Ron Corbin – Page 10 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

March 30, 2025 Delft NE

We choose to have a lazy day today. The spring and fall time changes do not line up between the US and Europe so we ended up sleeping an hour later this morning as today was the day for Europeans to spring forward. It didn’t make a lot of difference for us as we had very little planned intentionally.

It was a very blue day, but very windy. François had been rocking all night in the wind and when we finally decided to head into town it was still blowing quite hard. We bundled up and joined the crowds in downtown Delft.

Despite it being chilly and very windy the outside seats at the cafes were still the first choice for most of the diners. We were in the minority who chose to sit inside out of the wind.

Our agenda was very simple, go have a couple of beers at interesting bars. Delft has been a major producer of beer in the Netherlands since the middle ages so we wanted to get a feel for the beer history of the region. Ton had picked out a couple of places that specialized in Dutch and Belgian beers. Our first stop was at a small pub near the church. They had over 30 beers on tap, and after consulting with the owner I choose a Dutch Blond, and Ton choose a “Belgian” dubbel.

The Belgian is in quotes because the bartender explained that the brewer of the beer was a Dutch guy who lived near the Belgian border. He initially brewed his beer in his hometown, but he learned that while Belgian beer was in vogue nobody was interested in Dutch beer. So after a couple of years he bought a place a couple of kilometers away on the Belgian side of the border and sales soared for his “Belgian” beers.

Not all of the outside seating was full.

Ton had picked out another place that had a large selection of Belgian beers, but when we got there all of the inside seating was taken and the substantial outside beer garden was also full. We may return later if the wind is not blowing.

Canals, Bicycles, and tall people because it is the Netherlands.

Our final stop was a small brewery which is the newest in Delft. While the building was being converted to a brewery a stray swing of a sledge hammer uncovered a forgotten cellar under the main floor. This happens quite frequently so the local town archaeologist was brought in and after some investigation he determined that the cellar had been used in the past as a brewery so the building has returned to its original roots.

We sat in the cellar that was the old brewery for our beers. The newest brewery in town has good beers that hopefully make the ghosts of the old brewers proud. We were debating whether to have one more beer when I spotted a place on the man square offering Affogato which is ice cream topped with espresso. Ton loves Affogato so we skipped the beer in favor of dessert. It was a good choice.

Street scene on the walk home. The sign is advertising a Belgian beer.

March 29, Rotterdam NE

Last night Ton proposed a trip to Rotterdam to get us into the swing of things. So we forced ourselves up a little earlier. Ton prepared a nice hearty breakfast. It was our first big meal of the trip. We then set off for the train station for the 15 minute train ride to Rotterdam. In what was going to be a trend for the day, we showed up at the platform just as the doors closed on the train and it began rolling. Fortunately, the next train was in 15 minutes.

Rotterdam’s city center is very different than any other we have visited in Europe. In May of 1940 as the Germans were invading the Netherlands they sent one of the first mass air raids to Rotterdam, in 45 minutes the downtown core of the city was leveled with hundreds of deaths.

More interesting architecture in the down town core of Rotterdam.

After the war most cities tried to reconstruct the buildings that were lost to bombings or battle, but in Rotterdam they decided to start form scratch rather than rebuild the old buildings. The result is a city of very modern and vibrant architecture. It has the feel of an American city, but with European walk ability. We really enjoyed it.

The Market Hall is the largest covered market in Europe.

Our first stop was the Market Hall. It is supposed to be the largest covered market in Europe but I think it depends on how you define big, it certainly is the tallest. It is a giant food court with foods from all over the Netherlands and the world represented in different small restaurants. The interior is a gain arch covered in murals of food, plants, and animals. In addition to all of the restaurants the building also incorporates over 200 apartments. One of these apartments would be perfect for someone who didn’t like to cook!

Our next stop was the flamboyant yellow cube houses. These were built in the 1990’s as a civil development project. The architect promised something unique and he certainly delivered.

Looking up from one of the courtyards in the Cube Houses.

There were originally going to be 70 of these built, but in the end only 38 were completed. While people were interested in looking at them, they are not the most practical places to live so demand was not that high.

A courtyard with several homes. We couldn’t tell if each cube was it’s own place or separate units.

After the food hall, the yellow cubes and the longish walk to get to them our next stop was food. In the Netherlands we have been trying a lot of Surinamese food. It is an interesting blend of Chinese, Indian, and Caribbean food. We were excited to find what was touted as the best Surinamese restaurant in Rotterdam and it looked promising. It was full and informal which is always a good sign that it is the food not the ambiance that is driving business. I liked the food, but Ton was a little disappointed.

Walking to the restaurant we came across this weird looking gnome. It turns out it is a very controversial piece of art here. It is supposed to be Santa Claus holding a Christmas tree, but the Christmas tree looks like a sex toy, (intentionally) so it is called the Buttplug Santa. It has been relocated several times as merchants are not amused, though it must have fans as it keeps finding a new home.

We had been reading about what the Lonely Planet called the best bar in the world so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately it was not open when we went by so Ton’s culinary experience in Rotterdam was disappointing.

The entrance to the “best bar” in the world.

Luckily we saw a nice bar on our way to the train station so Ton was able to enjoy a nice Dutch beer while I settled on a Czech Pilsner. We arrived on the platform for what was to be a quick ride back to Delft only to see our train pulling out. Luckily there was another in about 20 minutes so we moved over. When we arrived in Delft we found that we had missed our bus to the campground by 3 minutes, the next one was in 27 minutes but it did not turn up. We finally got a bus 57 minutes after arriving. So while the trains and busses run frequently we did not have very good luck with them today.

March 28, 2025 Delft NE

We had another late start to the day as a combination of jet lag, and iffy weather kept us in bed until late. We lounged around all of the morning until about 1pm when Ton suggested a walk to town.

This blue heart is supposed to represent the heart of the city of Delft. It is blue because Delft is famous for blue pottery.

We had visited Delft last year and spent a couple of nights. We spent one day checking out the town, and used it as a base to explore the Hague for another couple of days. Ton wanted to go back to a couple of the sites and check them out again.

The obligatory canal and bicycle picture.

After a short 25 minute walk we were in the main square of the town. As we expected it had not changed. The square is nice, and Delft is on the tourism trail as it is famous for its blue pottery, and as the home of the girl with the pearl earring. Scarlett Johansen starred in this movie a few years ago and it still drives visitors to Delft.

Street art of the Girl with the Pearl Earring. The paining is sometimes referred to as the Mona Lisa of the North and was quite scandalous when it was first shown.

As we were walking thru the square a wedding party emerged from the town hall. The friends and family formed two lines and the newly weds walked thru it, while everyone blue bubbles. We guessed the bubbles replaced the throwing of rice, but maybe the Dutch never threw rice, and always blew bubbles at newly weds.

The wedding party posing in front of the town hall.

We had a nice walk thru town, but we had a deadline as it was supposed to rain about 4pm. Ton wanted to make one more run thru the supermarket before heading back to François. After 45 minutes we emerged from the Jumbo supermarket with a pack full of miscellaneous food and hustled back to François just before the rain started.

The home of Jan Vermeer who painted the Girl with the Pearl Earring.

We settled in for the night, but after the rain it was a bit damp and chilly so I wimped out and turned on the heater to warm François up before we went to bed. We are planning to head out tomorrow for a proper day of exploring in South Holland.

This kissing Dutch couple is quite famous and we have both seen it in many places but we do not know the story behind it.

March 27, 2025 Delft NE

We both slept in. I was up around 10 am and Ton took a little longer to get going. It was chilly overnight, and while I thought about turning on the heat we managed to make it through the night

This sheep is from the children park next to the campground. It is a kind of giant petting zoo, full of cute animals. He looks like he is ready for a shearing.

To allow Ton a chance to sleep in peace I decided to head into town to see if I could find a charger for my Fitbit to replace the one which is probably sitting on the table next to where I packed my carry on bag at home. After walking to a couple of stores I was told it was unlikely I would find one and would have to order it on line. I wasn’t sure if that would work here, but telling Ton of my dilemma she said she thought we could order it from Amazon. After adding the campgrounds address to my account I was able to order one for delivery (hopefully) tomorrow.

This goat had mismatched horns that caused Ton some concern. He looks like he is managing fine with his asymmetrical horns.

We had our first and last meal of the day around 4 pm as jet lag is also messing with our meal schedule. To prevent us from falling to sleep too early we had a nice evening stroll taking in the children park next store, and heading to one of the main shopping areas in town.

Part of the rowing team from the local university.

Delft is a very prosperous looking town, almost stereo typically Dutch. It is full of solid looking well maintained Brick buildings, tall and good looking people, and of course canals. It is the kind of town I could envision living a good life in. The evening crowd was very young as Delft is a famous university town.

We finished the day off with a little recreational shopping in two grocery stores. After about 45 minutes of wandering aisles looking at various foods we walked out with a single bottle of salad dressing, and made our way back to François for the day.

March 26, 2025 Delft NE

We have begun our spring trip. We left during a busy time at home. Our son Dylan was moving into his new home. He and his fiancée Rebecca purchased their first home so they are very excited about now being homeowners. We helped as much as we could but the movers actually delivered their furniture the day before we left so we were not able to offer much help.

Mt. St. Helens in the foreground and Mt. Adams in the background on our flight north to Seattle.

Our flight over was uneventful, we even were upgraded to business class for the 30 minute flight from Portland to Seattle. Unfortunately our flight from Seattle to Amsterdam was in coach, but still everything worked as it should and we arrived 30 minutes early in Amsterdam. In immigration the officer asked where we would be visiting this trip and when I mentioned Spain he said he loved Spain. Just to make conversation I asked if he had any recommendations about Spain and he launched in to about a 5 minute description about how to use the subway system in Barcelona to get around town and to make sure we avoided the tourist busses. I’m sure the people behind us in the rather long line thought we were getting thoroughly interrogated about our plans!

A quick Uber to our storage and François was waiting for us. This time we appear to be rodent free which made us both very happy. The only issue is we got an airbag warning lite when we started up. A search on google shows this is a pretty common problem with Ducatos so a trip to a Fiat dealer may be in our future. Fortunately it doesn’t effect our ability to drive.

The big blob as Ton describes Mt. Rainier, she tells everyone that Mt. Hood that overlooks Portland is beautiful and Mt. Rainier that overlooks Seattle is ugly. Of course she is completely unbiased.

We had to move our initial stopping point to Delft as the Amsterdam campsite does not open until April 1. We will decide whether we move up there to take in the shopping opportunities of Amsterdam before heading south later in the week. The campground was fuller than we expected but it is one of the only ones open this week. Most campgrounds are opening next week.

November 1, 2024 Portland OR

Our fall trip is over. The flight home was uneventful and even a little luxurious. KLM recently took over the Amsterdam to Portland route from Delta. When we booked the flight on Deltas website I noticed that Business Class was about the same price as we usually pay for economy plus so we enjoyed the luxury of business class. KLM must have been trying to fill the plane for one of their inaugural flights, it was nice to see how the other half lives.

We added one new country to our list in Switzerland, and continued our fondness for Italy by spending some unplanned (originally) time in Italy. Since the purpose of this trip was fall colors we found the best colors were in Bled Slovenia.

We are looking at our options for the next trip. This could include a trip east towards Hungary while taking in Berlin and Vienna which we keep missing on our trips. We are also looking at going south towards Morocco.

We are still enjoying traveling this way, and I see a few more trips in our future before we wrap up our European adventure.

October 31, 2024 Amsterdam NE

Today we dropped François off at the Tulip Farm for storage this winter. We took our time leaving the campground in Amsterdam as the airport hotel will not let you check in early so we were trying to time our arrival for 3pm.

François getting his pre-storage bath at the truck wash near the airport.

We did some last minute clean up in the morning, and packed all of the dry food and paper away in plastic boxes to try to keep the mice away this winter. Finally around 11:30 we headed over to a truck wash near the airport to give François a good wash before heading to storage.

One of about 10 storage buildings that used to be used for Tulip farming.

After the wash we headed over to the Tulip farm, we had to detour around what looked like a pretty nasty motorcycle crash on a narrow road near the storage, but arrived about 1:30 at the storage. The storage we use used to be a Tulip farm and the old buildings that used to be for growing Tulips have been converted to storage. We have outside storage as the inside storage is completely full. The last step before we left was to set a couple of mouse traps just in case.

Our final stop for the day was the airport Ibis Hotel, where they were kind enough to let us into the room at 2pm instead of making us wait until 3pm like last time. Ton spent part of the afternoon doing a final rearrangement of the bags while I enjoyed Dutch TV.

October 30, 2024 Amsterdam NE

Today Ton packed up our bags and we both did a little cleaning in preparation for putting François in storage tomorrow. We had a couple of nice conversations with some old friends Ovi and Cory, and our new friends from Singapore. The day was damp and dark so it does feel like it is a good time to get going to Portland which is probably also damp and dark, but it is our damp and dark.

The campground we are staying at is shutting down all of the camping facilities (showers, washers, and the little general store) tomorrow, but you can stay here without the facilities during the winter . The price drops quite a bit and it looks like a lot of people will be taking advantage of the aire that this place will become tomorrow, as it is as full as it has been since we arrived.

October 29, 2024 Amsterdam NE

Another day of cleaning and organizing for our trip home. We did meet a nice couple from Singapore who we chatted with for awhile. They did Germany and the Netherlands, and in a separate leg rented a RV in Iceland and did the circle route there. It was fun talking to them.

Otherwise Ton worked hard, and I took a couple of short walks. The Heron in the picture spent most of the day hanging in the canal behind François fishing.

October 28, 2024 Amsterdam NE

We have returned to the campground that we started the trip at. When we arrived in September the place was bustling. They are closing down on the 31st which works well for us as we are leaving that day. But now instead of bustling it is very quiet. With the rain and damp everyone who is here is pretty much staying inside their campers so it was a pretty quiet place.

The canal right behind François. There is a big park on the other side of the canal.

Ton spent the day organizing things for the trip home. She spent some time taking an inventory of what we are going to leave behind as she has learned this helps us when we are packing to come back so we do not carry stuff from home that is already here. François has a lot of storage for his size, but after 6 years we are using a lot of the space we have, so we don’t need any duplicates. She was also looking at all of the stuff we bought on this trip to bring home and sizing up how to pack it.

Our preparations now include putting all of the dry food and paper products we have into plastic boxes to discourage another invasion by mice. We hope this does the trick.

I spent most of the day staying out of the way, but being available to lift things if necessary. We are starting to have big meals to get rid of all of the stuff in the refrigerator. So I did try to get in a walk in the morning to prep for the extra food.

October 27, 2024 Amsterdam NE

We were able to enjoy an extra hour sleep this morning as Europe changes time one week earlier than the US. The traveling part of the trip ended today as we made our way back to our base in Amsterdam. We will be spending the next few days cleaning up and preparing François for storage for the winter. The drive over was easy and the high light of the day was some more Grocery Tourism in the grocery store near the campground.

October 26, 2024 Bonn GE

We were up early to get on the road to Bonn. But there was a delay while we tried to figure out who to pay for the previous night. The previous day we had called the campground, and they told us that they would give us a code to get in the gate. When we arrived there was no one at the campground. After we settled in I sent a text and asked how we should pay. We didn’t have an answer in the morning, and after waiting awhile we gave them a call and they told us to leave the money in a mailbox near the gate.

The Cathedral in Bonn with an interesting sculpture in front of it.

It was a busy drive from Frankfurt to Bonn, but we still made good time, and arrived a little before noon. The campground was open and fairly full, but once again no one was there to tell us what to do. After a while we found a note saying pick a spot and come pay us after 1pm.

Bonn is most famous these days as the birthplace of Ludwig von Beethoven. Bonn was also the capital of Germany when it was divided between the east and the west. Bonn was picked I assume because no one saw it as a permanent candidate to be the capital once Germany was reunified as it is a small city of around 320,000.

The downtown Saturday market is getting ready for Christmas.

We were both hungry and we wanted a typical German meal, so we headed to a Donner Kebab shop. The food was great and the place was buzzing so we enjoyed our meal.

Ton had been reading about Bonn on the way down the autobahn and told me that the third thing Bonn was famous for is being the birthplace of Haribo which I guess is the most popular gummy bears in the world. So as we were walking down the street we saw a giant Haribo store and headed in. Despite the fact that neither of us has ever had a Haribo gummy bear we ended up with about €20 of candy to take home as gifts. Also, the Haribo candy made in Europe is healthier than that sold in the US as they use a more natural sweetener.

Our selection of gummy candy to take home.

We then headed to Beethoven’s house to see where he grew up. It is a typical town home on one of the main streets of town. We discussed going in but it was getting late in the day so we started to head back.

As we were heading towards the bus stop we saw a nice beer hall and Ton said this was our last day in Germany and we hadn’t had a beer. I didn’t need any convincing so we toasted the German beer industry and then headed down to the bus stop.

On our way down to the Rhine we came across these kayakers hauling their kayaks back to their car.

Our campground is right on the Rhine River and on our way back from the bus we took a detour to walk down and take a close look at it. Across the river was an old castle and a new castle. At the base of the castles were vineyards that had turned golden.

The old castle, the new castle at the top of today post is just to the right.

October 25, 2024 Leeheim GE

We had a plan for the next three days. We were going to drive a long way today to reach Frankfurt, visit Frankfurt tomorrow, and possibly meet our friends Tracey and Tony on Sunday.

The first part of the plan involved driving 450 kilometers (over 300 miles) on the autobahn.

The first part of the plan involved a 450 kilometer drive on the autobahn that I figured would take about 5 hours. Despite some construction, that part of the plan came off almost to the minute as we pulled into the campground after 5 hours and 2 minutes.

The view from our campground this evening.

Then the plan came unraveled. We travel in shoulder season so if a campground is open they usually have plenty of spots. The last two stops we stayed in gigantic campgrounds that could hold hundreds of RV’s, and there were less than 20 people staying at both of them. So I was shocked when we rolled into the campground near Frankfurt and was told they had no places for the weekend. This is the first time in 4 years that we were turned away at a campground.

The fall leaves are hitting their peak, in a few days most of them will be on the ground.

We spent the next 1/2 hour trying to find another campground that was open near Frankfurt without success. I even took a look for a hotel, but François is not very hotel parking lot friendly. Ton finally came up with a campground that google said was near us. When I put it into Greta Garmin she said it was 46 kilometers from where we were. I gave the campground a call and they were open and had plenty of spots, so we were off.

45 minutes later we rolled into our new campground and of 40 spots available we make the third camper, so there are plenty of spots available. It is a nice campground on a lake, but it is quite a way out in the country. I checked on getting into Frankfurt by public transport and it would take 2 hours each way so that is not going to happen.

We took another look at hotels, but none of them seemed feasible. So we reluctantly decided that Frankfurt would have to wait. We sent an email to Tracey and Tony apologizing. Tomorrow we are going to continue west and our new plan is to stop in Bonn on the way. I emailed the campground we want to stay at so hopefully we will not repeat today’s events.

François recovering from his 500 kilometer plus day.

October 24, 2024 Bad Felinbach GE

The drive today started in heavy fog as we left the campground in Vallach, and ended in heavy fog when we arrived at Bad Felinbach. But for about an hour in between the fog banks the weather was superb.

Entering a tunnel on the Austrian autobahn on the foggy/cloudy part of the drive.

The Austrian autobahn is very nice, but the stretch we were driving on was undergoing a lot of repair or expansion work. So we would speed up to about 98 kilometers (the real speed limit is 110, but I have adopted a self imposed speed limit of 98.), but then have to slow down for construction to speed limits of either 80 or 60 kph. About 25% of the drive in Austria today was in construction zones.

Because we were driving slower on the autobahn Ton was able to get a lot of nice windshield shots.

Along the way there was a long tunnel of 8 kilometers (5 miles) thru a large mountain when we went in one side it was foggy, when we came out the other it was sunny.

This castle was located at the entrance to a narrow river gorge near Salzburg Austria.

There was a stretch where we admired a mountain range with several tower like peaks. They really caught Tons imagination. There was peak in the center that was shaped like a tower that Ton said she imagined was the home to an Austrian god like Zeus.

Ton was captivated by this mountain. The tower like rock in the left center really captured her imagination.

We have visited Salzburg before and while we were tempted to stop for the day we ultimately decided to press on and get a little closer to Munich. We ended up stopping in Bad Felinbach in southern Bavaria which has a nice campground. Any town with Bad in its name means it has thermal baths. We are not bath people so we decided to just relax and have a short walk near the campground after we settled in.

Looking across the pastures to a small village near our campground.

Tomorrow is going to be a long driving day as we are going to try to push all the way on to Frankfurt.

October 23, 2024 Villach AU

The trip is winding down. From now on we will be more focused on our progress towards Amsterdam than what cool place we can go see. This is the part of the trip that I don’t like as the feel for the days changes completely. Now we are focused on contacting the storage, finding a place to wash François, mouse proofing François (something new), washing everything we are going to leave behind and all of the other mundane things that go with leaving Europe behind. The rhythm of the travel changes as we pick our places to spend the night based on the proximity to the freeway, instead of its proximity to somewhere interesting.

A grey day on the lake, but with no wind the surface was like a mirror.

Having said all of that we don’t need to rush to Amsterdam and will be able to take the trip in short bounds following the A3 Autobahn thru Germany. The weather forecast for today was rain all day, and I really like this campground, and our lakefront spot so I convinced Ton that we should just have a day of rest before setting out.

Since we had time Ton wanted to knock out some laundry. So once again we got to wrestle with an European dryer, this time a German made one, once again without going into the details the results were unsatisfactory and frustrating. One day when I am really bored I am going to do some research on European dryers and why they seem to be designed to leave the clothes damp after spending 90 minutes running.

October 22, 2024 Villach AU

We are staying in an exceptional campground. It is not the kind of place we usually go to as it is gigantic with around 400 spots. But because the season is almost over there are only around 15 people here. Because of that we are parked 15 feet from the edge of the lake. The facilities are modern and clean, and the wifi is as fast as at home. Like in Switzerland it comes with a pass that allows us to use all of the bus and train facilities in the state. We loved this in Switzerland and were happy to find it here also.

While Villach does not have a reputation of being a tourist town we decided to go into the city center today to check things out. Truth is we probably would not have done that if we had to pay for the bus.

Walking to the bus we saw this large group of mushrooms by the size of the road.

The mushroom cluster was giant as you can see with the perspective of my hand.

The bus drive into town was very quick because it did not have to stop at any of the 10 bus stops after it picked us up. Villach was very heavily bombed during WWII and about 85% of the buildings in the town were destroyed. Because of this the majority of the buildings are built in a modern style so the feel is not that different to a like sized city in the US.

The town had two churches that were listed as places to see. One was about 100 yards from the bus station so we started there. We then walked to the other church which was about 1/2 a mile away on the main street of town. It was a pleasant walk, and the main street is pedestrian only which allows for window shopping and a nice relaxing stroll.

After about an hour we had seen what we had come to see in Villach. The local brewery called Villach Brewery was located next to the first church we had stopped at and it had a beer hall on site so we decided that would be our lunch stop.

The brewery we had lunch at was next to this church.

The beer was good and luckily we decided to split our goulash as the portion was immense and more than enough for two. After we finished our lunch we had an hour to kill before the next bus back to the campground which we spent doing grocery tourism. Ton confirmed that prices were higher in Austria than Slovenia and we did not find anything interesting to buy.

The scenery from our campground looking at Lake Ossiacher.

In defense of Villach Austrians don’t come here for culture, they come here for access to the outdoors. From Villach you have lakes, rivers, and mountains to play on and in. You fish in the summer, and you ski in the winter. Villach is a place to stay to do those things. It reminds me of Bend Oregon in that way.

Mother Nature is what makes this area special.

October 21, 2024 Villach AU

Today was a day for taking care of François. We have now owned him for 6 years and put about 65,000 kilometers on him, and spent over 300 nights sleeping in him. He has been a good truck. There are a few small things that needed to be fixed and there was a Knaus dealer just across the border in Villach Austria. So our plan for today was to show up there and see if we could get some work done.

François parked up next to a beautiful alpine lake in Austria.

We did some shopping in a the two Slovenian groceries near our aire before leaving as Ton did some research and found that grocery prices were 30% lower in Slovenian than Austria. After stuffing the refrigerator full, she reckons we have enough food to get us to the Netherlands, though I know we will still visit some groceries before the trip is over just for fun. We also topped off the gas tank, and filled our propane. The diesel price was the lowest we have seen in quite a while €1.49 per liter.

The drive over to Villach was less than an hour on good freeways, and included an 8 kilometer (5 mile) tunnel. We arrived at the dealer about 10:30 and went in and asked if they could help with any of our problems. A couple would involve ordering parts and would take a few days to solve, but they agreed to look at a couple of the other issues. All of these issues are very minor, and almost fall into maintenance rather than repair. They asked us to come back at 1 pm after lunch and they would take care of us.

A couple of fisherman getting ready to go out on Lake Ossiacher for some night fishing.

The RV dealer was located in an area with some stores, so we spent about an hour window shopping in several stores. But after being so happy with the price of fuel in Slovenia, the first Austrian gas station had diesel at €1.47, two cents cheaper than we paid in Slovenia. We then had a romantic lunch in the parking lot of the RV dealer before reporting in for our 1 pm appointment. They spent about 90 minutes taking care of a couple of the issues and allowed me to observe what they were doing so I could take care of it myself in the future.

The nose of François is sticking out of the far left of the picture.

We had picked out a giant campground on a lake near Villach. It took about 20 minutes to get there from the dealer. The check in process was enhanced by a charming front desk person. She said they were pretty quiet so she assigned us a waterfront spot. As you can see from the pictures we are right on the lakes edge. Sunset is coming earlier and earlier, and today it was around 6pm. By the time we got settled in, it was nearly sunset. We went for a walk just before the sun went down, but Ton got some really nice photos. This place is one of the best campgrounds we have stayed in and tomorrow we will have the pictures to prove it.

October 20, 2024 Bled SLO

Our plan for today was exactly the same as yesterday, but hopefully with blue skies. But, when we woke it was just as foggy as yesterday so I was worried. Ton looked at the BBC weather and said that the sun was going to come out around noon so we should just relax until then.

The castle on the rock that we could barely see yesterday.

Ton took her own advice and relaxed for a while and then got up and made a nice soup to warm us up as it was a little cold this morning. So far we have made it the whole trip without running the heater in François despite almost every day having a high in the low 60’s and a low in the low 50’s. But this morning we were tempted, as it has been damp the last few days and it would be nice to dry things out a bit. Tonight will be a test as the low is supposed to get down to 42.

Lake Bled’s answer to Venice’s Gondolas. These hold about 20 people and are propelled with two oars that are pushed. The rowers get these boats going quite fast despite the heavy load they are propelling.

The BBC was right and about noon the fog began to lift, and we could see signs of blue skies thru the fog. So it was back to the lake for us.

Not only could we now the castle on the rock clearly, but a giant mountain behind Lake Bled appeared that we had no idea existed yesterday.

When we arrived at the lake front the skies over the town were blue, but looking towards the island there was still some fog on that end of the lake.

We both liked this depiction of the last supper which is less stylized than the traditional one with all of the apostles in a line. In this painting Judas is shown skulking out of the meal and does not have a halo.

While we were waiting for the fog to completely lift we decided to head to the church in town as it featured prominently in a lot of our pictures. It was a short but steep climb to reach it. But we both liked the art in the interior so it was worth it.

A boat load of people departing for the island.

When we left the church we debated whether to climb to the castle on the rock. I consulted Google and it told me it was only 450 meters to the castle from the church, but the elevation change was 150 meters which is almost 500 feet. That led us to pass on that option. We then discussed riding out in the boat to the castle on the lake, but it would have cost €36. So we decided to just repeat yesterdays walk and contrast the views between the foggy day and the sunny day.

The view of the church on the island was much different with the Kaminskoe-Sanvinjske Alps in the background.

The trails around the lake were a lot more lively than yesterday when the majority of hikers were tourists. Today the good weather brought out a lot of local families to join the tourists. There were a lot of 3 generation family groups on the trail. There were fewer fisherman out today than yesterday.

With no power boats on the lake there are no wakes to disturb the water. Also the water is crystal clear.

The first half of the walk went quicker than yesterday as we were looking into the sun which made the photographer in the family unhappy, so there were fewer photo opportunities. We reached the halfway point in about 40 minutes.

There were a lot more of the row boats in use than yesterday.

We stopped in the same coffee shop as yesterday at the halfway point. It was much more crowded than yesterday and instead of sitting inside we opted to sit outside in the sun, and I added french fries to our order of coffee.

Ton loved this hotel. She took a picture of it yesterday but was not happy with it so we were on the lookout for it the whole walk to get a new photo.

The second half of the walk had the right lighting for Ton so we were just as slow as we were yesterday. The views were amazing again, and we kept seeing things today that were invisible yesterday which was fun.

One of the two small villages on the west side of the lake. Both are basically a cluster of hotels and restaurants.

We completed the walk in about 4 hours today including our coffee break and the side trip to the church. But it was another great day and we enjoyed seeing Lake Bled in the sunshine.

As we were walking back to the campground the road leaving town was completely jammed with cars and tour busses. Everyone who had visited for the day was heading home, we were glad that we were staying put for the night.

October 19, 2024 Bled SLO

Lake Bled in Slovenia was on our list of places to visit before we left home. It is listed by many as having the best fall colors in Europe. But our unplanned diversion into Tuscany and Umbria almost knocked it off the list. But our last day in Umbria we looked at the logistics and the weather and decided to go for it.

Lake Bled is said to have some of the best fall colors in Europe.

The weather forecast today was not great, heavy clouds. The drive over to Bled from Ljubljana was easy on a good freeway and we arrived at our aire within 45 minutes of leaving. The problem was that the town was pretty will socked in with fog.

The fog was pretty thick all day. The castle on the cliff on the left would come and go all day as we walked the lake.

As we were walking to town from the aire I told Ton we could always extend a day as the weather forecast for tomorrow was supposed to be better. She answered me with a skeptical we’ll see.

The centerpiece of the Lake Bled is this church on the island in the middle of the lake. The castle on the cliff is just peeking out of the fog.

When we reached the waterfront, Ton took one look and said we should stay tomorrow. The lake is beautiful and the fall colors are in their prime.

This is the only motorized boat on the lake, and the motor was electric, I think it belonged to a government agency of some sort. The cruise boats are paddled, and the rental boats only come with oars.

We decided to wait to visit the island until tomorrow hoping for a little clearer skies. When there is a hike involved in our plans I usually get a lot of questions from Ton about, how far, how long, how steep. Today I didn’t even propose we hike the lake, she just took off.

Part of the 6 kilometer hike around Lake Bled.

This is one of the best walks we have ever been on. To walk around the lake is 6 kilometers ( about 4 miles), and is said to take about 90 minutes. It took us over 5 hours including a coffee break half way. Part of the reason is we are slowing down a bit in our old age, but the main reason is that it is an incredibly beautiful walk that frequently brought us to a halt so we could take in what we were seeing.

Ton was in heaven. She took so many pictures that she nearly killed the battery on her phone. About half way we had to connect her to the portable phone charger we carry for just these sort of emergencies.

About 3/4 of the way around the castle popped out of the clouds for a few minutes.

Not only is the lake photogenic, but it is a pleasure to walk around. For most of the way around it is pedestrian only, there are no roads anywhere near the lake, and with no motorized boats, and no road noise the only sounds you hear are natural.

The fog washed out the vibrant fall colors, but added a mystery to the landscape that I liked.

There were a lot of very well equipped people fishing as we walked. We stopped and asked one of them about the fish. He said there were pike, trout, and carp in the lake. Some of the pike were over 3 feet long, the trout were about 2 feet, and he said he once caught a carp that weighed nearly 70 pounds.

One of the many people fishing with the church in the background.

While this is a popular, and pricey vacation destination the crowds today were not too bad. It is a popular stop for tour busses as the aire we are staying in is next to the staging area for the tour busses and there were always 10 to 15 in the lot all day. But the trail itself was not super crowded.

The church on what is reportedly the only island in Slovenia is always present as you walk around the lake.

After five thoroughly enjoyable hours we returned to the waterfront for Bled. I asked Ton if she wanted to walk thru the town, but she said no we could wait on that. So we headed back to François and had a hearty meal as reward for out efforts today.

The city of Bled at the end of our walk.

October 18, 2024 Ljubljana SLO

Every time we come to Ljubljana it pores, I mean rivers are flooding levels of poring. We had thought of staying in our campground in Italy today. But last night it rained so hard it knocked out the electricity. When we got up in the morning the very nice owner delivered us a bag of bread and helped us get the electricity going again, but then informed us that the Po River we were parked next to was supposed to flood a lot of the campground over the next 24 hours so we decided to move on.

I checked the weather for the area and it looked like we had a 4 or 5 hour window to move between down pours so we quickly packed up thanked Rico the owner and headed for a town just in Slovenia which had a promising looking campground to wait out the storm. The 4 or 5 hour widow between rain didn’t pan out and while it didn’t rain the whole way we had a lot of rain and one down pour that had traffic down to about 40 miles per hour as everyone tried to see thru the wall of water falling to the ground.

We crossed into Slovenia and went from a Latin based language that we can often decipher to a Slavic language that while written in Roman letters appears to us to be nearly unpronounceable i.e Ljubljana or Cska. We are now completely illiterate. The only good thing is the young people here are taught English from a very young age and are not shy to use it, so if we are really struggling we just look for some one who looks under 30 and ask them for help.

The other thing that is interesting is we have gone from what Americans would consider to be European sirens on emergency vehicles back to the sirens we are used to at home, American sirens are for some reason favored in the old Communist countries of Europe. This is both part of the fun and part of the challenge of traveling in Europe.

Enroute we decided to switch our destination to a campground in the capitol city of Ljubljana so we could take a nice warm shower before hunkering down for the day. Last time we were at this campground the Sava River was at flood stage, this time it looks a little bit less threatening but still pushing flood stage.