Our foray into Croatia hadn’t been too successful thus far. After the beauty of Slovenia, Croatia with its quiet (read: boring) mountaintop towns and disastrous campsites (truly horrendous) was not living up to our expectations. We needed to seriously correct that. We hadn’t planned on visiting Mošćenička Draga, but it had a campsite with 5-star […]
Continue ReadingBook Review: Always Italy – Frances Mayes & Ondine Cohane
I thought I knew Italy pretty well and have seen most of the things I wanted to see in that country, but Always Italy definitely proved me wrong. Mayes (of Under the Tuscan Sun fame) and Cohane went to great lengths to showcase the best of Italy in this enormous tome – don’t let the […]
Continue ReadingMotovun: A Mountaintop Village
Our Croatian guidebook said not to miss Motovun, a popular mountaintop village in Istria. We didn’t need any further encouragement and watched in excitement as the town, indeed spectacularly located, drew closer. Like all medieval towns, cars aren’t allowed in the historic centre, so we parked the campervan somewhere halfway up the hill and set […]
Continue ReadingBook Review: Elders – Erns Grundling
Although I recognised his name from reading various Weg magazine articles, Erns Grundling really came to my attention while watching the Kyknet series Elders: Die Camino. I thoroughly enjoyed his very South African take on the well-known Spanish pilgrimage and never missed an episode. By the time he walked the Kumano Kodo route, I was […]
Continue ReadingSwimming in the Adriatic Sea
We chose to explore Slovenia and Croatia via campervan because of the freedom this method of travel would allow us. We could pack up and go as we please, sleeping over wherever we found a good spot for the night. But what happens when you can’t find a good spot? After our visit to Lipica […]
Continue ReadingLippizaners at the Lipica Stud Farm
If you’re a horse person, then you’ve probably heard of Lippizaners – those spotlessly white horses renowned for their good showmanship in classical dressage. These days they’re mostly associated with Austria and the Habsburg monarchy, but did you know that these horses are originally from Slovenia? And that the very first stud farm has been […]
Continue ReadingA Castle Inside a Cave
Have you ever looked back on your holiday memories and regretted not doing something? Predjama Castle in Slovenia is one such regret for me. The road from Nova Gorica to Predjama is an adventure all on its own, especially in a campercar. It’s only wide enough for one vehicle and twists and turns through a […]
Continue ReadingDriving Through the Julian Alps in Slovenia
What I love about travelling by campercar is the freedom to come and go as you please. After our first blissful few days at Lake Bled, we planned to stop at Bovec, a small town in the middle of the Julian Alps, in the northernmost part of Slovenia. We left the dinosaurs behind just before […]
Continue ReadingWalking With Dinosaurs
You’ve all heard this pithy saying: “Raising kids is a walk in the park. Jurassic Park.” Well, some days that statement is literally true. On the day we left Lake Bled we told the little traveller that we had a surprise for him. The look on his face when we stopped at Dino Park Bled […]
Continue ReadingBook Review: Amazing Places – Sunday Times Travel Magazine
The image on the cover immediately grabbed my attention. Exotic, mysterious, adventurous – it hinted at all the things travel could be, and I couldn’t resist. Sunday Times Travel Magazine’s Amazing Places sets out to highlight 200 of the world’s most extraordinary destinations – not an easy feat, I would imagine. How do you pick […]
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