Van Life Diaries: Europe 1985 – Spain, Italy and Greece – Episode 351 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

This is the second part of a monthly, six-episode series celebrating the fact that exactly 40 years ago this year, my family and I spent six months in a striped motorhome travelling around Europe. I was nine years old and yes, this trip had an enormous impact on my life – I’m sure you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast today if Van Life 1985 hadn’t taken place! Throughout the series, I’ll include chats recorded with my Dad this year, extracts from my late Mum’s travel diary from 1985, and of course my own memories and thoughts. 

In this episode, we drive briefly through Spain, which none of us really remember (sorry, Spain, I do love you now!). We then had some fun times in Italy, with vivid memories of climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and quite the adventure getting mixed up with the local police in the small town of Potenza. We spend a few weeks thoroughly enjoying Greece before diverting back through Italy, Venice in particular, en route to our next country.

A big thanks to Context Travel for sponsoring this series, and an even bigger thanks to my Dad for agreeing to be part of it.

Links:

• Context Travel – use the code THOUGHTFULTRAVEL to get 15% off any online booking. Context Travel operate walking tours in cities around the world, and have interesting and qualified subject-matter experts leading your walk
• See Part 1 of Van Life Diaries: Hong Kong, England and France
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack.com 

My Dad was the official photographer of our trip, and of course this was back in the days where a film camera was the only option – there are so few photos compared to a modern-day trip, but that makes them more special. My Mum put together the album which I still have and frequently look through.

We visited Spain fairly briefly; you’ll find out what my Mum didn’t like about it by listening to the podcast episode!

But what happened next … later during our stay in Italy, we found ourselves being bundled into a Carbinieri car. Again, you’ll need to listen to the podcast to find out what our run in with the Italian police involved!

But we managed to get out of that spot of bother and head on to Greece.

Greece felt familiar to use: the beaches, the trees, the weather, it all felt a little like Australia and we loved it.

What was entirely different though was the ancient history and its associated monuments and sites – also fascinating!

My Dad mentions the Corinth Canal in our recording – listen to find out more!

Greece had another surprise for us. None of us had ever once seen even a snowflake in our lives, and up in the mountains of Greece we found a tiny unmelted patch of snow. We were astounded!

We circled back to Igoumenitsa – our favourite place! – to finish off our time in Greece, before taking the ferry back to Italy.

Our final stop in Italy was Venice, before we headed on to our next country. That’ll appear in Part 3 of this series, next month.

Episode Transcript

Amanda Kendle 0:00
Hello and welcome to episode 351 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast. This is part two of the Van Life Diaries Europe, 1985 series. Before we begin, I’d like to pay my respects to the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, where I’m recording this podcast today. So welcome back to the van life diaries, Europe, 1985 series. This is a monthly series where I’m revisiting the most impactful trip of my life, the one that gave me the travel bug very badly. And we’re doing it now because it happened 40 years ago this year, yep, way back in the 80s, during the van life diaries Europe, 1985 series, I’m going to be reliving a six month budget motorhome trip my family took around Western Europe when I was just nine years old. I’ve been able to interview my dad to help me with this, and also I have my late mum’s travel diaries from the time, plus our family photo albums and my own sometimes flawed childhood memories. But along with reliving these memories of such a life changing trip, I also want to talk about how travel memories impact us what’s changed and what hasn’t changed in the world of travel over these past four decades, and also why taking your kids traveling is always a good idea. Big thanks to my parents for doing it before we start, I want to say a huge thanks to the sponsor of this series, Context Travel. They’ve been operating walking tours in cities around the world since 2003 have been a certified B Corp since 2011 and they find really interesting and qualified subject matter experts to take you on a very special tour more from Context Travel during that episode. So part one of the van life diaries took us from Australia via Hong Kong to England and on to France, where we had a lot of fun driving our motorhome on the wrong side of the road. But time went on and we got used to that.

So in today’s episode, we have a brief visit to Spain, and then we move on to heaps of fun times in Italy and Greece. So first up Spain. I actually don’t have any particular memories of Spain from that age, although I’ve been back in the intervening years to Barcelona. I’m thinking I was visiting it for the first time. If I’m honest, my dad’s memory, fortunately, is better than mine. In this photo album, there is one, no two, two single photographs of Spain. Or what do you recall from this brief experience in Spain? Well,

Barry Kendle 3:05
it was very much off season, and we ended up in a camper ground, and apart from one other group, we were the only ones there. Oh, right. And of all the people I met an unknown, then colleague of mine, who came from Tasmania, a bank person? No way. Crazy. What are the chances? Yeah, but the thing that I do remember mostly was the plantations of eucalypt trees, acres and acres and acres of them. I don’t know what they did with them. Wood chips. Oh, amazing. If anything, perhaps they just were horticulturally minded. I

Amanda Kendle 3:41
do remember that my mum didn’t particularly enjoy Spain, and her diary mentions several caravan parks that didn’t have hot water, which was enough to earn her dislike. I’m afraid. I don’t think my sister and I cared much. But now, as a middle aged woman, I can really understand my mum’s desire for a daily hot shower. Anyway, her diary records Spain. Thus drove to border of Spain and through no problems, on to San Sebastian, bit like Hong Kong with a washing millions of people in high rise flats, took a wrong turn and went through Liza, very mountainous country, a bit like New Zealand and really pretty after that, on to Pamplona and Zaragoza, met Bill and coral tabbot Bank people from Tasmania, nice to chat to them. Decided to go on to Barcelona. Early, caravan park open, but very ordinary, although on Coast, pool not open, and all green, no hot water. So I have had Spain back to France tomorrow. A quick fact check on my mum’s claim of millions of people in high rise flats in San Sebastian, it would seem that the population of San Sebastian has been just under 200,000 for many decades. Sorry, Mum, bit of an exaggeration. We did indeed, though, drive back into France, but we quickly moved on to our next country, Italy. You can tell from my mum’s diary entry. From our first day in Italy that thankfully, she seems, on the whole, more satisfied. On to Borra, no problems in Italy, bought coupons for petrol and drove on. Finally stopped at varaza and shopped lovely, very little streets and lovely, interesting shops, beautiful fresh pasta shops, on further and stopped for night just on from faraze on the top of a mountain, fabulous views and quiet from traffic. Showers as usual, hopeless kids and I agreed to give them a miss. Oh dear. So caravan parks and their showers were still a problem. But on the whole, I do really remember us all enjoying Italy. One of my really strongest memories is visiting Pisa, and of course, seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I asked my dad if he remembered going up the tower with me.

Barry Kendle 5:46
Yes, it was a terrible sensation, with the gradient going the wrong way. What body wants to do this, and the gradient says no, thank you.

Amanda Kendle 5:56
I still remember that too. I think only you and I went up. Yeah, this probably would be right? And I remember, in my memory, we went, I think there’s like, eight levels. We went to about the fifth level, and then I had enough,

Barry Kendle 6:06
yeah, because it’s super weird. I do remember is that it was nowhere near as commercial as it is. Now it’s just covered there, but there was very, very little times move on.

Amanda Kendle 6:18
On the topic of Pisa, my mum’s diary actually reveals something quite funny about our knowledge at the time, I didn’t realize this, she writes stopped at PISA at lunchtime. Super tourists were not sure if leaning tower was in Pisa or Rome. Saw it by accident as we were leaving van and off we went to it to me, it was fabulous. Most interesting to see, more so than Eiffel Tower, etc. From there, we headed to Rome, then Pompeii and Naples. My mum’s diary explains our day out in Rome, which included visiting the Vatican. Sleep in and off to Vatican City. PM, busses, strange, only single seats down one side. All stand in middle. Never pay some buy tickets prior, but can’t buy on bus. Vatican, interesting, but Pope could clean it up a bit. Rome generally, very grotty more than any other city. On way home, met two couples from Australia, very nice couples staying at caravan park too. I’m only including a tiny portion of these, but it’s very lovely to see that my mum’s diary entries frequently mention other travelers we’ve met. I think caravan park life really does lend itself to that, and we seem to make connections in almost every place we stayed, some of them I still actually remember really well. And I wrote to an American girl. We met Sarah for years as a pen pal. We traveled on through Italy, and on the May Day holiday, we had one of those classic things go wrong, travel days, one that remained legendary in our family law. My dad explains here what happened.

Barry Kendle 7:52
We were needing money for fuel, right? And the only way we could end up getting some fuel, we ended up in little town called pretends. And so we left the caravan, camper van, down the bottom of the hill, walked up and we were then lost. Some policemen found us, I think, took us off somewhere, to their office. And remember when they put us in their car, it was a pistol lying on the passenger seat in the rear. Quite unusual, I thought, very unusual for us. Anyway, they managed to within themselves exchange $50 US for some lira, and were able to move on. Now, the reason why we were so short on for cash and fuel was that when we arrived here, it was a public holiday, and there was no banks open to get cash. So that’s the problem. That’s why we ended up at Potenza, which, of course, is right on the top of a hill. There’s nothing else around it really, just all on the top.

Amanda Kendle 8:58
So did we leave the van at the bottom because we were running so low on fuel or no,

Barry Kendle 9:03
because, no, I don’t think we’re that low. That was the way, the way it worked. It seemed easier than but then, of course, the copper or the carabineri agreed to take us down to the bottom of the hill where our camper van was, but we couldn’t remember where it was, so the non driver sort of gritted his teeth and grimmest, and eventually we got there. I forgot that bit. It’s funny now, but at that time, it was less than I can Yeah.

Amanda Kendle 9:33
I mean, I still remember being a bit scared. I remember climbing in the back and seeing the pistol. Yeah, that was a pretty Yes, a pretty young video, memorable moment for a nine year old who’d never seen a gun in her life. So my mum’s version in her diary entry about this day adds a couple of extra facts. No camping at Potenza. Hard to find. Sentra up an enormous Hill. I. Finally asked carabineria and directed to Office officer spoke a little English, and we eventually cashed with them fitzs Us $50 note that he had given to Amanda and got 100,000 lira, hooray. And then they were going to escort us to petrol station. Very helpful. Called in driver, and wow, did we have trouble finding van again? Finally did, and they took us to petrol station and on road to Brindisi. We did laugh later.

Thanks again to Context Travel for sponsoring this episode. They run walking tours in all three of the countries we’re reminiscing about today. If I were to go back now, I’d be joining context for a visit to the Colosseum in Rome with a historian, or touring around Athens with Panos, an archeologist, or seeing some of my favorite buildings in Barcelona, several of Anthony Gaudi colorful constructions in the company of a Gaudi art historian. To top it off, I wasn’t looking for this kind of experience when I was younger, but now, the apparitive food tour featuring local Venetian cocktails and snacks sounds like a great way to finish off a travel day in Venice.

You so we got to Brindisi, which is where we met a very special British couple who we met up with several more times over the course of our time in Europe. My dad and I chatted about these friends who we called Pookie and Gene I don’t know why he was called Pookie. Did she call him buki, too? Don’t

Barry Kendle 11:42
remember that, I suppose so. Otherwise, we will have used his original name, yeah, yeah. Very interesting. Did

Amanda Kendle 11:51
they like go to Greece regularly or

Barry Kendle 11:53
something, every year. He’d been there with a British troops during 1943 44 he liked the district, like the area, came back every year their annual holiday in an old van, the big gas bottle in the back to cook their fish and chips, or chips alone. I think, I think Pookie wouldn’t eat unless he had chips.

Amanda Kendle 12:15
Did we? So we intentionally met up with them in Igor minitza.

Barry Kendle 12:19
No. We met them at Bari in a caravan park there, and they told us where they were going in, yes, and they explained that they sometimes would park their van to avoid paying a fee. They would park their van on a wharf or jetty. Ah, so we wandered off one evening or late afternoon, and lo and behold, there they were on this jetty, they encouraged us to go to Igor minitsu, which is what we did. We spent a few days here. I remember it was lovely there. Yeah, a good a good holiday within a holiday.

Amanda Kendle 12:51
My mum’s diary gives us some more details about our time in Igor manitsa as well. Friday, Third of May arrived at Igor manitsa about 9:30am off quickly and all into town to shop, then lunch on dock and off to spit of land with trees and beach to free camp, cool day, but finally, all kendals had a swim, very refreshing. Pukie brought out his accordion and played Waltzing Matilda on beach. Locals came down. Boy with wool and hat must have thought we were crazy. Enjoyed it dinner with Jean and pukie, Saturday, fourth of May, up late and run on beach. Really lovely. Will be nice, sunny day. We went into town of igemonitor, nice town, little shops, interesting. Met up with Jean and pukie and had souvlaki with a beer for lunch. Then on to cake shop for a cake each and water really interesting. A lovely swim again, and a barbecue on the beach. All very relaxed after a couple of days here, free camping, no trouble. More relaxing, apart from us having a great introduction to Greece via our new friends, Jean and pukie, it was just a country that all of us liked. And as we looked through our photos, I asked my dad what he liked about Greece. It

Barry Kendle 14:02
was the the ocean and fish, things like that that interest me. It

Amanda Kendle 14:07
was more similar to Australia than the other places we’ve been. I felt

Barry Kendle 14:11
comfortable there, perhaps. And I noticed here, there’s a photograph of June and the girls at Olympia. It was interesting. So I think you girls ran some distance there to say you’d done it, not a marathon, though. That’s where he first came across with farm implements being used to pull trailers off to town with in this case, it was a rotary mower and a trailer off to go do the weekly shopping. I think, quite amazing. Yeah, it’s kind of cool. It was also a three wheeler, as these things were turned over on the off the side of the road. No one was injured, and the driver, with some help, just pushed it back onto his wheels, and he drove off. I

Amanda Kendle 14:59
just can’t believe. They did have those three wheeler cars and Utes and stuff, because it seems like they’re going to be really wobbly, right? Well, it wouldn’t

Barry Kendle 15:07
be the safest thing. Um, what else have we got? The Corinth channel? I thought that was a brilliant piece of engineering with such sheer faces on the on the canal.

Amanda Kendle 15:18
Yeah, it’s great. It was a surprise to me to think that the first snow we saw in our lives was in Greece. Yes,

Barry Kendle 15:25
I agree. Not what I expected, and it wasn’t

Amanda Kendle 15:29
very much, to be fair,

Barry Kendle 15:31
just a little patch, but

Amanda Kendle 15:32
for people who’d never seen snow ever,

Barry Kendle 15:35
yeah, it was quite exciting. Yeah,

Amanda Kendle 15:39
now my mum’s diary brings us back full circle, as we had a couple of weeks driving around Greece, but we had to return to our beloved igemunitza to get the ferry back to Italy. And my mum wrote to igemunitza, Amanda and Zoe whooped when saw sign two weeks ago. Since we were here, we are pleased to be back, but have enjoyed Greece. Run on beach. Lovely day into shop and special cakes, out for a drive and lunch in hills back home for swim. Barbecue. Tonight, hope to see fireflies again. Lovely, quiet night for barbecue. Sunday, 19th of May, our last early morning walk at igemunitzer Beach, pretty and peaceful place, a short drive and lunch, then back for a swim. We are down to our last 18 drachma, so we’ll have some souvlaki and a promenade tonight, prior to early 6am on board ferry tomorrow for Brindisi. I’ve not been back to Greece at all since my childhood, but I still dream of this little spot. I just think of it with such warmth in my heart, I think my dad’s mention of it being like a holiday within a holiday was just right, like we could relax and have fun. And it was also pretty similar to the kind of holiday we’d have back home in Australia, and especially it had a good sandy beach, and we were over two months into our trip. By this stage, we probably needed a little bit of a break. Now, just to round out this episode covering Spain, Greece and Italy, I need to mention that on our way back up through Italy, headed on to our next destination, we made a stop in Venice. Venice,

Barry Kendle 17:11
we didn’t spend much time there. We had to go there to a bank. And there was the female star of Are You Being Served? Was in the banking chamber. I didn’t make ourselves known to her. No, that’s right.

Amanda Kendle 17:26
Well, I can’t remember her actual but her name on the show was Mrs. Slocum. Is that right? Yeah. I don’t know her real life name, but yes, because I feel like we had to wait in that bank

Barry Kendle 17:36
for quite a while. Yeah, yes, like most banks over there,

Amanda Kendle 17:41
yeah, that’s the part I remember about Venice, not the rest of it.

Barry Kendle 17:44
We did go to the Marana glass factory, yes, where the salesman was pretty smooth. Oh, no, really, but eventually we got out without loss of blood or money.

Amanda Kendle 17:57
The parts you remember of a trip are just never what you’d expect, right? I can fully remember sitting in that bank like it was yesterday. I could describe the whole interior of the bank. And by the way, if you didn’t grow up watching British TV from the 70s and 80s, the actor we saw was Molly suddon in a show called Are You Being Served. It was a British comedy set in a department store that our family adored. I still think it’s hilarious. Today, my mum’s diary reported our Venice stay as well, just briefly to Venice by bus and then by boat, trip to glassworks Murano, really interesting, but very expensive and a bit pushy. Looked at St Marcos square, etc, and gallery, few ferries and home, Sue and Ron and Sarah from Florida came back too, and we all had a chat and a wine a good night. I hadn’t remembered, but Venice is obviously where I met Sarah, my then pen pal for many years. From that point, I must try and find her again. So preparing this episode really reminded me that one of the best parts of travel is the people you meet along the way. My mum’s diary records a new set of friends at basically every caravan park. Often it was other Australians, but also plenty of other nationalities too. We had an Australian flag sticker on our motorhome camper van, so I think that made it really easy to meet other Aussies. And quite a number of places we visited came out of recommendations from these people we’d met. You know, there was no Internet back then, so those caravan park chats were pretty important. I also think that during this second month of traveling, we kind of settled into travel mode, got used to Van life, had some kind of routine. I mean, as much as you can, I guess when you’re moving on every few days. Some of you also asked, by the way, about my sister and I missing so much school, but actually I wanted to explain, we were able to access distance education program through the WA Education Department. We took packages of work and had an allocated teacher back in Perth, so we usually sat in the van. At the table in the back of the van and did some schoolwork each day. But of course, we learned way more just by our daily travel experiences. But doing the distance education was what meant that we could be out of school in Australia for six months. So there you go. So next month, in the third episode of the van life diaries Europe, 1985 series, we travel to Switzerland, Austria and Germany, and I can’t wait to share it all with you. Big thanks to Context Travel, the series sponsor, for their support in creating these special podcast episodes.