We sailed from Hull on Monday evening, 19th May, a bit earlier than we sailed last year and the ferry was so much quieter (and cheaper) the only area of the boat that was busy was the cabaret lounge, which by chance is also the only bit of the boat you can smoke in!
We filled up with cheaper fuel in Holland (1.44 euros per litre) and headed for our strategically placed family members, for our 3 overnight stops. Firstly, Paul and Milena’s in Heidelberg. The road systems in Europe seem so efficient, it all moves without major hold up or huge traffic jams even when the inevitable road works occur and despite the fact that everything seems to be transported the length and breadth of Europe by truck.
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The Rhine
We were making such good time on the roads, that when we spoke to Paul he suggested a scenic little detour down the Rhine valley via Koblensk. A large railway town with links to eastern Europe, (see Schindler’s list).
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St Goar
Anyway the scenery was absolutely stunning, lots of fairy tale castles in the hills, picturesque little towns perched on the sides of the fast flowing Rhine, with huge barges and ferries battling against the current, up and down stream. We stopped for some lunch in a little town called St Goar, and had a dish of local sausage, sauerkraut and fried potatoes, washed down with a couple of glasses of locally brewed beer.
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Keith in a bar in St Goar (Rhine Valley)
We arrived at Paul and Milena’s beautiful home at about 5pm after a full day covering 350 miles.
Warmly welcomed, beers opened, a few stories exchanged and Paul displayed his culinary skills and created a fresh garlic mayonnaise (Good old Delia), whilst Milena cooked local grown asparagus, which is in season at the moment. We had a meze of local and Italian meats, plus a couple bottles of local Riesling (is there a theme developing here? Local food local booze?) We stayed overnight in their guest apartment next door to their house, then up and on the road again in the morning by 9am.
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Driving in Switzerland
We headed for Milan, to our next overnight stop at Debbie and Franco’s house. We did all the obligatory oooooing and aahhhing as we drove through Switzerland but the sky was progressively getting greyer the further south we went. Another warm welcome awaited us at Debbie and Franco’s and another 350 miles covered. We were wined and dined with local food and wine in that enviable Italian style and even managed to watch the football, The Champions League Final. After much drama and shouting, (only at the football) we crashed out about midnight.
Then back on the road in the morning just a short hop to Sheila’s in the Italian lakes area near Simioni which is just 10 miles or so away from where she lived last year at Lake Garda. Sheila has a beautiful apartment in a tastefully converted farm with a large private veranda and a shared pool (take note Paddy and Martin for design ideas) Sheila didn’t let us down (bless her) she made us a lunch with bacon (from her freezer that she had brought from the UK) sausage (Lidal Specials), egg and beans, accompanied by Champagne and red wine. In the evening we walked to her local pizzeria, we had a great meal with more red wine and saw loads of fire flies as we walked back to her apartment (we think?) fell into bed and slept well.
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Sheila outside the converted farm where she livesIn the morning we had a couple of hours drive to the port in Venice. This leg of our journey was pretty spectacular, with the most incredible electrical storms over the Venice skyline. We witnessed the same pandemonium as last year at the port as the Greeks loaded all the vehicles onto the ferry. We waited patiently as they found odd vehicles to load on in no particular order, then with 15mins to go, a man on a moped rushed up to say anyone for Corfu get on the boat now!! The usual mad rush then ensued. Poor Liz was dying to go and tell them a more efficient and logical way of doing it!!
It appears that the Greeks have heard of multi-tasking, as the man who showed us to our cabin was also the waiter for our evening meal and the same young man ‘directing’ the loading of the ferry, AND the on board pool attendant/ lifeguard. The expression “Spiros of all trade’s master of none” springs to mind! There was even a deck hand doing some painting on a glass roof over the passenger area, and for health and safety reasons someone had tied him to a hand rail with a rope attached to the back of his boiler suit, only in Greece!
We had a great 24-hour crossing, much quieter than the ferries both ways last year. I don’t think they are quite prepared for the busy holiday season yet or the arrival of the Brits on the ferries, as Liz managed to buy up all the Silk Cut on board in just 2 hits!!! We even managed to get an outside cabin and woke up to spectacular views of the approach to Corfu. We arrived in Corfu town at 2pm Saturday having driven just over 1000 miles, it felt like we had arrived home. Keith’s first gig is on Wednesday night and with 3 others booked it already feels like business as usual.
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This is the view from our balcony overlooking San Stefanos village Our contact details are:-
keith.muso@gmail.com
and
lizzy.away@gmail.com
(notice how both our email addresses reflect our occupations!!?)
Will blog again soon.......bye for now xxxxx
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