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ESCAPING TRIESTE
We usually take our luggage to the rental car because the office is located at prime point like a train station or airport. Road signs are usually very good at these points to get you out of town. This time, circumstances dictated that I bring the car to the luggage, so I retraced my route from yesterday to the Maggiore/National office. Along the way I noted the direction of the one way streets and made a plan to get back. First there was a problem with the price of the car, so I had to call the booking agent in Greece. She said they would resolve it and to take the car. These offices are usually very neat and the person there usually very efficient. This office did not fit that mold. There were contracts stacked everywhere and other papers and “things” strewn about. I think the office man was actually the car washer and he had not even washed the car, but it was full of fuel and that was all I cared about.
The plan to get back to the apt. San Marcos was going well until the street I was to turn left on was one way and not my direction. One block away it was going in the direction I wanted. So I wound up going further into town, where roads were closed for weekend festivities adding to the problem. I maneuvered my way back to my route and only ran one red light getting to the apartment.
Parking is a big problem in almost any city in Europe so you just park in the street and turn your flashers on and sit as long as you like. Unless it is a really small street. I thought getting out of town would be the hard part due to lack of info, but all went well and soon we were on our way to Slovenia.
SLOVENIA
Slovenia is part of the EU now so the border crossing was abandoned but we stopped to take a picture. The countryside is beautiful. Grape harvesting was just beginning. And though there was beautiful light, I failed to stop for the picture. Part because of a desire to press on and part because there is nowhere to pull off. But once again, I know you can just stop in the road and turn your flasher on. On the rural roads that is.
At Nova Gorcia we began to follow the Soca river through some gorges of 1000 foot high sheer cliffs. It led us into the Tomlin valley in the Julinia Alpes and the small town of Tomlin We were surprised there were no signs to the tourist office, but knowing every town has one we began the search. I asked a bartender and he told me in perfect English it was one block off the main street. The lovely lady in the tourist office asked us if we wanted an apartment in a town or in the country. We decided in the country. So, for less than a Motel 6, we were off to Agrtorismo Siraka. She said you go to where the road T's but go straight ahead and then follow the small road for 5km and then you will come to a sign for the turn off and you go on a smaller road for 1.5km.. We left town headed for Most Soci and we when arrived at the T intersection we saw no road straight ahead. Right we went and quickly realized that was the wrong direction. When we came back we saw the road. It dives down off the main road at an angle so you can not see it from the T. We wound our way up the one lane road for about 5km until the road ended and there was the farm. Rural we wanted and rural we got.
see the road straight ahead
the road to the farm
Siraka is a working farm, guesthouse and weekend restaurant run by the family Bevk. There are several out buildings for equipment and animals. The buildings set about 10 meters from the top of the ridge as this helps protect them from the winter winds. There are goats, rabbits, chickens, pigs and cows, both milk and beef, and lots of cats. It is three story structure with a commercial kitchen and two dinning areas. The five rooms are on the two upper floors and our one bed room apartment was in what would normally be the attic. The steep roof made the room not feel like an attic. It is comfortably furnished with dead animal rugs.
The Bevk family consists of dad Julijan, mom Bernard, and son Aljaz (the language man and chief chef) and his girlfriend Suzana. Mom showed me all the farm animals. Her job is animal keeper and dishwasher. Dad we did not see much of as his job seems to be tractor driver, waiter on weekends, and to stay out of the way.
Aljaz is the chef and the main entertainer probably because he is the only one who speaks English. He is a big happy go lucky guy and glad to share his kitchen with a dumb tourist like me. The restaurant seems to be a big destination place for people on weekends. He was preparing food for 40 people for the weekend and a birthday party on Saturday. He said that would be a slow weekend. He had a pastry chef in to make the cake and they showed us pictures of some of their other work. As my Australian friends say “you Americans got the Puritans and we got the criminals. That is why we are more fun”. Compared to the rest of the world we Americans are very uptight people in the sex area, so some of the cakes they showed us would be pornographic to us, but to the rest of the world they are just fun.. Aljaz had taken down our passport info when we had checked in and surprised Vicki when he said he would make a porno cake for her birthday on Jan 3rd. She could not figure it out how he knew until he said his father was born the same year, but on Jan 1st and that is why he remembered her birthday from the passport.
aljz and suzana
mom and her cows and pet pig
pits for eating
there goes another flower
this not a photoshoped picture. it is from Vicki's cheap camera
Saturday
It rained hard all night and most of the first day. We are both reading spy novels so we began to feel like we were in a Gary Grant movie trapped on the mountain. I just hoped we did not have to ski off the back of the mountain. Mid-day we decided to go to town, mainly because we were out of wine. By 3 the rain stopped and we drove to Kobrid following the Soca river with several side trips.
no wasting money on that expensive corking thing
lunch
Kobarid is a small town with a WW I museum. The mountains around the area was the southern part of the trench warfare. Tens of thousands of people died in and around here in the mountains. The Italians massed 700,000 troops to take the area. Americans are quick to criticize Europe for not supporting our crazy wars. But, though there are no recent wars on their territory, the reminders are there everywhere. We have had one foreign attack on our mainland and we still do not have a monument to the dead. Europe on the other hand has a monument in every town, large grave yards, and museums every where as a reminder of what war is. In modern times they show dead soldiers on TV and they have great parades for their fallen soldiers when they come home. They, more than we, understand what the end effect a war has. Very, very few of us in America have seen war first hand or even the effects of war. With drones and mercenaries that are our main stay now, fewer and fewer will but the end effect will remain the same. “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!”
Back on the farm we watched the sunset. It really is that dark outside when the sun goes away.
we look a lot alike don't you thnk
7014 soldiers are buried here
Back on the farm we watched the sunset. It really is that dark outside when the sun goes away.
SUNDAY
Rain was light in the morning and I wanted to do some walking, which we do a lot of on the road. However, yesterday Vicki informed me that she had blisters from her new shoes. The old ones were not stylish enough so she ordered new ones right before we left. I urged her to wear them before we left and she reported that she had worn them around the house and they were comfortable. Yes, the house is equal to climbing up the side of a mountain.
Since climbing with the feet was out of the question, we decided to climb with the car and off we headed into the Alps to climb over the Vrsic pass, the highest mountain pass in Slovenia. It is between the village of Soca and Kranjska Gora. The elevation of 1600 meters is not that impressive but the sheer rock mountains that it traverses are spectacular. There are 50 switchback curves and they number them just as a reminder of how many more you have to go. This does not include all the rest of the curves. I thought I would have leg cramps as I had to do 100 switchback curves; 50 over and 50 back. I found an easy cure to the manual transmission. I just put in 2nd gear and left it there up and down.
no kidding
this is a double mower. for some reason they were tied togather
i want one!!
beehives
We had lunch on the other side of Kranjska at the Milka Restaurant and Pension www.gastronoma.si
The owners Franc and Meta Rupnik were gracious hosts as was the chef and dishwasher Nazifa and Mitja. The owners, Franc and Meta chatted with us for quite some time. It had been her mother’s and they had taken it over. We went with their recommendation of the suckling pig and were not disappointed. The food, service, and view were worth the 50 switchbacks.
frank and meta
MONDAY
Today we had to go to Bled the most visited place in the country. The roads getting there were just like the roads yesterday except tighter switchbacks and more of them. My clutch leg got a work out as most of them we had to take in 1st gear.
Fortunately we went to Bohinjsko Jaz lake first. This was a beautiful lake with no building allowed on its shores. We had a very pleasant picnic and Vicki made a new friend.
buying lunch
lunch
our lunch geust
After lunch we headed for Bled. A guide book describes it like this:”…the town is thoroughly unspectacular, and there’s nothing there specific to see.” Yet it is the most visited town in the country. It is not large and overrun but the description is correct. It has a few small casino;s and first class hotels. The main attraction is a church on an island in the middle of the small lake and a castle on a hill. We walked the lake and admired both from afar. Bled has all the tourist things; tourist train, fake gondolas, etc.
if the sign is ALL in enlish it is for sure a tourist town
the church in the middle of the lake
We had our last dinner at Siraka farm. For about the price of a McDonalds happy meal you get a 3 course meal that is designed for the farmers going out to plow the back forty. It is excellent food but heavy on the carbs.
can you say salt and pepper in slovenian
