A Birthday in Trieste 🎂

On Saturday, we moved further east to Trieste, with one change.

At Venice Mestre, the platform was heaving: it transpires that a cruise ship in port meant lots of folk with big bags.
We had a chat with a small group on the platform from San Diego.

Aboard, we found two old ladies absolutely dominating SEVEN seats between them with their bags (which could have been left in a luggage area well within their sight!).
I politely asked them to squeeze around a bit (they spoke English). Absolute refusal, so we engaged in a full and frank discussion, with me smiling at their angry faces.

The result was them agreeing to move, but only on the basis that I was a very nasty man. A fair swap 🤣

SanDiego man joined us for a chat and said “thank you” - I felt we had the entire busy carriage wanting victory against the self entitled old bats 🤣

Trieste: a very grand place!

Lovely feel, beautiful buildings in an Austro-Hungarian style. Some Roman ruins too.

We had a spacious apartment (chosen as a treat for Christine’s birthday 🥳🎂), and our hosts had kindly left a bottle of bubbly for her 🥂
My plans for a swanky dinner were slightly trumped when we found a very cool and highly rated cafe named Genuino, serving delicious healthy food.
As a bonus, it was close to the Geco bar 🍻😎

The next morning, we took a bus to the amazing Grotta Gigantic - a vast place, 100m tall and at one point the biggest known showcave on earth by volume!
500 steps down: one lady was too scared and gave up!
Of course, there were also 500 steps up 😱

On our final day, we hopped on a train to go and spend some time at Miramare Castle: a sad tale of a young man desperate to be someone, but a nice place to visit with lovely gardens.
Inside was interesting, but the building had a slight Shrek vibe in the main staircase: very Lord Faquaad with the wooden carvings!

Popped to the beach to touch the Adriatic, and had an earnest young man rush over to politely tell us it was a protected area. He was so nice about it (since the signs were not obvious!), we enjoyed a chat then left.
We also saw a dolphin jump!
Well….we saw a massive splash, & he agreed it was probably a dolphin 🤷‍♂️

Another walk back up the hill to get the next train back to town for a couple of beers before a sunset up by the Monumento ai Caduti di Trieste - the War Memorial on the hill.Read more