Winter 23

Not sure if this should be here or in blogs? Anyway.

Ferry on the 6th of September so we decided to stay at Norman View, the night before it’s an Aire I had heard great things about and it did not disappoint, €15 without ehu €20 with.

Headed down to Rosslare early intending to park and take the dog for a long walk on the beach. Nowhere to park whilst the work is going on so we checked in and waited in 30 degrees for hours. We boarded an hour before we set off. First impressions of stena vision compared to BF Galicia were not good, the cabin was basic with plenty of evidence that dogs had been left unattended, scratch marks and scuff marks everywhere, even the toilet seat had been chewed. Sign in the room advised dogs are not permitted in the shower. No TV on demand unlike BF and the socket was in a silly place. Dog exercise area was small but bigger than Connemara. The cooling/heating thing in the room was very loud. We recorded the whistling noise and headed to guest services expecting to be told that all rooms were like that and they were all booked so no changes possible. Instead they said oh that’s bad we will find you a quieter room, which they did and helped us move plus a free drink voucher each. Talking of drinks it was €6.90 a pint.
The trip was on time but we were sat in the MH for 45 minutes on the deck before we moved.

We decided as it was still early and the weather was good just to drive about 30 km to bricquebec Aire. I wasn’t thinking and followed Google maps which took me off a D road onto a narrower road to save 12 seconds which resulted in many French people being very surprised and annoyed to meet me on their short cut. Needless to say the shortcut added about 10 minutes to my journey and a reminder to me to stick to the proper roads. Heading about 300km east today. There’s an Aire and campsite next to each other and a E Leclerc in walking distance. If the place is nice we will stay for 3 nights, if not we won’t.

Summary, BF suit my needs better than Stena.

I’ll do a better update when I have some more time. For now;
So arrived in France expecting to drive to Metz in 4 days then follow the Moselle to Koblenz then the Rhine to Switzerland. Weather was too nice for driving so stopped at a campsite €17 a night acsi rate for 5 nights then slowly headed up through Belgium and Luxembourg into Germany, stayed at a couple of Camperstops on the Moselle then went east to follow the Rhine down to Switzerland. Ended up getting to Switzerland early than intended but I’m glad I did. The country is amazing, not cheap though. Then I got my motorhome on a train to take a short cut through the mountains. I had inches to spare either side of my wing mirrors. Then stupidly drove some Pass up over some more mountains into Italy. My brakes were smoking!!! Now in Italy. It’s hot. The non toll roads are awful and the drivers are bonkers. However Amanda has just sent me a picture of 6x660ml bottles of peroni for €6.50 she’s at the til.
Diesel today €1.99.

Did I mention how bad the Italians drive. This was today I think.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne…dqj0shtlc8

So Italy. I’ve got to say for me it wasn’t a favourite country in a motorhome. Don’t get me wrong the scenery is amazing, the Lakes, mountains and in my case the Adriatic coast were beautiful. So what’s not to like? I’ve only spent 7 nights in Italy using a combination of campsites and commercial Aires. The campsites I stayed on were all very busy, and pitches were generally cramped and you have neighbours all around you. The general standard of hygiene was poor. The Germans have a phase that is along the lines of price to quality ratio, and in my opinion the price didn’t reflect the quality. The commercial Aires were no better. I picked one based around the general location I needed to be and I tend to put in a town/city in a camper app and search by rating. In the area I was looking at I chose an Aire based system n the best rating. It had 99 pitches and we were one of 4 vans there. It was a walk to the nearest village along a narrow road, so walking the dog in the area wasn’t great. There were signs on the Aire forbidding you to walk the dog on site. The price was 25 euros without ehu. Electric if required was €3 for 3 amp and €5 for 6amp. Shower was €1 for 2 minutes and the meter was 20metres from the shower so there’s a 30second delay from putting the coin in to the shower coming on. The campsite I’m at as I write this, again the highest rates in the area is €15 with electric but I have a roof tent 4m to the right. A motorhome 3m to the left a vw slider 4m behind. The toilets and showers are disgusting and we will be using our own as I can’t face theirs. The beach is nice but no it’s not for me. Having looked at alternatives upto 120km away we decided to bring forward our ferry booking to Greece. I emailed in Greek two campsites that are quite close to Patras that get really good reviews and the automated reply I had from one was in German and says the Greeks don’t read emails and just turn up. So I will let you know how that works. If either of them are any good we intend to stay put for a week or two. We have driven 2500 miles in a month so it would be nice to settle in one place for a change.
I’ve got the best cabin on the ferry tonight for our crossing, my own van.

Camping on board photo. If I’ve attached it

So camping on board Bari to Patras. It’s confusing on arrival at the port because you walk into a building to check in, no booths like you see at Rosslare etc. once that’s sorted you get directed on board, in our case at 5.30pm for a 7.30 departure. Hook up provided, shower and toilets at the end of the car deck accessible 24/7. I didn’t realise the ferry went via another Greek port until we set off so at 5am people were Leaving and getting on board. You can go up to the main decks, even with a dog but dog walking area is outside but you have to walk through an inside area to get out. We arrived in Patras an hour before we were scheduled to. Unloading was really simple no passport control. Headed to Lidl 5 minutes down the road, great parking. Now at camping ionion beach Great site 33degrees I’m melting.

Jon the ferry crossing was much better than I expected. A bit of a faff on check in but everything else was great. Only 10 motorhomes on the ferry. So far, early days, Greece is great. The site I’m on is amazing. Camping Ionion beach, acsi €21.

Camping on board was, in my experience, much easier and nicer than a cabin. Step out the hab door and a great big window (of sorts) to see the views.

The first site we stayed at in Greece was amazing Ionion camping it’s an hour from Patras. Great pool, bar and restaurant, facilities, beach only downside not the best for walking a dog. That said I’d come back to it again. Moved on today only about 15 miles to the site I’m on same price €21 but no pool and the facilities are not as new but more than adequate. Diesel on route €1.76 a ltr and lpg was €0.80. Went shopping on route Lidl is the 3rd biggest supermarket in Greece and had what we needed. The campsites we have been to, both of them, had loads of space and definitely no need to pre book. Weather is still amazing. Initial thoughts; I’ll be heading this was next year again instead of Spain and Portugal.
Unlike Italy the roads so far are good and the drivers are more courteous.

Fair point. We all like things for different reasons and 7 days meant I probably missed some gems.
However based on my very limited experience it wasn’t for me.

I tend to take recommendations with a hint of scepticism as again as said above we all like different things for different reasons.

Re the ferry which was ideal I should’ve read the time table and route but didn’t, my error. It was still a great crossing.

Hygiene perhaps I was unlucky but the French two step, wood planks and a hole don’t work for me even if they are cleaned regularly which sadly did not appear to be the case. That said I’ve seen similar standards in the UK and Ireland.

Greece so far, only two sites have been of a great standard.

I didn’t mean to be overly harsh on Italy. The country, landscape and scenery are amazing. Perhaps I got spoiled in Switzerland!? Italy just didn’t do it for me but that’s me, I know what I like and I know what I don’t like. I think for me the complete lack of courtesy from the car drivers and others didn’t help. I also feel that if paying for a pitch I should have a fair amount of room. I’m sure plenty will prefer Italy to Switzerland and Greece but as I said for me I didn’t. I have been to Italy before on holiday not in a motorhome and loved it. But I didn’t particularly enjoy the places I stayed at or roadworks or the other drivers lack of consideration.
That said we are all different.

Max you are probably right but I heard from quite a few people who told me, including Italian motorhome owners that the reason garages will not allow the filling of gaslow cylinders or even under slung LPG tanks is that the log for use in the engine has a lower rate of VAT than lpg for cooking or heating and garages could get into trouble for selling the LPG at the wrong VAT rate.

To be honest this makes sense as LPG was very cheap in Italy.

It was aware filling up with lpg would be a problem in Italy so I just made a point of filling up in Switzerland (self service in manned garage) before heading into Italy and I filled up again in Greece where the attendant did it all for me.

Thanks for the additional information. For me and others who don’t want to swap bottles or regulators, gaslow and under slung tanks are really great for extended multi country trips.

Anyway reverting the conversation back to my travels as opposed to experience of Italy. I’m on my third site now all have had lots of room and no need to book in advance at this time of year. All sites have been €21 per night (ACSI rate) all three have been beach front. Toilets have seats and two out of three have toilet paper. The electric hook up in 2 of them have been the French type two pin plug not the standard camping hook up you find in Ireland. One had reverse polarity. The showers in all were not push buttons but simply turn on and then off. All had restaurants or snack bars on site. The site I’m on now probably has 50+ pitches with less than 10 in use. Majority of campers, by a huge margin are German. I have not parked overnight off grid yet as I’ve been happy with the prices of the sites given what they provide. 4g and 5g is generally ok.
I’ve got a major crack in my windscreen and dealing with Dolmen and Axa has not been easy especially for an a class screen but I’m fine with the situation.
Weather has been too hot for me to date ranging from 26 to 34 degrees every day so far. Today we have rain overnight the first I’ve seen for ages. roads so far have been good with no tolls yet, although there are some that I’ll be using later in the trip.
Loving Greece, so far.

Have a great time Jon. I still owe for the Spain and Portugal map. I’ll catch up with you one year.

It rained last night, the first time I’ve seen any rain in about a month. So what else is new? Well for one, a crack from the top to the bottom of my windscreen. After a very frustrating series of calls to the insurance company I was told to get a quote to replace the windscreen, the quote needed to include the cost of the screen the cost in terms of labour to replace the screen, then I need to email the quote for approval. I could chose any company to get the quote. Sounds simple but in reality no. In Greece the companies that replace the glass require you (me) to order it and then they’ll fit it. I went to Glassdrive in Kallamatta who said even with the crack because it’s laminated I’ll be fine and it maybe easier for me to get it replaced in Ireland, so that’s what I’ll probably do unless it gets worse. The campsite at Kallamatta was this first one that I arrived at which was full, well it was full for motorhomes over 5.5m when I took the last big space.

Cash is king, the campsite charge €22 a night if you pay by card €20 a night cash. We stayed 5 nights. We then drove 90km to Gythio campsite. The drive up and over many mountains to 3 hours, yes 3 hours for a 55mile journey.

The campsite I’m on now is closing for the season soon, it’s €23 a night, nice pool, on a 5km long beach.. it’s nice but the bar, restaurant and mini market are all closed.

We are going to hang around the Peloponnese region for a while as it is stunning. We have seen a few wild camping but as it is technically illegal in Greece and the sites are good value we have stuck to sites so far.

Only one site had the standard camping hook up all the rest have been 2 pin and quite often reverse polarity.

Drive over drains are rare and you do need to check the water outlets are drinking water, many are not and are for irrigation only.

All sites so far have spoken English which is surprising as it appears 80% of the customers are German. There are few Swiss and Austrians but very few British or even French vans.

Most days the temperature is 25 degrees or higher and night time temperatures between 15 and 20 degrees.

I know from others with the same van that to get the windscreen replaced in Ireland will take no less than 6 weeks. I’m fine with that sort of delay.
The glass is made in Italy. It’s an Italian van.
Yep grey emptying is mainly by bucket and fresh water by watering can. I don’t mind it gives me some thing to do.

Bertie is Still loving Greece