time one of the more amorous lads drove past. When they had finished for the night the resident pack of dogs would hold extensive barking sessions. Fortunately sleeping pills, air con and walking for...
Read MoreFarewell EU!
The Turkish Greek border crossing was fun! You leave Greece easily enough and then get to the bridge linking the two countries where there are plenty of armed soldiers in full combat gear at each end and the middle. The two opposing countries soldiers face each other in the centre of the bridge it reminded me of checkpoint Charlie in Communist times. The Turkish side – like last years entry point from Syria – had a brand new customs hall. Oddly the first Police checkpoint has the booth on the passenger side of vehicles. Linda handed our passports to the policeman who flatly...
Read MoreWe slipped through Greece
As usual we’ve spent far too long in Germany and so we decided to drive through Greece in a couple of days. We left Macedonia and re-entered the EU to find the landscape change immediately once more. The farming became intensive and properties looked more prosperous. You wouldn’t believe there was any crisis in Greece from the little we saw. We picked a stellplatz en route and found we had by chance stopped at the site of Alexander the Greats fathers tomb. This was only found recently and was completely in tact with the burial artifacts as they were almost 2500 years ago. The...
Read MoreOhrid – the Cinderella Town
Lake Ohrid is another UNESCO site being one of the oldest lakes in the world. The town of the same name also a UNESCO site, has a large dominant castle overlooking the dozens of bars restaurants and Yarmouth sea side tack shops heaving with thousands and thousands of people. The walk up the hill to the fortress weaves it way past exquisite churches, a roman theatre and a large excavation of a byzantine church and by the time you reach the summit the number of visitors could fit in a mini bus. It crossed our minds that many of the visitors to Orhid may not even know of the existence of the...
Read MoreAlbania
We arrived at the border a little apprehensive. We’d heard horror stories of Albania and our expectations were low. These were immediately reinforced when we came to a single lane wooden bridge and found ourselves covered in kids. It was like a scene from a zombie film with them banging on the windscreen and hanging from the mirrors! I’ve seen Shaun of the Dead so out came the cricket bat…. We are always prepared for the throngs of kids who stick to Taffy like limpits in poorer countries and have a large selection of English sweets to pass out to try to get them off! We...
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