Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 11:58:57 -0700
Reply-To: Zoltan <zol@FOXINTERNET.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Zoltan <zol@FOXINTERNET.NET>
Subject: Re: Pilgrim's Progress #3
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi Malcolm and Pat,
I hope the Vanagon List is as happy to read all the stories as I do. I have
the advantage over many, that I still carry the mental pictures of all the
places you are describing and makes me so wanting to redo that great trip.
You still have to go to the great Italian places. You did not talk about
Tuscany.
And there is still Venice, Florence, Pisa, Milan and the top of the Alps to
see. Can't see them all. There is not enough time I guess. Europe takes
about nine month of wondering. Well, keep it up, stay alert and safe. Let
us know about the Euro money use, if there is any, or you have to change and
spend money as you go.
Zoltan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Malcolm Stebbins" <mstebbins@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 8:45 AM
Subject: Pilgrim's Progress #3
> I do believe that we last talked to you all from Athens. We had a few
days
> on Crete (lovely) and back in Athens we received new credit cards (via
> FedEx). The Peloponnese part of Greece was very interesting and
beautiful.
> We drove around a lot of the coast line and many interior archeological
> sites (Olympia, Sparta, Corinth, Mycenae, Epidaurus).
>
> We then traveled north to get a ferry to Italy (an overnight ferry where
> folks are allowed to sleep in their campers on board the ferry). Once in
> Italy our travel style changed a lot as we hit our first Autobahn and
headed
> straight for Naples (which is written up in the Lonely Planet (LP) as the
> thievery capital of Italy). We stayed just outside of Naples at a
> campground within spitting distance of Pompeii. We had a nice full day at
> Pompeii, but as the summer hits here and we get closer to the major tour
> sites in Europe, the crowds get bigger. An effort to get to the Museum in
> Naples failed as there was some labour dispute there, but we were able to
> spend some more time in Erculano (another town buried by the big Vesuvius
> volcano eruption).
>
> Now we are in Rome. Rome is definitely worth a few days of your (our)
life.
> Central Rome is a low rise city (like Paris) and cars are banned in many
> parts of the city which makes the inner city much more livable for humans.
> There are GREAT piazzas around every corner and in one afternoon we saw 3
> obelisks that had been taken (gifted or looted) from Egypt! The temps are
a
> bit better at 26 Degrees C, but we are still not used to the humidity.
The
> down side of Rome is that we waited for 1.5 hours to get into the
Coliseum,
> and queue everywhere. Oh yes, we just paid CDN$10 for 2 coffees.
>
> Oh yes, for the Vanagon.com folks, in Greece we had another Drip, Drip,
Drip
> that a 2nd clamp was able to cure. Later we began to hear what sounded
> like a blown muffler, it rapidly got louder and LOUDER. When I stopped to
> check it, it turned out that one of the bolts holding the exhaust manifold
> to the engine block was missing!!! I had another spare 13mm bolt so that
> was easily fixed, but it turned out that ALL of the bolts on ALL of the
> exhaust manifolds were loose!!!! I will have a talk with my mechanic when
I
> get home (Jeff are you reading this??). Then later I had another drip,
> drip, drip that tightening the bolts (where a pipe is bolted to the rear
of
> the engine block) did NOT stop. So we stopped at a real grease (Greece)
pit
> of a place (half disassembled cars and trucks all over the place & the
> ground black with oil) by the side of a country road to see what they
could
> do for me. The mechanic was quite good and again withOUT one word of
common
> language between us, I showed him the problem & the Bentley manual and he
> set to work disassembling the pipe. Then he cut a new (flat) gasket from
> gasket material and put it all back together again, all for about CDN$12.
> So that was that for van troubles in Greece. No trouble yet in Italy.
>
> We are now camping in campgrounds where camping is the European
> cheek-by-jowl style and being quiet is still a foreign concept it seems -
> thanks to ear plugs we do get some good sleep. I long for the FREE and
> isolated camping spots that we had for the 1st few weeks of this trip.
>
> So folks, I'll try and check in from maybe Berlin. We have about 3 more
> weeks to go. Being a tourist is really exhausting WORK. Staying excited
> about what we're seeing is difficult as we have good days and bad days.
We
> try to remind ourselves that this is a 'trip of a lifetime' and that we'll
> have time enough to rest when we get back to our 'desk jobs' (we are both
> University Profs).
>
> Your vanagon correspondents on the scene from Rome. Malcolm and Pat
>
>
>
>
>
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