Over the summer, I went on a three-week road trip to Croatia with my family. We drove through France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. It was an amazing journey and a relaxing getaway after my GCSE exams. Here were the highlights of our trip:
Waldshut, German-Swiss border:
This was a six-hour journey that turned into eight after some traffic and a road closure. When we finally arrived, it was chucking it down with rain. We wanted something to eat, but the restaurant was holding a special night with a band. However, they offered us food to takeaway after we’d put up our trailer tent in record time in the pouring rain. It turned out that they had a free place for us to sit and eat outside under a cover. Naturally, being a lover of Germany, I had to order Schnitzel with Apfelschorle (think apple juice and lemonade, but much better!)
We were only staying for one night as we were visiting a friend who lives with his family in Zurich.
Verona, Italy:
Our next pit stop was Italy! We set up the trailer tent, cooked some dinner and sat ourselves down for a night of footballing fun, which would either result in joy or despair. Unfortunately, it was the latter. Despite this, we had an excellent time the following day. My dad and my brother went fishing on Lake Guarda- they caught nothing- whilst my mum and I got the train into Verona. We saw the Romeo and Juliet balcony, went into a church and had a bite to eat in one of the cafés in the alleyways.
Croatian coast:
We did stop for one night in the Croatian mountains and saw some caves, however the coast was magnificent. We stayed on two islands (Brac and Ugljan) and were within 50m of the beach! We snorkeled and swam in the Adriatic, and we also hired a motorboat for the day and stopped at various points on the island.
There was also a quite frightening incident on Brac as we were driving to see the Golden Horn beach in Bol, on the island of Brac, one of the top ten beaches in the world. Unfortunately, we never actually got to sunbathe on the sand, because we were nearly struck by lightning in the hills. We had got out to take photos and then we heard an electric crackle, so we swiftly returned to the car. Less than a minute later, lightning had struck the area where we were stood. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life so far. Anyway, we carried on, but once we arrived in Bol, a sandstorm forced everyone off the beach. So, we drove back to Supertar. On our way back, we saw three or four fire engines covering the area where we had been, trying to put out the fires.
Overall, the scenery in Croatia was jaw-dropping and I would definitely recommend a visit to the country’s coastline if you ever get the chance.
Bad Gastein, Austria:
On our way back to the UK, we split up the journey and one of these stays was in Bad Gastein, a town in the Austrian Alps. We stayed for two nights and in the day, we walked down the steep paths into the town. We originally planned to take the gondola up the mountain, however the prices were very high, so we decided not to, having been on gondolas before. We also met a German family and a Dutch family and played games in the evening.
Luxembourg:
Our final stop was Luxembourg. Having stayed at the same campsite on the outskirts of the city two years ago on our road trip around Germany, we knew what to expect and it did not disappoint. We only stayed for one night, so in the evening we went to the same restaurant as we did two years ago. I had some carbonara! It was a lovely end to the holiday.
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By Natasha Callis
Photo credit: Callis family holiday photos
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