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Published: June 30th 2014
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June was busy, June was crowded, June was Croatia – European destination of choice in 2014 for every grey haired caravanner, motorhomer and motorbiker! Or so it seemed to us having just spent the past several weeks in mostly splendid isolation. It was also busy with buses packed with either noisy children or doddery tour groups. If you haven’t worked it out by now we were less than impressed with our time in Croatia. However, now I’ve had my spit I can happily say that the people were very friendly and the campsite facilities were some of the best anywhere. Every one of them had loo paper, soap and sometimes paper towels, and they were cleaned often twice a day.
We spent a week pottering down the coast dropping in to see the Bysantine mosaics in Porec, the cobbled streets of Rovinj, the views of the Adriatic from the coastal road and the gorge of the Paklenica national park which crawls with climbers. The sheer walls of the gorge attract huge numbers of climbers of all ages, sizes and capabilities which makes for interesting watching as you stroll along. We did a bit of bird watching at Lake Vresne managing
to bag a Purple Heron and some Pygmy Cormorants.
The weather turned rather hot in early June with very little breeze along the Adriatic coast which made sleeping fairly uncomfortable with some nights staying up in the mid twenties. The furthest south we went was Dubrovnik which is worth seeing but you need to get in early to beat the cruise crowds. You also need to be alert for pick pockets when walking the town walls – I caught a girl in the act of unzipping my bag, and she was so brazen about it too, I nearly smacked her one! We did enjoy the water taxi ride from our campsite to Dubrovnik as it is a great way to approach the old city via the ancient port entrance. Heading north again we bypassed Split and stopped at Trogir, a lovely little medieval town and the only place we had a swim in the Adriatic as even though the weather was hot the sea was still pretty cold.
One highlight of Croatia was definitely the Plitvice Lakes which are a series of lakes joined by a profusion of cascades surrounded by walking trails. We spent a fabulous day
exploring them but as with all things here you best start early to enjoy some of it in peace and quiet!
A second highlight of Croatia was Zagreb, the capital. This town is all wide boulevards, elegant baroque buildings, green parklands, street cafes and a relaxed feel. It also has some good museums and a regular antique market with some genuinely interesting items to be found. We also enjoyed lunch in a local eatery where I have to say my cuttlefish risotto was delicious and Brian’s stuffed squid was pretty darn good too.
Our last couple of days in Croatia were spent wandering the old Baroque town of Varazdin and exploring the forested hills near the Slovenian border. After which we crossed the border into Slovenia, although that proved difficult at first as the old border crossing was closed off forcing you up onto what appeared to be the motorway (and the requirement to buy a pass to use it!)
We had a pleasant week in Slovenia spending three nights at Camping Terme Ptuj with access to the thermal baths and swimming pool. The friendly young lady in reception could speak 6 languages fluently and she said
her only formal learning was doing English at school. Our next stop was Maribor where we stayed four nights. The very lovely Camping Kecek located near the bottom of the mountain cable car was exceptional. We spent time in Maribor where we had a personal tour of the delightful castle museum with the curator, Urosj, he took us into sections the public would not normally get to see and provided short stories to accompany our viewing. The storage area in the old cinema was particularly interesting as it held many rare and unique items of furniture as well as a complete carpenters workshop with the largest collection of tools we have ever seen. We left nearly 2 hours later feeling like we’d got good value for our 2 Euro entry fee. After, we wandered down to the riverside where the Lent Festival was getting underway which is a 16 day multicultural festival and we were able to sample food by local chefs and wines from around the region.
Next day we took the cable car up the mountain and did a long hike to find 21 geocaches, our biggest haul ever. Brian took the cable car back down but
I elected to walk down which left me leg sore for the next two days! We had a pleasant surprise when Tim & Karen turned up at Camping Kecek on our last day there, we previously met them in Croatia at our campsite near Zagreb. They are travelling in an Elddis motorhome with their doggy friend, Benson, an elderly British Bull Terrier who draws attention for his unusual looks and friendly nature.
Next day we said goodbye to Slovenia and hello to Austria. First stop was Graz, Austria’s second largest city (only 290,000 people so not really all that big). It was a lovely town to stroll around, mostly car free but you had to watch out for the quiet trams snaking around all the pedestrian streets. A bit further north we discovered the delightful Barenschutzklamm where you climb up through the gorge along a series of wooden walkways and ladders. It was quite a climb and the beer at the farmhouse at the top was most welcome. We were also lucky the rain stayed away until we were under shelter for lunch, it also cleared again just as we were setting off to hike back down. We had
our first wild camp for weeks at the bottom of the gorge parked alongside a pretty river complete with Dippers fossicking in the water for food.
The last few days of June we spent pootling through some lesser known mountain regions, finding interesting hikes to scenic places, wild camping in quiet ski areas and strolling around picture postcard villages with their profusion of colourful window boxes and neatly arranged vegetable patches.
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