I’m all choked up at having to leave France and the Atlantic coast.

The Oldies have promised, however, to make for the Mediterranean as soon as possible. They’ve also promised to be a bit quieter in the car on the way home to Austria, but I’m not taking any chances this time. I’ve come prepared! What about this for a cool pair of noise-cancelling headphones?

Now Her Ladyship can twitter on about trucks and His Lordship can play as much heavy metal music as he likes, my seagull sleep is assured!

True to their word, within the week the Oldies have us happily installed in the caravan on our favourite campsite near Vrsar on the Istrian Peninsula in Croatia. How wonderful it is to be here. And how wonderful it is to be here in May. We have the place practically to ourselves and have an uninterrupted view of the sea. Try that in July or August!

Our surroundings are pleasantly familiar, but Istria in May is refreshingly different to peak-time Istria during the hot summer months. Instead of big beefy tomatoes, juicy peaches and giant watermelons, we can now enjoy early season treats such as wild asparagus, young crispy lettuce and delicious cherries and strawberries. The hedges are a hive of activity, with blackbirds nest building at a furious rate. It’s as busy as Dublin during the Celtic Tiger years!

May is the month of fresh green growth and fresh green lizards. The winds are a bit fresh at times too. That doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but the creaky caravan is even more creaky than usual and, of course, Her Ladyship is whinging about the cool evenings. As usual. Perhaps I should keep those noise-cancelling headphones on for a while longer.

After several days of just lazing about, the Oldies finally dragged themselves out to do some exploring. They had planned to make only a short stop in the small town of Pazin in central Istria, but ended up spending most of the day there. It was pleasant to potter around town among the locals, with hardly any other tourists in sight. Pazin Castle is fascinating, as much for its location as anything else. It doesn’t have a moat, but is positioned at the top of the 130m deep gorge. I shudder to think what might have happened to prisoners or other undesirables in ye olden times!

Nowadays, the gorge and cave are tourist attractions, and you can even cross the gorge on zip lines. Neither of the not-so-Dynamic Duo was tempted to give it a go, unfortunately. I would have fancied flying across the chasm with them, but alas it was not to be. Cowards!

The Oldies chose instead to walk up to the hotel on the opposite side of the gorge and installed themselves on the restaurant terrace, overlooking the town and castle. Here they gorged on Istrian specialities: gnocchi with truffles and ravioli with wild asparagus to be exact. It was hard to find the gnocchi under all those truffle shavings – and hard to believe that this dish cost only €12!

On the way home, we stopped off for a stroll around Kringa, a pretty hilltop village with a history going back to prehistoric times. It is wine country here and in fact, the 17^th century historian Valvasor described this market village as a place where there is always ‘more wine than water’. Just the place for the Oldies!

Perhaps the ‘more wine than water’ can in part explain the origin of the horror story of Jure Grando. Legend has it that he died in 1652, but returned as a vampire and terrorised the village for the next 16 years. Eventually some brave villagers exhumed his corpse, which was supposedly still intact and – here’s the creepy part – with a smile on its face. First they tried to pierce the heart with a hawthorn stick and when this failed, they set about decapitating the corpse. As soon as the saw touched the neck, the vampire screamed and blood flowed from the cut. Messy job, but apparently it did the trick and the citizens of Kringa could sleep peacefully ever after.

His Lordship suggested a visit to Kringa’s Vampire Bar, but Her Ladyship demurred. I reckon she wasn’t not too sure whether they were expected to buy a pint there… or donate a pint.