15. Apr, 2016

15. Apr, 2016

15. Apr, 2016

15. Apr, 2016

THURSDAY 21-5-15

We arose to a lovely warm sunny morning. Don't you just love those weather forecasts? After scrubbing up and breakfast Rosina headed off to do the washing up, whilst I slinked off with the little pocket camera - there was something that has been bugging me ever since I had strayed in to the 'Bollicky Buffers' Resort up the hill, and I wanted to get a picture of it.

Now this 'Bollicky Buffers' Resort had on it a beach bar/cafe with tables and chairs outside. Now if I were designing such a facility for nudists then I'd probably look to have vinyl wipe-clean cushions on the chairs, or have single use paper covers for them in the interest of hygiene. But no, the chairs are made of weaved wicker, I ask you, wicker. Firstly if you were bollicky buff, would you want to sit your privates on a wicker chair used by who knows who? How do the cleaning ladies get them clean and hygienic again? It just doesn't bare think thinking about. After a couple of quick photographs for which I would have liked to use 'flash' but didn't want to draw attention to myself, I left as discreetly as I had arrived, leaving them to begin serving their 'All Day Breakfast' – probably two fried eggs and a chipolata.

Just a word of warning then - if ever you pass this way and the 'Bollicky Buffers Resort' chair-cleaning ladies have a small stall on Vrsar market selling locally-spun scouring pads - DON'T BUY THEM, you know where they've been.

We were on the road in good time, continually putting our hands in our pockets for toll fees, heading for Ljubljana the capital of Slovenia. Crossing the border in to Slovenia was quite straightforward, no questions about motorbikes, aliens, alcohol or used washing machines, just straight through.

One problem we did have however was the toll road. We followed the markings on the road then found ourselves going through the 'Vignette' lanes, something we didn't have. Oh dear I thought, it's Turkey all over again. The Chef retrieved the 'Slovenia' guide book from the bookshelf above the cab and looked it up to discover that use of the toll roads without a vignette paid for and displayed, can result in a fine of between €500 and €800 which cheered me up no end.

The scenery here in Slovenia thus far has been lovely; again somewhere that looks very 'Austrian Alpsy'.

After finding Ljubljana we were soon at our campground - 'Ljubljana Resort' (GPS: N46.097628º E14.518878º). It's not a bad little site, quite busy, with a good location. There's a very frequent bus service in to the city centre which is always helpful to us motorhomers.

Whilst The Chef popped to book us in I thought I'd pump our Lake Bled destination in to the Garmin satnav. The result? Nothing. The screen had frozen. I tried turning it on and off, pressing the 'reset' button several times, nothing. Meanwhile - The Chef, whilst booking us in, asked the receptionist how we buy the vignettes, and was told at garages or Post Offices. On her return to the vehicle I told her that yet another Satnav was broken and unless I could get it back to life that was it, we'd have to head for France and then home as I was not prepared to attempt to find places like Venice without GPS assistance, out of date or not.

After getting set up I told The Chef we needed to get in to town and buy a vignette in the hope that we can avoid the fine. The point is we have never tried to dodge payment of these toll fees; it's just that for tourists who don't know the ropes, they don't make it easy for you to buy the vignettes.

So in to town on the bus, taking the pocket camera along in the hope I might get a picture or two whilst it was still dry, though it was very cloudy and quite cool, what a difference a day makes.

First we trudged down a Post Office, and after some discussion regarding the size of the vehicle we agreed to pay €30 which is seven days use of their toll roads. The lady behind the counter would activate it as from today.

Having got that out of the way we had a wander around the Old City. What an utterly delightful place it is. This is their capital, and unlike our capital London, there are no huge, noisy traffic jams, screaming sirens, armed coppers ready to send you to paradise if you dare to wave your newly-purchased John Wayne plastic rifle you bought for your four year old' birthday, etc etc. This place is lovely, peaceful, quiet, civilised, not a copper, yob, chav with builders cleavage sticking out of size 20 jogging bottoms, 'Big Issue' sellers, or a burkha-wearing human postbox in sight, and the architecture is superb. I popped off a number of quick photos in case it should be raining tomorrow when we return.

Back 'home' then on the bus to a good old British meal - Bangers and Mash with marrowfat peas and gravy. We'd had nothing like it since we left the UK and it was a real treat, with the added bonus that it made some space in the freezer and rear locker. There is still a lot of food back there. In fact I wasn't sure if I'd bought one or two small tins of Tesco apricots along with us, but having checked, the second tin I thought I might have bought, turned out to be a tin of Waitrose Essential sliced carrots. Now I try not to be too fussy about food but I don't think sliced carrots with a topping of yoghurt or Angel Delight would be that appetising.

We have new neighbours, a nice young German couple with a young baby. I had a nice chat with them this evening and it seems that they are making their way towards Dubrovnik, so I offered to give them the name of the campground we used there.

It is now raining, and The Chef has just offered to make a drink before we watch a bit of TV, Series 3 of ‘Last Tango in Halifax’, which was broadcast on TV whilst we were down in Spain last winter, and so I bought it on DVD.

15. Apr, 2016

WEDNESDAY 20-5-15

What a lousy night I had. Normally we don't worry about the vehicle being exactly level when we park up, I'll often check a two-dimensional spirit level I place on the dining table behind my driving seat, announce 'that's near enough'; and that does us. Some people take ages messing about with levelling blocks under various wheels. We have some with us, but have only used them once. Well last night we were clearly down at the back end which meant our heads were pointing downwards. This resulted in the chef snoring like a pig and me with horrible heartburn, even a' Rennies' wouldn't touch it. At 04:00 I got up to try and sleep in the chair, immediately I did so my resident pig stopped snoring - absolutely typical. Anyway I still couldn't settle and so went back to bed but round the other way so that my head was uphill. That seemed to do the trick, though I had to try and remember not to roll over that way round otherwise I would fall on to the floor about four feet below.

We grudgingly rose at 08:30 because the weather website The Chef uses predicted (as opposed to my good old www.bbc.co.uk/weather) that we could get rain this morning, never mind this evening, and so we would need to have the carpets and carpet covers out, sweep through, then put back, before then taking up our large exterior nylon mat before it rained and got wet - and all that before we could have a shower because 'Er Indoors' didn't want to get dust on herself after having showered.

After the chores were done and the vehicle exterior lockers tidied through we had a wander in to the local village of Vrsar. It was a nice little place, it had a large marina with yachts of all shapes and sizes, some doing boat trips, bars and restaurants. We decided to treat ourselves to an ice cream, a large scoop of flavoured ice cream each for about £1.20 in total, our cheapest yet.

After a nice walk around the village we bought a large bag of fresh cherries from a stallholder and a loaf of bread from the local shop before making our way back for lunch. Today it was to be - pancakes of all things. We had a couple of packs of batter mix in the back as well as the small net of fresh lemons we'd bought back in Omis in the hope that we could squeeze them and marry them up to a bag of ice, which never came to fruition. So pancakes, sugar and fresh lemon juice made an unusual lunch and treat.

Early this afternoon we got a few bits of light rain but nothing too much. I was going to turn the vehicle around this afternoon so that the beds were uphill for tonight and we would be ready to drive on to the firm gravel roadway after a possible night of rain. Trouble is a Dutch couple arrived with their caravan and parked very near to us and I didn't want to then move the vehicle as they may misunderstand my motives and be offended. So it's a job to do before bed time.