Thursday, September 24, 2015
We had a good long sleep last night. It is amazing what a
couple of extra hours mean. We didn’t figure out the AC until morning though and
since it was cold and windy and rainy last night we didn’t leave the balcony
door open either so it was awful in the room by morning. I had hand washed some
clothes since we are here for 2 nights and they were as wet the next morning as
when I hung them up to dry. Oh well. Also, the Internet was out here last night
and this morning, so I didn’t get yesterday’s post up until just now. We are on
a short break between optional outings.
Breakfast was a buffet at the hotel where we had dinner last
night. We found the specialties that Gabriella had told us about here. Barley
coffee was an option in the automatic cappuccino machine, with or without hot
milk. I should have tried it with milk maybe as I didn’t like it. The barley
soup was chock full of weird meat and mushrooms. Clay tried it and said he didn’t
see any barley but he ate it all and liked it as he said he’d have it for
breakfast. Warm and filling. He said he thought he found tripe, sausages and
beef. I did not try it.
We met the bus and the rain had not stopped as it had been
predicted to do. So we headed out without being able to see out the windows
again. I should mention that Valentino keeps that bus and the windows spotless.
It was just the rain! We drove around Lake Bled and up the hill to the castle
at least most of the way. There was still a crazy steep ramp to climb up to get
there. There has been a tower and castle there since sometime in the 1000’s. It
was a church property of a German diocese early on. After we climbed up there
Gabriella handed out our tickets and gave a brief orientation and told us to be
back at the bus in an hour. There was a museum, a forge, a wine shop, souvenir
shops and a printing press that made souvenirs. It was interesting. The views
were the big attraction but it was pretty socked in the clouds and rain. We
drove back to the Park Hotel and unloaded. Those of us going to Bled Island and
Lake Bohinj had on 30 minutes to get lunch, use restrooms or whatever and get
back on the bus. We ran to the room, grabbed protein bars, used the bathroom and
ran back down to the bar where we ordered and shared one of Sava Park Hotel’s
famous Bled Cream Cakes. Later we saw a piece twice the size at the Mercator
across the street! It was good, but it was not what either of us would have
called cake! Back on the bus and it is a bit warmer, windier and the rain has
stopped but the clouds are still low. We drove straight back the way we came
and struggled to find a boat to take us to Bled Island to visit the church.
When we were up at the castle, they were using covered electric ones. When we
arrived after Gate One had hired all the boats that we now being paddled, we
learned they had stopped the powered one and didn’t have enough paddlers. We
eventually got across and back but it caused some timing stress. No one said anything
about the 99 stairs you have to climb to visit the church. It was interesting.
We were told it is the only genuine island in all of Slovenia. That seems
weird. The church as a wishing bell but as there were at least 50 people in
line to pull the rope to ring it 3 times and get their picture taken while they
make their wish, we skipped it and climbed the clock tower to see the works
inside. It was nicely done. We were supposed to go up the 99 stairs visit the
church, ring the bell 3 times, climb the clock tower or walk around the island
or use the restrooms, café for special cake there and or use the restrooms, but
we also had to be back at the bottom of the 99 stairs in 30 minutes time! It
turned out we all rushed and got back on time, but the boatman said he couldn’t
take us. So we all walked around the island rather than back up and down again.
We drove along the Sava River to its source at Lake Bohinj. There we saw the
statue of Gold Horn, a mountain goat that is the symbol of Slovenia. There is a
legend. I’ll let you look it up as well as the Bled Cream Cake. We walked
partway around the lake to see an alpine meadow and then back. Briefly the
clouds cleared and the sun shone atop the highest peak in Slovenia across Lake
Bohinj. Lastly we drove to the first of 3 traditional Slovenian mountain
villages. Though the bus barely fit, we drove right through. We stopped at the next
one, Stara Fuzna, and walked through. Then we drove on to the 3rd
one and looped back to the road we arrived on for the trip back along the raging
Sava River, the low clouds and some waterfalls from above. We got back to the hotel about 3:30pm. We
walked across the street to the Mercator grocery store to look for Clay a local
beer in green can with a picture of Golden Horn on it. He found 2 and a bag of
peanuts. We walked around the rest of the shopping center a bit and found the
first Slovenia patch. I had given it up and since I lost my Albania (&
favorite one) I didn’t even care. Clay promises to find me a replacement on
Amazon for Christmas. We’ll see. Oh, the optional tours’ costs. This afternoon’s
was $43pp and tonight’s is $50pp. There is one last one from Zagreb. The
village of Kurovec (Tito’s birthplace and now a museum basically.) where they
have an early dinner of local specialties and wine that Gabriella calls a
medieval dinner. We haven’t made a decision on that one yet.
I guess I’ll save this ‘til after dinner in case it is good
or bad. We’ve been waiting for Gabriella to get back to us with some
information about getting from Zagreb to Budapest on Sunday since she didn’t
like our plan to take the train. She still hasn’t gotten back so we cornered
her during free time at Bled Castle and she said she was still working on it
but that we might have been right about the train being the best option though
she still thought it was too long a train ride but that now the bus ride was
even longer and people were reporting border problems with it. As far as she
could tell, the trains had not yet been impacted by the immigrant problem or
any border closings. She still wanted to get a quote from Kompas for a private
car and driver since it would be the surest way. She thought it would be
prohibitively expensive though. She said if we had to go to the Zagreb train
station to buy tickets that she would help us out. She is still nixing a backup
plan of flying though that seems as sure as any method to me. She doesn’t like
it because there is no direct flight. I don’t like that either, but I’d like to
think I could get there in one day without getting caught up in any trouble and
I haven’t heard any issues with migrants and flying at all! I’ll keep you
posted. We leave here at 9am in the morning for Zagreb and Saturday is the final
day of this tour. Sunday we all go our own ways again. We go to Budapest.
Somehow.
Back from tonight’s optional dinner. I don’t really like
these things. First of all food just isn’t all that important to me and second
I hate a meal combined with entertainment. Only about half of the group went to
the dinner. I think about the same number may have done the afternoon optional.
I am sure the optional are probably good money makers. I don’t know what we’d
have done on our own for dinner, but I can guarantee it would have been less
expensive, I’d have enjoyed it more and we’d have gotten to bed earlier. All
that said, we’ll probably do the last optional dinner too because it is paired
with the Tito’s village museum visit. Anyway. It was mostly enjoyed and the food
seemed to please most people and some were happy with being forced to dance for
their dinner. Gabriella surprised us all with unloading the bus in the village
of Radovljica at the Kunstelj Restaurant by saying we were going to take a 15
minute walk through town in the drizzle. No one had dressed for rain. No one
had brought an umbrella even. Only half of us agreed to go with her. The rest
of us sat in the restaurant and waited. When they came back, everyone found
seats at the tables we’d earlier been shown to and then they came and told us
we were going to begin in the cellar. Downstairs we went. This place has been
in business with the same family for 140 years. In the wine cellar, we were
offered red and white wine made somewhere locally. There were no labels on the
bottles. Then they served cheese, cheese dips and sausages and sausages baked
into breads. The accordion player played and talked and a couple danced. They entertainment
trio were in traditional costumes. After 15 or 20 minutes of standing around in
the cellar we were sent back upstairs. Gabriella again promised barley soup. It
tasted like beef broth with vegetables, but there were clearly barley grains in
it. Clay said otherwise it tasted like what he had this morning. I guess it
might be one of the dishes that can have variation in available ingredients or
recipes. Next they brought out salads and Gabriella insisted everyone try her
other local favorite pumpkin seed oil. It was black and surprisingly viscous.
It looked kind of like balsamic vinegar. It wasn’t bad, but she said she loves
it poured over vanilla ice cream and I wouldn’t do that. Clay had the trout and
it was a large serving of fish fillets with potatoes. He said he thought the half
and half trout the other night was a lot better. I had the meat. I didn’t like
most of it. There were turkey roll things, a white link sausage, a slice of a
large round sausage, a pile of carroty sauerkraut, a pile of mashed potatoes,
and a cottage cheese dumpling roll thing. I ate a little of everything and all
of one of the turkey rolls and then switched plates with Clay. He probably really
wanted to order mine anyway, but I thought we should spread the risk again.
Dessert was mysterious. Gabriella told us it would be apple strudel with vanilla
ice cream but the consensus was that we thought we were served bread pudding
with lime ice cream. There was music and dancing between courses and then a
forced participation big finale after dessert. We were all ready to get up
leave without the conga line anyway. As I say, I don’t like these things.
Tomorrow at 9am the bus leaves Bled for Zagreb for our last
2 nights in the Westin there and a city visit to Ljubljana on the way. The weather
is predicted to be bad with heavy rain for at least the next 2 days. I hope
this rain is also falling somewhere where it can float our river boats! This is a hard way to travel and we need some relaxation! Good
night.
