Ellis Family Blog

Wednesday Sixe and Hilde once again picked us up, this time to take us on a nostalgic trip back to Rohrdorf and the surrounding area.  We first visited in 1979 with Scriven Park FC to play the return leg of an exchange which had been in Knaresborough the year before, and then came back again in 1982.  The experience made a huge impression on us all, and we’ve maintained contact with Sixe ever since. We had a picturesque drive through the northern Black Forest – the Natural Park – stopped for coffee and blueberry cake at a small typical Black Forest village and then droveRead More →

We’d finally decided on our route into Germany, and ‘Satan the Satnav’ had told us it would take about seven hours.  This was by far the longest single day journey we’d attempted, and we wanted to leave ourselves plenty of wriggle room, so we decided to set off at 8 in the morning.  We packed as much as we could the night before, and set our alarms for 6.30 a.m. At 8 o’clock we were in the car, all hitched up, and set off to leave the site.  Unfortunately it wasn’t that simple, as a couple of tight bends and some low hanging boughs meantRead More →

On Monday we spent a lazy day and had a pleasant hour chatting to our German neighbour Martin, who speaks excellent English. It turns out he spent a bit of time working in America and living in San Diego, which explains his fluency.  We invited him and his family to have a drink with us that evening but we ended up dropping in on them instead, and exchanged views on just about everything including Brexit!  It turns out he’s a tax consultant, and has run his own business for many years.  His wife, Simone didn’t speak much English, so this helped Karol refresh her German.Read More →

Because we’re on Como for over three weeks, we’re finding it very relaxing, alternating active days with less active ones.  Our excuse is that it’s still very hot – thirty degrees or more every day, so you don’t feel you have much energy to do very much. On Tuesday however we decided to break out the bikes and cycle along the Lakeside path to Sorico, about 5km north of Golden Sheep.  It’s a lovely ride along a path shared with pedestrians, but with spectacular view of the Lake all round. When we got back we then walked into the centre of Domaso to get aRead More →

We packed up in record time (we’re getting really good at this now!) said our goodbye’s and left the site around 9.30 a.m. We’d already programmed the Satnav to take us to Camping Golden Sheep (!) at Domaso at the top of Lake Como, and expected it to be a relatively short hop of about 2 hours.  Unfortunately the Satnav seems to have developed a mind of her own (Karol’s certain it’s a ‘she’!) and after 20 minutes we still hadn’t left San Felice, as ‘she’ kept giving us conflicting directions. This wasn’t the first time ‘she’ had done this – it seemed as thoughRead More →

We spent Monday visiting the nearest main town Salo, about 5 km up the lake side.  Salo was damaged by an earthquake in 1901 and most of the historic buildings were damaged, but they have rebuilt quickly and they’ve created a beautiful lakeside promenade. Lake Garda is huge and there are lots of boats, both ferries taking passengers around and across the lake, and private boat owners who moor their boats there all year. Quite a few campers also tow boats behind their motorhomes and they stay at sites with access to the lake. It’s really entertaining watching them all, and also the different birdsRead More →

It seems that everybody in mainland Europe has a dog.  Caravaners/motor home owners seem particularly fond of dogs, which surprises me as there’s little enough room as it is, without tripping over a four legged friend every time you move around.  However, what Karol pointed out is that different nationalities treat their dogs in different ways. Take the Spanish – their dogs are an integral part of the family – whilst being well behaved they know their place. Italians take their dogs everywhere with them – including into shopping centres!  What happens if the dog has an accident on the tiled flooring?  No one seemsRead More →

Our first night at Camping Serenissima was notable only because it became known as the Night of the Mosquitos!  We sat out until we realised that we were getting pestered by insects and retired.  By morning we both had evidence of a few bites, even though we’d applied Avon’s ‘Skin so Soft’ but didn’t think much of it.  Later we would realise that we had more than 30 bites between us, and boy were we going to suffer! However, on the Tuesday morning after Karol had opened her birthday cards, we caught the local bus from outside the site into Venice, a journey which tookRead More →

The weather continues to be a bit mixed, but at least it has cooled down now, and most of the time it’s in the early 20’s which is very pleasant.  On Thursday we decided to circumnavigate the lake on our bikes – just short of 30 km, and as such was Karol’s longest ever bike ride! It was relatively flat too, and all on cycle paths, so no motorised traffic to contend with.  We also had great views of the mountains and the lake itself.               Friday was a bit different, in that we had to take the carRead More →

For our last day in Dubrovnik we decided to treat ourselves with a day by the sea, hiring some super comfy sunbeds and just relaxing. Before that though Grant had a meeting with the manager of the campsite to discuss the bill in view of the disturbance we’d had as a result of the two weekend events. Grant had emailed the manager (on the advice of the reception staff who were obviously unhappy about the events too!) and within a few minutes had a call from him to arrange a meeting for the Monday morning. So off he went, negotiating skills honed, and he wasRead More →