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Published: April 21st 2008
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Early start today to make sandwiches etc for our 22hr ferry trip!!! The day started exceptionally well as we started off with croissants and jam - Mmmmmm!!!! We left in glorious sunshine which was the order of the day until nightfall! We sailed in and out of the islands stopping at Korcula, Hvar and Split. This was an a lovely lazy day taking in the scenery and wandering around the ferry! The only time the ferry got a little bit busy was when it stopped at Hvar, then these passengers disembarked at Split leaving literally a whole ferry to a handful of passengers!! We were very pleased we had taken a feast on board, as there was little food to be had, except in the expensive restaraunt!!! We guarded our foodstores well!!! The crossing upto Rijeka was calm and nothing exciting happened.
On arriving at Rijeka we came to a grinding halt outside the port for about 3/4's of an hour, which left us with itchy feet - but what we could do! The harbour and quayside is long and we sailed up the entire length past grey and functional buildings until we saw something a little nicer. The road
out of Rijeka that we wanted took us back along the length of harbour until we finally arrived at the motorway. In only a short distance we were into Slovenia and heading for Lake Bled. Not to far along the road it started to rain and it didn't stop until we got higher up and it turned to snow!!!
We had planned to stop at Bled and walk round the lake, but it was throwing it down with rain so we decided to push on into for an overnight stay. David did take some photos but we didn't hang around!! Our drive took us through the Julian Alps (named after Ceasar himself) and the Italian Dolomites which were all looking absolutley spectacular in the snow. After a very long day driving we stopped at Merano overnight. Believe me we would have never taken this route if we had know it was raining up at Bled, but English perseverance played out!
Finding accommodation in Merano wasn't overly easy on our budget and the first hotel I found was comical. It was billed as a three star and looked like it was a seven story hotel. However, when I got
to the door I realised actually it was a block of flats!!! I persevered and entered the lift (after opening the front door to the lift!) and rode to the seventh floor! When the lift door slid across I tried to open the other 'front door' and found it wouldn't open. Irrespective of how hard I rattled the door it wasn't moving and I could feel a mild panic rising!!! Finally there was a voice and the door was unlocked!!! Yep unlocked!!! And I walked into what was nothing more than someones front room with a dog charging down the landing to greet me. At this point everything was telling me this was not a good idea but I was stuck and went through the whole scenario of feigning interest whilst trying to make a fuss of the dog (which by the way I had now established was blind!). I finally beat a retreat and escaped to the car! We drove round the corner and found a privately run Youth Hostel which was absolutley fantastic (we have stopped in worse hotels!).
Breakfast the next morning was brilliant and more than we could have ever hoped for. Our destination for
this day was Lake Geneva via the Italian Lakes. We headed away from Merano up the valley that leads to the Passo del Stelvio, we would have gone for this pass but it is closed! So instead we took the Ofen Pass. Whilst driving up the valley we happened across a curious thing. The valley has - we think - lots of apples trees growing, and these are just coming into leaf and bud. The trees are being sprayed with water, which in these temperatures is freezing immediately causing the most amazing scenery. Everything is frozen. Our only conclusion is that the ice is holding back the buds from coming into flower and thus protecting them from damage.
Our drive over the Alps took in the most fanstastic scenery. We touched on the very outskirts of Livigno, St Moritz and drove all manner of passes until we arrived at Lake Como. We drove down only part way before heading over to Lake Lugano and then onto Lake Maggiore. We were a little disappointed in Como, to us, it appears very touristy, but Lugano was spectacular. We took the full length of Maggiore on, before heading over the Simplon Pass
and onwards to Martigny and Geneva.
We had decided to stay overnight at Lake Geneva, and started looking for a hotel from Montreux onwards, by the time we got to the otherside of Lausanne we realised all the cheaper hotels were full and the rest were out of our price range! We concluded that a night in the car was required and drove onwards into France. We came to Besancon where we tried a few more hotels to no avail and decided that we would stop the otherside of the town and call it a night (or morning as it was by now). It was at this point I spotted a light on the horizon - a bright shining white ... no sorry .... blue neon light - calling out to us. It was our last shot! Tired oh so very tired I trundled upto the reception and disturbed the young man who answered our prayers and showed us the way to our room! He tried to give us the remote control for the tv and was a little confused when we refused!!! Our heads hit the pillows and that was that!!!
The next day saw us heading
upto Davids relatives David and Barbara who live in Fel. We went through some very lovely french countryside because we avoided as best as we could all the motorways! There are cowslips growing everywhere, and some super vineyards that we drove through all to rather hastily!!! A super evening meal and wonderful company greeted us which was after our last few days of travelling were very much greatly appreciated.
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