In all of our travels during our previous five trips to Europe we had never had to deal with a border crossing while driving. Most of the countries in the EU are part of the Schengen Zone and travel between these countries is unrestricted meaning there are no border controls or customs checks. In effect crossing from Austria to Slovenia is like crossing from Oregon to Washington. The license plates change, the flags change, the only difference in Europe is that the languages usually change.
Today for the first time we crossed from a country in the Schengen Zone to a country not in the zone so we had a real border with immigration and customs officials to deal with. While we have documentation for François showing how we legally own him in France, I admit to being worried about the first time I was going to have to explain it at a real border. As we were leaving Slovenia I didn’t expect any trouble as we were already there. I thought the guard would have to stamp us out of Schengen since we were visitors, but did not expect much else. When I pulled up to the booth I reached out to hand our passports to him, without taking them from me, he looked at the cover saw they were from the US and waved us on to Croatia.
I told Ton that was simple, but the real test was going to be Croatia as they are not part of Schengen and we would be in effect entering Croatia for the first time. The line was short at the entry point to Croatia and as we pulled up to the Croatian border guard I reached out to hand him our passports, without taking them from me, he looked at the cover saw they were from the US and waved us into Croatia. Ton and I looked at each other in surprise, but then we noted another gate a couple of hundred yards ahead and I thought that must be customs. When we pulled up to that booth it turned out to be the toll booth for the Croatian highway and all they wanted from us was 9 Croatian Kuna ($1.20) to use the road. I was a little disappointed as I had rehearsed my explanations of why Americans were driving a French licensed camper, and had an envelope full of documents to prove we legally owned François, to leave one country and enter another country without anyone touching our passports turned out to be a big anticlimax.
We are parked up in a cute little campground on the outskirts of Zagreb next to a reservoir. The reservoir was really busy with families out for Sunday strolls and the banks were lined with fishermen. It was a nice evening stroll and as you can see Ton got some great pictures. We will be trying the pizza restaurant on site tomorrow as it was packed with locals all day, which is always a good sign.
