Merci et au revoir!

We're back in Canada after our wonderful wonderful trip, and now I'm going to close down this blog.  Thank you to everyone who has followed our travels, and especially to all the many people who came to see us, met us in exciting places, or had us to stay, it has been brilliant to see so many friends and family. 
Merci!

Wales

As well as lots of time with relatives, we have taken a week here in the UK to go camping in Wales.  We spent most of our time in Pembrokeshire and a couple of nights in the Brecon Beacons.Apart from a bit of rain in Brecon - that came when we were at the top of a mountain, of course - we had lovely weather, and really enjoyed it.  I had forgotten how beautiful the coast is around there - really fabulous.  Being in exotic Wales "Land of the Dragon" made it seem all the more exciting.  We had lovely times in castles at Carew and Caerphilly, and enjoyed walking the Wales coastal path near St. Davids.

We had a chance to try out old fashioned archery at Carew Castle

Carew Castle

Manorbier beach

Fish and chips

The boys had a great time driving go-karts

We saw A LOT of sheep - what else would you expect in Wales!

Celebrating reaching the top in the Brecon Beacons.  Five seconds later the big rain behind him was on top of us.

 

London

Stewart and I left the kids with their grandparents and had a brilliant day out in London.  We mostly just walked walked walked, enjoying a beautiful sunny day in one of the best cities in the world.  When I grow up (and after the kids leave home) I would love to live in London for a couple of years.  We were planning to go to a show, but there was nothing in the last minute cheap ticket booth that really grabbed us, so we went to the Proms instead, it was brilliant.  Unless you have been organised and bought seat tickets in advance you just queue on the day for 5 pound standing tickets which let you go anywhere you want in the gallery, which is the top level of the Royal Albert Hall.  There are also standing tickets for the bottom area right by the orchestra.  It was really fun, with people lying down, sitting or standing all over the place, and lots of picnicing.  We listened to Beethoven's 5th and 6th, and a couple of shorter pieces of modern music that I can't remember.  Was a ton of fun.

Going past Olympic Park on the train

Tower Bridge

St. James Park

At the Proms

Olympics

We weren't able to get tickets to any of the big Olympic events in London, but we did manage to see one Olympic event - watching the Canadian women's soccer team in Coventry.  The security was ridiculous, but other than that it was loads of fun.

It is interesting being in the UK while the Olympics is on - there is such excitement about it.  Team GB (as they're known - not sure what is wrong with "British team") are doing amazingly and when watching coverage on TV you can come away with the impression that they're winning everything.  The problem is that events where there is no British hope are not covered at all.  The newspapers are full of the Olypmics, and the nightly 30 minute news has only seconds on news other than the Olympics.  The impression from here is that everything is going brilliantly.

Camping

We've camped a lot in Canada over the years, and have just spent a month in French, Italian, Belgium campsites (as well as Spanish in the past), so we've had a lot of debates in the car about comparisons between the two.
There really are big differences between camping in Europe and Canada.  The Canadian experience, at least in the provincial / national parks that we camp in, involves campfires on a big, usually private, site surrounded by trees.  The focus is on the outdoors and swimming is usually in a lake or the ocean, toilet and shower blocks tend to be functional and clean, and there may or may not be a camp shop selling ice cream.

In contrast, European sites provide little privacy - there might be a little hedge around your area, but often it is just open to the next place, and campfires are definitely forbidden.  But the campgrounds themselves can be amazing.  They are rated on a star system.  Two star sites (we never saw a one star) are pretty basic, maybe with a small swimming pool.  However, the four star sites are more like resorts - like those you find in the Carribean, but with people sleeping in tents instead of hotels.  Four star sites usually have several pools, sometimes inside and outside, nice restaurants, bars with big screen tvs (to watch the Euro Cup games when we were there....), big shops, really nice shower / toilet blocks with whole separate areas for kids with small showers, etc, big playgrounds - two places had bouncy castles, often shuttle buses into town/sites of interest.  It was incredible.

Camping in Canada you do to be outside, camping in Europe is a cheap alternative to a hotel.  The cost in both countries is about the same (once you navigate Canada's silly reservations fees and added taxes), but there is a big difference in how you pay.  In Canada you pay for the site and put whatever you want on it.  In Europe you pay per person as well as for what you use on the site.  Typical fees would be about 7 Euros per adult, 4 Euros per child, 5 for the tent, and 5 to bring the car in.  We usually paid between 30 and 40 Euros per night, or 20-30 in the two star sites.  When you think that in many of the cities we visited - Venice, Rome, Florence, Paris, etc, the most basic hotel room might cost 200 Euros, camping is a great option, plus you get to cool down in a pool every day.

Our favourite campsites on our recent trip were Camping Tiber in Rome, Centro Turistico Baia San Nicola in Peschichi, and Eurosol Camping in St. Giron's Plage.  Here are all the campsites we stayed at in the whole trip:

• San Remo, Villaggio dei Fiori  http://www.villaggiodeifiori.it/  Not a great site, we were camped on concrete right next to the tennis court. Nice pool and restaurant, but quite noisy. One of our least favourites - don't go unless you know you have one of the "gold" sites overlooking the sea, although even then you'd have the noise from the bar and the road all night long.
• Florence, Camping Intenazionale http://www.florencecamping.com/en/Certosa_Home.asp This was a great site on the edge of Florence and a shortish walk to the bus into town.  We camped on a really nice grassy and terraced area surrounded by olive trees.  The pools and bar restaurant were nice, but the shop overly expensive.  This site was a base for Contiki 18-30 holidays, who stayed in a bunglaow complex near the pool, so there were lots of young people wandering around flirting with each other, but that was OK...
• Rome, Camping Tiber http://www.campingtiber.com/ We enjoyed this place so much we decided to stay longer than planned.  It was just outside the ring road, but with a regular free shuttle to the train into town, and had everything we wanted.  A nice swimming pool to cool down in after long days traipsing around Rome, a fun bar and restaurant, and loads and loads of space for tents.  Definitely one of our favourites.
• Amalfi Coast, Camping Neptune, http://www.villaggionettuno.it/  Wouldn't recommend this place for tents. Camping was right by the sea, but really cramped and on astroturf rather than real grass.  We had a nice cheap breakfast buffet, but the place was set up for staying in bungalows, with space for camping as an afterthought, one of our least favourite sites.
• Peschichi, Centro Turistico Baia San Nicola http://www.sannicola.it/ . This place was awesome!!  We were really close to a lovely beach, but had loads of space around our tent.  We really liked one of the restaurants on the beach which did great salads for very cheap, and they basically had everything we needed.  They were geared for German tourists and didn't have any English speakers at reception.  Our Italian is pretty useless but somehow I managed to check in in German!
• Perugia, Camping Badiaccia http://www.badiaccia.com/en/camping-badiaccia-villaggio-umbria.php we didn't enjoy this site much, mainly because the tent area was right next to the bar so we had people traipsing past us all night.  it was also getting a bit old and the kids playground in particular was not in great shape.  The really good thing here was the brand new, hi-tech and spotlessly clean toilets. 
• Bologna, Citta di Bolgna, http://www.hotelcamping.com/en/content/categoriaprodotti/Piazzole_4_11.aspx This site was  really sterile, everything was functional and OK, but it had a little bit of the air of a prison camp about it somehow.  Not sure really how to describe it, but one of our least favourites for sure.
• Venice, Camping Ca' Pasquali http://www.capasquali.it/index.aspx This site was overwhelming.  By far the most expensive site we stayed in (I think over 50 Euros a night), but everything to do with Venice is expensive so I guess it stands to reason that campsites would be too.  It is on a strip of land a boat ride from Venice (part of the regular Venice water-bus system so the day pass can be used), that had dozens and dozens of campsites - apparently there are 60,000 pitches in total on that stretch of land - though the site we stayed at wasn't huge.  It was a site with everything - fabulous pools, playgrounds, entertainment, right on the beach, everything, but somehow here it was all a bit much.  We had to wear bracelets to identify us as staying there, and there was a security guard walking around - it just lacked the friendliness and laidback-ness that other equally large sites (such as Baia San Nicola (above) and Eurosol (below) managed). 
• Cluses French Alpes, Camping Corbaz, http://www.camping-lacorbaz.com/ the wireless here didn't work on a day when we really needed it (I can't remember why we needed it, but it seemed important at the time). Just a basic little site, for a night on our big journey from Venice to the Atlantic Coast of France.
• Montignac (Lascaux caves), Camping Moulin Bleufond http://www.bleufond.com/campsite-dordogne-france.html This was just a quick one night sleep on our journey across France, but it seemed just fine.  The managers were super nice, doing everything, manning reception, cooking and waiting in the little restuarant, and loaning us their personal ping pong rackets.  
• St. Giron's Plage, Camping Eurosol, http://www.camping-eurosol.com/ Another of our favourites.  A short walk to a wonderful beach and right on cycle / running paths.  It had everything you could possibly want - four swimming pools, great kids playgrounds, bar, cafe, restaurant, take away, good grocery store, and nice camping places in the trees.  Was so nice we extended our stay from 2 to 4 nights.
• Paris, Camping Le Park, http://www.campingleparc.fr/campsite-paris-france.html  A bit smelly.... the shower block was mouldy and dirty, no amenities except a big children's playground, but it was in Paris, and I guess you can't have everything.
• Bruges, Belgium, Kompas Camping, http://www.kompascamping.be/nieuwpoort/home/en  It rained and rained and rained here, so we didn't get a very good impression of the site, but it had everything.  a pool with a massive waterslide, fantastic shower blocks, indoor badminton and table tennis, a big ball room and adventure playground for the kids, a deer (and chicken!) park, and a brand new soccer and basketball area.  I think it was probably a really really nice site, but in the rain it is hard to judge...

Reims and Bruges

After leaving the Paris area we spent the afternoon in Reims, visited the cathedral where French kings were crowned and wandered around.  Unfortunately it was raining and miserable weather so I don't think we saw the city at its best, and after the excitement of Disneyland we all needed a low key day.
Then we headed to Bruges / Brugge to spend the weekend with Cameron.  Bruges was really beautiful (despite more rain), but expensive.

Camping was hilarious because it rained and rained and rained.  Our tent is pretty good in rain, but after so much it inevitably started leaking.  I felt incredibly bad because Joe said to me in the middle of the night "I'm getting wet", and I told him he couldn't possibly be as he was sleeping in the middle of the tent and should go back to sleep. But then in the morning we found out there had been a steady drip all night right onto Joe and his covers were soaked (and he had slept right through).  Bad mummy!!  It was OK the next two nights as the rain was lighter, but I'll not ignore anyone who tells me rain is falling on them again!

After Bruges we headed to Calais and got the ferry to England.

Paris - Versailles and Disneyland!!

Our longest day driving of our whole holiday was from St. Girons Plage to Paris.  It took all day, and then when we got to Paris, for the first time we struggled to find a campsite.  Every other place we've just turned up and found a campsite no trouble at all, but we drove around Paris for about an hour before finding anywhere.  I guess we should have been more prepared for the capital, but we kind of like just seeing what happens, and the site we eventually found was nice enough.
The next morning we headed to Versailles to meet Petra, Jeff, Andrew and Caroline, friends from Ottawa.  We had a fabulous day, and Joe especially enjoyed being reunited with his good friend Andrew, he was smiling all day long.

I cannot remember what this is, but it is on the ceiling and is very famous and very beautiful

Same as above (except wall not ceiling).... I'm useless!

Joe and his friend Andrew in Versailles' Hall of Mirrors

Lifting a cup.  I think they're hoping it'll be a hockey cup next year.

Versailles

Then the next day we went to Disneyland Paris.  It was our big surprise treat for the boys for being so good in France and not complaining as we grown ups live out our dreams and ask them to come along for the ride.  We had two days there with one night in a hotel.  We all had an absolutely fantastic time, went on every single ride and saw all the big shows, some of which were brilliant.  The only bad thing were the queues between about noon and 6pm, when the lines on many of the rides were over an hour long.  But on the first night we stayed until 11pm and from about 9pm onward there were no lines at all on the rides so we did all the rides then, just running from one to the other, going upside down on too many rollercoasters, and then spent the day time watching shows.  We came to the conclusion that the ideal way to do Disney would be to do rides from 8-11am then watch some shows, then go back to the hotel for a siesta from 2-6pm, then back to rides for the evening.  But of course we didn't actually do that, and instead we stayed in rides and shows all day, but we still had a ton of fun.  I know Disneyland Paris gets a lot of bad press, but we all thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was really very cheap for what we got (only 80 Euros each for two full days in the parks (which includes all rides and shows), and including the hotel and breakfast, parking, etc, - it seemed like a good deal, anyway!).

One of the shows was a car stunt show with a special appearance by Lightning McQueen

Some lines were long..... (those times in minutes...)

The grown-ups enjoyed it every bit as much as the kids.  Here's smiling Stewart...

Still smiling....

And still smiling, even in the queue

Andy was very proud of driving a car round a track

The Buzz Lightyear laser blast was fantastic, you go round a kind of rollercoaster type thing, zapping the evil Zorg as you go around, and then you get a score at the end.  it was so much fun - we went on it several times.

Atlantic Coast

We knew we were heading for the west coast of France, but hadn’t planned any more than that.  Something caused us to turn off the motorway at junction 14 and end up at St. Girons Plage.  It has to be one of the best beaches in the world.  And what was intended to be a one or two night stop has become four.  We are in a fabulous campsite and right on a beach with massive waves rolling in from the Atlantic.  It has been a bit cold and rainy, but fun nonetheless.

Amazing waves

Yesterday we took a day trip to Biarritz and spent a lovely afternoon with Julia and family, an old friend from Ottawa now living in Australia, but other than that we haven't been in the car at all, just hanging out here.

Biarritz

left to right Alex, Julia, Thea, Jacob, Brian

This evening there was a little circus just down the road from the campsite.  It was literally a two person operation - a pregnant ticket seller/dog trainer/ candyfloss maker, and a clown/ magician/ other animal trainer.  It was kind of rubbish but also kind of nice.  Andy volunteered to go and help with a magic trick and had a lot of fun.

Andy really enjoyed helping out with the magic trick

They enjoyed their circus candy floss

 Tomorrow we'll be leaving here and driving up to Paris, for all kinds of excitements.......

Lascaux II

The Lascaux caves lay in our path across to the west coast of France so we decided to stay the night nearby and visit the caves.  It rained and rained while we were in the area, which left us with a very wet impression, but the caves themselves were great.  The original caves, discovered in 1940, were being badly damaged by visitors and were closed to the public in 1963.  But they built an exact replica (so they said) 200m down the hill.  It felt like being in a real cave, and there was still a sense of awe seeing the pictures.  They were much bigger than I had expected, more than life size in some cases, and it was obvious from looking at them they were planned and organised, not some doodling.  Amazing for 17,000 years ago.  We couldn't take any photos inside (something I didn't understand as the caves were only a concrete replica).

The lovely rainy town of Montignac near the caves.  We camped alongside the river.

Geneva

We entered Switzerland through Geneva, and didn't really know what to make of it except that it was very expensive.  I think perhaps we'd been spoiled by Italian cities, but we couldn't find an entry point for our imaginations in Geneva, and by extension, Switzerland.  I know we didn't give it a fair chance, but we turned around and headed back to France.

Flower clock.  We thought it was funny that this clock with pride of place in Geneva Switzerland was running about 10 minutes slow!

Geneva's very big and impressive fountain!

Venice

Our final stop in Italy was Venice.  It was a perfect end to a perfect trip.  Joe summed it up by saying that Venice was much Venicey than he imagined.  We had a wonderful time on a boat ride from our campsite, exploring little alleyways, and just sitting and watching the world go by.  Andy rated the gondolas according to the glitziness of their decoration.  We didn't have a gondola ride as they were crazy expensive - 100 Euros for 40 minutes! - but we had plenty of boat rides using our public transit day pass.
There were tons of tourists around St. Mark's square, but there were other parts of town where we were alone walking down the little alleyways.  The boys just loved exploring every little path.  Down one little alleyway we found a lovely little restaurant.  It had overloaded electrics and everytime he switched something on - like a kettle, or when the boys switched the bathroom lights on, the breaker for the whole place tripped and we plunged into darkness - it was hilarious.
Was such a magical day, and the best way to spend our last full day in Italy.  
Today we left our Venice campsite mid-morning and have driven to the French Alps (through the Mont Blanc tunnel, which I will never do again - 40 Euro toll!!!) .  Tomorrow we go to Switzerland briefly, and then over the next few days will travel slowly-ish to the west coast of France.
 

 

Umbria and Bologna

After leaving beautiful Peschichi we drove north to Umbria and stayed at a campsite near Lake Trasimeno near Perugia.  From there we explored Perugia, Gubbio and the region around.  It was stunningly beautiful, but not among our favourite part of the trip for any of us - not for any negative reason as we had a lovely time, but just because it had a lot of brilliant things to compete with and was a low key couple of days.

Lake Trasimeno

Evening picnic by the lake

In Perugia

Exploring Gubbio

Gubbio

View in Gubbio

 Then we moved on to Bologna where we climbed a crazy leaning tower.  It was very scary inside, not beacuse it was leaning, but because it was basically an empty 100m tower with a wooden staircase nailed onto the side.  The stairs were creaky and rickety and seemed like they might just peel off the wall and crash down to the bottom any second.  I didn't say anything because I didn't want to scare the boys, but even the normally fearless Andy was pretty scared, and I think we were all relieved once we made it down safely.  It was worth it though, as the view from the top was beautiful. We tried and failed to find spaghetti bolognase in Bologna, but Stewart did have some tagiatelle bolognase.

Climbing the scary leaning tower in Bologna

View from the top of the tower

Another view of Bologna from the top of the tower

Bologna

Good street name!