Home on the Roam

We were pretty excited to get into Italy… slightly over the food in France, and ready to load ourselves up with carbs. We crossed the border and headed straight to Pizza. We found ourselves in a quaint little village and stuffed ourselves with gorgonzola and pear pizza and a bottle of the finest (cheapest on the menu) vino.

The next morn we headed towards a little town called Vercelli, and tried to find some breakfast. It has become apparent to us that nowhere quite does breakkie like Aussie. So, we did what everyone else was doing and had a macchiato (we don’t drink coffee) and a pastry (stuffed with pistachio flavoured cream and/or nutella). We were buzzing a bit after that so walked around the town’s local markets of fresh produce, cheese, dried meat and lots of fake Gucci and Nike.

Milan was our next destination to pick up Myron’s beauty of a cousin, Christian. We had missed him in London, so were stoked to be able to meet up along the way. After picking him up from the central train station, we headed towards Lake Como for a few nights in an air bnb.

We were greeted by our gem of a host, Alessandra in the small town of Laglio on Lake Como… only to find out our neighbour for the next few nights was none other than George Clooney himself. Our little apartment didn’t quite match up to Villa Oleandra, but we made sure to do a few hot laps of his place to try and catch a glimpse. Unfortunately, no such luck.. but Christian and I were rather impressed by his hot Italian security guard.

We knew Lake Como would see the budget blow out a little bit, but we weren’t too fussed and figured we were on holidays after all… So, aperols, wine and food came in the masses. We spent our first day drinking and lazing by the terrazza in Brienno and finished with a delicious meal in another local town ft. gelato IN my risotto!!

The second day we got a ferry across to Bellagio and explored another city. Definitely a tourist hot spot, but an enjoyable day. The ferry timetable kind of screwed us over, so instead of heading to other towns we headed back to the terrazza in Brienno and spent the afternoon drinking Aperol Spritz. Another delicious meal to follow for the evening ft. more risotto but this time with burrata (oh hot DAMN it was good).

Our last full day was jam packed with activities. Myron found us a ‘casual’ hike and again took us completely off the beaten track, but we eventually found our way and ended up hiking into Switzerland. The top offered some pretty spectacular views. We more or less ran back down, trying to get back in time for the boat we hired for the afternoon. We got to the boat, with snacks and beers and spent the last few hours of the day cruising around the Lake and doing more hot laps around Clooney’s.

Dinner was pizza at the terrazza in Moltrasio, which we were practically falling asleep eating. Big day! We farewelled Christian the next day and headed towards the mighty Dolomites.

Okay, have been a little bit slack on the blog front. Almost had given up until someone asked me about our Australia trip blog and it gave me hope… maybe people actually read these things! And hey, I forget everything, so could be good to look back on one day. So here goes me trying to remember the past month or so…

We were in awe after the Pyrenees and thought this had to have been one of the more beautiful parts of Europe, and so far it still is one of the tops, but it was so good to get back to the coast and into some salty, vitamin seaaa!

We knew touristy hot spots and big vans weren’t usually a great combo, but we headed towards Cassis on the South Coast of France to see the Calanques National Park. We could imagine not being on a budget and living in a van would be really nice in this area.. but we are on a budget and live in a van so we probably didn’t get to experience it like everyone else around us. Nonetheless, we hired some kayaks our first morning there and headed 5 km out to the Calanques (little inlets of the ocean). We had crystal clear waters, massive cliff faces and hundreds of tourists, but it was definitely a spot to put on the list.

After Biarritz, we headed towards the Pyrenees. A large mountain range bordering France and Spain, hosting some of the biggest climbs in the Tour de France. Before we got to the National Park, we stopped off at a cool little spot near St Engrâce for a little walk, chilly dip, and a climb through small dark caves. Driving into the Pyrenees was something else, all of a sudden you’re engulfed by huge mountains everywhere you look. Our first stop, saw us crossing the border to Espana, shocked by how quickly the language, people and culture suddenly change within such a small distance. We got a chair lift up the mountain, and then hiked the rest. Pyrenees was already turning it on! We then headed to a bit of a tourist hot spot, Lac de Gaube, back in the land of cheese and choccy croissants. A small hike up to a huge, crystal clear, blue lake. It was sweltering hot, and not a single person was swimming. Sure the water was freezing, but damn, it felt good! The small town close by, Cauterets, was having their local markets, so we indulged ourselves in some local vin, fromage et miel (wine, cheese and honey!). All equally delicious and satisfying the tastebuds. The next day, Myron headed off for the hills and climbed one of the biggest mountains in the Tour de France, Col du Tourmalet (plus another one that I don’t know the name of). But all in all, a huge ride of over 100km, with some stupid elevation of over 2000m. I went for my own little spin, finding a nice bike loop that was delightfully flat. We spent the night on top of a huge mountain, with another beautiful lake up the top and I discovered a new phobia – driving up twisting narrow roads, with nothing but a huge drop to the bottom on your side. We woke up to the sun rising over the mountains, went for another walk, completely losing the trail, resulting in us scaling up some of the mountain. We crossed the border again to Spain, stocked up on some canned sangria, spent the day by the river, and had our first ‘shower’ for a few days aka. taking the soap and shampoo (all natural of course) down to the river for a bathing. We went to a big lake that looked like an oasis in the middle of the dessert, but the water levels were so low the water was pretty gross and it was also 35 degrees, so we got outta there pretty quick. We had some tapas for dinner, discovering there aren’t a huge amount of options for vegetarians, and the next morning headed for Monte y Perdido National Park. As we got there, we saw the huge line of tourists waiting for buses, and discovered a fatal flaw in our plan. We couldn’t drive there, and if we wanted to see the national park, we too, had to join that line. So, we turned around and decided we’d leave that one for another day! Back to France, and time to head towards the coast…

Life on the road is just too good to not keep at it.. so here are again, living life on four wheels. This time, we’ve crossed a couple of oceans, and left our home land to see what life is like in a van abroad. We loved keeping a blog of our travels around Australia, and figured we should probably do it as we embark on 6 months in our new tiny home gallivanting around and seeing what Europe has to offer.

AB + MUZ