Leaving Dubrovnic

18/10/2014 Saturday

Flight to Dubrovnic booked out of birmingham airport at 2.15pm. Get up early and drop Fudge to Debbie the dog carer. Spend a few hours in work and then towards the airport. Receive a text from Monarch. Flight is delayed 2 hours :((((((. Still go and book in at airport and spend two extra hours eating drinking and shopping:)))).

Arrive at Dubrovnik airport a bit late and meet with Pero at bingo rent a car. He seems pleased to see us and trys to ring camping kate to see if they are still open. No joy so he is happy to drop us back to the camper and spend the night on his car park. We are pleased about this as didnt really want to move the camper in the dark a few miles up the road. We pay Pero 160 euros for the storage and ask him about coming back in May/June next year and hire a sailing boat from him. He is going to email us some details. We say goodbye, drink a bottle of Montenegro red wine and the sandwiches we packed in England and head to bed very tried to sleep soundly.

19/10/2014 Sunday

After a great nights sleep and waking up after 8 oclock we leave the car park and head towards Dubrovnik hoping to find some parking on the outskirts. Luck has it and after a few stelf u turns by Ian we park and head into town, down many steps and winding streets. Dubrovnik is stunning and we spend some time walking around admiring the harbour, walls and churches. We stop for coffee in the town center and Ian has pancakes with cheese,ham and mushrooms. He says its great and also orders a pint of larger !! funny breakfast.

Its now nearing midday and knowing we still have to drive along the coast we walk back up the steps and hill to the camper. We set off north along the coast road towards Split. Stunning scenery with cliffs dropping down to clear water. We promise ourselves a swim later ( it is 23 degrees).

After about an hours drive and covering only about 30km we decide to hit the A1 toll road at Polce. We fill up with fuel, put air in the worryingly low tyres and hit the road. 200km later past Spilt and nearly at Zadar we decide to come off the A1 and drive along the coast road towards Rijeka to find a camp site on the beach to stop the night. This is in the Paklenika national park. Huge mountains rise up from the sea that is pretty much a lagoon called Kanal on the map. Only just off the A1 in a little town called Seline we see a camp site sign saying camping on the beach. We pull into camping Auto Camp Pisak. Reception is closed so we fill up with water and park right next to the beach in the most beutiful spot you could imagine. The owner arrives and we pay him 156 kuna for one night ( about 15 pound) he gives us a sticker and a little smelly thing to hang in our camper with the camp site name on it. We ask him if there is a restaurant and he makes a call to check if they are open. They are and it's only just along the beach from us.

After a swim in the very cold clear water with pebbles for a beach, a shower and a rest we walk along the beach front to eat at a small resturant 150 yards from the site. Mixed fish, chips and salad. Home made white wine ( ummmmmm!!!!!! we drank it though). Beer on the beach, after watching the fisher men in small boats with large lights and a spear slowly chug around. Not sure what they are trying to catch. Maybe octopus? Blog done and to bed.

20/10/14 Monday

Woke after a good night's sleep. It's Laurens birthday so Cordy sends her birthday wishes on FB. Make tea and get ready to set off. Ian has a swim saying it'll be the last one of the year. Cordy not up for it, too cold or something.....? We then go for a shower in the excellent facilities. We decide to head for the A1 as we have a long nearly 7 hour drive and need fuel soon.

As we head back to the A1 we regret not having opted for the scenic coastal route, however we both know the reality of the journey and just get on with it on the A1.

It turns out to be a lovely run through the uplands to the back of the mountain range that skirts the coast.

We turn left onto the A6 towards Rijeka rather than Zagreb. Then turning up the 203 towards Delnice and the border with Slovenia. This is a wonderful mountain road with deer crossing in front of the car and rivers gushing by with a trout farm by the road. We cross the border having to show our passports to the slovenian side who waved us on without giving us any information or advice (more about this later).

We stopped at a big supermarket TUS at a place called Kocevje. We stock up with wine, beer and the by now obligatory smelly sausages!

It was a bit slow going and we trundled on until we came to Ljubljana when we took a break for beer, bread and tuna with pate and tomato in the layby just before the A2.

We pressed on towards the border with Austria near Jesenice at the Karawanken tunnel.

We were pulled over at the border by some traffic cops. They asked us where we had come from and took our passport and log book for the vehicle. They also took photos of the van and us. The female officer then explained the we should have a sticker on the van to allow us to travel on motorways in Slovenia. These could be purchased for 15 euro from a petrol station. As we did not have one we would be liable to a fine of 300 euro!!!!! This was something of a shock to us as we were unaware of the requirement for a vignette. We claimed innocence through ignorance, never a very convincing defence. She said as we were foreigners the fine would be reduced to 150 euro that she could take on a card right now!!

Cordy volunteered to go make the payment at their vehicle. She came back brimming with tears of anger that we as visitors to their country could be treated so badly and ripped off in such a way! We may appeal?

We drove on towards the queue to enter Austria, now aware that they also have this method of charging for their roads. We paid a toll for the tunnel into Austria and were told we could buy a sticker further along the road. we then joined the next queue of stationary traffic waiting to go through the tunnel as it was one way traffic with a half an hour wait at our side.

We came out of the tunnel eventually and stopped at a motorway parking area to purchase a sticker for 8.50 euro.

Heading for Camping Torrenerhof behind the hotel Torrenerhof near Golling. We rang ahead to let them know we would be later than expected. That was fine, said Herr Lacher and thank you for ringing.

We arrived in the dark and struggled to find a good level pitch. Eventually we just parked it connected the electric, changed our clothes and rocked up to the hotel to be greeted by David the waiter who sat us down in the restaurant and fed us Beer, red wine, Red Ox Platter a big salver full of meat, fruit battered apple and chips. The food and the camping all in came to 69 euro. We were stuffed and after chatting to David, who turned out to be from Hungary and has spent some time in Dublin, we went off back to the camper for a little more wine and to write the account of the day. Looking forward to seeing where we are in the light of the day....................

...........21/10/2014 Tuesday

Not a lot to see when we wake up as its raining and misty, we shower in heated block and set off with Ian driving north towards Munchen on the A10 and past Salzburg onto the A8. We speed past a sign saying we are now in Germany, no border control.

Clouds on the mountains around us so we cannot see the great views. We speed along towards Munchen with Ian set on driving into the city parking and having a look round a beer (maybe 2!!!!) and lunch. Full of excitement we drive into the city centre, however parking is at a premium and we spend an hour driving round unable to park. We take pictures from the van of some fine buildings and the trams that we keep driving over the lines of and see a great German market in the centre. Sad that we are unable to stop we resign ourselves and head out of the city, cracking a beer and some bread sticks and tuna spread and head on to Stuttgart with Cordy now driving.

Heading out of the mountains and after relentless road works we finally reach Stuttgart around 4 o'clock. We decide to go to the airport and look at the parking, the start of a two hour struggle of finding airport parking full!!!, Not being able to locate any other parking and getting lost countless times. Tired and more than a little disgruntled we decide that paying the 39 Euros for a taxi from the camp site and leaving the camper on the site for a week until we return is not so bad.  A little bit of effort and more data purchased google maps finally locates the camp site 1 hour ( sorry ian I got that wrong !!!!!) 1/2 hour drive in the end in rush hour through tunnels under the city.

We arrive at Campingplazze Stuttgart this. Not the most glamorous of sites just past the circus and beer tent festivals ( that finished last week :(((() by the obligatory inner city railway line.. We camp on hard concrete tiles and the rain starts again. We open a bottle of cava cook some pasta/salad and open that old tin of duck cassolette that'd been lurking around the cupboard since France ( not that great by the way). Opened another bottle of wine. Shower wash up make Ollie's bed up and get ready for our return to England tomorrow. Got to be up at 6.30 to get a taxi to the airport at 7 o'clock. Ian proclaiming his love for Union Slovenian larger as he opens another can xx