Licques again

Saturday 26th April

As we didn't have many miles to cover today, we took advantage of the bright sunny (and chilly) morning to go for a quick geocaching walk around the village of Seraucourt le Grand.  We found 4 fairly near to each other that were part of a series following a pilgrimage route and another close to a British WWI Cemetery.  So sad to know that all the fields around here saw such terrible fighting with so many soldiers dying.  We had a wander among the beautifully-kept flower beds and headstones, many marking the life of an unknown young man.

After the usual pre-home shopping, we got on our way again, tonight staying where our journey began, at the campsite in Licques.  It seems much chillier than where we've been ......

Home tomorrow after ferry and quick meal with Peter and family. 

Seraucourt-le-Grand, France

Friday 25th April

These are pictures of our campsite last night at Villey-le-Sec.  We are not quite sure why it is 'le sec' because the Moselle is rather a large river that we think is rather wet! C'est la vie.
 

 
Today we've come a bit further on, to Seraucourt-le-Grand (actually a very tiny village) just south of St. Quentin.  We are pitched on a strip of land between two fishing lakes.  Shame we've moved into the land of grey skies though. 

Tomorrow we shall make time to do some shopping to bring home.  If anyone has any special requests, please send us a text.

Villey-le-Sec, France

Wednesday 23rd April/Thursday 24th April

We left Lake Maggiore this morning (Wednesday), again bathed in beautiful sunshine, to begin the journey home.  To keep the mileage down and to avoid the extortionate cost of camping in Switzerland, John decided that we would get all the way through to France in one day.  250 miles may not sound a huge trip to many, but with the speed that we can do in the van, road works and heavy traffic at times (particularly around Basel), meant that we were on the road for 6-7 hours.  We still had some Swiss Francs that we would have spent travelling back more slowly, so we stopped soon after Locarno at an Aldi (originally it was just a handy carpark to have a cup of coffee) but had a great time spending some of it, buying biscuits and chocs to bring home - Holbrook Housegroup may get most of the benefit of these!

Last views of the lake

Swiss Alps

So we came back to the Alsace, trying another new site for us at Herrlisheim, just south of Colmar.  No wifi though!

Now Thursday evening, we've come another 113 miles to a rather lovely spot beside the River Moselle at Villey-le-Sec. To get a tiny trickle of wifi here, we had to sit outside the reception office, just to check emails and see if there were any geos in the area.  Surprisingly there was one a short way back up the road over the disused railway crossing, so now we are well on our way to our 3000th cache!!  On the opposite river bank, we've watched several cyclists enjoying the path that runs for a few miles through the trees following the river - we shall have to come back some day.


Just changed our ferry booking to return on Sunday.

Gardens of Villa Taranto

Tuesday 22nd April

Today has been a lovely day, with beautiful sunshine, but we have just received the sad news that our dear friend Judith passed away this evening.  She is at peace at last, following several years with so many health problems.  She has been a great friend to us and we will remember so many happy times and laughter shared together.  We will be shortening our holiday and will start on our journey home tomorrow.

We are so glad that we decided to go today to the Gardens of Villa Taranto - for us now there will always be a link between this beautiful place and Judith.  The paths take you up a hillside, seeing the amazing varieties of plants and trees including tulips in bloom (80,000 of them apparently), azaleas, rhododendrons, plus ponds and water features, all with a backdrop of lake and mountains.  Wow...  We had lunch at the cafe there and then walked on the roads surrounding the gardens, through the narrow streets uphill till we reached the little stone church of San Remigio.  We went there because there was a geocache to be found tucked into a little wall at the back of the church - a very special find because it was our 2000th cache!! - and what a view from up there.

San Remigio

Our 2000th geocache!

The view over Lake Maggiore from the chuch

Verbania

Monday 21st April

Although we do plan to move on from here eventually, we are finding that there are so many possibilities of places to visit from here and we have a very pleasant pitch on a lovely site only costing 16E a night. This morning we went for the bus at 9.43 to Intra (part of Verbania a short way north along the lake), but UK's Easter Sunday rain arrived here for the Italian Bank Holiday today.  We watched the ferry boats in and out for a while, walked a couple of miles along the lakeside, found 2 geocaches and had a hot drink and dry out in a cafe. Our plan was to have lunch out and visit the gardens at Villa Taranto, but there were only 2 buses back home at either 12.10 or 17.10 (Sunday service) and the persistent rain made the decision for us - back 'home' for lunch and try again on a sunnier day.

Thank you Wendy for your Easter greetings, also Helen for reporting on the wet Easter day at home!

We'll be thinking of Emilie and Adam tomorrow morning as they go back to school - they will have so much news to tell their teachers!

Easter Sunday

 Sunday 20th April

Happy Easter everyone. After hanging the washing out in the sunshine, we walked the short way to Feriolo church. 
We'd noted the time of the service today as 11.15 (from the notice on the door), but when we got there at that time, it seemed like it had started rather earlier.... Undeterred, we went in, to find it packed to the gunnels.  We joined the big crowd standing at the back as the elderly priest began his sermon.  It would have been helpful to have understood the Italian, but we recognised some words here and there and knew from the tone of his voice and gesticulations, that he was rejoicing in the risen Christ. The singing was led by a lady on guitar and we again recognised some words - hosanna, alelulia, amen(!) - and joined in the sharing of the peace.  We also liked the way the robed children came all through the congregation to shake hands with as many people as possible.  The friendly Swiss family camping opposite us gets bigger every day.  They live just over the border and various
members of the family come and go - today it seemed they were all here - I think I counted 14 of them at lunch-time.  We miss Hannah, who could converse with them in German, but we get by with smiles, especially with the small children.This afternoon we got on our bikes and rode through the woods to the little beach we discovered at the beginning of the week.

 I had a paddle, but just watched when a young chap went for a swim in the lake - the water was too cold for that!  The air temperature has warmed up a bit after the last couple of days and John cooked us a tasty risotto outside and we sat out till almost 8.30. 

To Malpensa Airport (and back)

Saturday 19th April

This evening we have received the great news that our friend Judith is showing signs of improvement and has been out of intensive care for a few days.  Our mutual friend Terry, printed our photo of Adam lighting a candle in the chapel on the hillside near Stresa and took it to Judith yesterday.  She was delighted to receive it.

Here by Lago Maggiore, our weather has turned upside down.  We knew that rain was expected and late last night it came with a vengeance - thunder and lightning included.  The children had not long gone to bed, so they were well asleep during the noisiest time.  The rain continued all through this morning - my new brolly had its first airing while helping Hannah to finish her packing and tidying the cabin by 10 and moving everything into our van - including the children.  Then after scrambled eggs on toast, we set off with them to Malpensa Airport for their flight home to Gatwick.  The children were very excited to be going on a plane as this was a first for them.  (Actually a second time for Emilie, but she was only 7 months old at the time.)  Big hugs later, we waved them goodbye as we drove back via the lakeside road rather than the motorway.  Not that the views were very impressive on such a dull day, but what was noticeable was that the mountain-tops were covered in a lot more snow. 

Camping friends will know that we have a small storage tent that we use when staying in one place for several days - well, it is possibly no more.  When we returned, the wind was quite strong and it had snapped one of the supporting rods on the roof, so was flapping about rather a lot.  So we had to dismantle it and put all the stuff we keep in there back in the van underneath storage.  John will see if it can be repaired when the weather is calmer again. 

So we are spending a very quiet evening indoors - oh boy, do we miss our grandchildren ... and Peter and Hannah of course.