Tag Archives: road trip

Back in Czech

September 12, 2016Austria, Czech Republicairbnb, czech republic, road trip, schonnbrunn palace, sightseeing, travel, viennaJudy

Quiet day on Saturday. When we were at the Gasometer Buildings, Greg bought a piece of apfelkuchen apple cake from a supermarket and has been searching for it since. He tried a couple of places on Saturday morning without success. In the afternoon we walked to, and around, Schonnbrunn Palace. It’s across the road from the apartment we stayed at … sort of. There’s actually a street, tramline, river, metro line and a couple of fences between the apartment and the palace grounds, but we could see it from the apartment, and the huge grounds were a lovely buffer in a city of over 1.5million people. The Viennese equivalent of Central Park.

We walked to the gate closest to the apartment, which had a Lindt chocolate shop conveniently located at the entrance. Bought a couple of blocks from the huge selection – whole product lines that we had never seen before. Then walked through the park to the palace. All 1400+ rooms of it. Part of it is open as a childrens’ museum, a gallery and it is possible to do tours of palace and concerts are held there. Outside, it’s a fantastic public space, free to wander around the huge grounds, which also has a zoo, a swimming pool, a maze and other things that you can pay to see. The cafe in the palace does a Strudel making class which I was going to do until I realised it would all be in German.

We walked up the hill to the Gloriette which offers a superb view over the city, and we think we found the street we stayed in, just past the trees in the palace grounds. Then we walked back to the apartment via the main entrance, with its enormous open space in front of the palace. Hot day, we didn’t take enough water and were very thirsty by the time we got ‘home’.

Yesterday, Sunday, we drove out of Vienna to Czech. We didn’t buy a vignette in Austria so had to use secondary roads, which was fine, through little villages and along a tiny sealed road on the side of the motorway. Probably just for the local farmers, and we did meet a tractor coming in the opposite direction, but a few local cars and a motorbike also used it. Nothing is open in Austria on a Sunday, but as soon as we crossed over into Czech … BAM! Outlet shopping centre just across the border, casinos, 24-hour nightclubs. If anyone can explain how they work, we’d love to know – I thought the point of a nightclub was that it was, well, night-time. Our new favourite supermarket, Albert, was open in Znojmo so we went and bought a couple of things we’d run out of and some bread rolls for lunch. Gosh, the Czechs are good bakers!

Our second-last night of camping last night, and tonight is our last. Then we’re staying in an apartment in Prague for 4 nights and heading back to Munich on Saturday, flying home on Sunday. We’ve been on the road for 5 weeks, but it seems like a much longer period of time, because we’ve been to so many places and seen and done so much.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — The Kings waiting room at the railway station near the Palace (never used)

img_20160907_093542-medium — Self Serve Bakery at Albert row 1

img_20160907_093545-medium — Self Serve Bakery at Albert row 2

Vienna, Austria

September 7, 2016Austria, Czech Republic, Polandaustria, camping, czech republic, krakow, poland, road trip, Wieliczka Salt MineJudy

Our last post was 3 days, dinner at a Michelin-starred bistro, a visit to a salt mine and 2 countries ago.

Dinner at Zazie Bistro was wonderful! We got a table in the cellar part of the restaurant rather than in the smaller street-level section. Great menu, which you can see here. When my parents see the menu, they will know immediately what I had for an entree, but I’ll tell the rest of you anyway – the veal sweetbreads. And they were superb. Then I had French potatoes gratin with chicken etc, and Greg had the veal chop(s) on the bone etc. With 2 big beers, the total came to less than $35, and we were so impressed with the meal and so surprised that it was so cheap that we left a 20% tip!

Next day, Tuesday, we left the apartment in Krakow and drove to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. We put on our walking boots and some warm clothes and spent a couple of hours doing the excellent English-language guided tour. We didn’t take any photos while we were in the mine, partly because it cost a few dollars extra and we hadn’t realised when we bought our tickets, but mostly because there are already loads of photos of the interesting things at the mine on the interwebz, and one of my commonly uttered phrases from this trip has been … ‘for f@#ks sake, how many selfies and photos do these people need?’ So many people take photos of themselves at very uninteresting places, as well as at interesting ones, but do they ever look at any of them again?

So then we pooled our remaining Polish zloty and went to the supermarket where we thought we were loading up on everything we thought we needed, but only managed to spend half of the $40-odd we had left in local currency. So I went back and bought some wine and cider, but we STILL have zloty left! We’ll keep it for when we go back to Poland some day, or if someone we know goes there.

We camped at a municipal campground in the north of Czech Republic last night (Tuesday). We had to find an ATM to get some Czech koruna, but the campground reception was closed when we arrived there at 6.30pm, so we just pitched the tent and sorted out payment this morning. Nice camgpground, but it was almost next to a railway line, so it was a bit noisy.

And now we’re in Vienna! We’re staying in this Airbnb apartment until Sunday. It’s just across the street from the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace, close to the metro and the Museum of Technology is nearby as well. The apartment is used for tutoring primary and high school students during term time, but it’s still the summer holidays in Austria until the middle of September, so our host is renting it out until her ‘real’ work begins.

A picture of the wieliczka salt mine we took from the internet because we were too cheap to pay the extra money to be allowed to take pictures in the mine.

Krakow, Poland

September 4, 2016Polandairbnb, apartment svilokos, krakow, poland, road trip, sightseeing, summer, tourists, travelJudy

In the early 1980s, I studied Polish History at uni for 3 years. I don’t remember much now, that space in my brain has been replaced with html, seo and other online selling stuff, but as we walk around this beautiful old history-filled city, bits and pieces come back to me. Somehow, pronunciation of Polish words has stayed with me, so while I probably don’t know what it means, I do know how to pronouce it!

We’re staying in an Airbnb apartment in Kazimierz, the Old Jewish Quarter, for 4 nights – here. Gorgeous old building, huge 2nd floor apartment with parquetry floors and high ceilings. There are 2 bars on the ground floor. The bars each have a ‘beer garden’ in the courtyard below our apartment, but they close at 10pm, so it’s not noisy. A couple of streets away it’s much more lively with the bars and eating places staying open until 3am.

The food choices here are amazing – from street food and a couple of empty corner blocks with 6 or 8 food trucks permanently parked there (and a handy Bankomat ATM at each site too!) to traditional Polish restaurants to a Michelin-starred French cafe just a couple of blocks down the street from where we’re staying. Between us so far we’ve eaten Belgian fries, kielbasa (Polish sausage) with sauerkraut & rye bread, French crepes, pulled pork rolls, Krakow pretzel with salami, tomato & cheese and rhubarb & apple crumble. I was initially a bit disappointed that there is no oven in the apartment, although there is a washing machine, and after the mess I made of the pulled pork roll, I think our Airbnb host has the right priorities!

We spent yesterday afternoon at Podgorsz, across the Vistula River from Kazimierz, visiting the Schindler Factory, the Pharmacy Under the Eagle and a short remaining stretch of the Ghetto Wall.

Slovakia

September 2, 2016Slovakiacamping, high tatras, road trip, slovakiaJudy

We left the beautiful Budapest on Wednesday morning and drove to Eger, which is about 140kms to the north-east. Historic town, wine district, thermal baths. We camped at a campground just a couple of kms from the old town and wandered around it on Thursday morning. One of the most interesting pieces of history is the 16th century 40-metre high Minaret, which is the northern-most historical building of the Ottoman empire in Europe, and the only remaining evidence of nearly 100 years of Turkish rule in the area. It is possible to climb to the top, but it’s very squeezy and uneven, so we decided against that.

Then a nice drive through the Bukk (Beech) National Park to Slovakia. No checking at the border, we just had to buy another Vignette (10 euros) to be able to drive on Slovakian freeways. We stopped at Spis Castle, one of the largest European castles by area. Very impressive, but the lack of signage to and within the castle was disappointing. We parked and paid at an ‘official’ carpark for the castle, then slogged up the hill to the castle walls but had trouble finding how to actually reach the entrance. We asked a couple of people on their way back down to the car park and eventually found where to get in, had a look around the main castle buildings, but didn’t walk on the extensive castle walls due to lack of time and needing the energy to get back down the hill!

We camped at a campground near the High Tatras, the tallest range in the Carpathian Mountains. Close to a ski resort town, at this time of the year it’s a popular destination for hikers and mountain bikers. This morning we drove up to the car park at the bottom of the chair lift, which was a hive of activity with walkers, bike riders and groups of people getting ready to start their day’s activities.

We decided not to visit Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. It’s almost on the western border of the country, on the Danube River. It would have been a big detour for us, just to see another capital city and we’re much more interested in spending time in Krakow in Poland. It was only 150kms north, but took several hours to drive because of heavy traffic, a truck broken down on a narrow stretch of road, lots of villages along the way, heavy traffic, one-way streets and heavy traffic. We’re staying in an Airbnb apartment in Kazimierz, the old Jewish Quarter just south of Old Town. More about Krakow and Poland later.

more pics here

Budapest, Hungary

August 30, 2016Hungaryairbnb, border crossing, budapest, hungary, road trip, travelJudy

We drove the 350-ish kms from Zagreb to Budapest on Sunday, which was a good day to travel and find our way through Budapest – not as much crazy traffic and free parking in the city so we could get our bearings, use the free wifi at a McD’s and find the apartment.

On the Croatian side we drove on the autoceste and paid the toll at the end, but on the Hungarian side we needed a motorway pass (or matrica or vignette). They’re available from petrol stations and post offices (but not on a Sunday, obviously), and there were a few signs pointing to where they are available at places just off the motorway. 2975 forint, about $15, or 13 euros – cash only, no credit card payment. We had euros, and got change in euros.

Next stop was Tesco, for condensed milk. We couldn’t find it anywhere in Croatia, so Greg had to go without his morning porridge for a few days, because we didn’t buy quite enough in Italy. Even here, it seems that Tesco is the only place that sells it, but Greg will make sure he’s stocked up from now on. Prices here seem much cheaper than in Croatia, which has a 25% GST. If there’s any kind of consumption tax here, it’s not itemised on cash register dockets.

We’re spending 3 nights in Pest, which is on the eastern side of the Danube. Our apartment is close to public transport and just a few streets away from some of the interesting stuff. We’re on the top floor of building that has a currency exchange and the local equivalent of a $2 shop at street level, in a street filled with pubs, takeaway places and nightclubs. You can see some photos of the apartment here.

Yesterday morning we walked to the magnificent Parliament Building, past the Soviet Army Memorial and nearby larger-than-real-life statue of Ronald Reagan, then along the Danube past the poignant Shoes on the Danube monument and a short tram trip to Nagycsarnok – Central Market (literal translation is ‘great hall’). We bought corn on the cob for dinner, and strawberries for Greg to eat right then. Quite a few stalls were closed with a few signs up that they would be reopening in early September. August is the month when lots of locals go away for their summer break.

I found an interesting-looking food truck in an in-flight magazine at the apartment, and it turned out that they also have 2 shops as well, one of which is in the same street as the apartment! We’re staying at number 33, and Meat & Sauce is at number 34, but because of the strange street numbering it’s 2 blocks down the street. We had lunch there yesterday – Roast Pork sandwiches with fat fries … delicious!

We’ve discovered that we’re flying out of Munich the same weekend as Oktoberfest starts! Ack! I suddenly remembered yesterday that Oktoberfest is not actually in October, so Greg hopped online to get some dates and organise accommodation for the night before we leave. The place we stayed at when we arrived 3 weeks ago is now double the price, but we got a room at a hotel near the airport. Phew – if we had left it till the last minute which is our usual travel style, we possibly would have been sleeping in the car. Which wouldn’t have been a big deal, really. But I’m kinda glad we’ll be sleeping in a bed the night before we embark on 25+ hours of travel.

Today we’re going across to Buda to see some stuff. So far I’ve learnt that we could easily spend a lot more time in this beautiful city, there’s so much to see.

Zagreb, Croatia

August 28, 2016Croatiaairbnb, apartment svilokos, road trip, travel, zagrebJudy

After our lovely morning wandering around the beautiful Plitvice Lakes, we drove to Croatia’s capital, Zagreb. Located in the north of the country, close to the Slovenian border, 140kms from Ljubljana, and about 80kms from the Hungarian border, population 800,000.

We drove the last 50kms to Zagreb on the autoceste and joined the huge queue of vehicles at the toll gate – it took us longer to pay the $4 toll than we spent driving on that stretch of road! We were late meeting our Airbnb host, but he wasn’t too fussed – he knows what the local traffic can be like, especially on a Friday afternoon! The apartment was close to the city centre, around the corner from the university and not far from the Botanic Gardens. After our parking woes in Dubrovnik, Greg made sure this one really did have parking on the premises, and it did …. but it was down a very narrow entryway through the building in front of our apartment block. As Greg said – it was probably the width of a standard horse-drawn carriage’s wheels!

Our 30-something host, Neven, lived in the apartment with his family when he was growing up, the family moved to their own places and the parents moved somewhere else and the apartment sat vacant for a while, then became Airbnb accommodation.It was a lovely mix of old and not-so-old – gorgeous parquetry floors, tiny 1960s kitchen, huge bedrooms with timber built-ins, very intricate modern front door lock, brand new front-loading washing machine purchased the day we arrived. Here it is so you can see some photos.

Neven is a computer software engineer and has developed a program for Airbnb hosts (and guests) to help them manage bookings and information. It’s called ‘MyRent’ and so far is only available in Croatia, but Neven is hoping to take it to ther countries as well. Wherever we stayed in Croatia, we had to show our passports – or a couple of times campgrounds would hold our passports overnight and give them back when we paid our bill. I don’t like letting my passport out of my sight and would have much preferred to prepay the bill.

We spent yesterday exploring Zagreb – in the morning we walked around to the local supermarket to get lunch and dinner. There was a small market outside the supermarket with a few stalls selling produce and others selling second-hand stuff. I could only get 2kg bags of potatoes at the supermarket, so bought just enough for dinner and a couple of leeks from one of the market stalls – total cost $2. In the afternoon we walked to the Botanical Gardens and found a Wollemi Pine tree! Very exciting! We saw a tree in a cage and I said ‘heh, if we were at home, that would be a Wollemi Pine.’ And it was – a fine-looking 11 year old tree, about a metre tall.

Then into the main square in town, a stroll through the old town and past the cathedral which reminded us a lot of Burgos Cathedral in Spain and back to the apartment. A nice day, our last in Croatia.

We’ve just arrived in Budapest, found our Airbnb apartment which will be ‘home’ for the next 3 days and will start exploring tomorrow.

more pictures on the photo pages as well here

Plitvice National Park, Croatia

August 27, 2016Croatiacamping, croatia, plitvice national park, road trip, travel, zagrebJudy

Wow, Saturday already! I’ll see if I can remember what we’ve been doing for the last few days. On Wednesday we drove south to Mlini, which is only about 10kms south of Dubrovnik. Greg had picked it out on a map of Croatia when we were trying to think what to call this blog, so we just had to go there … to say we’d been there. The town gets its name from the water-powered flour mills which are no longer in use. We didn’t stay long enough to find any, just parked quickly in someone’s No Parking area, waved to the woman watching us from the house across the road, raced to get a photo of the 2 of us near the ‘Welcome to Mlini’ sign and zapped off again … at about the same time as an old gent arrived on his motor scooter – possibly to tell us to get out of his No Parking space!

It’s only possible to drive another 30kms or so south to the Croatian border, and we were keen to head north to get the ferry across to Ploce, so we didn’t bother. As we drove north, past the beautiful Dubrovnik, we found a roadside stop for lunch with tables in the shade and a beach nearby. Unlike most Croatian beaches, this one wasn’t completely full of people, umbrellas, sun lounges & lilos, so we went down for a look, and Greg had a swim. The water was a bit chilly, and the beach part was actually just small round stones that are hard to walk on without some kind of foot protection, but it makes us realise how lucky we are in Australia, with our beautiful sandy beaches.

After going back on the ferry, which was only about half full, we drove 80kms or so on the Autoceste and camped at a little campground just a couple of kms off it. The owner is a keen gardener and has carved out a little oasis of fruit trees and cottagey flowers. The ground is basically just rock, so he has had to bring in lots of soil to get stuff to grow, but he’s even got some Australian everlasting daisies there. Nice campground, but pricey – $46 for the night.

Then to Plitvice National Park, which is the Number 1 tourist attraction in Croatia. A series of lakes and waterfalls, with boardwalks that go beside, between and over some of the lakes. We camped at Kamp Korana a few kms north of Entrance 1. Owned by the National Park and spread over 35kms along the Korana River. It was very crowded near the facilities, but we found a flat spot at the top of a hill away from the crowds.

I think I’ll let Greg’s photos tell the ‘story’ of our time at the lakes, although I wil add that I’m very glad we got there early. We were all packed up and in the car by 7.10am, which is probably some kind of personal best for us. We got a bit lost getting to the park as the entrances are not well sign-posted, but we got a park and bought our tickets without any problems. We visited the lakes in a different order to most people which helped avoid the crowds and even though we had a long wait for a boat to take us back to our starting point, that was the only slow part of our visit. When we got back to the car park, there was a HUGE queue of people waiting to buy tickets .. and then there would have been huge waits for them to get anywhere within the park for the rest of their visit.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

August 23, 2016Croatiaairbnb, croatia, dubrovnik, road trip, travelJudy

Ah, Dubrovnik. It’s chaotic, busy, crowded, has some of the worst streets in the world and finding parking is impossible, but it’s most definitely the shiniest jewel in Croatia’s gem-filled crown. As we drove over the magnificent Franjo Tuđman Bridge, we noticed the Cunard Line’s newest darling, the Queen Victoria docked just below. Which was a sign that we shouldn’t rush to do anything touristy ‘cos everywhere would be clogged with cruise passengers. Apparently in the ‘off season’, Dubrovnik limits the number of cruise passengers to 8000 per day! We couldn’t find any numbers for this time of the year, which is most definitely ‘peak season’. Of course, there are plenty of other tourists too, and on average they spend 3x the amount as cruise passengers, so limiting them in favour of other tourists is probably a good thing.

We spent the night before last in the lovely Zakono campground at Brijesta, a little fishing village on the peninsula to the west of Dubrovnik. As we drove there, we could see the town of Neum in Bosnia. We can’t take the car into Bosnia, so we had to take a car ferry from Ploce to Trpanj to avoid the 8kms of Bosnian coastline. The ferry trip took an hour, but the whole exercise took us an extra day. Olive trees flourish in this part of the country, and at the campground there was one really, really old tree whose original tree has died, but now 5 well-established suckers are growing from it, all with good crops of fruit. Also – figs, pomegranates and citrus do really well here. Just like home.

As we drove the 70 or so kms to Dubrovnik, we noticed a wall going up the hill and around the village of Ston, which is 50 kms west of the city. We stopped for a look and read the 14 lines of text about it in our Lonely Planet Guide. This wall was as important as the Great Wall of China, but hardly gets a mention! I’m sure in 5 years it will be on everyone’s must-see list. Built in 1333, 5.5km long, with 40 towers and 5 forts, it is one of the longest fortifications in Europe. Ston was, and still is, an important salt-producing town. Repairs are being made along the wall, and the old town inside is not quite as charming as Zadar and Trogir, but still interesting and lovely to wander around, and there were plenty of (mostly local) tourists and a few tour buses there.

We’re spending a couple of nights in Dubrovnik and doing the Airbnb apartment thing again – here. Lovely apartment, best we’ve stayed in here, but finding it was right up there with one of our worst Airbnb experiences ever. Because we have a car, we filter accommodation on Arbnb to only show places with ‘Free parking on premises’. Not only did this place not have any free parking, the nearest place to park the car is on a street that is about 200 metres and at least 65 steps down the hill. Even then, it’s almost impossible to find a park. Our GPS took us to the nearest street above the apartment, which is narrow, steep, windy and has been subsequently described by our host as ‘the worst street in the world’. Great, it would have been really good to know that before Greg tried to park the car on it. The amazing Greg did manage to park the car, even though it’s left-hand drive and quite a bit bigger than most cars on the roads here.

Then finding the place, which has no numbering on it, and was down a tiny steep narrow lane that was more than 120 steps – I gave up counting at 50 steps, about a third of the way down. I stopped a local woman to ask her where the street was, and she had to do a Google maps search on her phone to find it! By the time we actually met the owner, we were all hot and unhappy – me, Greg and the owner (because we had kept him waiting because we couldn’t find the place because it wasn’t marked!). Anyway, the owner has given us his parking space in a parking garage while we’re here, we’ve calmed down and everybody is happy again.I’m going to write a separate post about how to find this place in the hope that search engines pick it up and it might save other guests the hassles we had.

So after all that, we spent the afternoon around the apartment, with a couple of trips to the car to get more things and Greg went for a walk down to main street by the dock to suss out public transport and visit the local supermarket. We caught a local bus to Old Town at around 6.30pm, walked across the drawbridge and through Pile Gate, wandered along the crowded main street and headed up a side street to the Cable Car. We managed to time our trip so that we were at the top, at Mt Srd to watch the sun set just before 7.30pm, with a beautiful view of the Adriatic Sea, and the islands and peninsula west of Dubrovnik, plus the coastline east of the city. And that magnificent city itself below us – the old walled city with its walls, forts, churches and terracotta rooftops, the city outside the walls, yachts and other boats on the water and the Queen Victoria heading south to Greece.

Then back to the apartment for a late dinner with a couple of glasses of grasevina – a Croatian white wine. We’re planning on walking the walls around the Old City today. Forecast is for a top temp of 29C, and it’s a bit cloudy but no rain forecast. Should be good.

more photos on the photo album page here

The Bosnian detour to avoid 8km of Bosnia that reaches to the coast

Trogir, Croatia

August 21, 2016Croatiaairbnb, croatia, road trip, travel, trogic, zadarJudy

We spent 2 nights in Zadar, at the lovely Airbnb apartment just one street back from the water . We had plans to go across to the old town in the morning, in time to have a look at the food market, which is apparently one of Croatia’s best, but a thunderstorm kept us indoors for a couple of hours longer than we intended. From the time interval between the thunder and lightning, it was a close one!

The clouds cleared into a lovely afternoon, so we caught a row-boat across to the historic old town. There is also a bridge across to it, but the boat-men ply their trade just down from where we were staying. It cost us $1 each, took 5 minutes and reminded Greg that his grandfather worked as a boatman in Brightlingsea in the UK. The old town is a wonderful mix of Roman, medieval and modern, all co-existing peacefully. It was originally settled in the 9th Century BC.

We had lunch at a restaurant near the cathedral, and just around the corner from the Roman forum. One of the columns was used as a medieval Pillar of Shame, and it still has the hooks where wrongdoers were chained. There are so many Roman ruins in the old town that most of them aren’t labelled. We sat in the restaurant’s courtyard, drinking Croatian beer and eating Croatian food – octopus for me, pork for Greg. The courtyard’s walls were built of stone – Roman? Medieval? Who knows, but they looked much older than the rest of the building.

Zadar has been bombed twice in the last century – by the Allies in 1943, then again during the ‘Homeland War’ in late 1991. Each time, it has been rebuilt, and now there are no signs of any damage.

Then further down the coast to Trogir, another historic town whose Cathedral gained World Heritage status in 1997. The old town is set on a tiny island, and we’re staying in another Airbnb apartment on Ciovo Island, which is also part of Trogir. Once again, we’re just one street back from the water, and we can see across to the bell tower of the cathedral. The apartment is one of 3 in a newly removated 200 year old stone house which belonged to the owner’s great-grandparents. The ‘streets’ here are so narrow that we have had to park the car 150 metres away, just off the main street.

We walked across the bridge to the old town yesterday afternoon and had a good wander around, getting lost a few times and ending up in private courtyards. Trogir has been my favourite Croatian town, a beautifully preserved mixture of Roman and Renaissance architecture which is all still in use, not just as museum pieces but as housing, shops, restaurants, for worship and other parts of daily life.

More pictures here

Zadar, Croatia

August 18, 2016Croatiacampground, camping, croatia, road trip, zadarJudy

We are slowly making our way south down the Croatian coast. Stunning scenery, lovely weather, loads of tourists and a lot of holiday accommodation options …. many of them full at this time of the year. We did see an interesting thing this morning as we drove through a mid-sized coastal town – people sitting on folding chairs or in their car, holding a cardboard sign with ‘Apartmen’ handwritten on it. Our host at Kamp Romantic told us that lots of people rent out a room or ‘granny flat’ during the busy season, and I guess the people advertising their ‘apartments’ could have been off the main road and not so easy to find.

Last night we camped again, at a larger campground 120kms south of Labin. We’re not putting in much distance each day, in part because of the winding roads and 40 – 50km speed limit a lot of the time, but also because there’s stuff we want to see along the way. We got to Kamp Kozica early in the afternoon, and waited for a thunderstorm to pass before putting up the tent. We camped in an old terraced almond grove,with great ocean views and across to Krk Island. The campground was fairly full, and more and more vehicles arrived as the afternoon progressed. Campground facilities were … I can’t think of a nice way to say this … deplorable. Rubbish bins overflowing, no toilet paper, terrible water pressure, dirty amenities. We didn’t see anyone doing anything around the campground, as opposed to Kamp Romantik where the host and his mother were working constantly around the place. We got used to the no toilet paper and no toilet seat thing in Sth America, where we were paying Sth American prices, but paying AUD $40 for that seems extortionate. Especially when we can get Airbnb apartments for $90 or less.

(whinge over, sorry about that)

We’re now staying in Zadar for a couple of nights in an Airbnb apartment – this one, actually. It’s lovely, our host lives upstairs and has supplied breakfast provisions, information about the town and some recommendations on where to eat. The garden is full of fruit trees, including 2 pomegranate trees. I’m very tempted to pick just one …

More pictures on the photo pages here