Category: Roadtrip 2019

And suddenly it is time to start our way home. We enjoy a last swim at the beach together with my parents, have lunch and then slowly but surely pack our stuff. It is only a two hours drive from Kyparissia to Patras in the northern Peloponnese. Here we are going to board the ferry to Venice. It is supposed to leave at 1 a.m. though we hope that we might be allowed to go onboard a little earlier. After a wonderful last dinner in a small taverna on the coast just before Patras, we are at the ferry terminal around 10 p.m. Getting our boarding passes we’re also being told that embarking starts one hour later. We hang around on the parking until 11 and are allowed through the gate, neither car nor trailer being checked. On the other side is another large parking just next to the quay where the boat is supposed to land. But there is no boat in sight yet. We wait, and wait, and wait, getting more and more tired. Finally, at 1 p.m. the ferry Asterion II arrives. An endless row of cars and trucks disembark, which seems to take ages. Until we’re in our cabin, it is passed 3 in the morning.

The ferry is more than thirty years old and worn down, but our cabin is huge and very comfortable. We never figure out the air-condition though, since the signs on the dashboard are in Chinese… After a good night sleep, we enjoy a beautiful day mainly on deck, first passing the Greek, then the Albanian coast where we were driving earlier on our trip.

I love this way of travelling and it evokes good memories of holidays in my youth. We spend another night on board before we reach Venice next morning. Again, it takes its time until we finally drive on land. Leaving our car at Tronchetto, the big public parking at the outskirts of Venice, we take the Vaporetto line 2 to San Marco, passing through the Canale Grande. Both Dag and I have been in Venice numerous times, but it is Robin’s first time. There’s no better way to see Venice for the first time than following Canale Grande and its beautiful buildings, most of which date from the 13^th to the 18^th century. The facades of these palazzos tell a story of noble Venetian families, demonstrate their welfare and power.

We get off at Piazza San Marco and have a quick look at the square, the basilica and the Doge’s palace. Thousands of tourists, mainly in large groups, and temperatures around 35 degrees, make it difficult to enjoy the beauty of the city, especially for Robin. We go and have lunch instead and then return to the car the same way as we came. We’ll have to come back another time, preferably outside Venice’s peak season.

Our next goal is my parents house. However, we have to spend one more night in Italy before getting that far. Traffic is better than feared and we pass even Milano without any traffic jams. In Switzerland Dag insists on driving over the Gotthard Pass instead of through the long tunnel, and I am happy he did. The winding road leads us all the way up to 2’100 m, traversing the Saint-Gotthard Massif. The mountains are beautiful and the sights spectacular.

Late in the afternoon we reach Oberrohrdorf where I grew up. The same evening we’re invited for dinner at my best friend’s parents house. Wonderful to be met with such hospitality.

Next stop is Lörrach, just across the border from Basel, where we go onboard of the car train the next evening. Instead of driving all the way through Germany, we spend one night on the train and wake up in Hamburg.

Of course, one doesn’t sleep as well on a noisy train, but it is yet another experience and absolutely worth it. We continue to Kiel and spend our last day out by the Baltic Sea close to Laboe. It turns out to be a beautiful spot with long sandy beaches and wonderful views over the sea.

The final stage of our road trip is from Kiel to Oslo on the big Color Line ferry. Another 18 hours on the sea, before we’re home again after a fantastic five weeks, passing through 13 countries, meeting many interesting people, wonderful friends and family. There’s no doubt that the distance altogether was huge – many times we just hade to pass through places that looked interesting. However, driving through all these countries really gave us an insight of how diverse Europe is, how different its countries and people, how contrasting their culture. I guess it can be understood as a first round to get an overview. We’ll just have to return and spend more time in some of the countries we have been passing through now. The Jeep, the trailer and the roof tents will be stored in our garage, ready for a new adventure.

Each time I come to Greece it feels a little like coming home. I’ve been spending my holidays here since I am a very little girl, and both my grandmother which I called Jaja (Greek for grandmother) and my parents have close ties to this country and introduced me to its beauty.

Crossing the border from Albania (the most secured border we’ve seen) and drinking our first Frappé (Greek cold coffee) in a little Kafenion evokes the same emotions this time. I am happy to be back!

We drive mainly on the highway, first south to Ioannina, then westwards up to the mountains. We are heading for Meteora, the region that is famous for its Christian Orthodox monasteries built on immense natural pillars and hill-like rounded boulders that dominate the local area. Even if we’ve seen pictures of the area, we’re not prepared for the real sight. Approaching in the late afternoon, monoliths suddenly appear on the horizon, dramatic, magical and unreal. There used to be 26 monasteries earlier, now only six of them are inhabited by monks or nuns.

We spend the next day visiting a three of them. Luckily, we are out early, before the busses with day tourists from Athens and Thessaloniki arrive. At both Monastery of St. Stephen and Monastery of Roussanou we can look around quite undisturbed, but when we climb up the steps to the Monastery of St. Nikolaos after lunch, it simply gets too much. The atmosphere of peace and seclusion, and the feeling of being closer to the sky than to the earth is destroyed. Pressing ourselves through hordes of other tourists, we quickly decide to leave.

 

We drop the last two monasteries open today and just drive by, enjoying the splendid views. It is hard to imagine how they managed to build these places. Dag and Robin leave me next to the Monastery of Great Meteoron and I walk the 5 kilometres back to Kastraki at awe of this breathtaking landscape. We’ve got to watch the old James Bond movie “For your Eyes only”, once we get back to Oslo. Parts of it are filmed here.

Next morning, we do a little hike from Kastraki following a small footpath leading to two smaller and less visited monasteries. They hang like birds nests high up in vertical rocks, one still being inhabited. Amazing! After a stroll through the market in the neighbouring town of Kalambaka and a good Frappé on the the main square, we leave the mountains aiming towards the coast.

We haven’t really planned our last days before reaching the Peloponnese. The island of Lefkada seems like a good choice, being reachable by car. We’re staying at a small campsite at Dessimi Beach on the East Coast, and it turns out to be the perfect place for swimming and exploring the bay with pedalo and on a SUP. In the morning we drive to the famous beaches of Porto Katsiki and Egremni – famous for its high sandstone cliffs and certainly stunning – but they turn out to be far too crowded for our taste. Boats bring in hundreds of sunseeking tourists from the main town and we hear their load music on board all the way up to the road. Not our idea of a day at the beach…

 

And then it is time to continue south to Vrisses, the southernmost destination on our roadtrip. We spend a week together with my parents in their magnificent house overlooking the coast.

 

 

We don’t do much these days but pass our days at one of the fine beaches, strolling through the nearby town of Kyparissia, playing games, enjoying good food and each other’s company. Sunrise and sunset every day are a highlight! Sunrise usually by myself in the early morning, sunset all together, drinking our daily Ouzo.We have been here many times before and have explored many corners of the Peloponnese – recommendable if you haven’t been here yet. But this time it feels right just hanging around, relax and digest all the impressions we’ve collected on our way here. Holiday at its best!

When mentioning that we we’re planning to drive through Albania, we got quite a few comments warning us about how dangerous it is to drive there. What I can say after having been there is the following: Albanians don’t drive as aggressive as we’d expect, but they certainly don’t follow the same rules as we are used to. For one, they never seem to remember that their car has got a blinker. You’ll never know if they suddenly decide to turn left or right (which they of course do). If they want to get something from a shop along the road, it’s never necessary to find a parking spot – they simply park their car on the road. When driving on the highway (2 lanes in both directions) with speed limit 90 km/h, you meet both donkey carriages, bicycles, motorcycles and people pushing a wheelbarrow, using your shoulder – driving or walking against traffic using parts of the lane.

Along the highway there’s gas stations every second kilometre, usually consisting of a restaurant, bar and hotel, often built in a very pompous style. With a car wash at every corner in the cities and even villages, it’s no surprise that all the Mercedes and other expensive cars on the roads are shining clean. And one thing is obvious: the car is the must-have number one status symbol here in Albania.

Coming from Montenegro, we reach the border at Sukobin in the late morning. There is a long queue of cars and it takes almost 2 hours until we can show our passports. The officer takes a quick look and waves us through, without even checking our car or trailer. We continue south to Durres, through the country side.

This part of Albania is certainly more developed than the rest of country. New building developments pop up along the road, both in and outside of the cities. It all seems chaotic, without an obvious area planning. And in between are the usual unfinished concrete structures, often partly inhabited, but never finished. What we really are shocked and disgusted about is the amount of garbage everywhere. There is not a single spot along the road without plastic bottles, cans, bags etc. It is worse than anything we’ve ever seen.

Next, we reach the harbour city Vlore, which seems a little more organised. Its beach front is lined with lots of new developments in form of hotels and apartment buildings, restaurants and bars. After one night in Radhime right by the sea (no swimming though since the beach is too littered) we continue along the coast. Unfortunately, the weather has turned, and it starts raining after breakfast. Crossing the Llogara Pass we don’t see much of this supposedly beautiful National Park since we’re mainly driving through thick fog.

What we do see are quite a few bunkers, built during the communist government, nestled into the woods. Wikipedia tells us later that there is an average of 5,7 bunkers for every square kilometre in Albania, making it approximately 173’400 bunkers around the country.

We find a campsite south of Sarande in Ksamil. The place is definitely not worth mentioning, though I almost regret not having taken a picture of the ‘bathroom’. None of us feels like taking a shower there.

A little further south is Butrint, one of the most important archaeological sites in Albania. We visit the site in the late afternoon and enjoy the walk through these ancient walls, lying beautifully on a hill overlooking Lake Butrint and Vivari Channel, almost at the border to Greece. Inhabited since prehistoric times, Butrint has been the site of a Greek colony, a Roman city and a diocese. Following a period of prosperity under Byzantine administration, then a brief occupation by the Venetians, the city was abandoned in the late Middle Ages. The ruins on site witness therefore of many different periods, religions and typologies.

We leave the coast the next day and drive north through the mountains to visit another famous tourist attraction in Albania. Gjirokaster, which means “city of stones”, is a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town. The town is overlooked by Gjirokaster Fortress, which origins go back to the 1100s, but it’s been renovated and expanded multiple times in the following centuries. Perched at the summit of a hill, it overlooks an important route through the Drina valley and dominates the townscape.

We start up on the fortress, getting an overview over the town and enjoying the magnificent sight in front of us. Houses, roofs and roads are all built in the same sand-coloured limestone and fit perfectly into the landscape.

We make our way back to the old town and wander through the narrow winding streets to the Old Bazaar where they are restoring the black and white sandstone pattern on the paved road.

We admire many of the typical fortresslike houses, consisting of two parallel tall stone block structures which can be up to five stories high.

We visit two of them: the author Ismail Kadare’s house (refurbished recently after a devastating fire) and the Skenduli house, dating from the early 1700s with many fascinating features, including a room used only for wedding ceremonies and which has 15 windows, many with stained glass. After enjoying a Byrek for lunch – best I’ve ever tasted – we slowly make our way back to the car.

After only a few days in Albania, we continue to Greece, well aware of the fact that we haven’t seen a lot of this country. Originally we had planned to travel to the mountains in the Northeast and also visit Lake Ohrid, but distances are simply to big. We therefore decide to head directly to the Meteora in Greece, our last stop on the way before we end up at my parent’s house on the Peloponnese.

After weeks and months of working on the Jeep and the trailer, Dag actually managed to finish it within time. We had planned to leave early Friday afternoon, though get a little delayed due to some last minor problems with the air conditioning. Instead of finishing up at work, Dag spends half the day getting a spare part to fix it.

We leave Oslo a little nervous and in the worst rush hour, not really relaxing until we reach the Swedish border a few hours later. We are lucky finding a charming little camping south of Gothenburg and spent a pleasant first night on the road.

Next day we continue southwards to Ystad where we board the ferry to Swinoujscie, a city and seaport on the Baltic Sea and Szczecin Lagoon, located in the extreme north-west of Poland. The crossing takes about six hours and we spend the time sleeping, playing cards and having dinner on this rather old ferry.

The following two days we cross Poland, happy about having air-conditioning in the car as temperatures outside reach 37 degrees (almost 60 on the bitumen according to numerous signs along the highway). Since we have agreed to be in Serbia half a week later, we don’t spend a lot of time along the road. The first stop we make is in Wroclaw. After finding a campsite on the outskirts, we take the tram back to the centre. I don’t know what I expected, but the tram was surprisingly modern, air conditioned and with a ticket vending machine only accepting card for payment. The old town is comparable to Krakow’s in beauty and size, and includes the Gothic St. John’s Cathedral, the Renaissance houses framing the market square, the city hall to name a few.

We are amazed by the squares stunning facades, rebuilt after having been razed to the ground in WWII. During dinner on the market square in one of the lively restaurants we agree to come back another time and spend several days in this beautiful country.

Next along our way is Krakow, the second largest and one of the oldest towns in Poland. Unlike Wroclaw, Krakow remained relatively undamaged at the end of World War II, sparing most of the city’s historical and architectural legacy. Having only a few hours available for our sightseeing, we stroll around the old town, visit the famous St. Mary’s Basilica, a brick Gothic church adjacent to the main market square, the Cloth Hall, Europe’s oldest shopping centre, and Kazimierz, the Jewish Quarter. No doubt also this city deserves a longer visit another time – we just got a small impression of all the attractions this amazing place offers.

During the night we experience our first storm – one of many as we get further south. Luckily our two rooftop tents prove to be stable and waterproof, but we don’t get too much sleep that night.

From Krakow we drive to the mountains and have lunch in Zakopane, a popular destination for both mountaineering and skiing. It turns out to be more touristic than charming.

Crossing the Tatra Mountains, a mountain range that forms a natural border between Poland and Slovakia on the other hand is beautiful.

We cross the border and pass the national parks of Slovensky Raj and Muranska Planina. Further south, in Rimavska Sobota there is supposed to be a camping site according to one of our apps. Unfortunately, the information turns out to be wrong. We try to ask people at a gas station, but nobody speaks English. Fortunately, there is a guy with a campervan that tells us about a small camping close by in Kurinec which we find without further problems.

This is an experience we’ll have many times on our trip: the two apps that we are using are not trustworthy. We realize how spoiled we are from traveling Australia with the WikiCamp app. Always accurate and informative, and one doesn’t have to be online.

The following day we cross Hungary without any stops (except for a few gas stations). The only thing I remember is street signs with names too long to decipher before we’ve passed them. Try to read Hódmezővásárhely in a few seconds, just to name one…

In the middle of the afternoon we reach the Serbian border in Bajmok. We are being checked twice, both leaving Hungary and entering Serbia. Shortly after we arrive in Stanisic, our friend Jasmina’s hometown. Jasmina and her family live in Oslo and we got to know them through Robin’s school.

The next couple of days are cheerful, relaxing and we experience the best of Serbian hospitality. It’s a pleasure meeting Jasmina’s parents and other family members, being shown around in the area, visiting the lovely towns of Sombor and Novi Sad and enjoying good Serbian food. Robin enjoys the company of other children, including his school mate Emma.

Happy and thankful we leave our friends a week after we drove from Oslo, heading south.