Grado (Italy) – Postojna (Slovenia)

No route today - Google maps doesn't appear to have any detail at all on Slovenia!!

It wasn't raining this morning when we got up – although Jon didn't actually get up until gone 10, and I had already been sitting in the captain's chair reading for nearly 2 hours by then. Still, we are on holiday – so lie ins are allowed.

When Jon finally got up we decided that a little run might be nice along the sea front – where we cycled yesterday. We moved the van to a free parking place (we are never sure how much time we have paid for at these motorhome places) and set out. Last night, and this morning we had got 'in' to the beach front through a big gate – last night we had run out of the otherside, throught some turnstile things. This morning, the turnstile things were in action, and we couldn't get out, so we turned around and headed home – checking out all alternative exits – all barred!!! Looked like we were trapped inside this weird beach place. Even the gate that we had come in through looked to be relocked when we got to it – but luckily it had just been closed and the chain draped around it – we just let ourselves out!!! Turns out that you have to pay to get in that section of the beach – not just barge your way through like we did :) Anywya, free again, we carried on down the sea front, and then turned around and did a bit of interval training on the way home.

We made use of the free (but cold) showers in the beachside toilet block, and got back to the van in time for lunch. Eventually, we were on our way out of Grado – a bit disappointed – but then seaside towns are always a bit depressing unless the sun is shining – and this was no exception.

Trieste was next.

A nice drive along a quiet road – most of it coastal – and with a short couple of stops at the side of the road to look at the buoys (we are assuming they were attached to fishing nets - there were loads of them) and for me to pose by the sea in the force 10 gales, and we were in Trieste.

The guide book talked about 'faded grandeur' and I suppose that was about right. I really liked it though – lots of big old buildings, near the sea, backed by mountains, loads of coffee shops, plenty of people but not packed – really nice.

We stopped for a coffee, and Jon decided this was the place to buy the van some ground coffee (Trieste is, apparently, famed for it's coffee) and managed to ask, in Italian, for 500g of their house blend!! Of course we don't have anything in the van suitable for making coffee, so we nipped into a department store and bought the van an expresso making thing. Lucky van – it gets so many presents :)

That done we headed off to Slovenia!!

How exciting – a new country and everything.

Just before we got to the border, we stopped for petrol, and I finally managed to get my Italian car sticker – it wasn't that easy though. I spotted that the petrol station had some, but they were under the counter, so I pointed to them and asked the man if I could have one and he said no!! I knew that he didn't want to give me one because I wasn't Italian and he thought I wanted to put it on the back of the van. But how to explain? I tried "souvenir" thinking the Italian word might be quite similar - but he wasn't having any of it! Eventually one of his mates came in and joined in and when I repeated "souvenir" she turned to the guy and said "Souvenira" or something along those lines - and suddenly it was all smiles. Because obviously their word and ours are SO different!

Anyway, on to Slovenia.

Through the border with no problems and onto a new motorway - not too far though, which was good because it is really windy and the van hates it - just down the road to Postojna, home of the famous caves which we are going to look at tomorrow.

Staying on a nice campsite in the woods near the caves - looks a bit like the places we stayed in Canada - lots of trees and things - and it is cold, a mere 17degrees! Brrrrr.

Haven't done much since we got here, just had some very nice wine (as previously mentioned), had a mooch around the campsite, and that's about it. More Slovenia tomorrow!