It had rained most of Tuesday night at Konigssee (King’s Lake) and started snowing around 08.00 on Wednesday, April 17 so, of course, we decided to do a boat trip along the lake to St Bartholomew’s Church. The whole area is a National Park so you can’t actually drive around the lake so taking the boat there was the only option. It was a lovely trip in a heated boat (thank goodness!) and the church itself was well worth the trip.
Apologies to our subscribers but thick fingers meant the draft blog was posted rather than the finished article! If you click on this link it should take you to the latest, finished post.
We left Lake Bled around 10.20 on Monday, April 15 to make our way north to Austria and Germany whilst Wendy and Stuart headed east to Hungary. We wanted to do some more mountain passes so first up was the Vršič Pass that goes up to 1600m with 50 hairpin bends that are numbered with a gradient of 14%. We did 25 of them before having lunch at the top and then headed back down so we did 50 in total! Onwards towards Austria but on the back roads as our Slovenian vignette had run out and at €32 we didn’t want to renew just for a few hours. Consequently, we then needed to go up the Wurzen Pass to enter Austria and that had a 18% descent. All was well although I suspect that the brake liners are a bit thinner now!
So, on Wednesday morning we left our wonderful vineyard stopover at 10.40 to make our way to Lake Boshinj via a famous viewpoint for the Soča river and the Kozjak waterfalls nearby. We parked at a designated car park (P4N#120543) and walked up to the waterfalls. On the way we passed the viewpoint which is in the middle of a wooden suspension bridge. Amazing view but not sure I’d want to be on the bridge with a lot of other people.
We continued up to the falls passing only a few people so, when we got there, we had the place to ourselves.
After finishing Predjama Castle on Monday, April 8th and getting the shuttle bus back to the car park, we left our parking spot at 15.30 and continued down to Piran on the west coast of Slovenia. This whole area used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until the end of the First World War when it was given to Italy. It is also the only part of Slovenia that has a coastline. The park up was in a field (P4N#346834) with electricity, next to the beach with the rest of the facilities in the adjacent campsite, Camp Fiesa. It was a tad expensive at €38 per night (including tourist tax) but there were very few options available and we had been told that Piran had some fine Venetian architecture. It also had boats so that was a draw too!
We sorted ourselves out quickly as we wanted to walk into town along the coastal path about a mile or so away whilst it was still light. One of the main monuments in Piran is the Bell Tower of the Cathedral of St George but sadly it was covered in scaffolding (there seems to be a theme for our trip!). We wandered around the back alleyways and ended up at a bar overlooking the Adriatic. We hadn’t been back to this part of the Med for about 7 years so it was lovely to look across to Croatia and reminisce.
We just made it back to the van before it was dark and we were greeted by our Austrian neighbours with a glass of schnapps! It would have been rude not to accept. Dinner in the van and a relatively early night for us.
Continue readingWe left wonderful Ljubljana early on Sunday morning, April 7, to make our way south to the Karst region of Slovenia. This region is a limestone plateau that stretches from the Gulf of Trieste in the Adriatic into western Slovenia. There are many kilometres of underground caves created over millions of years. Our first stop were the Škocjan Caves in the SW of the country. The tour lasted two hours and covered about 2.5km of caves and 700 steps. The caves were amazing with the Reka river roaring through it. It was first discovered in 1890. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside but the vastness of it was breathtaking. The cave itself was over 100m high and full of stalactites and stalagmites as well as being the largest underground canyon in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We then continued south to Lipica where the Lipizzaner horses were originally bred. Sturdy work horses from the Karst region were bred with Spanish horses to create the Lipizzaner breed as long ago as 1580. Whilst the stud farm no longer provides the horses for the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, they have over 300 horses at any one time so clearly in great demand. On Sundays only they put on a show at 15.00 as well as providing a tour of the premises so we saw young stallions still learning their trade (only stallions perform). It was entertaining but not yet polished. All good value for €25pp.
Continue readingOn Friday morning, April 5, we treated ourselves to breakfast in the campsite restaurant in Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. It was a feast of omelettes, meat, cheese, bread, fruit and yoghurt for only €14 each. We had enough food to provide for lunch over the next two days! Having filled up with water as we knew we wouldn’t be in a campsite for a few days, it was time to move on. Just before we set off we noticed that the engine oil light came on so we checked it and found she needed a bit of a top up. Not bad going as we’d done over 14,000 miles since her last oil change.
We had decided that Zagreb would be our final stop in Croatia before moving onto Slovenia. Whilst Belgrade and Sofia had underwhelmed as capital cities, Zagreb didn’t disappoint. It felt a lively, buzzy place helped, no doubt, by the warm, sunny Spring like weather. Even so, there were large parks, interesting tunnels under the city streets, cathedrals and grand architecture. We had found a parking spot in a central car park that only changed €2.80 per hour and had no height restrictions (P4N#233856). It was a bit tight getting in and eventually we found a spot – our fault for arriving at 13.00 on a Friday! A short walk later and we could take in the sights.
We left Belgrade around 08.40 on Wednesday morning to drive to the Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. The Serbian motorway wasn’t particularly busy but again 5km out from the border the lorries started to queue to get into the Schengen area. It wasn’t too bad for us and only took about half an hour. The Serbian side weren’t too interested in us and the Croatian border control seemed even less so.
After we had sailed through we realised that the Croatian border official hadn’t stamped our passports so there was no record of when we entered the EU again after leaving it in Greece. This might not matter but, again, we had heard some horror stories of people trying to prove how long they were in the EU/Schengen area when their passports had not been stamped. We hadn’t realised until we were already on the motorway and gone through a toll. There was a rest area nearby that also went back towards the Croatian border so we turned around and headed back through the toll. We had only been on the toll for maybe 5 miles each way but obviously the system didn’t realise that and charged us the full amount of €25! We got back to the Croatian border, parked up and went to find the chap who had inspected our passports. Luckily, he was happy to just stamp them this time so we could avoid going back out of Croatia, into Serbia, back out of there and back into Croatia. It all could have been very messy!
Our park up in Belgrade/Beograd was a very large, gated compound on the outskirts of the city with full facilities and friendly hosts. We arrived around 15.30 and, as most museums in the city centre were shut on a Monday, we decided to chill for a couple of hours in the sunshine before making our way to the Danube riverfront 30 minutes walk away for a bite to eat. We found a lovely fish restaurant called Sent Andrea so Liz had perch and I had sea bream. Both cooked beautifully. Another peaceful night’s rest before hitting Beograd on Tuesday, April 2. We’d given up reporting to the police by now and decided we would chance it if we were ever questioned.
We navigated the digital bus pass app, Beograd Plus, so that we each had an e-ticket (all day ticket for less than £1) on our phones as we didn’t get any Serbian Dinars out for such a short stay. We have been able to use our Wise credit card everywhere so far on this trip and so it was in Serbia. It was an easy 30 minute bus ride from our park up to the centre of Beograd.
Continue readingWe left our camp stop in Sofia, Bulgaria on Saturday (March 30th) morning around 09.30 having emptied various tanks and filled with water. We also filled up with diesel as it seemed to be quite cheap in Sofia at around equivalent of €1.35 a litre and we weren’t sure what the price would be in Serbia. (As it turned out, the price for diesel seemed to be fixed at 203RSD in Serbia, which is about €1.64 so good call by us!) It was going to be another hot day but at least we have air con in the cab. We took the motorway to the border crossing at Calotina and waited in line. Even for a Saturday morning, the queue of trucks went on for 4km. It took us about an hour to get through and they even checked that we had bought a vignette (one off payment instead of individual tolls) before our passports were stamped to leave Bulgaria and then entered Serbia. We had downloaded an e-Sim for Serbia from Airalo but couldn’t activate it until we were actually in the country. Touch of relief that it all worked very smoothly and we could have connectivity whilst there. Before we left the U.K. we had purchased International Driving Permits as Serbia supposedly requires it but no one asked us to produce it. Perhaps they would have if there had been an accident. Who knows?
According to various government websites (UK and Serbia), we needed to register with the police within 24 hours of entering the country. Usually, if you are staying in a hotel they will do it for you but we had no idea where we were going to stay and certainly not in one place for the duration of our visit. So we drove to Niš as there was a large police station there and also various sights we wanted to visit. We found somewhere to park and hoped we had understood the parking sign correctly!
Continue readingIt rained quite heavily overnight on Tuesday, March 26th in Pozar and we were slightly worried about getting stuck as we were camped on grass. Luckily, we had moved Dora forward in her pitch the evening before so that her front tyres were on a mix of grass and gravel. She behaved beautifully in the morning so we easily drove off the pitch and even found a tap to fill our water tank nearby before stopping on the way out for breakfast by the river. Low cloud had filled the valley which created quite an eerie scene. We decided to double back on ourselves and drive down to Vergina to see the Royal Tombs, assuming they would be open this time! On the way through we went through even more fields of cherry trees.
The tombs were actually quite impressive. They had been excavated in the 1970s and had been found in tact rather than been robbed like so many others over the centuries. Phillip II, Alexander the Great’s father, was a force to be reckoned with as he was a consummate diplomat as well as an inspiring general who managed to expand Macedonia. His tomb reflected his achievements with gold, silver and suits of armour buried with him. His grandson, Alexander III, Alexander’s son was also buried here in similar fashion. The burial mound has been dug out and made into an amazing exhibition. Well worth a visit. Interestingly, this part of Greece is still called Macedonia and the Greeks refuse to call the country to the north of them, North Macedonia as they feel their heritage has been usurped so only call it by its capital’s name, Skopje.
Continue readingWe have spent the last few days clearing our stuff out of our boat, Nimrod, into Dora. We have disposed of three full bin bags of clothes that were not fit for anything as well as food that had dubious things growing in them! The other criteria was what could we physically fit into the van which as it happened was more than you’d think!
We spent each day at the boatyard but returned every night to our lovely spot at Pounda Zeza. One evening the occupants of the motorhome parked near us came across enquiring how we knew of this place as they’d been coming there for 20 years and wanted it kept a secret as the locals call the police if more than 3 vans are there. We pointed out that we’d known of the place for years as well so not much of a secret!
By lunchtime on Monday, we were all done and sadly said farewell to our beloved boat. We then made our way north towards Mount Olympus in northern Greece. It was a gloriously sunny day and the snow capped peaks of Olympus looked wonderful as we headed towards them. Our park up for the night was the old monastery of Saint Dionysios (P4N#105922). We noticed the temperature cooling as we headed north and as we climbed up the mountain the temperature started to drop even more. By the time we parked up it was only 6°C and not even dark so we were slightly worried the temperature would drop even further overnight. We popped the heating on low just in case as we didn’t want the frost valve to open and dump all our water!
Continue readingWe have made it to Lavrion on the Attica peninsula, about 40 minutes SE of Athens.
Yesterday morning we awoke from a really peaceful night’s sleep in our campervan park outside Brindisi. Our ferry to Greece left at 13.00 but we had to be at the ferry terminal at least 2 hours in advance. So around 10.15 we left our site and made the short 15 minute journey to the port. It was very chaotic at the terminal with no signs where to park or what to do. We checked in and waited. And waited. Finally around 11.30 a security chap told us we could now get in lane for loading onto the ship. The queues were full of trucks with a handful of cars and half a dozen canpervans or motorhones. We then sat in another queue for another hour until we were finally on board. We were put onto the top deck (which made for some interesting manoeuvring) but at least the batteries would be topped up during the 8 hour crossing! Amazingly, the ship left just 6 minutes behind schedule.
We woke up very early on Wednesday morning in our “dodgy” car park for no apparent reason and were back on the road just after 0700. Refuelled at a 24 hour self service station although limited to 100 euros so not quite filled the tank. Still, we would need to refill again later on in the day anyway. We continued south from Modena and came off the motorway at Rimini. We had decided to treat ourselves to breakfast/ brunch out somewhere along that part of the coast overlooking the sea. We were last on this part of the Adriatic coast in 2017 when we sailed up to Venice so it was good to be back as it is lovely. We found somewhere to park at Riccione, a few miles south of Rimini, by the harbour. All of the beach cafes were still shut but there were lots of activity getting ready for the new season.
We woke up refreshed around 07.30 on Tuesday morning and decided to drive to Lake Annecy to have breakfast. Jill had told us of a lovely village down the eastern side of the lake called Talloires so we headed to it and found a great spot near the golf course overlooking the lake (P4N#77299).
We then made our way along the motorways towards the Alps to go through the Frejus Tunnel. We had thought about going through the Mont Blanc tunnel but we needed a Crit’Air sticker to show that Dora is a low emission diesel van and we hadn’t had time to buy one before starting out. The Frejus Tunnel is about 13km long and you have to stay 100m away from the vehicle in front. If you don’t, blue lights at the side flash. All quite clever.
Continue readingLong story short is that we have sold our lovely boat, Nimrod, (who has her own blog btw) so we need to clear our personal stuff off her. This would be easy apart from the fact that she is in a boatyard near Athens, some 2,000 miles away! So, on Sunday we left in Dora to drive down to Folkestone as we had a booking on Le Shuttle to Calais for Monday morning. We had found a park up for the night at The Master Brewer only 15 minutes from the tunnel terminal. Perfect. They were celebrating St Patrick’s Day so when we arrived at 18.30 hours quite a few of their customers had clearly been celebrating since lunchtime. No food as they only serve Sunday lunch but that was fine as we had a chicken tagine left over to heat up. A quick drink in the pub as a thank you and then back to the van to actually do some planning! We reckoned it would take us about 5 days to get to Greece via Italy with long driving days on toll motorways but then,once we had sorted the boat out, we would meander our way back through Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Belgium and France. At least, that’s the plan.
The pub car park was remarkably quiet after about 22.00 hours so we managed to get some sleep. We were both awake by 07.00 and at the terminal before 07.30 which meant we could then have breakfast before boarding the train.
Continue readingOver the winter we had a problem with the batteries or so we thought so we booked Dora into Hitchin Leisure Services, which is only a 25 mins drive away. After much head scratching they managed to identify the problem as a faulty battery isolator switch. This was a significantly cheaper repair than we originally thought as it was looking like the 12v fuse block might be faulty. Phew!
So, we thought it would be a good idea to ensure all was well before any long road trips. Hence a trip to a Caravan and Motorhome Club site at Henley on Thames (P4N#170466). It’s quite a small site but very friendly and not very busy in mid March on a Tuesday!
Dora behaved impeccably of course and everything seems to be working which is good news. Didn’t help that Jo forgot to turn off the cold weather dump valve so most of the water we filled up with came straight out again!
Continue readingOur first trip in the new year was supposed to be with our Twinnie friends, Maria and Jane, in their van, Arty. He is a brand new Adria Twin 640 SGX and the plan was to spend a couple of days away together near Stratford upon Avon. However, we found out on January 15 that the domestic batteries didn’t appear to be holding their charge. Not great as these power everything in the habitation part of the van. We tried charging them overnight but still nothing. Popped up to Hitchin Leisure Services who said that it could be more than just the batteries so needed to book it in for the following week.
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Dora The Explorer 