Austria to Czech Republic

Today was a driving day. The goal was to reach Chrudim, Czech Republic - home of the Marionette Museum. Of course, we did not make it that far.  We were on the highway,  but both of us were nearly falling asleep so I told Lonnie to drive the back roads.  I mean the last thing I want is for Lonnie to fall asleep behind the wheel on a road that everyone is doing over 100mph on.

We stopped for lunch at Znojmo, Czech Republic.  We were looking for some tall metal soldiers (possibly water towers), that we had seen before. We never found them, but we found a brand new mall that had a KFC for lunch.  Across the parking lot from the mall was another set of shops with different themes-Dragon Castle, Chinese, Dr. Doolittle's, and Kid Town. We drove around and took pictures, then headed on toward Chrudim.

We drove as far as Havlickuv Brod where we looked for a hotel. We saw a sign for Orange Wings Hotel. The sign looked good, so we followed it to the most bizarre hotel we have seen in our travels. First, let me say that we did not stay there. Now, back to the hotel. We could tell that we were in an industrial area, but that was not a concern because we have stayed in a couple of great hotels in industrial areas (and will do so on our last night here this trip). Somehow this time felt a little different.  And, then,  we saw the hotel. We were so shocked by the way it looked that we didn't even take pictures! The entire hotel was encased in super, heavy duty chain link fencing. It looked like a prison. You could see the doors to the rooms, with a 3' metal walkway,  all behind the fencing. There was even fencing covering the top of the building - like a huge fence box with a hotel inside it. Lonnie said he didn't think even Federal Prisons had any more security than the hotel. He said to clarify that the reason he knows about Federal Prison security is from going in there with the church to hold services there.  We did not see anyone in reception so we drove on. I took out my trusty phone, pulled up TripAdvisor on it and found a great little hotel in town. Afterwards I read some of the reviews about the prison hotel. They were hilarious to read,  and I was so thankful we didn't end up there.  Apparently there is no reception,  you just pay a machine and check yourself in. The rooms have no windows, but may have a small skylight.  One man posted three reasons to stay there: 1.p You just got out of prison after 20 years and you miss it; 2. You want to break up with your girlfriend,  so you offer to take her on a trip to Europe,  then stay there, guaranteeing she will dump you,  3. and I'm not telling the last one.

After checking into our good hotel, we walked into the city to eat,  wandered around a bit, then went back to the hotel to sleep.

Salzburg, Austria to Krems, Austria

Happy Mother's Day.

Today we went down to have breakfast before leaving Salzburg. We got our plates, filled them,  and started to go back to our seats only to find two ladies sitting there.  We know this is a common practice in Europe, and there weren't any other open tables,  so we reclaimed our seats. We ended up having a very nice conversation with them,  even though their English was limited. One was from Basel and the other was from Northern Germany.  We asked how long it took to get there from Northern Germany and the  girl said 4 hours.  That seemed like a short amount of time, so we asked how fast she drove.  Her answer was that the speedometer only went up to 200 and wouldn't let her go any faster.  That's  120 miles per hour.  It would take us longer. 

We left Salzburg and began our journey toward the Erzebirge Region of Germany. We get side-tracked so easily. I saw a sign for Mondsee and just had to go there.  They used the church there for the wedding scene in the Sound of Music. The little town is very colorful, and the lake is very nice. Just as we got there,  the wind began to blow and howl like a tornado (do they even have tornadoes here?). We jumped out of the car and took several pictures then traveled on.

A little later I saw a sign that said "Melk". I told Lonnie that I remembered reading something about Melk, but I couldn't remember what.  We took the exit and found an exquisite cathedral on a hill. It is supposed to be unbelievably beautiful on the inside so we need to file that one away for future reference. 

Since we spent so much time on our little side trips, we didn't make it very far, so we stayed in a little town called Krems, Austria.  They had a restaurant that we ate at,  then calleg it a night.

Salzburg

It has rained all day again today.  Yesterday it rained all day but the temperature was mild. Today it felt really cold.

We got up, ate breakfast,  then headed out. I 

 had seen a sign for a flea market in Wals and thought it said it was today,  so we drove around to see. It is actually tomorrow,  but it is close by so we didn't spend any time at all looking for it.  Then, once again, we had to go to the mall so that Lonnie could buy more computer stuff.

We got to Salzburg only to find we had missed the alpenhorn. Actually, I am not sure they brought them since it was raining so hard. We went to lunch in a nearby pizzeria.  After we ate, we went to the Panorama Museum that I didn't get to go to yesterday.  They have a special exhibit right now about the von Trapp family. It tells the real story. They have things on display that belong to the family, as well as things from the books and movies. It was all very interesting. 

After the museum, we listened to the bands for a few more minutes, walked around Salzburg,  did some shopping and left.

We drove by the original hime that the von Trapps lived in,  but they have a very tall hedge around the place so you cannot see anything.

Next we drove past Helbrunn. I had hoped to have a picnic there,  because we normally do, but it has been too rainy.  We didn't even get  out of the car because we were both cold. It is a beautiful place.

We once again ate at our favorite place in Wals, went back to the hotel and got ready to leave,  then went to bed.

Salzburg

Today we got to Salzburg after noon. Since we came out of the parking garage at the entrance to the Toy museum, I decided to start our day there. They had changed some of their exhibits. It was fun.

Next we had to find someplace to eat.  Since it was already late and everything that I wanted to see

 closed at  4:30, I did not want to do a 2 hour lunch. The only option close by was . . .you guessed it . . .McDonalds.

The McDonalds over here serve some great salads.  The seats were very comfortable.  One could sit there all day - and I think some were. The only thing I questioned was the fact that the play area consisted of large blocks, which the kids threw and knocked over continously.  It was very loud.

Following lunch, we went to Mozart's Gebursthaus (the house where Mozart was born). It was an interesting museum. Then,  we went to the Residenz (or palace). There they gave us a player to listen to as we went through it. I wish more places would do that. The commentaries about each room were short and informative.  We were going to go to the Panorama museum but by then it was 4:30 so it was closed.

Not bad, though. Three museums and lunch in four hours. The highlight of the day was yet to come! We had gotten tickets to the Marionette Theater to see The Sound of Music. We weren't sure if it would be in German or English,  but I told the lady at the information booth that it wouldn't matter.  I mean, if I can sit through Iron Man 3 without knowing what they were saying,  I could surely do the Sound of Music that I know by heart.  It turned out to be in English.  I loved it!  It is amazing how they can give wooden dolls different personalities.

And, at the end of the performance,  they showed us how the puppeteers did the show. They did the scene in the movie where the von Trapps are doing a marionette show ...so, they had marionettes doing a marionette show. It was great!

We swung through McDonalds on the way back to the hotel since we knew everything else would be closed. Good thing they have good salads. The only problem is that I'm addicted to Coca Cola again :-(

Salzburg - Seebrucke - Salzkammergut Area

Today was nearly a disastrous day. I got up and ate breakfast in the hotel.  Lonnie decided not to eat breakfast since he keeps getting sick. Also,  he said that they don't have any choices. I will let you decide.  The choices are: boiled eggs (soft), scrambled eggs, several types of lunch meat,  several kinds of cheese,  4 kinds of cereal,  3 or 4 kinds of yogurt, various breads, fruit,  milk, juices, and my personal favorite,  hot chocolate. (actually, hot chocolate is not on the buffet, but they fix it for me anyway).  I know there are a few more things, but since I don't eat them I can't remember.  Oh, they also have tomatoes and cucumbers.  Anyway, the truth of the matter is, Lonnie does not like breakfast unless it is Burger King.

We changed hotel rooms because we couldn't get internet in our other room.  Then we drove into Salzburg and took the funicular up to Hohensalzburg Fortress on top of the mountain, with plans to walk back down the mountain.  They had a special 100 year Marionette exhibit so I had to see that.  As I stepped inside the castle room, I didn't notice how uneven the floor was, and twisted my left foot.  It hurt a lot, but I was still able to walk on it. (I am writing this on Friday night and it still hurts, but I walked - or limped - all over Salzburg today on it.)

Even though it hurt a lot, we still walked down the mountain so that I could see Nonnberg Abbey again.  They have changed the way that you go out of the castle,  and it was really steep.

After touring the fortress, we drove around the Salzkammergut area. I wanted to go to Hitler's Eagle's Nest (or we would have stayed in Salzburg for the day), but when we got there it was closed due to snow.

Since we were already out of town,  we continued on around the area. We drove to Chiemsee, but it was too late to take the ferry to the island to see the castle. We also went through Seebrucke where we saw a Minigolf sign. What I saw there gave a whole new meaning to Minigolf.  The lanes,  or whatever they are called were up on tables, and you used a pool cue instead of a golf club. Otherwise,  everything looked the same as a regular putt-putt golf, except miniaturized. Interesting.

The other interesting thing we saw in Seebrucke. . .guys in their twenties walking around with their swim trunks around their thighs instead of where they were supposed to be worn.  We only saw them from "behind". . .

We got back to the hotel late, but couldn't eat there because they were expecting a large group.  That reminded us that we hadn't eaten at our favorite place in Wals yet. What had we been thinking?  The food at our favorite place is much better than what is served at our hotel, and we could have been eating there every night.

When we got back to the hotel,  the group had arrived.  They were from Bosnia, and carried on most of the night. .  So, not much sleep . . .

Salzburg, Austria (My favorite place)

As I sit here on the balcony of our hotel room,  surrounded by beautiful snow-capped mountains and lush greenery, I have to reflect on all that God has done for me. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be here, but I am also so thankful for my family and friends, and wish that all of you could be here,  too. God has created such beautiful things and I pray that all of us will be aware of that beauty in our everyday lives. For instance, as one example, have you ever considered just the multitude of different leaves that God has created - the different colors, shapes,  textures, etc.  It is incredible.  Yet, so often,  we never notice all of the things around us that God has created.  Beauty is everywhere. And I thank God for allowing me to see so many different kinds of beauty in the past three weeks. 

I think Lonnie is getting ready to go now,  so it's off to another adventure in my favorite place - Sound of Music country!

Okay, so it wasn't the adventure I was dreaming of. Lonnie decided we needed more computer stuff so we went to the shopping center in Wals. Since it was after noon, we had to stop and have lunch. Then we found that the mall we were at did not have computer stuff, so we had to go to a different mall. Then, we always see a movie in Wals, and since Iron Man 3 had just come out, we went to get tickets for the evening show. They were sold out for the night but had tickets available for the afternoon showing. Of course, it was in German so I understood very little of it. 

We finally made it to Salzburg around 7PM, and, of course, everything was closed for the night. We were walking the streets when we heard beautiful singing.  This week is the big choral festival and competition. Those competing had on their outfits for the regions they are from.  Another group was practicing for the competition as we rounded another corner.  How wonderful to have such beautiful music in the city of music!

As we were getting ready to leave,  we noticed that a stage had been set up. We walked over to see what it was for, and found out that there is a brass band competition this weekend.  On Saturday they will have alpenhorns. Of course I can't miss that,  so now we are staying until Sunday.

Hoping tomorrow will be a more scenic day.

Bled to Salzburg

Today we had planned to walk around Lake Bled and take a boat to the island in the center of the lake, where people go to get married and the groom carries the bride up  long, steep stairs. Instead I got sidetracked by a couple of museums in another town near by. 

It has always amazed and horrified me how such beauty and such evil could exist side by side. I knew that Croatia had been in a war, and we saw physical signs of it, yet the people were so kind and helpful, and their country has such great beauty created by God. I hadn't really given that much thought to Slovenia. 

What happens when you don't agree with the government in power. Today we went to the Museum of Hostages in Begunje na Gorenjskem, Slovenia.  I am not sure what I was expecting.  I have been to concentration camps,  and probably expected something like those.  The museum actually consisted of prison cells. As you walked through the room of cells,  they  played the names of those who had been killed. Their purpose as stated on their brochure, said "Visitor to the museum stop for a while and think about human violence, caused by different ideologies.  Sadly, there is still a lot of it in the world today. .."  The Nazis took a beautiful building and turned it into a prison and torture center for those in the town who disagreed with them.  80% of the people were under 40, with half of the prisoners being under 30.  These were not Jews. They were simply townspeople who did not agree with the Nazi Government.  For disagreeing,  they were tortured and killed. A burial area is nearby. The town is beautiful and the people are very kind and helpful,  but they have had to endure a lot. 

Now the Villa that housed this prison is a psychiatric hospital.  I wonder how many,  if any,  of the patients were prisoners or,  children of prisoners, who suffered in that very place. It is so sad. And all because they did not agree with the government in power.  I pray that our nation will wake up quickly before we lose our freedoms as these people did. 

Next we went to the town of Radovljica. I just wanted to swing by a 2nd hand store I had heard about,  but it was closed.  We walked through the town and found a German military bunker that had been turned into a chapel dedicated to a nun the Nazis  had killed.

As we were walking through town, we came upon the "Bee Museum".  Slovenia is apparently well known for its bees and honey.  The museum showed how beekeeping started. In this part of the world,  they painted or carved the panels on the beehives. The museum had some of the really old ones on display. They also had beehives that were shaped like people,  animals and houses.  Interesting place.

We finally made it back to Lake Bled, where we had lunch,  then drove around the lake. 

Then we began our journey to Salzburg, which should have been a relatively quick and easy process. Unfortunately,  they were working on the tunnel.  . .so. ..we took the up and over the mountain road. How do we always end up on steep, narrow mountain roads?

We made it to Salzburg late, but thankfully the hotel restaurant was still open. 

Postojna, Slovenia to Lake Bled, Slovenia

Today we had to get up a little earlier since we had to be out of the hotel by 10. We went down to breakfast where people were pushing and fighting over the food,  as if they hadn't eaten in months.  I thought they were the tour group from Ukraine,  but Lonnie thought they were some others from Italy that were not with the tour group.  Whoever it was, it was really bad. Lonnie didn't eat much of anything except some strawberry yogurt. I had muesli with yogurt and hot chocolate.  Both Croatia and Slovenia make their hot chocolate very dark.  I had to add milk to it. The milk here is more like Pet Milk.

After eating,  we checked out and drove down the street to the Postojna Cave. We purchased our tickets and got in line for the train ride. I was thankful that I had my coat.  Caves are usually cool anyway,  but as fast as the little train was going,  it was freezing.

Lonnie tried to take pictures,  but the little train was moving so fast that he could not get them.  We finally got to an area where we did the walking tour. 

When we got off of the little train,  there was a sign that said "no photography".  We quickly found that no one paid any attention to the sign or the guide who told us the same thing. The guide didn't really care as long as we kept up. He was literally running up and down the mountain inside the cave.  There was no way that I could do that, and there was a lady with a cane who was having even more trouble than me. I told her we would catch up eventually,  and she replied that this was the only time she would ever be there and she wanted to see it!  She was right. After that,  I didn't worry as much about keeping up. Whenever the guide stopped to talk, we usually caught up about the time he was finishing and ready to move on. 

The cave was absolutely beautiful.  Being married to a spelunker, I have been in a lot of commercial caves and some wild ones. This cave is by far the prettiest that I have seen.  There were so many formations that they had to carve a path through them. Afterwards we went to a cave-life exhibit where we saw a blind salamander known as Proteus. We also saw microscopic snails and other bugs, cave crickets, and cave shrimp (also microscopic). It was very interesting. 

After the cave tour and lunch, we drove to a nearby town where they were supposed to have Lippizan stallions.  Since it was raining so hard, we only saw three older ones in the field. 

Then it was on to Ljublanja to check out the town. Since it was still raining really hard,  it was hard to see.  We decided to drive on to Lake Bled.

We arrived at Bled around dark.  We read through the recommendations in Rick Steves' Eastern European book and chose to stay at the Meyer Pension.  It was a good choice.  Unfortunately,  their restaurant was not open yet because it is still the shoulder season.  The owner sent us down the hill next to the lake to eat. The food was just okay,  but the servers were very nice. 

After the meal, we had a very interesting conversation with the waitress. She was explaining things about Slovenia to us. I was going to ask how it was being in the EU, but she volunteered the information before I asked.  She feels that joining the EU was a bad thing for the country. I am not surprised. 

Once again it was midnight before we got to bed. We plan to spend the next four nights in Salzburg to catch our breath before the last half of our trip. 

Otocac, Croatia to Ljubljana, Slovenia

Today it is raining again, but that is okay because it is a driving day. We wandered around Otocac for a while, grabbed some pizza (at $1 for a large slice), then got on the highway to Ljubljana, which is where we are now.

The hotel clerk asked if this was our first time in Croatia, and if we liked it. I told her it was and that we liked it very much.

Croatia has been an interesting place. The people seem to be very polite and gracious, and helpful in every way.  What I find rather odd though, is that they have very few American tourists, but they speak American English almost flawlessly. Even those who don't speak it well know enough to communicate in an intelligent way. I find that fascinating. Everyone we have asked about it states that they learned it by watching American movies and television. Almost all of the restaurants were playing American songs. And, Croatia is simply put, a beautiful country. Of course, we haven't been in the big cities, so it might be different there. We still see remnants left over from the war - mostly buildings that have never been repaired, or memorials to those who fought. There were supposedly still "land mine" signs, but we didn't see any. Lonnie did take a dirt road through a field though. Halfway down the dirt road was a sign pointing to archaeological ruins -a monument to Mithrus, so we continued on to see it. I told him not to turn around in the field though, since we do not know which fields still have land mines. He did take my advice about that!

Now we are on the side of the road so that Lonnie can sleep some more. I think he is getting worse, but he claims he is not. He said that he would rather feel bad here than at home, and what would be the difference anyway. I told him that maybe the doctor could do something to help him at home.

It is getting late, and we are still on the road to Ljubljana. Once again the GPS decided to take us on the one lane road scenic route through small Slovenian towns and heavily wooded mountain areas. We are finally back on a normal highway now.  Nothing like taking the back roads.

There is one thing that I don't understand. Before Europe became the European union, we had to show our passports at every border crossing. Then, when they became the EU, we no longer had to stop at the borders. We thought border checks were a thing of the past. Now, once again, we have had to show our passports at every crossing, most of the time to each country within 300 yards of each other. It is just like old times.

We are finally in Slovenia. It is still pouring down rain. We decided to bypass Ljubljana and go straight to the caves since that is one of the main reasons for coming here. Hopefully we will find a hotel there soon.

We found a hotel at nine, went to eat, and now it is after midnight. I'm tired and going to bed. This hotel requires early checkout.

Plitvice National Park to Otocac, Croatia

Today we ate breakfast, then hung around the hotel until nearly noon.

We checked out and headed to the park to do the lower lakes, thinking it would not take very long and we could head on to another country. Of course it took much longer than planned. Yesterday we saw few people. Today there were thousands. There were many, many tour groups. And many photo opportunities. We didn't get finished until five.  We asked if our hotel had a room, but they were booked. Another hotel had a room, but no wifi or elevator or TV. We decided to drive on.

About the parks -I had decided that I like Krka the best. I asked Lonnie his opinion, and he also liked Krka the best. I feel like Plitvice is for younger people and Krka is better for older people (although there were many older people there today). The main differences - Krka has lots of smaller waterfalls, but they are everywhere!  Plitvice has larger waterfalls, but you spend a lot of time walking in between seeing them.  Also, Krka has a regular boardwalk with regular boards. Plitvice has a boardwalk made of uneven logs, making it difficult to walk. Neither of them have railings, so if you have an inner ear problem that makes you dizzy, like I do, that can be a problem. Many times you are passing groups on the side of a mountain or over a waterfall. And when I say over a waterfall, that is exactly what I mean!  In a couple of places, our feet got wet because the waterfall was actually going over the boardwalk.  The boardwalk is actually at water level most of the time in both parks. It is more dangerous in that regard at Plitvice. Surprisingly, though, we didn't see anyone fall in at either park, so apparently it's not really a problem. And both parks are enormously beautiful!

We drove on to Otocac, where we found another great room. We walked around the area a bit before eating. The front line of the war was just to the east of the city, so there are still damaged buildings. We saw the church building that was hit. They have kept the bell that was damaged in the war as a memorial beside the building. They also have a large crucifix made of old artillery shells. It is hard to believe that such a beautiful country with such polite people had to have a war in the recent past. And, the first casualty of the war was a worker at Plitvice. This entire area was one of the main regions in the war. There is a large memorial in the city park.

After wandering around a bit, we ate in the hotel restaurant, and both of us had a great meal!  Mine was salad, grilled chicken and grilled vegetables. Lonnie had Cordon Bleu. We told the waitress how delicious the meal was, and she said the chef is just 21. No matter how old the chef is, the meal was great!

Now it is almost midnight, so I am ready for sleep.

Krka National Park to Plitvice National Park

Today we got up, ate breakfast and headed to Plitvice.  We wanted to compare the parks, since Plitvice is always listed as the one to see.

On the way, we were reminded of the war that was fought here in the 90's. War is such a horrible and meaningless thing. To quote my daughter-in-law, "Why can't every one just love each other and get along?"

While driving around last night, we came across abandoned military bunkers.  We had seen a lot of rock walls in the fields built close together and wondered why they were built that way.  Now we are wondering if they were actually walls used for defense. 

We traveled on to Plitvice, where we were able to get a room at a hotel in the park. Our room was on the 2nd floor and the breakfast room was in the basement.  They do not have elevators in a lot of the hotels, and this one was no exception.  I can tell you that I wasn't sure if I would make it to the room after our hike. 

After checking in, we went to see about hiking through Plitvice.  The information guide recommended doing the upper lake today and the lower lake tomorrow.  She told us that the last boat was at 6:30 and the trail would take about an hour and a half.  Did I tell you that Lonnie likes to take lots of pictures?  We only had about 2 hours,  and you never know how fast they walk to determine the time frame. I am guessing that it is much faster than I walk, especially uphill! I kept trying to hurry Lonnie along, but at 6 there was no sign that we were anywhere near a boat. We basically ran the last 20 minutes and got to the boat just as they were leaving.  At the boat drop-off we had to climb around 250 steps to get back to  the hotel. I wasn't sure I could make it, but I did.

We ate in the hotel and relaxed for the evening.

Krka National Park, Croatia

We began the day with breakfast in the hotel.   Check out was at 10, so  we had to get moving a little earlier than we had been. I had Muesli with pourable yogurt and Lonnie had corn flakes.  The choices were very limited. But, one can't complain considering the accommodations and the price. We checked out promptly at 10, then went to purchase our park tickets.  They provided a shuttle to the bottom of the mountain, where we entered the main park area. 

Words cannot describe the beauty that God has placed here. We began walking on the boardwalk and oohed and ahhed at every turn.

I have to say that when I mentioned coming to Croatia,  Lonnie was less than enthusiastic.  It was much like when I mentioned going to Eastern Europe several years ago.  Once we were in Czech Republic,  it became one of his favorite places.  Today,  in Krka, he said it was the most beautiful place he has ever seen.  I have to admit that it was very beautiful.  You can almost imagine it as the garden of Eden. . .waterfalls every where you look and lush vegetation. We could not have imagined the beauty here. 

We got back late, so we decided to spend another night at the same hotel.  The parking lot looked empty so we didn't think it would be a problem.  When we told the man who speaks little English that  we would like a room for another night, he  told us they were totally booked. We were going to leave,  but the man asked how we would pay.  When we told him cash, a room magically appeared. Not really sure what the difference was, but we ended up in a 1 bedroom,  1 1/2 bath "apartment".  It turns out that the hotel was definitely booked with one or two bus loads of kids (probably about 4th through 6th graders) on a field trip to their national park.  Since we knew the hotel was booked, we decided to eat there. We had gone driving to see more of the park (to the top of a mountain and back down - on mountain roads,  of course) so we got back late and thought the hotel would probably have a great selection.  What we didn't know was that they only fix one meal,  whether it's what you want or not.  It was a lot of fried food instead of the traditional grilled food we had been having,  so we didn't do well with it.

It was a 4-course meal, though,  so if we were still into fried foods it would have been great!

After the meal, we retired to our room and actually went to bed before midnight!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Smartphone

Ancona, Italy to Split, Croatia

I wish I could say that our ferry ride was great, but to be perfectly honest,  it was really bad.  We were lied to about several things, which made Lonnie pretty upset. We  were treated rudely.  And,  last but not least,  we got no sleep at all.  Apparently a Swiss couple and us and perhaps a young Japanese girl were the only non-locals on the ferry.  The Swiss couple had booked a cabin, which the ferry receptionist tried to take away from them. The Swiss man pulled out all of their paperwork proving their claim. I think they were finally given a room, but I am not sure. When we got back to where we were supposed to be (but not really), the locals were  pretty much using  all of the seats as beds. We finally found a seat, but they were way less comfortable than economy class airplane seats. Not sure why.

But enough about the ferry.  When we finally arrived in Croatia, the entire atmosphere changed. The Croatian people were very friendly and helpful. Most speak some English (or German), so we were able to somewhat communicate.  Split turned out to be a really interesting city. I loved the old ruins mixed with the newer buildings.  We went on a walking tour of the old town.  It is where Diocletian built his summer home and his tomb. He had persecuted a lot of Christians there. Ironically, when he died, he was not buried there. The town's people took his mausoleum and turned it into a church honoring one of the Christians that he had killed. Then they took the Temple dedicated to Jupiter and turned it into a baptistry. It was all rather interesting. Lonnie kept saying,  "What a neat city!"

While we were there, an acapella group sang in the "vestibule" of the palace.  They were really good! Of course, we purchased their CD.

The palace had originally been right on the Adriatic Sea. Now it is up the hill a little ways, but the area is very beautiful.

We returned to discover that our car was still there (always a good thing), because we had not parked in a city lot. As we were leaving the ferry,  we saw what we thought was public parking.  It turned out to be the ferry worker's parking lot. One of the workers directed us to another area and said we could park there if we paid him. So, we did. It was a ferry loading area. And, guess what, they were loading cars onto a ferry when we got back. Everything was fine. We thanked the man who let us park there,  then traveled on.

Our next stop was Krka National Park.  We got there around six,  and found a great room in the hotel at the park entrance.  The price was very reasonable and included breakfast. Although they had a huge restaurant,  there was no one there so we decided to try a little local place we had seen down the road. 

The restaurant,  though very small,  with just a few outside tables, was very good. It seemed to be a place where a lot of the locals gathered.  The young lady who waited on us got to practice her English. When the young man came to ask how our food was, Lonnie asked if he was the chef. His reply was, "I'm the brother and the boss, but not all of the time. "  He was so excited that we were there and liked the food,  that   he offered us Schnapps.  When we told him that we don't drink,  he offered us something else (not sure what) but we politely declined.  Then we went back to the hotel, where there was still no one in the restaurant. 

A Day of Driving (Firenze to Ancona)

This is to be a day of driving.  Our plan is to drive to Ancona today, where we will check on a ferry to Croatia.  We have never been there before,  so this will be a new experience.

We got up at 8:30 and went down to breakfast,  where Lonnie had cornflakes with milk, and I had muesli with yogurt. We didn't get away from the hotel until after 11. Since then we have been on the interstate.  Right now we are pulled over on the side of the road so that Lonnie can nap. Since his esophagus hurts, he hasn't been eating much of anything so he is tired. I am still praying that it will get better so that he can enjoy the trip more.

We made it to Ancona with plenty of time to spare.  We finally found the ferry station and got tickets for the Blue Line ferry to Croatia.  We couldn't get a cabin so we will be sleeping in airplane seats.  Lonnie is not really happy about it,  but I figured it would be better than driving two days to get there. It is a 10 hour ferry ride, so we will see how it goes. 

I am sitting in reception waiting for Lonnie to come. They would not let me stay in the car with him so I have been on the boat for over an hour now while he waits outside to bring the car on. A very nice lady sat down and started to talk to me. I obviously could not understand a word she said.  After sitting here watching everyone check in, I fully believe that we are the only ones on this boat that speak English except for a very few of the workers. Most speak Italian,  with some speaking what I can only guess is Croatian.  Lonnie is still not here snd it is time for the ferry to pull out. Should I be nervous? 

Lonnie finally showed up about 

2 1/2 hours after I got on board.  They had to load all of the semi trucks and tour busses before they would let the cars on. He asked at reception if there hsd been any room cancellations, but theee hadn't.  I showed him where our seats were, then we went to look for food.  All of a sudden,  Lonnie realized that he had left his new Galaxy Tab in the seat and ran back to see if it was still there. Since I had chosen seats in the back and it was really dark back there,  no one had noticed it yet. I'm glad he thought of it before everyone decided to retire for the night.

Now we are in the restaurant waiting for our food.  I hope it is good.

My meal on the ferry turned out to be one of the best meals that I have had this trip. Who would have thought it. I had a salad, grilled chicken,  and grilled vegetables. Lonnie ordered tomato soup which smelled very good,  but he got sick after the first bite and couldn't finish it.  He is really starting to worry me. I was hoping he would be better by now but he's not. I ask him every day if he wants to go back to Zurich and fly home but he says he would rather feel bad here than at home.  We both know he  would probably be in the hospital at home (at least for tests if nothing else). It is really kind of scary.

Well the boat is about to rock me to sleep,  so I guess we need to pay for our food then make our way to our airplane seats and go to sleep. 

A Day in Firenze, Italia

Today was a beautiful day in Firenze Italia.  I am sure the temperature was nice (probably in the upper seventies),  but it felt 

hot to us since we had been in much cooler climates. While many were wearing jackets,  we were in short sleeves, thinking how hot it was. 

We got into Florence around noon,  after a harrowing ride through the city. For some reason,  the Garmin GPS was acting up and taking us all over the city instead of to the parking area under the train station. I finally got my phone out and turned on Google maps to get us there. 

 For those of you who have never been to Italy, I have to tell you that the driving is crazy!  They try to fit five or six lanes of cars into three actual lanes on the road. Add to that all of the motorbikes, bicycles and people wandering across the street, and it can make for a rather stressful drive to one who is not used to it. They have lots of streets going in all directions,  they drive fast and people who want to cross the street just step out in faith and walk across in front of the cars with the assumption that the drivers will stop for them. And, crazy as it sounds,  we have been both - driver and pedestrian.  And, yes, you had better stop for the pedestrian who appears out of nowhere. It is also not uncommon to see people stop in the middle of the street to get out of their cars to yell at another driver. I watched a man get out of his car to yell at our tour bus driver,  while holding up traffic in several directions. Such is a day of driving in Italy.

We began our day in Florence by taking a bus tour.  We had never done that before and it was very interesting.  I realized when we got back tonight that they actually had three different tours that we could have gone on with our pass, but each one would have taken an hour, and we really came here to shop. I also had the Rick Steves tour that we had planned to do but I was afraid the shops would close, so we skipped it. In actuality,  it would have taken me to the shopping faster than we found it on our own. If you go to Florence, I highly recommend that you download his walking tour and listen to it. I listened to part of it while we were walking and it was really very informative.

I had contemplated going to the Galleria dell'Academia or the Uffizi Museum but they were closed because it was Monday.  State museums are typically closed on Mondays all over Italy. We have been to both before, but Michaelangelo's David is such an imposing statue that I could definitely have gone to see it again! And his prisoners in stone sre so moving that I just want to go over to them and help them get out of the stone that they are imprisoned in. I first saw them on the tour that I took in 1969. I would have to say, though, that my favorite statues are in the Bhorgese Gallery in Rome. We are not going to Rome this year (even though I had planned to go there) because of the driving and the massive number of people that are everywhere.   Even though this is not the High Season,  there was a large throng of people in Florence. That is why we typically avoid tourist areas when traveling.  Unfortunately I have planned several of them for this trip.

After shopping,  we wandered the city just taking in the sites. We went to the Porto Vecchio where the gold is sold, but didn't buy any. We went to the Straw Market where we did some shopping.  We walked past Dante's house,  and the Duomo and went inside the church of Santa Maria Novella. It had gorgeous stained glass windows and beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings.  God has blessed so many people with such great talents!  I could never begin to carve something out of stone,  or paint beautiful pictures on ceilings (or anywhere for that matter), or put together stained glass windows, or build a dome high up on a building. I am so very thankful that God has given me eyes to see these things,  as well as the opportunity.

While walking down one street,  we stumbled across a store that had perfect gifts for one of our sons and his family!  Now just a few more gifts to go. As can be expected,  I have found lots of things that I could have gotten for our youngest granddaughter, but I have had to restrain myself.

 And, of course,  a visit to Italy would not be complete without pizza and gelatto. We had my favorite gelatto - pistachio.  Yum!

We got back to the hotel around 9PM, after another "Mad Hatter" ride through the city. Thank you,  Lord!

After a meal of salad and veal scallopine, we retired to the room where I began this blog. And,  such was our day in Florence,  Italy.

Angera, Italy

The alarm went off at 8:50 this morning.  Lonnie was not ready to get up.  We headed to breakfast,  but they didn't have much to choose from.  I chose yogurt with muesli and walnuts and tried their hot chocolate (just not the same as Swiss). Lonnie had banana yogurt, a half peach,  and a sip of hot chocolate. 

Then we headed out to Rocca Borromeo. It was a fabulous castle,  housing a wonderful doll collection. The dolls were owned by Princess Bono Borromeo Arese. There were beautiful paintings and very old frescoes on the walls. We climbed the 155 steps to the top of the tower.  The last few steps were tall, steep stone steps in the very narrow tower. We grabbed some lunch,  then headed toward Florence,  where we checked into the Novotel Aeroporto Nord at around 9PM.  We have stayed here several times and find it to be a good hotel. We went to the restaurant where we ordered salad and spaghetti.  The salad was wonderful.  Not sure what they did to the spaghetti.  It was not good. The spaghetti had some kind of coating on it and was served with a few cooked tomatoes on it. But that's okay.  You live and learn (at least it wasn't tripe like I ended up with when I ordered a "special" three years ago)!

Lenno, Italy

Into every life a little rain must fall...

and I am so thankful.

Our day began very early, at 5:45AM, when I realized that we did not ask where we were supposed to park the car last night.  I dressed and went downstairs to ask. Sure enough,  we were parked in a towaway zone. Fortunately,  the car was still there.  Lonnie, very annoyed,  had to get up and move the car into the hotel garage.  After that excitement,  we slept until nearly ten. 

We had our typical breakfast. I had meat (kind of like bologna or other lunch meat), cheese,  croissant,  fruit, and,  of course,  Swiss hot chocolate.  Yum!  Lonnie tried what he thought was corn flakes. They weren't. He finally settled on yogurt, meat,  cheese and a little hot chocolate. 

After breakfast,  we hung around the hotel until noon.  The view from our balcony of Lake Como was beautiful. No sunshine,  though. It was rainy all day. That did not deter us from visiting the Villa del Balbianello. One of  the Star Wars movies was filmed here, as well as one of the James Bond movies. 

Since it was raining,  our hotel clerk offered to call a Water Taxi for us.  Then he drove us to the Water Taxi stop. The taxi driver was very nice and offered us an umbrella.  I had my raincoat and Lonnie thought he had his raincoat in the backpack,  so we politely declined.  A few minutes later when it started raining harder, he realized he did not have it.

We toured the grounds of the Villa, which were beautiful.  Then we toured the Villa itself.  Because it was built on the side of a mountain, it had six floors with only a couple of rooms on each floor. It also had some hidden staircases. Part of the house incorporated an old monastery into it. From the outside it looked like there was a small church building that you could walk into,  but the doors were fake and the kitchen of the house was located inside it. Interesting. 

After  touring the Villa, we walked the couple of miles back to the hotel,  then headed toward Angera, Italy.  Once again the Garmin GPS led us off the beaten path.  Driving on super narrow roads makes me nervous,  and that is where the Garmin led us. Not good. 

We stopped at a McDonalds to grab something to eat. It had been a long time since breakfast.  Not exactly what we wanted but we were running too late to stop for a two hour meal.

We finally arrived at Angera around 8PM. I looked up hotels on Tripadvi sor and found one listed that sounded good. We found it fairly easily and even found a free parking place on the street (thank you,  Lord).  Now to the reason I am thankful for the rain.  The hotel was wonderful and was half-price. What we didn't know was that this is a holiday weekend for Italy, and the clerk told us that if the weather had been nice, there would not have been any rooms available anywhere.  The Lord is good. 

And,  the  night clerk, who speaks only Italian,  directed us to a nice Pizzeria to eat. Lonnie had bean soup (which turned out to be just pinto beans in extra liquid), I had mixed salad and we shared a vegetarian pizza which I thought was good,  but Lonnie was not impressed with.

When we got back to the room,  I noticed that there was no shower  head. Lonnie really didn't want a hassle since we knew that the clerk did not speak English, but he did want to take a shower.  Finally he thought of Google translator,  typed in the problem,  took it to the clerk and was back almost immediately with a shower head.  Apparently they took it off to clean it and forgot to put it back. 

By midnight we were ready to go to bed. Night all.

Zermatt, Switzerland

Today has been one of those do nothing but drive days. We woke up early
this morning, but were really slow moving. We finally went down to
breakfast, then walked around town. Many of the shops, restaurants,
and hotels are closed for low season. Even at that, I managed to find
a couple of pairs of socks, Lonnie purchased a carrying case for his
tablet so that he can leave it running to track where we have been, and
we got the cutest birthday present for our Granddaughter Brynn.

We also visited the cemetery. So many young people have died while
trying to climb the Matterhorn. It is really sad.

After that, we stopped by the Walliserhof to have some raclette. I
didn't get any last time we were here, so I just had to have some this
time. Then we caught the train to Tasch, grabbed some groceries at Coop,
and headed for our next destination.

I would like to say it was that easy, but nothing is ever that easy when
we travel. We have our Garmin GPS, our netbook GPS, and my phone's
Google maps GPS. For some reason they could not agree on how to get to
our next destination, which is Lenno, Italy.

We chose what we thought would be the quickest and easiest way since we
were running behind. It wasn't. We drove on hairpin curves through
several towns, only to find that the pass over the mountains was closed.
We had to go back where we started and choose another route. This
route had us climbing to the very top of some mountains, over one of
the highest bridges anywhere, through heavy snow and thick fog. We are
now in the Italian Ticino region. Once again it will be very late when
we get to the Hotel. Fortunately, this is the last hotel we pre booked
until the end of the trip, so we will be able to move as fast or as
slow as we want to after tonight.

Preface to Europe

I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. My
help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1.

I cannot believe how blessed I am to be sitting in one of my favorite
places and to be able to share it with you. The Lord is truly good and
I am so thankful for this opportunity.
The earth that He created is a beautiful place. And, Europe is one of my
favorites.

My love affair with Europe began at an early age. For as long as I can
remember, I have felt like I should be here. Perhaps it was the movies
that I watched, like Heidi with Shirley Temple or Journey for Margaret
with Margaret O'Brien. Maybe it was the fact that I was born a few years
after the war, so I watched a lot of WWII movies set in Europe. The
Weekly Reader books took me to foreign lands. And now the Christian
books that I read by the Thoenes or Michael Phillips take me to Eastern
Europe. The Diary of Anne Frank was required reading in school, making
me want to see where she lived and died. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten
Boom made me want to visit her home. In addition, some of the people in
my hometown were Polish so I wanted to see where they were from. I
loved the accordian music and other sounds of Europe. All of those
things made Europe sound so exciting.

While in High School, I worked three part-time jobs for three years to
spend it all in three weeks on a tour of Europe. I was totally hooked.
. .and I still am!