Bled and Beyond

The town of Bled sits adjacent to a shining blue lake with a church on an island and a clifftop castle. Nothing gets more picturesque, especially with the Julian Alps in the background. You can't help but be relaxed surrounded by such beauty. We arrived mid-morning and spent the day in the town walking up the cliff and around lake. Again the weather was not very cooperative, but certainly didn't keep us indoors. It was easy to convince Scott to join in our afternoon ritual of coffee and beers. We also introduced him to the delicious Bosnian meat, cevapcici. With a great night under our belts, we took the next day to explore the national park. We visited both Bohinj Lake and a nearby waterfall before lunch. Then we drove back to Vintnar Gorge with it's crushing rapids and winding wooden paths and bridges. Both were sights to be seen! We spent our last evening with pizza and wine on the balcony with cards.

We are currently home after a quick jaunt in Amsterdam. The trip has been incredible and we thank everyone at home who helped us take this journey. We feel so lucky to have been able to explore such beautiful countries for so long. It is highly recommended!

The city we can't spell or pronounce

After a morning drive and train ride, we arrived in Ljubljana mid-afternoon. It was raining so we opted for a taxi to bring us and our luggage to our hotel, a huge splurge. After getting settled, we walked four blocks to try and find Scott at his hotel. We found out he was off spelunking a nearby cave so we hunkered down out of the rain for our afternoon beer and coffee. We were able to find a cafe with dark beer on tap where we relaxed until meeting Scott for dinner. The next day we visited the castle on the hill. Trevor led a wonderful walking tour through the city checking out various sites. Our dinner that night was one of the best through the trip. It was just off the beaten path serving local cuisine. Ljubljana was a cute city with an old town filled with new shops. It had less hustle and bustle than the rest of our trip, but we think it was because of the weather.

Plitvice Lakes

The weather has gone from perfect to not so much. The rain and mist have become never-ending, but our smiles continued thanks to Plitvice Lakes. The national park is a series of lakes connected by ever changing waterfalls. The paths wind through the park over the water with a natural feel. We spent hours walking up and down the various elevations awed by the beauty in all directions. The water is crystal clear and filled with hundreds of trout, probably because there is no fishing or swimming allowed within the park. It is nothing like anything we have ever seen before, and highly recommended!

The Adriatic Islands

Our first stop was on the island of Korcula for two nights. The bus ride over was much better than the one to Dubrovnik. It was air conditioned and we got to ride a bus ferry - so exciting!! The island is quite a bit like a miniature Dubrovnik, but more peaceful and quaint. The old town is surrounded by walls and a beautiful promenade that we took advantage of for afternoon coffees and drinks. The pine trees hang over us and the water creating a gorgeous view. Most of our time was spent strolling the city, shopping and swimming off the rocks.
Next we took an early morning catamaran to Hvar, known as the party island. Mostly because it is a port town that attracts yachts and mega-yachts. We saw one with four levels, a crane and a full staff. We had three nights to occupy. Our room had a balcony overlooking the sea, beautiful as always. The first day was filled with relaxing on the rocks, swimming, shopping, hiking to the castle and wine. Unfortunately when we went to watch the sunset, we encountered a fight with a man beating another man with a rock in the head. It was VERY disturbing, but the sunset helped calm us. The second day we took an excurison to Vis which included a trip to the green cave and blue cave. Wow - the blue cave was awesome! It just glowed. Our last full day we ended up taking a water taxi to one of the Palenki islands, Palmasana. This was yet another peaceful island where we got the best mussels and finally a good, dark Croatian beer, mmmm!

Currently we are off the islands in the city of Split. We took full advantage of our time so far and visited the Diocleatian Palace, a Chagall exhibit and a great lunch. Tomorrow we are driving off to Plitvice Lakes for our last night in Croatia.

Dubrovnik

The bus ride from Mostar to Dubrovnik took longer than expected due to the multiple passport control stops (Bosnia to Croatia, Croatia to Bosnia and Bosnia to Croatia again). Old Town is huge and magnificent! Enclosed by towering walls and marble floors, the walk around the city walls has been the highlight of the trip. Our first full day was spent on the neighboring island of Lokrum, a national park. It was far more secluded than the busy streets of the Old City (especially with the overload of cruise shippers). The island is full of rocks to sunbathe, Adriatic water to cool off in and trails of pine trees everywhere. It also had the added bonus of no smoking on the island, excellent. We rented a car on the second day and drove to Montenegro. The freedom of hitting the curvy seaside roads and exploring Kotor and Saint Stefan was marvelous. Today is our last day in Dubrovnik. We found some hidden rocks outside the walls of the Old City with deep water to splash in. The pictures will not do justice of the beauty surrounding us. We are excited to head to the next couple islands as we explore the coast.

Thanks for keeping up with us, and as always, we would love to hear how everyone is back home.

A Minute in Mostar

We got to Mostar earlier than expected but the ride through the mountains was gorgeous (of course Rebecca slept through half of it). It reminded us a little of Sweetbriar with the green hills and river below. We stayed outside of Mostar's Old Town, small and quaint. The Old Bridge, Stari Most, was quite a sight and we were able to catch a guy jump off the 70 feet! The river is beautiful, ice cold, we could barely keep our toes in, probably as cold as the Kawishiwi in May. We tried the local wine...interesting. Our highlight was finding a rooftop terrace and watching the sunset.

The Valley of Sarajevo

We are wrapping up our time in Sarajevo before a day in Mostar and then on to Croatia. The city is not at all what we expected (not sure what that was though). It is nestled in a green valley with a fabulous Old Town next to a river. Originally we had a trek planned, but it ended up getting cancelled last minute. No worries, even though it would have been beautiful, we created our own voyage. With much help from a local taxi driver (who spoke no English), a foreign announcement was made on the loud speakers of a bus directing us toward our stop. It was a gorgeous view of the town and surrounding hillside. Other than our spontaneous non-trek, we have filled up on loads of meat. Yep pretty much just meat, mostly seasoned ground beef, lamb, or both. Delicious and incredibly filling!

Architecture of Budapest

It is our last night in Budapest and have loved every minute of it. The first day we spent our time in Buda on Castle Hill which had beautiful views of the Chain Bridge and all of Pest. It rained a lot! Being unprepared for the rain didn't stop us from walking all over, sopping. We even made it back over to Pest and saw Parliament, which was gorgeous. In the evening we went to see Romeo and Juliet ballet at the opera. Unfortunately our seats were so good we only saw half of it. For dinner we sat outside wrapped in blankets and had their famous paprika chicken. Jet lag kept us in bed longer than expected until we jumped up and went to the market and Vaci Utca. Following shopping, we relaxed in the Szechenyi baths. They were extraordinary, except that Rebecca got locked in a bathroom stall which was completely traumatizing. We walked back along Andrassy street and marveled at all the gorgeous buildings. All in all, the goulash, gelato and beer are superb and the buildings of Budapest are worth the journey alone.

Note: We think we saw Luke Wilson at the Heathrow Airport.