Slovenia
Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia
07 / Apr / 2010
The night in Ljubljana was cold and that was what kept us sleeping as long as the sun was not really up. It was cold! The train luckily did not keep us awake all night. A very quick shower and of course a coffee is becoming the ritual of the morning. Initially we wanted to do some sightseeing in Ljubljana but since we slept longer to warm up we decided to hit the road again on to a small hotel just after Zagreb, Croatia. The road to Zagreb is beautiful. You pass through many little villages/towns that all have a simple church with a high tower and a cross on top. The villages on the mountain sides look like to ones you buy when building your train sets at home. The country is beautifully green, with lots of forests with tall trees. It looks like the country is above 200m, agriculture although we did not see many cattle. Excellent road conditions.
At the border with Croatia customs wanted to see the inside of the car and when we told them that we were going to South Africa we could close the doors and keep on driving. Early afternoon we reached Zagreb and we spend about 30 minutes in the park close to central train station. Since we were so early in Zagreb we decided to keep driving in the direction of Belgrade, Serbia and to find a hotel there. After driving around Belgrade for 1 1/2 hours, Tom Tom and the Garmin GPS not knowing where we were, we followed a truck out of town and found a hotel on the edge of Belgrade. We had saved the money for the hotel just outside of Zagreb and could live with the higher price of this hotel - we shortened our stay in Europe by driving more kilometers this day. We were now already in Serbia.
At the border with Croatia customs wanted to see the inside of the car and when we told them that we were going to South Africa we could close the doors and keep on driving. Early afternoon we reached Zagreb and we spend about 30 minutes in the park close to central train station. Since we were so early in Zagreb we decided to keep driving in the direction of Belgrade, Serbia and to find a hotel there. After driving around Belgrade for 1 1/2 hours, Tom Tom and the Garmin GPS not knowing where we were, we followed a truck out of town and found a hotel on the edge of Belgrade. We had saved the money for the hotel just outside of Zagreb and could live with the higher price of this hotel - we shortened our stay in Europe by driving more kilometers this day. We were now already in Serbia.
Italy to Slovenia
06 / Apr / 2010
Because we were afraid of running into the French police again that weighs the car (around Nice) we took the scenic route on the French Riviera. Lovely road but it made the drive 2 hours longer. 600km of road to cover yesterday turned into an 12 hour drive (all breaks included of course). The camping was lovely, on the lake Iseo in Italy (north of Milan). With snow on the mountains the morning was cold. A hot shower and a strong coffee and we were on our way to Slovenia where we sleep tonight on a camping in Ljubljana. The train passing by every 30 minutes or so promises to keep us awake all night.