Cally's European Adventure: Poland’s saltmines, Auschwitz, Sweden finally Italy

Okay, it’s been over a week since you’ve heard from us. Blogging blocks happen to the worst people. i.e. Lloydy has caught up with three days of essential rugby thus hogging the laptop. Tonight he's hoping to catch a little Heineken Cup too.

Enough of the procrastinating … Monday we hit Italy in Belluno. So far - secure wild camping to €2.30 and some of the nicest company in a bar for some time. Tuesday was spent sat in the sunshine of Lido di Jeslso, Italy – washing flapping gently in the breeze on Cally’s wing mirror and more importantly sampling the house vino rosso.

Wednesday, Mrs L gathered dinner from the Cavillino shores after a hectic day in Venice. You can take the Maori out of Aotearoa but you can’t keep her away from kaimoana straight out of the sea. Thursday we sat on top of a mountain in the gorgeous ancient village of Montone. The people (esp. Selena and her mama) rocked plus the food and drink were cheap. And today we’re sat lake-side supping beers at Lido De Touro, waiting for the washing to finish … honest!

Paid Wi-Fi anywhere is expensive and shit. A real shock after we managed three days of courtesy internet via the Klosterneuberg Park Inn (Hotel next to one of the Austrian campsites).

What can we say about what we've seen so far ...

Mountainous Italy (albeit wet) is sublime. We were feeling jaded and unimpressed about European cities in general but the azure-marine lakes and rivers best many around the world. Wooden chalets that could belong in any ‘Sound of Music’ soundtrack … and this is Italy. Snow is on them hills … sorry folks … winter is inevitable.

Venice is stunning, a crazy maze of canals and dead-end streets. Our feet are swollen as we managed to avoid the majority of tourists but ventured into areas no sane tourist should go.

This blog will be backwards, so if you don’t want to read on…

Last week, Team Lloydy camped on a stunning Austrian lakeside, the water surprisingly warm tho Lloydy is a sook and won’t get in.

I found Capt. Colon ... Pratchett fans will understand

Death in Venice ... note for lads who have been on tour, not lloydy for once.

The staff at the Brunner am Zee helped us find great garage as Cally’s exhaust had finally gave up the ghost … the toll from travelling Polish roads.

Day Shit =

It should be noted … if you’re potentially looking for a used campervan that resembles Cally in 2013, she has recovered fully.

We visited Wien (Vienna) on the recommendation of some young German travelers (Annette and Daniel) we’d bumped into both in Poland and Prague. We struggled with Vienna - it is beautiful but we felt the Austrian parliament has been euronated upon by too much money from Eurocrats - Four Brandenberg Tors is over the top!

On the plus side - St. Peter Chapel is untouched and humble, despite the high volume of tourists and pilgrims. Delightful markets dotted around the city but were too scared to sample the local ‘plastic bottle hooch’ available in both Austria and Chech Republic.

Lloydy tells me that the Bristolian lot won’t believe this but … we are getting braver, maybe tomorrow.

We thought the lake had been contaminated but this is a Chech fisherman draining the lake

Before Wien, we spent five days in the Chech Republic. We’d changed €200 at the border and got a 40zl exchange rate BUT Lloydy thought he’d got 4zl. After an hour into the country Mrs L noticed the fuel prices were around the 40-50zl range and voiced the opinion that perhaps Lloydy had been ripped off. No bites and close to our destination we coughed up 2000zl+ for fuel.

Only at this point we checked our wallet. Amazingly Lloyd did the best … cannot be repeated deal! It was so good we celebrated by staying an extra night in Prague.

Exit Poland. We spent the night in Biella Bieko after a long day at Wieslik Saltmines (see some of our photos) and Auschwitz.