Camping Europe Day 11

Woke up: Tent in Edelweiss Lodge.

Drove: Through Garmisch-Partenkirchen, through Ulm and into Stuttgart.

Did: We drive out of GP and the landscape is beautiful, but we were here last year and enjoyed this area, so we press ahead. Cameron has been so good. He hardly complains and gets carted everywhere with hours spent in the truck and is reading the "Chronicles of Narnia" series, some of which he is re-reading. We decide, if we get there on time, we will hit Legoland Deutschland in Ulm. http://www.legoland.de/In-the-park/Whats-new/Neuigkeiten.htm?lc=en We get there at about 1pm and wonder if we should wait and go in tomorrow, but remembering what a friend said, "this is a half-day park", we go in. There was hardly anyone there. We get on all the rides with no wait and some we just stay on and ride again. Cameron had a BLAST!! Again, we make sandwiches and eat at the truck in the parking lot. This truly saves us money especially in a place like this. Park closed at 6pm, we actually left around 5:30 with no regrets. We did and rode everything there. We press ahead to the Army Base at Stuttgard. Anne's cold is still bothering her, but the decongestants did well at Legoland.

Slept: We got a barracks room at one of the Stuttgart bases. Anne got banished to a room by herself because of the constant coughing. :) http://www.stuttgart.army.mil/sites/local/

Country Count: 3

Camping Europe Day 7

Woke up: Another beautiful morning. Didn't get out until around 11.

Drove: None

Did: Took bus into Old Town Salzburg. Rented bikes and rode down the river. Note to self: Buy European bikes no matter what kind of "ninnys" we look like, those bikes are so comfortable. Rode down the river, stopped in a beautiful park, saw the "Sound of Music" gazebo, and many other beautiful sites. Did you know, Salzburg was the home of Mozart? Stayed in the town into the evening where they were having their own "fest". This was much better. Walked UP to a castle, then back down to the fest. Had a couple beers and some good munchies. Took the bus back to the campsite. Met a couple boys from Bologna, Italy, feed them Hamburger Helper.

Slept: Tent Salzburg, Austria.

Country Count: Still 3

Camping Europe Day 6

Woke up: Salzburg, Austria. Cute little campground. Nice camp host.

Drove: None.

Train: Decided to go to Oktoberfest. Couldn't see being so close and not going. 2 hour train ride from Salzburg to Munich. 10 minute walk from the Hauptbanhoff (Main train station) to Oktoberfest. Got there around noon. Walked around. Went into many of the beer hall tents. Very smokey and already getting loud. Had a beer outside the tents. Beer halls are booked up a year in advance, guess we will settle for outside. No so smokey and still fun. Cameron had a great time riding all the HORRIBLY scary ride. He loves his Dad because I wouldn't have let him on the rides. Hit a beer hall or two, walked around a lot. By 6pm everyone was drunk, half the "kids" throwing up. Time it head back to the train station. Check in the box we went, go again maybe, but not too sure.

Slept: Tent in Salzburg, Austria.

Country Count: 3

Camping Europe Day 5

Woke up: 32 degrees, Cortina, Italy. It was very cold, but we made it. The sunrise is even prettier than the evenings. Guess being cold was worth it. Note: Need better sleeping bag for Cameron.

Drove: Salzburg, directly to a campground from the brochure they gave us at Venice, 10% off.

Did: On the way out of the beautiful Italian Mountains we saw many bicylclists. What a wonderful place to ride. As we saw the Austrian border, we got flagged down by an Italian police officer, just checking our stuff. Aren't the borders open now?!! OK only two exits until the campground in Austria. Polizie put out a red reflector in front of us, Dang twice in one day. We follow them off the freeway. 1 car, 2 police cars, 3 police cars, and 7 police officers. Hmmm what's up? Papers please. What why do we look dangerous? Man, woman, child and big truck full of stuff. Yes English, thank you. Why are you here? Vacation, tent camping. In fall, why? Cause thats when we left. OK you can go. Why were we stopped? A robbery in Salzburg occurred get away vehicle Jeep with Italian plates. Guess Jeep and Ford Truck look alike. Darn American vehicles all look the same.

Slept: Salzburg, Austria.

http://www.camping-kasern-salzburg.com/

Country count: 2

Camping Europe Day 4

Woke up: Venice

Drove: Aviano Air Force base for laundry and an American Meal at Popeyes in the food court. Someone gave us a hint about a campground in the Dolomite Mountains by a lake past Cortina. We decided to look at it. It was TERRIBLE, just a turnout that people could park their RVs at. We drove around, but every campground was closed until back in Cortina we found a nice campground and could look at the mountains.

Went to bed: Dolomite Mountains, Cortina, Italy.

Country Count: Still 1 only Italy

Camping Europe Day 3

Woke up: Campground outside Venice

Drove: None

Did: Venice. Wow what a beautiful place with an easy going lifestyle that most would enjoy. We took a ferry from our campground right into Venice, stayed there all day and took the night ferry back to the campground. GREAT DAY!! Not too sure what to say, but it was everything everyone said.

Slept: http://www.campingfusina.com/home.1.html Campground outside Venice

Country count: Just Italy

Camping Europe Day 2

Did: Today great ride from Naples to the Army base in Vicenza, plan to camp there tonight. But as our vacation is starting our ideas and the worlds are different. Vicenza closed their camping due to lack of use. We decided to sleep in the truck there, and started wasting time in the library. Wait a book "Camping Europe" could it be an answer to our needs?! We found a campsite in Venice, had no plans to go there, but since we are so close, might as well. So off to Venice we go. Again one slight detour on a TOLL road we made it, set up camp. Nice weather, a view of Venice across the channel and a comfortable night.

http://www.campingfusina.com/home.1.html

Drive: Through the heart of Italy. The most beautiful section of this country is the wonderful hills of Tuscany. We had our PB&J lunch out of the back of the truck over looking the Tuscan countryside.

Slept: Camped outside Venice

Camping Europe Day 1

We left on our vacation, though Anne went begrudgingly. There was too much to do, not enough money or planning for the vacation, but we went. We left today Sunday, September 20th around noon. We made it to Naples at 7pm at night in the pouring rain. We decided to stay on base in Naples and let the rain pass us by.

The biggest problem for us was when we got on the ferry from the island of Sicily to the mainland, well Italians don't quite understand BIG F250 crew cab trucks. They put us in the lane for passenger cars and promptly "guided" us through the twists and turns to get on the ferry. OOPPPSSSS we are too BIG to make the last turn, no way to back up cars are qued behind us and even if not too many ramps to back down. Randy must have done a 1000 point turn, sometimes backing up less than a inch to get us on the ferry. THANK GOD on the other side there was a nice big exit ramp with no tight turns.

Day 1 over, with sleeping in BEQ (Bachelors Enlisted Quarters) Napoli, Italy. We made it to the mainland. AMEN!

Cameron's Triathalon

Cameron did a triathalon here in Sigonella. This is the first Tri that Sigonella has done. Cameron placed second is his age group. GREAT JOB CAM!!

Camping

We had a great Labor Day weekend camping here in Sicily at the beach. We went to a beach North/West of Agrigento, about 100 miles from home on the west side of Sicily. Our campground was called Erclea Minoa. http://www.eracleaminoavillage.it/.

The Italians were amazed by our HUGE 8 person tent and even took pictures. They asked how many people were staying in there. They were dumbfounded that we said only 2 of us. Americans always have to do things bigger. Our camp had a total of 11 people including kids, 4 tents, 21 chairs, 3 stoves, 4 ice chests, 5 tables, truck, SUV with trailer and a car. Europeans seem to travel much lighter. Most campers had a small car and a tent, and well not too much else. We met people mostly from Germany, but saw license plates from Poland, France and Italy too.

We had a wonderful, relaxing time. We even took Pinky, who slept in the tent, she is no outside dog. The guys and most of the kids went for a hike on Saturday around the point, and the ladies stayed back at the camp and chatted. Everyone got what they wanted. We needed the time off!