South Europe trip, Late April to mid June 2011						File=Europe2011.htm
Map of our travels, about 11,000 km., late April to mid June 2011
Introduction		We had planned a tour of Japan, but luckily changed our minds to do Southern
Europe, Turkey and the Balkans instead. (thus missing the devastating earthquakes in Japan !!)
Had heard many good reports of Turkey and the Balkan areas from fellow travellers, so we decided
to check this out for ourselves. We had spent brief visits to Italy and Greece previously but had
never been to the Balkans or Turkey. Dubrovnik and all the Adriatic Coastal areas were a "must see".
Airlines	We flew Singapore airlines, so we could do our seat allocations ourselves, at the time of
ticket purchase, which we do about 4-6 months ahead, to ensure good window seats and prices.
This time, despite our precautions of getting "double" window seats at the rear of the aircrafts, we
copped a bad dose of "screaming" kids on 3 out of 4 flight legs. In future we will fly business class.
Car hire	Global Cars, based in Sydney (ph=(02) 9438 3868) offer brand new Renaults, Peugeots
and Citroen cars at very good rates/conditions. We chose a Renault Clio 3, with auto, air, and zero
excess + 24hr., roadside assist, which with frequent user discounts cost us AUD $60 per day...great.
The Clio 3 had a built-in Tom Tom Sat Nav, which was difficult to use, so we brought along our
Garmin Nuvi 255W with latest maps. A Sat Nav is essential for overseas car touring, nowadays.
During the trip, we suffered 2 punctures/blowouts on bad sections of road, and had to replace 2 tyres.
This demonstrated the only shortcomings of the Clio 3, as the spare tyre was smaller than standard,
and very difficult to remove and replace. Otherwise, the Clio 3 was an excellent vehicle for our
requirements, small, fast, economical. I have to mention the lack of an "obvious" police presence in
Southern Europe and Turkey. Also, Yollie reckoned the drivers in Italy and Turkey made my driving
look good !! The Turkish drivers take no prisoners, especially in Istanbul and use the horn constantly.
I have to say Yollie did a great job of mastering the different Toll systems and currencies. You need
to have a big stack of "large denomination" coins, when tolls are automatic, with no human operators.
Clio 3, Excellent car, fast, economical and					Swiss mountain passes were a pleasure.
roomy enough for 2 people + bags.					Nussen Pass 2,478 m. Motorbike memories.
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	Hotels, Motels		As usual, it was difficult to find suitable hotels/motels while motor
touring in Europe. We usually only pre-book our 1st and last nites accommodations as we want to
keep our itinerary "flexible". The remaining accommodations we examine at home using the excellent
Booking.com website. This gives you prices and facilities in various locations we expect to visit.
We require secure parking, and in-house meals, as far as possible. Its amazing the number of places
we checked out, which said the advertised secure parking was not available today and Luigi the cook
was away sick.....so no meals today ??  Nevertheless, we used many 4 and 5 star hotels, because
of the high Ozzie dollar, and our ability to negotiate with cash / no receipts. Got to like these !!
Currency	You get ripped off with currency exchanges every which way you try. This time, we
exchanged a large amount of Ozzie dollars to Euros in our Australian bank, at home. We felt secure
enough carrying large amounts on our persons, and avoided the inconvenience of having to find and
park at foreign ATM's. In countries which didn't use Euros, such as Turkey and the Balkans, most
hotels accepted Euros but you needed local currency for food, petrol. We got beautifully robbed at
the Serbian border, coming from Bulgaria. A nice looking young lady at what looked like an "official"
border money exchange, clipped us for about AUD $200. She handed over an enormous amount of
local notes, which on later checking was $200 short ! Sure she makes a habit/living doing this.
	Trip narrative, Rome to Brindisi, mostly along the coasts						Our Clio 3 was
was delivered to Rome Airport (from Paris) for convenient pick up and drop off. Immediately after
clearing customs, we headed south towards Sorrento, along the Amalfi coast. This is a magnificent
stretch of coastline, but road repairs kept throwing us back onto the inland motorways.
Amalfi coast, Sorrento, ITALY			Swanning in Sorrento, ITALY			View of Positano, great coast.
South coast, near toe of ITALY.			Strange huts in Italy.			Ferry, Italy to Greece, overnite.
Brindisi ITALY to Meteora, GREECE.				We caught the overnite ferry from Brindisi, ITALY to
Patra, GREECE. This gave us a view of the "huge" new bridge across the Corinth Bay, which we
had seen building on Discovery channel. The air-conditioning in our allocated cabin was not working
so we needed the intervention of a friendly purser to give us a satisfactory cabin. From Patra, we
headed south-east to Epidavros, then crossed the Corinth canal and stayed at a seaside resort,
Loutraki. Headed for Delphi, missing Athens which we had visited thoroughly previously.
Then headed for Kalabaka or Meteora, which had a famous spectacular monastery high in the cliffs.
The hotels now became a higher standard, usually from 4 to 5 star, milking the tourist market.
Funny how soon you become used to 5 star standards !!
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Bridge near Patra, Greece			Near Epidavros, Greece			More Greek ruins
Greek coastline, near Loutraka			Corinth canal			Delphi, didn't find the Oracle.
Meteora, near Kalabaka, Greece			This is NOT a Meteora monk.			Hand powered cable car.
From Meteora, Greece, we headed up the coast towards Turkey, via Kavala. We had heard many
good reports about Turkey, but were surprised at their bad drivers. Yollie reckoned I was good, in
comparison !! We were very impressed with the hotels and service in Turkey, even if overdone.
Turkey border control, tedious.			Aya Sofya mosque, Istanbul.			Blue mosque, Istanbul.
Istanbul is NOT a good city for timid drivers. They take no prisoners and you have to be aggressive
to get anywhere. I was disappointed in the "servile" attitude of hotel and retail staff. I suppose that
this becomes common in most areas that rely on tourists for most of their income.
We were about to abandon Istanbul as we couldn't find the hotel we were looking for. Just as we
were setting our Sat Nav to exit the town, we went past the hotel we were looking for. Turned out
excellent for location and services. We experienced an earthquake at Cannakkale, Turkey, near the
Gallipoli battlefields. I thought our hotel was collapsing, but no damage eventuated.
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Suite in 5 star hotel, cheap.			Village in holes in cliffs, Goreme.			Helping some silly drivers.
Great hotels, Sth coast, Turkey			Turkish war memorial			Near Anzac Cove landings !!
We entered Bulgaria without incident. Then took a wrong turn after sightseeing and got another
puncture on a bad road. The Bulgarians in our next hotel were very helpful in getting our problems
fixed, after the weekend. Could have spent more time in Bulgaria. Then headed for Croatia, via some
very scenic roads and mountain areas. Dubrovnik is a must see place, caters well for tourists.
We had hoped to drive up the coast from Dubrovnik to Trieste, Italy. However, many roadworks
kept hiving us off to inland detours. We had hoped to spend some time near the lakes in Northern
Italy, but the roads were so narrow and bad, we couldn't get out of there fast enough. Had to get our
relaxations in good old Switzerland, always a reliable and good place to visit, summer or winter.
Getting tyre replaced, Bulgaria.			Looking down on Dubrovnik.			Dubrovnik, a must see place.
Dubrovnik, Medieval special.			Back into Italy, bad roads, weather. Nothing wrong with scenery.
We had some terrible times on the narrow "old" mountain roads in Northern Italy. I suppose they are
so old, it is hard to up-grade them beside the lakes and houses in the villages.
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Into Switzerland, Gotthard pass.			Nussen pass, 2478m. Done a			Ja, das ist das Matterhorn. From
The driving is just fantastic.			few rides with motorbikes here.			Zermatt, our favourite village.
Snow in Zermatt village, June			Snow on road, in France
View from our hotel.			The famous leaning tower--->
Back in Rome, the eternal city.			Just another museum, yawn !			View down from our hotel,
You have to do a bus trip to			This is our 2nd visit, so we have			showing motorbike parking. Can
see it all.			many other photos.			see main station entry at left.
Conclusions		As usual, a wonderful experience and great trip. We were impressed with all
the countries we visited, and were pleasantly surprised by Turkey and the Balkans...good stuff.
We are happy to recommend the following organizations from our experience :-
1. Airlines		Singapore Airlines, allows seat allocation at time of purchase.
2. Global Cars		Excellent car rental/lease company
3. Hotel Bookings		Booking.com, superb website with no hassles.
4. Currency		Bring as much "foreign" cash as you feel safe with, from Australia.
		Have a good feel for exchange rates, before you leave home.
		Even experienced travellers like us can get caught out !!
5. Navigation.		Need a good Sat Nav (we prefer Garmin products) + good maps.
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