The Akermen Family European Tour Scrapbook

Charlie is the youngest of the team, but can pull her own weight with camp-kitchen chores. She can grate cheese competently but always likes to have a bit to check it's ok. Around the camp fire she will entertain with her very own version of Santa Baby, and is a keen air-guitarist Lena aka Mum is the tours chef, route planner, photographer and geologist. It all sounds quite grand but it really just means she did rocks at university once, can make an omelette and knows that if the sun is on your left you are most likely heading west(ish). She is wonderful in many ways, hem hem and edits the website Bear is just a freeloader along for the ride and the icecream Dont be confused by the sombre look, Nick is actually genuinely grumpy. He is with the trip for 4 weeks out of 7 as he had to pop back and do some work for a bit in the middle. He is chief campfire entertainer with his guitar and singing. He is also the main driver and in charge of interpretting navigational instructions from Lena. As if that is not enough he will be lifeguard at the seaside, and helping bear with his icecreams Abi is the team artist and ballerina. She will be looking to document the trip on her own felt-tip version of the bayeaux tapestry. Her speciality in camp-kitchen is "Gods Own Mash" but she will hopefully get to experiment with local ingredients on her nights cooking tea. Libby is the eldest of the youngsters on the trip and so will no doubt be keen to stay up after all the others and watch the telly....ah there is no telly. Fortunately Libby has other means of entertaining us and herself as she is able to sing all of the three HSM soundtracks and the Sound of Music from memory. She will no-doubt be persuaded to join in with Nick singing even though he has a penchant for 70s tracks and Elton John. Shes nice like that!

Italy

We travelled through Italy on our way to Austria from France. We travelled across the border east of Cannes and headed towards Genova. We stayed coastal all the time but even so spent most of the time driving through tunnels and going over bridges; the mountains go right up to the sea.

Having stopped in Imperia for lunch and walked along the coast with an icecream we climbed back in to the car. We got to Genova at about 6pm and stopped at the only campsite we could find. It was 10 minutes walk from the beach in one direction, but nearly half an hour on the way back because it was so steep. The path went under train and road bridges before descending down a cobbled twisted path to a beach with black sand

Having only got as far Genova we had to crack on the next day towards Verona. We put the tent up with minimal kit so that we could take it down quickly and easily the next morning and get back on the road. We couldn't leave however without a second trip down to the beach and a swim.

The water was lovely and warm but the clock was ticking so we rushed back up the massive hill to get back on our way. Abi and Charlotte were tired on the way up so they stayed with Aunty Beth whilst Libby and I went up to get the car. (Next time I think..."its OK we've both got a mobile" I am going to stop and definitely not do what I am planning. Turning the car round with a trailer in a major Italian city in the rush hour because you didnt take the right turning is just not funny.

Anyway after this slightly dodgy start the journey went really well and we got to Lake Garda, near Verona at about 5pm. As we had ascertained from our trusty map there were loads of campsites around the lake so there was no problem finding one. None of them however were the rustic lakeside idyl that I had imagined. They were all teaming with camper vans and hideously pricey. But we were tired so we plumped for one right on the lake shore and put up the tent and went for a quick swim.

The next day we planned to visit Verona on the bus but looking ahead to the following day we were a bit fearful of a day trip to Venice 70km away. We told the children but they seemed so disappointed that I went down to the Tourist Information to find out what we could do. It turned out that there was a train from a small town on the south end of the lake which had easy parking.

After fabulous visits to both Verona and Venice we were back in the car and on the road to Austria. It took about 4 hours to get to the border near Villach and it was hot a the way. As we climbed into the mountains however things began to cool and as we kissed goodbye to Italy we also kissed goodbye to the uncomfortable heat that made Lake Garda so deicious to jump into