15. Apr, 2016

SATURDAY 23-5-15

The non-stop rain finally came to a halt at about 02:30 (not that it disturbed my sleep in any way you understand) and then restarted at about 07:30. We had a bit of a lie-in as there was nothing much to get up for, then up to the shower block wearing my dressing gown with my Mac over it to keep me dry, toilet bag and towel.

Yesterday The Chef had committed the cardinal sin and got wet. Her shoes were soaked through. How she ever imagined her suede-looking slipper-lookalikes could ever be water proof is beyond me. If it were not for the fact she had more washing up to do she'd be on the naughty stool.

Luckily she had a pair of trainers in the locker at the back (I didn't like to ask her why she hadn't worn them yesterday) so I suggested we'd leave the wet shoes in the bathroom to dry whilst we were out, she'd wear the trainers and if they worked - fine, if they didn't, she was to say so and we'd fix her up with something else (I'd spotted a 'North Face' outdoor clothing shop in town).

On departing the vehicle I noticed that our nice German neighbours had already left, I had heard somebody leave at about 07:30, so I guess it was them, understandably hacked off with the weather and now heading for Dubrovnik - good luck to them.

Back in to town on the bus again whilst enduring heavy rain. Lordy, Lordy, tour groups absolutely everywhere. Surely not, we must be too far inland for cruise ships, where have they all come from?

Our method of travel up to the castle was to be 'The Train' one of those silly things that looks like a train with carriages behind it that plods up and down promenades back home. But we don't care, we'd rather be seen on that thing than walking all the way up to the top, and since it only cost something like €4 return each, as opposed to the poncey funicular at €12 each return, it's worth the humiliation. Judging by the lumps and bumps we experienced on the way up I think the train must have been built in Kosovo, but for the price we could forgive them.

There was not a lot to see once we were up at the castle. The views looking down on lovely Ljubljana were restricted due to the low cloud based, mist and rain. Never mind, in situations like this we have to work with what we've got.

After a coffee to kill some time we headed downhill on the choo choo, before escaping and heading for the market area for a late lunch. Damned if we're not adventurous in what we eat, same stall, same meal. “Two chicken and chips please, one with lots of ketchup on, and the other with lots of mayonnaise” . Ten minutes later, or as long as it took to fry two portions of frozen chips and two HGV road-kill flat, breaded, chicken bits we were tucking in to our foreign cuisine.

By then we'd had enough, it was wet, it was miserable, it was full of tourists, so we decided to head for home.

And here we are, having popped in to Reception on the way back to renew our Wi-Fi connection, joking how much we just love this English-style summer, and them not too sure if I'm serious or not.

We will have something light for our evening meal as we dined at lunchtime. Life is too short to spend time watching tonight's Eurovision Song Contest online via the laptop, but we may watch the latter stages of the voting. My guess is we're so bad we'll come about 5th from bottom. 'Bottom' being the key word to describe our entry.

That's it then for another day.

15. Apr, 2016

15. Apr, 2016

15. Apr, 2016

15. Apr, 2016

FRIDAY 22-5-15

If you have a choice, never park a motorhome or caravan under a large tree when it's due to rain. All night, if it wasn't raining then the tree was dropping much larger, noisier raindrops on us long after the rain stopped. Regular rainfall on a roof can be quite therapeutic whilst you're lying there. Great large, loud random dollops of rain hitting the roof isn't.

We both set off for the shower block at the same time, but as usual I was back first and spent my time wisely by moving the vehicle to the pitch directly opposite us as the last campers to occupy it had just vacated. It is tree-free and should give us a better nights' sleep tonight.

Scrubbed up and fed, chores done and the details of the Dubrovnik campground given to our neighbours, we set off for the city armed with the SLR and video cameras. It was raining lightly but not enough to bother us. Having jumped off the bus at a different, unfamiliar location we made our way to the city centre. We heard music and then saw in front of us a large group of young people dancing in formation, all with matching umbrellas. We hung around recording it, working our way to what was the top of the dancing lines. It turned out that the town centre was closed off because this was some kind of student graduation celebration (Ljubljana has a university with 50,000 students). Events like this are what video cameras are made for and I managed to get myself between the two lines of dancers to record much of the event. It was a thoroughly enjoyable hour or so.

Then it was off to take more pictures in this truly lovely, small, intimate city, what a delight. It was just the lousy weather which was taking the shine off things, and the rain was gradually getting heavier. I was becoming increasingly pleased I had turned the central heating on in the motorhome before we left, at least we would have somewhere nice and warm and dry to return home to.

We both wanted to look inside the cathedral but it was closed between 12:00 & 15:00, so soon after 15:00 we were through the doors clicking away. The artwork on the ceiling etc was magnificent. That job done all of today's boxes were ticked. It just left a trip up to the castle for better views of the city to do tomorrow. We popped in to a local supermarket for some bits before setting off home on the bus. As we'd had a cooked lunch (grilled chicken & chips-we like to eat the same as the locals when we travel!) we decided that this evening we'd just have some nice hot tomato soup and fresh crusty bread. The bonus of having the central heating on was that it also produced about 10 litres of very hot water in the tank. This meant that the chef would not have to trudge over to the block in the pouring rain to do the washing up. I know, I know, I spoil her, I know I do, but I just can't help myself.