The border from Serbia to Croatia has a bad reputation among the campers we’ve talked to, but just like our friends the Avery’s we had no problems. The Serbian border officer even winked at me as he handed me back my passport and we were on our way! We drove what felt like forever on the highway and then had to make our complicated turn to reach the highway-side campground, which was on the opposite side. Pulling up to the motel it definitely had seen better days (sort of in keeping with a few other destinations we had encountered in the previous stops!) but it turned out that the attached campground (Motel Plitvice) was far better equipped than expected. Nice shady pitches (yes it was still roasting) and modern amenities including electricity for both types of plug points (see our camping essentials post). Having found our nice shady spot we headed over to the restaurant and decided we were going to splurge on a nice meal as we had been working down our food supplies in preparation for our camping holiday with Dani’s Mum (aka Mama G). The restaurant was relatively nice looking and as soon as we started working our way through the menu we started salivating. They had my new favourite (breaded deep fried mushrooms), pickles and many more vegetarian delights as well as a fish dish that had Dani drooling. All ready to order the waiter came over and dashed all my food dreams. None of the vegetarian delights were unavailable. What I ended up with was a plate of vegetables and a side of fries. Thankfully as the tired and more deserved driver Dani’s fish dish was still available. They also didn’t have the beer we wanted but we were able to settle for 2 large Turbourgs and were satisfied enough. This would have been totally fine had the waiter not yelled at us twice and then proceed to mock us in Croatian (funnily enough we do still understand the word tourist, combined with idiotic body language and laughter) and we are still flummoxed as to why not understanding what wasn’t available was such an offense to him. We did however have an incredible night’s sleep and were ready to push through to our next stop in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It was a non-eventful border crossing and drive through to Ljubljana and as we had arrived early enough we thought we’d check out where the accommodation we had booked for the following few nights was. After finding a car park near to the centre we walked towards the meeting point for our standard introduction to a new city…the free walking tour. Ljubljana is a beautiful city with a great vibe and we enjoyed exploring it. Watching the dark clouds roll in we felt it would be best to continue the exploration when Dani’s Mum arrived the next day. Back in the car we headed out to Ljubljana’s only city campground (Camper Stop Vrbinc €25/$37.30 AUD/29.30 USD) …or so we thought. It turned out that this was actually a car park with toilet facilities and electricity, but it would do for the night. The only issue was that as soon as we had settled down at the restaurant next door the heavens opened and we mean seriously opened! Using the break in the rain to get back to the car we settled in to watch some CSI as the lightning cracked right over our heads. I’m not great in storms so it was a rough night in the van and I was grateful to think the next night we would be sleeping in a real bed again. The AirBnB we booked for the 3 of us was wonderful. It was designed as a beer cellar complete with beer barrel bed and could not have been closer to the historic centre. We spent the next few days eating all the delights Ljubljana had to offer and taking slow ambles through the cobbled streets. There was a fantastic food market and lots of lovely little bars by the river. Our next stop was Lake Bled, which is only a 45-minute drive out of Ljubljana. This AirBnB was also amazing and the owner was so friendly. She even made us a jar of raspberry jam from the berries in her garden. The lake is gorgeous and taking out one of the little boats to the island is well worth it. We also spent our days here slowly ambling and eating more incredible food before dropping off Dani’s Mum and bidding farewell to Slovenia. We were to make only one stop in Austria before meeting our friend Mel in Germany so we decided on Salzburg. What a great decision this turned out to be. It lived up to all my Von Trapp fantasies and I was able to indulge in all my ‘Sound of Music Dreams’ (much to Dani’s disgust). Neither of us are really city people but we loved Salzburg. We were even treated to an impromptu acapella performance in the church from a visiting American choir. Unfortunately we were only able to stay for one night because there was a music festival near the campground (Panaramacamping Stadtblick €17.50/$26.25 AUD/20.60 USD) and they only had space for the day we arrived. Pushing on to Munich where we were meeting Mel we found a strange little campground (Campingplatz Seehammer See €24/$34.82 AUD/27.35 USD) just off the main highway. It overlooked a very pretty lake and was predominantly set up as a permanent holiday park but despite having plenty of room down by the facilities the owner made us park at the back of the campsite, which was mildly annoying. We had arranged to pick Mel up from the bus station in Munich the following morning and then we were to drive to a campground (Camping Landsberg €15.33/$22.90 AUD/18 USD) just out of Munich heading towards Liechtenstein, which was our first real destination for the 3 of us as a group. I’m not going to lie, the only reason I picked this particular campground was because it had a schnitzel house. This holds no interest to me but I knew that my wife was going to have a field day when she saw it so I plugged the address into the sat nav and off we went. It turns out that all campgrounds in Germany shut for a long lunch period every day and as ‘luck’ would have it, we had chosen the middle of this to arrive, but in true German style the minute the office was due to reopen the man from reception arrived. We set up camp then headed to the schnitzel house. Dani and Mel managed to demolish the “Everest Platter” which was 8 schnitzels and a mountain if chips. I had to roll them both back to the car and we promptly passed out just after dark. I was excited about the next stop because ever since I had discovered the location of tiny little Liechtenstein 4 years earlier I had been begging to get Dani to take me. I’m not sure what drew me to this micro-nation but I did know it needed to be explored! Liechtenstein is on the border of Switzerland and Austria. If it takes an hour to drive through it, it’s a heavy traffic day and it is expensive, but it is also stunning. Right on the southern border was an amazing campground called Camping Mittagsspitze that looked out over the Swiss Alps. Because Liechtenstein is expensive we could only afford to stay the night (€31/$46.25 AUD/36.30 USD). This meant taking a walk through its capital (read ONLY) city before settling in for the night. Now I can’t say that this was the highlight of our road trip but I am glad I have finally been to this intriguing micro-nation.
The Black Forest in Germany was where we were heading next so we bid farewell to Liechtenstein and drove through Austria to get back to Germany (avoiding Switzerland and it has a huge road tax). What was supposed to be a quick journey was extended by a series of road works and detours but we finally arrived just in time for the pub to open at the next campground (Breisgau-Camping am Silbersee €19.65/$29.35 AUD/23.05 USD) and for Dani and Mel to tuck in to yet another meat feast (I was just happy for the large stein placed in front of me). This campsite was huge and not only had a lovely lake next to it but it was also covered in blackberry bushes just asking to be picked. Having originally said just 1 night here we decided to extend it and take a day off to play cards and relax. Having originally decided to self cater Dani and I took off into Freiburg before Mel woke up to get some food… this was definitely a mistake as it turns out everything is shut on a Sunday. After driving round to 3 separate supermarkets we gave up and headed back, agreeing to eat at the pub again that night. It was no real surprise when Dani and Mel heartily tucked into the third giant meat platter in 4 days. In theory, the following days journey was supposed to be an easy one and I had scouted out a few campgrounds for us to stay at in Triberg. It turns out that you really have to do your research in this area as there are a lot of hiker-only campsites that you cannot get to by car. Having driven up the side of a sheer mountain and reached the dead end that described itself as a campground we decided to reroute to Schiltach instead. We did however make our stop at the home of the Black Forest Gateaux only to discover that we prefer the bastardised versions back home (pretty sure cake shouldn’t burn when you eat it). On the way to Schiltach we drove past a beautiful log farmhouse with a sign for camping but knowing that Schiltach’s campground was in the centre (allowing Dani to take some time off driving) I had encouraged her to ignore campgrounds on the way. The look in her eyes told me that this isolated farmhouse was really where she wanted to be, so I spent the next 20 minutes telling her to turn round if she really wanted to stay there. I already knew as we drove into the campground that Dani wasn’t going to want to stay there but she insisted we check it out. It resulted in the predicted “no” and a 20-minute drive back to the farmhouse (Schwarzwald Trendcamping Familie Blum €28.93/$43.15/33.90 USD). This did turn out to be a great decision and we managed to secure a beautiful spot overlooking the rolling hills of the Black Forest. This place was expensive but all accommodation in the Black Forest comes with a tourist card that entitles you to free travel in the area. This meant that we could catch the train to not only Schiltach, which is beautiful but also Alpirsbach. Alpirsbach has a great brewery that used to be run by monks. It also has a great tour (if you speak German) and very reasonably priced beer to purchase in the gift shop. We also stumbled across another meat feast for Dani and Mel across the road from the train station. We had one last stop in Germany before we were heading to Luxembourg with the sole purpose of being able to pop over to Strasbourg. Kehl is the town that borders Strasbourg on the German side and this had a much more reasonably priced camping option (DCC Campingpark Kehl-Strassburg€19.25/$28.75 AUD/22.60 USD). Strasbourg was really easy to get to from this campsite that is right next to the Rhine. Strasbourg is an easy walking city and it really is worth the stop. Great architecture, lovely people and plenty to do to pass a relaxing sunny day!
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