Balkans 2023 - yes it is going to start

We are almost ready for another trip to begin. This is the one that was going to be in late Spring but was postponed, as we couldn't get away in time to avoid the heat of the Summer. We made a promise that instead we would try to visit Greece in the late Summer / Autumn and so the idea of a two trip 'season' was born.

As a particular treat we have booked the Hull - Rotterdam ferry, which means we have a lovely 80 mile Sunday afternoon drive to the port, rather than a 5 hour drive to Kent.

The route is roughly the same as the one we took on our return trip from Greece in 2015, which means crossing the Alps in Austria and Slovenia, before taking the coastal route down through Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and into Greece.

We had considered taking a ferry from Italy to Ioannina but the Dalmatian coast is quite a draw, in-spite of us never having driven past Emilia Romagna in eastern Italy.

Of course the Landy has needed plenty of attention and is still refusing to allow sign-off, with an annoying spill rail leak that refuses to be sealed. A snorkel has been fitted and a replacement rear exhaust. The footwells and floor plates have been sound-deadened and the window blinds are getting improvements made by the interior designer / fixer. So we will be ready. Only four more sleeps.

Comments

Charlie said…

The Landy is looking ravishing! Have a brilliant trip

8 September 2023 at 20:40

Mark M. said…

Wishing you safe and enjoyable travels.

10 September 2023 at 19:42

On y va

Hooray. We are off. The ferry was booked a few weeks ago and the pressure was then on to get all sorts of jobs finished on the house and Landy. Major cosmetic work was to cover the grey front doors with paint that matches the rest of the vehicle. On the engine a coolant leak had developed behind the water pump and so the P gasket and adjacent core plug were renewed. Also a cheapy head unit from those Chinese people replaced the old Sony fm radio. Now we have opened up the wonders of Car Play and all that comes with it. Finally the 9th gen iPad with WiFi became a 9th gen iPad with WiFi and ‘cellular’. This means we can use OsmAnd Maps which need no data and get their gps position off the ‘cellular’ chip in the iPad. More on this useful map in subsequent posts. We headed towards Portsmouth for a mid morning ferry via our old neighbours in S-I-V. There we had a great few hours updating each about our families and then proceeded to save the NHS, the country and the world too. I mean why no...

Potes and environs

Potes is a bustling town that’s clearly ‘in the mountains’ but isn’t quite a mountain town. Well that was what we thought until we went for a walk. More on that later. First we got to know the site ( Camping La Viorna ) and the neighbours. After the squeeze of the first night near the pool, we were upgraded to a pitch at the end of the lowest terrace which had a superb view of the eastern massive of the Picos. So although this was still a squeeze pitch, somehow we felt good about it. The ‘squeeze’ happened later in the day. ☺️ Happily our immediate neighbours were quiet Dutchland people who like to eat their tea early and retire in good time. They always enjoy taking to us Brits, rather than those Germans and soon I was engaged because I was asked a question. “Why do you have a UK flag on your number plate, rather than a Welsh Scottish or English flag?”. Tricky! I explained that England isn’t a country like Wales or Scotland. They have their own parliaments and make rules for them...

Onwards

You can’t visit a classic car enthusiast without admiring their car and we got our timing right, as it was the monthly club meet on Sunday. This was held at the Hippodrome in Maisons Laffitte, so it was just up the road. The definition of ‘classic’ here is 30 years and so many of the vehicles there looked very familiar to us 😳. TR5 and TR6, MGB, RR, BMW, Maserati, of course the Jensen Interceptor that our host drives, 2CV, Caterham 7, a beautiful Austin Healy 3 litre and then this… This is identical to mine, a Fiat 850 Sport Coupé, that I owned from 1978-81. Seeing it, brought back memories of welding, brazing, stripped driveshaft splines, clutch on the M1 and many miles of amazing touring. We drove around France on a camping road trip for all of September 1978 and the following year did the Ardennes for a month too. Here’s Nige’s Jensen… Maisons Laffitte is a very nice area to the west of Paris centre. The mansion is now owned by a trust I think and is a beautiful building. All we ne...

Peelies travels

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