Travelling Trappies

Well we came, we saw but I think we were conquered! The heat, the people, the scale of things - WOW! Getting back to where I ended last time – karaoke Italian style is a very very interesting (read shockingly bad) activity to witness. Not only was it off key (assuming as didn’t know the song but sounded terrible) but it is also in Italian. We were “lucky enough” to experience it again in Rome where English songs were being massacred by mostly children and the occasional adult. The best one was the little 4 year old who could barely say the words, let alone sing them but as it was Baby Shark, you could kind of get what was going on!   From Venice we headed down to Florence, catching up with a friend from back home on our first and her last night! The first Kiwi we’ve met on our trip (& yes I know Sam is from the UK but she has a kiwi passport, so it counts!). We loved Florence – something to see everywhere you looked. We stayed at a site a 30 min bus ride away with the stop once...

Buongiorno, welcome to Italy “where beauty, history and passion come to life”. Well we have seen a bit of the passion – we thought the couple in the car next to ours was having a big bust-up but it turns out it was just a normal conversation! The Italians are certainly vocal and wave their arms about a lot, so maybe I was Italian in another life?? I certainly wave my arms about, and Trap keeps moving glasses out of the way scared I’m going to knock them over, which lets face it, is highly likely.   We had a lovely last night in St Raphael with Cathy – heading to the night market, having ice cream and a trip on the ferris wheel, before heading off to Italy – our first stop not that far away on the Italian Riviera, near Ventimiglia. The heat wave continued and we were packed in like sardines at the campsite. Luckily, we had the best pitch and managed to get some privacy and string up the hose so we could cool ourselves down.   The water fan was a gift from Cathy and REALLY REALL...

The temperatures continue to soar with no respite in sight and now we’re hearing stories about it being the hottest EU summer on record - so we’re out of the frypan and into the fire!! 🥵 Even the locals are saying it’s not usually this hot in June. The fan we bought while fab is insufficient to keep the temps under control at night, so we are purchasing another! We saw a motorhome with a mobile aircon unit and I definitely had cool air envy – you never know after this trip we might out-summer ourselves and become winter chasers…… yeah, nah.   From Saint- É million we travelled to Fumel to a small rustic campsite. It was fairly quiet but the pool was nice and we just relaxed for a day before continuing on. As we headed further south, we found crusty buildings, old churches and pretty rivers everywhere we looked. Travelling through mountains and valleys to get to our next stop Millau. Very scenic and beautiful.   Our next camp site was on the banks of the River Dourbie in Milla...

Salutations de Saint- É million. I may have found my spiritual home! Maybe Trap & I were both French in another life????  We’re having a fab-u-lous time here. The weather is good, food, alcohol and fuel is cheaper and the camping grounds are nicely laid out and have pools – a necessity in these temps! Most of them have bars/restaurants and you can often put a fresh bread/croissant order in for the next morning!  I like it. Also my French is much better than my Spanish (6 years of high school French is coming back to me) making it easier to communicate and read signs/instructions etc. Trap, not so much!!!   Last time I wrote, we were in Paris and heading into town for my b’day celebration at Paradis Latin. What a great show – I can’t show you any pics or videos as they weren’t allowed, but we could take some of the dinner entertainment, so you can get a bit of a taster. My three-course meal of two types of pate followed by chicken and some kind of tarty/moussey/spongy ...

Bonjour mes amis, bienvenue en France. Well, what a difference! It was 27 when we arrived, sunny, no rain and a little wind!!! 🌞 However, before we get to that there’s a few other places to fill you in about. After visiting Llandudno in Wales, which we really liked, we spent a couple of days in Conwy – REALLY cute – we highly recommend visiting this corner of Wales if you get a chance. After Conwy we headed to Caernarfon Castle - one of four heritage listed castles from Edward I’s reign, which took 47 years and £25,000 to build. Pretty impressive and again, a very cute town despite the gale force winds! One thing about Wales is the multilingual road signs they have – which can be a bit of a problem as the Welsh comes first and is often a lot longer than the English, so not reading Welsh we kept missing what the signs said – especially when there was more than one place on them!! A woman in Caernarfon gave us some good advice – read from the bottom up!! Huh – seems simple enough – Not!...