Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Settling into Polidor…

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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.

Great Peppersteak…

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.

Camping Polidor – family run…

Pitch 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.

Not much room for the car…

 

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.

Bicycle Service point…

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

 

 

 

 

All pitches fully service…

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:

Camping Polidor showers…

Camping Polidor toilets (with soft close)…

Camping Polidor wash basins…

Camping Polidor dish washing…

Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Next stop Croatia

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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.

Vignette sales hut…

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.

Vignettes available at the Karawankentunnel toll…

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.

Polidor beach and bar…

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!!!)

Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Preparation and Villach by bike…

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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.

Villach main Street…

Villach church…

Villach church tower…

Landskron Castle…

Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Ossiach by boat…

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Route to Villach…

 

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!).

Ossiach from the water…

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

 

Ossiach Collegiate church…

 

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

 

 

 

 

Not quite authentic…

 

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.

 

 

Outside Ossiach Collegiate Church…

Naturgasthof Schlosswirt…

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.

 

Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Ossiachersee by bike and flight…

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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.

Lake Ossiach cycle route…

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

View across Lake Ossiach…

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

 

 

Ossiach…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Our van centre right – next to small tree…

Lake Ossiach from air I

Lake Ossiach from the air II

Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Augsberg to Ossiacher See…

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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.

Service station where we purchased our Vignette…

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.

Camping Bad Ossiacher See – view from pitch…

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.

Camping Bad Ossiacher See pitch…

Isabella Sunshine awning at Ossiacher See…

Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Day out in Augsburg…

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

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.

Inside a Fuggerei house…

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.

Mozart connection…

 

The Mozart connection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Hofgarten…

Dom, Augsburg…

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

A thoroughly enjoyable day…

Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Oberweis to Augsburg…

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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.

Lech Camping reception…

Our pitch at Lech…

Lech bar and restaurant…

Lech “facilities”

Lech – if you don’t have a van…

 

Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Bernkastel…

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Another glorious day here in Oberweis – highs in the mid 20s. A late start after a very long day yesterday and the last camper to pick up their “early” morning bread order. Still, the Onion Baguette was a little different and very nice with marmalade for breakfast!

The new shower block is even plusher than at first sight. The walk-in showers have underfloor heating.

Visited Bernkastel and had a picnic along the banks of the Mosel.  This is a very pretty town – selection of photographs below.

St Michael’s Church

Panorama over Bernkastel…

Bernkastel…

 

Kohler Restaurant…

Evening we had booked a table at Kohler Restaurant which, whilst open to the public, also serves as the campsite restaurant.

Menu is extensive and the food absolutely first rate.

Eurotrip 6, 2017 – Blighty to Oberweis…

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An early departure for the proper start of Eurotrip 6, with a Tunnel reservation at 08:50. Despite a detailed tour of Folkestone, seeking out fuel, we still arrived at the Channel Tunnel at 07:15 and were promptly ushered onto the 07:49 train.

Ready to depart…

We do like the flexibility of Eurotunnel even if you do pay a bit more than the ferries.

By 9:45 (Central European Time) we were on our way to Camping Prumtal. Our route took us north of Calais and then east to Brussels and onward to Liege and finally over the border into Germany. As is the norm, traffic around Brussels was busy and chaotic but until reaching Germany we had made good progress.
Progress was hampered when the A60 south to Bitburg was closed for maintenance and we didn’t recognise any of the signposting of the myriad of diversion routes through small country lanes.
At one point we abandoned one of the diversions which included turning the caravan around in a farmers yard!

River View…

Arrived late afternoon at Camping Prumtal and secured a lovely plot next to the river. It’s nearly 3 years since our last visit here and the owners have been very busy adding a whole new area of fully serviced pitches and a very nice new toilet block. The facilities would be worthy of any 5-star hotel.

The weather has been good all day and in the evening we enjoyed a BBQ in shirt sleeves and then a post dinner walk along the River Prum.

Distance view of Campsite…

Camping Prumtal is THE place to visit in this region.