Tirana to Dubrovnik From our hotel in Albania, we continued along some of the worst main roads we’d come across this trip – they appeared to be nothing more than a dirt track with no obvious road rules to follow! We made it to the edge of Montenegro where border control made us wait 5 hours before allowing us into the country! After some lunch and a few games of cards at the roadside stop we travelled the sparkling coastline through Montenegro and toward another border crossing into Croatia to set up camp in the dark of our Dubrovnik camp. The next morning began with a guided tour of Dubrovnik’s Old Town district, seeing many historic buildings, modern galleries and exploring the walls of the fortified city and old port. Our tour group spent the ... read more

Istanbul to Sofia A local guide gave us an early morning tour around Istanbul to see the Blue Mosque and Turkish Baths before making a quick visit to a carpet store. It was here the salesmen explained the differences between wool, cotton and silk carpets with many of various designs available for purchase. Thinking that a rug might not be suitable for the camper trailer, and also way out of our price range we headed to the Grand Bazaar and Spice markets. We couldn’t believe our eyes when a 10 year old boy purchased cigarettes, and we also came across a fishing/camping/weapon store where we could have easily bought a Desert Storm handgun or M16 for less than $840 Australian dollars. Don’t think we’d clear customs with an M16! A small group of us went ... read more

Athens to Gallipoli via Kavala Our journey led us along Greece’s coastline, where we drove past Spartan Thermopylae & Byzantine Thessaloniki. It was in this region that 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians fought against Persians to defend their country’s freedom – being asked to give up their arms, Leonidas replied with the heroic phrase ‘Come and get them ‘. Past Mt Olympus, we made our way to harbourside Kavala to camp for the night. It was 15 Euro each for a tourist visa to enter Turkey, although Poms, Kiwis and Germans entered without a fee, while Canadians paid top price of 45 Euro each! (ridiculous) The coach meandered us along the Sea of Marmara, where we reached ANZAC Cove to view the historic Gallipoli battlefields where so many soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice. It was ... read more

Sorrento to Corfu It was a long day of travel as we passed along the Bay of Naples, and stopped for a guided tour of Ancient Pompeii. Our guide told us about the ancient city and sights buried under all the volcanic ash from Mt Vesuvius’eruption. The town had surprisingly well preserved neighbourhoods with ruins of shops, houses and markets and while our guide did take us through the red-light district with some stone-beds in the local brothel, it was still chilling to see the preserved shells of citizens and animals in the city. Truly unbelievable to think of the technology they had for their time (79AD). We made our way to our overnight ferry which took us to Igoumenitsa, from here we had only a short trip to the Greek island of Corfu. We ... read more

Venice to Florence First stop for the day was at Pisa after snaking through the Apennine Mountains. The bell tower was an architectural wonder, with a lean of around 3.5 degrees due to the shallow footings and unstable earth its built upon! We made our way through Tuscany to Florence where a local guide led us through the beautiful Italian streets and piazzas. We saw the Duomo, Basilica Santa Croce, Giotto’s bell Tower, the Baptistry and Piazza Della Signoria (where the original statue of David was placed – now replaced by a replica). Along the river were chains of love locks, and many grand statues could be seen of well-known scientists, artists and the like including Donatello, Gallileo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo. We attended a Florentine leather craft demonstration, and browsed around the town ... read more