Last day = driving day. On the way, we went to some caves in Slovenia. The Skocjan caves were very big and impressive – but actually the “wrong” ones: we planned to visit some later but were tricked by the road signs again. Then more long hours of driving, some minor traffic jams at construction sites or before tunnels in Austria. Back home at around 8 pm, a lot of unpacking and cleaning. Then dinner and watching the photos.

In total, we nearly drove 2.000 km – and only spent about 500 Euro each. Was worth every Cent!

Change of plans: skip Porec and Piran (in Slovenia) and instead stay another night in Rovinj. Lazy day with swimming, reading and laying in the sun. “Animation” volleyball at 6 pm – was fun but couldn’t play too much unfortunately. Had dinner at the restaurant at the campsite.

Sooo hot in the tent already at 7:30… But when we got up, it started raining and there was some heavy wind. Glad the tent stayed where it was! Started around lunch to Pula. Due to lot of traffic we stopped in Vodnjan first to visit the mummies in the church. Bit disgusting but fascinating. We found a side road into Pula, visited the amphitheatre there and other Roman sights such as an arch, city walls, church and the citadel. With an icecream we finished our tour there, came back to the campsite (on not such a good way – took a big, big detour…) and played beachvolley – first against some “juniors”, then some locals. Øystein also went snorkelling. We didn’t find a disposable bbq so went to Rovinj for dinner again (pasta, for Øystein with truffels) and then walked up to the amazing cathedral.

Glad this day started so much better! We went for a swim and some beachvolley (but didn’t find anyone to play with…) and then packed up. Quick shopping and lunch stop and then off to the west coast of Istria. Stopped in Pazin to visit the medieval castle with the museum and looked for the famous chasm that has inspired Jules Vernes for his books. But apart from sliding down the hill in Flipflops we did not see the place where the water is supposed to disappear… On we went to Rovinj, a beautiful city with its old town on a peninsula. Our campsite just outside the town is more like a resort, really nice with good toilets and showers. Set up the tent in new record time of 17 minutes, and then went for a swim on the rocky coast. After showering (with tokens) we drove to town, had a nice, big fish dinner at the harbour and quickly went to an internet café. What a nice evening! Finished it with chocolate and a torch in front of the tent – and listened to the awfully loud liveband in the restaurant…

Traffic jam at the ferry, how boring… We thought we were clever and get to the ferry relatively early at 9:30 but too many others were that “clever” too. So we started writing postcards… The slow beginning was the start for a not so nice day in total with lots of driving – and arguing… It took us ages to get to Rijeka, then we didn’t find the fortress there until the third round around town. Then on to Opatija where we camped again – on a not at all nice campsite… We walked along the “Longimare”, a promenade along the coast into Opatija, and went for a swim from the rocks. That was nice – until we argued more. What a day…

As we went to bed “so” late the night before, we managed to sleep till 10 this morning. After breakfast, we went to the crowded beach of San Marino for beachvolleyball. Was fun playing some sets there – and even nicer to cool down in the water afterwards. We came back at 6 pm and then had a nice bbq on the balcony.

We went to a beach up north on the peninsula only accessible by foot. That was some climb for about 20 minutes, oh dear…. Flipflops can’t really replace hiking boots! But finally found the “Sahara” beach (although planned to go to another one…) with some people there but ok full. Had some lazy hours there with reading, beachball, swimming and snorkelling. Went back for lunch and then to Rab town. What a pretty place! We walked along the promenade and the “main” road with lots of churches and even more towers to climb for nice views. We had good pizza and then icecream and a cocktail before we went to a concert in a church. It was a choir singing mainly Latin church songs – brilliant! After that, we strolled along the very busy roads back to the car. What a nice day!

Breakfast and packed up and then heading west. That’s not that easy as the main roads go in north-south direction. So up and down some mountains, often slowly behind busses until we got to the coastal road. After about 2,5 hours we reached Jablanac, the place where the ferry leaves to the island of Rab. We were lucky and could squeeze onto the next ferry as one of the last cars. First impression of the island: very rocky, hardly any vegetation, very dry. We drove all the way (ca. 25 km) from the south to the north of Rab, to a peninsula called Lopar. Planned to camp again but the campsite of San Marino was extremely crowded and ugly. The tourist offices weren’t helpful or open so we looked for a room ourselves. Rab is full with tourists at the moment but we quite easily found a nice apartment overlooking the bay, a big balcony where we saw the beautiful sunsets each night. Had our pasta there and went to the beach – and again early to bed…

Had breakfast outside the tent, very cosy. Then drove to the lakes, ticket included parking, entrance, bus and boat in the park. The lakes are magnificent and beautiful – and most of them postcard-like motives! We took about 50 photos that day, and enjoyed walking along the lakes, even though it was crowded with tourists. BBQ was postponed to some other day, so we relaxed a bit and then had dinner in a nearby grill-place where we had a huge selection of meat. After dinner, we played games – in the tent, Wiebke was freezing outside…

Headed off towards Croatia in the morning after quick food-shopping and petrol on the way. One stop in Novo Mesto, a cute little town where we saw everything worth seeing in an hour – except the church and museum which were closed. Wiebke almost puked from an artificial tasting blueberry shake… At the border, the guys were very interested in all the stamps in Øystein’s passport, funny! Passing Karlovac, nice picknick and then on smaller roads down to the Plitvicer Lakes. We camped in the Korana Autocamp about 6 km away from the park. We found our own “hole” in the big campsite. After following a tip from the information guys, we had a nice dinner at one lake’s entrance. Nice atmosphere, a huge trout from Wiebke, lamb cooked under a bell for Øystein. Night in the tent was exciting due to heavy thunderstorms and rain but luckily only the outside of the tent got wet.

New day, new possibilities for nice weather. With heavy clouds but no rain we visited the castle, Ljubljana grad. Nice castle, very much modernised and renovated for cultural use. Next big thing was a hiking trip in an area called Velika Planina some 25 km north of the city. It was a long, windy road and difficult to find since one road was closed. We spent another half an hour to find the right track towards the great plains even though we got a map from a local restaurant owner. We had some 1.000 m in height and unfortunately it was very steep and despite the map we struggle finding the shortest way up. The disappointment was big when at the top we were told that the “seilbahn” had not been running for a couple of years. Tired we had to start walking down again – 2 hours and that at 6 pm through fog… Back home at 21:30 we were so tired that only shower and fast food made it into our programme, no more music film festival at the castle.

Instead of a fridge, breakfast was actually included, surprise! In heavy rain we left directly for Ljubljana and easily found a room in a youth hostel. From there it’s only walking distance to town where we visited some really nice buildings, courts, churches, the city museum and the national library. We continued along the river and through the old town (still in rain of course!), took pictures of and from the many bridges, and had dinner in a very authentic Slovenian restaurant. For coffee we found a nice café at the river with Russian musicians (sitting under umbrellas and with heating lamps). Now back in the hostel, Øystein managed to break the sink washing his feet…

We left Salzburg at 10 in the morning and drove to Slovenia. First stop is the pretty little town of Bled right at a nice lake. Due to rain, we decided to rent a room, but still decided to hike along the Vintgar-Klamm: a nice two-hour tour along the river with lots of trout in it. Then up to the castle above the lake and – saving the admission fee – climbed up some rocks for an amazing view on the lake! After that, we went to a cheap, but nice pizza place, then had icecream – and went to bed very early…

1pm, 76.339 km on Hugo’s speedo – and on the way to Salzburg. Holidays, yippieh!!!

Arrived in the Mozart city at 14:30 and went straight to Tom and Malena’s place where Øystein for the first time met cute little Markus. He was – after having been crying all day – smiling and laughing when he saw us. Malena und Markus came along for a walk to town before we went alone to the fortress. Up a steep hill to a nice castle with high walls, marionette museum, war museum and the Kaiser room. On the way back, it started raining but we went on to see the “Getreidegasse”, the street with all the nice shop signs, the beautiful gardens of the caste Mirabelle, the dome and Mozart’s house. With the new umbrella, we walked back, had dinner and wine and talked with Tom and Male until midnight.