Mountains, Lakes and Celebrations in Austria and Slovenia

As forecast, temperatures dropped to 6°C overnight on the little Aire we had been stopping on at Altenmarkt im Pongau (N47.37043 E13.42903) in Austria and snow capped mountains appeared as we left and headed south towards Slovenia.

 Love what they do with the roundabouts in these parts - making things out of hay

The weather slowly got worse as we made our way towards and through the Tauern Tunnel – 6.8 kms long, at a height of just over 1,400 metres

We had a few short tunnels and then it was through the Katschbergh Tunnel (5.8kms long).  Even though you have to buy a vignette to travel on the motorways, they still charge for going through the tunnels - a toll fee of €11.80.  We had thought about staying off motorways today, but the weather was so bad it wasn’t worth risking it on the winding, mountainous roads.

Our next stop was Rosegg (N46.59003 E14.02042), right next to a Gasthof Pension who maintain the Aire.  It has all the facilities including Electric and Wi-Fi for €13.90, and is a lovely setting, surrounded by mountains and sunflowers.  The Aire was lovely but unfortunately the town clock chimed every quarter past, half past, quarter to and on the hour throughout the day and night!  Thank goodness for ear plugs!

The Aire at Rosegg

After a bit of lunch we navigated our way towards the sound of oompah music in the town and found ourselves in a beer tent being entertained by music, dance and of course beer!

It was then a quick walk around the deer park, you can pay to go into the park and see an array of wildlife but we gave it a miss.

And then it was out for an evening meal!  We had forgotten that in Austria you are allowed to smoke inside but luckily the restaurant had two rooms – one for smokers and one non-smoking.  No idea why they haven’t followed other EU countries with the no smoking rule.

The restaurant was old fashioned but the meal very tasty.

From here we made a short journey over the Slovenian border, through the Karawanken Tunnel, 7.9 Kms long), cutting through the Alps.  Like Austria, Slovenia charge for going through their tunnel (€7.20), on top of the vignette. Out of the tunnel it was a few kms to Camping Lake Bled (N46.3614 E14.08027). The campsite sits right next to the lake, with stunning views and the temperature had risen to 30°C - bonus!

Think we had the biggest plot on the campsite - plot 45!

The day we arrived on the campsite was our 30th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed a lovely romantic meal at a restaurant overlooking the lake, followed by champagne sat outside the motormhome, perfect.

Happy 30th Wedding Anniversary to us! Wow, how time flies when you’re having fun!

The next day we took a short scooter ride to Vintgar Gorge, a 1,600m long gorge.  The Radovna river cuts through the gorge and narrow walkways and bridges lead you to the 16m high Sum waterfall, the highest one in Slovenia.

People had built cairns across the water throughout the gorge

From the gorge we went around the lake to Bled, and stopped and had a drink overlooking the castle.

And then a few kilometres ride to Radovljica, considered the most beautiful small town in Slovenia, with its preserved houses from the 16th,17th and 18th centuries.

Linhart Square

Mel checking out which mountain he would like to climb.  The highest is Triglav at 2864m.

One of the many pretty houses in Radovljica

We had a lovely couple of days on the campsite at Bled.  Usually we go on campsites out of season and get an ACSI rate (between €13 and €19 a night) .  This one would be €19 in the ACSI period, as it is classed as 5* but as we are in high season it is €34.50 a night – a big difference when you are on a budget but well worth it.

From here we moved on to Ljubljana, to get an oil change on the motorhome, as the light had come on a couple of days ago on.  Even though the oil had been changed in December when it had a full service, so we weren't sure what was going on.  Arriving at the Garage, they were so helpful and spoke excellent English, and after doing a diagnostic check they informed us that we didn’t need an oil change, it just hadn’t been reset from when we had it done last.  So, it only cost us €28 and not a couple of hundred euros, which it would have cost for the service – thank you Slovenia!

We are now on an Aire (N46.03162 E14.60386), 11kms outside Ljubljana that we visited 6/7^th October, last year and nothing has changed and the owner is just as friendly.  The Aire has all the facilities, including electric and Wi-Fi for €12 plus a shower and toilet block but it is free to stay if you eat in the restaurant, so it's a no brainer for us.  A 3-course meal each and 6 glasses of wine less than 30 Euros.

The pot bellied pigs and goats on the Aire

Beer garden at the back of the Aire with lots of grape vines

Area to sit that's full of old empty beer bottles and old doors that the owner has collected.

Right outside the Aire you can take a bus straight in Ljubljana but as it was less than a year ago that we visited we have decided to just go for a long walk today.  It is a lovely relaxed city though and would recommend a visit - info and pictures of Ljubljana last year's blog [link] if you want to take a look.
Tomorrow we head off through Croatia and into Serbia.

Sally x

5 countries, 5 nights – and disaster strikes!

We are in currently in Austria, in the ski resort of Altenmarkt im Pongau (N47.37043 E13.42903).  It's our first paying Aire, €12 a night plus €3 if you want electric.  It has all the facilities, including a toilet block and washing/drying facilities.  Plus a heated ski and boot rack.  Weather in Austria – raining and cold, 14°C with snow forecast on the tops tonight brrrr!  We might be using that heated boot rack!  It's a lovely setting though, surrounded by the mountains, although as you can see from the photo below the rain clouds today are very low. We had planned to stop off in Saltzburg, a place we last visited in 1987 and have fond memories but it was rain, rain and more rain as we approached so we just kept going.

Sonny, nestled below the mountains

It's our 5^th day and 5^th country - France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and now Austria!  So far, we have travelled a distance of 1,106 miles (1769.6 Kms) and averaged a whopping 32 mpg.  It’s surprising how economical Sonny, the motorhome is when we travel long distances, and tootle along between 90/95 kms p/hour.  We have had a couple of disasters though, but I will get to that later!  We are skipping our way through most of Europe and using motorways, something we would not normally do but we have planned to be in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria by 8 September and Greece by 28/29 September to meet up with friends on both occasions.

We left the UK on Tuesday 21 August 2018 and took the Ferry to France.  We had booked on the DFDS ferry Dover to Dunkirk, or so we thought!  We knew this crossing was a bit longer (2 hours) but we would be closer to crossing into Belgium, our chosen route out of France.  It wasn’t until the ferry announcement of ‘Welcome to the Port of Calais’ that we realised we had booked on the wrong ferry!  The trouble with the DFDS website is that when you search ferries Dover to Dunkirk it brings in all the crossings they do on your chosen day (Dunkirk and Calais) and we had just clicked on the time we wanted without noticing it was to Calais and not Dunkirk!!  It didn’t matter too much though, as it's only a driving distance of about 30 kms between the 2 ports. 

As we had been up since 6am, we were feeling tired when we got off the boat, which was now 10am French time - so it was a quick fill up with fuel, some fresh bread bought and a short journey into Belgium.  We found a quiet, free Aire at Bellem, by the side of a canal (N51.09883 E3.49463), a few kms off the A10, between Bruges and Gent. There are no facilities here, it’s just a stopover place for motorhomes.  We parked up alongside 4 other Belgium motorhomes and were later joined by a German one.  This area is very popular with cyclists, but we were content to just sit and watch the boats go up and down the canal.

Aire at Bellem, with the barges going up and down the canal.

The roads around this part of Belgium are very narrow, road markings non-existent and plenty of corn growing in the fields.  We lived in Belgium for 2 years 1986-1988 and remember how bad the roads were having to dodge the potholes, but they have improved a lot, although the bumpy motorways are still a bit like a fairground ride in places!

Day 2, leaving Bellem we did a long motorway drive through Belgium (around Gent and Brussels), into Holland (at Maastricht), across into Germany (at Aachen) on the A4/A3 to another free Aire at Villmar, on the River Lahn, a couple of kms from the A3 not far from Frankfurt (N50.39077 E8.18532). We had travelled a distance of 264.4 miles, averaging 33.3 mpg - good old Sonny!  It was only a short walk from the Aire into the little town, where we enjoyed a meal at a German/Greek restaurant, but we played safe with Pilsner and Jaeger schnitzels, frites and salad.  Well, when in Germany….!

The old gate into the town, Mel looks like he's about to fall over and this is before he has had a drink!

Day 3 was another long stretch (177kms) to Cadolzburg, just outside Nürnburg.

The traffic on the German roads and motorways are so busy – worse than the UK.  Lorries and trucks seem to take up all of lane one of the motorway.  For a lot of the time they aren’t allowed to overtake, so must stay in this lane.  Meaning that cars tend to stay in lane 2 and 3 most of the time as there isn’t a gap to pull in on lane 1 due to the number of lorries. And, in Germany cars can go as fast as they like!

Temperatures were reaching a scorching 33°C when we pulled up to the Aire (N49.46111 E10.85196).  A free Aire with all the facilities, and €1 for water.  We were joined for the night by 6 Spanish motorhomes and 3 Germans.

Up by the castle

The castle was destroyed by fire in 1945 and such was the lengthy task of restoring, relying on a lot of donations, it that is was only finished last year.

Giant Maypole in the centre of town

Old tower, which Mel climbed to the top for the view.  My vertigo got the better of me so gave it a miss!

View from the top of the tower

Day 4 - leaving Cadolzburg we got back on the motorway and headed towards Munich, not really knowing how far we would travel or where we would stop for the night. The only trouble was the stupid Satnav took us through the centre of Munich, which wouldn’t have been a problem for Mel if he had been driving but unfortunately I was in the driving seat.  The traffic was manic as we worked our way through the large city and although, my blood pressure rose a bit I managed to stay calm until we got back on the motorway again, phew! And it wasn't long before the Austrian Alps come into view.

We stopped off on another free Aire at Neubeuern (N47.77573 E12.14298).  There are no facilities here but it is popular stop for motorhomes, before crossing the border.

The little Bavarian town of Neubeuern, with the castle on the hill.

So, disaster strikes! Last night we had a bit of a meltdown, the rain started to come down heavily and Sonny started to take on water – our first major disaster! For those who follow my blog know that we had an accident in our motorhome last September in Croatia in September, causing quite a bit of damage to the awning at the rear.  We are still waiting on parts to come from Adria – that’s another story!  So, it would appear that where the awning is damaged next to our shower room, water is managing to seep in.  Mel did what he could to stop it but we are going to have to try and get some sealant in the hope that it won’t get worse until we get back to the UK in January and have repairs done.

Day 5 - Leaving Germany heading for Austria this morning disaster number 2 struck!  Our oil warning light came on indicating that we needed an oil change.  We last had one in December and Mel had checked all the oil and filled up before we left so we were a bit baffled.  We stopped at the next service station and checked the oil which seemed fine. Mel went in to buy some oil just in case but walked straight back out again when he saw the price was €40 for one litre – wow, Austria you are one expensive country!  Hopefully, we will find somewhere in Slovenia (our next country) to get it done and for a lot less!

Before crossing the border in Austria we bought a vignette - €9 for 10 days, you have to have one of these to travel on the motorways in Austria.  It’s a hefty fine if you use the motorways and don’t have one, so it’s not worth taking the risk.  We also bought one for Slovenia, as the same applies only the cost for that one is €15 for only 7 days.

So, from here we head into Slovenia and to Lake Bled, fingers crossed nothing else goes wrong.  We're staying positive though, as on Monday it will be our 30th wedding anniversary - woo-hoo!

Sally x

Into The Czech Republic - Country #18

We are currently at a place called Kutna Hora, in the Czech Republic.  Our 18th country since leaving the UK last December.

Czech Republic - Country #18 since leaving the UK

We left Vienna 3 days ago and travelled to a place called Eggenburg, near to the Austrian/Czech Republic Border.  It was just a stopover before heading to Telc in the Czech Republic, which was another 60 miles away. We parked up on an Aire at the bottom of the town (N48.64556 E15.81694).  It was €4 a night, plus €1 for water and another €1 to get 8 hours of electricity.  It was all done on honesty (we have learnt that Austria is a very trusting country), you just put your money in an envelope and put it through the letter box of the building next to the Aire.  There was a ‘welcome pack’ as well, all in English and maps and information about the town.

Sonny, the motorhome hidden among the autumn trees

We were surprised how pretty this little town was and had a lovely walk around the 2km town walls.

From Eggenburg, it was a short distance to the Austria/Czech Republic border. As both countries are in the Schengen, there was nothing to let us know we had crossed the border – no remains of old border control buildings, no ‘Czech Republic’ signs, just this crude plaque of Jesus and lots of Flags!

Like the previous 6 countries we had been in, we chose not to buy a vignette.  That meant no driving on the motorways otherwise we would incur a hefty fine.  So, crossing over from Austria where we'd had top-class roads, we were all of a sudden subjected to some horrendously potholed roads pretty much all the way to Telc - our stop for the night.  The town of Telc is lovely, and is known for its Italian Renaissance architecture and colourful houses, and is part of UNESCO World Heritage - yes, another one!

We wild camped the night at at the bottom of the town near a dried up river - (N49.18058 E15.45797).

Leaving Telc we were surprised that the roads were very quiet, given that it was a Saturday. We stopped off to get some food, only to find out that all the shops were closed.  It was the same thing as we drove through all the towns and villages on the way.  A quick check of the internet and we found out that it’s a public holiday – Independent Czechoslovak State Day.  It is the National Day of the Czech Republic and commemorates the date in 1918 when Czechoslovakia was created.  Interestingly, it is not a public holiday in Slovakia. Fortunately, we had stocked up the day before with food and had enough for a few days so we weren’t going to starve – much to Mel’s relief!  

Plenty of pumpkins in this town we went through - must be Halloween soon me thinks!

68 miles later and we were in Kutná Hora and found our parking place for the night (N49.94740 E15.27867).  We headed in to the town, once a wealthy silver-mining town. The sun was out but you can tell from what I am wearing it was cold - I had 3 layers underneath my coat!

St Barbara Cathedral

Some scary looking gargoyles on the Gothic cathedral

Very old medieval frescoes on the wall 

We weren't expecting to find any tourist groups here this time of year, but guess who we found in town - yes a large group of Japanese tourists posing for photos!

Time for a Glühwein stop to warm us up!

Interesting frescoes on the outside of this house

Tomorrow we are off to Prague.  We last visited the place nearly 8 years ago, so we are looking forward to getting reacquainted with the beautiful old city again.

Sally x