Rovinj, Croatia; Ljubljana, Slovenia
Woke at 5 am because of RAIN. Too early by 3 hours to check out so went back to sleep. Rain continued. Finally got up at 8:30 because of Lota, the crybaby next door, who was wailing and wailing. Between her father's snoring and her bawling, it's a wonder anyone in the campsite ever got any sleep.
With lots of maneuvering, we finally got our wet remaining gear packed up. Several men with umbrellas stood around and watched, but no one offered any help. I guess chivalry is dead globally. Once the sleeping bags were packed, we removed the stakes on the tent and just lifted it up and walked it over to the bathrooms and under an overhang, where we shook it like a dog to get as much rain off as possible. It was a sight. Folded and put away the tent, then went for showers and dressed and checked out for a total of 620.60 Korndogs. Ate some dried figs to tide us over. Yum!
Got on the A9 tollway and got off immediately at a coffee bar for cappuccino, espresso, big sandwich with ham, cheese, smushed tomatoes and peppers and cheese, a cheese strudel and a cherry strudel. It was 11:30 am, but there were already men in the cafe drinking beer. Almost every gas station in Croatia and Italy had some sort of nice cafe attached - usually with a bar, pastries, sandwiches, clean bathrooms, and sometimes a children's play area.
At 12:40 we crossed the border in Slovenia, flirting with the hotties at customs. We pulled over and bought a vignette which would allow us to travel the highways in Slovenia.
On the way to Ljubljana we saw a sign for a cemetery (in Koper), and never ones to pass by a foreign cemetery, we stopped for a photo op. The mosquitoes were terrible, the cemetery was beautiful. There were lizards everywhere. We saw one "Paulovich" grave.
In Slovenia we went through 5.5 tunnels, one a 5865 meter tunnel that was half in Slovenia, half in Austria.
Blew into Ljubljana and went in circles until we decided park and check out hotels. The first one we went into, a very nice place (Central Hotel) gave us a good rate, for a capitol city and in the center of town. We also had to pay € 19 a day for parking garage.
Dumped out our stuff, hung out all of our wet stuff from the morning. Found out that the view from our room was directly on the police station, and there was a constant stream of Cop Hotties. It became our habit to gravitate to the window and spy on the motorcycle cops, bike cops and any and all cops, most of whom were babes. Our room was clean and pleasant, with two double beds, and on the screen of the large flat-screen TV it said, "Welcome Suzanne Hye." The only thing that was a detraction was that in the midst of a pretty high-class hotel (soaps, lotion, sewing kit, shoe polish, shower caps, etc.) the toilet paper was like sand paper! There was nice Kleenex, so we used that!
We hoofed it over to the town center, the tourist/pedestrian area. We had watched a Rick Steves video podcast on my iPod and had some good ideas on places to see and things to do.
We stopped at a church (not the cathedral) with beautiful Rococo art and architecture.
We crossed the famous three bridges by Ljubljana's most famous and beloved son,
Jože Plečnik. He designed many of the most beautiful and memorable bridges, streets and buildings, including the Triple Bridge.
When you cross the bridge you come to yet another lovely pedestrian area with a beautiful fountain. We stopped to admire an incredible sculptured door on the Ljubljana Cathredral and went inside. We were amazed by the trompe l'oeil frescoes that made it appear that the paintings were actually standing on pedestals in recesses, the gilding and the statuary. There was a wax figure in a casket which was the Tomb of St. Deodatus. We bought some postcards and a book about the church.
Walked over to where the funicular was that would take us up to the castle. Before we got there, we crossed a square where there was a clock tower and the clock had little figures that came out when the clock struck, so decided to come back later and record it. We were too famished to go up to the castle, so we walked over to find something to eat. Saw a restaurant we liked, but it was closing. We asked a man coming out where we could go to get real Slovenian food, and he suggested a restaurant, "Chompa," but it wouldn't open until 7, and we couldn't wait, so we went next door and got a Yufka Kabob and two Bitter Lemon sodas. It was great. We then walked around trying to find "Chompa," which we later found out was "Compa." There was a bead shop on the street where we eventually found Compa, and of course Suzanne couldn't resist going in. It was a tiny closet of a shop and the proprietor was sitting working on a piece. We were completely ignored. No greeting, never even looked up. Needless to say, we walked out. An unfriendly bead shop is such an oxymoron.
Walked back to the funicular but stopped in the clock square and got video of the cool clock with the figures. Took the funicular up to the castle and did what we do best, climbed the tower. At the top, Suzanne saw a man taking a picture of 3 of his friends, so she offered to take a picture of the four of them. As Suzanne took the picture, Jane popped up behind them with a goofy smile and a wave so she was in the picture. But then he took the camera from me and took a look at the image! The look on his face when he sees Jane as part of the picture was priceless! First shocked, then he looked angry, and he turned around, and Jane was right there in the same spot! She started laughing sheepishly and pointed at me and said, "I'm her sister!" That got them all laughing like crazy and we ended up having all of our pictures taken together and getting into a conversation about the Czech Republic. They were amazed that Suzanne knew all about the town of Louny, which isn't exactly a tourist destination.
The view from the tower was wonderful, and down in the courtyard of the castle there was a couple in native costume doing the Polka.
We then did a 3D Virtual Museum tour, which was okay, and met some nice Polish guys. There was a kiosk where you could take your picture and e-mail them directly from there, but we were so short we couldn't get our faces all the way up to the camera. Jane asked one of the Polish guys if he'd lift us up and that produced a laugh.
We went into the tourist office where the young man who had taken our tickets for the tower climb was flirting with the young woman there. We mentioned that the following day we would be headed out to Lake Bled, and where could be go for authentic Slovenian food? He suggested we make a stop in the village of Skofja Loka, and be sure to have Kremsnita, a local cream-cake specialty.
We took the funicular back down and it was now chilly. Suzanne got a sip of water from The Marble Boobie.
As we walked back there was a group of dancers having a great time - it was a kind of mamba or samba or something, with a caller, like a square dance. The sun had set and the town was beautiful.
We weren't really interested in going to a restaurant, so we went back to the car, pulled out all the picnic stuff and went into the hotel. Suzanne got on the computer in the lobby for a while and Jane set up a picnic of Gorgonzola, goat Pag, olives (from the Plodine, Trenton brand, now known as "magic olive,") cabbage salad, yogurt, boiled eggs, crackers and water. Watched a little of "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and went to sleep.
