Tuscany

This great part of Italy with the green hills and plenty of vineyards and a butcher in Greve di Chianti that can treat all type of meat in a good manner. Our stationary campervan that we have rented was not according to the specifications but that doesn’t matter because we only sleep in the campervan and do nice trips during the days. Jimmy and Linnea will be leaving us tomorrow and that is sad but we have had some wonderful days together. Internet coverage is not normal in this part of Tuscany so I will try to post this message first and then some pictures. Tomorrow it will be visiting Pisa with the leaning tower and hopefully some nice beaches. Yesterday we did visited Rimini with some great beaches and nice weather. I hope all is good at home and that the weather is catching up.  

Lago di Garda

Today we drove from Bormio to Sirmione, at the lake Lago Di Gardga. We arrived with quite good weather but after some time the weather gods opened up the taps, it was a short shower and then it was over. The apartment is really good and over expectation and we (Ann) did a really good Italian dinner today. Tomorrow it will be a layback day and soon Jimmy and Linnea is coming down, can’t wait to meet them.

And what do you find if not a perfectly restored Fiat 500, there were lots of nice cars like Ferrari’s and Lamborghini but this takes the price of best of the show.

And what did we found in a small harbor during the evening walk, a Saga 7000 !!! How did this one end up here???

Life is good

Stelvio Pass, Italy.

Stelvio Pass is located in the most northerly  part of Italy, just on the boarder to Switzerland. If Grossglockner was drivers paradise Stelvio Pass is drivers heaven. Our GPS’s did get a touch of ADHD for a while so we ended up on the wrong roads, but they were also nice and after some time we found our way to Stelvio. The top was at 2770 m.

Talk about tourist exploration at an altitude

Can it be much better? A wonderful wife, great roads and Das Auto

I have started a Twitter GPS blog that is posting positions and destination times on Twitter from the GPS. I don’t know how to look at this but you can search for my name at Twitter.

Grossglockner, Austria

After picking up Ann at the airport in Munich we drove down to Austria and up to the massive Grossglockner, this was really something above (ha-ha) the normal type of roads and scenery, enjoy

The great roard heading up to the pass

Nice backdrop ;-)

The CC is feeling at home on home turf

Grossglockner @ 2571 m altitude

Drivers paradise

After Grossglockner we stopped over night at a Hotel in Heiligenblut on the low lands (1300m:-)

Morning mist in Heiligenblut

Aschau Germany

Thomas is talking to the dinner

Mr Van Geel, one of the great personalities at the Office in Aschau

Spectacular views @ 1600 m altitude

This fantastic trip started out with a nice boat trip from Gothenburg to Kiel. In front of me is the great continent called Europe. But what you see here is Gothenburg :-)

Yes, now its time for some nice vacatio again. This time it will be a nice Europe trip by car, the tool of freedom. Pics to come

Grand Canyon, West Rim

What an amazing scenery of what nature can create, it’s almost biblical. I never thought I would be near a cliff edge with a drop of 1200 meter (4000 feet). I had to change my underwear after this experience.

Hoover Dam

What an engineering master piece at it’s time (1935). The police surveillance was all over the place and that is understandable when you see the masses of water this dam do contain.

Bellagio, Dancing Water

Las Vegas

Vegas, the cartoon town. Quite amazing sceneries, sizes of buildings and in the middle of the dessert, all together quite unreal but really cool.

Erice

Erice, the ghost town

Today we visited the ghost town Erice close to Trapani on the North West coast of Sicily.

The town was not at so high altitude, around 750m, but still the clouds came rolling in on a regular basis. Very nice scenery with old buildings, streets, churches and “castles”. The big difference between Erice and the rest of Italy is the noise level, it was so quiet and peaceful when walking though the “town”. At the same time it was allowed to drive through the town with a car and we were forced to on the way out from Erice. We were lucky that we had replaced the big bus with a Renault Scenic that is a normal sized car due to the size of the allies.

Tomorrow it will be a day on the beach before we head home, it will be sad to leave Sofia and David but we all know they will continue in the best manner as normal on the way home to Göteborg.

Some mixed pics

Yesterday we visited the wine yard Marsala Florio that produce different types of white and red wine, everything from sweet dessert wines to dry "almost" normal wines. They have a interesting history, they started to add alcohol to the normal wines to secure that the wine was in good condition when it was exported, this then became their signature way of producing their wines. the wine yard was heavily bombed during the second world war when the allies invaded Sicily 1943.

We had a guided tour, got to taste some wines and then it was time for the wine shop and as usual we ended up with some cases of bottles.

Today is the last day when we are all together, Jimmy and Linnea are flying home this afternoon and the rest of the crew are leaving on Sunday.

Today we have been scuba diving in ordinary Italian way, no licenses or questions asked and it was value for money in conjunction with professional instructors.

The trip out with the RIB was a good break from being on land to long. We had big fun and it was a good excursion. Tomorrow is the last full day for Jimmy and Linnea so we are planning to visit a wine yard before they have to fly home.

Beach mode

Midsummer Lunch

Midsummer lunch was for once in a while conducted in nice temperatures and "paltkoma" took place afterwards as normal.

During the evening we did a Sicilian BBQ with some really nice steaks, garlic/olive oil bread and some nice salad, life is good. The tools were not Weber tools but you take what you have, in this case a wrench.

Bernard, the campervan

Bernard (the campervan) has now after two moth of intensive use been put on the parking lot at the house for a 10 days of rest, it feels quite sad due to the service it has provided in a very good manner according to the age. Bernard felt a little bit lonely so we put the rental car (buss) close to Bernard and now he feels better and not lonely.

//Walle

Sicily 2011

Finally we are meeting up with Sofia and David on Sicily at Marzala Del Vallo on the west coast of Sicily. After half a day on airports and planes and then ~1 hour drive Ann and I meet up with our wonderful campervaners, hugs and kisses and ….. words can’t explain the feeling, it was just heaven.

At midnight Jimmy and Linnea came to another airport and we went and picked them up with our buss. So now we are one big happy family and we are very much missing Jonas and Veronica.

We got the keys to our Villa and reality wasn’t like the pictures but it will do just fine, at the beach and around 35 degrees with a slight breeze (thank God for that) so life is good.

Today it’s Midsummer Eve so we will have a traditional Swedish Midsummer lunch with herring, potatoes and some accessories, all brought with us in the suitcases.