Out of the EU...

 

The Alps behind us was bitter sweet. Aimile had coped superbly, hauling us up and over the mountain passes and shared some of the most breath-taking scenery in the world. The run down the Italian valleys past Bolzano to Trieste was more mundane. We didn't attempt to enter Trieste's  industrial sprawl and skirted round, fumbling our way to engage with the coast road that runs all the way down the Adriatic. 

After a couple of missed turns, we were heading for the Croatian border. There was no discernible difference between the two countries as we exited Italy and entered Croatia. Even the currency stayed the same, as Croatia had obligingly adopted the Euro on January 1st. What changed was the scenery. The mountains came down to the sea and the road clung to the edge of the cliffs and followed all the contours. That is, all the contours up and down. No gracefully curving Italian sculpted concrete bridges. It was a fun drive to start with, but it had been a long day and it began to pall. 

Jacky started a search for likely accommodation and found the scene had changed. Hotels had become rare and we were in apartment land. Up until this point small family run hotels had suited us fine, preferably with a restaurant attached. We pulled over to discuss options. There were relatively few in our vicinity and we opted to back-track to the nearest town. We had passed Senj, which looked picturesque and tried to drive into the old walled town. This didn't work and we had to come out and round and found ourselves on the sea front. There were several hotels, but expensive and above our budget. There was in fact not much open at this time of the year. The best Jacky could manage was an apartment and we followed the google blue line into a new development on the outside of town. With the help of neighbours we located the property and a guy let us in. It was very nicely finished, a generous size and reasonably equipped. I could tell by the way Jacky offered to cook, that she had done it before and relished the prospect. 

We dumped our bags and headed off to the big supermarket we had seen earlier. We did the easy bit first ,a bottle of wine and a beer and floundered through various culinary options. Tortellini and a tomato sauce seemed and easy and palatable solution. I think our mistake was no not buy fresh pasta. These were dried and failed to fully hydrate before breaking into pieces, with whole thing produce a tomatoey gruel. White wine and olives saved the evening, along with two episodes of Lydia Poet on Netflix.

Chris

We're collecting country stickers as we progress. They are not always easy to find and sadly we missed a few en-route. But Aimile is beginning to look like a well-travelled car.

When we left Switzerland, we followed the signs to Vaduz - not that we needed to go there - but it was at the end of a road we'd taken. I was excited to find it was the capital of Liechtenstein, A tiny country between Austria and Switzerland, that I'd not visited before. We didn't have time to explore its fabled Medieval castles, but we did briefly clip the corner, so I guess it counts as a country visited. Alas, we didn't get the sticker.

We also had a short drive through Slovenia - part of the former Yugoslavia, which retains the capital city, Ljubljana. This country too is hoping for EU membership and has taken the Euro as currency. It's also covered by the data roaming on my phone, so apart from signs welcoming us and bidding us farewell - there's little difference in scenery or ambience. But I guess it was important for the emerging country to retain access to the coat.

I drove down this coast on an almost identical route back in 1967. Tito was in charge of a hard line communist state, which was undeveloped for tourism, although the locals were keen to embrace it. But everything was against them. There was no English taught, so communication with the rest of Europe was limited, the roads were poor and bumpy and full of potholes. The petrol was low grade and not easily available. Overnight camping grounds were primitive and without facilities. Food was hard to find. I remember many tunnels, which are still there - but then the surface was gravel inside - so you were lulled into a sense of false security by the approach road, and suddenly you were in the dark, grinding along, wrecking the car's tyres.

It's a fjord-like coast and of course that hasn't changed, so the road, although pretty, twixt mountains and sea, is often tortuous to drive and the many sharp bends make overtaking difficult. For a passenger it was quite a thrill ride and I had to hang on round the corners - occasionally closing my eyes when we were passing a truck or tractor. The tunnels, now surfaced have pavements inside, which although safer for the few pedestrians are not easily visible for drivers entering a dark space from bright sunlight.

After Slovenia - Croatia - another aspiring EU member. But it's a much larger country and deserves a longer description, so more on that later.

Jacky