Neuschwanstein Castle

 

 

Today we visited the fairytale castle Neuschwanstein and its neighbouring castle Hohenschwangau which from a distance looked picturesque. We parked with a couple of other campers and took a 30 minute uphill walk to the castle itself. The tour was 35 minutes and the guide took us through many rooms which Ludwig II decorated. It was a beautiful castle but a lot of work was  being carried out so most of the exterior was covered in scafolding. The town itself was entirely based around the two castles therefore seemed quite touristy.

We are now sat on an aire in Lindau - we will explore the town tomorrow morning and then head toward the north of Germany.

Triglav National Park

 

 

 

Today we ventured off site to the Triglav National Park and up the cable car which takes is 1550m up to the top of the peak. At the top there are lots of little cafes which are obviously heaving in the winter season when the place turns into a Ski Resort, but during the summer months have vastly discounted prices. We settled for Apple Strudel which was fantastic. We got the lift back down and then on to the Water Fall which was well worth the walk to and from.



On the return we decided to go down the scenic route through some little villages who were drying hay. I'm not sure they'd seen a camper van before and they were in danger of having one as a permanent feature had we not managed to negotiate some of the tiny roads and gaps between houses without incident.

This is the longest we've ever stayed in one place, but it was good to have a rest from our usual fast paced travelling which picks up again tomorrow when we set off for Germany.

Lake Bled

 

 

 

The lake all revolves around the little island, imaginatively named  Bled Island, in the middle on which there are 99 steps leading up to a small church which was built in the 15th century. The only way to access it is by boat, costing 10 euro if you go on a gondola or the same if you are to hire one of your own. We decided on the latter and Sophie enjoyed being paddled around the lake, although her directions could have been better!


We walked the whole trail around the edge of the lake which is about 4 miles and allows you to see not only the island but all of the Julian Alps which surround the lake. Gets a bit colder here on a night then in Croatia, but thankfully its still 25c + during the day which is ideal. Was going to have a dip in the lake but thought better of it!


We've just been sat at the bar on the site and now in need of some sleep....

Sneak Preview - Lake Bled...

More info tomorrow when we've had chance to explore fully...

Ljubljana

  

  

 

So today is my birthday. I'll not say how old, but old enough for now! It was really nice to spend it in the capital of Ljubljana, the smallest capital we've vistited if you don't include places like San Marino and Monaco.

Slovenia is such a compact and clean country, everything seems to be just right. The city had an antiques and crafts market in full swing as well as local artists out displaying their works. We walked up to the castle which overlooks the old town and the city as a whole, shielded on all sides by mountain ranges. Getting the tram back down (really, we did that the wrong way!) we walked along the river with weeping willow trees dressing the banks.

It was hot again today, probably about 25c, and we had a nice lunch in an Italian which massive Pizza's but probably one of the best I've ever had. The prices here are modest too, as was Hungary, but being in Euro's are much easier to understand!

We spent probably about 5 hours here and it was easy to get to from the campsite ( www.ljubljanaresort.si )with a bus stop outside and just 1 Euro each way. Next stop... Lake Bled...

The Croatian Queue & Back to Slovenia

 

 

So we left the campsite after a few arguments with campsite staff about our discount card which seemed to be fine when we arrived we payed by credit card and then called to cancel the transaction... so be warned, staff at Camping Indije I think have been informed to try and get out of allowing people the discounts! We even parked in the pitch we was asked to in order to obtain the discount, watch this space.

So bad things seem to come in threes. On the way out we got stuck in a 5 hour tailback which wasn't too bad being in a camper, we just sat back and watched a few episodes of Family Guy and then the 1980's classic Rain Man while drinking orange with ice cubes!

Once we had got out of Croatia we headed to Italy to Trieste which on the face of it seemed pretty industrial and not very camper friendly. So we headed back inland to spend the night in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana where we will explore tomorrow.

Not much to report in pictures today, hopefully something more interesting tomorrow.

Lazy Day in Pula

 

 

We woke up late this morning given that there was no sign of the thunder storms that we have been promised we decided to have a rest day on the beach, where we sat for several hours with a book in 30c heat! We did some washing and other chores around the van before we set off early tomorrow. We've had the air con running constantly and it was great to come back to an ice cool van after a few hours on the beach!

A few pictures from the day. Tomorrow we move on to Trieste which is on the west cost of Slovenia but is in fact in Italy - so that will be another unscheduled country to add to the list!

Goodnight from Croatia

Slovenia & Croatia

 So today we took the train 2km into the mountain to explore the depths of Postojna caves. We parted with 35 euro, discounted thanks to me having an OLD student card in my wallet. The place was a bit of a tourist trap, the sort of place we usually avoid, but we felt it had to be done.

The caves were magnificent and far far upstaged what we had seen previously in Ingleton, once underground we were organized in groups by language – ours being made up largely with Chinese and Dutch (because nobody speaks Dutch really, do they?) No photos were allowed, but that didn’t stop the Chinese tourists so I thought, well if you can’t beat them… on the subject of which there was one Chinese lady who was off her rocker and was waving at all the different stones and walking around with her hands in the air.  This was all too much for the Dutch couple in front of us who had to keep stopping to compose themselves!


When we got out of the caves the weather took a turn. We drove a 5m twisty track to the top of the mountain to view the castle in the side of the rock, very impressive. We then wondered what to do next. We were disappointed that the 33c weather had not followed us from Budapest, so we decided to make a run for the sun and made an unscheduled cross over into Croatia! So here we sit in Camp Indije sat at the Bar with our free Wifi and a cold drink at 8pm at night and it’s probably about 22c still. It’s amazing what 90 miles south can do to the climate! Not sure where we will get to tomorrow yet, but that’s half the fun!

Just For Fun - Roadsign

We saw this in Prague, anybody care to explain what on earth it means!
Answers on a postcard...

Hungary to Slovenia

 

We headed out of Hungary towards Slovenia, stopping of course at Lake Balaton. We were going to stop here but as it was very overcast and murky and the river was quite green we decided to push on to Slovenia. We took a gamble on the new motorway linking Ljubljana to Budapest being finished as it wasn't on any of our maps or TomTom. As it happened, we had the motorway to ourselves and made good time. Our destination was Postojna Cave, the largest underground network of caves in Europe. We’d been to Ingleton Caves many times and thought we’d like to see something that upstaged it.

We avoided the campsite as it wanted twice what the Aire was which was part of the car park to the caves, so tomorrow we’ll go and explore! We parked in space 13, so I guess we're not as superstitious as we thought!

Budapest

 

 

 

Sorry for the delay with the update, a sudden influx of British (or more accurately Scotts!) last night kept me up talking to well passed my bedtime...

We spent a good day in Budapest yesterday, the metro was quick and efficient and cost £5 for a day ticket which covered all metro, tram and busses. If you're not going to use it much you can get a single ticket
for 70p a journey. I wouldn't recommend the busses though – when you visit you will see what I mean!

We started off in Pest and walked over the Chain Bridge after viewing the houses of Parliament, the views from here are fantastic and you can see the castle welcoming you to over to Pest. We took a cable car up to
the top and wandered around the castle and courtyard for a couple of  hours, arguably the most historical area of Budapest. After viewing the Waterfall, we crossed another bridge back into the main shopping district.

The money here is quite hard to understand… 1000ft is about £3.50. Sophie bought some new shoes as the ones she had were giving her some trouble after two days of capital crawling and explored some of the shops which weren't western high street brands.

We hopped back on the metro to take us to Heroes Square home to a monument very similar to the one in Berlin as well as several Spa Bath houses and Museum's. There are a lot of Museum's here in Budapest and if
you was here on a city break or a week you'd probably want to visit them all, but it's not really our thing – we like to take in as much as we can without joining the crowds of tourists!

So today we are heading off to Lake Balaton, but have decided that we might dip into Croatia after inspecting it… we'll just have to see.

Not sure when we'll have Wifi again so you might not see any updates for a while – hope everyone is keeping well! Adam & Sophie.