Chip, the All American Bus

Are you still booked in for coming here in spring?

 

Hi Para, we were supposed to be popping in this Autumn if you remember but I saw you'd had a hell of a summer what with one thing & another so decided to keep a low profile....
If all's well your end in the Spring, I see no reason why not

 

Got a bit behind on the write up and a bit ahead of myself with the geography!
Before we crossed into Germany, we exited Belgium and drove directly south from lille towards Paris.

Josh, my lad was joining us for a week and flew into CDG. A late night collection from the terminal saw us driving due east for about an hour & 1/2 towards our aire for the evening and then onwards touring Champagne for the week before the drive back to CDG to see him off.

All our camping for the week was free on the aires. Occasionally we paid for water but more often than not it was provided free. France rocks when you know how to work it!!
Arriving at Charles De Gaul

Roughing it on hair wash day. Campsite showers pah!

Free overnight in an aire, very pretty spot as it turned out with serviced loos and drinking water

Canal action

Pretty medieval streets in nearly every town & village

Flight path

 

Once we’d enjoyed our week with Josh, we headed east again back through Champagne and headed towards the Rhine, crossing just north of Strasbourg. Our last stop in france was at Betschdorf, a really pretty village famous for pottery and a scene setter for Germany.

Overnight stop at Betschdorf, out of the way and service point just visible to the right. free water again.


Pretty German influence. Borders must have moved!


Famous blue pottery


Scene setter just over the border towards Baden Baden


Camping Platz Adam at Oberbruch. Our first proper campsite for a couple of weeks. Wash day!


and dinner!


Driving through the Schwarzwald towards our next stop at Schiltach. A date for the world cup here if we can find a bar. Italy I think, beat us 2:1 much to the delight of the Italian bar owners. good night was had by all!!


Our overnight stop in the village. Well organised and guess what...free. Nice syncro kept us company

 

Schiltach is one of those typical Black Forest villages famous for both lederhosen and cuckoo clocks. In fact the stellplatz or sleeping spot was sponsored by Trautwein, the local leather tanners who just asked for a small donation to the Red Cross from those who used one of the 4 free electric hook-ups.


From here we continued south, towards the Bodensee (Lake Constance). We overnighted at another company sponsored stellplatz, this time the piece of land they had spare next to their factory made into marked and mowed pitches.
Proper nice this one & I think cost us about 6€ for the night. All done on trust with an envelope through the door of their reception!

 

Arriving at Freidrichshafen, there was only one thing to do and that was visit the Zeppelin Museum.
Bauhaus design, with the main exhibit being a reproduction of the interior of the Hindenburg with original relics from the disaster on display.

The room sets looked so modern I had to ask one of the staff if they were accurate. Doh! it's Germany, what answer was I expecting!!

The clock on the Hindenburg stopped at the time of the disaster!

The 1932 Maybach Zeppelin powered by the same engines they used on the airships. 200hp V12! It is massive to stand next to. Apparently the company manufactured engines for the Tiger tank!

 

I think they should bring back airships....what a great way to travel

 

Not really up with today's safety standards though are they?

 

From the Bodensee we headed due east, skirting along the northern border of Switzerland and into Austria through Kitzbuhel. This was a stunning drive along very well looked after roads. We were climbing all the while as we headed south

towards our crossing for the lower Alps, the Felbertauern Tunnel. 5.3 km long and 2.3 km high...

 

I agree great trip, I'm on it!

 

Tiger tanks you say

 

From the tunnel we headed south. Our objective was Trieste but first we had to endure the beauty of Austria and cross the border into Italy.
We decided to travel the Plocken Pass. No issues going up, coming down was hard on the brakes!

Entering the tunnel, see the snow line!


and down the other side


over night at Matreier Tauernhaus, 1500m or so above sea level. We used the propex!



Up the Plocken Pass


and crossing the border into Italy, lunch stop


Our first free Italian overnight motorhome stop. Only ones there & all the facilities you needed, including a camper wash station!


The payback for crossing the Alps, seized OS caliper! Which would be a recurring issue all trip. We eventually dealt with it like an F1 pit crew!

 

Looks a great trip! How did you sort the brakes?

 

Honestly? I haven't yet
The piston seizes up on the inner pad & it all starts to rather irritatingly chaff, chaff,chaff type of thing.
At that point we jump out, I remove the wheel & jack up the bus & @Mrs Busmonkey jumps into the drivers seat.
See that big chisel? After I've taken out the pad on that side I stick the chisel into the gap & Mrs BM steps on the brake pedal.
I then lever the piston back in trying not to pull the bus off the jack onto my legs.
We push & pull several times until the piston moves reasonably freely, bolt it all back together & if appropriate congratulate ourselves with small vino.
Works for us

 

And so to Trieste. We fell in love with the city and returned here for a few days after dashing through Slovenia and Croatia so I'll post a few more pics of the city a bit later. A couple of days initially in Trieste and we headed off to what we were initially focussing on as the motivation for our trip, the alluring Croatia. However.....



Leaving Trieste we did our usual and followed the coast through a bit of Slovenia and across the passport controlled border into Croatia.
Our initial impressions were favourable and the coastal scenery is absolutely stunning. Crystal clear waters, despite being at the head of the Adriatic.
Our plan was to bumble around Istria and then from Rijeka follow the coast towards Split and on to Dubrovnik. The country is long...it's 600 odd km taking the direct route from Rijeka to Dubrovnic and that means a lot of fuel but as we save on the campsites..........we thought it would be worth it.

 

After crossing the border we started to look for a place to stay. Reasonably well seasoned we hunted in vain for a suitable and inoffensive stop but soon realised we couldn't. "Free camping" is illegal in Croatia and is rabidly enforced. The country is very well set up for tourists, but primarily those on organised package tours or those with deep pockets to pay for the State controlled camping sites.
So we actually rattled on down to our first stop in Rovinj.
This beautiful coastal town was part of the Venetian Republic and the medieval arcitecture is really impressive. The campsite, called Porton Biondi was superb. Clean, tidy, close to town but not free! Once all the kuna had been added up for pitch, persons, hook up, tourist tax, etc we were paying around 25+ euro per night. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things but soon very easy to rattle through several hundred bills when you start to add it all up.
Anyway:
Camping Porton Biondi. The LT was a very nice Swiss based Sven Hedin. It had all the bells and whistles including 4 corner levelling jacks and air con.


Rovinj tavern


Narrow Streets


Beautiful location

 

After a couple of days here catching up with washing & loving the local life we decided to head south towards Medulin via Pula. The coast is peppered with gated tourist resorts and dead end roads. Looking back, maybe we were in the wrong frame of mind but TBH by the afternoon we'd had enough of the underlying feeling of control exerted by the authorities. Heading up towards Rijeka to ponder our future we stopped overnight at Moscenika Draga.
Autocamp Draga was a little more basic than Rovinj but no less pricey. However the facilities were clean and the staff friendly.

As is the case with many of the towns, you cannot drive in and out to sight see. You have to enter a high security, check point guarded car park and part with more kuna just to enjoy the privilege of spending even more kuna in the cafes. Harsh?, not really, the cost of living for the locals is high with many driving across the borders into Italy to stock up on basic essentials.

Effective paint job on Rovinj bug


Typical Istria


Good Roads....


...bad roads. We had about 10km of this delightful surface.


Surprising coastline in the east of the peninsula was peppered with fjords.


A warm welcome from the borough of Moscenika Draga to all you tourists...


Nice camping...


...but we'd had enough of feeling controlled by this time. A shame as the town was really pretty, we'd had a lovely evening meal but felt we couldn't cope with another week or two, the camping fees and 600km of regulation.
We would go back to Croatia, maybe, but on a package tour with inclusive accommodation and a hire car (no time soon then)! So with mixed feelings regarding what we may be missing we decided to head back to Trieste and get a ferry from there to Greece.

 

Lost track of your travels so had to read the entire thread again!!
Great stuff, only wish I had the bottle, oh yeah and the time to do it. Great times, awesome pictures and awe inspiring journey. You and your bus are a credit to the forum

 

Thankyou Lardy, that's quite humbling!
Sorry about the tardy timing on the posts but I've been a bit distracted this year what with feeling guilty about not using the boat and having to get the syncro suitable for use as our daily.
Getting Chip out in two weeks for the MOT & the last TE. So...I'm getting excited again (lost the mojo a bit..) as the bits & bobs start arriving so I can get him ready...