DAY 4 - ZADAR

4) FRIDAY, 1 JULY 1977: 226 KMS. - ZADAR

Bought  a postcard and sent to my sister in the  morning.  We continued on our route, leaving RIJEKA at  9:00 am. to ZADAR in the south.  On the mid-way between  NOVI VINODOLSKI and  SELEC, we stopped by at coastal area on a nice shady spot under the  trees  for our  brunch and cleaning  inside the campervan.   What we had to do - simply opened canned food that we brought along and  just heated it - breakfast and lunch at the same time !

From Rijeka along Adriatic coast to Zadar

Probably I didn’t sleep well last night, I felt asleep right after I finished my meal, from noon to 3.00 pm.  I was  waken up by Tilo, persuading me to go swimming.  Whoa, the water was very cold. It was not a real beach but rather a sharp  rocky area underwater that  Tilo’s hand was cut accidentally.

Then heading toward ZADAR, we took the coastal road along the Adriatic sea. On one side of the coastal  road is carbornate sediments / limestone type  mountainous land , looking like  semi- desert grassland.  In some areas , there were dried brown grass bushes bordered by sporadic small clusters . 

 

Adriatic sea - Photo : Pudelec / Bing images search

It was nice but rather  taking longer time to drive along circuitous detours by the rugged nature of Adriatic coastal road. Most of all, it could be very dangerous  if reckless, as on the other side of the road is cliff overboard.

I saw many small advertising boards written in German “ZIMMER”  which should be meant that rooms were available for rent along the road.  

Zadar - Photo : Bing images search

It was  about 9.00 pm. when we reached  ZADAR  and went out to take a look around. The city is not large compared to RIJEKA  and  there were more people walking  to and fro, especially the teenagers .  

I also noticed today that  women in rural areas mostly dressed in black clothing, just like most farmers in Thailand countrysides.

II. YUGOSLAVIA - FRIENDLY YUGOSLAVS

DAY 3

3) THURSDAY, 30 JUNE 1977 : 270 KMS. - RIJEKA

Villach - Photo : discoverthetrip.com / Google images search

Finally, I bought  a flat cartridge for powder puff for my mother, a colorful silk embroidery  with Cross Stitch pattern of  small flowers on a black cloth.  This embroidery style is one of typical characteristics of craft souvenirs of the TYROL region.  The workmanship was not really neat and I had to go back to change it twice (costed 118 shillings).

Route from Villach/Austria to Rijeka/Yugoslavia

About 10 o'clock in the morning , we were heading  for WURZEN PASS to cross the AUSTRIAN  border to YUGOSLAVIA.  Again like yesterday, we had to drive across mountain ranges as well. There were curves and slope of 18% steepness .   We climbed up very slowly with full acceleration. So I sat praying  all the way again, hoping  there wouldn’t be any problem  since we were successful yesterday in  conquering (crossing) the GROßGLOCKNER  already.

The scenery  from  WURZEN PASS to the city of NOVA GORICA was beautiful  and different from what we saw yesterday.  They were rugged mountains, less trees but  small waterfalls , glaciers and streams flowing  into a river. The highest part of the road  is at 2,000 meters above sea level.

 
 

Water in streams and river are very clear and  have really beautiful turquoise color, similar to that of the ocean. There were pretty little wild flowers with shocking pink color  on the way, that I asked Tilo to stop to pick up  4-5 flowers  for the vase (pretty much look like a carnation but very tiny  like “Zwergnelken” ).

Beautiful turquoise river along the way to RIJEKA - Photo : Bing images search

We passed through the border checkpoint today with no problem. It was more convenient than expected.  I was afraid that our small Ivy, planted in glass bottle in the van might be confiscated at the border but fortunately we were only asked to  open the rear doors for routine checking. We were  finally  allowed to pass into YUGOSLAVIA.

Photo : Bing image search

Gasoline fuel and diesel in YUGOSLAVIA  were cheaper  than in GERMANY . Anyhow, there were not many gas stations . Not long after passing the border, we  stopped to buy some fresh cherries from many stalls along the road. We thought it was so cheap but we were wrongly calculated exchange rate of the money.  In fact, it is more expensive than in Germany , about 50 Pfennig per pound.

  

High roads and Rijeka bridge, along the way to RIJEKA - Photo : Bing images search

From NOVA GORICA we  headed to the city POSTOJNA, crossings  to the south to RIJEKA, a major port  of YUGOSLAVIA.  The route between RAZDRTO  to POSTOJNA was a very good road and a motorway like an Autobahn in Germany but we had to pay using fee.  However, we didn’t want to spend extra money for this comfortable drive, we then turned back to normal route .

Rijeka port - Photo : Bing images search

From POSTOJNA we faced the bad weather, heavy rain and very dark road.  Tilo had to drive very carefully to RIJEKA . We arrived about 9.30 pm., still having time to walk around to see people and the city. 

Photo : Bing image search

In general,  RIJEKA is very modernized for a socialist country, shops,  merchandises,  and people. Teenagers  are not much different from any cities in Europe,  the style and outfits they dress just like those in other European  cities - quite modern .  But in small towns that we passed, I could see the poverty of the people .

DAY 2 - VILLACH

2) WEDNESDAY, 29 JUNE 1977: 232 KMS. - VILLACH


I woke up almost 9 am., had coffee and breakfast in our campervan.  Around 10.30 am,  I went out to buy some postcards to write to friends in Germany and family.

Kitzbühel - Photo : Bing images search

Almost at noon, we left the famous KITZBÜHEL, where many celebrities : Hollywood film stars and almost all famous people had ever set foot in this beautiful city area such as the Shah Pahlevi of Iran, King Carl Gustav of Sweden (as a crown prince), Princess Caroline of Monaco, Soraya, Gina Lollobrigida, Rock Hudson, Omar Shariff and many more names to cite. .

Route from Kitzbühel to Villach

 

We drove southward through MITTERSILL, BRUCK  and continued further down the south along one of the most beautiful and highest roads in the Alps, called "Hochalpenstraße of  the Grossglockner”. We were charged for using the road to cross the mountains  about Shillings 300.-  = DM. 43. -, rather expensive !

 Großglockner Hochalpenstraße

This route starts from BRUCK to HEILIGENBLUT  for the distance of 47.9 kms., full of  very steep curves upto 12 % steepness. There are as many dangerous sharp curves as 26 curves along the whole length. However, there are still many tour buses and private cars  cruising uninterruptedly on this road.

Our campervan is rather heavy, we could tell it when we reached a steep climbing and Tilo had to get full acceleration while changing gears very often because we were driving along danger curves of depths. On the roadside, we could see waterfalls and glaciers and also lines of falling rocks (I’d like to call it flowing stone glaciers !) This area is a nature reserve of plants and animals, all living creatures of the Alps. There were  roses of the north Alpine - Azalee, with red-violet or pink color blooming. We could find also small blue flowers, likely a type of Vergissmeinnicht (Forget-me-not) mixing around.  Indescribable beauty !

Moo Moo - Photo : Bing images serch

On mountain slopes, there were also cattle grazing grass periodically. I thought they were wild bulls but Tilo laughed and told me they were domestic cattle (very keen in climbing), having pretty thick hair of brown and white patches. I did not understand at first why they were feeding  in this high altitude, estimated at more than 1,000 meters up. I came to realize later that owners would let their cattle to graze freely along mountain slopes while the weather is warm during summer and they would use the meadows below at the foothills to grow grass for several cuttings. In this way, they will build up hay stock for cattle feed in winter, when they will have to keep cattle  in the barn all the time.

Edelweiß - Photo : Bing images search

The highest peaks of this road  is measured at 2,571 meters and most of the time partly invisible covered. We drove up to the height of 2,506 meters and moved down to HEILIGENBLUT. Therefore, we didn’t followed all the way of the Edelweiß route, which is the name of the flower of the Alps with its velvet white thick petals overlapping.

All along the way we drove, I tried to spot these white star-shaped thick petals, hoping to pick up and keep them for souvenir of  this high road but I did not find even a single flower. Where have you been my Edelweiß ?

 My travel companion and friend Tilo Grabowski, digging up some ice pearls from inside of the snow mass along the roadside for "Kijafa Cherry" on board, to keep us warm during our long drive on Großglockner Hochalpenstraße

Driving downhill, we stopped  at the side parking. Tilo got an idea that we should scoop some snow crystal (round ice pellets found when digging into the snow mass on the roadside). We used a spoon to dig into the snow mass (or glacier) on the roadside and found lots of cleaned and clear beads. I put those snow crystal beads in a plastic bag to chill orange juice in our cool box. Tilo put some snow crytal in a glass and pour some Cherry liqueur Kijafa in it and enjoyed sipping very much  the ice cold sweet alcohol (risky to be controlled by check-point ?) against the cold temperature outside. As it was cold outside of our campervan with low temperature, there appeared frost around the glass in a short time.

 Edelweißstrasse - Photo : Bing images search

All the way, both up and down I sat praying and was excited all along that we wouldn’t have engine breakdown (being aware that our van is a used one) because it ran on the road at high altitude along a steep hillside. I was afraid of imagining if we ever had a break failure or an accident and fell down in depths,…our long journey wouldn’t be able to realized and the cost of  rescuing would be too much expensive ....and so on…

Edelweißspitze - Photo : Twinni / Bing images search

It lasted about two hours until we completed  our crossing over the Alps  (including few stops to take photos and admiring flowers and grass on the way! )  Once in a while, when there’s  a  car running uphill during our way to downhill, we have to stop waiting around the curves and narrow paths and  let upcoming vehicles to go first. This practice should be normally observed on any mountain roads.

We were heading next to LIENZ, and arrived in WINKLERN about 6 pm., then to  OBERVELLACH, KOLBNITZ, SPITAL  passing the lake MILSTÄTTER, following the road along the river DRAU until reaching VILLACH  around   7.30 pm.  We found  a nice parking lot area  right in the center  (feeling like we once parked along the banks of the  Seine river in Paris!).

Photo : travel.nationalgeographic.com / Google images search

 
There had been changes of sceneries and buildings along the way we passed, from view of wooden houses in TYROL to  building blocks like in Germany gradually appeared .  I thought  back to those cattle  grazing on the slopes (mentioned before),  I remembered that  during my living in  SINDELFINGEN / BÖBLINGEN  I had to walk along the narrow road closed to the grass field and the barn on my way to a bus stop to take a bus to STUTTGART.  On my way back from the university, usually during winter time, when I walked passing the field I could hardly breathe due to the pungent smell of ammonia or gas generated from cow dung ! Because farmers poured out  cow dung mixed with water as fertilizer in preparation the ground for planting grass in spring to summer.  What I could do was to block my nose, hold my breath as I walked passing  this spot until the smell faded away. Luckily, I had never been fainted before reaching my apartment!

Villach - Photo : region-villach.at / Google images search

We arrived  VILLACH  at dusk. There was a fair known in German as "Volksfest" (something like a temple fair). There were several booths selling sweets,  raffle gifts , teddy dolls firing and etc….  We took advantage of the atmosphere in walking around within the city.