Italy 124 - Gorizia/Nova Gorica/ a city divided into two/my god we need a vignette/two nights on a farm /pregnancy human and animal

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Suzy the motorhome who has served us so well over the last five and a half years finds herself parked on a massive car park with motorhome spaces in the city of Gorizia. A free car park at that . Free for 72 hours. You can if you wish stay that long without being moved on. How many British car parks would allow that. Hardly any. Motorhomes are welcomed here with open arms. Our topic of conversation had moved on from our holiday to heading home, to cleaning Suzy out and taking her for her valuation. Glenn had been looking at what is available and a couple of dealers are selling 2016 stock at a much reduced price. Registered new they would be a good investment . But and there is a big but. We would need five days at least to get home and they might be sold before we even got to the Channel. We seem to keep talking about changing Suzy and just feel trapped a little as we cannot expect a dealer to wait for us to get home to buy his stock.

We set off for the castle using a map that Glenn had printed before we left home.We double checked the route using his phone app. The streets looked a little dingy and there were a large number of young men sitting around playing cards. An odd sort of place. As we walked we commented on the shops which were devoid of any of the luxuries we had seen in other cities. This was more workaday. When Glenn first came here over 40 years ago it was a divided city. Gorizia in the capitalist Italy and Nova Gorica in the communist Yugoslavia. The Italians nipped over the border to buy cheap petrol. I wonder who envied who. Did the communists envy the Italians freedom? Were there queues for food in the communist part of the city? What did they feel about each other? We remember the Berlin Wall. Here in Italy there was a Berlin wall between one part of Gorizia and the other. Even now there feels a divide. However dull Gorizia looks its neighbour Nova Gorica looks even poorer.

As we walked we talked about the size of a Globecar. It wont be much shorter than Suzy. It will be lower and a touch narrower. It should be cheaper to run. We could use it as a main car. Up the city we walked - the place was like Asolo empty. It is Saturday it should be bustling with shoppers but it is not. We reach the hill up to the castle. Now this is going to be a walk up a cobbled road. Hard on our feet. Still we see no-one about. There are no trendy bars or cafes lining the streets. There are churches. Many with onion domes. Looking less Italian and more Austrian. No fancy window displays made up of ham, cheeses and fancy breads. Gorizia castle though is described as one of the fascinating and beautiful cities in Fruili-Venezia - Guilia. When you see it you can hardly disagree. It takes on the appearance of a mighty fortress rather than a pretty castle. Functional rather than homely. It defended a huge territory and was the property of the Counts of Gorizia and Tyrol. The castle today is a bit of a pretender. It was reconstructed precisely after the destruction of World War I. This area was devasted by bombing during that campaign and much of the city was reduced to rubble. Hence its utilitarian look.

Let me take you of a tour of the castle. Even if it is reconstructed they made a good job of it and it is an interesting castle to walk around. Let's pay our entrance fee in the small ticket office hidden in a corner just past the gatehouse and where the portcullis might have been. Good news- we don't have to wait until the first Sunday of the month to get reduced entry fee. As pensioners we get in for 1 euro 50 each. Heard the euro has taken a beating against the pound today? Also that Angela Merkel got in again as leader of Germany with a much reduced majority. Weakened like Theresa May after last summers snap election. Ok so we have paid - lets get a move on. There are rather a lot of rooms to work our way though.

The ground floor is the first place we enter - the dining room with its tables and chairs set out just as the lord of the manor would want them. Probably reproductions but they looked authentic enough and there were a smattering of old furniture that had found its way back into the castle. The kitchen is just through this door and set out as if the cook and the servants had just popped out for a cool off in the courtyard just beyond it. We are deep in the heart of the medieval castle and it was from here that the cooks cooked the food in the copper pans on the wall and set the food out on the pewter plates.

Leaving the kitchen - watch the steps - we walk outside again into the Lancers Courtyard. A small intimate space now set over for concerts and plays. Rooms radiate off in all directions. The Counts hall to one side, the Renaissance Hall to the other. A Hall set out as a courthouse with two chairs set upon a dias where the lord would sit and make his judgements. Further on a Knights Hall and a music hall. Can you hear the music? The sound of a lute pierces through the air. Inside the Music hall are display cases full of lyres, drums and other ancient instruments. Through the loggia we walk where the walls are covered with stone coats of arms that seem to look down on us.

Its time to go upstairs to the second floor . We can look out of the windows from the Kings Observatory over the town below. Can you see that onion domed church down there? Well Glenn remembers this room with its windows open. He leaned out to take the very same photograph we take today through safety glass. How times have changed.

It's time to leave the top floor and climb the stairs down to the bottom of the castle . Our visit is over. We have to walk all the way back down the hill to Suzy but first we need to find a garage to buy a vignette for Slovenia. We forgot to get one before we left home so go into the first garage we see along the way. No he does not sell them. The tabacchi down the road does though. We get there. He is closed until 3.30. We don't mind waiting as it is only ten minutes away. 3.30 comes and goes. A guy joins us waiting for the tabacchi to open. 3.40 and a lady joins the queue but no sign of the tabacchi owner. We give up . We will cross the border and get one in Nova Gorica. We wont be going on a motorway tonight.

The border is just minutes away and the first garage is on the first street. The signs are both in Slovenian and Italian with a smattering of German thrown in for good measure. We buy the vignette and head for Camping Lijac - a two star ACSI site just out of town. Described as rustic it leaves a little to the imagination. At 2* you dont expect much. When the words rustic are used you expect less. What we find is a modern reception locked up but with a note on the door where Alexandr and Martina invite us to find the best pitch and come back at 7 to register. The site is an old farm and is on a field wrapped around the farm. With hills behind us it is a pleasant site , it seems basic and the grass is churned up and muddy. We do find the best spot we can and when we register we are given the key for the electricity box. The toilets are clean, tidy and serviceable. The mens sign shows a naked man with his todger out. The womans sign is of completely naked woman bare breasted and baring all for the world to see. For those of less than strong constitution look away.There is a kitchen, a fridge, a washing machine and drier. I will use those tomorrow as we are staying here whatever comes. Glenn needs a break from driving and our next stop will be Hungary. We eat in the restaurant at night and chose a bottle of their house wine with one portion of gnocci with fungi and one portion of noodles with fungi. Pregnancy seems in the air. The cat looks heavily pregnant and Martina is ready to drop. When I asked when the baby was due she told me last Sunday and I am in labour now as I serve you. I wonder what she eventually had - a healthy baby hopefully.

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