Muriel Travels

Market in Veliko Tarnovo

2011-03-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

I love markets, especially when they have stall full of colourful fruits and vegetables. It was a bit of a struggle to find it (after the screwed up sign at the tourist info booth...should we be surprised?) but it was worth the effort:

I was smitten with the colourful peppers

The large pile of lime green vegetables are peppers

The roots with green tops are parsley. It seems they are edible. I did an online search and sure enough, there is one variety that is grown for its roots. Its Latin name is Petroselinum crispum tuberosum (also known as Petroselinum hortense). The common curly parsley is Petroselinum crispum. You can find a recipe and some further info on the Cook Almost Anything Blog, though the roots in the picture are much larger than these.

excellent cauliflower and cabbage

huge bags of red peppers

There was grocery store underground, in the market area. There

was lots of beautiful meat, particularly sausages

And a ready-to-eat section, with food that tasted good! On the left you can see eggplant slices, then potatoes, roasted peppers, coleslaw, various bean and tomato mixes and out of the picture on the right were

cooked chicken, sausages, etc. There was a line-up so we assumed the locals must know something and we bought the vegies pictured above. To our surprise, the least likely to taste good were the potatoes, but they were excellent!!

In another area there was a cooked fish store. I could definitely live in this town!!

Gurko St in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

2011-03-09T21:52:00.000-08:00

Gurko Street is an beautiful old street of cobblestones, with restored house piled up on top of each other, looking out over the river.

We walked it many times, taking picture after picture. To me, this is the heart of Veliko Tarnovo and the part of the town that has left me with the best memories.

In a year or two, I expect that this building will be renovated:

I really regret not having explored up these steps:

As one walked further east (towards our Hostel Mostel) the road became
narrower and the building older, and fewer were renovated.

Ever Heard of Veliko Tarnovo?

2011-03-05T22:10:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard of it, then I expect you will be hearing about it in the next 10 years and that it will be on a well-trodden tourist path.

This jewel of a city is in north-central Bulgaria. It is a former capital of Bulgaria, with a current population of about 80,000.

The Yantra River traces a very complex path through the town, at the base of the cliffs. Enlarge the map below to get a view of the river's path.

View Larger Map

The Yantra River winding through part of the town

Above the river, are cliffs, on which there is a magnificent display of houses stacked on top of each other:

Its amazing that they have lasted there for two centuries!

from the Wikipedia webpage on Veliko Tarnovo. This picture is
outstanding when enlarged

Kalamata, Greece - should have been posted earlier!

2011-03-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

We went into Kalamata for market day, which was on a Wednesday, but I have trouble believing it is only one day a week. This would be worth investigating further. It is a very good market.

Kalamata was heavily damaged by an earthquake in 1986. It has been rebuilt and looks very nice. Previous to our trip I had read that it was quite a boring city, but I really liked it. The town planners took advantage of the earthquake having destroyed so much of the city and did a good job of re-establishing the city with the industrial areas separate from the residential areas. While at our rental I read an interesting article about the man who was mayor at the time of the earthquake, and who directed the intelligent rebuilding of the city. If I ever find it online I will link to it here, as the mayor is a very interesting individual! He currently has a mission to save the numerous ancient Greek theaters and is fundraising to do so.

The distance from Stoupa to Kalamata is not great, only about 45 km, but the road is very winding and hence slow, taking about an hour to travel the distance!

Hostelling in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

2011-03-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

We got off the bus and tried to figure out which direction to start walking to go to the Hostel Mostel. We tried and tried. Nothing made sense. Then we found the tourist info booth (only a block away) and a huge map outside. We were still confused. Went into the tourist building and the lady was no help. Pointed out a brochure for Hostel Mostel but we still couldn't figure out how to get there.

Later more workers went into the tourist booth so I decided to see if any had more to offer than the first person. Ah ha! One spoke English and sent us off in the direction of the Post Office. What they just don't seem to realize is the there is no sign on the Post Office telling us what it is, and 5 streets come together at our position, so when they casually wave in a certain direction, how are we supposed to know what they mean???

Finally we had it figured out and later, when we re-visited the huge map, we discovered that it was upside down in relation to the streets out in front of us. Please tell me the logic of that!!!

This beautiful building was near the wacky map.

The Hostel Mostel was a bit of a walk but once we got there we were very impressed. It was spacious, the young lady at the front desk was excellent at her job, there were outdoor seating areas, nice grounds, and not only was breakfast served, but a small dinner along with a glass of beer!!

Dinner was served at 7:30pm so we were all in the dining area at the same time. This (plus the beer) contributed to the guests getting to know each other. What a fantastic time we had at the Hostel Mostel and made long-time friends.

Speaking of beer, there was also a vending machine in the common area, such as this one:

Those are 2 litre plastic bottles in the bottom row. The price is about CDN$1.75. This vending machine was out on a main shopping street.

How Does One Use This Toilet?

2011-02-27T22:02:00.000-08:00

The train arrived early in Sofia. I was glad to be off of it. We walked to the bus station a few feet away and found the booth that sold tickets to Veliko Tarnovo (there are an amazing number of booths in that bus station). Our youngest son had spoken highly of Veliko. He had been there twice, the second time was specifically to have Boyarski Kavarma, which he claims to be the best stew ever made. So of course we had to check it out. By the way, he also really liked the town.

At this point I should mention that the bus in Bulgaria is the opposite of the train. Luckily our son had told us that in Bulgaria you take a bus, in Romania, the train. Hence I was able to bear the thought of travelling further into Bulgaria other than by the dreaded train. The bus was beautiful and modern, complete with washroom, however it remains one of the great mysteries of our trip as to how one would use it. Have you ever seen one under the seats, at the stairwell for the back door? There is a door to it, under the seats. How does one get into it? Do you open the little door and park your butt while staring out at everyone? I was almost relieved when someone said it wasn't working. No need to figure it out!!

I have done a number of Google searches on the subject and cannot find out how one uses those toilets. I would appreciate some instructions! Can anyone offer any?

I did search on Google images and found these pictures of bus washrooms that are somewhat like the Bulgarian bus had, but these doors are really tall compared with what our bus had.

Here is an obviously shorter stall, but still taller than ours. I blurred the guys face in case he doesn't want to be shown here. Sure hope its okay!

The Midnight Train to Sofia

2011-02-22T08:42:00.000-08:00

After an overnight stop on Larissa, Greece, to visit a friend of a friend, we were off to Bulgaria. We caught the midnight train out of Thessaloniki. Within about 30 seconds of the train starting to move I realised that my camera was not with us. Panic! To jump off the train or not? I envisioned myself doing one of those leaps that they do in the movies. It was tempting...the train was still moving very slowly, but Gary was in the washroom and I wouldn't have had time to tell him what I was doing as making the jump would have had to happen immediately. Can you imagine his surprise if I simply wasn't there when he returned? Okay, its funny to think about now, but the pain of pulling away from the train station, knowing that your camera may be there somewhere...or not....almost would have made it worth it.

However, cooler heads prevailed and I remained on the train, heartbroken.

If you are considering taking a Bulgarian train, you should think twice. Yes, a night train is a good way to get from A to B, and in fact is the only train from Thessaloniki to Sofia, but....

We had sleeper. I was on the bottom. I must have been right over a wheel cause it was really noisy. I don't think most trains would be so noisy. My theory was that the rails were laid with a bit of space between them, resulting in a loud clackity-clack sound every few seconds.

Then there were the stops at the Bulgarian border for passport control...around 3:30am.

But the worst was the washroom....which still turns my stomach at the memory of it. The first trip to it was only mildly unpleasant. The one in the middle of the night was seriously revolting. A previous user had a problem that they should seek medical attention for. Their ability to spray the inside of the space is not normal!!!!! From the early '70's I have memories of Turkish toilets that one needed to wear boots when attending, but none came close to the Bulgarian train toilet. Okay, I gotta leave this subject alone. Dinner will be soon.

A Few Pics From Our Village - Neochori

2011-02-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

Beautiful stonework all over the village

Further Exploring Around Stoupa

2011-02-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

From late September / early October:

Stoupa itself had nothing to explore. Its just two beaches, a lot of restaurants across from the beaches and some vacation homes. This town seems not to have existed for long....its one of those towns exists because of tourists.

On the plus side, due to the tourists (at least I assume that is the reason), there is a beautiful wide paved path along the water to the next town of Agios Nickolaos. Finding the start of the path in Stoupa was a real challenge. People would send us off in the wrong direction, but this is not the first time I have found people to be unable to give directions. One must get a little closer, then ask again. And again. And again. I have seen taxi drivers in their own country do it this way. On the plus side, since taxi drivers are usually men, I have actually witnessed men stopping and asking for directions!!!!

Back to the walk.

a gorgeous display of brugmansia in Agios Nicholaos

No shade is available. Better do it early in the day!

We went to a small town to the north of Stoupa for dinner one night. It is called Kardamili and is where Nikos Kazantzakis (author of Zorba the Greek) knew a man whom he modeled Zorba after. The owner of the restaurant we ate at was a real character. Could he be a relative of that man? If I remember correctly, his name is Gregoris and I promised to send him prints of the pictures I took of him with our family. Unfortunately, my camera grew legs and disappeared at the Thessaloniki Train Station. The only picture I still have is this one that my daughter uploaded to her Facebook page. The restaurant owner is the one in the striped shirt. We had a delicious meal there!! Also, Gregoris was helping out a young Albanian, by giving him a job. Nice guy.

Kardamili really caught my eye. If I return to this part of Greece for another holiday, I would prefer to stay in this village over Stoupa.

Mosquitoes

2011-01-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

Our house had a shaft that allowed fresh air to come from the rooftop down to our bedroom (which was windowless). The big problem was that it also allowed in zillions of mosquitoes. Our room had white-washed walls, so each little beastie that I squished was very obvious, and no carcasses were more obvious that those that had already had a meal on us!! We found we could close the tube up, so we did. While that did reduced the problem, it far from prevented their entry.

Later we discovered a nifty device, a plugin, that somehow keeps the bloodsuckers away. We assume that a chemical is released. If the situation had not been so bad, we would not have used them. My husband and daughter had horrible reactions to the mozzie venom. They had white welts the size of a quarter, which didn't reduce in size for days. I had hydrocortisone cream along (a great solution to skeeter bites) and due to our extensive experience with mosquitoes at home, I know to put it on before the bite is scratched. But either the cream was old or the venom was resistant, as it didn't help.

Two things about the mosquitoes baffled us:

Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water. Greece is so dry. So how can they multiply????
why don't they use screens on the doors and windows in Greece????

The house had very modern windows that could open two different ways, but they didn't they have screens!! It was fairly warm when we were there and we would have liked to have opened windows and doors for fresh air, but the mozzies immediately came speeding in, looking for a meal.

We had experienced them in smaller numbers near Nafplion. In our bedroom there was a skylight that opened. Since the room was upstairs and quite warm, we naturally opened the skylight at night. Our sensible Canadian mosquitoes live about 4' above the ground, but apparently not the Greek ones. In they came.

Screens should be a great help!!!

However, since these beasties are smaller than our own common variety (found in even greater numbers at home), one possible problem with screens is that the size of the openings in the typical screen is too large to keep them out. Our son who lives in Baku, Azerbaijan, said he has watched one of those smaller mosquitoes squeeze its way through a screen. Not sure what is stranger about that, the fact that the mozzie can do that off or that my son spent the time watching it!!

So invent a smaller grid. Surely this can't be too difficult!!

Up the Hill From Stoupa

2011-01-09T13:15:00.000-08:00

The weather was nice and warm. We were there in late September. Gary walked down the hill, went swimming everyday at this (or the other) beautiful beach, then ran back up up the hill!

Not to be outdone, Liana and I hiked further up the hill, to a lovely village. This hike was my favourite activity in Greece.

Our destination. Can you see the small village in the center of the photo?

Most of the route was lined with rock walls.

It was easy to see where the rocks came from!! This is an olive orchard.

The tall Cypress trees appear to be native, as they were not associated with houses or driveways.

An abandoned home from many years ago, built into the hillside.

Before I went to Greece, we speculated on whether or not there would still be women there who wore black. On my previous trip to Greece in 1974 there were many women in black, which was explained to us as being an indication that they were in mourning over the death of their husbands, many of whom had died in World War II. I understood that they would wear black for the rest of their lives. In the small villages the tradition continues.

Stoupa, Greece

2011-01-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

Being from British Columbia in Canada, I am very used to mountains and the roads that make their way up and down and around them. At home the roads are as straight as the engineers can possibly design them and the contractors blast and bulldoze their way, creating wide roads with shoulders.

In Europe I am always surprised that they are anything but straight!! (the freeway in northern Italy is a notable exception) Nor can they be described as wide, let alone with a shoulder. I have to remind myself that these routes were planned, or perhaps a better word is "happened" many centuries ago, when donkeys were the main mode of transport. Long straight stretches would not have been important as one only occasionally needed to move from one village to another.

Our destination was Stoupa, which is "B" on the map. I was told that the route through Sparti (Sparta) was 20 km longer but had fewer curves. I should have kept count! This is the route we took from Nafplion (A):

View Larger Map
Based on typical calculations for travel in our area in BC, the few kilometers from Nafplion to Stoupa should only have taken 2 hrs (almost no towns to pass through). However our trip, supposedly by the fastest route, took us at least 4. And we weren't even held up by herds of sheep, though I wish we had been!

We arrived safe and sound, if not a little stiff, from being shoe-horned into our little car, with all our luggage. We were thrilled to find our manificent house which was up the hill from Stoupa and with a magnificent view of the Med.

The house was an amazing reno of an old stone house. We were very impressed:

Nafplion to Sparta, Greece

2010-12-27T19:13:00.000-08:00

Our car was small...very small. We were 5 adults. Somehow we shoe-horned all of us plus our gear into the car and started on our way across the Peloponnese, to our next rental in Stoupa, which is south of Kalamata.

The instructions to our next rental said that while it is 20km further to go via Sparta, there are fewer curves in the road. So the route via Sparta sounded like the best one. It was also important for us to take a route that avoided steep hills (the car was gutless), so we first went north from Nafplio and Argos, to the freeway. Despite the fact that we had already make 2 trips through Argos, we managed to get lost. We still puzzle over where we went wrong.

The trip on the freeway was interesting because of the trucker's strike. Sooooo many big trucks parked on the side of the road. Greece has many problems!

Once we left the freeway we noticed runners that were obviously struggling to complete some sort of race. When we stopped in Sparta we learned that it was a 2-day ultra marathon, called the Spartathlon. They were running (many were seen to be walking) 245.3km (150 miles) from Athens to Sparta, which is the route a messenger took to request help to defend Athens from invaders, in 490 BC.

The race has control points, each of which has its own time limitations and should a runner arrive later than the official closing time he or she will be eliminated from the race. For instance, the first leg, from Athens to Corinth, is 81 km and has a time limit of 9.5 hrs.

Here are the prerequisites necessary to compete:

The athlete has finished a race of at least 100 km in not more than 10:30 hours, OR
The athlete has compete in the SPARTATHLON race and has reached checkpoint NESTANI ( 172 km ) in less than 24:30 hours, OR
The athlete has reached the finishing point when competing at SPARTATHLON OR
The athlete has competed in an event of more than 200 kilometers and has finished the race regardless of the time.

I must admit that some looked like they had not met the prerequisites, as some were truly struggling. However I can certainly understand!! They are expected to finish the race in under 36 hrs!!!

The fastest runner finished in 23 hr. One hundred and twenty-eight finished. They had to run through the night.

Nafplion Greece

2010-12-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

In mid September we were off to Greece to meet up with our kids for another family reunion. First stop was Nafplion, on the Peloponnese Peninsula, about a 2 hr drive to the south west of Athens.

Its a beautiful town, with a population of about 13,000. It was once the capital of Greece. Tour ships stop there. We were in a rental across the bay and chose not to go into town until the huge ship departed (there was also a smaller one at the same time). I can't imagine how bizarrely crowded it must be in that town when the cruise ships are docked! If you enlarge the picture and look under the stop sign and then under the umbrella, you can see the largest ship.

Our rental was in Kiveri and was a beautiful place! Here is the rental info, if you are interested.

The Mediterranean was right outside the window, and down 4 stories.

There are a number of fortresses in the area. The most famous are the island Bourtzi....

...and the Palamidi, a Venetia fortress built in 1714, which you can climb to up the 999 steps from town. Great exercise! It definitely has a commanding view of the surroundings.

It would have been easy to spot invading ships from up here.

Some parts are in good shape.

Summer Holiday in BC - Part Three

2010-11-18T12:23:00.000-08:00

July 2010 - Little Fort, BC to 100 Mile House

After a wonderful breakfast and excellent conversation with our host at the Rose Garden Bed & Breakfast in Clearwater, we headed south to the road that would take us west to 100 Mile House.

One stop I was intent on making was to take a look at the ferry at Little Fort. CBC Radio gives road reports for our province and the Little Fort ferry is mentioned sometimes. For some reason I was intrigued and expected that we would be crossing on it. However the ferry transports people and vehicles to the east side of the North Thompson River, and we were heading west. That little ferry serves just a very few people on the west side of the river, along with any vehicles that take the alternate route to and from Clearwater.

See the man with the dark t-shirt? He operates the ferry, and since this is a pretty low-key job, he chatted with us for awhile. He even gave us a tip about the gallery of photographer Chris Harris, just north of 100 Mile House. We did visit and were impressed! He has pictures in the Magma gallery on his website that I find are hard to believe were taken in BC! If I could snag a picture I would show it here, so you could see what I mean, but it seems that I can't.

We proceeded west from Little Fort, over the hump to the Cariboo region. We were thinking that it would be nice to find a place for coffee. Since there was very few signs of habitation, once we did find a sign that said, in huge letters, Cappucino, we steered right in.

A strange sign that said "Gated ...?" (we can't remember) then greeted us. Since we were truly in the middle of nowhere we couldn't understand why any kind of fence and gate would be needed. Maybe for bears, moose, etc?

So we went into the log building's restaurant and placed our order with an Italian man. It was for a cappucino, a double latte and a piece of home-made lemon cake (no prices were posted). We ate outside on the deck, overlooking the lake.

Had a nice chat with the him about how to make coffee (cappucino with Espresso, latte with a French press), the coffee was good, the atmosphere very pleasant, but things changed when we went to pay. The bill was $25!!!!!

When we reached 100 Mile House, we happened to see some fun Dutch people who had also stopped for coffee here. I asked them if they were shocked at the cost of their coffee and indeed they were, as they each had two cups and their bill was $60!!

I can only assume it was because of the remoteness.

Summer Holiday in My Own Backyard - Part Two

2010-11-16T22:19:00.000-08:00

July 2010 - Salmon Arm to Clearwater

Proceeding west from the Adams Lake, I was surprised to encounter a sign that said "Pick your own cherries." Having been raised in a orchard, I am particularly fond of directly supporting the farmer, as well as being able to pick tree-ripened fruit. But what really amazed me is that the area could grow cherries! It seemed like it would be too cold there in the winter. True enough the trees were on the small side, but the cherries still tasted great.

After we arrived at the door we found a sign that said they weren't home right now, but that we could go to the orchard and pick our own, weigh them, and just leave the money. I LOVE it when people do business this way. It helps me to maintain some optimism about society, in light of all the awful stuff we hear on the news. I guess the secret is to live remotely. Wait...that is exactly what we do. And I LOVE it. Too bad I didn't get to meet those orchardists. We have a lot in common.

On to the small town of Clearwater, where we found the lovely Rose Garden Bed & Breakfast for the night. It was another one of those small-town situations where we told them we were heading to the waterfalls, and that we would be back fairly late. They said to just go and all the other stuff could be taken care of later. Our room would be waiting for us whenever we returned, and it was.

Clearwater is at the junction of the Yellowhead Highway (between Kamloops, BC and Jasper, Alberta), and the road to Wells Gray Provincial Park, which is famous for its collection of waterfalls, including Spahats Falls:

We gasped when we suddenly came upon this scene, as it was a very steep-sided narrow canyon (400' deep).

I am always amazed to see how tiny a stream it is that makes such a dramatic waterfall.

Next stop was Dawson Falls, with a much shorter drop, but has a significantly larger volume of water:

The tallest in the park, and fourth tallest waterfall in Canada, is Helmcken Falls, with a height of 141 mtrs (462').

From our vantage point on this side, it felt less dramatic than I expected. I think were were just too far away.

There is also a viewpoint on the other side, which is a longer hike, but it was getting too late to go there.

On the way back to Clearwater I was determined to check out Moul Falls. We had seen a sign, but the info on it was scarce, probably because it wasn't within the Park boundaries. It involved quite a hike in, and signage was not very good. My husband went up ahead and returned with the news that there didn't seem to be anything ahead. As doubtful as it seemed, could the tiny waterfall we had already passed been the Moul Falls? We decided to assume so and returned to the car.

A few miles closer to town we stopped for dinner at a sign indicating a buffalo barbecue. Down a lengthy dirt road we drove, past the buffalo, to the lovely Trophy Mountain Buffalo Ranch Grill, which is 20km (12 mi) north of Clearwater, in a location you would never expect to find a restaurant, let alone such a nice one.

While viewing the menu I noticed that there was a picture of a beautiful waterfall on the cover. I asked if it was the Moul Falls and sure enough, it was. My husband may never hear the end of this!

The outdoor restaurant was full and we may have been the only Canadians eating there. Next to our table were some lovely Dutch people. Their 13 yr son made the comment that they were seeing a LOT of trees. I guess to someone from the Netherlands, that would be a very significant feature of our landscape, as we have so many trees they become quite boring and we don't even think about them.

On the menu for 2011?:

Summer Holiday in My Own Backyard - BC

2010-11-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

July 2010 - Grand Forks to Salmon Arm

I love waterfalls, and could easily make a holiday of visiting as many as I can. So on our way to a wedding in 100 Mile House, we took a detour to Wells Gray Park, which is famous for having many waterfalls.

But first, we found one in Fintry Provincial Park, while travelling up the west side of the Okanagan Lake, north of Kelowna. I was born and raised not too far from this waterfall, yet did not know of its existence!

Short Creek Waterfall

It had great steps going all the way to the top. Great exercise!

That's the Okanagan Lake in the background

We were intentionally taking roads that were not the typical routes to get to Clearwater, which is the closest town to Wells Gray Park. So we found a gravel road that took us from Chase, alongside the Adams Lake, and then over to Barriere, which is north of Kamloops and south of Clearwater.

View of Adams Lake

In the distance in the picture above is where the famous Adams River leaves the lake. This is where sockeye salmon come to spawn in October. I am writing this as the event is just finishing. This year was the largest run in 97 years. Millions of salmon returned to lay their eggs (the turn red before they do this), after which, they die. I did not take this video, but it is so nice that I thought I would add it here:

You can leave the maker of the video comments on this page at YouTube.

What Did I Learn on My Trip? Or Travel is an Education!

2010-09-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

Belgium
In the hostel in Ljubljana I had 3 roommates from Belgium the first night and then 3 different Belgians the second night. From them I learned that the various ethnic groups in their country don't like each other and it is predicted that Brussels will become a city state and that the country will split into 2 (or was it 3) separate countries.

Also, the groups do not speak the same language. Does this sound familiar to my fellow Canadians?

It turned out that the two groups in my hostel were from opposing ethnic groups, but I witnessed that they met and there appeared to be no hostilities.

I had no idea this was going on in Belgium. The country rarely makes the news.

Switzerland
Next was my meeting of two Swiss cyclists. One from the German-speaking part of the country and the other from the French-speaking part. Guess which language they communicated in? ENGLISH! Otherwise they couldn't understand each other.

Picture-Taking
In Zadar, Croatia, I had dinner with a young man from Japan. He spoke no English and I spoke no Japanese. Thank heavens for digital cameras! We showed each other our pictures. We had been at the same place earlier in the day (Lake Plitvice). What I found so fascinating was that we took pictures of such different scenes. He took many pictures of the lakes whereas I found the lakes so insignificant that I didn't take any pics. They were small and surrounding the lakes were low hills. To someone from the land of lakes and mountains (Canada) they were very ho-hum. However I did take a gazillion pics of waterfalls, but it seems that they did not interest him. You would think we had been in different places, but I remember him getting on the bus when I did.

Showers
Lastly I learned that one does not need to use full pressure when running the shower. Partial pressure is more than adequate! We North Americans are so incredibly wasteful, though Europeans have far surpassed us when it comes to over-packaging their produce in grocery stores.

Ah yes, and I met some Americans who liked Sarah Palin, or at least thought she got a bad deal from the media during the Presidential race.

Saturday Market in Apt France - Part 3

2010-09-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

Pentanque accessories

The booth with the best colour!

These boys hammed it up while my son took a pic of them, and then
did the same while I took one. I heard other tourists talking about
them hoping to find them and so they could take a pic.

My son noted that everyone came to the market with bags.

What would a French market be without baguettes!

Saturday Market in Apt France - Part 2

2010-09-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

Lots of olives

There were free samples to be had here, cept I don't like olives

Biggest loaves of bread that I have ever seen! I seem to

remember them being about 30" long!

French fast food. I hope they never change to

the garbage that North America puts out.

There was a huge variety of cured meats at this booth.

I couldn't figure out how to capture this booth in way that show how much was available, yet showed how interesting the food looked.

Of course there was olive oil

Should one get hungry, there was a restaurant to dine at.
Love the use of a bike to hang the sign on.

Saturday Market in Apt France - Part 1

2010-09-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

I am about to leave on another trip, so I guess I should finish posting the pics from the last one, which happened a year ago!

The market in Apt, which is in the south of France, due north of Aix-en-Provence and east of Avignon, is famous in France. I can see why. It was full of vendors selling a fascinating array of goods. Locals say that in the summer it is very crowded. We were there in early October, and it was perfect.

There's a couple of baguettes in that bag. You see people carrying them all the time.

Free samples

The sign says it all

Monster rounds of Gruyere and Edam cheese. Too bad I didn't
have something there for scale.

This pleasant man was highly entertaining. Characters like this are
an important part of a market!

It was mushroom season when we were in Provence. We bought
some and cooked them up. Though no truffles for us!

Windows of Ménerbes, in Provence, France

2010-03-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

Back to adding pictures of my trip to Provence last October. I had been thinking that I might buy a poster of the windows and doors of Provence, but I discovered so many beautiful examples in Ménerbes, along with good conditions for taking pictures, that I simply took my own. I wonder if I will ever get around to printing them up!

I wonder if this was intentional. Of what possible use could that arch be?

I wonder if the inhabitants of the homes find their windows to be as charming as we do.

Final Images from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver

2010-03-03T14:49:00.000-08:00

This monster flag is supposed to be the world's largest Canadian flag.

This old Bug was receiving a lot of attention. I believe such a car is referred to as an Art Car.

Kids were lovin' it!

A way to get rid of all your junk, or at least put it all in one place!

There was even a fountain inside, on the back seat.

These seem to be permanent additions to the sidewalk.

There was so much that I missed. A person would have needed a week to see everything, most, if not all, of which was free, except for the events. I almost forgot! There were winter sporting events going on too! But was it really winter?

"You Gotta to Be Here"

2010-03-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

These people came here, special from Chilliwack, and said "You gotta be here." (which happens to be one of the sayings for the Games). My sentiments exactly.

When I asked to take her pic she told me that the colours were hair extensions she happened to get for Christmas.

Granville St During the Vancouver Olympics

2010-03-01T21:55:00.000-08:00

This metal scupture reminded me of the willow sculputures by Patrick Doherty.

Nearby we noticed this sketch and overheard the artist say that he was starving. Having been in this sort of situation myself, I told him if he wanted to trust me with some of his money, I could get him some food.

Janet giving him his coffee and scone.

His name is Marc Ahr, and he is from Quebec, by way of France. He has been at 11 Olympics, attending events and painting the scene. They are then sold as prints or t-shirts. Time Frame Gallery on Robson was one of three places selling his work.

This is the painting on the t-shirt that I bought. Unfortunately there was no place to try it on and despite being labelled as size L, it is still too small. I hope I can exchange it.

Loved the "trees" decorated by kids. Speaking of kids, they loved to run over the hexagonal bases of the trees, as that made quite a racket.

Close-up of the artwork.

There were a number of cut-outs which provided great photo-ops.

A Huge Congratulations to the Olympic Graphic Design Team

2010-02-27T21:21:00.000-08:00

The graphics for the 2010 Winter Olympics are spectacular. After 2 weeks, I am still in awe! I love the colours and the designs!!

The program cover

Banners on lamposts

The boards surrounding the rinks for curling, figure skating, etc, were wrapped with the graphics, rather than advertising. What a treat! And the green and blue theme continued up into the stands. The curling rink used green and blue for the circles and the walkways were royal blue. The workers and volunteers wore either blue or green jackets.

You can view a video that explains the process the design team went through to come up with these gorgeous graphics. However, to my shock and horror, Leo Obstbaum, Design Director for VANOC 2010 Olympics, the man at the beginning of the video, died of natural causes, last August at the age of 40. How very tragic.

By the way, the graphic wraps in the rinks, etc, will be recycled into flooring.

Olympic Torch, Vancouver, BC

2010-02-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

Some people have complained that the Olympic Torch was behind a chainlink fence, so that it could not be photographed nicely. So the organizers quickly moved the fence in and allowed people to go to the top of a nearby building for a good view. This viewing area had long line-ups.

These two solutions still did not fix everything so VANOC removed some of the chainlink and put up plexiglass.

So off I went to see it.

At the bottom of Granville St I found a sign that pointed us to the west. Then, as I joined the mass of people, no doubt heading to the cauldron too, I heard a young lady up on a lifeguard stand announcing through her megaphone that we were getting close and to keep heading west.

The current of humanity encountered one more "lifeguard" before we finally arrived. Was it worth it? The torch is definitely beautiful, however the immediate surroundings did leave something to be desired. But no one was complaining. Everyone was so happy. What a great day!

I didn't even bother to cross the street. It was just too busy. Can you see the viewing area on the left?

Using the telephoto lens on my camera I was able to get rid of a lot of the "extras". Too bad the mountains had so little snow on them or this would have been much nicer. It was a bit late in the afternoon, so everything is a bit dark, including the supports below, which are actually quite clear.

Vancouver Olympics & Canadian Pride

2010-02-23T22:52:00.000-08:00

I am a fan of most Olympic sports, though it wasn't the sporting events that I wanted to see. I pryed myself from our big screen TV with sometimes as many as 6 channels covering sports in high-def, to travel 500+ kilometers to Vancouver to see and experience what was happening to the city. The downtown was as alive as any city could hope to be. The spirits were high. Wait a minute, I must be able to find a better word than "high"... maybe "over the moon". Or even "over the sun", as the weather was spectacularly warm and sunny.

Our culture is often considered to be reserved, but right now we are very big on celebrating being Canadian. Actually it was like we were at a hockey game... a two week long hockey game. People decked out in red and white. Everyone is happy and friendly. Not fueled by alcohol either. A remarkable site. It felt so very very good.

Lots of hockey fans. They come in all ages!

The next Captain Canada?

I liked the boy's hat, so I asked if I could take a picture. The boy wasn't as thrilled, but his Dad said, like a good Canadian, "Thank you" when I was finished. But see the lady in the red sweater who is pointing at me? Actually, I think she is pointing at what was behind me. It seems that NBC was filming me taking this picture. I wonder if I made the News.

What a wonderful shot! If only I knew who these people are, so I could send them a copy.

Doors of Provence

2010-02-06T00:16:00.000-08:00

The town of Ménerbes was essentially closed for lunch when we were there. The upside of this was that I was not distracted by stores and was therefore able to notice all the beautiful door and windows there. One might say I went overboard taking pics of them, so I will divide them into separate posts. Sorry, but it is likely to be long, but I just couldn't eliminate any of them!

This magnificent door belonged to "la Maison de la Truffe et du Vin" - the House of Tuffle and Wine. The village of Ménerbes is called the truffle capital. Inside we sampled olive oil flavoured with truffles.

Look at how warn the stone steps are!! Obviously everyone came and went by the right side.

That's a grape vine above, with its roots under pavement and cement.

You might recognize this from the header of my blog.

Encounter With a Friesian in Oppède Le Vieux

2009-12-31T11:07:00.000-08:00

This just may be my favourite vignette of the entire trip.

We were just about to head out of Oppède Le Vieux when I noticed that my son and a few other people were looking at this man and his horse.

He had stopped to give his horse some water. I still have some interest in horses so I tried to determine what breed this might be. Maybe he was a young Percheron, the smallest of the draft breeds?

Feeling very drawn to this horse, I went up to his handler and said "Percheron?" He replied with "Friesian". I had not heard of such a breed but I was determined to remember the name and look into it further when I got home.

As they proceeded on their walk the animal decided to check out the local cafe, no doubt looking to see if any of his buddies were in there. His owner was ahead of him and didn't immediately realize that the horse had walked over to the window. That's right, this horse was, other than for these couple of minutes, simply following his handler. No rope connected the two and it was the horses choice to go to the window. The small crowd of about 6 people was delighted!

Then off they went, like a dog following his owner, but with the Friesian still checking out the windows.

The gentleness and obvious character of this horse left me in awe. I think I want one.

A few interesting details about Friesians from Wikipedia:

"The Friesian is most often recognized by its black coat color, though color alone is not their only distinguishing characteristic. Friesian horses also have a long, thick mane and tail, often wavy, and "feathers"--long, silky hair on the lower legs, deliberately left untrimmed."

"The breed is known for a brisk, high-stepping trot. The Friesian is considered a willing, active, and energetic horse that is also gentle and docile. A Friesian tends to have great presence and to carry itself with elegance."

Ancestors of the modern Friesians were used in medieval times to carry knights to battle, but lighter breeds have been introduced into the bloodlines to produce a smaller lighter horse. The Friesian's average height is about 15.3 hands.

"Friesian horses are popular in both Europe and the United States, and are often used today for Dressage competition, pleasure riding, and driving. Friesian horses can do well in dressage competition due to the breed's movement, trainability, appearance, power, and body control."

Oppède Le Vieux, Provence

2009-12-28T21:19:00.000-08:00

I had read that the very small village of Oppède Le Vieux (another village on a rocky outcrop) was inhabited mainly by artists who were restoring the previously abandoned buildings. So after loving the art galleries of Roussillon, I was expecting even better in Oppède Le Vieux. I also thought I had read about an interesting walking tour that wound its way around the vineyards.

Well....I seemed to have been wrong on both counts, but it was still had a memorable visit! According to Wikipedia:

"The old village, build on a rocky hill, has narrow streets. In winter, the Petit Luberon starts casting its shadow early in the afternoon. Houses beyond the medieval ramparts are dark, humid and tricky to maintain.

In the 19th century, the inhabitants had enough and started to move down in the valley, dismantling the roof of their houses to stop paying property taxes.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Oppède-le-Vieux was a ghost village and a new community was officially established in the valley, with larger streets, cosier houses and farmers closer to their fields."

On the path to the town we passed by these two interesting plants. Does anyone know what they are?

We couldn't see any indication that artists lived in the village. Not so much as a single store to browse. So we hiked up to the castle, first through this lovely arch.

Tempting to explore, but I didn't want to infringe on the privacy of the locals.

Up at the castle, or should I say the remains of the castle, was this church that is still in very good shape, and I believe is still in use.

But the rest of the castle is crumbling. However it was very nice to explore the ruins without any tour groups. In fact, there were only a couple of other people there!

When I noticed this beautiful old door, I realized that I should be taking pictures of the doors and windows. So for the rest of the day I concentrated on taking pics of them.

Cheese Dept in a Grocery Store in Apt

2009-12-22T20:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, the grocery stores are big, but it is the size of the cheese and wine sections that set them apart from grocers in North America.

First I sneaked a pic of this amazing display of roquefort cheeses. If you enlarge the picture you can see the prices. For the Roquefort they ranged from about 13 Euros (CDN$2.10 / kg) to 27 E ($4.40 / kg).

The reason I mention that I sneaked a pic is because when we were in Europe in '95 I was told by a security guard positioned at the front door, that I was NOT allowed to take any pictures. No problem this time. And no security guards to be seen.

This lady was a wonderful character and loved having her pic taken.

So of course I had to give equal camera time to others. She too was an exceptionally friendly lady. Looking at the sign hanging down, I expect this Emmental cheese was around 7 E a kilo, or $11 in our money ($5 / lb).

There was a lot of cheese in this LeClerc store in Apt, a town of only 11,000 people! At the other end was the cured meat.

How does one know which ham to choose? I think I can see 9 different kinds in this photo. They ranged in price from 10-26 E a kg, about the same range as the Roquefort cheeses.

What is a Borie You Ask?

2009-12-21T19:37:00.000-08:00

Near the Lavender Museum is the village of bories, which has been made into a museum site. We went down the rockwall-lined road to the site, which was a wonderful experience in itself.

When we arrived at the site but felt that nothing outside the site indicated that it would be worth it to visit, so we left. However I loved the rock walls and the apparent solution to where the extra rocks from the fields could be put:

I had seen bories scattered about the countryside, so we simply stopped to look at one for free.

What is a borie?

From Wikipedia:

"The word "Borie", of Provençal origin, comes from the Latin "boaria" - oxen stable -, signifying a type of shed. The hut has always been an institution in Provence. First popping up in fields to house the peasants' tools, it became, as time passed, the little country house, done up, often in quite a rudimentary manner, to spend Sundays and holidays. The borie also permetted shepherds to shelter their flocks. To build them, our ancestors gathered the stones from the calcareous surroundings. They were just lying there for the taking."

On to Gordes, which is supposed to be a popular stop for the tour buses. It is also supposed to be beautiful in the late afternoon light so based on the latter reason I decided we should go there. We drove through, but it just didn't seem different enough to us and the tour buses had caused a traffic jam in the small town. When we couldn't find free parking, we left without even stopping. At least that was the case until we saw this spectacular view of the town.

And this one of the valley below.

We're in Lavender Country!

2009-12-19T23:11:00.000-08:00

Next stop was the lavender museum in the small town of Coustellet, which is about 40 km east of Avignon. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I had to wonder what could be of interest there...

The first thing you learn is that there are two types of lavender used in the perfume industry. Since I am very interested in plants, it immediately became interesting.

Neither of these are the ornamental lavenders we grow in our gardens. One is referred to as fine lavender and it is distilled and sold as a perfume, which is very expensive. It is very hardy and and grows from 800 mt (~2500') to 1400 mt (~4500') in altitude.

The other is a hybrid that was developed to produce more flowers and therefore more perfume. It has many branches whereas the ornamental one has more compact flowers and the flowers are on an unbranched stem.

(taken from the website of the Lavender Museum)

The hybrid lavender is referred to as lavandine. It grows in limestone soils, below 600 mt (~2000'). The perfume has a camphor smell, though you can still tell that it is lavender. It is used to scent things like wash detergent and is called an industrial perfume. It is no longer cultivated in France.

(one of the very early stills used to extract the essential oil)

Once in the actual museum we were handed an object about the same size as a walkie-talkie, which explained all the exhibits to us. They have them available in many languages. We simply pressed the button of the display and we got an excellent explanation. This made a huge difference to our enjoyment of the museum. The tour went at whatever pace you wanted it to and you didn't have to read anything.

A lovely watercolour poster about the production of the essential oil. It takes 130 kg of lavender flowers to make one kg of essential oil and 20 to 25 kg of essential oil is produced per hectare (2.5 acres).

Lavender blooms in June, July and early August and is harvested when in full bloom. The countryside is a patchwork of purple fields during bloom-time and many artists are inspired to paint the scene.

The boutique has beautiful (but expensive) products...lotions, massage oil, soaps, bubble bath, eau de toilette, shower gel, etc.

We truly enjoyed this museum!

Visiting the Area Around Apt - Roussillon

2009-12-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

My plan had been to rent bicycles and bike around the area, but when they turned out to be about $27 a day ($54 for two of us), renting a car suddenly seemed like a good idea, at least for a few days. Yes, we hitch-hiked up to our rental, but we always found that we need to get out into the less inhabited part of the town before we could get a ride. So it was quite an effort to get the groceries home for the first couple of days.

So off we went, without much of a map. No worries, I had Rory to navigate. Or is navigating really his speciality? Luckily there are so many ways to get to any given town, unlike in our very sparsely populated country (Canada), that if you miss one turn here, there are about half a dozen more that you can take!

The first stop was Gargas. A very small town with these gorgeous lamp-posts. What a great way to set a town apart from the rest! They mine yellow ochre here, so I guess that is why the lamps are yellow.

They had also just finished pruning the beech (?) trees. We couldn't figure out why, especially as it was well before leaf-drop in early October. All I can think is that it was easier to prune with the leaves on, as they remain stuck to the branches and don't need to be raked up later. I hope they shredded the material. I am not sure that they are very progressive in that regard in Europe, as we found out at the lavendar museum.

We were almost at Roussillon, a town famous for its red earth which has been mined for pigment for paints. I was astonished to see the fields above.

This area has some outstanding colour!! This was in the countryside.

This was in the town. I wonder what was behind that door....

I loved the stone walls. This was unique in that there was no red here.

Lots of red here! In the late afternoon the colours take on a purplish hue.

Rousillon has received the honour of being called one of the most beautiful villages in France.

I have had a life-long love of narrow streets.

"Conservatoire des Ocres et des Pigments Appliqués" - A museum dedicated to the pigments that have been mined here for centuries. Now synthetic pigments have taken over and very little mining is still done. However it is possible to buy the pigments, which I couldn't resist doing.

Roussillon has ochre mines nearby, where variations of red, yellow and brown are found. Below is some of equipment that was used in the mining process. For the workers, it meant a short life, as breathing in the dust was bad for the lungs.

Below is an art installation, with textiles dyed with the pigments.

Lovely countryside as we left Roussillon. Looks like olive trees.

The area was lovely and the town was beautiful. And to think I almost crossed it off the list of places to visit!

The Lovely Town of Apt, in Provence

2009-12-06T22:02:00.000-08:00

From our hill-top village of Saignon we enjoyed walking down to the town (Apt) on a centuries-old path, through old olive groves with ancient stone walls. The walk back up was not quite so enjoyable, especially not with a load of groceries!

Apt has a population of about 11,000. The old section is a lovely maze of narrow streets, with many stores.

A boulangerie (bakery), which was as beautiful on the outside as it was on the inside.

The wonderful chicken below was made out of twigs. I am pleased to say that I can read the sign, which asks us not to touch it as it is fragile. I am (now) so glad that I had to take French in school. It sure made it easier to be in France, especially when not that many people there speak English.

Provence is famous for it textile patterns and colours.

Unless you walked into the very back of the store below, you wouldn't know what a beautiful experience was to be had there!! I tried many times to capture the beauty of the coloured liquid in these huge jars, but the fact that they were backlit made them difficult to capture with a photograph, but it was that very light which made them so beautiful to see in person.

The jars above contain shower gel, in many different fragrances. Below is liqueur, which really looked a lot better than this pic shows. The jars are about 20 litres (4-5 gallons). This was our favourite store in Apt.

The last trip to France I regretted not getting a pic of a lady carrying a baguette. It is difficult to get a good shot as the person carrying them is often in a hurry. This lady had stopped to chat with a friend. I have a feeling she knew I was taking her picture. Can you see my reflection of the glass? She must have been puzzled....

One thing I try to remember to do is to look up. There are so many interesting features on buildings. If you enlarge the picture below can you see why I took this shot?

Our Home for a Week - Saignon, in Provence, France

2009-11-29T11:59:00.000-08:00

View Larger Map

Saignon is about 4 or 5 km up the hill from Apt. I had not heard of either of these places before, but found them as I was searching through the website of places to rent. Apt has a population of only 11,000 and does not seem to come up in much of the tourist literature, but is well known for its incredible Saturday market (more about that later).

Saignon is one of many hill-top towns in Provence. This one has a massive rock which looks like it once had a castle on top.

One day a TV series was being filmed there. It had something to do with a Flemish man. The picturesque fountain was used as a backdrop for the filming.

When I aimed my camera I was wanting to capture the narrow alley. But I now see that I caught a renovated exterior of the building on the right. Definitely not as interesting but I think I can understand why they did it, as it is nothing short of amazing that the very old stone buildings are still intact.

Looking down on the village from the top of the rock. Our house was where there are two rows of buildings.

Looking to the north-east. If you enlarge this picture and look closely at the horizon, you will see light-coloured buildings, which are another hill-top village.

The pictures above and below are facing each other.

Looking at the picture above, can you see a beige field? It runs on an angle below the rock. It is a lavender field but we were there in early October, so the lavendar was harvested long ago. I took the picture below off the internet. It shows the same field in bloom in June and July.

Our Rental in Saignon, Provence

2009-11-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

Saignon is said to be one of the oldest villages in France. It not only has a small population (1057), but is also very compact, with distinctly vertical stone houses. It is one of many picturesque hilltop towns in the Luberon region of Provence. The minute we got in the door we were excited about our place. Here is why:

This is the entry. Its a bit difficult to see the alcoves and level changes, but it is the most unique space I had ever seen. It seems that there may be some tunnels that lead to other houses in the area, but I wasn't about to test that theory!! This level was not furnished, other than the chair and table. A second bathroom and laundry area were down here. It had no window so I was not tempted to sit at the table.

The stairs were beautiful. This is taken from the second level, which was a huge master bedroom.

This is still in the master bedroom, and on the left is the original stone sink. That's a vase and curly twigs sitting in it.

The stairs continued up to the living room / kitchen. If you looked out the window on the left you would see that the house across the street was about 10 ft away.

A very nice kitchen with everything in working order and lots of nice plates, cutlery, pots and pans, etc.

Up one more light of stairs to a bedroom with two beds and a glass wall leading out to a lovely terrace, complete with barbecue and a big table. Lovely place to watch the sunset.

I found this place on the Holiday Rentals website too, though I don't see it there right now. We were there at the end of the season and the rate was incredibly good. The contacts were all (3) exceptionally good people to deal with. I see there is a webpage here, with some info.

On to Provence

2009-11-26T09:52:00.000-08:00

So it was just Rory and I on our way to our next rental in the tiny town of Saignon, near Apt, which is due north of Aix-en-Provence. The train ride from Nice to Aix was expensive and quite boring, scenery-wise. I was wondering if I had made the correct choice in coming to Provence. It is so famous, but....

Things improved on the bus ride from Aix to Apt: The bus was to leave Aix at 6:30 pm and we were told that the bus would take one hour to get to Apt. This was also another case of a guy with 'tude, but we had no reason not to believe him. A kind young lady at the bus stop allowed us to use her mobile to make the call to our rental contact, telling her of our expected arrival time of 7:30.

We had traveled about two blocks and there was an constant high-pitched sound on the bus. Suddenly the driver stopped in the middle of a roundabout and asked a passenger to go out into the traffic, to the exit door and push on it. Success! The horrible sound went away.

On the bus I had picked up a schedule and read that the arrival time in Apt was 8:20pm, not 7:30. So we needed to find another kind-hearted soul who would lend us their cell phone. Naturally I delegated the job to Rory. I guess the word mobile is the same in French and English, so that when I spoke loud enough for Rory to hear me, the bus driver heard the word. She was a little agitated and seemed to be indicating that a mobile could not be used on the bus. Rory was proceeding to make inquiries when the driver once again stopped traffic while she got up and walked to where Rory was sitting.

I was worried that Rory was going to get into trouble. She walked up to him and said "Mobile" and reached her hand under his butt. Needless to say he was a little shocked!! It turns out he was unknowingly sitting on the cover of her mobile phone!

The next while went without incident. There was a gorgeous sunset and the road was very narrow and wound through a pass. Rory noted that the bus driver "owned the road" and I made a mental note to not drive during the times the bus makes it way on the road.

Did you note that I mentioned that the road was a winding one? Less that 5 km from our destination a passenger came running up from the back of the bus and asked/demanded that the driver stop. Then she got out and proceeded to up-chuck on the side of the road.

Never sit at the back of the bus on a winding road. I learned that one in Costa Rica.

Welcome to France - Not a Great Start

2009-11-21T22:00:00.000-08:00

To be able to get anywhere quickly in Italy or France, one must take the Autostrada or Autoroute (freeway to us). Its pretty straightforward until you are west of Genoa. Then the spines of the Alps go right to the Mediterranean, causing a real problem for road builders, as the road intersects the ridges at a right angle. But they have taken it in stride and built an amazing series of tunnels and bridges that barge their way across and through the landscape. You had better not want to gaze at the view cause you rarely get to see it!

All this comes at a price, meaning, a price to those who take these roads. Gary worked it out to cost ten cents a kilometer. So if you drive for an hour (about 100 km), then expect to pay $10. Its user-pay in France, Italy and Spain (though not in Germany nor the UK).

Entering France
We had a reservation at a hostel, just barely inside France, right on the Med in Menton. Finding the hostel was a huge challenge. You would think that not having recording the address would be the biggest obstacle to finding it, but in fact it was the lack of signage. We found one sign, proceeded along the road, finally went into a campground, it didn't look right so we turned around and paced up and down the road looking for a sign that said Auberge or showed the icon for hostels. No such luck. Finally it was found, at the campground, in a building at the back. We looked for that place for over an hour. No wonder we were almost the only people there!!

The best feature of the hostel

The guy running the place had a major case of 'tude, so there was no point in telling him there needed to be better signage. After setting up our room we wanted to prepare some food in the big commercial kitchen, but the hostel-master was true to our first impression of him, and informed us that it was not for our use. We went to bed that night feeling confident that our morning breakfast would be something special with such a marvelous kitchen for the cook to work in.

So with eager anticipation we went out to the eating area. Hmmm... A container of corn flake-type things and baguette slices that must have been at least a day old. Nothing was produced in that kitchen.

But there was an upside. We sat with a wonderful couple from Austria. They were on a cycling trip for a couple of weeks. So we left with good memories of the place.

Buildings were beautiful in Nice

This looked like an automatic bike rental in Nice. Looked like it was well-used too.

Italy - A Few Parting Thoughts

2009-11-14T22:14:00.000-08:00

The most common type of cheap and fast food in Europe, seems to the doner kebab. I had them in Turkey long before they spread around the world faster than MacDonalds or Wal-Mart. They were delicious in Turkey, but now have taken on some different elements. For instance, the owner (from Pakistan) asked me if I wanted fries with it. To my surprise he put the fries inside with the meat and vegies. I asked for them separately and he said "Not in Italy". They tasted awful so I removed and ditched them.

The awful fries were well hidden

Had an classic Italian situation. An Italian woman was absolutely fascinated by the fact that I as trying to get to Pieve or Buchignano from Lucca, by bus. She made it her mission to help me get there. She spoke not a word of English and myself not a word of Italian. First she talked non-stop to the bus driver about my situation (I could hear the words Pieve and Buchignano coming up again and again). I just sat back on the bus, knowing that with her on my side I was going to end up where I needed to go.

Then we got to the end of the line in Camaiore. Hmmm. I had understood that the bus I was on would not be going via Pieve (the closest I could get to Buchignano), but what now? Heck, no need to worry. Even though the previously well-informed bus driver had departed, my ally was still on the bus. I wasn't sure why, but she was definitely there.

Then a new driver got on board and she proceeded to present him with the same verbal diarhea she gave the previous driver, regarding my situation. I was able to figure out that the bus took a different route on the way back and I would be dropped off in Pieve de Camaiore. But would this lady ever stop talking?

Seems not. She got off at the same place as me, as did a younger woman. Between them they discussed my situation, non-stop. It was like a scene out of the movies. We were in a miniscule town and I only needed to go to the one and only church to meet the rental lady. Luckily I had about 20 minutes, however I was thinking that I would be late.

It seems that by having mentioned Buchignano (much earlier) I had thrown too much information into the equation. They couldn't understand what I was trying to describe when I did things like draw a cross and hold my hands to indicate prayer and then a roof. Wouldn't that mean "church" to everyone? Not to these two Italian ladies. I can only now assume that there is no church in Buchignano. However I wanted one in Pieve, and I was quite sure we were in Pieve.

On and on and on they went, particularly the older one. How much can one possibly say about my situation? Evidently a lot.

I mentioned the town was tiny and we were right beside the recycling station. Finally someone came along to feed the bins. Luckily the lady knew some English and I told her I just wanted to meet someone at the church. So a couple of minutes later I was finally released. Whew!!!! I was almost dizzy from listening. And it was only about 50 yards to the church (uphill, of course).

Food, great food. Gnocchi that are as delicate as clouds. Try putting chopped fresh sage in butter, then pour it over gnocchi. Superb!! Ravioli....sigh....

I haven't yet mentioned lardo di colonatto, a specialty of the Garfagnana. Take a close look at the picture below. The slices are cut from that white chunk of fat. It is considered to be a delicacy.

The pork lard is trimmed, rubbed with salt, and placed in marble tubs with alternating layers of sea salt, ground black pepper, fresh rosemary and roughly minced garlic. The tubs are then covered with marble lids and the lard is aged for at least 6 months.

A thousand years ago it was the traditional lunch of the quarry workers. They sliced it and had it with bread, raw onions and tomatoes.

We had it one day for dinner, a thin slice on toasted bread. It wasn't as bad as one might think, but one piece was enough for me. Gary loved it, though he is a big fan of pork fat anyway.

Our family loves grocery stores in foreign lands. I spend most of my time in the vegetable section. Some of the vegies were in bulk, but lots were waaaaaay over-packaged. I thought that North American stores were bad until I saw what was done in Italy. We were shocked and dismayed at the carbon footprint we left there. When I traveled in Europe 35 years ago I was so impressed by the fact that Europeans had to supply their own bags at stores, and was wishing that would be the case at home. Now we seem to have got the message here, but they are now into plastic bags and cartons in a big way.

Hiking the Cinque Terre

2009-11-13T21:52:00.000-08:00

Another of my long-held goals was accomplished when we hiked the Cinque Terre, which is the trail that connects 5 of the cliff-hugging villages on the north-west coast of Italy, south of Genoa. The area is a National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

La Spezia, the city you must go through to get to the south end of the Cinque Terre. We camped in a mosquito-infested campground near here in 1996.

Many years ago the only way to go between the villages was to walk the path, but now there is both a railroad and a boat to take you to each of the charming villages. Mobs of tourists simply take the railroad or a boat from village to village, flooding the lovely little towns. Definitely spoils it, but is good for the economy of the small towns. The hike itself is nice and the towns are gorgeous, but I do wonder how the locals cope! We were there on a beautiful sunny Saturday at the beginning of October and there truly were mobs of tourists.

And some of those stupid tourists even take pictures of their laundry hanging out to dry!

In Riomaggiori I was finally able to take a picture of my favourite vehicle, the three-wheeled truck.

We started at the south end. The path to the next village, Manarola was beautifully paved, and due to it being such a short and easy path, the stream of people reminded me of a shopping mall in December. But once the hiking got a little more strenuous the mob was greatly reduced.

Next village, Manarola

Looking back at Manarola

Next village, Corniglia

If you enlarge this picture you will see a man in the water, floating on his back.

We seemed to have accidently found the easier way up to Corniglia, a paved road. Others were climbing the 368 steps. Oh well... These two buildings were parked well away from everything else. They really stood out, for more than one reason!

It seems that British Columbia is not the only place with wildfires! Corniglia came very close to being burned.

Terraced hillsides all over the place. Guess what they were growing on them? Grapes and olives. Just what Italy is famous for.

The gadget above and the track below were likely used to haul the grape harvest up the steep hill.

The path took us through part of the burned area, a former olive grove.

Approaching Vernazza, the fourth of the five villages. It was the end of the trail for us, as we still had to drive to France that day.

Charming houses

This may have been set out special for the stream of walkers, so maybe they don't mind us too much.

When there was a break in the crowd I squatted down and snapped this pic. As I stood up, someone was taking a picture of me taking that picture!

Looking at Vernazza from the pier

A map of the Cinque Terre National Park's trails. I have read that the upper trails are far less crowded, so maybe on my next trip to Italy I will visit them.

Gary was not able to do the hike with us, due to his recent back operation. But he was still able to take in some of the scenery by driving to viewpoints such as this one.

The Last Supper

In a few minutes we were to split up. Liana flew back to London, while Gary and Kent drove Rory and I to Menton, which is just inside France. Then Kent flew from Milan back to Baku in Azerbaijan, Gary flew to Ireland for a week and Rory and I went to a rental in Provence.

Our final meal involved simply sitting on the ground. They just don't know how to do rest areas in Europe the way that we do in North America. Heck, they don't even have washrooms at rest areas!! Next time I take photos I will have to prep Rory in how to prepare to have his picture taken. I don't think he looks normal in a single one that I took. But maybe there will be some better ones in France.

The Day We Went to Castelnuovo - Part Three

2009-11-04T20:27:00.000-08:00

For all the letdowns of the day, I have many great memories too. Strange how it works.

On our way to the car we discovered an amazing display of gelato. I had previously had many a cone or dish is Italy, but nowhere was the variety as great, nor the display as attractive as here.

Deeelicious!! Italian gelato contains less butterfat than North American ice cream, so eat it with abandon!!

Liana and Rory counting their pennies. These were by far the least expensive gelatos we encountered. Only 80 Eurocents ($1.30) for a scoop. Price elsewhere was 1.5 Euros.

This cone is one I had in Lucca. It was my first one in Italy. Huge gobs of chocolate that surround something a little crispy.

The other desserts at the gelato shop looked pretty good too!

If you read the previous post, you may remember that I mentioned that we had unknowingly parked the car in less than an ideal spot, right outside the local police station. When we went to the car, another car had pulled in behind us and we were completely trapped. And it had started to rain.

Gary got us out of that situation, by going in and chatting with someone. We guessed that the person behind us was unhappy that we had taken their parking spot and had trapped us there to teach us a lesson. Luckily he was in the station and was able to let us out and seemed to be somewhat amused by our lack of understanding. Whew. We didn't need another letdown.

Taking the longer but much faster and easier route back, we passed by the Ponte della Maddalena, which is nearly a thousand years old!

Typical houses in the area.

The Day We Went to Castelnuovo - Part Two

2009-11-03T19:55:00.000-08:00

Despite the nerve-wracking drive, we made it safely to Castelnuovo. After Gary unknowingly parked in the staff parking of the local constabulary, we ventured out to visit the market. The time was 1pm. Anyone who has been to Italy no doubt knows that everything shuts down at 1 (sometimes earlier) until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. The market was no exception, except that it was done for the day. What a letdown!!!!

So this is what my comments from the last post, about the mistakes made earlier in the morning, apply to. If we had left earlier, and if we had taken the route I originally expected to take, we would have arrived in time to see the market.

I felt so bad for Kent, because this was his "day". For our reunion we were pretending that everyone had a birthday and got to choose the activity for the day, and the foods (all prepared in our kitchen) for the evening meal. Kent is a real lover of food and cooking, so his day was falling apart.

But I had my book ("A Culinary Traveller in Tuscany") along. I quote from it: "You will find the perfect choice of local products at this small inauspicious bar/osteria at the entrance to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana. Owner Andrea Bertucci is called the Indiana Jones of the Garfagnana....for his excavating of food traditions and local produce...The place is packed with jars, bottles and dry goods....

...The major attraction is a huge mortadella sausage, looking like a ballistic missile and weighing more than 400 llbs upon arrival, lying on its own fitted table next to the hams and sausages in the corner of the tavern. Slice by slice it lasts about 3 months. Directly next to it sits a large prosciutto Bazzone...its juices almost dripping.

...On the board you find lardo di Garf, a thin slice of seasoned pork fat, a cured carpaccio called manzo di pazzo ("beef for the crazy"), various sausage samplings and some wonderful cheeses of the Garfagnana, all accompanied by thick slabs of farro/potato bread."

Okay, if we had to miss the market, we HAD to find Andrea's store. We arrived at the door to Andrea's, only to find it had a sign hanging in the window, saying that it was closed until Oct 11. Major letdown #2.

Hunger was overtaking us, so we found a restaurant. When we asked for tap water, a man at another table called out to tell us that the tap water was very good here (we drank only tap water on our trip, with absolutely no ill effects). Then when this same man and his friends got up to leave, he told us "Please do not think that all Italians are like Berlusconi or are Communists." Then he left. We guessed that he might have been the mayor of the town. Berlusconi is the president of Italy and his going to the birthday party of an 18 yr old model, etc, makes for some entertaining, if not depressing, reading.

I pulled out my book again and was thrilled to read that there was another food shop named. We found this one to be open. Hooray!!

The store was jam packed with food!!

What a feast for the eyes this place was. The name of this food shop is L'Aia di Piero.

Liana loved this long multi-coloured ribbon pasta. Kent was busy buying up things to take back to Baku.

The Day We Went to Castelnuovo - Part One

2009-11-02T23:08:00.000-08:00

Thursday is market day in Castelnuovo and people come from all over the Garfagnana with their produce. A cookbook I have on food in Tuscany said such wonderful things about the market and a couple of shops there, that we just had to go.

Claudi had told me that we didn't need to first drive south to Lucca because there was a more direct route, which she pointed out to me on a map. So we set out around 10am. That was our first mistake, but it could actually be called our second, as it would probably have been better if I had not received that "short-cut" tip.

The route involved a definite uphill climb. Italy is mountainous. Despite being from the mountains of British Columbia, we found the narrow road, the hairpin corners and the drop-off on one side to make for a very memorable drive. Up we climbed, passing mountainside villages that we thought we would not even get near. We also passed a sign that seemed to indicate road construction, but since none of us can read much Italian, we blissfully continued. However, way way up the mountain, the road was closed. A worker indicated we should go via Massa, which involved going right back down to sea level and then up again.

So down we went, passing numerous marble factories. A quick glance at a map showed that we were only about 5 km from Carrara, home of the famous marble of the same name. It was obvious that marble is a large part of the economy of that area.

Then we started to climb again. Another narrow, winding, steep road. At one point we stopped for a stretch. Across a precipice I noted a mountain top was being torn apart, with huge white areas being revealed. This was obviously a marble quarry. Note that I said that it was a mountain top. I assumed we would not be going up there, as in BC roads don't go to the tops of mountain, they go over passes. However Italy doesn't seem to do it the same way. We actually went right by that quarry. We must have climbed from sea level to at least 4000' in about 45 minutes or less.

At our resting spot I heard a big truck coming. I thought it might be a truck carrying marble, so I got myself and my camera ready. It worked! Luckily it moved slowly (if I were driving a big truck down that hill, I would drive slowly too!).

The truck had just passed these signs. Can't imagine how dangerous it would be to drive that truck in the winter!! Nor to meet one of those trucks on the road in the winter.

I see that I don't have any pictures of the quarry. If I remember correctly it was starting to drizzle, or maybe it was the unsettling feeling of being on the edge of a sheer drop-off when looking at the quarry. Anyway, no close-up photo. But when one is down at sea level and looks up to the mountains, at first glance you might think there is a glacier up there, however it is the marble quarries! And there are many. I am quite sure that the picture below is of the quarry we passed by.

Wine in Italy

2009-10-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

On my first trip to a grocery store in Ljubljana I stood in front of the wine, pleasantly surprised at all that was available, and for so cheap!! The cheapest was about 1.95 Euros, or about $3.50 CDN. The display, in a small grocery store, was about 12' in length (4 mtrs). Thinking back on that I laugh, as that store couldn't hold a candle to what I later saw in Italy and France!!

The picture below is from a large grocery store. Please note that I was not able to capture the entire length of aisle of wine and that there was another row facing this one. On the left is Kent choosing his dessert wine to serve with the biscotti.

Claudia, who was in charge of our rental, told me that wine with a rooster on the label around the neck, was supposed to be of higher quality, but she wasn't convinced this was always so. I had tried one bottle of Italian wine already and was quite shocked at how dry is was (you could interpret that as a negative) so I asked Claudia how I could find a wine that was nice for drinking before dinner. She said I needed an aperitif wine and she helped me find one that was not too much like vinegar. But that was the last time I found a pleasant wine in Italy. Even though I picked up a number of different bottles of Chianti with roosters on the label, I just couldn't enjoy them. Perhaps if I tried a 30 Euro bottle I might like it, but I think that Chianti is just not my kind of wine.

I have made Amarone from a kit here at home and was looking forward to trying the real thing in Italy. However at 17 (or was it 19) Euros a bottle, that experience was not to be had.

Doing some research into wine before I went to Italy I was surprised to find that there is a great deal of white wine produced there. While I generally prefer red wine, when Rory suggested that we give an Italian Pinot Grigio a try I agreed. To my very pleasant surprise it was not dry. So I guess I should just have stuck to whites.

Liana with a monster bottle of cheap wine, (once again displaying my talent for snapping the shutter at a bad time).

Liana's favourite wine is Barbera, a red made in the north-west of Italy. I lugged a bottle of it from Slovenia and it too was pretty dry. When Liana saw Barbera on the shelves in Tuscany she just had to have some. However it turned out to be bubbly. I think we unintentionally ended up with bubbly wine two or three times!

Evidently so much of of the wine that is produced in Italy is consumed within the country they don't have much left to export!

Close to Our Tuscan Home

2009-10-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

Our rental was in the province of Tuscany, but in the mountainous north of Tuscany, without any of the views that one normally associates with Tuscany.

Some building in the nearby town of Camaiore. See the light coloured dots on the mountainside in the background? That is the tiny cluster of houses that is Buchignano, where our rental was.

It was a steady uphill climb from Camaiore to our little villa. The last 1.7km was on a one lane road with tight corners. In fact the corners were blind, so that cars honked their horns when approaching a corner, to give notice that they were coming. If you met a car, one had to back up and/or pull over. The amazing thing was that this was always accomplished quickly and relatively easily, without anyone getting angry. I seem to associate Italy with impatient drivers but we saw quite the opposite. Perhaps this was due to the relatively quiet area we were in.

A very blind corner! The road was paved only about 10 yrs ago.

This old Citroen was alongside the road.

And this plant with so many interesting colours. I have no idea what it is, nor if the berries are edible. Can anyone tell me?

One of our dinners. With my inability to take a photo where everyone looks at least normal, I feel that I had better not show many of the pictures I took!

Our meals were often eaten in stages, so this table looks rather bare. Only the brie baked in filo shows there. Wait...weren't we in Italy? Why a French cheese baked in filo, which I think of as being Greek or Turkish? Ask Rory, it was his meal and he chose this. Actually, he wanted to have foods that were only available back in Roman times, so no tomatoes, corn, peppers....many of the foods we associate with Italy. But wait, cheese, butter and wheat were in that dish. Maybe it did apply.

Kent has a food blog and is showing pics of the meals at the International Blog of Food.

It was chestnut harvesting time in Italy and the hills around our rental were full of chestnut trees growing wild.

At first I tried to open a green casing (see the green one on the left), thinking that the chestnut must be inside. You can't imagine how unpleasant a task it is to try to deal with one of those prickly things. But after finally getting one open I realized that the green ones were a waste of time. Simply wait for the casing to mature and open and then the chestnuts will fall to the ground. Sheesh, its so simple when you know how....

I bought a small bag of chestnut flour, which was needed for one of the recipies for Kent's meal - biscotti made entirely from the flour. True to biscotti tradition, it was dipped in a liquid but in this case in was dessert wine called Vin Santo. Delicious!

In France I was given a bottle of an aperitif wine made from chestnuts. I am looking forward to trying it, but I am still in recovery mode from all the wine I consumed on my trip.

Olive harvesting time is November-December in this area. The olives must be black, as the one below, but by far the majority of the olives were still green in late September.

To prepare for harvesting netting is first strung between the trees like a rope, which is how it was in most olive orchards we saw. Closer to harvest time it is laid out on the ground as in the picture above. If you enlarge the picture you should be able to see the netting on the ground, though you have to look on the left side of the photo to see the contrast between the grey dirt and the dirt that looks red, but in fact has netting on it.

Once the olives turn black they are ready to harvest. Evidently there are 4 methods of harvesting, which vary from using a machine to shake the trees to simply letting the olives drop to the ground. Check out this website for further info regarding how it is done.

The Area Around Our Rental

2009-10-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

Our rental was up the mountainside, above Camaiore, a pleasant small town not far from the coast. Here we are in the town and I am sure you must wonder why I would include such a boring picture. Well, we were hanging out there to check Gary's ITouch (a mini computer) to find out if Rory had received our message to bus up to us, rather than us going to the Pisa airport to pick him up. At this particular spot we could pick up free WiFi, so we hung out there for 3 days in a row, checking email. I am sure people must have wondered....

Can you see read the name on the road? It says Lance. Any of you the least bit familiar with the world of cycling will no doubt associate that name with Lance Armstrong. This stretch of road was on a long winding hill and Gary knew that a bike race had been held here. The Europeans are crazy about cycling, and showed it by painting names on the road. And of course Gary needed to get a picture of it.

Our contact for the rental lived here, with this phenomenal view all the way to the coast. Can you see the Autostrada below? The Italians have gone all out to build their freeways. I thought our province (BC) did a good job building roads, but we pale in comparison to Italy!! The country is very mountainous and with the mountains often coming right down to the water, they have long stretches of freeway (between Genoa and the French border) that is almost exclusively bridges and tunnels. If you enlarge the picture below you will see that the stretch of the Autostrada is actually a bridge.

Olive groves and villas.

A day a the beach at Viareggio, a tourist mecca. Unfortunately Italy closes down from about noon to 3 or 4 everyday. Getting a group of 5 to anyplace much before noon was a challenge. So we often wandered around empty towns. By the way, just in case you are wondering, Gary has a vest shielding his head from the sun. It was nice and warm there and most of us wished we had shorts to wear.

A row of hotels in Viareggio.

Sound interesting, but it was just a small shop full of vending machines.

Rory sampled an espresso from one of the machines. I seem to have a talent for catching my family at the worst possible moment. Rory actually declared the coffee to not be too bad, though you would certainly not think that from the photo. And as far as I know, Liana does not normally sit like that.

Gary told us about a ride he got in one of these cars (a Fiat) in the early 70's. All the way through Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany. I hope they got out to stretch often!

The Family Reunion - Near Lucca in Tuscany, Italy

2009-10-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

The main point of this trip to Europe was to have a family reunion. This was a rare opportunity to get the entire family together. Rory was starting many months of backpacking in Europe and further east; Liana is in London and may not be there much longer; Kent was available to come from Azerbaijan; and Gary was sufficiently recovered from his back operation to sit on an airplane long enough to get to Milan.

I decided I wanted to see Slovenia and accomplish a goal that I have had for many years, and that was to see the Lake Plitvice National Park (check out the blog post to see why). So I went about 10 days earlier than everyone else.

I found my flight by using Orbitz, and was able to fly Spokane-Venice return for $674, by booking in June. I could also have flown into Milan, Verona or Munich for the same price. Flying to Frankfurt, Paris or London was much more expensive.

Our reunion was held at a rental in northern Tuscany. I found the rental on a holiday rental website. By booking during the shoulder season, we were able to find a nice place, that slept 5, for just over $100CDN a night. I specifically looked for a place with a good kitchen as we planned to do a lot of cooking.

Kent requested a wood burning oven, and I was able to search for that on the above website. You can see more pictures of our rental here.

This is a picture of the kitchen, with marble countertops and sink, before the empty wine bottles began to accumulate....

These are bags of flour - 1kg only as big ones just weren't available. Note the bags labelled Manitoba.

Some bags are of flour specifically mixed for use in making pizza crust (the Farina Tipo 00), which is mainly soft wheat. It has much less gluten than hard wheat, which is the wheat used for bread. I much prefer the softer crust, and the crust is easier to make thin.

First you make a fire in the oven, well ahead of eating time. It must be reduced to hot coals, which are then pushed to the side, before it is ready for pizza. With plenty of flour on the underside of the pizza crust, you slide it onto a long paddle with an aluminum blade and then slide the pizza onto the base of the hot oven. Place the metal door in place, wait about 5 or so minutes, and take out a magnificent and tasty pizza! Kent had both the technique and the recipe mastered!! Best pizza ever!!

For more info about these oven, visit this amazing website: Forno Bravo. And if you decide to build or buy such an oven I would love to be invited over for pizza!

The white on top is buffalo mozzarella. Yes, its made from the milk of water buffalo. These animals produce a rich milk while eating low grade vegetation.

The cheese is very different from the firm, grateable mozzarella cheese we buy in Canadian stores. It is packed in water. Looks a little weird doesn't it? It melts beautifully. I wished I could have brought some home, but Customs regulations prohibit the import of cheese packed in liquid.

I was tempted to bring ricotta too, as it is far superior to that which we have available here, however I wasn't sure if it would be allowed.

However I was sure that Parmesan cheese would be allowed, so I did pick up quite a few packages of it, at a cost of one third of what we pay here.

Lucca, Italy

2009-10-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

I flew with RyanAir from Zadar to Pisa for $38CDN for a one hour flight. Gotta love it! However if I were doing it again I might have opted for the boat across the Adriatic so that I could have stopped at the tiny country of San Marino, which looks like a nice place to spend a day. But the rest of the family would be starting to arrive the day after I got to Lucca, so I could not daly.

Shops selling food in the old part of Lucca had wonderful displays in their windows!

Get pizza, panini or pasta from a machine! This was in a residential area, close to my hostel.

What a shop!!

I visited an art exhibition and the artist was there. His name is Alessandro Casale,
and he is standing beside his favourite painting.

A piece of toilet apparatus that I could not figure out, so I just put it up, as if it were a lid.

Zagreb to Zadar, Croatia

2009-10-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

I only spent a day at Lake Plitvice (pictures in the post below) and part of two other days in Croatia, as I had been there 35 years ago. There is a huge difference between Croatia and Slovenia. The latter was not involved in the war that resulted in the break up of Yugoslavia, hence they did not waste money on it. Croatia did and is definitely not as wealthy, yet the cost of living appears to be just as high as in Slovenia. In fact riding a bus cost much more. And there is plenty of garbage strewn about.

Slovenia is in the European Union and of the 8 countries that joined in 2004, it had the highest per capita income. Croatia is currently negotiating to join. From what I have been told in France, when the Euro came into effect there, the price of everything shot up (yes, France is definitely expensive, as is any country that has the Euro), so I can't imagine the hardship in Croatia if it adopts the Euro.

Euopean toilets are generally much more interesting than those in North America. Sometimes I couldn't find the flusher, but like magic, it flushed when I opened the door. The set-up above was common. Can you guess what the two circles indicate?

The bus station in Zagreb had some likeness to an airport. This huge egg was one of two that decorated the area I waited in. There was also a display case with Croatian wines, and a bottle of Slivovitza, which is made from the rotten prunes that I mentioned in the email.

This was my accomodation near Lake Plitvice Park, called House Katica Bicanic. I helped this lady with her chores, such as digging potatoes and pitting prunes. Her husband was away, as he is a professional bowler, but he did get home late in the evening and drove me to the entrance to the park the next morning. Staying here was a wonderful experience!

Here we are, pitting prunes, which were to be made into jam. We have already done as many as we could in the really big bucket. Once we got down to the rotten layer they were left to be made into Slivovitza (see instructions on how to make here, but I don't see in those instructions that you can use prunes with mold on them!). The white on the prunes on the right is sugar, not mold.

She used the jam (though it wasn't very sweet) for filling for strudel, which she sells at the entrance to Lake Plitvice Park (where she claims she is the #1 seller). Unfortunately I didn't get to sample any, as she was not making any for a few days.

Slivovitza is often made at home and is the national drink of the Balkans. Although other fruits are occasionally used, the finest slivovitz is made from completely ripe prunes.

As I was told here, "Slivovitza then coffee." Its alcohol content often exceeds 51 percent (102 proof), and believe me, it tasted like it did!

I was offered a couple of these. Nice beer. In the background is Lake Plitvice National Park. This part of Croatia gets a meter of snow in the winter, yet further inland, in Zagreb, they rarely see snow.

The bus station in Zadar, on the coast of Croatia. There were 33 platforms! Generally, the poorer the country, the more frequent the buses. Great for people who don't want to rent a car.

The friendly climate on the coast of the Adriatic allowed for a long growing season. This house used its front yard to grow as many vegies as they possibly could.

The outside of this store in the old part of Zadar was done, but they were working on the inside. I have no idea what it is to become.

The most unusual door I have ever seen.

Water, Water Everywhere - Lake Plitvice, Croatia

2009-10-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

This UNESCO World Heritage Site is a series of 16 mostly small lakes, with waterfalls and streams connecting them. Hundreds of them.

From a sign at the Park:

"Plitvice Lakes are the results of the living world which inhabits them.

Once upon a time...there was a river in this karst valley.

Its clean and transparent waters offered life to many of the valley's inhabitants both planats and animals. Some of them decided to thank the river by making it even more beautiful.

The rain collected carbon dioxide when passing throught the ground and, thus created tons of carbonic acid, which dissolved the underground rocks. Water was enriched with dissolved calcium carbonate. Microscopic algae and bacteria came to live on the surface of the moss. Their mucus caught the crystals of calcite from the water. From the calcite sediment and fossilized algae and moss, the porous type of stone, travertine, is formed.

The large travertine barriers were thus formed, which slowed down the river and remodeled the valley. The lakes were born.

Even today, on the top of the barriers over which the waterfalls come down, in the the water that never stops flowing, live little travertine makers, the moss and the algae. Everyday they continue to create this phenomenon, which makes their river and lakes beautiful and famous throughout the world.

The process of travertine formation is at its peak in the summertime, and is slowed down by the presence of any quantity of organic matter by each pollution, even the simplest swim in the lake."

The lakes have a beautiful colour, ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colours change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle of sunlight.

This picture is for a couple of fly-fishing fans I know. Fish lined the shores and were a never-ending source of fascination for the scores of tourists who visit this park everyday (700,000 a year).

The water that is on an angle is flowing out of a hole.

Items under the water also become calcified.

I guess I did not travel on the path that would have allowed me to take the picture seen below, so I have borrowed it from Wikipedia (I hope that is okay). It does a good job of showing the walkways and how the water spills out from the small lakes. I suggest you enlarge it for a better view.

Kranjska Gora - North-Western Slovenia

2009-10-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

The day after the cow festival Sean and Brenda dropped me off in Kranjska Gora, an area that Kent has sent me a postcard of. The photo on it was so beautiful that I knew I must visit it someday. However I didn't like the looks of the hostels there so I decided to hike up to a waterfall in the area, then take the late afternoon bus back to Ljubljana. Slovenia is very small in size, so getting around is quick, and cheap by bus.

I knew I couldn't haul my bag on the hike, so I went to a cafe and asked if I could leave it there. They said I could! This was the coffee I ordered there. What an elegant coffee vessel!! If you look closely you will see that it has no handle but has two layers of glass, so that one's hand does not come in contact with the hot part. And of course, it was an outdoor cafe.

The signs on the washroom doors.

A stone block for holding bicycles. Nice and compact.

Another view of a rack for drying hay. With such a narrow roof I wonder how well it really protects the hay from rain. Most often rain falls on a slant. And this roof doesn't look like it will be of use for much longer.

Had to take this for my husband. I was en route to the waterfall, walking along a lovely paved walking/cycling path and there, as well as in other places in Europe, was something catering specifically to cyclists.

The distinct advantage to walking and cycling is that you see so many more details, and its easy to stop and take a picture. Here, a simple gate.

The waterfall!! It was worth the hike.

Above the waterfall one could get quite close to the magnificent mountains, however I didn't dare take the time to go any higher, as I had a bus to catch (which I just barely made).

View of the above mountains taken from the bus window.

Cow Festival - Ukanc, Slovenia

2009-10-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

Sean and Brenda were heading for the Cow Festival, so I asked if I could tag along. They are from Ireland.

Note the beautiful colour of the river behind them. Many of the rivers in Slovenia are this colour, and very clear.

It was about the 20th of September. The cows come down from their summer pastures and it is time to celebrate in the tiny village of Ukanc, on Lake Bohinj. This event draws thousands, though they are mostly Slovenians. We nearly missed this parade as someone told us it didn't begin until 3pm. And to think it was going on about 50' away. We figured the loudspeakers meant something was going on, we just couldn't tell what it was.

This lady was trying to make it clear to her cow just who was the boss.

A parade of local costume was included.

A face only an owner could love.

Some goods for sale at this fall fair type of event. However I bet you won't find bottles like the ones on the left at the Rock Creek Fall Fair. The labels say "Bohinj zganje 40% by volume".

A large pot of sauerkraut. This area seemed to have much in common with Austria, which is just a few miles to the north.

This booth was roasting an entire cow, and was it ever delicious!!

This fellow was demonstrating how to make shakes for a roof. Please note the beer next to the axe, on the left. Axe and beer are not a good combination. At least I don't see any empty glasses lying around....

We (an Irish couple and myself) finally found a spot to sit next to this proud Grandpa. He was feeding his grandson so I just had to take a picture. Result was that we became fast friends and ended up drinking far more beer than I care to admit. And it didn't help to be with folks from Ireland!

Mother and grandmother loved looking at the pics that Sean had taken of the baby.

While in Slovenia I saw a lot of hair that was dyed varying shades of red. I finally got a good picture of one head.

Polka music, lots of polka music.

But there was time for other entertainment.

A Cow Festival just wouldn't be complete without a hairy Tina Turner!

A Wonderful Day of Cycling and Hiking Around Bled, Slovenia

2009-10-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

The excellent hostel that I stayed at (Bledec Hostel) had free bicycles for us to use. Luckily one was in reasonable condition. So off I went on a lovely ride through the countryside.

Slovenia is so green!

This is the building I had seen from way down below, and assuming it was a house, I wondered why anyone would live way up here. Imagine my surprise when I found it to be a shrine. What a strange place for one!!

About 200 meters later there was another.

The rack is for drying hay. See the cover along the top? Most of the racks were empty when I was there, so it was difficult to get a good photo. These racks are common and are unique to Slovenia.

Can you see the religious figure on the left? (click on the photo to enlarge). Its only a few feet from the shrine above.

This cat had one strange eye, so I patiently tried to get a picture. Just as I was about to give up (and after getting shocked by an electric fence), I got it!

A friendly goat.

A nice looking farmhouse.

I was shocked at the colour of this house, but felt I couldn't stand in front and take a pic. So I sneaked one from the side. Looks much less shocking from this angle.

This house was probably the only messy and deserted house I saw in Slovenia. If you enlarge the picture you will notice that there is a Star of David under the dormer roofline. I wonder if there is a connection. Were the inhabitants forced to flee?

The famous Lake Bled and its island with a church on it. The cost to get onto the island is $5 yet there is a steady stream of boats going there. People can also ring the bell in the church, which is suppposed to bring them good luck (or I have also heard that it is supposed to make their wish come true). It is a local tradition for the groom to carry — or try to carry — his bride up the 99 steps from the island's dock to the Church. About four out of five are successful (proving themselves "fit for marriage").

I was very surprised to encounter this mother and daughter, who were just below the point at which I took the photo below. The older one is a resident of the area and believe it or not, she is 87 yrs old!!!! It was definitely a strenuous hike to get to this point. What an incredible woman!!

It was very late in the afternoon when I took this picture. I was supposed to meet Erika and Georgia at the bottom for the hike, but since it was getting late and they weren't there, I proceeded on my own. At 9pm they made it back from their hike. It seems they had been waylaid at a pastry shop and didn't even begin their hike until after I had gone down. So by going up the hill after sunset meant that they had to go back down in the dark. They were very lucky to have made it back safely!!

Hostels are fantastic places for meeting interesting people. Erika (left), besides climbing down mountains in the dark, worked on a German research vessel in the North Sea this past summer. The other two are Swiss and were cycling to Iran and possibly further.

At my hostel in Bled, I also met Cameron Hewitt, who is the Lead Editor for the Rick Steves series of travel books. As he said, "I do the work, he gets the credit." He was updating the info for their book on Slovenia and Croatia.

Vintgar Gorge near Bled, Slovenia

2009-10-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

Just north of Lake Bled is a gorge with cliff-hanging walkways. The river reminds me of the Skagit River that flows down the west side of Manning Park. When there is lots of water in the river, which there was when I was there, it is noisy and a mist is created, hence some of the photos are a bit hazy.

I was sure I had read that the pathways were first built by a man back in 1938, who thought that the Gorge could be better enjoyed by people if it was accessible. Now I am questioning my sanity as I cannot find any info to confirm it.

On my way back (by bicycle) the black clouds overhead unleashed their load. I have never seen rain go from 0 - 10 so quickly!! For the first while I took shelter in a kind of chapel-structure (these are all over Slovenia). It wasn't letting up so I braved the rain and proceeded downhill a little more. It felt a little dangerous with limited visibility on the narrow roads, so I took shelter under a house overhang (about 2' from the road).

It looked like it wanted to go on forever, so I struck out again. However it became even more intense and the road turned into a raging river so I took shelter again. Wanting only to get back to my hostel and dry clothes, I ventured further down the road, only to suddenly find it to be dry! I looked back and the low-lying black cloud was still there. I am sure that a visit to the gorge after that rainfall would have been even more spectacular with the increase in the volume of water.

Ljubljana - Part Two

2009-10-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

This is a very mellow city, as is the entire country. The Slovenians appear not to be actively chasing tourist dollars, but are happy to collect any that come their way.

Rooftops

Non Stop Milk

"You are standing at the MILK vending machine, where you can pour yourself fresh raw cow milk from the dairy farm... The cows at our farm graze in pastures and they produce milk of superior quality suitable for drinking and preparation of dairy drinks and dishes.

At the price of 10 cents you can get one decilitre of milk and a whole litre for 1 EURO.
Into plastic container you can fill also less milk, depending on the amount of money you have previously inserted.
Plastic milk containers can be bought from the vending machine as well.
You can fill also your own perfectly clean containers (jugs or cans), up to 3 litres.
Place the (plastic) container into the vending machine, insert the coins and press the draw-off button."

There are a number of these works of art presented in this unusual manner, suspended above the main square. If you enlarge the picture below, you can see three of them.

The core of the old town, right by the Triple Bridge. Its all about walking, cycling and scooters in this part of the town. One must also walk in a straight line as bicycles behind you can be very quiet...

The trains that run within the country are heavily decorated with Street Art. Those that are international are not. Street Art is celebrated in Europe (at least some countries).

Ljubljana - Part One

2009-10-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

This city, and indeed all of Slovenia, is spotlessly clean. I saw only 3 pieces of garbage in my 7 days in the country.

The famous Triple Bridge

Its a bit difficult to tell, but this famous and unique bridge is pedestrian-only and has three branches. This is the heart of old Ljubljana.

Some of what must be thousands of outdoor cafes. I have never seen anything like it! When do they work?

Probably the most photographed item in Ljubljana. The dragon at the Dragon Bridge.

The old part of town is entirely in cobblestones, and as in this picture, you can see that when they do any work, the area is repaved in them.

Note the shoes. Note the cobblestones. How she didn't twist her ankle is a mystery, as it is sand, not cement, that is packed in between each of the stones.

The entrance to the Slovenian Parliament Buildings