All Roads Lead to Trieste

I was up early in our cosy little camp site bit by the time I had blogged and emailed, Trauma and Nightmare were on their way and just about everything on our van was packed. I drove us along the windy coast road heading north, through Rijeka towards Trieste airport. I was enjoying the feeling of having proper working brakes as we swooped around the corners. Eileen was navigating, using both bloody Garmin and Tom Tom, trying to convince us that his infernal machine was trustworthy after all. 

Having been through Trieste to get to the airport, Eileen kindly offered to set the Tom Tom to our next destination, Predjama Castle. He set it then left us to fly back home to London, wife, work and sleeping in the same country every night. We'll miss him, but not his navigational skills. 

I followed the sat nav instructions out of the airport. After 15 minutes I saw we were travelling back towards Trieste. Like a fool I trusted it until we were approaching the outskirts of Trieste. I pulled over and checked the sat nav. Bloody Priddy. He had set it to central Trieste. I turned around and set it for Predjama, avoiding all motorways. We got on the main road towards Slovenia until I realised that it was just about to take us on to the motorway and I was going to have to buy a vignette. Damn sat nav. I pulled off, only to find that the road was heading towards......Trieste. 

It took a fair bit of effort to avoid Trieste, but we finally crossed in to Slovenia and found the back roads to Predjama. 

It's a fascinating castle, it's sticking out of a cave. 

If you are wondering why there is a hairbrush in the photo, it's because my dear wife Jo is always asking where her hairbrush is. I haven't used a hairbrush in about 20 years. Rather kindly (foolishly) she has left her hairbrush on the van. Her hairbrush is now sending her photos back from around Europe. It has asked me to set up a Facebook account (it's a hair brush, it can't type). 

As we left Predjama, Teams Nightmare and Trauma rolled in to town. They had been caving apparently. We left them to view the castle whilst we lunched on burgers the size of dinner plates. 

Camping Pivka Jama is hidden away in the Slovakian woods near Postojna. It's a surprisingly large camp site. It has pools, shop, volleyball courts and extensive wooded camping areas. We found a large gravelly area (great for camper vans, not quite so good for camping on) and found that Red 5 and Chameleon were already in residence. We were soon joined by Trauma, Nightmare, Team Terras, then The Mobster and Trigger. Team Lotus and the Swannies were in bungalows. Milly drifted in then the Swedes in something sounding like a tractor. A hole in the exhaust was causing a few issues. Nothing that a tin can couldn't fix. 

And so, an evening of boule, cards, reading and banter in the Slovenian forest. 

Tomorrow we are off early to find another truly iconic European destination. Venice. Would a trip around Europe be complete without it ?