Driving to Bosnia, what to do/see en-route?

[FridgeFreezer]

Just a quick update from the hotel in Sarajevo - seen some cool stuff so far but uploading loads of pictures takes ages. Top one is the view from the ice caves in Werfen, bottom one is self explanatory freebie's ticked over the 140,000 mile mark too.

Will try to add a few more this evening - we're off out for a wander round town.

[FridgeFreezer]

Time for a slightly longer update then...

Day 1 was just a dash from Dunkerque to Ulm, never knew Germany has so many trees, very dull day of driving!

Ulm was nice, went to the local brew-pub by the spire for dinner, at which point the heavens opened and a proper storm broke out, lightning going all over the place, we saw a few strike the spire of the church which was, um, close enough! Next day there were quite a few trees down and debris all over the autobahn but anything in the way had been removed by the time we hit the broad.

Day 2 we drove down to Neuschwanstein which is incredibly touristy but very nice all the same, Fussen just up the road is less touristy and very pretty. Camped at camping Brunnen which was immaculate, although it did rain on us that night.

Day 3 was on to Werfen in Austria, which has the castle from Where Eagles Dare and an ice cave. Unfortunately one side of the castle was being renovated so covered in scaffolding, the visitor centre said the interiors were all very gothic but having wandered round Neuschwanstein we didn't feel the need to pay to see more of the same sort of thing.

The campsite was, as far as we can tell, about the only one in Werfen, and was pretty good although the facilities were limited and it was by a train line. Once again, it decided to rain on us in the night as heavy as Ulm - thunder and lightning rumbling round the hills and it absolutely peed it down. New tent passed the test though.

Day 4 we did the ice caves, which involves driving half way up a small mountain, then walking up it for a bit, then getting a cable car, then walking a bit more. Then you get handed an oil lamp and go through a steel door in the rock into a huge cave hundreds of meters tall with what looks like a frozen waterfall running through it. All sorts of amazing ice formations in the place, quite hard to describe and too dark to photograph (and the tour guide will tell you off if you try!) so you'll have to google it for pictures. If you're going, take warm clothes and a head-torch and get there early - by the time we came out people were queuing down the hill just to get the cable car in the blazing sunshine.

Sunshine dried the tent out nicely so we packed up and set off for Slovenia, via the road to Vrsic past Prisank mountain which is twistier than spaghetti in a tumble drier, climbs to 1700m and back down again via 50 switchbacks and probably at least 100 other twists and turns over 24km, most of the time was spent in 2nd gear. Some good views though!

The night we went for the lazy option and checked into a hotel (Hotel Managart) in Bovec, 24euro/person for the "hostel" room which was smaller and had a bunk-bed but was immaculate and still had aircon and a flat screen telly, plus a really good shower.

Day 5 we headed for Croatia, stopping at Kobarid on the way. This was the point of some of the front lines during WW1. You can walk up and round on a trail which takes you through some beautiful countryside plus various ruins of the fortifications and some amazing blue rivers and waterfalls. The whole area is geared towards rafting & kayaking if that sort of thing is your bag.

We carried on down to Plitvice national park for another night under canvas (guess what - it rained again!). The official campsite is really nice, it has a cafe, restaurant, shop (which was closed for refurbishment), free wifi (within ~50yds of the tourist info hut - lots of people sat round outside with laptops!) and decent facilities. The site is huge, it holds 2000 units although it was nowhere near full when we were there. The facilities were good but I don't think they'd cope if the place was full. The food in the restaurant was basic but good, chicken and chips twice plus two beers cost us something like £15.

Day 6 we went to the main touristy bit of the national park - walking round the lakes and waterfalls. The place is heaving with coach parties, so it wasn't exactly a wilderness trail, but the scenery was good and you get a boat trip and unimog-train ride included in the ticket.

Evening meal was at the restaurant up the road from the camp site, two huge pizzas and a few beers for about £15.

We also had an evening's entertainment as a Dutch family arrived near us and the dad spent all night on the roof of the caravan fiddling with the satellite dish. They pitched up at about 4 and he was still up there when we came back from the evening meal.

That night - it didn't rain on us!

Day 7 travelling to Bosnia and Herzegovena - we were on the road for about 7 hours before we hit the one bit of motorway in BiH, which is a toll road too.

We stopped en-route at a place called Jajce, which has some interesting historical stuff if you can pick it out around the ugly modern stuff. There's a river running through the center of town which ends with a big waterfall into the neighboring valley. The postcards all show this waterfall with the historical fort & mosques, a photo taken from a very special angle to hide all the ugly modern stuff crammed in around them! The ice-cream was good though.

Sarajevo itself is quite sprawling, the outskirts not particularly promising with lots of grim tower blocks, many still with bullet holes or mortar scars on the side.

Day 8 - A proper wander round the city. The city centre is a mix of old and new, all the main streets are pedestrianised and bustling. Lots of little market-stall shops crammed with the local tourist tat of varying qualities. Went to the Latin Bridge where Franz Ferdinand was shot and then up to the brewery which has an awesome pub but does charge near UK prices for beer.

Day 9 - We walked across town past a few landmarks including the Holiday Inn, to the Historical Museum - which turned out to be closed because the American ambassador was visiting. So we walked all the way back to the hotel to get the car and drove out to the Tunnel Of Life museum, which was quite brief but very powerful, showing pictures and news footage of the siege.

We then decided to drive out of town and look for the olympic sign as recommended by Tanker. We completely failed to find it, it may even be back in use (all the olympics stuff we've seen looks in use). Having failed on one side of the city we decided to drive out and up to see if we could get a view of the whole city... some time later we found ourselves at a semi-deserted ski resort far too far away from the city to see anything but rolling hills and mountains. Did get to do a little light off-roading to get to the top where there's some sort of observatory thing and a great view of not very much!

On the traffic front, so far it's been pretty quiet, only been stopped by the cops once to remind me to drive with my lights on. I thought the fridge was struggling in the heat but it turned out someone had put a leaky water bottle in so it was like a swimming pool in there, not sure if it's survived intact, will wait and see if it springs back to life.

Oh and I *will* add some pictures soon, promise...!

[FridgeFreezer]

A quick one for TSD, things have changed a bit it seems:

Same building today (we did check, it really is):