Bad news, good news

First, thanks for everyone who's commented on the website, I only just realized how I could read your contributions - its nice to hear from you all!
After Trogir we headed north up the coast of Croatia and stopped on an island called Vir, planning to stop just for a night. But then Bad news - a scratch on Grace's leg got infected, so we went to the pharmacy, who called the doctor and told us to see her, who gave us a prescription after hanging about for two hours, so back to the pharmacy, and then we had to stay another night to visit the doctor again. Lot of hanging about in a, to be blunt, craphole... it's like the wild west, full of Hungarians building horrible holiday homes so it all looks like a building site, including the 'beaches' (slabs of concrete and piles of rubble leading into the sea). There's no water, everyone gets it delivered by truck or pumps it out of the ground so the trees are dying. DON'T GO THERE. Nin on the mainland about 10km away is much much nicer. Ah well we all make mistakes. Good news - Grace's infection cleared up, once she accepted that taking medicine herself was better than being pinned down under a towel and being dosed like a struggling cat.
Then up to Istrian coast in Croatia, to Rovinj/Rovigno - everywhere has an Italian name here. Very pleasant indeed, lots of tiny islands just offshore if you had a boat with a motor (as lots did). Got up to 34 degrees in the shade at 10am... We did a boat trip, lounged by the pool, snorkelled, found isolated beaches, skinnydipped (the biggest nudist resort in Europe was about 5km away, so I felt obliged).
Then last Wednesday it RAINED all day as we crossed the border to Slovenia, up the motorway to Bled in the Julian Alps - ridiculously attractive, perfect for outdoor types, hiking, biking, rafting, canyonning, boating, swimming... and very cheap with good beer. Their currency is a bit dodgy, the tolar is worth 0.25p I think and there's a 50 tolar banknote - 13p. Very attractive, though. So it feels like proper abroad foreign - weird language, funny money - but everyone speaks good English (how's YOUR Slovenian?) and the brands in the shop are at least half recognizable.
Bad news - van spouted a water leak. Good news - RAC found a garage 1km away who fixed it for the equivalent of 80 quid, in a day so we didn't have to find a hotel for the night. Bad news - we went for a hike and got lost, up a mountain in a dense wood, when it started raining and we'd left all our washing out. Good news - we headed downhill and found our Dutch neighbours had taken it all in for us. LOTS of Dutch here, they like places with mountains (haven't got any, I suppose). Rained for 36 hours, so we're off to Austria tomorrow through the 5km long Karawanken Tunnel, bound to freak Amanda out. More pics when I find a computer built after 1990 (with a USB port).

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