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| Take me on a trip!! |
On the road again...
Three years ago, we had planned a
big-o-honkin trip across the European continent deep into the eastern bloc countries.
That was when Janice was diagnosed with her cancer and so we put it off. Then last
year, Janice had other health issues so we put it on the back burner again.
After the renovations we did to our home in California this fall, we were so broke we
couldn’t pay attention, so it was not to be again this winter. Nevertheless, we
opted for a scaled down version of Pee Wee’s big adventure, so off we went.
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| Click once on the image to see our route |
We started by driving across the whole of
France via Paris, then on to Geneva and Milan. Crossing the French and Italian alps in a driving snow storm, we dropped down to the Venice airport to meet daughter Mandy who had
flown in from her home in Germany, to join us for the first 2 weeks of our adventure. She is an enthusiastic trouble free traveler, who obviously enjoys our pace and
interests.
Working in Germany, she is taxed to the hilt like anyone in Europe,
but in return has close to as much yearly vacation time starting out in her career as I had
at the end of mine. Two weeks with
mom and dad at the island in the summer? No problem. Two weeks with the whole
family in California at Christmas? No problem. Two weeks to traipse around
Europe with us on an adventure? No problem. Hmmmmm, she wonders, what will she
do with the rest of her vacation time….?
We spent a week in a home exchange in Duino Italy, between Venice and Trieste right on the Adriatic coast. We used it as a home base not only to visit Venice, but to dip our toe into the eastern bloc countries. Each day, we would head off in different directions to cover new territory. Once again, we continued our quest to add World Heritage Site (WHS) visits to our travel portfolio.
There are tons of incredibly
interesting places to see all over the world but we find that in unfamiliar
areas, if present, they are by far the best places to start with. Having been
determined by UNESCO as being the crown jewels of the world's greatest cultural
and natural sites, we see little point in our trying to re-invent the wheel and
discover the already discovered.
Our abode being just 4 miles (6 Km) from the Slovenian border, we crossed and started by visiting the Lipizzaner stallion stud farm in Lipica. Those are the white horses (born black) used in dressage and royal events seen worldwide. We then drove on to Ljubljana and crossed the Croatian border to visit the city of Zagreb.
Every trip has the potential of unpleasant incidents and we had ours in Slovania. Driving along the freeway, we and all other tourists in foreign registered vehicles got stopped at a toll booth for an "inspection". We were asked for our passports, vehicle registration and our 'vignette'. "Vignette", I asked? "What's a vignette?"
Seems that although there are no signs in English, French or German at the border that advise you of it, you are required to purchase a 'vignette' (road tax sticker to put on your car) upon entering the country. Failing to do so gets you an instant on the spot fine from 165 euros ($211.) to 800 Euros ($1,025.) Not paying will get your passport seized. "Will that be cash or credit card?" they asked in perfect English.
Following up online, I found that this highway robbery is the source of endless complaints from law abiding visitors. Setting this road trap just a few miles inland from the border makes it clear that the government has no interest in collecting the tax but rather the confiscatory fines. It sure soured our visit to Slovania.
Our abode being just 4 miles (6 Km) from the Slovenian border, we crossed and started by visiting the Lipizzaner stallion stud farm in Lipica. Those are the white horses (born black) used in dressage and royal events seen worldwide. We then drove on to Ljubljana and crossed the Croatian border to visit the city of Zagreb.
Every trip has the potential of unpleasant incidents and we had ours in Slovania. Driving along the freeway, we and all other tourists in foreign registered vehicles got stopped at a toll booth for an "inspection". We were asked for our passports, vehicle registration and our 'vignette'. "Vignette", I asked? "What's a vignette?"
Seems that although there are no signs in English, French or German at the border that advise you of it, you are required to purchase a 'vignette' (road tax sticker to put on your car) upon entering the country. Failing to do so gets you an instant on the spot fine from 165 euros ($211.) to 800 Euros ($1,025.) Not paying will get your passport seized. "Will that be cash or credit card?" they asked in perfect English.
Following up online, I found that this highway robbery is the source of endless complaints from law abiding visitors. Setting this road trap just a few miles inland from the border makes it clear that the government has no interest in collecting the tax but rather the confiscatory fines. It sure soured our visit to Slovania.
Later, we headed due east
to the Skocjan Caves. This became # 99 of the WHS we visited. We have visited some incredible caves in the US (including Carlsbad
Caverns in New Mexico and Mammoth caves in Kentucky) but this ranks right up there
with the big dogs. At some points, it expands into huge underground chambers.
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| This footbridge is 150 feet [50m] above the raging river at the bottom of the cave |
The largest of these is Martel's Chamber with a volume of 3 million cubic yards (2.2 million cubic m), it being the largest underground chamber in Europe and one of the largest in the world. This underground canyon of such immense dimensions ends with a small siphon. In fact, it can’t deal with the enormous volume of water that pours into the cave after a heavy rainfall, causing major flooding, during which water levels can rise by more than 300 feet (100 m). We then headed north across the Austrian alps to the medieval town of Lienz .
In the days that followed, we
returned to Slovenia and Croatia again, this time on our way to Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Mandy figured it would give her bragging rights to be able to
say “Oh, I have been there a couple of times”. On the way, we visited the Plitvice
Lakes National Park, which became the 100th World Heritage Site visited in my lifetime! Yahoo! This one
contains a series of 16 beautiful lakes, caves and waterfalls.
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| Is this rock your world cool, or what? |
The park is
famous for its lakes arranged in cascades which have been formed by processes
typical of karst landscapes such as the deposit of travertine barriers,
creating natural dams. The lakes are renowned for their distinctive colors,
ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colors change constantly
depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle
of sunlight.
Crossing the border into Bosnia,
we drove a short distance to the town of Bosanska Krupa, about 170 miles (275 km) north of Sarajevo. While known for its
characteristic watermills and fishing houses built on stilts, it will forever bring different memories for us.
Clearly suffering from the ravages of the Bosnian war in the early 90's, every 2nd or 3rd home we saw seemed to be either burned out, with bullet riddled facades or abandoned. In fact, we were driving on a winding side road along a river from the town when Janice suddenly shouted "STOP the car!"
Pulling over, she pointed to a sign that warned that the entire area adjacent to the road we were traveling on was covered with land mines. In fact, there were signs every couple of hundred feet along the way. Figuring that we had worn out our welcome, we high tailed it out of there. Adventurous, we are. Suicidal, we are not.
Finally, after an overnight rest, we took the train to Venice, making our way to St. Mark’s square. Crisscrossing the canals, walking the alleys, visiting the museums, snooping in the shops and hanging out on the street side cafes made us fell so… "O Sole Mio!!!"
Clearly suffering from the ravages of the Bosnian war in the early 90's, every 2nd or 3rd home we saw seemed to be either burned out, with bullet riddled facades or abandoned. In fact, we were driving on a winding side road along a river from the town when Janice suddenly shouted "STOP the car!"
Pulling over, she pointed to a sign that warned that the entire area adjacent to the road we were traveling on was covered with land mines. In fact, there were signs every couple of hundred feet along the way. Figuring that we had worn out our welcome, we high tailed it out of there. Adventurous, we are. Suicidal, we are not.
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| One click on any image and Bingo! It enlarges.. |
Finally, after an overnight rest, we took the train to Venice, making our way to St. Mark’s square. Crisscrossing the canals, walking the alleys, visiting the museums, snooping in the shops and hanging out on the street side cafes made us fell so… "O Sole Mio!!!"
Our first week now in the history
books, we drove to Ravenna in Italy staying at a B&B for a few days.
Incredibly, it is home to no less than 8 WHS (# 101 to 108) due to its stunning
5-6th century mosaics decorating the walls of its churches and
monuments. Over the next two days, we visited them all.
Since Mandy was with us, we
decided to return to Viterbo to show her a few sights that had taken our breath away
on previous trips. One was a stop at Civita, Italy's "city in the sky", a medieval community of 75 homes built on the top of a butte.
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| Civita |
Another was a tour of the honeycombed underground tunnels of medieval Viterbo that starts at the Plaza Del Morte (Plaza of death)
Having visited the area before, we were not going to miss the opportunity to introduce Mandy to our “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” experience. While I am no Indiana Jones, we did take her to a temple of doom.
Seriously off the beaten path in a few poorly marked areas, lie some almost impassible trails that lead to cliff faces. Carved into these cliffs are 20 or so Etruscan tomb burial chambers dating from 400 BC, each with a dozen or so carved stone sarcophagus.
Heading north along the Mediterranean, we spent our second week in a mountaintop villa we exchanged for in Lucca, outside of Pisa (leaning tower of..).
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| Viterbo's underground |
Having visited the area before, we were not going to miss the opportunity to introduce Mandy to our “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” experience. While I am no Indiana Jones, we did take her to a temple of doom.
Seriously off the beaten path in a few poorly marked areas, lie some almost impassible trails that lead to cliff faces. Carved into these cliffs are 20 or so Etruscan tomb burial chambers dating from 400 BC, each with a dozen or so carved stone sarcophagus.
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| Sarcophagus inside a chamber |
Since the
area is not controlled, supervised or maintained in any way, access to each
chamber is gained either by crawling on your hands and knees through the brush
covered entrances, or on your belly through a 3 foot (1 M) diameter by 30 foot
(10 M) long tunnel, making things tighter than legroom in economy.
Since this was not Disneyland there were no lights, so Mandy finally figured out why we insisted that she bring funky clothes and a flashlight on a trip to Italy.
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| You go first, Mandy... |
Since this was not Disneyland there were no lights, so Mandy finally figured out why we insisted that she bring funky clothes and a flashlight on a trip to Italy.
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| Our Villa in Lucca.... |
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| ....complete with pizza oven |
Again, we did day trips in all directions including the cities of Florence and Siena.
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| Sienna |
After seeing Mandy off at the airport we drove on to the south of France through Genoa, Nice and Cannes. Dropping down to Monte Carlo in Monaco, on to St. Tropez and north of Marseille to the wine country and olive groves in the Provence area, we spent our third week in a lovely 600 year old home in a medieval village where the streets were so narrow they were more like a wide sidewalk so we could not drive our car.
We did visit the 'Gorges de Verdun', the French version of the Grand Canyons. Miniscule compared to THE Grand Canyons it was still a sight to behold.
We did visit the 'Gorges de Verdun', the French version of the Grand Canyons. Miniscule compared to THE Grand Canyons it was still a sight to behold.
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| 'Les Grand Canyons' |
Heading home through Tours to Château d'Azay-le-Rideau in the heart of the Loire Valley, it ranks as one of the premier castles in France to visit. Built in the 12thcentury on the foundations of a medieval fortress situated on an island, it was destroyed in the 100 year war with England and rebuilt by a rich financier.
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| Honey, I'm home! |
In 1418, the future Charles VII passed through as he fled to
the stronghold of Bourges. Angered by the insults of the troops occupying the
town, he ordered his own army to storm the castle. The 350 soldiers inside were
all executed and the castle itself burnt. This being the last WHS to be visited on this trip, it is # 109, wrapping up our 5,600 + mile (9,000km) trip.
Whew, we're pooped! We need a vacation.....
Whew, we're pooped! We need a vacation.....
Is it legal to have this much fun?
Congratulations go to daughter Amy and husband Vance on their 10th anniversary! They are currently roughing it in a Florida beach side condo Janice set up for them for the week. Although pregnant with bambino #6, this week there are NO kids....YAHOO!!
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| Great digs to hang out in Florida |
Congratulations go to daughter Amy and husband Vance on their 10th anniversary! They are currently roughing it in a Florida beach side condo Janice set up for them for the week. Although pregnant with bambino #6, this week there are NO kids....YAHOO!!
