November 2013

A long time since our last confession

One year one month later, Greece to Macedonia to Serbia to Hungary to Czech Republic in 3 weeks. It is quite a strange feeling, as we got off the boat in Larios, still quite warm, but definitely a slight chill in the air, also to find autumn colours, that is reminiscent of the UK. 

Stacking containers while we sat in the van!

The drive through Greece along the coast was spectacular, made us wonder why we didn't do it before when it is on our door step............ well, nearly on our door step. 

lovely Greece

 Our first campsite in Greece

This is a cafe  I was so disappointed that it was closed

We saw our first 'Lidl', I got quite excited, ordering Noel to stop, Screecheed.... brakes.....I ran in and bought a bag of salad, bacon, parma ham,  smoked salmon and crusty, seedy brown rolls. Noel was surprised that I had reverted to type immediately, finding the cheapest but best supermarket and getting bacon that we have not had since Sudan!

From Greece, we travelled via Macedonia  as we thought it might be interesting and we knew little or nothing about the place.The first thing we discovered is that they required a minimum of 15 days insurance which is about £50......... not such a good start.

As we went through the customs post we were encouraged to see ‘duty free fuel’ advertised. So we went to fill up to learn that this is only available to large trucks. They were firm that this did not include us!

There were wall to wall casinos after the border and on the whole Macedonia did not appear to us to be particularly inspiring.  The real high spot was when we parked at a petrol station which was attached to a hotel we were allowed to stay there for free with internet as well. The nicest person was Nicola the night time petrol man who looked after us very attentively and was such a pleasant person to talk to, all the more remarkable as he spoke really good self-taught English.

Rural Macedonia

It was starting to dawn on us also that if we tried to get all we could from each country we visit then it will still be a long time before we get home. 

So we marched on, through Serbia where again we did not stay too long, though we were also learning that there is still a huge amount of culture and diversity to be discovered.

Into Serbia

A surprising mid European Muslim country

What we thought we should do was to make as much as we could of the famous capital cities that we passed through. Also we should visit our friends around Europe who do not see often enough because it such a mission getting to Europe. We should take full advantage of being there and having transport.

Things were starting to get expensive for three reasons:

• Fuel prices were soaring as we went further into Europe. 
• We had to use hotels as most campsites were closed for the winter. It was also starting to get distinctly cold. 
• Finally there is so much more to spend money on, what I mean by this is that Ping, discovered that there were a lot of supermarkets and shopping malls to be explored. 

We moved quite quickly from haggling over the price of tomatoes to spend hours deciding which of life’s essentials should fill our trolley this morning! I have to tell you that we hit Lidl quite hard.

On the way to Budapest we stopped in the town of Ada where they had a remarkable city park with a river running through it. It was huge. There was a full blown sport stadium, bowling, golf course and lovely woodlands. It even had a rifle range and a flying club! Never seen a park like it. Oh I forgot it had a large permanent campsite. 

The vast and lovely Ada Park

This park has such a short summer season during which we are told it is very popular. Needless to say we stayed there alone and there was no one to take our money.

Budapest

We arrived in Budapest and found a fairly nice but basic hotel. Ping being not only an observant soul but also a hardened opera fan, noticed that we were just around the corner from the opera house and we stayed long enough to go and see Don Travelleto, I think it was, it may have been Madame Riggatoni, not sure , (I will allow this as he is such a  peasant…….  It was La Traviata.  ed)  anyway it was very nice. We found that in these cities people still get dressed up in their finery to go to the theatre and although we did our best from, what we had in the van we did feel rather     scruffy by comparison to the rest of the audience. Anyway to my surprise we were not actually thrown out of the theatre or worse made to stand in a corner. 

The 'Boss' at the opera. Happy at last

Curtain call!

It was a lovely evening in a beautiful opera house. Unlike theatres in London they flog tickets for seats in the boxes to any old hoy poloy and so we found ourselves enjoying the show with other people. After so long with only each other for company it was a real treat. 

In Budapest just along the street from our hotel we came across a museum dedicated to the peoples uprising in 1957. It was very dramatic as they were celebrating(if that’s the right word) the anniversary of the peoples uprising of 1957 against the Soviet dominance of Hungary. Not only were there photos of every person killed on ceramic plaques along the wall outside but there was a candle in a glass jar placed under each one. It was a very moving scene. 

Heroes of the 'Peoples uprising'

Actually just before the opera started they showed  a screen with a cobbled road that gradually became covered in blood as the orchestra played a significant piece of music and as the picture faded the inscription appeared  ‘Remember the November uprising 1957’, it was dramatic and powerful even to a mere foreigner.

Reflection of the Plaque on the roof of the museum

We did not stay too long in Budapest partly as we had been there before and also because it is quite an expensive place to be.  This has been the theme as we move along. We did manage to stray into Slovakia without knowing it............ oh well!

We headed to Vienna fully intending to get another shot of culture. We camped again in a local park, no one seemed to mind. In fact the gardeners were busy giving our vehicle an expert examination, this is instead of shooing us out as might happen in England. 

Austrian park

The gardener was under the van (oh yes!) when he was alarmed to find that the rubber covers had come adrift from both drive shafts. He spoke almost no English but insisted on taking us to the local MAN Dealers who, without looking up from their computers  said "Iveco - no, can’t help you''. 

Our gardener told us that we must get it repaired immediately. He kept pointing and saying SOS! So we found a specialist garage in Vienna who when I said , slowly and clearly. ’I am sorry but I speak only English and I have a problem with my Iveco', the very, very nice man replied ‘well, I suppose you’ve come to the right place'. 

It had been quite a worry but they fixed it within an hour and all we had to worry about now was how we would earn back the 100 euros they charged us! 

Vienna Opera House........not!

Having spent  a whole day in Vienna sorting out our truck We decided reluctantly that we should move on. I am sure that Ping was nursing a secret intention to get more opera tickets! So I think she was quite disappointed. (Yes, she was. Very disappointed!  ed)

These graceful windmills are huger than you can imagine. One of the blades is about 25 metre long

We found ourselves driving without much of a plan and it was getting late. We did not know where we would stay and after a couple of false starts, we passed through a whole village that we guessed was only holiday houses  as all the houses were well maintained  but there was absolutely no sign of any one in any of the houses the whole village was deserted. Mmmm a bit spooky! 

The deserted village

In the end we parked up off the road in front of a house and stayed the night  without seeing another soul.

Once it got dark we saw a mass of red lights in the sky that all flashed on and off at the same time. Pretty strange! But we realised that these were on top of the forest of wind turbines that are all over the countryside. 

The next day we had an easy drive across the Austrian/Czec border where Ping had a haircut and I had a nice pizza!  The border post was actually being torn down that day, as due to EEC rules it was no longer required. It was such an interesting building  that I felt it was a real shame to destroy it. It genuinely signals all the changes of recent times. A Soviet style building which was now coming down for the modern European age.

The Austria Czeck border

Such changing times. The next day this border post will be gone!

Now, The Czec Republic are not big on road signs. As we passed along the main road to Prague we found that the road was being replaced and as we discovered was closed. Of course the locals knew all about it and knew the way to go but we had not a clue and all we manged to find was the road workers were sufficiently cross with us that they gave no help whatever. I am pretty sure that if we had not got out when we did they would have delighted in tarring, and probably feathering, our van.

The start of the railway path

We were really at a loss  the map did not help us much as there was not sufficient small detail to help. That bloody women in our satnav, who by the way, now inexplicably has an Irish accent! All she would do was try to get us back onto the road that was closed. She did this by taking us up some tiny lanes at the end of which we found we had to either follow a track along the railway or to pop up at the roadworks again.  We could see the road workers in the distance glowering at us  so I took the railway option. 

Big Mistake!

The track became narrower and then turned and rather encouragingly seemed to head back into the village we had just left. By now the path was just wet grass. It seemed to pass between what in England would be allotments. Then just as I had caught sight of a tar road that we had come up on, we descended a grassy slope with fences close by on either side to find that there was no way to get to the road. We were already feeling a bit cheesed off, but….. I put it into reverse on this slope intending, very reluctantly, to reverse all the way out but the wheels just would not grip at all. 

It may not look much but we were once again, Stuck!

Four wheel drive still no grip and every time I tried the van slewed over to threaten the fences of the allottmets.

It took 2 hours to get unstuck, we had sand ladders out and everything; it was cold, wet and getting dark. In the end I threaded the winch cable under the van and fixed it to a fence post. I had no idea if it would be strong enough, nor did I have any idea what I would do if I pulled the fence down in the dark, in the allotments in deepest Czec Republic where hardly anyone speaks English. 

Anyhow we  slowly winched the van out and then put all our toys away. Remember tidying up and putting away is part of playing. Then we had to reverse about half a kilometer back to the railway line. After that we found a taxi driver who knew the road to Prague and said, 'follow me'. 

What followed should have been a gloomy sorrowful slow careful drive up to the motorway. NO! The taxi driver, kind as he was, was a complete nutter  and it took all of my skill and determination to keep up with him in the wilds of the countryside  with absolutely no idea where we were. Somehow I stuck to his tail and we made it to Prague quite exhausted.  

Ping has become quite adept at searching laterooms.com and so we parked outside the Boat hotel in Prague that we were to enjoy for under £20 per night. We both liked Prague very much. It is a lovely old city where it seems that every corner has a story to tell. 

Callum, City guide extraordinaire!

We enjoyed a couple of guided walking tours  both were good but Callum the guide on the so called ‘free tour’ was quite exceptional - incredibly knowledgeable, passionate about so many things  and with a deeply funny arid dry sense of humour. That was great.

The spectacular  Astral clock of Prague

Something that emerged for us while we were in Prague is that there is so much to learn about European history of the last hundred years or so. So many things that I have never really understood  about oppressive dictators and regimes  as well as constantly changing boundaries of many countries. We learnt a little of the hideous struggles of a host of communities. In so many parts of Europe, empires have been carved up, dictators have fallen and risen. Interestingly, in the main the people have taken back what is theirs but at huge cost.

Terazin

We knew about this terrible concentration camp as we had visited  some of the principal places in the Jewish Ghetto. Here we learned of the dreadful irony of those who perished in that awful camp at Terazin, the irony is this; The Nazis whose regime in Czechoslovakia was especially brutal even by the standards set by them elsewhere, kept meticulous records of all the people who had been wrenched from their homes. They were men women and children taken into the confines of the camp where  most died. These records are truly the most graphic memorial.

In Prague, there is a Synagogue in the old Ghetto which is devoted to this horror. The names of every single one of the thousands recorded to have gone to Terazin are written on the walls of the synagogue. The artwork of the children that died is displayed there. 

With access to Nazi records the names and addresses of those people have been traced and discreet brass plaques placed outside their homes. We were to learn later that this has been extended all over their sphere of influence. There are genuinely too many heartbreaking examples of heroism and suffering to bring to mind.

Add caption

As we were about to leave The Czek republic  we found ourselves driving through the town of Terazin. No sooner had we realised this, than we were upon the cemetery that lies just in front of the bastion of that concentration camp! What was really shocking was that I counted roughly two and a half thousand graves, a tiny fraction of those who died there and there was nothing to bury. 

The cemetery and entrance to that terrible place

It was already late in the day and we both agreed that to just pop in by accident and have a quick look around would not be in keeping with the dignity of the place so we resolved to return  and take as long as necessary.

On our African journey we have been troubled by the many wars and lesser conflicts in Africa and we have listened to the sage comments of people who state quite reasonably that wars and dictators are a feature of Africa. What has really surprised me is that it really is no different from what has gone on in recent history in Europe. 1913 t0 2013!

I have long held an unqualified opinion that The days of the African dictator are now  really numbered (including the fascist Mugabe in Zimbabwe) and that the number and severity of conflicts are gradually diminishing. They do not have anything like the EC in Africa it is true but there are lesser union such as the CFA and ECOWAS that are becoming more important. On the whole I think we should be very happy to have the EC despite its failings. Anyway enough of my opinionating. Just know of the struggles of others!  On to Berlin.

We drove into Germany to find it rather lovely in a neat and tidy kind of way. In the rural area there are pretty villages  and it all seems fairly well healed. In these parts there is little sign of the austerity that must have afflicted east Germany in the not so distant past.

 A rural Saxony village

We had booked a campsite not far from Berlin and we arrived to find it was very cold dark and quite expensive. We have only a very small heater in the van and it was cold  we spent the night under every blanket we had including the fleecy Chinese blanket that we had bought a few months before. I do recommend them they are cheap and very good.  

In the morning we decided that Ping's skills at finding cheap hotels should be deployed. She did her thing, I went to fill the van with water  and then we met Adam and Denise. They are a lovely American couple who are working in Germany and were having a weekend in Berlin.  We offered them a lift into the city and enjoy spending a nice day with them wandering around Berlin and ending up with an excellent Mexican meal. It was a lovely day and again Ping had found us a nice hotel for not very much money.

Brandenburg Gate, with Denise and Adam

I particularly enjoyed getting around on the UBahn metro system which was comfortable and fast.

I have spoken about how much there is to be learnt about Europe that we Brits hardly know about. This is true and on arrival in Berlin we found that there is so much more ‘real life’ history to know about. Berlin is a lovely attractive city that is open, relaxed and cultured. It also has so much to teach us about deprivation, and most importantly, recovery. 

The thought provoking holocaust memorial Berlin

We had a free visit to the Reichstag which was interesting and such an interesting place. The Germans take openness of government very seriously and anyone can visit, just book it online and turn up at the appointed time.

The restored Reichstag building so badly damaged in the war

The Norman Foster bit on the top. Extraordinary!

Checkpoint Charlie has been preserved and there is a neighbouring museum. In addition there is an open air exhibition about the wall and the checkpoints  and most importantly about those who escaped, those who didn’t make it and the people who helped them to cross the wall.

The Berlin wall and the regime that maintained it is just one of the terrible and oppressive institutions that people have endured just in the last hundred years.

Checkpoint Charlie

We did go to visit the Stasi Museum as it seemed very important to have some kind of firsthand view of this organisation. Sadly the museum was very disappointing. It seemed to be very short of exhibits but more importantly it was difficult for us as the English translations were poorly written and wildly inconsistent, sometimes non existent so it was quite a frustrating visit.  Something we did not miss though was that the buildings of whole estate of this secret police force is there to see and it is quite unbelievably extensive. It was a truly massive and oppressive machine.

Part of the vast Stasi estate

Templehof Airport - the scene of the Berlin Airlift has now been closed for several years but remains still intact. We went to visit but found that the English speaking tours were only on Saturdays and we were unable to take a tour which we would really have liked to do. However, with the buildings unchanged we are able to see that what was built by the Nazi Regime is still the 5^th largest single building in the world. It really impressive to see. There is also a memorial to the pilots and crew that lost their lives carrying out this extraordinary and extensive operation.

Templehof Airport  

One small fact that I really was delighted to learn is that there is almost no way that a foreigner can tell if they are in East or West Berlin now as it is now so developed. Just one thing I really loved is that the  green and red man on the traffic lights in the west he has a hat and in the east he is bareheaded. Take a look!

West Berlin

East Berlin

From Berlin we had arranged to go and visit our good friends in Denmark So we made our way to Puttgarten where we were to take a ferry to Denmark. We arrived at the port after dark and we were advised, by the staff to park in the car park of the huge duty free shop.  Just before we were going to settle down for the  night the security man came along to tell us that we had to move. He directed us to another car park which he assured us is free. By now it was getting very cold and wrapped up warm for the night. In the morning we discovered that the barrier for the car park was down and the stinkers made us pay 14 euros to let us out.

I was pretty cross about that. 

Aase, Soren and Ide

Any way we took the ferry and drove to our friends Soren & Aase who live in a delightful small seaside town  with their pretty house right by the beach. It was lovely but cold! We were also looking forward  to visit friends in Sweden too but we were very disappointed as illness in the family prevented us visiting.

The view from their living room. Not bad eh!

I have to say at this point that the heater which was damaged when we had a fire in the van is now not working very well. In the living part of the van we have only a tiny gas heater which is not really adequate for frosty conditions.

The weather forecast is for frost and snow in the coming week.

We started the long drive to Holland via Bremen, all motorway driving so not so exciting. We slept overnight in a lorry park on the motorway it was quite adequate and free, which is nice, but very cold!

Eric, Aneke, Theo and Sylvia. With whom we travelled across South Asia  a lifetime ago. Together with Arnold and Suzanne who stayed at home 

Then we proceeded to the home of our friends in Holland where we have been made very welcome and we plan to stay a few days before the final journey home. By home of course what I mean is that we are going to a new house where all our stuff is packed up there will be no one there so it feels a bit of a bleak prospect. 

More of the gang but also Marja and Henk. Such good company

    
We always enjoy staying in Holland,lovely home and people and most important a well stocked fridge, in a very pleasant town. While in Holland we were also able to meet with some some friends we had met while in Africa. Marja and Henk came to visit us in Bussum. We also went to The Hague and had dinner with Casper and Yolanda. These were such nice reunions  as well as a bit of a binge of reminiscence. 

However we will be glad to be back in England, having had such a great opportunity to visit parts of Europe  and to catch up with friends who we are unable to see often enough.

As soon as I am home I will write up a final round up of our amazing journey, for posting here.

Noel and Ping

noelbow51@gmail.com
pingbow54@gmail.com

27th October 2013

28th October 2013
(A year and one week since we left London)

Israel.                  

It was never really part of our plan to go as far as Israel. We had all along believed that we would take a boat from Egypt to Turkey. However We received a lot of information that made us realise that due to the political upheaval in Egypt all these boat services had been withdrawn. So we made a plan to travel via Jordan and then Israel.

I was very enthusiastic about visiting Jordan. I had visited there briefly many years ago and found it to be very pleasant country. At that time I did not get to travel around much, I was there as I was escorting a repatriated Psychiatric patient. Even so Jordan left an impression on me. We were both very keen to visit some of the ancient sites, of which there are many including Petra, and Wadi Rum.

We had been warned that  Israeli border checks are very ‘thorough’ but the whole process turned out to be a bit too much for either of us and we were both quite exhausted afterwards.

First of all on the Egypt side the night before crossing we found it to be a very tense area. We arrived near the border mid afternoon and found a queue of traffic that was really not moving. So Ping decided that we would find somewhere stay for the night.

Our (illegal) campsite

There were no campsites and inquiries with hotel showed that they were very expensive and would not allow us to camp. So we started to scout around for somewhere else.

We left the man road and found a track that ran along the beautiful beach  and was hidden from anywhere but the sea. Just before we settled on a nice spot we met a policeman and asked if we could camp there. He said it was fine and even directed us to a precise spot. So we set ourselves up.

Now, a while before this, we had seen several minibuses as the only traffic on this road. They were taking a troop of tourists up to nearby historic island.  A short while later we saw them return empty. Once we had  got ourselves organised I decided it was a good time to have a shower.

It is worth explaining that this is something that generally we are only happy to do when we are pretty sure of not being too public.

In the back of the van there is a shelf where with the back doors open we can place our ‘solar shower’. This sophisticated piece of equipment consists of a large heavy duty plastic bag with a plastic shower nozzle at is its bottom. The idea is that you lay it out in the sun and it gets warm. Lovely!

So, the back doors were opened, bag placed on shelf nozzle pointing downwards and a sheet stretch out between the doors and held in place by clothes pegs. This to ensure privacy and to prevent causing distress.

All set up, Ping pointed out that the minibuses had just returned and it was her surmise that they would pick up said gang of tourists and pass this way again. Further she suggested I may wish to reconsider the timing of my shower, perhaps until after they had passed. 'Good idea', I said and did something else instead.

Having been suitably distracted for a good while, I decided once again that I could have my shower and so set about the task. There follow scenes which some readers may find distressing. I got my loofa, shampoo and towel all set up and had opened the shower to find it just the right temperature. I was quite happy. It was bit windy but I knew my pegs would hold up nicely. On the outside edge of the rear doors by the hinges there is a gap of some 10 cms or for older people 4 inches    (And why aren’t you in bed? Matron will get to hear about this!) This gap did not concern me unduly as anyone outside  could really only see in through this if they were travelling quite slowly. In view of there being so little traffic  and that if they did pass they would hardly notice.

So there I was happily working away with my loofa when a series of events took place in quick succession. You know how it can go sometimes. First those minibuses returned (remember the minibuses?) This did not concern me unduly as I knew they would just drive past. Not so. On this occasion, and for reasons that I do not know, the first one slowed right down just as he was passing. Then Ping in her absolute wisdom stated the bleeding obvious by saying those minibuses are back and they have picked up all their passengers. I had to concede as the first crawled past and allowed me to make eye contact with each and every one of its occupants through the 10 cm gap between the door and the van body. Now, I don’t know if it was due to the presence of the buses that caused the wind to blow in a slightly different direction. I was at this moment doing the bath time equivalent of whistling in the dark! That is to say I was scrubbing even more vigorously with my loofa, lots of suds and so on, basically behaving as if I am quite comfortable to go about my ablutions with an audience  of camera toting tourists.

This is what the minibus passengers actually went to see!

It was as I had commenced the process of making eye contact with the contents of the second bus, that I realised that the third was close behind. It gradually dawned on me that the reason that I was able to know about the presence of the third bus at the same time was because I was now able to, not only see through the 10 cm gap between the door and the body of the van, but also I could see through a larger area that was now open because the wind which had slightly changed direction , possibly due to the presence of the bloody minibuses had blown the sheet up in the air not only threatening to pull the remaining pegs  off it was also exposing my loofa for all to see! Whatever bloody nationality these people were! 

Our shower cubicle

As they crawled past at something rather less than walking pace. I was left with very little to preserve my dignity, other than the knowledge that I by now had very little dignity to preserve! By the time I had managed to grab the sheet and peg it back and finish my nice warm shower , they had all past and I would not be surprised if the first of the pictures was already on the internet.  

A study of Showerboy with clothes

It was about this time that the police arrived.

I had just about got dry and dressed but with soap still in my ears and my loofa still in my hand I found myself having an animated conversation with three Egyptian cops who spoke no English, not for the first time! They were here to tell us very nicely that we could not stay here. I protested that we had been directed here by the police and in any case if they left it for a few hours we would be gone by morning.They seemed happy with the explanation and off they went.

We settled down to have a pleasant evening. Ping had her shower without incident though with me sitting in a folding chair gripping the sides of the sheet to prevent it blowing away.

Just as we were settling down, back came the cops. This time it transpired, through the medium of sign language, that their General had got wind of our presence and required some action to be taken. We again explained that we were British tourists, had nothing harmful in mind and that we just needed to be left alone until the morning. They examined our passports and so on and they were very friendly. They wanted to take our passports which we were reluctant to part with. So we gave them copies and once again off they went. 

This time I predicted we would see them again.

We had our dinner and were in the middle of a game of scrabble when they returned. They were really nice and very apologetic but the boss had spoken and we had to move. They allowed us to protest and to try and reason with them for some time never pushy but we were going to have to go.  I said it is late and dark where should we go. The Hilton! was their swift response. ‘I don’t think so!'

It turned out after much discussion and with the introduction of someone who had a few words of English, that in this area there is a curfew after 9pm and they could not permit us to be out after that time. In the end our English speaking friend had a bright idea. He would come with us and show us the only place that we could legally go. On the way It seemed he was keen to impress us with his English and his western tastes as throughout the 20 minute drive he constantly found another song on his I phone that we would enjoy. The only one I can remember was 'fifty cents' not my cup of tea! 

He took us almost to the border gate where there is a kind of compound which is home to a group of shops. This was in and not out so that was ok.  We would be quite safe and there would be fresh bread in the morning and by the way there are two undercover cops working here. ‘That’s them over there!’ they will watch out for you so you won’t have any problems.

I was reminded of another curfew. When in Ethiopia I was told  of the only time that a curfew was imposed  in that country. The government announced that a curfew would be put in place at 8 pm. When the appointed hour came, it transpired that the whole town had turned out to see something they had never heard of before, and that was they had come to see the curfew!

Anyway back to Egypt. 

So we settled down finally for the night and had a nice easy start in the morning as the first car in the queue for the border.

On the Egyptian side of the border we were subjected to a fairly rigorous search The officer was friendly and quite professional. In fact as we visited the customs, Traffic authority  and then the immigration we got the impression that these were the finest specimins that Egypt had to offer. They were smart helpful mostly they spoke reasonable English. There were a couple of exceptions, one who was assisting with the search who managed to really annoy. We had one item that was well wrapped up. He got all excited and started ripping off the bubble wrap. When I protested he just carried on but was really told off by his senior. Along the lines of  ‘Treat it with a bit of respect or are you going to rewrap it nicely?’ 

Then they discovered that we had a Machete which caused quite stir and more senior people were consulted and it seemed that they were mostly concerned that the Israelis may protest that they were not told. However the ‘wally’ who got told off before started waving it around as if to direct the cars around. I got cross and removed it from him.  I pointed out that this was our property and we don’t expect to see such a display of idiocy. The boss seemed once again to agree with me. I was asked to calm down but I think Mr Silly was made to go and sit on the naughty step for a while.

In the end Ping was asked to drive the van down the queue while I was taken with the officer to consult the Israeli police who took it and insisted that there would be no problem and it would be returned when we leave the border.

I have been very critical of many Egyptian cops however I found the uniformed officers and in particular the man in charge of our search were friendly and professional and still did their job quite thoroughly. Taking trouble to explain everything as well as they could.

There was an interesting interlude between the Egypt side and the Israeli side. As Ping got closer to the gate it became clear that there was a sun canopy over  the gate and it had a height of 2.5m It seemed important to point out that our van is about 2.8 m high. I went to point his out to the office on the gate who would not hear what I had to say and insisted that I wait my turn and go back to my vehicle.

Eventually I was allowed to speak and there was a lot of consultation went on. On the out side of the gate there was and automatic roll up awning. Unfortunately it had been bolted down to the guards kiosk to stop it getting caught by the wind. It took about half an hour to get a maintenance man to remove the bolts and roll this up. Instead of asking me to move over to the other side and wait so that the rest of the growing line of cars could go through.They completely ignored the queue I did not dare to suggest anything. 

Eventually we were allowed through. We were questioned for a few minutes to find out where we had come from and why  etc etc. then we were shown to and area where the Israeli search began. This entailed removing everything, yes everything from the van. It was hot and tiring work. Everything taken out was looked at and then scanned  throughout the staff were friendly courteous  and thorough, but the whole process took about 4 hours leaving us exhausted. From the point where we arrived on the Egypt side to leaving and driving out of the Israel border was about 8 hours and as we left we were given back everything that might be used as a weapon and had been taken from us.

  
Although everyone was polite and courteous but amid this there were several men in plain clothes but without exception wearing ‘designer sunglasses’ and carrying an automatic rifle  and the whole post was overseen by machine gun posts up on a hill. During the process We discussed and decided that we were not willing to go through  this again and so we cancelled our plans to got to Jordan. Which was a great disappointment. When we mentioned this to the staff their manner changed immediately to a more hostile, ‘if you want to come to Israel then this is what you have to deal with’!

Overall I would love to have not bothered with Israel just for this alone.

Eilat beach

Israel is hideously expensive.  We stayed overnight in Eilat which is another place like Benidorm though a little more up market. 

Moonlight on the beach at Eilat

We had the strange experience when we visited a shopping mall. It was bit like being in  place wearing shorts and no shirt in a smart restaurant. We got to feeling there was a particular dress code when in McDonalds we realised that we were the only people not openly carrying a rifle or pistol! And of course the obligatory designer sunglasses. It was quite shocking and a feature all over Israel to see young men and women in everyday clothes walking around dong shopping  or in one place we saw, visiting the beach!

God knows what would happen with all these guns if some incident actually took place. I wouldn’t want to be there!

Although the cost of practically everything being quite high. We did have the very pleasant experience of every night finding a nice place to camp for the night.

The beautiful but smelly Dead sea

There is no water for miles here just desert

We had little time to stay in Israel to do much more than to pass through. Spending the night along the Dead Sea was really beautiful,

though not very fragrant. 






Most people will talk about how interesting and exciting it is that the dead sea is so salty that you can float in it even if you dont swim. I am unsure why they don’t mention that it does not smell very good. But visually it is wonderful.

Passing through Jerusalem

The Roman ruins at Caesaria

Roman 'Smiley face'!

We had a brief stop in Jerusalem and another free overnighter in Caesaria. Not only was  the car park was free and private, but also the roman ruin was free after 4pm and we got to visit that too quite interesting and freeeee! 

We felt rather triumphant at getting away with spending very little in Israel. I regret sounding like we are thumbing our nose at Israel but it is surprisingly satisfying to get away with paying so little in such an expensive place. Along the same line we found something else that really surprised us was that amid all the security consciousnesses  everywhere we went  with one exception it was easy for us to find an unsecured internet connection. Ping especially enjoyed this triumph, but being a terrible loser she was cross at not finding a signal on our last night on the beach at Haifa.

The security conscious Oceanographc Institute Haifa

I was forced to tramp up and down the beach to make sure that we had exhausted all possibilities. I think she is considering writing a complaint to the Oceanographic institute  for not having an unsecured,that is open to the public and there for her personal use, internet connection. I think that she did at one point say ‘I don’t beleeeve it! But I am not sure about that.

Rail by the road by the beach

We arrived in Haifa the port we would get our ship to Greece. The shipping agents were delightful, helpful and easy.

Once we had completed all we needed to get our tickets and instructions from the agent we had a few hours to look around Haifa , which by the way has a railway museum which I did not have time to got to. Shame! What we did see however was a complete surprise. We have not visited the myriad of places of great importance to nearly all the mainstream religions of the world. 

Exquisite B'hai Gardens

We were however treated the most outstandingly beautiful B’hai shrine Here they have used the whole of one side of the huge hill that towers over Haifa to build a temple and ornate gardens that ascend the hill in a series of stairways. This is the first time I have been introduced to the B’hai  a sect which is devoted to promoting peace and harmony in the world. According to what they describe as their aims they should have no enemies in the world. However in both Iran where they started out and in China they are vilified as a dreadful threat. I don’t get it but maybe someone will explain it to me.

The shrine is guarded by volunteers from all around the world who come and do a stint  for their faith. Once again came this startling contradiction. That some of their volunteer guards carry firearms.

Anyway it really felt like quite a privilege to visit this place.

From the top of The B'hai Gardens high above Haifa

Our ship awaits us 

The agent gave the strictest instruction that we should be at the gate of the docks on the dot of 3 pm, and we were. We found an enquiry desk who asked us to wait  a few minutes I think we had expected  a sizeable operation managing cargo. Cars and passengers onto the ship. Then the same guy from the agent turned up arranged for us to have the security grilling which was quite detailed but did include the trick question of (or at least I think it was a question) ‘You haven’t got any firearms or other weapons have you?  ‘Oh no we haven’t!’

Just us on the ship for the first part.

And then we were escorted to the ship to find …….. that we are the only passenger and the only vehicle.

The ship plys between Haifa and Greece stopping at Cyprus in Limassol. We had a nice time with the ship in the sole possession of us and the crew. We had quite a nice cabin and all our meals were provided and they were really quite ok.  

Welcome to Cyprus!

The next morning we woke up to find we already docked in Limassol. We were allowed to go ashore for a few hours, and had strict instructions to be back by 2.30pm (not sure why because the boat wasn't due to leave until 6, but still). So we took a nice long bus ride. The bus driver was very nice and for some time I thought he was talking to me, but it turned out  as he drove on, that he was in fact having a long phone conversation with the phone clamped to his ear with one hand as he manhandled the steering wheel with the other hand. The radio was blaring and we continued to weave our way in the traffic in this way. Unfortunately, he being of Mediterranean heritage, every time he wanted to amplify a point to the person he was speaking to, he of course had to take the other hand off the wheel to wave it around. All this and taking fares from passengers. Quite an art! 

We stopped at McDonalds to use the internet to catch up with email etc then to take the bus back to the port to be in time for our deadline. Unfortunately Ping asked the driver to tell us when we were there. He was happy to do this and when we confidently got of the bus, we were sure that we had plenty of time.

Not so! The driver had assumed that we would want to go to the tourist centre at ‘The Old Port’ whereas we wanted to go to the, not quite so popular, and still working , New port. Sadly the two are about 4 or 5 km apart which was going to be a long walk.  Fortunately we managed to find a taxi driver from Enfield, possibly one of many in Cyprus. He took us to the correct port  and we arrived just on time.  As we approached the ship we found that it was almost loaded with trucks, trailers and containers. 

Shortly after we got underway we went for our dinner to find that we are no longer in glorious isolation. We sat in silence eating in the company of  drivers from the four corners of Europe,  the dinner was nice  As we continued our voyage the company warmed up a bit  but was never chatty until we were leaving the boat and then we couldn't shut them up.

It was actually quite exiting that we pretty much had the run of the boat. We could go anywhere we wanted , The crew were very nice indeed, they seemed to treat us and the drivers as if we were guests. 

I was able to go up and see the ship docking from the bridge which was quite interesting. I have to say we felt like real seafarers for those few days. For most of the trip we stayed within sight of the Turkish coast. Until the land swapped side and we were able to see the Island of Rhodes of the other side of the ship. On the last morning we had the sun rising over a Greek Island as we headed for our destination.

Once docked there were a very few formalities, We are back in the good ol’ EC. Some tearful farewells from our monosyllabic, European Chums and the crew.

Ah the call of the sea for the true mariner!

At last we are truly on the ‘ante penultimate’ leg of our little sojourn.

We have camped last night in the car park of the port in a little Greek town as I type I can hear the mournful chants from the Orthodox church across the road. Two very striking things about Greece so far. One is that along the coast , at least there are truly beautiful views  where ever we go. Not sure why we had to go all that way to see stuff when Europe is on our doorstep. The other is truly remarkable. Nearly everyone we speak to in Greece has a fairly good command of English.  So we now head of toward Macedonia.

We had filled up with diesel in Egypt and with our large reserve tank we bought more than 150 litres at about 10p a litre. This enabled us to drive across Israel where fuel is in the top 5 of most expensive fuel prices in the region of $3 per litre. We and still have enough left for a couple of days in Greece.  Will probably arrive in Thessaloniki before we have used the last drop. It has saved us a couple of hundred dollars. Not bad eh!

Cheers for now !

Noel and Ping

pingbow54@gmail.com
noelbow51@gmail.com