Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2009
A long day trip from Vienna to Ljubljana in Slovenia was the next step, with a side trip to Bratislava which is situated below the Carpathian Mountains and is the capital of Slovakia. Highlights of the old town tour were the Mirbach Palace where I happened upon an interesting art show as I was looking for a bathroom. From the castle which is being renovated 9as is most of this part of the country) there are three bridges that span the river from new to old) and then another cathedral St Martins. We went back to the Hotel in Vienna and picked up the rest of the bus then it was off to Ljubljana. We arrived quite late, no time for settling in the hotel - off on a sightseeing tour of the town. The first thing was a long walk in hot weather just to get to the town. The old town was impressive, the city square, St. Nicolas cathedral, three bridges over the river (this is like Bratislava, but these were pedestrian bridges to allow for people to get around the old city, a little like Venice - the river is more a canal here!). All we wanted was a cold drink and a sleep, found some cheap beer and ice cream (not a good combination) and sat by the river until we had to do the looong walk back to the bus. Dinner was at the hotel that night and then into bed early.
The next day we went on a day trip to Lade Bohinj where the temperature dropped dramatically - in fact it was so windy at the top it seemed like you would blow off the mountain. There were some wandering cows and I wanted to take a photo of a tumbled down building and tried very hard to avoid the ‘droppings’ and proceeded to step right in one. It is very difficult to wash your feet and sandals in the ladies room. It would have been good to spend some more time - but again when you are on tour, it is go go. Half of us were down the mountain first and finally there was a lady in the restaurant who knew how to put together a cup of coffee. It was then down to Lake Bled which is a beautiful blue/green clear lake. I found a place to sit and paddle my feet, only to have a big fish (maybe a carp) jump just near my feet. Lake Bled is known for all things bee, honey, honey liqueur and beauty products. It is also famous for its vanilla slice (which we had to try of course). We then went to a winery which has the oldest vine in Croatia. The first stop was the cellar to try all the wines, some were OK, but the Cab Sav was great! This was complemented with sausage baked in bread and other tasty tidbits. We were then told to bring the rest of the wine bottles up to the restaurant and this was consumed with a veal dish amongst other things. A good but tiring day.
Up at 6.30 and on the way to Split in Croatia. Very scenic drive especially on the side of the bus where you look straight down the cliff to the sea!!! On to Split - very hot when we arrived after a long trip. We arrived at the seaside town and walked through the million/zillion dollar yachts and motor launches to the palace of Diocletian, which was a 4th, century fortress and forms part of the old town and is labyrinth and was a cool escape from the heat. Lace and crochet was the specialty of the area and they were selling on all corners of the market. I also found some wool to continue the teddy bear making for ‘eyes for Africa’s next trip.
Crossing the Bosnia/Croatian border was a bit hairy this morning; our passports were taken by a very dour officer! And we were all a little concerned (little did we know what was ahead!). Our first stop was in the town of Medjugorje (where the Virgin Mary was purported to have been seen by a group of young people which has yet to be ratified by the Catholic Church) a very intense pilgrim town, with every form of souvenir. I was surprised to find a mass in Spanish and felt very holy!!!! On leaving to go across th4 Croatia and Bosnian Border, our tour director was a little disturbed by what happened at the last border crossing he decided to take an alternative road (I think that when you look at a little wiggly road on a map, you an be assured it will be a problem - it was a goat track and at times the bus was hanging over the road. Our driver Marco was magnificent. At a little town not far from the border, a car pulled ahead of the bus and stopped in the middle of the road. A big burly man got out, came to the bus and started to abuse the driver - he was quite scary. It went on for some time (around 45 mins) - apparently he was a Croatian policeman and was angry that he believed we were holding him up from ‘taking his sick wife to the hospital’. Amazing that he kept the same sick wife in the hot car for over 45 minutes - apparently he had pulled a couple of cars off before us! Finally we left, and were concerned about what would befall us at the border. Luckily, the border police thought he was mad and gave us a police escort to the Bosnian side!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.432s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 7; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0701s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
Angela Adams
non-member comment
what fun!