“Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?” Rumi Quote

What do you do when you retire during a pandemic and you love to travel? Well, we just sat into our car and headed to Rosslare in early August to get a ferry to Spain and took it from there, returning home in December after four months, four ferries and nine countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Slovenia, Italy again, France). We enjoyed it all but here are some of the highlights – a baker’s dozen of them.

Our Highlights (in no particular order)

1. Hydra Island, Greece

2 Meteora Monasteries, Central Greece

Mesmerizing, astonishing…….just some of the words to describe Meteora, an area in Greece that we had never heard of until we got there. Monasteries perched precariously high on pinnacles of rock in a strange other-worldly landscape.

3 Grotto del Poesia, Puglia, Italy

The Grotto del Poesia which tranlates as the Poetry Cave is a natural pool surrounded by rugged limestone cliffs with caves and a tunnel to the open sea. The whole Salento region of Puglia is really beautiful with warm, shallow seas and wonderful coastal walking. Its very popular in summer but at the end of Sept/early Oct, the weather was glorious, the crowds were absent and we stayed in a vineyard with bikes available to cycle to the sea or the trattoria.

4 Thermal Pools, Permet, Albania

Soaking in a natural thermal pool after a hike in Central Albania in November – heaven! The medieval stone bridge over the blue-green river has been used since the days of the Ottomans by people wanting to bathe in the healing sulphur-rich waters. The southern coast of Albania is called ‘The Albanian Riviera‘ with white sand beaches and turquoise waters. Beautiful but November was very much off season here.

5 Elafonisos Island, Peloponnese, Greece

We fell in love with Elafonisos, a small island off the coat of the Peloponnese in Greece….it was like living in a holiday brochure with the whole spectrum of blues and greens in the sea and sky

6 Tirana, Albania

A bright buzzy capital city of parks, wide streets, bunkers and cafes where the inhabitants drink more coffee than anywhere else in the world, where the old soviet-style buildings weren’t torn down but brightly painted(studies showed that the bright cheery colours lifted the mood of the city after the repression of the Howha era)

7 Driving along the coast in Montenegro

A bright buzzy capital city of parks, wide streets, bunkers and cafes where the inhabitants drink more coffee than anywhere else in the world, where the old soviet-style buildings weren’t torn down but brightly painted(studies showed that the bright cheery colours lifted the mood of the city after the repression of the Howha era)

8 Parador Siguenza, Spain,

Who doesn’t want to stay in a palace – even if its just for one night? The Spanish Pardores are luxury hotels in castles, palaces, convents, monasteries and other historic buildings throughout Spain. They are run by the government and the revenue generated goes towards the upkeep and preservation of the buildings. They are also surprising affordable and well worth a visit.

9 The History of Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik – a city of fairytale castles, churches, cobbled streets, red roofs and the set for Game of Thrones. It’s beautiful, touristy and expensive(relatively speaking) but the reason that it is on this list is the poignancy of its relatively recent history in the Balkan conflict of the 1990’s – we saw where a Serbian shell had hit the side of the house that we stayed in, how the stout medieval walls were built to withstand attack from the sea, not aerial bombardment, we walked in the windswept hills overlooking the city where so many defenders of Dubrovnik camped and fought and died.

10 Camping in Galicia, Spain

Stunning scenery, great food, fabulous well-marked coastal trails, lots of campsites, friendly fishing villages ….and relaxation. That was our experience of Gorgeous Galicia.

11 Hiking near Mont Roig del Camp, Catalonia, Spain

It was still hot in the region around Mont Roig in early September but hiking in the early mornings was perfect with the smell of wild thyme and sage and church bells ringing out from the mountain villages.

12 Delphi, Greece

We visited many wonderful ancient sites but Delphi was the most spectacular, maybe it was its location high on Mount Parnassos in Central Greece or the air of history and mystery with moody mists blowing on the breeze from the Gulf of Corinth. Although the oracle was silent, the cypress trees seemed to whisper Life is good.

13 Mont Blanc Tunnel, France Italy Border

Driving through the twelve kilometres of the Mount Blanc Tunnel for the first time was a real experience. On the Italian side, there was sunshine, blue skies and colour but we exited into a black and white world of a winter wonderland in France.

Of course there were some lowlights but very few

Lowlights

1 The Guzzler breaks down in Rosslare on the First Day

We were SO excited to be finally leaving home. But that first morning in the queue to get on the ferry in Rosslare we ran into difficulty – our car (aka the Guzzler) failed to start. We had a flat battery but thanks to some hefty bikers from Cork who gave us a push, we managed to get onboard. But not a great start! But the Guzzler held good and brought us all the way home with (little!) mishap.

2 Refused entry into Montenegro

Much to our astonishment, we were refused entry into Montenegro – at first – and told to go back to Albania. But after perseverance, much loitering around around the border and finding a printer to print out some car documents, we were allowed in. But it was a sobering experience when we had expected to be welcomed with open arms – or at least with civility.

3 The Rain in Greece

We don’t mind a bit of rain – we even enjoy it sometimes – but the volume of rain we got during our first nine days in Greece in early October took us by surprise. At times, it was a deluge of biblical proportions. And there were thunder and lightening storms that went on for hours, often one storm rolling into the next. Not what we expected in Greece!!!!!!

It was so difficult to pick out highlights as we had such a great trip – I could easily add another dozen different highlights. So now as the end of 2021 approaches, we wish everyone a happy, peaceful New Year and only good things in 2022. Thanks for reading and remember…. the world is such a beautiful place even in a pandemic.

Til next time….xx

“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone for others. Unfold your own myth” Rumi

The last time I posted we were in Split, Croatia, now, a week later, we are home. The wind is screaming around our house in Crooke and bending the trees in the garden as Storm Barra, a ‘weather bomb’ lashes out across the country.

In Split, a man coughed all night in an adjoining apartment, racking, hacking coughs that sounded like he was in the room with us. We had been surprised that all windows along the stairway and landings were wedged open because the evening was cold and wet but now we knew why. The news on our phones was ominous- full of Omicron and borders closing. So it was time to split from our split-level apartment (bedroom downstairs, kitchen cum living area upstairs)….ok no more splitting references😋 – and cross some borders to get home. So we departed Split in the rain, not really sure how far we would get. The roads were uncrowded and the infrastructure was good in Croatia – the Sveti Roc tunnel was over 5 kms long – but it got colder and foggier as we headed north into the mountains with the red roofs of the houses dusted in white

We would have liked a few more days in Croatia maybe in Rijeka (which has some Klimt paintings) but instead we spent the last of our Croatian kuna in a border service station (a bottle of wine and a toblerone) and headed into Slovenia with an uneventful crossing – a quick look at passports and no questions. The roads were poorer in Slovenia with lorries transporting logs but there were flowers in pots outside many houses and pretty countryside. Maybe we will go back some time and spend more than an hour there.

We crossed into Italy near Trieste and the tempo changed- manic drivers, bumper-to-bumper fast-moving traffic and nerve-jangling lane changes. We skirted Padua and Vicenza and stopped in Verona where we stayed in Magnolia Guest House (€50 off-peak), a beautiful townhouse near the Porta Nuova (booked online about an hour before we arrived.) The landlady recommended a little trattoria down the street which was just what we needed to unwind after about 8 hours in the Guzzler. The food was simple – pizza and salad, good bread and wine but such a nice ambiance with the staff chatting and enjoying themselves(we have eaten in so many places where the staff are dour and miserable). It was a local haunt and the bill (very cheap) came with a complimentary limoncella or grappa shot. Love Italy!! Verona was crisp and cold (about 2 degrees) – perfect for an evening stroll around town to stretch the legs

Google took us in circles around Verona the following morning but eventually we were on the motorway. The traffic was backed up with the electronic motorway billboards telling us that there was an accident -not surprising with the volume of traffic and the way they drive. We were thinking about Turin for a stopover but the Alps were beckoning -their snow-capped peaks stretched in the distance against an almost cloudless sky – so we kept going. Soon we were driving through tunnel after tunnel, most of them three kilometres long or more with a short break in between until we hit the big one, the Tunnel of Mt Blanc, 12 kilometres and hot – we watched the car temperature climb to 25 degrees. We came through on the other side to a world that had turned from colour to black and white – snow-laden pine trees and grey skies and plummeting temperatures. And we were in France.

After the tunnel, we sat in a Bonjour cafe, trying to find somewhere close-by to stay. Caoimhin had a cold for a few days and was on the mend but it was now my turn to feel unwell. The nearest affordable place was the Ibis Budget (€62), a really soulless hotel which seemed like a prison cell with everything nailed down, paper cups and very minimalist. The best thing- apart from the price – was the view of the mountains with shifting light and shade – really beautiful.

Driving from the mountains towards Paris, we passed windmills and chateaus, green fields and woods and place names that were familiar … Chablis, Chardonnay, Saint Etienne. At a different time of year, we would have loved to camp and saunter through. But the weather was dirty and drizzly, the temperature never rose above 5 degrees and we were on motorways that were eye-wateringly expensive (€168 on tolls driving through Italy and France. almost €50 for Mt Blanc tunnel). We overnighted in Villabe, Paris Sud in Ace Hotel with a fantastic bakery next door….we were so tired that we had a picnic of wine, cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, crusty baguette in our room and watched a movie about William the Conqueror who built his fortress in Caen, a town where we had earlier booked accommodation for the following night – a complete coincidence.

Caen was a surprise, a really lively town with the fortress, churches, Christmas lights and markets. We got our antigen Covid tests here in a pharmacy – €25 for a documented test with results in about 15 minutes We were given a piece of paper very like the EU Covid vaccine cert. What a relief to get a negative result! Although we were pretty sure that our cold symptoms weren’t Covid, you never know…..But when we set about booking our ferry crossing from Cherbourg to Rosslare, all cabins were sold out.

The towns and villages of Normandy echoed with the past, particularly WWII, places like Falaise and Chambois, the flat countryside and the beaches. So much history in ordinary places. We drove on untolled roads from Paris- a far more interesting way to travel. In Cherbourg, a wine merchant told us how his business has been badly impacted by both Brexit and Covid. He also told us that cabins on the ferries to Rosslare were in short supply and reserved for the lorry drivers – a big increase as so many were avoiding the direct route to Britain.

After having our paperwork – our tickets, passports, vaccine certs, antigen tests – all scrutinized by Stena officials, we got on the ferry as early as we could to maximize our chances of getting a cabin. Right from the start, the Stena Line staff onboard treated Caoimhin differently. He was welcomed profusely and assured that of course they would get a cabin for him, we got free drinks and even staff that were walking past would double back to tell Caoimhin that they were so glad to see him again and hoped he was enjoying the journey. He has never been on Stena Line before….or at least that’s what he’s telling me. But we got the cabin.

So after four months, four ferries and nine countries, our European road-trip from Ireland to Greece and back is at an end. To all of you who came along for the ride with us – or even jumped on and off – , we have enjoyed your company, hopefully you enjoyed it too. A huge thank you for all the likes, comments, shares and messages along the way. So until next time… who knows…… the Philippines, Mexico, Portugal or a return to other Balkan countries…or somewhere else

Wishing you all a gorgeous, happy and relaxed Christmas xx

P.S I can recommend retirement!!