Stunning Slovenia

Years ago, when I first heard that my nephew was coming to Slovenia for his post-doc, I was so confused. I only knew it was a formerly Communist country. When I was in geography class in school, we saw filmstrips of beautiful Western Europe, but Eastern Europe was a mystery - I assumed full of factories and ugly apartment buildings. That is definitely NOT the case for Slovenia.

Slovenia is BEAUTIFUL, though I kept hoping to see more of the snow-capped mountains peeking through the cloud cover.

Interestingly, the owner of the AirBnB we are staying at is a retired diplomat. He invited us in for a drink and said “I must say this. I have been a Communist, and it was terrible. I am very concerned that America is leaning towards socialism. Please, America, do NOT do this!”

We stayed in a little town called Brezje. Got a little lost trying to find our place which was a bunkhouse in a converted barn. You had to go outside to the bathroom and shower area, and there was no heat. But we all slept well there!

Our first hike in Slovenia was to the Mostnica Gorge/Voje Waterfall in Triglavski National Park. It was 7.4 miles and has made it to my list of top ten hikes because of its combination of scenery AND great food!

Picnic stop in Slovenia

Our AirBnB spot in Brezje

Voje Slap (slap means "waterfall" in Slovenian)

Eating our strudel.  Dessert before lunch.

Lunch spot.  The snow-capped mountains were starting to peek out.

I thought my soup said "Vote" at first but of course it's the name of the waterfall on the hike. This was wild mushroom soup made with local ingredients.  It was one of the best things I tasted on the trip!

Lake Plitvice

The good thing about seeing Lake Plitvice National Park during record rainfall is that tickets were cheaper and the crowds were down.  The bad news is that many paths were flooded/closed and the boats weren't running because the dock was underwater.  

What we did see just made me want to come back and see more!

Note the flooded boardwalk at the base of the falls

The flooded dock

Photo above during regular water flow.  Bottom photo is ours. 

Rastoke

This name of this town in Croatia doesn't sound the greatest, and it was not a place we had intended to go.  But it ended up being a magical spot that we are glad we didn't miss!  This was Terry's favorite spot of the whole trip!

From my journal:  

We were supposed to visit Lake Plitvice, but it was pouring rain and we knew the lower lakes were closed (where all the magic is with the paths right next to the falls).  Instead we made a plan that we would see the big falls from an overlook just outside the park (Terry and I scoped it out first) and then visit the town of Slunj-Rastoke, which our host suggested.  

The Overlook

So much water!  This is the biggest falls in Plitvice. 

We went back and saw the overlook from another angle later in the day when we returned from Slunj

Ain't skeered

Slunj

We just loved this little mill town!  Two rivers come together there, and there were falls galore.  It was also a time of extremely high water.  We ate a great lunch (my favorite meal so far) at Petro’s, in a little hut right on top of a waterfall.  It had a fire in the fireplace and was so cozy. 

Noah said we were eating right in the middle of a natural disaster.  I had some grilled veggies - and they tasted so good.  Caleb got bear meat goulash.  Noah got a burger (Hamby Bambi from the kid’s menu) and Meredith got a hot dog (Smiley from the kid’s menu).  We all cleaned our plates.  

Then we walked along the falls.  Amazing!  I just loved our time there - maybe more because it was unexpected, unplanned.  There was enough of a break in the rain to enjoy it, and I kept thinking that we would have missed this town on our original plan.

Venice

Terry and I actually got to visit Venice twice!  When we arrived in Mirano mid-afternoon on a Sunday, the kids were tired and didn't want to go into Venice.  Caleb was also feeling poorly.  So Terry and I went on a date to Venice!  It wasn't sunny, but it also wasn't very crowded.  

Thanks to FB, I had discovered that some dear friends of ours were also in Venice.  We arranged for all of us to meet them for lunch the next day.  After lunch we split up.  Terry and I hung out with our friends, Caleb and Meredith headed back to our AirBnB because Caleb had a fever, and Noah took off on his own to look at art and search for the perfect meal.

I'd been told that Venice was really overrated, but I quite enjoyed it!  We did not ride a gondola as it was about $100 each!  I was really wishing we could drive our own boat!

Rialto Bridge - Smile, Terry!

with the Franks

We really enjoyed going up in this tower!

there was a Batman boat playing the theme song

Noah love galleries.  I liked the colors the artist used here. 

Noah takes off