23 September 2012 Today we had the first of several guided tours we are doing on this trip. We visited the Gallipoli battlefields. In the First World War the Allies attempted to provide an ice free relief route to Russia by opening up the Dardanelles straight and capturing Constantinople. In early 1915 a strong navel fleet attempted to force through the Dardanelles but they were stopped by Turkish cannons and mines and three battleships were sunk. On April 25 1915 a combined British, Australian, New Zealand and Indian Force landed on Gallipoli at several points, most famously Anzac Cove, hoping to capture the peninsular. They met stiff Turkish defence led by Mustafa Kemel (who later founded modern Turkey) resulting in an attritional conflict with little ground being gained. Eventually in January 1916 the Allied troops withdrew ... read more

21 September 2012 A respite from the travelling and sightseeing. We were late up, had a pre breakfast swim and then walked into town, did some shopping including having beef kebabs made for us by a german speaking Greek butcher and back along the promenade and beach. The afternoon was whiled away with some chores, another swim and a briefing from Kevin on what to expect when we entered Turkey. A pleasant day was concluded by an impromptu barbeque whilst watching the sunset over the islands out to sea.... read more

19 September 2012 We were parked next to a noisy ventilation shaft on the camping deck and so had a rather disturbed night. The boat arrived at 08.30 at Igoumenista and after some rather intricate reversing with many shouted instructions from the crew, all 16 vans safely disembarked to begin the two day 500 mile journey eastwards across the whole of Northern Greece to the Turkish border. During the day’s driving we visited the lakeside town of Ioannina and depite some satnav mishaps managed to find a parking spot by the castle which we walked around and visited an unused mosque in the citadel which has been created into the municipal museum. We stopped the night at the village of Makrygialos just south of Thessalonnika.... read more

17 September 2012 We renewed our acquaintance with the delightful university city of Bologna, wandering around some of its miles and miles of wonderful porticoed pavements and visiting a few of the buildings we didn’t have chance to see last year. Some shopping for cheese, fruit and vegetables in the food market was followed by a long Italian lunch in one of the back street restaurants. The campsite is next to Bologna’s show ground and in the evening we wondered round a combined open air exhibition and fair that was taking place. The event included a large selection of open air restaurants all of which were very busy with the crowds enjoying the warm evening.... read more

15 September 2012 We had a walk over the back of the cliffs behind the campsite and the path took us down to Dahn. As seems to be often the case, we were last away and we drove to Karlsruhe to do some shopping. Lunch was a bratwurst sausage from a stall outside the supermarket. Then it was 300k south into Switzerland to another attractive campsite, this time at the village of Buochs on the shore of Lake Lucern. Before our dinner we strolled into the village and had a look at the lake.... read more