While we were in Venice it was becoming pretty clear that the dreaded second wave of Covid had arrived. Masks became mandatory indoors and out, the only place they weren’t required was in your own home.
We had been going to and fro in our discussions about which route to take to Croatia and what we should try and see along the way. Ultimately, there was only one place we wanted to go before entering Croatia, and that was Lake Bled in Slovenia. We decided to make a dash for it and hope that we didn’t get swept up in a lockdown. We knew they were coming and we hoped to be settled somewhere by the time they were announced.
At the Slovenian border we had to stop and pay for a seven day vignette, more bling for Bijou’s front window. I actually love vignettes because we can just cruise along on the toll roads without stopping every little bit and paying at a toll booth. And overall vignettes are less expensive than tolls, the worst of which is in France. Tolls there are prohibitively expensive. It is possible to stay off the toll roads and use secondary highways, but the French love affair with roundabouts every few kilometers ensures that alternative routes will be much longer. Plus, our mode of travel is not a mosey, we usually cover some significant distances on our travel days.
Anyhoo. Other than that stop, the actual border was unmanned and we sailed right through. We made our way through Ljubljana and on to Bled. The temps had fallen dramatically and as we drove we could see snow on the nearby mountains. It made for a beautiful setting.
Camping Bled is on the shores of Lake Bled just across from the church of many names: The Church of Mary the Queen, also known as the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Mary, or Our Lady of the Lake. Whatever you call it, I call it gorgeous. With the mountains covered with snow, it was a stunning sight.
We spent four days in Bled, the first two were sunny and warm-ish. The rest were rainy and cold. This was our first real hint that autumn had fully arrived. We enjoyed walks into town and one day we walked completely around the lake, enjoying lunch along the way. Bled is a tourist town, but during our time there it was almost empty. The campground was deserted and in fact, was closing for the season the day we left. Our trip to Bled was short, but really enjoyable.
On departure day, we set our GPS to Vrsar, Croatia, some three and a half hours away. The heavy rains we had anticipated never materialized, so we considered ourselves lucky and hit the road. We had a great couple of hours, but unfortunately, our luck ran out just a few hundred meters from the Slovenian border. And it had nothing to do with the weather.
We stopped to fill Bijou with diesel before entering Croatia. We weren’t sure what the prices were there, but in Slovenia diesel was as cheap as we had found since Morocco, so we wanted to fill up “just in case”. Steven is always extremely careful to make sure he selects the right pump for the diesel, as he did on this occasion. Unfortunately, he pumped diesel into our fresh water tank. I was oblivious until I heard him cursing, then he came to my window and told me what had happened. I also cursed. The thing is, he didn’t put much in there, it didn’t even register on the pump. Because of that, we thought we could remedy the problem once we got to our campground. He proceeded to fill the actual fuel tank and we were soon on our merry way to the border.
We handed over our passports to the border guard and after answering a few questions, I was informed by said border guard that I had overstayed my Schengen visa and I would have to immediately fly back to the United States. It seemed she was going to deport me. We were asked for and produced a few supplemental documents, stated our case, and after two hours it was decided I would pay a fine of 250 euros and be on my way into Croatia. Not exactly chump change but cheaper than a plane ticket back to the States. As a European national, Steven did not get fined, only me.
I have been in and out of the EU and the Schengen zone on multiple occasions, by plane, bus, ferry and motorhome, at borders in Portugal, France, Britain, and Ireland and never had an issue, but this guard saw things differently. She did not dispute the notion that I had the right to travel with Steven, her issue was that in order to do so I first had to establish residency in an EU country. This would be very difficult because we are not actually living in any one country. Had she tried to actually deport me of course we would have fought it, but since it was just a fine, we figured it was best to let it go and carry on.
In the short term what this meant for us is that we would have to stay in Croatia for 90 days before re-entering a Schengen country. Croatia is a part of the EU, but not part of Schengen. (Yes, it’s all very confusing.) In any case, it was a moot point because borders all around us had already started shutting down to all but essential travelers. We were going to stay in Croatia for a few months regardless.
We drove on to our destination, but when our GPS indicated we had arrived, we found ourselves at the reception of a nudist camp. Steven ventured inside to ask for directions. Is there no end to this day?
We arrived at our campground, Porto Sole, selected our site and checked in. Then it was time to deal with the diesel in our water tank. This is where things really went downhill. The obvious thing to do would be to simply drain the water tank, clean it and move on. The last thing we should do is open all the faucets and run that diesel through the entire system, amiright? Well, hindsight is 20/20. Over the next two weeks we ran over a thousand liters of water through the system, cleaned the water tank, ran vinegar, dish washing liquid and god knows what else through that system to get the diesel out. Finally, our efforts paid off and we are now diesel-free. And as it turns out, we are not the only ones to have done this. Steven put it out there on the Hymer group on Facebook and others fessed up that they had done it, too. That made us feel slightly better. Only slightly.
Maybe it was my frame of mind when we arrived, but at first I wasn’t all that thrilled with Porto Sole. I certainly didn’t like the site we’d chosen in the primordial forest. In the two weeks we were in the campsite, we stayed in three different sites. One site in particular had both water and a dump on site, so that’s where we moved to deal with the diesel issue. While we were there a German couple pulled in a few sites over from us. The next day they moved their motorhome right next to a cute little cottage. I decided to check out the cost of staying in one of those little cottages and found that, if we booked for a month, we would qualify for a special deal. It was actually less expensive than we were paying for our campsite! So we went over to the office and booked ourselves right into a cute little cottage for the next month. And the best part of all is that Bijou was parked up just a few meters away, and she was plugged in at no extra cost!
So after all our bad luck, things were looking up! I’ll save the tour of our cottage and the surrounding communities for next time, but here’s a little preview!
Next Up: Istria Peninsula, Croatia
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It is truly always something. Unfortunately you saved up your “somethings” for all in the same day. Glad you weren’t deported and we can see why the fuel mishap was an easy mistake to make. I’m guessing you have some big ugly sticker on the fresh water hatch so you don’t do that again.
Yeah, this post is for those who think we live a charmed life. LOL, we live a good life, but we have our days! I know you know what those days are like, too! 🙂 And a big ugly sticker is a good idea!
You might recall I asked the question about how you are managing to travel Europe for such a long time. Obviously it has been more by luck than judgement that you have “got away with it” so far. Clearly a timely warning to us all about the 90 day restrictions. It is also interesting information about renting the cottage, look forward to reading more about how that goes. Glad to read that you finally got rid of the diesel contamination, guess that was both annoying and embarrassing, a classic “Murphy’s law”. Stay safe and keep blogging, your willingness to share your experiences with us all helps us learn and plan our own travels. Thanks.
You might be absolutely right that luck has played a larger part in our travels than judgement, who knows. The guard at any given border will always have the final say unless you’re willing to fight it, and even then it’s probably an expensive crapshoot. Hopefully there won’t be another instance and our luck (or judgement) will continue working for us. And spoiler alert: the cottages are FAB! 🙂 Thanks for taking time to comment!
Thanks for your blog. Always an interesting read.
Thank you so much for your kind words!
How fun to have found you my long lost friend! And no surprise to find that you are still wandering the world! (Cindy passed on your website). Hopefully we can meet up somewhere along the road when life allows. Safe travels ❤
Oh, my sweet friend, it is so good to hear from you! What would we do without Cindy? She is our information source, the keeper of our memories and our address book. Yes, we are out and about in this crazy Covid world, trying hard to outrun the lockdowns and see what there is to see along the journey! I hope you guys are doing well! A Christmas letter would be good. 🙂
Christmas letter hint taken! I’m on Instagram @foodhistory360 if you do that. Its the only social media I do. Looking forward to following you guys! 😘
I have an account, but it’s inactive. I can’t handle much social media, either. Facebook and this blog, that’s about it. But, I can still follow you, and I will!
Oh gosh, what a bummer of a day! We’ve all been there, done that, in one way or another. At least you finally got ‘er fixed. Lake Bled and the area look beautiful … it’s one place we missed when we were in Slovenia that I wished we’d seen. Your photos show us how lovely it is.
I know there was so much more for us to see in Slovenia, but we really did not want to get stuck there (too cold!) so we hightailed it out as soon as we spent some time in Bled. It was worth the slight detour to get there, because who knows if we will ever go back. Thanks for taking time to comment!
I just absolutely love reading y’all’s posts. So exciting and such beautiful scenery and wonderful photos. Just stay safe over there. It is tough here in the USA.
Thanks, Alice. I hope you are doing well and staying safe! We are hunkered down for a while, which is probably a good thing. Take care and thanks for taking time to comment.
After that day, a month isn’t a bad idea.
Or two… it’s nice to slow down, though. Hope you are doing well.
I feel for you with the fight with the diesel fuel . I worked in the petroleum business for 39 years and that fuel stink’s . I was in trouble more than once with the wife for stinking up the washing machine with work clothes . Finally got smart and would just pitch the real bad coveralls . I would think about painting the diesel cover another color than the water cover. I wonder who received the fine you had to pay to stay in the country . I have started a letter to the governor here in Idaho to make sure he will keep two spots open here for you two just in case . Safe travels and keep sending the great photos.
Well, I am an oil brat from way back, my dad was a geophysicist. I’ve been on many an oil rig, so I know all about those coveralls. And we did get a very official looking receipt for our fine, in Slovenian, I guess, because we can’t read it. Oh, well. I am glad you are writing to Gov. Little on our behalf. Remind him that we are property owners in the Teton Valley, then maybe he’ll let us in. 🙂 Good to hear from you, Vern!
So sorry about the mixup! Do you think that border guard was correct? I don’t see you flaunting the regulations! Or did Covid lockdowns force you to overstay? THANK you for the newsy updates and beautiful travelog. It makes me feel like we’re together visiting. Hope the wind calms down soon!!
We don’t think the border guard was correct in her interpretation, because what she was insisting we needed to do (establish residency) would really curtail free movement for us. Given that I’ve had no issues to date, we’re going to assume our understand of the free movement law is correct. (Next scene: me on a plane home…) Winds are still very high today, tomorrow is looking better!
Wow that is crazy those ports look so similar. I would definitely put a sticker on them 😉. Lee says he has read lots of stories where people have done that. Glad you found the cottage to stay in. What a great idea. As soon as I saw this I wondered if that would be a cheaper option for us in Charleston. Same deal campgrounds are pricey and not that great. Good job on thinking out of the box!
Putting a sticker on the fuel port is a great idea! The campgrounds in Croatia are huge resort type things that are built to accommodate thousands of people. The one we’re in now is built for 2800 guests and there are maybe 20 people here. It’s a wonder they even stay open. Most of the resorts have tons of these little cottages and in the winter they are rarely filled, thus the great deals. How fab would it be if you found the same deal in your area! It sure has been fun having a kitchen and TWO bathrooms! Good to hear from you, hope you guys are doing well!
You’ve certainly added to your list of interesting campfire stories. Nice score getting that cabin. Beautiful area and spectacular photos!
Won’t it be nice for all of us to return to the AZ desert and sit around a campfire? We all have a ton of stories to tell, for sure! Fingers crossed our lives return to “normal” soon! Hope you guys are doing well, thanks for taking time to comment!
When I saw that you were staying in the cottage for three months, I assumed that you were doing the requisite 90-day Schengen reset. I also wondered how you had been managing to skirt that requirement.
We just had the cabin for a month, and we’ve moved on to another one by now. We’ve pretty much just assumed that as the spouse of an EU citizen, I could travel freely with Steven. It’s worked for two years, so we’ll see what the future holds. 🙂
Ouch on the diesel. Takes me right back to Lincoln, UK. That’s pretty crazy that Hymer would have such similar ports so close together. I second the idea of a sticker on the covers.
It’s a design flaw, a big one! Steven is so careful when selecting the nozzle, but he hadn’t noticed the conflict between the two ports. He knows now, though! Still, a sticker is a good idea.
Wow…the diesel issue ontop of everything else! What a day! Glad you guys are way past this now. With that said Lake Bled is amazing…what beautiful shots!
Nina
LOL, yeah. I was so freaked out by the border situation the diesel didn’t even register for a while. I think that’s why we ran it through the entire system, we just weren’t thinking! What a mess we made for ourselves! Hope you get to Lake Bled in your travels, it’s gorgeous!
Oh girl what a damn day!! The diesel was an oops, easy to see why it would happen. But the visa issue was a real nightmare that would have freaked me out 🙁 I think the GPS was just messing with you!
Bled is so beautiful with those mountains and magical church. OMG that cake looks delicious.
Love the fireplace :-)))
A nudist camp on top of everything else, LOL. Isn’t that little fireplace so cute? It crackles and pops, too. We have it going all the time now, it’s part of our holiday ambience. 🙂
OMG Steven’s heart must have hit his boots when he realised what he had done! So glad you managed to flush it through.
Borders are a lottery but maybe bookmark on your phone the EU rules on accompanying 3rd country spouses – they are written in all EU languages – so you can back up your status.
Good luck with the next 90 days and Happy Christmas!
We had all kinds of rules printed off and we did present them to the guards, and they looked them over and handed them right back. Again, she didn’t dispute that i could travel freely with Steven, but she was adamant that I should first establish residency in an EU country. That’s the confusing part, because to establish residency means you intend to live there at least six months out of the year. That effectively shuts down our travels for half a year. It would be easier to just follow the Schengen rules, and/or take advantage of a few bilateral agreements. We shall see. 🙂
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