Today we toured some of the Fortified Towns. The villages and towns of Istria were all fortified and the first people to build walls were the Histri, an Illyrian tribe who put up defences on the hilltops where they settled.

We would visit three of the hilltop towns today and witness a huge contrast. The first location was very rural and quiet whilst the last town we would visit had lots of tourists and even a shuttle bus to avoid the climb to the hilltop.

First up was Boljun, the village still retaining its medieval walls, ramparts, a tower and a water trough from 1697.

 

 

 

Completely unspoilt, we were the only tourists in the area. A single café / restaurant the only sign of life (save for half a dozen cows sheltering in one of the “houses” on the main street.

More pictures follow along with some aerial photography from the Mavic Pro.

 

 

 

 

 

Next was Roc. The walls around Roc were built in the 14th century and Towers were added in the 1500s.

The Mavic was launched again for some great stills and video.

 

 

 

 

Finally we headed off to Motovun which turned out to be by far the most spectacular of the towns. Despite driving some distance up the hill to the car park, the medieval village of Motovun still towered above us. Too high we felt to be able to get any meaningful video from the drone.

Many more tourists here and even a shuttle bus up to the top of the hill. It’s always tricky for pictures to capture the true breath-taking views which were absorbed at the summit whilst walking around the rampart walls.

Very nice BBQ in the evening but sadly, this was the last of our bacon and sausages from blighty. Croatian food only from now onwards.

Saturday was a chill day with the afternoon lounging at Polidor’s beach. The evening we walked to Zelena Laguna in the vain hope we might be able to watch the FA cup final. No luck whatsoever but we enjoyed a nice meal alongside the sea.

Friday was another relaxing day with a trip to the Polidor beach and a BBQ in the evening.

Thursday and the weather has settled into a perfect pattern of clear blue skies, highs in the late 20s and lows overnight in the mid teens. Today we drove south from Porec to Rovinj.

Rovinj was originally an island port built by the Romans in 1763 but was joined to the coast by filling in the channel dividing the island from the mainland, creating a peninsula.

Definitely worth a visit to explore the old town and visit the church at the top.

Weather has been very good the last three days with high’s in the mid 20s and low’s around 15. This provides a nice contrast and chance to cool down overnight.

Monday we visited the largest camping shop in Croatia, allegedly, but we weren’t able to find anything on our shopping list. It also looks like we won’t be able to buy Camping Gaz over here so once we are out of gas, that’s the end of the BBQs.

In the afternoon we cycled to Porec to do some more shopping. Again, mission unsuccessful.

Tuesday was our 25th wedding anniversary and the trip to Porec the previous afternoon was not successful in finding Croatian anniversary cards.  The campsite had recommended restaurant “More” in Funtana for dinner and the recommendation was a good one.

The selection of seafood on the menu was exceptional – all locally caught and freshly prepared. Mo opted for the beef steak with mushrooms and I chose the steak tagliatelle – both excellent choices.

The meal was rounded off with complimentary desert, grappa and then a 2 mile walk back to work off some of the excesses.

By now it was dark, slightly chilly but still a very clear evening. On our way back, we were treat to the sight of a fox was chasing it’s prey along our walkway.

Yesterday we cycled back to Porec and had lunch at Stari Saloon. Nice pizza just set back from the water. Had another look around the old town – selection of photos follow.

Later in the day we took an evening cruise on the boat Santa Maria and watched the dolphins playfully swimming around. Well, no, actually they were being constantly chased by a few sight seeing boats.

 

This is our first visit to Croatia and so far so good. The sun is shining, as per the guarantee to Mo, and the expected high today is 27 degrees. After posting yesterday’s update, we ate at the campsite restaurant. It’s called Nando which is no relation to the Nandos we know in Blighty. In particular, I’m sure I read somewhere that the Croatians are rather fond of their meat and fish. However, proper meat like beef and pork – not chicken which is perceived somewhat down market. I didn’t spot any chicken on this menu.

I did however spot a Peppersteak and it was excellent. I’ve had many a good steak but this one was right up there with the best. A huge slab of meat, tender and cooked to perfection.

 

 

 

 

So, we know that Croatians like their food and it’s proper food. They also seem a very friendly bunch, with a perfect grasp of the English language, which is just as well. The roads we’ve been on so far have been good quality and the tolls relatively inexpensive.

How about the facilities at Polidor.

On arriving at Polidor, we didn’t have an enormous selection of pitches, about half a dozen were available for a 2 week stay. We chose one behind the toilet block and proceeded to manoeuvre the caravan crossways to take full advantage of the afternoon sun.

 

With no room to spare we concluded the pitch is 7.5m wide. There’s room for our Sunshine Awning and we can just park the car too so that probably makes about 9m of usable depth. For now though the car is abandoned on a vacant lot.

Mo was the first to use the facilities and remarked they were average at best. Oh no, a moaning Mo for the next few weeks until we head out from Croatia.

Mind you, the joke was on me. These are the best facilities we have encountered. Better than Camping Prumtal – well, that’s a difficult call – but on reflection, we both agree that the standards are marginally higher, here at Polidor.

If there’s any criticism, the site appears slightly cramped and bigger pitches would indeed be nicer. Trouble is we have nothing to compare against in Croatia, save from seeing pitches at a distance on Bijela Uvala and those appeared similar to here.

There are lots of nice touches, such as the bicycle service point.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and if I didn’t mention it already all 75 pitches are hard standing and fully serviced with un-metered electricity, fresh water and grey waste. Shame our waste pipes don’t reach.

 

 

 

 

I’m also lead to believe we have the ACSI pricing of 17 Euros per night.

A selection of photos below showing the first rate facilities:

It’s time to leave Austria and Lake Ossiach. We’ve already stayed nearly a week at what was scheduled to be a 1 or 2 night stopover.

The site, Campingbad Ossiachersee has it’s plus points and it’s not so plus points. The facilities, whilst not as modern as the last two sites we stayed at in Germany were clean and the restaurant was good. In the excellent category was the team running the site. Nothing was ever too much trouble and always a laugh and joke to be had at reception.

On the not-so-good side was the internet access. This was more miss than hit at the pitch and even at reception, it was impossible to get the work VPN functioning anywhere so thank goodness we had 4G access on the phones.

Anyhow, enough of Lake Ossiach and it’s now time to move on to Croatia. We had finalised a short-list of 3 sites:

• Camping Val Saline
• Camping Bijela Uvala
• Camping Polidor

and we would need the entire 3 to 4 hour journey to decide which one. Val Saline was a promising recommendation from a member of CaravanTalk; Bijela Uvala and Polidor were found through the ACSI campsite book (both just south of Porec and within striking distance of Porec by bicycle).

The latter two are very different sites – Bijela Uvala, with it’s sea view pitches is a monster of a site with well over 1000 pitches (maybe approaching 2000) and at least six restaurants. Polidor is much smaller with around 75 touring pitches all fully serviced with water, electricity and grey waste. A very boutique looking 4 star site.

We hit the road around 09:30 and the first challenge was to locate a vignette for the Slovenian motorways. These work in a similar manner to the Austrian ones and fines for not displaying the said vignette are harsh – allegedly between 300 and 800 Euros.

We stopped at the first location advertising the vignette. It turned out to be a hut in the middle of what seemed like a building site (maybe a service area under construction?) but nevertheless we secured our 7 day vignette for 15 Euros.

There were three other options for this later on – a service area just before the Karawankentunnel (for which we didn’t actually see the entrance), the toll booths for the tunnel itself and the first service area just over the border into Slovenia.

We think we made the correct choice.

 

 

Progress to Istria (which is where our choice of 3 campsites are situated) was normal, the roads generally good and free of heavy traffic. The worst section was at the end of A1 in Slovenia and the E751 in Croatia. This is also the location of the border and passports were still being checked resulting in a 20 minute delay. The standard of this section of road was abysmal with the caravan bouncing around the worn-out road surface.

We had by now decided which site we would stay at and we had rejected our favourite one (Val Saline) due to the apparent high internet charges of 12 Euros per 24 hours – we appreciated that this is metered based upon logging in and out but it seemed just a bit too restrictive and given we’d had bad service at Ossiach, Val Saline was rejected.

Out of the remaining two sites, we decided we would stay at Polidor, the much smaller of the two sites. We wouldn’t have the sea views from the caravan but Polidor does have it’s own beach (and bar) some 800m walk away and there is also complimentary travel to it from the site.

There’s much more to write about following our arrival at Polidor but I’m going to save that for another day. Lot’s of comments about the site itself, the restaurant and the location but signing off for today very soon.

Apparently, a small correction to yesterday’s post – Mo did not state she was mildly concerned that Slovenia and Croatia might not be as developed as the rest of Europe… Will she be correct? Will the facilities have toilet seats or not? Will they even have toilets or just a hole in the ground and a couple of grab handles?

All will be revealed tomorrow, so to speak.

(P.S. It’s done nothing but rain since we arrived in Istria; The one item I had guaranteed in Croatia – fine, hot and sunny weather!!!)

We were only intending to stay at Campingbad Ossiachersee for a night or two as a stopover on the final leg to Croatia. However, we have liked the site very much and the area is so stunningly beautiful that we will have been here for nearly a week when we leave in the morning.

It has certainly been a bonus to have had such beautiful weather. Highs again in the mid 20s but nice and pleasant overnight as the temperatures fall off rapidly.

In preparation for our departure, we spent much of the morning packing away and restocking our provisions. Mo seems to think Croatia and Slovenia might not be quite first world countries – I think she’ll be in for a surprise.

In the afternoon we cycled into Villach and looked around the old town, stopping later for a beer.

Some pictures follow of the town and it’s church and also of Landskron castle – which we didn’t manage to visit on this trip.

 

Yesterday was a quiet day, shopping trips and a cycle in the evening to Villach – all on dedicated cycle paths – around 11 miles round trip.

 

 

 

 

 

Today we left the campsite around 10:45 and headed to Annenheim to catch the water taxi (although some around here think it’s more of a cruise than a taxi service!).

We bought a “round trip” ticket for about 25 Euros and travelled to Ossiach, where we had previously cycled several days ago.

 

 

We looked around Ossiach Collegiate Church and walked around the outside of the former monastery which was situated here.

 

 

 

 

 

The church décor was magnificent but whilst on the surface, many of the features appeared to be constructed of marble, they were in fact all painted wood. Painted very nicely though.

 

 

Lunch was at the restaurant Naturgasthof Schlosswirt. Food was great and very nice service from the friendly waitress who did her best to translate the menu.

Mo had two “giant” meat-filled noodles whilst I opted for the Schnitzel wrapped in rosti potato and cheese. The accompanying salads were very nicely put together and extremely tasty.

It’s been a really hot day today and on our return to the campsite plenty of time for a spot of sun bathing.

 

Monday was a mixture of dry spells and heavy showers so it was a good day to catch up on some chores. It was nice enough by the evening to fire up the BBQ and to eat outside.

Today we woke up to a beautiful morning in Annenheim on Lake Ossiachersee and decided we would cycle the 30km around the Lake.

There are cycle routes in abundance around here and the entire route around the Lake took some 3 hours. Not entirely effortless cycling, the route is classed as moderate.

 

The 3 hours included a stop half way for our picnic lunch and also some sightseeing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note for the future – don’t bring so many provisions from blighty as there were many nice places en route for lunch out…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we arrived back at the campsite, the sun was still shining amidst clear blue skies so I decided to launch the drone for some aerial photography.

A selection of photographs follow, taken by the Mavic pro which was hovering over the lake. Lot of fun but it’s still a bit nerve racking as I haven’t really figured out all the controls properly. It is however, an amazing feat of engineering, both hardware and particularly software.

Fortunately the drone hasn’t acquired the Wannacry malware and demanded some Bitcoins for its safe return to base. Maiden flight on foreign soil…

Evening will be another BBQ I expect.

After a busy drive on Friday we didn’t much fancy negotiating the Munich A99 ring road on Monday morning so we decided to move on today, armed with various suggestions of where to stay in Austria as we head further south towards Croatia.

We left Camping Lech just after 09:00am. The stay cost just short of 30 Euros each night which is a bit more than the ACSI pricing but whilst we paid something for electricity, it wasn’t metered and in the end didn’t cost too much more than Camping Prumtal where we managed to gain an 11 Euro electricity bill for the 2 nights!

The journey today was around 250 miles and the traffic was light with no heavy goods vehicles on the road.

About 20 or 30 miles short of the border between Germany and Austria we stopped for fuel and to purchase the Austrian vignette. We bought a 10 day pass for around 8.90 Euros. The 10 day pass appeared to be the shortest one this particular garage was selling. We don’t  know if that’s usual or not.

 

It took us around 5 hours to travel the 250 miles to Ossiacher See and we chose Camping Bad Ossiacher See, mainly because it’s only a mile or two from the motorway.

This is an ACSI site and the lady at reception was very friendly and helpful. We were offered any pitch for the ACSI price and we chose one nearer to the lake which we believe normally carries a surcharge.

The lady at reception did such a good job of selling the area that we will probably stay around 5 nights and one day will cycle around the lake and another day, cycle to Villach.

Because we are staying a bit longer we decided to use the Isabella Sunshine awning which whilst not as easy as the sun canopy, provides more space and shelter, although after tomorrow the weather looks to be improving throughout the week with forecasted highs of 28 degrees on Thursday.

We caught the bus from right outside of Camping Lech, destination Augsburg Hauptbahnhof from where we visited the Fuggerei village.

The Fuggerei is the world’s oldest social housing complex still in use. It is a walled enclave within the city of Augsburg. It takes its name from the Fugger family and was founded in 1516 by Jacob Fuggerei the younger (known as “Jakob Fugger the Rich”) as a place where the needy citizens of Augsburg could be housed.

The village despite the many tourists, is still occupied but the rent, which until recently, had been a single Euro per annum is now around 88 Euros p.a.

 

The Mozart connection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the day we visit the Hofgarten and the nearby cathedral, Dom Mariä Heimsuchung.

Dinner was excellent at Bayerisches Haus am Dom, in the company of our close friends from Munich.

A thoroughly enjoyable day…

A prompt start to the day, leaving Camping Prumtal just before 09:00. Our journey was plotted at around 320 miles but this increased within the first half an hour as the road south to Triere was closed for maintenance.

Apparently there are a lot of roadworks taking place all over Germany at the moment, but especially on the A8 From Pforzheim to Stuttgart and then onwards to Munich. It’s a Friday, traffic is insane, weather was atrocious in places and the German drivers were extremely courteous to the UK Caravanning fraternity.

In then end, we arrived Augsburg around 4:00pm and the temperature on arrival was 22 degrees and the sun was (still is!) shining.

Another first for us at Camping Lech and we have a lovely pitch next to the lake. Gabi was very helpful in the prior exchange of emails and whilst their stated closing time is 18:30, she had said she could accommodate an arrival as late as 20:00.

A selection of pictures around the site follow and once this blog is posted, it’s off to the bar / restaurant for a pizza.