Croatia- Lake Garda

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Saturday 13th June
The highlight of today was discovering that the bikes were locked together and the keys had gone missing ! As I don’t deal with that sort of thing it could not be my fault - or could it! We hunted all around the tent and surrounding area/ toilets/ shop etc nowhere to be found - so as we were off for a drive anyway we decided to look for a B & Q !!! for tools to do the job and another bike lock - some chance when we cant even find an open supermarket. Drove to Krk town and spotted some bags of compost and cement and went into the shop - man behind counter didn’t speak a word of English so many hand gestures later we are now the proud owners of a Croatian hacksaw a 2m length of chain and a Chinese padlock for £15. Got back to tent had another look round and found them in the bin - this is where it became my fault as Steve had put them on the chair and I had moved it into the tent and obviously dropped them into the bin in the process.!!!!
Another day of searing temperatures and an entertaining afternoon watching a new german arrival who knew our neighbours bring every gadget possible out of his van to show everyone - sprinkler , various tubes of differing sizes which the two of them started to use as a telephone system ! This string of gadgets finally ended with a full size dinghy! The campsite were holding a Campfest ( poor mans Beerfest) Baska man tried to persuade us to go but we could hear the music from our tent and it wasn’t exactly an eclectic mix! So we were very boring and kept our own company..

Sunday 14th June
Lazy day today Sat outside tent most of day reading and staying in shade. We get use of hotel pool for free so as needed to cool down went over there about 2pm for a swim and a couple of drinks - Popped down to nearest restaurant for tea and then straight to bed for early start in morning for 5 hour drive to Lake Garda

Monday 15th June
Got up at 6.30 to try and avoid putting tent down in searing heat - by 7.30 it was already 28 degrees. Set off at 9am with ETA in Italy at 2pm - A closed tunnel meant a detour and arrival was more like 3pm - Our Thomson Al Fresco reps David and Pauline Williams ( Dave ex colleague of me and Steve at Eagle Star) were there to welcome us to our air conditioned mobile home - still 33 degrees here as well. Lovely campsite overlooking Lake Garda friends and family discount make it £25 a night - a real bed for the first time in 10 days. Had a BBQ and a few beers outside their caravan and were visited by 2 evil white rabbits who like to eat bread and cake ! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_of_Caerbannog)

Tuesday 16th June
Todays activity in 33 degrees was to be a 9 mile bike ride along the promenades of Lasize Bardolino and Garda on the other side of the lake. Just to make it harder we left the campsite at 11.00 went the wrong way on the motorway and did an extra 30km and ended up cycling in the midday sun! Lovely ride with ice cream milkshakes on the way ( no beer as driving !) Steve in two bars and had milkshake and orange juice ! Unheard of and certainly would not happen in UK. On the way back from Garda Steve got yet another flat tyre and changing that in the heat proved to be very sweaty. By the time we got back to car park it had gone down again so the extra bit to Lasize was replaced by a trip to inters port for some new inner tubes. Finally got to a proper supermarket and stocked up for Switzerland with cheaper ( NOT CHEAP) food and booze.
Bck to camp for shower and off out to treat Dave and Pauline to tea at the local fish restaurant. This was at the top of a very steep hill and it was still very warm. Food very nice and we were shown the delights of the little village with about 10 houses which were Moes darts club with 5 electronics darts machines , a kebab shop open till 3am and a door with 25 posts in front of it ( see photos once downloaded) very bizarre! - had a very civilised glass of white wine outside the mobile home and retired inside to watch part of a film - History Boys before retiring at 1am- Cant believe Henry the 8th got 2 mentions as did Anne of Cleves, they did a visit to an abbey and when looking up one of the cast he went to the Thomas Tallis school - what a strange coincidence.

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