With the motorhome in the Peloponnese

Part 1 The journey via Ancona

Stage 1 Freiburg

Camping Hirzberg, our favorite for years, friendly, well-kept, good location and ACSI site

Starting this year not in Göttingen, but in Heinsberg. Marlena, the little ballerina, we admired her right before the start of our journey.

It is cool and predominantly humid on Monday, April 8th. Our 1st stage leads - as often - to Freiburg, the city that we like so much.

Camping Hirzberg is located a bit outside, right on the Dreisam river, not far from tram line 1 and a shopping center (with Rewe, Alnatura and dm), and also close to the music college.

It rains continuously at night until Tuesday. The campsite is currently being redesigned, is partly a construction site anyway, and partly muddy.

April 9th. with the tram #1, which runs every 5 minutes, to Schwabentor, our entrance to the city center. We wander through the rainy city with little enthusiasm, even skip the Wetzstein bookstore and only stay in the popular "manna" café, which has a special offer and a large terrace, but is deserted today.

Right across from it, the Augustiner Museum also doesn't offer an exciting exhibition. But in the evening, we have a special experience at the music college.

The singing performance of a soprano who completes her master's degree: Alies Züfle, a name we want to remember. Absolutely inspiring. Supported by music students, she presents a colorful range from Bach to Mozart, Schubert, Ravel, and even Léhar (a piece from The Merry Widow). Very pleasant soprano voice, friendly, with a lot of expression, and captivatingly the mischievous smile with which she performs the songs.

After a good hour, the inspiring free concert ends. The lousy weather is forgotten.

Wednesday, April 10th. our neighbors on the campsite, coincidentally also from Göttingen, end their journey. They are traveling with a small child and have little joy in this weather.

We stroll along the Dreisam river in drizzle to the city center, do some shopping, treat ourselves to a tarte flambée, and at 4 pm, we go to the Harmonie cinema to watch "The Goldfish", the right movie for this day, with Tom Schilling and the delightful Minichmayr in the role of a drunken blind woman. It's about black money that the "hero" of the film wants to smuggle across the border with the help of a group of disabled people. Entertaining and wonderfully incorrect how it all unfolds. We leave the cinema in a good mood.

Stage 2 Lake Maggiore

New discovery! Camping Riarena in Cugnasco, good for trips, spacious, friendly, ACSI

Thursday, April 11th. Too cold for Picasso in the blue and pink phase, we bypass Basel and the Beyerler Foundation and head straight to Locarno.

Our destination for this night: Camping Riarena in Cugnasco, 11 km before Locarno. ACSI applies here, so it won't be expensive like everything else in Switzerland. The campsite is very pleasant, right next to bike and hiking trails, and the weather is finally better.

Two unknown flowers on the first walk, we can name one of them with outside help, "celandine", the other remains unknown.

Friday welcomes us very friendly, we can now see the surrounding mountains, partly still covered with snow, clearly, the sun is shining, finally sitting outside in the sun. We decide to stay one more day and visit Locarno by e-bike.

Nice route, past "winterproof" Highland cattle, funny to look at with their shaggy hair, frugal and slim as a sign informs us, along the shores of Lake Maggiore to Locarno.

With the funicular, we go up to the Madonna del Sasso pilgrimage church with a magnificent view but otherwise rather disappointing. The church is overloaded and squat, but the way down to the town, past the many small chapels that illustrate the journey of Christ, is beautiful.

In the town, we treat ourselves to an ice cream: one scoop for €3! For non-Swiss, it's a bit expensive. But it still tastes good. After a small picnic with crispbread and pastes brought with us at Piazza Grande, we take the beautiful path back to the campsite. A holiday like we like it.

By the way, we can highly recommend the campsite. The operators are extremely friendly and helpful, the facilities are top-notch, and the surrounding area is inviting as described above.

Friday, April 12th. After breakfast, we enjoy the sun for a short while before continuing towards Italy.

The highway tolls

The vignette for Switzerland is not cheap (40SF), but it is valid for the whole year. The highway tolls for motorhomes in Italy are not as extreme as in France, but still add up to over €30.

Stage 3 Ravenna, former residence, magnificent mosaics, great motorhome park for visiting the city

In the evening, we reach Ravenna. There is no nearby campsite that is open, so we park at a motorhome park in the city center. There is no electricity, but disposal. Initially, there is also fresh water supply, but after seeing a motorhome owner rinsing his toilet tank under the drinking water tap, the desire to take on fresh water disappears.

An observation that we have unfortunately made several times before. Motorhome owners who seem to have no problem with fecal bacteria in drinking water.

But let's talk about friendlier things: the city of Ravenna is a discovery, a real treasure trove with numerous wonderful mosaics in various buildings.

Between the 5th and 7th centuries, Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire, then of the Gothic king Theodoric, and finally of the Western Roman Empire, splendidly equipped, robbed by many, but still an incredible treasure trove.

Saturday, we take a walk through a surprisingly lively pedestrian zone to Piazza del Popolo. Just a few steps away is the grave of the greatest Italian poet, Dante Alighieri.

Before we return to the motorhome park, we visit two very worth seeing cloisters (free admission only today).

Many cheerful Italians on the streets, many treat themselves to an ice cream, which seems to be particularly delicious here. The many ice cream parlors are noticeable and well-frequented. It's too cold for us to indulge in this delicacy.

Sunday morning is culture morning. We encounter many families with olive branches; Easter is not far away. Many shops are open in the morning. We take advantage of that as well, but our main interest is the octagonal Basilica di San Vitale, which doesn't look like a church at all and shines inside with extremely magnificent mosaics in the apse. Equally worth seeing is the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia on the same area. On the outside, it is a simple brick building, but the interior is completely decorated with mosaics.

We treat ourselves to a third building: the Basilica di S. Apollinaire Nuovo. The ship is a large, empty space, so the mosaic-decorated sides are particularly impressive. Particularly noticeable are the three wise men, all with light skin color.

We will take more time for Ravenna on another occasion.

Stage 4 Camping Paradiso near Casteldimezzo Pesaro.

There are only 3 guests on the campsite besides us. Everything we need is available. The view of the hilly landscape is much more beautiful than the flat Rimini and Riccione, not far to the north. We drove past them. The beaches here are certainly famous, but we quickly want to forget about the towns. What we see is simply ugly.

In front of the campsite, there is a steep coast with a view of the sea and to the north of the mentioned seaside resorts.

Stage 5 Monday, April 15th. Boarding in Ancona

We are supposed to pick up the tickets three hours in advance. Next to the ferry offices, there is a large car park, well-visited by campers mainly from the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Oh, yes, then there is a big, wide, and super flat red Ferrari with gull-wing doors. The driver looks less sporty, comes from Basel, and apparently enjoys the admiration of the many Ferrari fans.

Shortly after 4 pm, we go to the pier, well signposted. The Olympia first heads to Igoumenitsa. Many trucks and tourists leave the ship here. It is not far to Patras.

We were on the road for about 22 hours, had an interior cabin (deck 9) with Minoan Lines, which was okay, and mostly stayed on deck 11 in the sun during the day. Costs for the long journey: €400.