Continental Udine

... 6 January, lively colourful street markets will fill the sea promenade and the squares in the old town with light, colour and perfumes.
From Saturday 19 December to 17 January see the Nativity Scene Exhibition. An expression of street-decoration creativity and religious sentiment: over 100 nativity scenes on show in the narrow streets and squares, in the harbour and lagoon. Traditional or nautical-themed nativity scenes ...

... opt for local roads on our exploration through Slovenia. We first hit Gorizia which is divided by country boundaries. The differences between East and West are quite evident. Buildings, autos, clothing … are different. We apparently bypassed the official border crossing. Oh well …

We follow the Soca River northward which takes us through some small ...

Below is a blog written by Myra, who is much better at writing! This Myra's first time traveling with us!
8/31/09 by Myra

I'm a Europe
newbie. For my first trip to Europe, I followed my cool friends to some countries that
are definitely less traveled. That is
why, after my constant pleading, they agreed to take me to two countries that
weren’t originally on the itinerary.

Today, we started out from ...

Gegen 12 brechen wir wieder auf.

Heut solls bis Grado durchgehn - damit wir dann am Donnerstag nicht so weit haben.

Zwischendurch Pause vor Padua bei Finigrill und Nudelsalat ( natürlich wieder mit Mozzi ;-) )

.... und als wir am Campingplatz einchecken fällt mir auf dass wir am selben PLatz gelandet sind auf dem wir ...

... of Grado. Grado is a little gem chosen for the beauty of its architecture and surrounding environment, where life still follows the pace and traditions of yesteryear. An Albergo Diffuso plays an instrumental role in saving major heritages (environments, buildings and connected systems) which bring about an improvement in the quality of life and the product in the short and long terms while also offering a new source of income, especially for the private residents involved.
Grado, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy bluwom

... is where the Germans first starting developing that whole blitzkrieg thing.

It was also here that Ernest Hemingway volunteered as an ambulance driver and his experiences here ended up in A Farewell to Arms, another high school book I didn't read....but now that I know he met a nurse here, I just might!

... restaurant near the station and waited for our train to arrive. It, of course, was late.

So, the first experience of riding and sleeping in a railway car wasn't that much fun when you realize that you have two rows of three seats (a little larger than airline seats) facing each other, and when the time comes, you sleep in them. Granted, we've been sleeping on the train ...

This is a great small town, where they actually choose to not speak english. We went from the restaurant to bar to wedding to bar to restaurant to bar (the Black Stuff) etc. Eat, Drink, Sleep repeat for a few days. It was a beautiful wedding and a great town.

... aus Seekirchen. Um ca. 5h in der Früh haben wir schon telefonisch festgestellt, dass beide "on the road" sind - und nun wollen wir uns treffen. Ziemlich spannend!
Aber es klappt und wir sind vollzählig. Ein erster Morgen-Cappucino und wir sind glücklich.
Auf zum Campingplatz!

Over the pass - greta scenery Klagenfurt Drove along the Worthersee - sgtopped for lunch Italian border Mountain scenery great at first, but got steeper & rockier as the weather deteriorated to rain & mist so it felt a bit spooky, lots of rubble from big earthquake last year between Gemona & Udine added to that feeling.