Six days later and the smell of sulphur still lingers in anything that touched the water at Top Termal, which was our first night in Slovakia.  Still, there couldn’t have been a better welcome to the country than to sit in amongst the oldies while we all enjoyed the eggy thermal waters and live music.

For anyone fretting over the state of Chloe’s bloody back end, worry not, the pills appear to have done their job.

We were the recipients of some very generous Slovakian hospitality in Bratislava when we spent a couple of days with an old friend and met two new ones.  It gave us a couple of days to lounge about a house being fed like kings and Chloe took the opportunity to get reacquainted with the soft comfort of a couch.  We had a day in the city with a local who knew where to see, how to get there, and most importantly, where to eat.  It was two very brief days where we could switch off and wash away the grime of life on the road.

It also signified the final leg of our journey has begun, we are still a long way from home and our most important destination is ahead of us yet, a visit to Venice to see an actual piece of art that Kerry and I made for the Biennale.

Since Bratislava our route has taken us into Vienna, the seat of power for the Hapsburg Empire, where we snuck onto a walking tour of the impressive city.  We drifted across the quaint rolling hills of Austria for a couple of days and Kerry finally got to watch The Sound of Music one rainy afternoon.  Austria was green and full of wildflowers, which is what I promised Kerry Switzerland would look like, except it was all under a few feet of snow. 

Our dramatic entrance into Slovenia was under the mountains via a tunnel and the country has delivered with the natural beauty ever since.  Lake Bled is a picture-perfect scene out of some sort of Disney fairytale, it’s a place where it’s impossible to put the camera down and every corner offers a ridiculously good looking view of a lake, castle, island or church. While further up the road Lake Bohinj sits below a horseshoe of dramatic mountains.

We have carted a bastard SUP (stand up paddleboard) with us right around Europe, it’s costed god knows how much in fuel just for it to tag along but with a campground right on the shores of Lake Bohinj, we finally had the chance to use it.  Kerry is up to the challenge and is happy to stand but I can’t be bothered with the struggle, so I’m content to sit and row like a kayak.  Or better yet, simply lie back and watch the mountains pass by and let the wind push me along.

We have two more days in Slovenia and everyone we meet seems to be enroute to Croatia for the summer.  It’s so tempting to just drive South and enjoy a few more beaches but Venice is waiting… and for the first time this trip we have actually prebooked a campsite.