Ljubljana, Slovenia – Villach, Austria

Today we said goodbye to Slovenia. It was a shame, and we both felt a bit sad that we had spent so little time here – but the weather was so bad that we decided there was no point hanging around – we may as well push on to Austria and then definitely plan a revisit some time in the future.

Although we didn't see that much of Slovenia, it has been a surprise hit with both of us – and we would definitely recommend it for a visit. Not even sure why exactly – although it's picturesque, friendly, modern and a bit different – which all helps! Also, for some reason the language has stuck right in my head. Italian just wasn't doing it for me – I was hopeless and hardly spoke 2 words to anyone the whole time we were there – but Slovenian is great. I was thanking people (Hvala) and greeting people (Dober dan) all over the place! Not exactly a wide ranging vocabulary, but a start!

So, after I had been down the road on the bike in the rain and bought some sausages and bread to make Jon a birthday breakfast (picture of the birthday boy looking a year older), Jon had done some birthday coding, I updated the blog and used up our 2 hours of paid for internet time, we packed up all the wet stuff (the groundsheet, awning and my poor towel that got left outside were the worst things) and headed off into the rain.........

We stopped off on the way to the Austrian border at the town of Bled – which is on the lake of the same name and is apparently the number #1 Slovenian tourist destination (I have a feeling I previously said the caves were that, but that isn't right). A pretty place (and probably much, much more so in the sunshine!) it was quite quiet and quite lovely.

Unlike my poncho - which isn't all that lovely, and looks almost as stupid as my free Tour de France cap seen in a previous photo :) Still, ponchos are the only way forward in this weather - despite looking REALLY stupid.

The lake itself was nice – small compared with previous lakes we have seen (see how we are now suffering from lake snobbery?) and the town of Bled had everything you might need – but, it wasn't immediately obvious why it was such a popular tourist spot. Still, I'm sure a good helping of sun would have helped us see it!

Tourist duties done we pushed on up the motorway, stopping briefly to spend our remaining Slovenian money on petrol, a sticker for the table and some wine, crisps & birthday cake for Jon !!

The border crossing was another unremarkable thing – and we weren't all that sure whether we had changed countries or not – especially as we went straight from what we thought might have been the border, into a tunnel through the mountains and then.............. well, out into Austria!

A new country.

And it wasn't raining. Bonus. Still no sunshine though – my tan is fading fast :(

We didn't go far – just to Villach and the Faakersee (a lake). A really, really stunning place. We got a place at a nice campsite on the lake edge – infact our spot was only a couple of spaces from the lake, so it was really lovely – potentially our best stop over yet.

After setting up we had a walk to the lake and a bit of a paddle, then it was back to the van for Slovinian champagne and some Slovian cheesy doodles (or their version of them), then into the restaurant for a birthday dinner for Jon – all ordered in my slightly rubbish German (it's been a long time) and a couple of beers. No idea what my dinner was – but it was very nice and their were chips involved – which is always a bonus.

We haven't really been eating out that much – trying to conserve money as much as possible – although travelling with the van is a cheaper option than trying to do the same thing staying in hotels, it's not really what I would call a cheap option. At the beginning of this week – after Will & Jo had gone – we tried to figure out a budget, because we had been spending quite a bit of cash, especially over the weekend. We did manage to come up with something, and have been quite good at sticking to it. Pretty much, we are spending about as much money as we would be at home – so, if we can stick to that sort of level we will be OK.

Our biggest expenses are – unsuprisingly I suppose – petrol and campsites. Food is mainly supermarket stuff, and we haven't really been eating or drinking out that much (apart from the odd cocktail stop!) so that helps. We did decide to eat out at least once in each country though – to be sure of sampling the local cuisine, also there is only so much pasta you can eat :)