Cococay

The pool area

Miami port, disembark

Tuscany

What a place, as always nice scenery, wine and roads.

Boat rental

To day it was boat rental for half a day and as always the weather was great and we had a fantastic day.

Locarno, Switzerland

Do I need to say more? Fantastic place

Klausen Pass

A small part of the beautiful Klausen Pass. The roads are really narrow in many sections. I'm in heaven and the Beemer is just doing a great job.

Bodensee

On the way to Klausen pass we stopped at Bodensee, the heat is starting to pick up, life is good..

Second really nice Gasthof

This nice Gasthof in Grösried was a pleasant surprise, nicely located and clean, good food and really friendly staff. We spent one night here.

Trier

Good morning from Trier, the view from the Hotel

Mosel river

Birstein gaststätte

It's been a good day with transport down to the area of Frankfurt. We are at Ann's gasthof with plenty of space compared to the cabin on the ferry. This evening will end with a good dinner, of course German style, and a walk before hitting the sack.

Road trip 2015

The ferry from Gothenburg to Kiel is the first leg, 3500hk and only 17 knots, what a pity, they are only using a fraction of the power 😈. Life is good.

The Killers at Globen

Can it be much better?

Stockholm

Lite is good when the smoker is on

http://db.tt/5zb581A2

One big leg, the last

After tons of roadwork in southern Germany the roads started to clear up and we got moving in a good manner. We didn’t know where we would end this day due to the weather, heavy rain. We headed our way up to Rostock via Berlin. After a quick visit to the boarder shop we were lucky to get on the 17:30 ferry from Rostock to Gedser, Denmark. Then it was just to move on home in silly speeds on the Danish and Swedish highways. We reached home at 00:40 after 1202 Km for the last leg, and it was 12 degrees at home. In total we have driven 7089 Km.

What a vacation it has been, just great, can’t wait until the next road excursion….

Rostock

Thank's Europe

Ann’s Gasthof

At the end of day one on the way home we spent the night at one of all the great Gasthof’s in Germany. Ann has been talking about this, that we should fins a nice gasthof on our way home in Germany. The first one we came to was closed but the second one was open after some looking around. The name of the gasthof was Zur schönen Aussicht, “beautiful view” in English. It was all we could ask for, small and cozy and with a friendly owner family that had a very nice place with a charming small garden. For a small amount of € we got a room with breakfast and dinner.

Bremgarten, Switzerland

Before we started our journey home we visited the small old picturesque village Bremgarten. These small villages are just so nice and especially when there is more or less no traffic in the old parts (not like in ItalyJ. We bought some bred for our picnic on our first leg to home, and off we went….

A Beautiful collection of Swiss passes, Nufenen pass, Grimsel pass and Susten pass

What a day it has been and what scenery Switzerland has to offer, life is good.

We started out from Locarno and visited the dam Verzasca just north east from Locarno. This is the location where they filmed one episode of James Bond 007 Golden Eye. The dam is not so wide but very deep so it was hard to stay close to the fence.

After this we headed up north to our final destination for the day in Berikon, Swizerland, west from Zürich. The fastest way is 1.5 hours but we headed up the mountains to get some views instead of driving 17 Km in the Gotthard tunnel. We got some wise advice not to drive the Gotthard pass instead to take a pass tour in this region. It started out with Nufenen pass that is the highest in Switzerland (2478m), at the top it was just 10 degrees and with our outfit we didn’t stay for a long time before we ran back to the car and turned on the heat.

Nufenen Pass

@ 2478m and 10 degrees, brrr

Furka steam railway “Furka-Bergstrecke”, Oberwald to Gletsch

What a timing we had when we came to Oberwald and the steam train was firing up for a trip among the mountain railway from Oberwald to Gletsch. The steam, smoke and sound from this vintage train was just wonderful to experience at his close distance.

Grimsel and Susten Pass

All of these Swiss passes are more “kind” than Stelvio pass that is steeper and more brutal. The scenery along these Swiss passes is just astonishing and several times like a fairytale. Enjoy

Photo taken from the Grimsel pass looking over the Furka paas

The top of Grimsel Pass

Susten Pass

Locarno, Switzerland

This town at Lago Maggiore is a great place and one of my favorite locations in Europe. The combination of alps, lake and Swiss order generates a wonderful place to visit, you have the Italian atmosphere with a mix of Swiss/German/Italian food but where you don’t cross a street as an pedestrian when it’s red and it is totally clean everywhere. The prices are not Italian but that doesn’t matter for a short visit.

Ann at Lago Maggiore

Locarno

Thank you Sardinia

On the way from Costa Rei to Olbia we visited the old town of Alghero on the west cost of the northern part Sardinia. A really nice old town with narrow alleys and a fortress alike architecture. The harbor was full of nice boats and the price level was back on track according to EU standard. The area has a wide beach stretching like 2 kilometers away from the town. We headed away for a final dip in the ocean but what a disappointment it was, the water was muddy and did smell bad (Ann said).

At Olbia the ferry was on time in to the docks and it also left the docks on time, it must have been a German or Swiss Captain this time. We got some hours of sleep before the page announcement in the boat woke us up at 05:00

During sunrise at 08:00 we had a great ride from Livorno to Parma among the A1. After Parma we hit the flats to Milano and it was just a question of staying awake until the northern parts of Italy.

Alghero

Excursion

The excursion tour was full so we were forced to rent our own boat and to do our own excursion, what a shame ;-) There is not much of an archipelago among the cost but there are some dangerous shallow rocks to watch out for, and so we did. The water is just crystal clear with lots of fish so the mask and snorkel came to place just fine.

During the afternoon we have packed and prepared for departure tomorrow morning, it will be a day on Sardinia before we dock the ferry in Olbia for departure to Livorno, overnight. The next stop will be Locarno in Switzerland to meet up with a business associate.

Beach mode

Right now it is just relaxing beach mode for some days, not doing much and we really do enjoy the food and wine, another beer is sometime slipping down when the heat is on. It hasn’t been that hot the last days, around 32 degrees. We are looking around for a boat excursion or to rent a boat so we can get out on the ocean and visit the beautiful places you only can reach by sea.

Euro cup Final kickoff

If you want to have a beach all by your self this is the time, maybe just some lost bitter German person ;-) Italy is right now closed and it is only the the personal at RAI uno that is working and they do have an important task to keep the broadcasting problem free.

Costa Rei

We have now reached our final destination Costa Rei of our great Italian road trip. At check in we got the bad news that there was no air conditioning in our apartment!! After some discussions (arguing) with the manager we were offered a portable air conditioning unit, works just fine for us, we thought. At the end of the day this portable air conditioning was not working at all. This doesn’t matter because what a place this is, just at the beach 50 meters to the water and very fine sand on the entire beach. The water is crystal clear and around 25 degrees so this will work for us instead of air conditioning. We will now let the CC rest for some days and work us through the boxes of wine we bought in Tuscany. Ann is working on her tan and I’m camping in the shadow and enjoying life by being online when neededJ

And today we do congratulate Veronica on her birthday, hipp hipp hurra

Great view from the porch

Our small apartment

Sardinia

During Saturday we spent the day by visiting La Pelosa at the most northerly part of Sardinia. This place is famous for its Caribbean style of turquoise water and this was true, what a place. We spent some hours here before we headed down to Costa Rei. When you get down to these latitudes the country does really shut down during siesta, even the gas stations are closed, just self-service. We did hit the highest temperature so far at 42 degrees but this was “inland” on Sardinia, at the coast it’s around 35 with a nice breeze.

La Pelosa

Livorno – Olbia

Late on Friday evening we found the ferry port for Moby at Livorno. The ferry should depart at 23:30. At 22:45 the ferry came to the port and started unloading all cars and people. Finally at 01:00 we departed for Olbia. The ferry was really nice and modern but with a touch of Ryanair style, no restaurants just self-service. People where sleeping all over in the ferry and there was one couple that was camping with a tent on the upper deck. I’ve never been in a ferry with 3 car decks before, it was massive.

Livorno ferry port

Olbia, Sardinia, 07:00 in the morning of Saturday. We haven’ docked yet ;-) we should have docked at 06:30, Italian style….

Volterra

On the way to Livorno we ended up in a really nice old town located on top of a hill. This old town Volterra has turned in to a tourist attraction with lots of shops with tourist “stuff”. I found the shop for Jimmy with lots of ancient swards and daggers.

Jimmy's shop ;-)