After a few weeks at home after my previous adventure I am on my way again. This time together with Fabian and his white Mercedes 190D 2.5 from 1986. Destination Croatia. Planning zero.
Day 1: Gouda – Beilngries
We had perfect weather for driving so we made good progress up to twilight when we stopped for a quick break and based on a gut feeling Fabian tested his break lights which did not work. Luckily it was a quick fix of some loose wiring. Fabian is an engineer so I have full confidence in him. Just before Munich and before midnight we called it a day and drove into the countryside searching for a hotel. It turned out the be a challenge to find a room as it was the Oktoberfest weekend in Bayern and everything was fully booked. A friendly lady from a hotel called around for us and found a place in the middle of nowhere. We were just glad to get some rest after the 1000km drive.
Day 2: Beilngries – Postojna
We quickly found our way back to the highway and into Austria. When we saw a sign “Porsche Museum” we couldn’t resist and stopped for a educational breack in Gmünd. The museum was very small but had some very unique cars in it’s collection from the very beginning of the Porsche brand. Half way into Slovenia we found a nice camp site in the woods. Deers and other wildlife welcomed us at the entrance. For the next day we planned to visit the famous caves nearby.
Day 3: Postojna – Sveti Filip i Jakov
The caves seemed a very popular destination, many busses brought loads of people. We joined the masses for what turned out to be a very impressive tour 3,5 km into the cave. A small train brought us far underground where we saw the caves up to 60m high. We continued the tour out of the European Union into Croatia, finally. We cruised along the Adriatic sea from Rijeka all afternoon down south to Zadar and a little further.
Day 4: Nationalni park Krka
The initial plan was to travel all the way to Dubrovnik but it was really too far to do in one day. So instead we drove to the National park surrounding the river Krka with all its waterfalls. The park was very beautiful and a good opportunity to relax after all those road kilometers. And I had time to tryout my new Nikon 1 camera, the result can be seen in the gallery. The countryside around the park was very different than the seaside, much rougher and complete desolated with towns turning into ghost towns and a lot of ruins and houses half finished and left to their faith.
Day 5: Sveti Filip i Jakov – Bergen (Bayern)
Unfortunately we had to get back up North again, this time using the toll highway. It is probably very expensive for the locals so it was nearly empty and we raced quickly to the border, also through small Slovenija up to Austria. Because we arrived in southern Germany so early we decided to camp again and we found a nice site in Bergen. In the local Gasthof we enjoyed some typical local food, Schnitzel & Knödel, very nice.
Day 6: Bergen – Gouda
The campsite owner warned us about the very cold nights in october and it was indeed very cold. Our neighbors were, as all Germans we met, very friendly and made a pot of warm coffee just for us so we had a good start that day. Munich was not far, our destination for the day was the BMW museum. It was worth our time and effort, they host an extraordinary collection of classic cars and company history. We saw a poster there which sums up our road trip in an original funny way. 
All there was left for us was to complete the journey back home to Gouda and for Fabian further to Groningen. The car served us very well all 4342km without any major problems. It was a lot of driving and to really enjoy to places one should have more time. But after all, it was a road trip, we took that literally and had a lot of fun!
Hey Fin,
Ofcourse I was there with you,
but I just like to say it was great fun and you really discribed the trip well here!
greetings,
Fabian