2 November 2023

Our Second Year in a Motorhome – 2023

Our first plan had us spending the winter in Greece and going to a friend's wedding in Italy. A year late, and in the summer rather than the winter, 2023 is when both finally happened. We had five new countries, 87 posts, and a lot more confidence behind the wheel.

Spain to Venice

We set off in March through the middle of Spain: Toledo, Segovia, Madrid, and on to Gelsa in Aragon, where Mariana and Cor had bought a house. They threw Cristina a surprise birthday party in a very Andy Warhol pub, with paella and a cake. Then it was through Girona and the south of France (Avignon, the Alps at Castellane, Cannes) into Italy and Venice.

Croatia, Montenegro and Albania

Croatia was a coast of islands and old towns: Krka National Park, Trogir, Split and Dubrovnik, where Cristina tried out a guillotine and Ben refused. Montenegro's capital felt like the 1980s, and driving through it was a nightmare.

Albania was the adventure of the year. At Kus Lake we followed a French motorhome up a kilometre of single-track dirt road to a campsite, then escaped at dawn before the rain turned it to mud. In Elbasan the campsite owners, father and son mechanics, checked over the van for free and brought us fresh bread. Then Lake Ohrid and Korçë.

Greece

At the Albanian border the policeman opened the door, met Asha barking and growling, and decided he didn't need to check the van. On the Greek side we waited an hour while they checked whether Ben, being English after Brexit, had been in Europe more than 90 days. "Do you really live in Spain?"

It was worth it: the monasteries of Meteora, Delphi, Athens, and a month around the Peloponnese, from Gythio and Kalamata to Methoni. At Kalo Nero we waited up for the turtles, but got a Greek wedding with fireworks until 4am instead.

The wedding, and home through England

A ferry took us from Igoumenitsa to Bari, and then to Sorrento for Joe and Joanne's wedding, where Cristina met Ben's friends and family and Asha played all day with the children. We went home the long way round: Parma, Grenoble, Burgundy, Calais, family in England, then Normandy and Brittany, with Mont Saint-Michel and Dinan, before heading down to Spain through Pamplona, Burgos and Madrid and back to Andalusia.