Too Many Steps

This morning we took a bus to Lake Bled and were impressed with the area. We drove through this part of the world years ago but I had forgotten how beautiful it was. 

Lake Bled is about 50 kilometres northwest of Ljubljana at the edge of the Julian Alps. It has become one of Slovenia’s most famous resorts.....so much to do here. And, Don you could swim!

That castle was our destination for the morning and it wasn’t easy getting there. We took the back route that was more of a hike than a walk...coming down was much easier! Forgot to take pictures of the trail, but just know it was tough in this heat.

It takes a lot to get me to wear out, but this afternoon I reached that point. After Lake Bled we decided to visit the castle in Ljubljana and again we decided to use our feet!

Nothing could keep me away from my bed....and I tried! A good meal and a nice cold Radner did nothing to ease my tired body! It is now 6:30 and I have been in my pjs for an hour. Good night!

New Country

We took an early morning train from Zagreb to Ljubljana and have settled in nicely at our hotel. The room wasn’t ready when we arrived so we did a bit of walking around and accidentally walked in on the Friday market.

This market is massive with a little of everything....fresh produce, wines from Slovenia,  kinds of food stalls and much more!

Walking through this market is sort of like grocery shopping on an empty stomach.....everything looks good and you want to buy it all!

Out of the City

It felt pretty good to be out of the noisy city and into a National Park. Today we took a tour up to Plitvice Lakes. Our first stop was at Rastoke, an old milling town.

It is pretty small with not a lot to offer other than the initial views so we only stayed half an hour.

Plitvice Lakes is an UNESCO Park site so the area is being treated with respect....no swimming in the waters, not even dangling your feet in the crystal clear lakes (16 of them, I think). We chose not to boat across the largest lake and ended up walking the complete trail in about four hours. Another extremely hot day! The temperature seems to linger around 30C to 33C most days. It thundered for about twenty minutes just as we were finishing but nothing came of it, even though we were all cheering the rain on.

Shoes

The city has permanently secured shoes on the edge of the walk by the river in remembrance of those who were shot and pushed into the river. Their shoes were removed before they were killed because shoes were so valuable in those days. I’m not sure if these shoes were bronzed or if something else was done to them.

Jewish Bars

It took us awhile but we finally found what we were looking for....the Ruin Bars! These bars have been developed in delapidated parts of the Jewish Quarter, parts of buildings that have collapsed for various reasons. There are six or seven that we read about, but we only tried the original...Szimpla Kert.

It was everything that the articles said it would be. It has a large number of rooms, three or four bars, two restaurants...all composed of what we would call junk. Nothing has been reconstructed, other that what was needed to make the place useable.

Although it was busy at 3:30 this afternoon, the real partying starts in the evening when we are in bed and the young are thinking of going out. Cheap beer attracts people!

Bubbles

We spent a couple of hours with Bubbles this morning and walked away feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. This is Bubbles!

There are over 60 Bubbles in Budapest and this was the closest, a three kilometre walk to and from. Too bad we went in the morning instead of after 4:00....Bubbles has beer and wine too!

So Much to do, So Little Time

Today was all about seeing things in more detail.....a benefit of the Hop On-Hop Off excursion. We walked five kilometres up to the Heroes’ Square to see some fantastic statues that were supposedly completed in 1896.

Nearby is City Park, complete with castles and lakes. A very nice setting with many Hungarian families relaxing and enjoying their holidays.

We used the last of our bus tickets to get to the Great Market. I was in search of the famous Hungarian paprika and of course I dragged a grumbling Fred along.

We decided to end our day with a beer at the restaurant below our hotel. We haven’t been eating particularly well since we arrived in Europe....today Fred walked for snacks so we had something to nibble on before heading to the Danube Palace for a folkloric performance.

Did you find Waldo?

A New City

This is our first visit to Budapest and it didn’t take us long to discover why people love the city. The architecture is fabulous and so intact, unlike many other cities that we have been to. It seems that when you leave one beautiful building there is another one just around the corner.

We are here for four days and we know that will not be long enough to see and do everything we want. Underneath Budapest are tunnels and the tours are highly recommended....but anyone under 19  and over 50 (maybe 55) are not allowed on the tours for insurance reasons so we are out. There may be exceptions to this rule but so far we have not found them.

Yesterday we visited the parliament buildings, from the outside only, and were super impressed. Nothing disappoints with this complex.

We walked a fair bit and kept taking pictures of things we knew nothing about....just that they were there and so impressive.

It wasn’t until we were back at the hotel that we realized my camera was not focusing on all the details and most of our pictures were pretty poor....I have dropped this camera numerous times so it owes me nothing. We got a very good camera from Jerry but in all our wisdom decided to leave it at home and use it for India only. We will use Fred’s phone which takes very good pictures and I will carry my iPad mini in case we are taking pictures at the same time. 

We went to the Citadel after the parliament buildings, but by then we were dying from the 33C heat and all our walking.....when a person is that hot they must sample the local beers!

The heat was making it difficult to walk like we usually do so we decided to take a hop on - hop off bus to learn the layout of the city. It did help us decide on today’s walk, but it was so boring! The taped commentary was a least a block behind so we missed the names of many places we were interested in....so much fun!

I tried Hungarian goulash last night and have had my one traditional meal. I am not much of a beef eater so found the dish okay....Fred loved it saying he ate something like that on the farm.

Nothing Else to Do

It’s a long wait at the airport just “Wishing and Hoping”.....not much else to do but find a beer we like and kill some time.

Busy, Busy

We are only in Barcelona for three days at the beginning of our trip so we have been trying to see as much of the city as possible. We went to the Park Quell but it was sold out so we could only visit the free parts and probably missed much of the fascinating points....maybe we will get the chance when we fly out on the end of our trip.

We also went to Sagrada Familia...this time with a Skip the Line reservation and were in to the church in no time. It is an unfinished project and is quite interesting and unique. 

Today we did the mandatory day trip to Montserrat Monastery....on our own and without a guide. It was quite the chore making sure we were catching the right connecting trains but we succeeded. 

The Monastery is two hours out of Barcelona, high in the mountains,  and we had to change trains three times going and four coming back...we grabbed the wrong one once, hence the difference!

The place is impressive for the location alone. Once up, there is a funicular ride almost to the top....as usual, I stayed down while Fred did the daredevil thing.

Too steep for me!

The church was special, in some ways much nicer than the Sagrada Familia. 

We were pretty worn out by the time we got back to Barcelona so supper was the usual....pizza in the room! Note the “knife”.

BTW, I am trying to reduce the size of the photos but not having much luck!

Welcome to Barcelona

The flight from Saskatoon to Toronto was almost perfect....no turbulence and a near perfect landing. We were even early!

Toronto to Barcelona was not great but we were able to try for some sleep. And we were early again! We cheaped out and took a bus to the city centre hoping for a short 18 minute walk to our hotel. We didn’t take into account the numerous times we had to get directions from the locals. Eventually one guy gave us pretty accurate directions and we made it!

Our room is comfortable and modern....in fact, so comfortable that we slept for three hours after arriving. Yes, even me! After making ourselves presentable we walked around the area and found a couple of places for Sangria. Supper was cheese and bread from the local market.