Slovenia, Croatia and Venice

A 15-day adventure by Olddustyboots.com Read more

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Trip start
October 1, 2024
Slovenia, Croatia and Venice Olddustyboots.com
Predjama Castle
October 2, 2024 in Slovenia ⋅ 🌧 16 °C
Predjama castle is the only preserved cave castle in the world and it is perched in the middle of a 123 metre high cliff. It is full of secret tunnels and underground caves, but it also has a secret exit, and a water source so it was pretty safe if it was attacked.Read more
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Slovenia, Croatia and Venice Olddustyboots.com
Postojnska Jama caves
October 2, 2024 in Slovenia ⋅ 🌧 16 °C
Postojnaka Jama has 24 kilometers of underground passages full of stalagmites and stalactites. We traveled about a kilometre and a half into the caves by a small, bright yellow train.
Some of the rocks are glossy and smooth, while others are sparkly with crystals and we passed through passages where we could have touched the ceiling easily, while other caves were bigger than two football fields put together!
We walked a few kilometers in the caves as we wound down to the lower level. Here we saw small pools of water and we learned that scientists are studying over 150 different species of creatures that live here. One creature is the "baby dragon" which is the Postojna Cave olm. People used to believe they would grow into real dragons, but they're an animal with no pigment at all in its skin. That makes it very sensitive to light and it's against the law to take any kind of picture of them.
After mailing ourselves a postcard from the underground post office located in the caves, we climbed aboard the train to head back up to the surface. The dwarves from Lord of the Rings would have felt right at home in these caves.
What an amazing tour!Read more
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Roman Arena at Pula, Croatia
October 3, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ 🌧 16 °C
If we closed our eyes, we would have heard the clash of gladiator's swords, the cries of the crowd and the roars of beasts waiting for their turn on the arena floor. This Roman arena reminded us of the Coliseum in Rome, but here we walked on the arena floor where Gladiators of old trod. In its day, the arena would have held up to 23,000 people and the spectacles would have continued for a week at a time. During this week, many powerful people brokered business deals and curried political favour.
We learned that the richest and most influential men sat in the lower bowl where they were closest to the action, while the middle class men sat in the next tier. On the third level where it was standing room only, women and slaves of both genders could watch the fray.Read more
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Slovenia, Croatia and Venice Olddustyboots.com
Arch of the Sergii, Pula, Croatia
October 3, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ 🌧 16 °C
Walking through Pula, we found remnants of the Roman culture in the base stones of the city walls, the Herculean gate and finally at the Arch of the Sergii. This victory arch was built between 29 and 27 BC by Salvia Postuma Sergii. She inscribed the arch with "Salvia Postuma Sergii de Sua Pecunia" which means Salvia Postuma, wife of Sergii, built this arch with her own money. Strong women existed even then!
Next to the arch is. Bronze statue of the Irishman, James Joyce, who taught English here for a few months
During our free time, we saw the temple of Augustus, tasted some Ferraro gelato and Doug tasted some Istrian brandy.
Pula, or Pola, is a strong blend of Croatian and Italian cultures and every street sign is in both languages.Read more
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Zadar & the Dalmatian coast
October 4, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
The drive from Opatija to Zadar was long, but interesting. Primoz told us that Croatia has many micro climates, but we didn't understand what he meant until today. We left Opatija in a drizzly day that was threatening more rain. Then suddenly on our drive towards Zadar, we came out of a highway mountain tunnel into sudden sunshine and summer weather. What a treat!
Zadar is a beautiful seaside town with a church and a tall bell tower in the main square, surrounded by ancient ruins. The highlight of this visit was the Sea Organ which is a series of manmade holes built into the cement pier. As the waves move to and fro through the holes, they emit ghostly musical chords reminiscent of whale songs. I found this eerie concert very soothing and could have sat there for hours listening to this lullaby.
Close to the Sea Organ is the "Greeting to the Sun" which is a circular series of solar panels that absorbs energy all day and then lights up in a colourful dancing display at dark. This would be lovely to see, but we left too early.Read more
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Dinner and Dancing in Split
October 4, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ 🌙 19 °C
Tonight we had a special dinner to celebrate the birthdays of two of our tour mates. Our restaurant was made of stone and had lamps made from rice paper fashioned into lilies. While Doug tried the octopus followed by sea bass, I had the vegetarian menu with risotto. We were serenaded by two musicians with a guitar and an accordion singing local folk songs and then some North American songs like "Stand by Me" and "New York, New York". I even got Doug up to dance to one slow song! It was a lovely evening!Read more
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Slovenia, Croatia and Venice Olddustyboots.com
Old Town Split
October 5, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
Split was originally founded by the Greeks, but they were chased out by the Romans who built an aqueduct to bring mountain water to this seaside town. These same aqueducts are being used to this day to bring water to this modern city!
The Empire Diocletian retired to Split and built a palace here. While much of his buildings were destroyed by the barbarians a few centuries later, we visited the basement of his palace and his Mausoleum, which the Christian Barbarians turned into a Cathedral. It's the oldest standing Cathedral in the world.
A black granite Sphinx guards outside this building which is ringed with Egyptian columns.
Near the Cathedral, we were serenaded by 4 Croatian men, in traditional costume, singing acapella under a circular domed stone roof. Their voices were beautiful as the music echoed around us.Read more
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Dubrovnik Old Town
October 6, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Dubrovnik is built on the rocky shores of the Adriatic Sea and is famous for its city wall. To walk around the wall takes about 90 minutes and costs 35 euros per person. To walk this route, we'd have to go up and down multiple steep, uneven stairs and we chose to spend our time walking in the city streets instead.
We saw the Dominican Monastery with its centuries old pharmacy and then walked from the round stone water building to the city bell tower with its green men who hit the bell with a mallet. We visited the church of St. Blaise, who is the patron Saint of Dubrovnik.
After a sea bass sandwich and risotto with shrimp for lunch, we found the shopping street and open air market where I bought a woven fabric in a Croatian design.Read more
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Slovenia, Croatia and Venice Olddustyboots.com
Silk Weaving
October 7, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
Silk weaving is an important part of Croatian culture. Girls used to start spinning and weaving silk at an early age so that by the time they married, they had made all of their silk garments for the rest of their lives. Intricate patterns tell their stories with early years reflected in pink tones, young adult years in red, mature mothers in burgundy and widows in such deep hues that it looks black. Our hostess, Antonia, is teaching younger generations the secrets of silk weaving as her grandmother taught herRead more
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Flour Mill and Fulling Mill
October 7, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Deeper into the Croatian countryside we journeyed to see both a flour mill and a fulling mill run by the power of water. Farmers used to bring their grains to the mill on donkeys and the huge granite stones ground the kernels into flour.
Further up the stream, a fulling mill was used to pound the coarsely woven wool cloth into softer, stronger fabric. We were able to touch samples of woolen material, pre-fulling and post and we agreed that the processed cloth was preferred.Read more
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Adriatic Sea, Dubrovnik
October 7, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ 🌙 20 °C
Below our hotel was the Adriatic Sea with its azure waters, palm trees and pebble beaches. There's no digging sand castles here, but people do stretch out on their towels on the gravel. We found that our feet sank into the pea sized pebbles making it hard to walk into the water. We waded into the sea up to our knees. It's October, but some people still splashed in the crystal clear, cool water.Read more
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Dalmatian village of Pakovo Selo
October 8, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
Anna greeted us at her farm that has been converted into a dining room where we enjoyed the traditional Croatian meal called "Peka". Meat, potatoes and vegetables are roasted in a metal pan that is covered with red hot coals in the fireplace until they form a caramelized treat.
This farm is set up to show us how Croatian culture operated over the centuries. A tree in the yard had large black fabric bags hanging from the branches to demonstrate how cured hams were dried for 18 months in the olden days. Traditional clothes and farm wagons rounded out the decorRead more
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Zagreb, Croatia
Oct 9–13, 2024 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Zagreb has a mighty history with influence from the Venetians, the Ottoman Empire, and the Romans, which we saw as we walked through a long park lined with leafy 200 year old Sycamore trees. A funicular whisked us above the main square to see St. Mark's church with a colourful mosaic tile roof in the pattern of the Croatian coat of arms .
Nearby Stone Gate is lit by gas lamps on the street. Zagreb has a lamplighter that lights every one of the 270 city gas lamps every evening.
After seeing a painting in the stone Gate and the cathedral that have both withstood several earthquakes, we returned to the main street where we found a "Pan Peck" or bakery for lunch. Delicious fresh sandwiches and pastries were inexpensive but so good!Read more
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Radovljica, Slovenia
October 9, 2024 in Slovenia ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
This optional tour was delightful. We walked through cool rainy evening streets into a quaint village decorated with hearts on the street and in front of stores. Next to a Michelin star restaurant, we entered a country inn where we were greeted by a lady in traditional dress who offered us bread and salt as a treat. Historically, salt was expensive so offering us salt is like rolling out the finest wines and china in our culture.
Throughout this meal of delicious mushroom soup, followed by chicken schnitzel with pork roast and tiramisu dessert, we were regaled with stories and traditional dancing by our costumed hosts. A fun hat switching game rounded up the evening with everyone laughing and dancing together.Read more
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Bled Castle, Slovenia
October 10, 2024 in Slovenia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
Under drizzly skies, we visited Bled Castle and saw the church on its island in the middle of a picturesque lake surrounded by mountains. This area is so beautiful! If we visit here again, we need to book a boat ride out to the island as a special treat.
After seeing the historic displays inside the castle, I got to pull the handle on an ancient printing press to make a picture of the island with our names underneath. I finished the souvenir off by pressing a stamp into the freshly melted red sealing wax and then we hurried down the stone ramp to rejoin our tour mates at the bus. This was a short visit, and worth a second look.Read more
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Ljubljana Slovenia
October 11, 2024 in Slovenia ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C
Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia, is a university town that has closed off the streets to downtown to make a pedestrian only area that was a pleasure to visit. Here, we saw coloured buildings, a triple bridge, the dragon bridge and the butcher's bridge, all under the watchful eye of the Ljubljana castle on a hill high above the city.
After tasting white truffle oil on bread and touring the shopping area, Doug and I enjoyed a tasty lunch in an ancient pub, Sokol. Mushroom soup in a bread bowl for me, while Doug enjoyed a meal of sausage, porkchops and blood sausage in a cast iron frying pan with sour cabbage, sour turnip and mashed potatoes. Just a delightful day!Read more
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Venice walking tour
October 12, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
Our walking tour included winding into the campos, or neighbourhoods away from the main tourist and along the canals. Everywhere we saw beautiful sculptures, masks and Murano glass.
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Our Gondola ride
October 12, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Our tour included a gondola ride with a singer and accordion player. We had enough people to require 3 gondolas so we drew straws to see which couple got to ride with the musicians. I won!
So Doug and I had a romantic gondola experience while being serenaded by a talented singer. I was in heaven! What a way to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary!Read more
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St. Mark's Square
October 13, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
We visited St. Mark's Square with our tour group, but didn't get to enter the Basilica, the bell tower or the Doge's Palace. Now that our tour was over, we returned to this part of Venice and followed our Get your Guide group to visit all of these sites The Bridge of Sighs, Bell tower and Basilica were amazing and we even saw the bronze horses that the Venetians acquired from the Ottamon Empire.Read more
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Basilica and Doge's palace
October 13, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
The mosaics in St. Mark's Basilica and its facade are gorgeous. Biblical scenes and Venetian history are depicted in golden pictures made from tiny pieces of stone.
The nearby clock tower is centuries old and tracks the time, as well as the sun and moon phases. The hour was celebrated by two bronze bell ringers swinging large hammers at the bell.
The Doge's Palace is actually the seat of government and is full of statues and paintings that track the Island's history and it's values. It also houses the courts.
The Palace is linked to the goal by a bridge. This bridge, high above the canal, is called the Bridge of Sighs because prisoners often sighed in sadness as they crossed to their punishment. We walked this route and saw the cells. It would have been tortuous to be confined here.Read more
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Sunset on the canals
October 13, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
We spent a whole day exploring Venice and on our waterbus home, we were rewarded with an amazing sunset. Domed buildings were silhouetted against the pinks and orange sky and the colours reflected in the sea water. It was a photographer's dream trip. Doug kept snapping photo after photo, and all thoughts of his tired, sore recovering knee disappeared.Read more
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La Fenice Opera House
October 14, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Our second day on our own in this Italian paradise, we visited La Venice Opera House and the covered Rinalto Bridge. Again, we took the water buses as we were getting pretty good at navigating the waterways of this city.
La Fenice was jaw droppingly beautiful with the golden boxes amid the sky blue ceiling and walls. This opera has burnt several times and each time it has been rebuilt, living up to its name, the Pheonix. What a treasure to see. Our audio guides explained the history of the building and taught us about the singing stars.Read more
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Rialto Bridge
October 14, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
This is our last day in Venice, and we could not leave without visiting this iconic covered bridge. The Rialto bridge has three stairways across it. One stairway runs across the center of the bridge and is lined with shops on both sides. Then two sets of stairs run between the backs of these shops and the stone balustrade of the bridge.
We ate our picnic lunch purchased at a nearby grocery store in the shadows of this famous landmark. Then we took as many photos as possible before boarding a waterbus back to our hotel.
It's been such a good trip through Croatia, Slovenia and Venice. It seems sad to say goodbye even though we will be heading to a 30 day Princess Cruise next.
But arrivederci Venice - until next time...Read more
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Trip end
October 15, 2024