Betchya didn't know that we got to the Piltvice lakes early this morning to beat the crowds. Thanks be to .... that we did. The trails were peaceful for our 4 hour trip around the lakes. But on our return to the entrance it was chaos! Betchya didn't know that Slovenia won the Eurobasket competition, [...]
Actually, we took a road to Piltvice Lakes. On the way we passed over the Velebit mountain range, following a largely deserted route to the lakes. We encountered some reminders of the 1991 war. It's a different story at the Piltvice park though; tourbuses everywhere!
After the weather cleared, we spent more time in Rab's old town and the nearby Komrcar Park. Visited the spot where a nun shared peaches with the bell tower attendant, and me, yesterday evening. In the pm, we took a very unpleasant walk to a nearby Franciscan monastery, only to discover that the opening hours [...]
Something wet this way comes And it came
We left Rovinj this morning and took a break at the Opatija Riviera. It was deserted. There must be some Brussels regulation, as we keep noticing that restaurants include a notice about "complaint procedures" at the bottom of their menus. Later, we boarded the ferry to Rab, where we came across some old-style coaches which [...]
Got an email in the a.m. canceling the winery tour we had arranged for today. Bummer. Instead we drove to Pula, at the Southern tip of Istria, and visited the 6th largest Roman amphitheater in the world, and the Temple of Augustus, the oldest building in Croatia. We made our own wine route by visiting [...]
Last night we had a light, but indulgent, dinner with local Istrian wines at the hyper-pretentious Wine Vault restaurant. Today, a visit to the fortified town of Motovun and, later, the "best preserved early Christian cathedral in the world": the Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč. Driving into Rovinj on Monday, we had seen many restaurants roasting [...]
Who knows what's really inside the sarcophagus at St Euphemia church in Rovinj. Maybe it really is the remains of the Saint. Or maybe not. We spend the day exploring the nooks and crannies, and dodging the weather.
We visited the Museo Revoltella, in Trieste, today. It has a great contrast between the original home of Pasquale Revoltella, a 19th C. entrepreneur, and the modern annex showing a collection of mostly Italian artists. I liked: Dopo la prima Comunione, Concetto spaziale - Attes, La canzone nova con parole e musica, and Beethoven. Also [...]
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