The last time we came to “Slovenia” it was part of Yugoslavia and the “Eastern Bloc” ( remember that terminology ? Seems so passé these days. ). Apart from a little Cold War memorial we saw on the way in ( mentioned in the last blog ) there is almost no hint of those days any longer. Indeed, Slovenia ( and Croatia ) look so much like nearby Italy that you’d never know they were once ( however loosely ) under the Soviet embrace. Both now use the Euro, are in the EU and belong to the Schengen border program – as a result, travel within and between them is a breeze.

There were really just a couple of attractions that appealed to us in Slovenia – Lake Bled and then the  massive underground caves of Postojna ( Europe’s largest ). Slovenia is small and getting across it from Austria to Croatia required only a couple of days and included both of these great sights. Lake Bled is postcard-like and the Postojna caves are as close as we’ve been to a “Journey to the centre of the earth” experience !

Even if you don’t recognizing the name, I’m sure most readers will have seen pictures of Lake Bled. It’s a stunningly beautiful little lake near the town of Bled with a small island at one end on which a beautiful cathedral sits. Overlooking the lake and cathedral is a very impressive castle. It’s a beautiful two hour walk/hike around the lake and at various points excellent photo opportunities emerge for both the cathedral on the island and the castle up above. It was a magnificent day so we had plenty of company, but it’s the kind of place you don’t really notice the crowds. Why we missed this place before I don’t know, but glad we made time to check it out on this occasion.

The other “biggie” in Slovenia is the huge Postojna cave network. In contrast to Lake Bled, the weather forecast for our Postojna visit was not good, but, given that it’s a cave and of course completely underground, it didn’t really matter at all. A German fellow that was camped with us the night before insisted we should check it out – this turned out to be excellent advice. Again, huge crowds, but well handled by the Slovenians who have been guiding tourists around this place for almost 150 years.

There was one other place the aforementioned German traveller told us about – the beautiful Venetian-era coastal town of Piran so we made sure to travel to that little bit of the Adriatic coast that belongs to Slovenia to check it out. The images looked stunning and he’d gotten us both quite excited to visit – sadly, like in Italy’s Dolomites, parking was literally impossible ( signs everywhere prohibiting campers/trucks and buses ). We would  have happily walked in from the outskirts, however the parking out there also prohibited campers, giving us no other real options. This was a very new experience for us – we had faced no such restrictions anywhere else in Europe, though we had been warned that both Slovenia and Croatia ( seemingly alone among the 30 Schengen states ) make it literally impossible to get campervans anywhere near their “crown jewel” attractions. It did not take long to experience it, and not, I must add, a very welcoming experience ( one which stood in stark contrast to our experiences everywhere else on the continent ). Noses firmly out of joint, we moved on, crossing next into Croatia. 

While our time here was absolutely fantastic in terms of weather, scenery, nature, historic attractions and STUNNING coastline, the whole “anti-campervan” vibe in Croatia was simply next level.   Won’t bore regular readers with the minutiae since it would be irrelevant to to the average tourist however for those travelling with their own wheels it’s something one absolutely needs to consider ( I’ve added a  little addendum to next week’s blog to further illustrate what we experienced – you’ve been warned ! ).

First planned stop here was historic Pula on the  ( formerly Italian controlled ) Istrian peninsula – a beautiful day made for some excellent sightseeing the highlight being their Roman-era arena ( like, 1st century ! ) – truly, you’d swear you were in Rome at the Coliseum ( not quite as big but much more of this one is preserved ). The whole town is beautiful, so much of it dating  back to Roman times  ( the Italians really did have a huge influence on this side of the Adriatic and their influence lingers to this day – every sign, and menu is in both Croatian and Italian).

From Pula the route was to travel south along the coast checking out towns and islands of note – one is truly spoilt for choice, there being so many options. Circling around Rijeka, the island of Krk is first up. Conveniently connected to the mainland by bridge, we decided it was worth a look and spent a day sightseeing there. The old town Krk was definitely of interest, although the rest of the island didn’t stand out to us in any way. 

Further down the coast, though, lay one of Croatia’s crown jewels – Plitvice Lakes National Park, and it lived up to its hype in every way – just an amazingly impressive area of lakes and waterfalls, made unique by the way in which the lakes are tiered and flow into one another.  A picture perfect day just made an already great natural sight even more impressive. The fact that we managed to get a 12km hike done in the process of seeing it all – bonus !

From the higher ( and definitely cooler ) elevations inland at Plitvice, our route meandered down to the coast and the historic port city of Zadar. Somewhat like Pula in terms of its historic old town which was vibrant on a very sunny Sunday ( a cruise ship in port ensured the crowds were big ). No problems accessing the town and finding parking ( thankfully ) and enjoyed our time exploring there. As we were sitting on the waterfront promenade there was an unexpected bonus – the Croatian Air Force put on a very impressive aerobatic display ( see attached video ) a delightful way to close out our time in Zadar !

In the coming week we’ll continue down the Adriatic ( or “Dalmatian” ) coast- lots to see and the weather forecast looks awesome 😎 !

Till next week…

PS: Last week I was lamenting the volume of traffic on the Paso de Stelvio and thinking we were perhaps a few weeks too early. It would appear not ! Check this out:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPAEe80jBSt/?igsh=a2htN2M2cHMzaWdw

In Case You Wondered

Q: How do you insure your van for international travel ?

A: For Canadian registered vehicles, provincial insurance only covers Canada and the US. Beyond that you need to get coverage in the countries or regions you are travelling in. In all our travels, only in Mexico, Japan and Australia were we able to get comprehensive insurance – everywhere else we have been limited to third party coverage, typically sold as “border insurance” when you enter a country. It’s mostly fairly cheap but covers only the minimum that is legally required ( which is often quite low ! ). In Europe, one buys “Green Card” insurance by the month, the first month being more expensive but subsequent months being €108/m. We have used Tourinsure ( from Germany ) and found them very efficient. It’s liability only but has more reasonable limits and covers all countries in the EU ( and thus is quite convenient ). One can get comprehensive cover in Europe but it is VERY expensive. Best insurance is to drive very carefully and hope that any accident is deemed the fault of someone else ( assuming THEY are insured ! ).