Astoria Bled

Bled is for quiet time, and I think I, at least, finally started to Slo down. In Ljubljana I was asking Bill "did you see the table on page 472 that shows you all the different ethnic and religious groups and in which countries they reside?" <br><br>Bill: "no."<br><br>Marcy: "you really have to read it, it clarifies everything."<br><br>In Bled we shifted to a different gear, as we drifted across the lake in their handcrafted flatbottomed pletnas, sort of a ...

... to numb my own body voluntarily. Each time one of the guys would jump in they would come up looking startled and scramble up the rock. It was pretty funny. Hiking back we grabbed our bikes and raced down the hills and through the countryside passing people and letting the wind grab at us. <br><br>Then we rode back to the lake and found a swimming spot next ...

... were from and was surprised to hear it was New Zealand, we then communciated to her that Ian was my brother and Mario was my boyfriend but she didn't understand so I pointed to my ring finger, she understood that. 'Ah married!' she said knowingly, but Mario soon advised that no, we were not married. She grabbed my arm with surprising strength for someone so old and little 'next year, married' she said confidently, 'come back next year married'. We ...

... Drava was the stopping point for everyone passing through these regions for thousands of years. Today you can explore Ptuj and its medieval interior without bothering the guard to draw down the drawbridge to let you into the city. The narrow streets of Ptuj snake around to meet the castle at the top of the hill, the crumbling Baroque style, red roof houses line the street making it a great place to explore and a very charming place to visit. We visited the ...

... are reasonably priced which is great as we are almost at the point of unleashing my "Carricks got talent" style busking prowess ;-) The old town of Ljuby is super quaint, cobbled streets by the river, snaking alleyways and wooden shutters over the windows.............just as well really or it would have been curtains for everybody ha ha ha Next port of call: Venice, Italia

... Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. On the way down the mountains we passed through the battlefields near Bovec and saw several stone built firing positions as well as remnants of earthworks constructed by the Italians and the Austrians during that bloody conflict. It was moving in the quiet of autumn and weird when we realized that the great Austrian offensive was launched here ...

... restaurant. We were planning to go for traditional Slovenian food, but the place we had decided on only had an outdoor terrace. That clearly wasn't going to work (are we getting the theme of the Ljubljana entry yet?). Right next door was a Mexican place that Lonely Planet recommended, so we decided to check it out. The food was better there than the Mexican food in Providence! Weird, but good. My fajita salad was mostly made with radicchio and came with some sort of yogurt dressing ...

... really want to work and my knee locked when we hit the ground and I went down. Good thing we were going so slow, no injuries :) I want to do it again and again! After the last 2 had their go and the gliders were packed up, we headed back into town. Just in time, as soon as we were back in the vehicle the rain started to come down. It didn't last too long, but enough to cancel my rock climbing plans for the afternoon (I'm pretty much a complete beginner and wet rocks didn't seem like ...

The short train ride from Croatia to Slovenia was interesting, once we crossed the border the land, and houses had a different style...what border police and a stamp on our passports, thats unheard of. One day here then off to Bled, Slovenia...beautiful lake at the base of the mountains

... one and a half hours and we could not sit in the main lounge area as it was a smoke pit with everyone puffing away. So we went up top out in the open where we admired the coastal view ...lucky for Gem it was dead flat and she did not get sea sick. We got chatting to a couple from Austria and played with their gorgeous dog (French sheep dog) who was a bigger version of Ruphus and very sooky... he kept putting his paw on Gem so she could stroke it and when she stopped he nudged her to ...