Following a fantastic two days in Bruges, it was a shame to leave, our journey taking us south towards Frankfurt and then to Bavaria. We expected little, other than to cover a large number of miles and to arrive equipped in Slovenia so we didn’t have to move the van for the duration of our stay.

We spent our first night, 14th August, in a town previously unknown to us: Gau Algesheim. The stopover was a simple car park style site which was very clean and well-maintained. We had electricity, water, waste disposal and a secure site for just €8 per night – a bargain. Not thinking ahead though, we did have to go to get some change from the local supermarket before we could pay but other than that it was a stress free evening. Lesson learned – always have some change on you.

At Gau Algesheim, we decided that there probably wasn’t enough time for us to squeeze in a visit to Dachau Concentration Camp – even with the traffic Gods playing to our tune, we would have only had two hours and half a day is recommended. With this in mind, we decided to push on to shorten our final leg to Slovenia on the 16th. Picking Bernau am Chiemsee as our destination, we head off on the 520km drive to spend the night at a lake-side location. Well…had we arrived slightly earlier than 17:30hrs this may have been possible. But as it stood, this site plus the two others close to it were full to overflowing and the beautiful location was the reason why – especially where the cost was next to nothing. Colin powered on, again, until we reached our final resting place for the night in Bergen. Here, we were greeted by a jolly lady, who explained that we could stay all night and the following day as we had overpaid the fee – you live and learn! The site was technically a car park for the cable car and restaurant in Bergen, but did us nicely.

Thursday took us from Germany into Austria. Thankfully we managed to find a petrol station where we could purchase required vignettes for both Austria and Slovenia – nothing like being prepared – and we passed easily from one country to another. The border controls, however, going from Slovenia to Austria, had immense queues stretching many kilometres. We just hoped that our route next week would be slightly different or less chaotic.

Finally, after 1295kilometres approximately, we arrived in Bled, Slovenia. Both routes from Bled itself to the campsites advised that they were not suitable for coaches, buses or motorhomes, which led to a stressful 5 minutes. Once Google maps had caught up with us (and realised we were on a new road rather than off piste) and we had translated yet another road sign using Google Translate, we eventually pulled into Camping Bled. Greeted by a member of staff who was frantically turning people away, we confirmed our reservation and booked in without problems. Our pitch, 19, is three minutes from the lake-side with it’s spectacular views. Definitely a place to explore.