5/2013

Seems ages since our last post but only 2 weeks. But we have done plenty and covered a lot of ground.

After dropping off Katie we had a couple more days in Bled to reorganise the van then headed off, the plan being to head east. Went via Ljubjana to buy a new camera at Harvey Norman, of all places. Felt right at home. Kiwis will know that Harvey Norman is a big Australian electronic, furniture place with several outlets in NZ. Got our camera, a lot fancier than the last one, and a bit more complicated to operate, but we are slowly getting the hang of it. Also a  new hard drive to back up all our very important stuff on the computer and we were off.

The big trip east ground to a halt as we settled into a delightful little campsite at Kamnik, about 20kms north of Ljubjana.It is a sort of cross between a campsite and a local sports centre. Lots of locals playing tennis, skittles, having parties. Great. Spent a couple of days exploring the town, climbing the hill to the big castle, which we somehow missed and climbed twice the height and distance. Great view at the top though, nice spot for a picnic!! Had a day’s outing at Velika Plannina, an alpine plateau reached by a somewhat rickety old telepherique. Continued hiking on up the mountain and across the alpine meadows. Lots of delightful local style huts and shepherds’ cottages (unfortunately a bit early in the season for the shepherds and their cows) and some great refuges with cold beer (it was one of our rare, hot days). A visit to the local arboretum and some great displays of tulips.

Met up with a French couple in Kamnik who told us we really should see more of western Slovenia, so we headed west instead. We are so glad we did, visited Lake Bohinj, near Bled but less developed, more for the outdoorsy types. Did a long bike ride on a well developed cycleway. Crossed the precipitous Visic Pass (50 hairpin bends, on cobbles – no Joanna didn’t count them, they were numbered, all 50 of them), into the beautiful Soca Valley and the turquoise water of the river, even the driving rain and sub-Arctic temperatures couldn’t spoil it. Put a stop to any hiking though and we decided to head for the little bit of Slovenian coastline (about 40km long) that sticks out into the Adriatic just past Trieste. A couple of days at Piran, a lovely little town, Venetian style architecture,  spent hours wandering the narrow alleyways of the old town, great seafood meal, long walk in surrounding towns and countryside and then amazingly an afternoon in our swimming togs, by the beach. Didn’t brave the water, though plenty of others did. Found ourselves parked next to a Stan copy in the campsite. Never saw the owners though.

Finally we started heading north  east, back to Kamnik which we had left a week earlier!!

Have noticed in our time in Slovenia and since then, the enthusiastic use of bright colours by the local people especially in house colours and the women’s hair. Joanna wishes she had their courage. Vivid orange, crimson, purple coiffures, and sometimes even a variety on the same head. The houses are a bit the same although a much greater range of the spectrum to be seen. Talking about heads, David has noticed the lack of bald heads in this part of the world. A tiny twinge of jealousy detected!!

We crossed the rest of Slovenia in one hit, via Putj, nothing in Slovenia is very far! Cycled round the lake and sampled its thermal pools. Slovenian drivers are very polite to pedestrians (its hard to adapt to the various customs with regard to pedestrian crossings, both as a driver and pedestrian). Mind you once on the road overtaking, it’s Italian rules – the number of near accidents we have witnessed!!!

Just clipped the NE corner of Hungary,  stopped at Sopron (not easy, as we drove round and round to find two closed camp grounds) but found a good one in the end. Interesting town with buildings lining the street each with an archway through to a large interior space, similar to those in Romania. Also the impressive Esterhazy Palace, flourishing in the days of Marie Therese and her Austia-Hungarian empire.  One pleasure for us (especially Joanna) were the sight of storks’ nests on the top of electricity poles some with young being fed, for David it was the sound of the cuckoo.

Thence Slovakia, passing Bratislava (been there, done that).  Heading North we found ourselves suddenly in the hills, (again, what is it about us and mountains?) very green, very wet and visited a preserved village, Vikolinec,  interesting and the souvenir is some honey mixed with ginger - delightful, plus trying and eventually buying a bottle of honey wine (a desert wine to add to our impressive collection of spirits, liqueurs such as the local Slivovicz, and more !!!). What’s more, Joanna has rediscovered the grapefruit radler of several years back. Yum. Very refreshing.  However have to be careful as alcohol driving limits are very low ( 0% in Hungary, 0.2% here in Slovakia)

 

 

 

And now a Slovakian favourite from three years ago – the High Tatra mountains.  This time however they cold and  covered in cloud with liberal quantities of rain. So instead of crossing to Poland straight away, we have settled down, parked in a (Stellplatz) behind a hotel in Tatransky Lomnica, with camper van facilities (electricity, water and toilet dump, coffee for 1.2 Euro and cheap meals). We really wanted to stay in the next town, Stary Smokovic, because we love the name, but it is much nicer where we are.  The big find was a thermal pool complex with natural water, basic but very well organised, at Vrbor. Real thermal pools like NZ, with lots of minerals and a bit smelly. We love it.  Have been every day for 3 days.  Besides the hot pools we have made a visit to the large and impressively sited, but ruined, Spis castle . It is incredible to read the history of this part of the world; attacks by Tatars, Mongols, Turks, and of course more recently Germans and Russians.

David notes that the bread is getting more and more dense but lasting longer. Joanna has delighted in finding the Lidl supermarkets throughout this part of the world as they are cheap, smaller size and predictable with a centre isle of things David might like had it not been necessary to fly them to NZ. We have also seen the Tesco supermarkets in Slovakia but no visit so far. The language thing is becoming a bit of an issue and we get a few surprises when we unpack the shopping. Never mind, we are always really to sample something new.

Time to head off for our last hot soak before we head off to Zakopane in Poland tomorrow.