We woke up to a drizzly morning and clouds in the mountains.

There are hops growing everywhere in Zalec – it’s their main industry. We checked out the field next to us. You can maybe see the deer hiding between the rows.

We drove to the hops museum and had to wait outside for nearly half an hour before the tour guide had time to deal with our group. I’m sure it’s not always this busy – it’s just visitors who have come to see the race.

Eventually the door opened and we were shown in with a family group of Slovenians and Germans.

We were shown the hard work required to plant and grow hops and the machinery required. The male hops have to be chemically killed off as they don’t contain any of the lupulin powder used in beer.

Then traditionally it was a big job with many pickers to harvest the hops. It’s a skilled job leaving a half inch stalk and collecting no leaves.

Beer production was covered. Simon Kujec was the instigator of the beer industry in Slovenia as he started the Lasko brewery. The Union brewery started in Ljubljana and they are now owned by the same company.

Once hops were picked there were many processes to dry the hood then check the correct moisture content. Another floor had all the instruments required – one from Edinburgh.

We then went into a room with VR goggles and were shown a very impressive 3D movie about growing and picking the hops. It was quite a community event with everyone sharing meals and many new romances occurring.

We eventually got to the exciting bit – the tasting. We tried the old traditional dark beer that can only be bought here. It was a good drop! We only had a small amount so it didn’t affect Glenn’s driving.

It was our last day in Slovenia and our vignette runs out tomorrow. We recognised the names of many places we had visited before. We sat in a few traffic jams on motorways – a standard feature of Slovenia.

We soon crossed the border into Italy with several policeman standing around having a good chat. We pulled into a supermarket to stock up and found we were next to a huge shipyard.

It was a short drive from there along lagoons and across rivers to the Villaggio Europa campsite near Grado. It’s a big family campsite on the sea but near a large nature reserve that we want to go to. It’s quite natural in places – we are in a pine forest with squirrels running about.

It’s not our usual style of campsite but we will enjoy the luxury facilities. The holidays just be coming to an end as we hadn’t booked and there are a few free spaces. The sea is like a lake at the top of the Adriatic. Glenn is pointing towards Venice – not far away.

We had a nice pasta and salad dinner – appropriate for Italy and a good sleep despite the rain overnight.