Day Fourteen

DAY FOURTEEN

The intrepid campers and their guest were up before dawn (6am – sunrise is approx 7:30am) to get ready for the busy day ahead. John-Mark had the 8am ferry to catch for Venice where his train was waiting to take him back to Switzerland, and we had a four hour drive to Bled in Slovenia ahead of us. We had really enjoyed our stay near Venice, the old island city is a captivating place with its endless alley ways, canals and piazzas.
Having John-Mark’s company was also a welcome and refreshing change for us.

By 8am Kurt and I had refilled the water tank, locked the vehicle down for the road and were about to set out when much to our dismay we discovered that the car charger for the GPS had given up the ghost, assumably due to damage received when Loraine (the GPS) went flying out the door the other day. Given that the laptop doesn’t draw power from the battery we couldn’t charge the GPS in transit meaning its usability would be limited to half an hour at most. Not a great prospect when about to venture into Eastern Europe for the next two weeks. Fortunately the charger broke when it did as the chap on duty at the caravan park gave us directions to an electric store 5 minutes away, where in due course we managed to find a replacement charger. Kurt decided to buy two just in case which has turned out to be a wise call given that the second charger decided to start falling apart this afternoon which we find quite mystifying.

At any rate by 9:30am we were on the road for Slovenia. Both Kurt and I were looking forward to seeing the ex communist state, neither of us sure of what to expect. Kurt’s previous experience in the Eastern block involves trips to Budapest in Hungary for work and mine a trip to Russia with my family some years ago. My trip in particular left memories of soviet era buildings, wooden peasant houses, eighties cars and AK47 wielding guards in my head.

Our first surprise was finding ourselves face to face with the Julian Alps which separate Italy and Slovenia in the North East. Both Kurt and I had expected to have a flat passage into Slovenia, but it was nothing of the kind. Once through Italy’s bland agricultural areas, tunnel after tunnel took us through towering, snow capped peaks towards the borders of Austria and Slovenia. The second surprise was arriving at the now abandoned border post. Desolate buildings stand as a silent reminder to the fall of communism and the iron curtain. Where the AK47 wielding guards once stopped Westerners to scrutinize their papers and vehicles, I snapped a few pictures and took a moment to reflect before we headed on into the rapidly modernizing EU state.

A modern Austrian style ski resort welcomed us as we drove on from the border, clearly the result of recent investment into the country since the borders opened. Twenty minutes on we found our modern campsite bordering a nature reserve with the Alps as a backdrop. We pushed on to Bled, recommended to us – by Kurt’s friend Warwick - for its beautiful lake and imposing castle perched on a rocky outcrop dominating the town below. It’s really is an impressive scene, and I can imagine in summer it must be a real tourist mecca. We drove around the town and along the lake shore before heading back to the camp with a stop at a Chinese restaurant for a welcome and tasty lunch (and cheap compared to Italy).

A few things struck us during our short time in the country so far; joining the EU has been an immense boost to the countries economy. Apart from the occasional soviet era tower, the houses are modern, the cars are new and there is construction going on all over the place. The people are incredibly friendly and go out of their way to be helpful. You really get the feeling that the country is a modern first world place – there’s no doubt that the government is striving to catch up with its western neighbors.

Editors Note – we are back in the snow and our balmy sub tropical break in 5 degrees weather is now a thing of the past and it is a cool – 7 degrees.