Best, today, to keep the write-up short and enjoy a whiskey – tea – port – whiskey. .. repeat.
Intended to stop over in Slovenia at the huge national park at Kranjska Gora, enjoy the park & lakes, and continue our new-found interest in caves.
Not to be. Snow simply got heavier, with the Wurzen Pass, our intended route, closed (no warning until arriving at the pass). Nice guy at the garage pointed out that when they have 5cm of snow the pass has 10 x more. So, 40km detour to bring us around on the other side … snow getting heavier, road getting narrower, 9km of climb still to go, van starting to slide as the snow compacted and began to freeze, and with the forecast predicting -9° overnight, we bailed, almost getting stuck, and headed down to Trieste.
Currently staying in the most expensive camping park we’ve yet had. €18 overnight, €4 electricity, €12 for toilets … and it’s just a carpark. Welcome to Italy.
Sigh – some days are just like that 🙂
The slide show below is from Niki’s view of the day – enjoy.
48 hours of non-stop rain and sleet finally came to an end as we began packing up to move on from our unexpectedly amazing campstop at Allweglehen. Interesting to note that high season prices are €43 per night, or €15 per night for campervans parked at their bottom parking area. €12 off season was just fantastic and goes some way to explaining why we stayed 2 nights.
Firstly, in the interests of fairness and not aiming to offend any particular nationality I’ve tried to be even-handed. So it is with no particular malice that I note that Austria is the place to which Germans without a sense of humour are exiled. Of course that excludes the Schwartz’s!! It’s been a long time since the person behind the till greets you and your order with ‘Ja?` Nevertheless, a great morning spent at Austria’s premier tourist venue, the Festung Hohensalzburg. And quite spectacular it was too, in good tourist-type condition, audio-tour provided with the entrance ticket, and lots of non-smiling guides preventing you from wandering off their beaten track.
The morning started with Niki, having set her Google Maps setting to ‘Athletic’, completely missed the great funicular trip from the Dom (Cathedral) to the top of the fortress. Instead we huffed and puffed up a winding path. All that was missing were the kids doing an ‘are we there yet’ kind of whine. Layers were removed until the daypack was filled to overflowing and finally we arrived to a gorgeous view over the old town. Quick point: the last section of the path must be a 30% incline.
A walk through the small, but well-preserved old town led us to a bar and lunch, before heading back to the van. Some shops just proved to be really interesting: This shop sold dirndl and lederhosen. I was reminded on Niki’s dad telling me a story from his school days in Port Elizabeth, when he was caned, but wearing his lederhosen, was the envy of all boys undergoing similar punishment (seriously, let’s name it for what it was, abusive torture).
Around the corner, a bespoke knife maker. Now I don’t really like jewellery, but watches and knives are what I find beautiful – and this was simply stunning. I was quite speechless, and had a little quiver when picking up one of the mid-range knives (€6000). Top of the range knives were €18000 each. You can, of course, get a complete kitchen set …
On the road again and 5 minutes later we turn into a 5 star campsite overlooking stunning valleys and snow covered peaks. In fact, the campsite itself is pretty snow covered. For €12 we now have: Electricity, fresh water, heated outside pool looking off into the Alps, a stone t
So, settling in for the evening, Nachos on the menu together with more wine – eventually have to die from something – and then settling in to watch one of the many downloaded series we haven’t gotten round to watching. Oh, and hoping the Austrians don’t arrive at shopping malls too early in the morning. However, at €2.50 for 24 hours we will not be complaining!
Contented-Campers.com 