Masked Crusaders in Europe

We woke up in the skiing village of Jereza after a really decent night’s sleep. We went down at 9.00am for our pre-arranged €7 breakfast. The owner brought out fresh coffee, then he cooked a ham & cheese omelette for us. We also had cereal, a plate of ham, cheese & salami, bread & jams, yoghurt, a banana each & jug of orange juice. We ate as much as we could & took the yoghurt & banana with us. It was well worth it, but we couldn’t do it justice.

Before 10am, we arrived at the car park for Entrance 2 of Plitvice Lakes National Park. It didn’t get off to an auspicious start, when we paid our 200 kuna (£25) each & received just our tickets only. I enquired about a map or leaflet & were told we could purchase one from the souvenir shop. A sign read “Take Nothing but Pictures, Leave Nothing but Footprints and Use Nothing but Time!” Well it certainly wouldn’t be any helpful literature.

We entered the park both chuntering to each other that for the price it was outrageous, not like the US National Parks. Inside the park, I found an information desk & asked again for a map & the lady told me to take a photo of the map on a sign. Not quite the same! She did, however, advise to us take the H Route, a 4-6 hour trek of 9km. We then caught the electric bus to the start several miles away.

We & about 40 others disembarked the bus & followed the elevated path. Within minutes we were walking alone & marvelling at the magnificence of the park. The lakes were absolutely crystal clear & a myriad of colours from deep blue, turquoise through to bright green. All around us were waterfalls & babbling brooks making their way downwards through lush vegetation. It was spellbindingly beautiful.

Plitvice Lakes is described in official literature as ‘the oldest and largest national park in the Republic of Croatia. The park is situated in the mountainous region of Croatia, between the Mala Kapela mountain range in the west and northwest, and the Lička Plješivica mountain range to the southeast.

With its exceptional natural beauty, this area has always attracted nature lovers, and on 8 April 1949, it was proclaimed Croatia’s first national park. The process of tufa formation, which results in the building of the tufa, or travertine, barriers and resulted in the creation of the lakes, is the outstanding universal value, for which the Plitvice Lakes were internationally recognised on 26 October 1979 with their inscription onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 1997, the boundaries of the national park were expanded, and today it covers an area just under 300 km2’.

We followed the path taking hundreds of photos, 293 photos actually. As always I’m not sure I did it justice. After about 5km of trail winding around & over the lakes, we arrived at they boat station. We caught the free boat across a large vivid turquoise lake to the other end to continue our Route H.

Before continuing, we took the opportunity for some refreshment. We had an ice cream & ate the juicy pears we had bought with us. The second leg of our journey only got even better, which I didn’t believe was possible.

Our route took us through a gorge with dramatic waterfalls & caves & more turquoise water. Eventually the path took us up to the top of the gorge, which gave us fantastic views looking down below. We completed our 9 km Route H at Entrance 1, where we should have got an electric bus back to Entrance 2, but I wasn’t finished. Instead, I convinced Jackie that we still needed to walk the extra 4km around the lake. It was such a pleasant walk that she didn’t mind despite lugging a rucksack with 2 litres of water & various other things around.

Around 4pm we completed our trail. We both agreed that the park had been the most beautiful place that we had ever been to or seen and it’s not like we haven’t seen a few around the world.

In addition the park was pristine. Throughout the whole day we only saw one plastic bottle, one discarded cigarette butt & just a couple of coins thrown into the water. It was worth every single penny. I don’t know enough superlatives to describe it further so I won’t attempt it.

After returning to the car, we had a cruise around the skiing resort, which is quite hard to visualise in the summer. Back at our accommodation, we trawled through our photos & picked out a selection for the blog.

That evening we returned to Bistro Vucnica for a cheeseburger to share & an extra portion of French fries. Apparently Jackie couldn’t eat a whole one so nor could I!

Song of the Day : You Are So Beautiful by Joe CockerLes mer

Woke up starving, so did my best to rectify the situation at breakfast. We had a plate of meat & cheese, several rolls mainly with delicious pâté & followed it with fruit. After checking out, we drove into Freiburg im Breisgau & parked up in an underground car park. We then commenced a mad dash around the city centre must-sees.

First was Martin’s Gate, an iconic medieval gate tower with a clock (and a McDonalds). After a photo from either side, we galloped to the other side of town to Freiburger Munster, a grand cathedral with a unique Gothic tower. Freiburger Munster was started to be built in 1200 in a romanesque style, but construction continued in 1230 in a Gothic style, which accounts for the architecture.

Around the outside of the cathedral were market stalls preventing me getting a decent photo of it in it’s entirety. We entered & were able to wander around admiring the ornate interior, but they wanted to charge us to tour the choir seats & alter. Surely god’s houses should be free. Jesus would be turning in his grave if he only knew!

We continued to wander around the town getting our money’s worth of the car park, then with minutes to spare we returned to our car & paid for just one hour. Next stop was The Schlossbergturm which was a 10 minute drive up a steep wooded hill. We abandoned our car at the top end of a Funicular railway, then climbed up on foot a further half a mile to the Schlossbergturm.

The Schlossbergturm or Castle Hill Tower is a 35 m high observation tower on Castle Hill Schlossberg on the edge of the historic Altstadt of Freiburg im Breisgau. It has 153 steps, its top is located 463 m above sea level and thus 185 m above the average altitude of the city (278 m). The tower which was built in 2002 stands out for its unusual design consisting of twisted tree trunks around a staircase made of steel. It has three platforms on the top is reached by a small spiral staircase.

Despite being scared of heights, I decided to climb the Schlossbergturm, whilst Jackie couldn’t be bothered or so she said. Throughout the climb I could see the floor shrinking below me & I was clinging on for dear life. By the time I reached the top I was walking like Mrs Overall. The top of the tower gives stunning views of the town & surrounding countryside below apparently. I hung my camera over the railing & clicked away. I was aware I was making a spectacle of myself because people were looking at me, so I creeped back down the spiral staircase to the bottom. Apparently, Jackie didn’t see me at the top waving to her!

Returning to the car, we were relieved to see that it had been clamped or towed. We then set the SatNav for Lake Titisee (I’m not making it up!) which was about 20 miles away. We parked up & followed the elderly crowds into Titisee, which is THE home of cuckoo clock making. We were bombarded with cuckoo shops & other tourist tat shops. Jacqueline couldn’t resist looking & soon established that there were some bargains to be had.

I dragged her away to the glacier lake, which didn’t look as spectacular as others we had seen, but it was fighting against black clouds looming overhead. At 12.55pm, we located the world’s largest cuckoo clock (it wasn’t) & waited for it’s 1.00pm performance, which turned out to be a total anticlimax.

We consoled ourselves with a beer in the sun, secured a bed for the night, then we had a Bratwurst in a bun for lunch. Jackie apparently was in the mood for shopping & she bought some mementos/alcohol. If that wasn’t enough, we (she) then went clothes shopping. Despite us nearly buying a pair of boots & a German fighter pilot leather jacket, we eventually walked away with 2 scarfs & a felt hat, all for Jackie.

We decided to head straight to our hotel to plan our final days of the trip on our room balcony. We bought a couple of bottles of German white wine & checked ourselves into our ski chalet hotel in Schonwald im Schwarzwald, just 4 miles south of Triberg. In front of our balcony are 2 huge fir trees that blocked out our view of anything else, but were the home for 2 red squirrels.

On our balcony we drank our two bottles of too sweet wine, then headed downtown for something to eat. In the whole town, there was just one restaurant open, Pizzeria Holzfällerstube, which was chock a block. We waited until a table became available with a couple of large beers.

I stupidly ordered the house pizza & Jackie ordered a chilli pasta. When it eventually arrived Jackie’s pasta was not a patch on what she can make & my pizza was so overloaded that it became soggy. We ate about a half of our respective disappointing meals then ordered.the bill. It was at this point that we were informed that we had to pay the bill of €30 by cash.

We only had a €10 note, so I went off in search of the only ATM in town. Eventually I found it, but it didn’t like our Caxton card, so that was that. I returned to the restaurant with the news & after much umming & aahing the waiter told us we could bring them the cash tomorrow. Of course we will.

We celebrated our good fortune, sorry embarrassing incident, with a nightcap of cherry schnapps.

Song of the Day : A Forest by The Cure

Bonus Song of the Day : The Staircase (Mystery) by Siouxsie & the Banshees.Les mer