Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Northern Italy
Location of Dubrovnik Croatia
Lynn and I have travelled quite a bit in Europe and have enjoyed visiting new locations and experiencing unfamiliar cultures without doing the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling and travelling on the super cheap which both of us have done when we were younger. We read, watch programs like those given by Rick Steeves, and talk to our travelling friends. It seemed that Croatia and Slovenia were two places that we had not visited and certainly sounded like they were well worth visiting. That certainly turned out to be true.
We were fortunate that our good friends Ken and Anna, who we travelled with to Spain and Morocco, wanted to join us. We spent time researching and discussing and decided to fly to Dubrovnik and work our way up the coast. When we got to Trieste we would separate and Ken and Anna would go and visit northern Italy which they had never seen and Lynn and I would visit Ljubljana and a few other parts of Slovenia. We would then spend our last week of the trip in Verona while Ken and Anna would visit friends on the north end of Lake Como.
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| Lynn, Ken, & Anna on Dubrovnik's town wall |
Dubrovnik
April 30 - WIt was a long day flying Vancouver - Frankfurt - Munich - Dubrovnik but Lufthansa got our luggage through in spite of the short connections. A bus from the airport to the northern gate of the old town brought us to a point where is was easy to walk down the main street of the old town (The Stradun) to meet the owner of the apartment we were to stay in for the next five days.
Dubrovnik is an ancient walled city that did not escape the ravages of the recent war following the breakup of Yugoslavia. It was shelled from above by the Serbs so many building have new tiled roofs contrasting with the few roofs that have old, faded roofs. It is a frequent stop on the cruise ship circuit and is very busy during the day with dense groups of cruisers led around by a leader with the usual furled umbrella or brightly coloured scarf on a stick.
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| The city is beautiful and the setting stunning. |
Montenegro
We rented a car from a local company and made a day trip to Montenegro and went as far as the town of Kotor. The roads were good and Ken was an excellent navigator. In Kotor, there is an old path leading up from the old town to an old fortification. The day was warm and muggy, but the views made the effort worthwhile. The biggest challenge of the day was getting the car back into the return spot near the south gate of Dubrovnik. These old towns were designed for carts and horses, not cars!
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| Lynn descending the path down to the old town of Kotor, Montenegro. |
After spending many wonderful days in Dubrovnik we travelled north to the island (and town) of Korcula using a local tour company's bus. It took us to a point where a short trip by motor launch took us across the water to Korcula where our Sobe owner was waiting to take us to our rooms. What service! We would certainly stay at Apartments Lenni again. More on that later.
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Lynn, Ken, and Anna enjoying Korcula
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We spent two nights in Korcula, the home of Marco Polo, and walked around enjoying the view, (view from the north edge of town) and sampling the great local ice cream. Did I mention we had quite a bit of ice cream and gelato on our trip? :-)
We caught the 6:00 am catamaran to Split after our second night in Korcula only to realize that Lynn and forgotten an important dental appliance in the bathroom of our sobe. She realized that about ten minutes before we were to depart. What to do????? We made the trip to Split across the glass smooth Adriatic, making a brief stop at Hvar. We arrived in Split, got to our sobe, and tried to figure out what to do about Lynn's dental issues. We talked to our sobe manager Ivo (Base Rooms), and he quickly said "No problem". He phoned Pero, at Hotel Lenni in Korcula, and he found what Lynn left, put it on the next day's 6:00 am catamaran, and Ivo picked it up when the ferry got into Split. It just confirms that the world if filled with very good people no matter where you go. Thanks again Pero and Ivo. :-)
Split turned out to be a much more enjoyable place than some programs on tv had suggested. I remember one saying it was an industrial town, which I suppose it is, but the old town and surrounding areas are wonderful! Our Sobe was in the middle of Dioclecian's Palace.
We used public transport to go to Trogir for a day trip. An interesting place and well worth the day.
Plitvice Lakes National Park (A picture of one of the lakes.)
We picked up our rental car and headed for Plitvice Lakes National Park. The highways were good and we stayed at House Tina in the small town of Grabovac, just north of the park. It was a great place to stay. We spent a slightly drizzly day walking the trails from one end of the lakes to the other using the electric ferries to go from one trail system to the other. This was a very worthwhile detour on our road trip. Before leaving, we drove a short distance east of Grabovac to Dreznik Grad to see a reconstruction of an outpost fort which was used during the 13th century Ottoman wars.
Rovinj (A picture of the old town near dusk.)
After two nights in Grabovac we drove north on highway 42, then turned west on the A6, then the A8 to go to Rovinj. The highways were very good and well signed. Rovinj is a beautiful seaside town and should not be missed. We stayed at the Park Hotel with a view across the harbour of the old town. We did a day trip south to Pula to see some of the Roman ruins, including a huge amphitheatre, with a brief stop in Bale. Well worth it.Another day we drove to the Tuscan like hill town of Motovun where we enjoyed the hill top view and a stroll around its old town. We then came back via the town of Pazin and its gorge which became famous in Jules Verne's novel "Mathias Sandorf". Although it was a bit disappointing, we saw new country and had some exercise.
My set of Croatia pictures on my Flickr site.
After a very enjoyable stay in Rovinj, Ken and Anna, along with Lynn and myself left Rovinj and headed to Trieste using a scheduled bus. We knew beforehand that Ken and Anna wanted to go to northern Italy as Anna had never been to Italy while Lynn and I wanted to visit Slovenia. We arrived at the Trieste bus station, right next to the train station and Ken and Anna bought their ticket to Venice, while Lynn and I got organized to catch a taxi up to Sezana, the terminus of the train line in Slovenia. I soon realized that my waist pouch was no longer around my waist. It contained my passport, credit cards and wallet!!!!! Panic ensued. I used expressive vocabulary that I don't normally use in public! I quickly found out that the bus station didn't have a lost and found but was directed to where the bus that had brought us would be parked waiting for its return trip back to Rovinj and Pula. The driver was no where to be seen, but I waited by the bus hoping and praying my waist pouch would be on the bus. The driver arrived after a short while and after some broken English and hand gestures, he let me back on the bus and behold, the waist belt was on the seat!!! The buckle must have not been fully attached and had fallen off when I slung on my camera pack when we were getting off the bus. I had used this same fanny pack on numerous trips and this had never happened. I normally have my passport and credit cards in a cloth pouch around my neck to deal with possible pickpockets, but for this bus trip, I thought I would put it in my fanny pack. Mistake. I promised myself never to do that kind of thing ever again.
We caught a taxi and after about 20 minutes got dropped off at the train station in Sezana Slovenia. Apparently there is no connecting train lines between Trieste and Sezana due to the steep hillside separating the two towns, along with the severing of links during previous wars. Evidently there might be a connection further north, but I'm not sure. In any event, the taxi ride was no problem. After my trauma of temporarily losing my passport, we made our attempt of thanking the travel gods by tipping the taxi driver a very large amount. He did a double take and double checked if we meant it. We thought it was good karma. :-)
We arrived in Ljubljana and walked a short while to the Hotel Emonec where we found very comfortable accommodation. We used a scheduled bus to go to Lake Bled for a day visit. The advantage of the bus over a train is that the bus takes you right to the lake. We strolled around the lake on the wide pedestrian path and visited the castle overlooking the lake. The topography and vegetation reminded me a lot of British Columbia, but the buildings certainly didn't. This area has been a retreat for many years.
Another day we used a scheduled bus from the train station area to go to the Postojna caves, about an hour drive from Ljubljana. The cave system is huge and well worth the visit. Using the buses was quite straight forward and language was not a problem.
Slovenia was a very pleasant surprise. It had a different feel due to its different cultural background which we enjoyed, and was off the beaten tourist track. When we took the train from Sezana to Ljubljana we were the only tourists on the train, yet that didn't matter. It was no more difficult taking that train than any other we have used in western Europe. There were tourists in Ljubljana but they seemed to be more from central Europe! Slovenia was a treat. Don't miss it if you have the opportunity to go.
My set of Slovenia pictures on my Flickr site.
Verona
After three nights in Ljubljana we travelled back to Trieste using the train to Sezana, then a taxi down to the Trieste train station. We then travelled to Verona for our planned week stay in a VRBO in part of the old town just north of the Piazza delle Erbe. Verona turned out to be a very good central location for day trips. We used a bus to go to Sirmione on the southern end of Lake Garda, and trains for day trips to Padua and Venice for the second time. Verona itself had lots to offer for the tourist especially the huge Roman amphitheatre. We ended our stay with a Pegas Wine Tour of the Valpolicella area just north of Verona. Other than getting car sick, it was a great tour!
Milan
We took the train to Milan to spend our last night, giving us time for a quick tour of the Cathedral area. We had been here in 2008 so it was visiting familiar territory. The next morning we woke up only to find that our flight had been cancelled! Not postponed, but CANCELLED! We decided to forego breakfast and get out to the airport and find out what was going on. After finding the appropriate line up and talking to a Lufthansa representative, we found out that some workers at the airport were on strike and Lufthansa were going to put us on a British Air flight to Heathrow, then on to Vancouver. We were going to arrive at YVR only an hour later than scheduled. That was a relief!
It was a great trip and had lots of variety. The first part with Ken and Anna was wonderful as usual, and visiting a country we hadn't been to turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Having the last week in Verona offered some relatively quiet time which was nice to have at the end of the trip.
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