Got up for our last big drive of the holiday, back to Zagreb. Woke up to a beautiful day, and wondered why this weather couldn’t have come a day earlier! We did a quick pitstop to the UFO in the middle of a residential area just outside of Bratislava. Not sure why it’s there, but it looked great!
Anyway, off we go, towards Vienna and then down through Austria, as that was the quickest route to Zagreb. Did our normal Schengen border crossing (i.e. no passport check and no lines – yeah!)…….But then, our yeah changed to What The???? We got pulled over, 5 meters into Austria. No idea why. Until the lovely man told us our Vingette/toll pass didn’t cover Austria. WHAT? And that would be a 120EURO fine, thanks… DOUBLE WHAT???!!!! Would we like to pay in cash or card….. after we picked up our jaws, we told him we understood the vingette we purchased a week ago covered Hungary, Slovakia and Austria (as that’s what it stated at the place we bought it from). Let’s just say he wasn’t at all moved. How would we like to pay the fine…. Anyhoo……(Later on I googled this situation, and someone had been fined the 120EURO for buying one, having it displayed on their front window, but NOT STICKING IT ONTO THEIR WINDOW..goodness…)
After about a 3 hour drive through Austria and Slovenia and seeing really beautiful countryside – so green and lush – we crossed into Croatia, and stopped at Trakoscan. Thought we’d see the castle there, but somehow stumbled upon a large fair at the base of the castle. It’s in the middle of the week and early afternoon, yet hundreds of people are here. We discovered later that night that it’s their celebration for May 1st – Labour Day. We had a wander around the fair, and then headed up to check out the castle, which is surrounded by a beautiful forest and large lake – really lovely.
The castle was originally built in the 13th century as a small observation fortress, and since then has changed hands numerous times over the years. It must have had a bit of money put into it recently as it was very well kept and organised inside and out. Lots of hand-carved furniture built especially for the occupants at that time, and some amazing walls that looked like they were covered in some type of tapestry, but was actually hand-painted hessian. Off to Zagreb after our visit, and getting ourselves sorted for our last day to see the city before we head home.
