The trip overall

Below picture shows the route on high level. With visits to some smaller towns and villages along the road our total trip length was 1700km.

Day 10 – Salzburg

Our last destination for the roadtrip, Salzburg, known for being the home of Mozart. Salzburg offered a beautiful town with Mozartkugels in every second shop 🙂

We walked up and down the streets of Salzburg in the afternoon and evening our last night of the roadtrip. The last hotel of the trip was at Hotel Gasthof Kamml, a family run gasthof located in Siezenheim, approximately 4 km from the city center.

 

On day 11, before heading back to Munich and the our flight back home we did some shopping at the Designer Outlet Salzburg, located close to Salzburg airport. Definitely worth a visit if shopping is planned, we found some great deals there that we could just not say no to!

Grossglockner High Alpine Road

From Lienz our journey continues via the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. This road treats the visitors with some amazing views of the highest mountain tops of Austria.

Stop at Hochtor 2504m als:

Snow on some of the highest peaks:

Days 8-10 – Lienz

Lienz, is the chief city of East Tyrol, Austria. As a nice contrast to the sea and a few sweaty days at the beaches, we could now enjoy the mountains and fresh clean mountain air. It was still very warm in Lienz and the sun was strong but up in the mountains and in the shadows it could be a bit chilly.

Isel, one of two rivers that run through Lienz

 

Day 9 was dedicated for hiking. The city is a valley at 673m asl, surrounded by mountains. Our hotel was next to the Scholssbergbahn ski lift that took us a bit up on Hochstein from where we started our approx 17 km hike.

Map of Scholssberg

Hiking views, with a stop at the Berggasthof Stern-Alm:

 

Views from the highest point of our hike, after some 4 hours of hiking uphills we turned around and started to go back downwards:

 

Our hotel, Gasthof Schlossberghof was a gem, very nice rooms in a cosy gasthof that served a great breakfast and tasty dinner. The owners dog joined us (and other guests having food at the terrace) for dinner.

Plöcken Pass

On day 8 we drove from Piran, Slovenia to the next destination, Lienz, Austria. We drove via Italy and crossed the boarded at Plöcken Pass where we also had lunch.

Days 6-8 – Piran

From Croatia and Pula, we head back to Slovenia, this time to the coast. Slovenia has a short coastline and one of the must see places there is the old tiny, beautiful town of Piran.

We started our drive from Pula in the morning and stopped for breakfast in a park  a bit outside the center of Porec.

Porec

Reaching Slovenia we cross the boarder directly into the municipality of Piran. The road was quite small and winding, and there was a lot of tourists out there, so the last 1-2 km’s before the boarder crossing took almost an hour. The first town we drove through was Portoroz which our host in Pula also recommended us to visit.

Approximate drive from Pula to Piran.

In Piran we stayed at Apartments Pronavtik located on the hilltop above the city center.

The view from our apartment, a bit of the sea.

Piran is a small, medieval, and it’s not even allowed to take the car into the center of the city. A parking space outside the center, with buss shuttle is offered for visitors. The city center has hotels so visitors can take the car there for the time of leaving the luggage and check in, but there are no parking spaces available. As our stay was on the hilltop above, we could take the car to the apartment for private parking.

There are walking paths along the sea so both days in Piran we took quite good and long walks, both along the sea and on top of the hills from where you can view the red rooftops of the city and even see over to Italy on a good day!

On the 2nd day in Piran we went to Portoroz where we had a morning swim. The waters are still better in Piran, to swim in, there is more sea-grass in Portoroz. After the swim we went driving north visiting the cities of Izola and Koper.

Our dinner spot for the 2nd night is worthwhile mentioning, it was recommended by our local host and visited also by locals. Fritolin Pri Cantini offers seafood which you order through the wall directly from the kitchen and enjoy at the terrace on the 1st of May Square (Prvomajski Trg).

 

 

Pictures from Pula

Days 4-6 – Pula

From Lovran we head to Pula, to visit the south-most town on the Istrian peninsula and to see the ancient Roman amphitheater with own eyes. Our stay in Pula was another 2 nights.

On road 66 we had some amazing views over the sea.

In Pula our stay was at Apartments Villa Holiday, which was a very nice surprise. The hostess greeted us warmly and treated us with a welcome drink that in fact was a whole bottle of bubbling, perfect for the evening watching stars on our “own” balcony.

On our first day in Pula we went for the beach in Verudela area and on the 2nd day we drove to Premantura which is really the south-most tip of the peninsula. Premantura holds also camping areas and it was full, really packed,  by campers. A bit too busy for us but walking far enough we found a private enough spot, under the pine trees, to takeover for the day. Snorkeling and just watching the sea was the main activity. Waters were not full of fish but we had some good views and there is always something calming about snorkeling and the life under the surface.

Both evenings we spent time in the city itself. Both walking and driving around. The amphitheater, Pula arena, is amazing, thinking it was build by the Romans and still it stands there, majestic.

More pics from Pula in the next post.

Pics from Lovran

Lovran

Old town, Stari Grad

Kvarner bay

Old town by night

Locals supporters street art

Hostel

Hike

 

Day 3-4 in Lovran

Our 2nd milestone is Lovran, Croatia. In Lovran we are staying at Hostel Link, a true gem. The hostel is newly renovated, plus cheap. We got a two person room, with own bathroom, for 45€/night. Plus private parking for 7€/night. Plus a seaview 😊!

The waters here are as we imagined and seen in pictures, clear and turquoise.

Day 3 has two main agendas; swimming practise in the sea in the morning and uphill hiking in the afternoon. Sporty day indeed.

In between the swim and hike we had lunch at restaurant Bellavista, in the old town called Stari Grad.

Bellavista

The old town, narrow streets and old buildings, charming

Hiking views

 

The weather is really warm but after our morning swim we had some rain and thunder for an hour or so, and same thing now in the evening. On Day 4 we’ll be off to Pula.