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Showing posts from September 21, 2007

Might as well...

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mention that while in Slovenia, we also visited the seaside town of Piran. From Ljubljana on, we got around via a red, beat-up Renault that made up for in character what it lacked in horsepower. The car was great since it allowed us to see places that would have been hard to get to via Slovenia's limited public transportation system, such as the small town of Radovljica (better known as the home of the beekeeping museum); a gingerbread factory; a Russian chapel commemorating the Russian POW's who perished during the construction of the Vrsic Pass, a mountain road with 50 numbered hairpin turns in a 12 mile stretch; Stanjel (a nearly abandoned hilltop village that has been adopted by artists); the cavernous Skocjanske Caves with their impressive stalactites and stalacmites and of course, the aforementioned Adriatic seaside town of Piran. Blah, blah, blah...and now the Netherlands.

Oh, and did I mention Bled?

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Before I get back to Holland et. al., I really should post some photos of Lake Bled. This little jewel is located in the northwestern corner of the country, near the Austrian border, and is surrounded by the Julian Alps and Triglav National Park. It has a castle on a clifftop, a church sitting upon a wee, tiny island in the middle of the lake and a restaurant, Okarina , with the best vegetarian steak I've ever had. Not surprisingly, Bled is a big wedding destination, with brides and half-inebriated groomsmen filing in and out of the few pubs. If I wasn't so stubbornly clinging to my dream wedding in a Vegas chapel with a drunk Elvis officiating (he must be drunk), it would be easy to picture a very romantic wedding on Lake Bed. But for now, I must picture the continuation of the July and August adventures...

Country #66: Slovenia

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I know I am not even half-way through the Netherlands Chronicles, but I just returned from the awkwardly-named, yet grandly beautiful city of Ljubljana and felt the urgent need to share some photos. Of the multitude of "new Pragues" being touted about, this, to me, is the closest to the real thing. It is has got that awe-inspiring architecture combined with a vibrant, anything-can-happen energy that helped turn Prague into the Eastern European travel destination. The good news is that the mega-bus crowds and the British stag parties haven't figured it out yet. Lucky for us, because we were actually able to get three nights at the Celica Hostel , which is housed in a former military prison. Each cell has been "re-interpreted" by a different group of artists (you can see them all on the website...we had cells 113, 105 and m