Continuing south towards the Serbia / Macedonia border, the satnav warned of a lack of detail, "do you wish to continue with this route?"
However we are not intrepid explorers and Macedonia comes with a few " be careful" warnings, so we decided to stay on the motorway :-) We didn't explore Serbia; it will wait for another trip. So it was on to the border.
Here, passport and V5 were required again and also proof of insurance. We didn't have any of course. When we rang the UK insurance company call centres prior to the trip, most had no idea where these countries are. They don't understand non-EU. "Macedonia - can you spell that"?
The nice man at the passport office was already expecting me to say that I would buy my insurance at the "Green card office" and he handed back one passport and the V5 and put mine in his pocket until I had the necessary paper for the Landy.
Unfortunately in spite of the Land Rover being classed as PLG just the same as cars in the UK, the V5 shows a Validation Character 'B'. What this is for in the UK, I don't know. At the Macedonia Green Card Office, manned by She Who Must Be Obeyed, this means €165 instead of €60. Of course you can't pay by plastic, you can't pay with Serbian currency and you can't pay with Macedonian currency as 1) you don't have any and 2) you don't really want any as you are only driving through the country for a day. But hey! You can pay in Euros! We like Euros!
So I paid in Euros, got my insurance cover for about four hours driving and the nice man at the passport office handed me my passport. I wanted a selfie with She Who Must Be Obeyed but Dawn got concerned with my over familiarity with border personnel and we drove off into the empty satnav.
Then a funny thing happened; our phones went mental and we received all the texts that had been sent whilst we were in Serbia. It turns out that the Tracker had also been offline and stored all its waypoints, only to upload them via the Macedonia GSM network. So it's not so empty after all.
The motorway was quiet and a pretty good standard really, although you do need to be careful as there are potholes and the many viaducts have huge expansion joints where the wood or rubber is perished. This is the main route into Greece so there are lorries and still the other tourists - again mainly German, Austrian and a surprising number of Swiss, all making their way south. One Swiss car was pulling a huge trailer, 2m cube and all wrapped up with tarpaulin.
In spite of our misgivings about travelling through Macedonia (and it's a short journey on a motorway and hardly a war zone), it was nice to look around at fields, mountains and gorges as we weaved our way towards Greece. During a coffee stop at the side of the "motorway" we looked down into a valley and could see a small railway track and station, people tending their allotment gardens and I'm sure I could see a Land Rover. No really!
So an uneventful journey through Macedonia ended at their border with Greece which is just north of Thessaloniki. After jumping the queue at passport control (I think the others were all MK plates) we pulled over and had lunch based on a very nice loaf that we had bought in Serbia that morning.
A friendly Greek litter picker who was about 125 years old, came to say "hello" and to find out from which country the GB sticker was from. "Great Britain" didn't do much for him but "England" did and he was all handshakes from that moment. There's no doubt that the Greeks like the English. It's just that they presume we are German.
A boring motorway later and we could see mighty Mt. Olympus. It reminds us of Canigou at the eastern end of the Pyrennes as it is huge, snow capped and can be seen from the beach. Here it is:
...and guess where our campsite is...
Yes, that's the beach, and this is what you do at the beach after 1,700 miles of driving.
Staying next to us last night only, were a French couple of a similar age to us. They, like the German couple in Hungary, seem to be so matter-of-fact about what they are doing. In their case, they have driven from their home near Perpignan, roamed the Balkans and are now driving north/east to spend a month in Bulgaria. All this is in a large motorhome, towing a trailer carrying a Citreon Dyane. As you do!
However what really defines them and it really made me think about levels of self drive and motivation, was that the guy had a total leg amputation, yet was moving around on 'lower arm' crutches, doing chores like cleaning all the motorhome windows by balancing his stump on one of the crutches.
He did ask me for help because the jockey wheel on the trailer had slipped and the drawbar was on the ground. As I lifted the trailer end up, he was straight onto the ground and re-fixing the wheel whilst sitting on his bum. It was amazing. The result of all this was that we conversed in pigeon French, learned of some Greek sights not to be missed and were given a couple of maps. Then they were gone on the rest of their current adventure!
So we are chilling for two days before moving a bit further south. The coming weekend is a holiday in Greece and by all accounts it's when they first emerge from Thessaloniki and Athens and head to the beach. So we need to be on another campsite by Saturday before the rush. We are probably heading for Delphi. More to follow. Thanks for reading!
However we are not intrepid explorers and Macedonia comes with a few " be careful" warnings, so we decided to stay on the motorway :-) We didn't explore Serbia; it will wait for another trip. So it was on to the border.
Here, passport and V5 were required again and also proof of insurance. We didn't have any of course. When we rang the UK insurance company call centres prior to the trip, most had no idea where these countries are. They don't understand non-EU. "Macedonia - can you spell that"?
The nice man at the passport office was already expecting me to say that I would buy my insurance at the "Green card office" and he handed back one passport and the V5 and put mine in his pocket until I had the necessary paper for the Landy.
Unfortunately in spite of the Land Rover being classed as PLG just the same as cars in the UK, the V5 shows a Validation Character 'B'. What this is for in the UK, I don't know. At the Macedonia Green Card Office, manned by She Who Must Be Obeyed, this means €165 instead of €60. Of course you can't pay by plastic, you can't pay with Serbian currency and you can't pay with Macedonian currency as 1) you don't have any and 2) you don't really want any as you are only driving through the country for a day. But hey! You can pay in Euros! We like Euros!
So I paid in Euros, got my insurance cover for about four hours driving and the nice man at the passport office handed me my passport. I wanted a selfie with She Who Must Be Obeyed but Dawn got concerned with my over familiarity with border personnel and we drove off into the empty satnav.
Then a funny thing happened; our phones went mental and we received all the texts that had been sent whilst we were in Serbia. It turns out that the Tracker had also been offline and stored all its waypoints, only to upload them via the Macedonia GSM network. So it's not so empty after all.
The motorway was quiet and a pretty good standard really, although you do need to be careful as there are potholes and the many viaducts have huge expansion joints where the wood or rubber is perished. This is the main route into Greece so there are lorries and still the other tourists - again mainly German, Austrian and a surprising number of Swiss, all making their way south. One Swiss car was pulling a huge trailer, 2m cube and all wrapped up with tarpaulin.
In spite of our misgivings about travelling through Macedonia (and it's a short journey on a motorway and hardly a war zone), it was nice to look around at fields, mountains and gorges as we weaved our way towards Greece. During a coffee stop at the side of the "motorway" we looked down into a valley and could see a small railway track and station, people tending their allotment gardens and I'm sure I could see a Land Rover. No really!
So an uneventful journey through Macedonia ended at their border with Greece which is just north of Thessaloniki. After jumping the queue at passport control (I think the others were all MK plates) we pulled over and had lunch based on a very nice loaf that we had bought in Serbia that morning.
A friendly Greek litter picker who was about 125 years old, came to say "hello" and to find out from which country the GB sticker was from. "Great Britain" didn't do much for him but "England" did and he was all handshakes from that moment. There's no doubt that the Greeks like the English. It's just that they presume we are German.
A boring motorway later and we could see mighty Mt. Olympus. It reminds us of Canigou at the eastern end of the Pyrennes as it is huge, snow capped and can be seen from the beach. Here it is:
...and guess where our campsite is...
Yes, that's the beach, and this is what you do at the beach after 1,700 miles of driving.
Staying next to us last night only, were a French couple of a similar age to us. They, like the German couple in Hungary, seem to be so matter-of-fact about what they are doing. In their case, they have driven from their home near Perpignan, roamed the Balkans and are now driving north/east to spend a month in Bulgaria. All this is in a large motorhome, towing a trailer carrying a Citreon Dyane. As you do!
However what really defines them and it really made me think about levels of self drive and motivation, was that the guy had a total leg amputation, yet was moving around on 'lower arm' crutches, doing chores like cleaning all the motorhome windows by balancing his stump on one of the crutches.
He did ask me for help because the jockey wheel on the trailer had slipped and the drawbar was on the ground. As I lifted the trailer end up, he was straight onto the ground and re-fixing the wheel whilst sitting on his bum. It was amazing. The result of all this was that we conversed in pigeon French, learned of some Greek sights not to be missed and were given a couple of maps. Then they were gone on the rest of their current adventure!
So we are chilling for two days before moving a bit further south. The coming weekend is a holiday in Greece and by all accounts it's when they first emerge from Thessaloniki and Athens and head to the beach. So we need to be on another campsite by Saturday before the rush. We are probably heading for Delphi. More to follow. Thanks for reading!
Comments
Anyway, what a gorgeous campsite! Looks like you've finally found the warm weather - enjoy!