I feel quite ignorant, I don’t know much about Slovenian history pre war. And I feel we should have planned a lot more time here. Maybe we’ll come back through heading north again.
What we have seen, and it’s been just the North East corner, is absolutely lovely. We’re a long way from the tourist areas. Even the Lonely Planet has no mention of this area. We jumped off the motorway in Ptuj, pronounced Pee-tui and spent a few hours exploring the old town up to the looming castle. Being a Saturday, lots of the shops were closed which may have lent itself to the sleepy feel. But the narrow cobblestone lanes promised secret discoveries around every bend. Greg was constantly stopping to take photos, some severe editing happened later.
We had coffee in a very quirky cafe. Very nice and cheap too. I’ve got to get Greg off having milk in his coffee, he’s always disappointed. He’s not going to get a flat white anywhere in Europe and he should stop trying and just ‘ do as in Rome’ and go Espresso. Anyway our coffees cost a grand total of €2.50!
We then traveled further up the Drava river to Ormoz where we’d planned to stay the night. Very oddly the speed limit was 70 through the tiny villages and 50 in between passing by the readied fields. Ormoz was another oldish town, not 15th century like Ptuj, and no castle but pretty in it’s own right. We’re right on the border with Croatia here. Thats tomorrow’s destination. We explored the local area, of course, with Greg taking lots of photos of an abandoned building on the riverside. So far he’s failed to get photos of the birds around here- camera shy! But the bird calls are quite different from home. Oh and we saw a squirrel but it was way to fast for us.
There is a winery just behind our site but unfortunately not open on the weekends. I had to make do with getting a bottle in the local supermarket. The grape is Sipon which is the local variety. Will likely open it tomorrow as we went to the local bar this evening and I was drinking a Slovenian Merlot at €0.90 a glass. Quite tasty once I warmed it up – served slightly chilled but that may just have been the weather. Greg tried the local beer, which he pronounced was quite good. The bar had wifi so some quick photo editing and he’s uploaded them to his page. I’m going to have to be very strict on the photos I add to this blog. Under the free plan there isn’t a lot of space. I should just link his page if I can.
Anyhow, back to the van and I whipped up a quick satay noodle dish, not the curry I was planning before we went to the bar, lol. We took advantage of a free washing machine that was available this morning so the van is looking like a Chinese laundry with clothes hanging everywhere. With the heat on, they’re nearly all dry. Greg’s doing the washing up as I type this. It really is a one person kitchen. I will get Greg to take some photos of our ‘van life’. It’s both spacious and cozy and works really well.
it’s a bit warmer down here…. no snow. High of 15 today with an overnight low of 9. Wind is still chilly but if you find a sheltered spot in the sun, it’s great. Onwards and upwards from here.
Loving the bread. Dense and full of flavour. Juicy tomatoes, crisp lettuce and yummy hummus on fresh, slightly warm from the oven bread for lunch – heaven!
BAGGAB 