Our Europe Trip – 5th day of Travel: Through Austrian Alps to Slavonia/Croatia

Saturday 06^th of August: after a phenomenal breakfast with a romantic view into a cloudy valley we are leaving the Upper Kremstal direction Croatia. After this gorgeous view it is hard to get into the car again, driving the boring Autobahn down south but as we were waiting for my green insurance card to arrive (see my previous hub) we have to hurry now and the fastest way simply is the Autobahn.

Today is the big family meeting my father and his cousin organized and as we wanted to drive south anyway this was our one and only stop we had planned in advance. My 2^nd Cousin has remodelled the house of his father where he lived and grew up and where my father also had very fond memories of his childhood. My great grandfather was a butcher, so was my granduncle and the accommodation is quite spacious. I actually remember a little how it has looked before the restoration. My 2^nd cousin wanted to keep the original style and flair of the time and restored it with tender, love and great care. In fact all his family worked on the restoration so it is finished for today. So most of us are the first ones to sleep in the new rooms and they are fabulous. There are plans to eventually make a little tourist spot of this, but for now it is more private so I will not reveal much more. If it is however open for tourism I will let you know – so watch this spot :)

We are as fast in Slovenia as we had been in Austria. It all seems so far beforehand and when I was driving there the last time with my parents I was only a Teen so every journey seemed far and eternal.

My husband is totally amazed from the whole experience anyway. Being Irish one is usually wrecked after a 2 hour trip to Dublin and having just 4 hours or so to drive and then being in a completely different country, where the landscape looks straight away so much different and people speak a different language is – if you look at it – really fascinating

Crossing the border to Croatia I am getting a bit anxious again because we do not have this stupid green card. But all is cool and we can pass with no problems and also get lots of brochures about what to see in Croatia. Our little Fella is a great sport again today and at the next stop he is „driving” himself, hopping into a little wooden-car on the playground on the motorway and all we hear is a happy "brumm-brumm". IT IS HOT! If I could I would just throw the iced coffee at me instead of drinking it. I can’t wait to get into the car again with air condition that suits all of us. I am informing my family that we intend to be there by 5 / 6pm at the latest so they can plan and don’t need to worry.

When we arrive there is a big HELLO from all sides. Not only is there the Croatian side of my family, there are Germans too and people from Czech Republic also. So with the Irish finally arriving safe and sound we are a quite multi-culti little group. Most of my family is amazed that we made it all the way from Ireland to Slavonia and if you think about it – it IS quite a distance. Because we had so many breaks it didn’t seem like it and we enjoyed the journey a lot. We can be proud of us.
Our Toddler is making friends with the geese and hens, screams “gagack” and is entertained. We just have to keep him away from the very protective gander, who – being the same size as a 18month old – sees a tread obviously in our boy. But all is good and everybody is happy.

We adults are getting greeted with a Sljivovica (Schnaps). This “greeting” continues until everybody is here.... well, all I can say for now is Živjeli (Cheers).

Our journey today = 610km