LOOKING OUT 2011!

Occasional Comments on the Passing Scene in 2011

Barry and Margaret Williamson

See also: Looking Out 2018,  Looking Out 2017,  Looking Out 2016, 
                    Looking Out 2013,  Looking Out 2012

December 2011 (Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece)

Got a Light Mate? We are trying to find out when the 2012 Olympic flame is to be lit, here in Greece in the temple of Zeus at Ancient Olympia, but with no success so far. We were in Olympia for the lighting of the flame for the 1996 Atlanta Games; us and Mrs Clinton, with a young Chelsea in tow. Not until the very morning when people started walking to the Ancient Site did we discover the day and the time. The Virgins of the Temple, in flowing white, went off stage to the Temple of Zeus, out of sight (and probably out of the site), to return with the flaming torch. These were the Vestal Virgins with, we suspect, a box of Swan Vestas under their diaphanous robes. Vesta was, after all the, the Goddess of the Hearth. How the Swan got into it, we do not know, but may find out this year. (Margaret now tells me that Vesta and her Virgins belong to the Roman pantheon and that people would know that, having looked it up in Wikipedia, but I know you would do no such thing and that you believe everything I write.)

On Tow: We have seen many ways in which British motorhomers avoid paying for insurance, road tax and MOTs when travelling long term outside the country. There is also the contentious matter of pulling a car with an A-frame, something that is illegal in most countries except in an emergency. However, we met the most blatant abuse on a campsite in Greece this winter: a lone motorhomer, Peter Day, towing a car with an A-frame, the car having the same number plate as the motorhome and a sign saying 'On Tow'. The car therefore appears to be a trailer which wouldn't need road tax, insurance or MOT! But this man also drove his 'trailer' off the campsite with the fake number plate and the 'On Tow' sign still in place. In addition, the motorhome displayed no road fund licence.

We also understand that the car was bought and insured in France, even though insurance is only legal if sold to a person resident in the country. Apparently, the registration document (V5C) could not be obtained in the UK, although the car was fitted with two sets of UK number plates - one set of its own and one set matching the motorhome's when on tow. It also follows that the car could not have a vaild MOT from the UK or its equivalent in France.

None of the following requirements were being met:

Any vehicle on tow must be fully road legal (insurance, road fund licence, MOT, registration document), have its rear lights, brake lights and indicator lights operated by the tow vehicle (as with a caravan pulled by a car) or a separate lighting board must be in place, display the number plate of the towing vehicle as well as its own number plate which will be different, have its hydraulic brakes fully operated by the tow vehicle and not just a device to work the handbrake.

In addition, the driver of the tow vehicle must have a licence to drive the combination of motorhome and towed car which will be in excess of 3.5 tons.

Perhaps this man has also joined the motorhomers (and some expatriates) who risk imprisonment in the UK by declaring a 'SORN' in the UK before driving the vehicle out of the country, thereby avoiding road tax and an MOT! Not least, any of these practices would also make any insurance on the vehicle invalid.

Who's Who: We cycled to the local port of Killinis recently and met an old fisherman on the harbour. He asked if we were from Germany, and he and we were all relieved that we weren't. We got the idea of 'England' firmly established in his mind ('Anglia' with the emphasis on the penultimate vowel, pronounced 'ee'), to which he replied 'Ah, Sarkozi'. Shocked, we demurred and said 'Cameron', at which he showed a complete lack of knowledge and interest. How refreshing!

November 2011 (Germany, France, England)

Red Faces and Green Cards: British motorhome insurance agents still fail to realise that possession of a UK legal Insurance Policy Document also gives Green Card (minimum insurance cover) in 32 European countries, for 365 days of the year, without you needing a 'Green Card'. See the appropriate page of the Motor Insurers Website. What the agent can do is limit the countries and timing of fully comprehensive cover outside the UK, and decide if they will issue a Green Card for minimum cover in any countries beyond the 32.

Greece: What will have Changed? Writing this on our way to Greece in November 2011, we wonder in what way our favourite European country may have changed. What differences will we notice and how will we notice them? Prices will have risen, as will the numbers of unemployed. Public services have been reduced and there are regular strikes and disturbances in the main cities. But what will the ordinary, everyday Greek understand of the causes of their crisis? Has it really resurrected memories of German atrocities, looting and mass murder during their occupation of Greece from 1941 to 1945? Read the views of two resident women: Rose and Kat and our own: 'The Greek Tragicomedy'.

White Vans: Prejudice against the white van is widespread, inconvenient and expensive in and around the UK. Some cross-channel ferries charge more (eg P&O, Norfolk Line/DFDS); some campsites exclude white vans (or demand you hide the vehicle or park outside); and insurance companies charge at least double the equivalent size converted campervan. Apart from being great to drive, great to safely carry a load, including bicycles and camping gear, and great to pull a caravan, there is also a camaraderie among white van drivers and with truck drivers. The oppressed often have much in common. Good to be on the European mainland where no such prejudice exists.

Whoops 2: We will observe quite a few of these as we look out. We may even commit one or two ourselves! A recent one involved a distracted Australian filling his water tank with diesel. Good thing that Motorhome Medics were nearby.

Whoops 1: Friends motorhoming through the Czech Republic on their way to Bulgaria completed a form at the border to get a 'Go Box' (payment for using the motorways). Under pressure, they put 'UK' for their country of origin. Stopped at a checkpoint down the road, the police took them to be from the UKraine, but without the necessary papers and visas. It took a long time to unscramble that one.

What a Dick: A Tasmanian motorhomer, travelling in Europe, wrote that Dick Smith was his inspiration to travel. Well, Dick is an Australian entrepreneur (with a chain of electrical shops and his own food brand): a multi-millionaire who once flew a helicopter round the world. More recently he and his Mrs drove a specially built 4wd camper van across the USA and then from the UK to Singapore via Russia and China, etc. He writes at length of difficulties, largely mechanical or electrical, bravely overcome. But one knows from the start that he's going to make it, because he can and does just throw money into what is a quite artificial journey, made for the sake of it. While telling us at every stage just how much money he is spending, he is quite insensitive to the parlous state of the people in the third world among whom he blusters his egocentric way! Their bad roads and undeveloped infrastructure provide his challenges. Inspiration? He does inspire quite strong feelings in us.

Old Pals: Remembrance Day, coupled with the sudden death of an old friend in Newcastle (the New South Wales version), caused us to write: “We fear that we are entering what we call the 'World War One' phase of life when companions in the Pals Brigade begin to fall about us. Some get a slight wound and soon return to the front line; some are culture-shocked and need R&R time in a sheltered camp; some get a Blighty Wound and return to their bungalows, while a few pass on to that Great Free Camp in the Sky.”

On the Front Line: It's quite appropriate to think of World War One, here in Soissons on the River Aisne. The city was 80% destroyed as the Bosch pushed forward and then retreated again before collapsing in November 1918 (or being stabbed in the back by the politicians back home, as some might have said and some did say, and hence World War Two).

Remembrance: A very dignified British Army Warrant Office, standing proud in his uniform with a red sash, spoke the words of Laurence Binyon's poem 'For the Fallen' as he saluted the fallen after laying a wreath at the CWGC British memorial in Soissons on Armistice Day.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”

Bizarre Words: The French children at the Armistice service in Soissons waved Union Jacks and sang three verses of 'God Save the Queen' in English; words even more bizarre in that setting than those of the Marseillaise. 'Queens' and 'Gods' have no place in the secular Republic of France. But then neither should: “Qu'un sang impur, abreuve nos sillons” or “Let an impure blood water our furrows”. But they do have the best tune.