On our way to the mountains, we stopped for a night to check out the Medieval Town of Radovljica. Never saw a single wizard, nor found the opportunity to pelt rotten fruit at people in stocks! Did however find a delightful town, some awesome ale and a truly hunger satisfying burger.
Off to the mountains next…. Continue reading
Back on the bus again. Didn’t fancy the prospect of another FlixBus disaster so gave them the flick and headed North on the local bus. Predictably, the local bus stops at every chicken coop along the way! Eventually, having exhausted most of the one liners regarding bled time, single or double bled etc, we arrive…
No way! Places like this still exist? Picture perfect Lake Bled and Castle are merely the entree
 
Took a gentle stroll around the lake before a couple of cheeky blasts down the summer toboggan course..
 
 
Bohinj is even more remote than Bled so we trotted off for the day to do a lap of that lake too. We were impressed with Bled but nothing had prepared us for the perfection and sheer colours on display..
 
Off further North up into the mountains next, to Bovec and The Soca River.
Amazing experiences and new opportunities arise through travel. Watching a Netflix documentary on an amazing restaurant in the Slovenian Mountains is not generally a reason to go there! So, we jumped onto a bus in Venice, next stop Ljubljana, Slovenia!
Arriving at 2am in a Country you have barely heard of and a City that looks like the set of Hostel may seem foolish. Sadly for us, a cheeky, four hour, FlixBus fuck-up gave us little say in the matter! We borrowed a phone from a fellow passenger and called our host! Surprisingly he answered the phone and told us to jump into a cab to meet him at the apartment. Few places look attractive at 2.30 in the morning, Soviet style apartment blocks in deserted neighborhoods should remain in a category marked risky! Even the rats around the bins were nervous.
Soon enough, a sad looking Lada pulls in. Denis the apartment manager had been up anyway, dealing with a mass arrival of bible bashing Americans in a downtown block. Without a drill or sharp object in sight he happily checked us in and drove back into the night.
Morning announces itself a few short hours later with bright sunlight through the windows and the most amazing view. Hostel, firstly, was filmed in Slovakia and secondly, was a film! Views of rolling hills covered by lush pine forests were not what we expected. A fairytale castle overlooking the town a short walk away looked picturesque and inviting. What a fabulous place.
The City is clean and beautiful. A stack of fabulous restaurants and largely free of the armies of selfie stick waving tour groups that infest and ruin so many places.
Sunday afternoon beverages by the river with local DJ!
Hisa Franco, the restaurant in the mountains got voted out of our agenda, mainly because it is too fu(king expensive! Loving Slovenia so far, heading North to Lake Bled.
Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Verona.. Where next? Venice is less than an hour away. Off we go….
Neither of us have been to Venice by train! Not exactly strangers to this stuff by now, but exiting the station to an open Corso and a bunch of ferries is like Circular Quay on steroids! Just like Sydney Ferries however, these guys absolutely love the rucksack set! Few things light up their lives beyond the barge of an oversized backpack full of a few month’s memoires! Knock in a few comments about the accuracy of certain climate change predictions, lucky we weren’t told to swim!
We checked into an amazing apartment in Cannaregio. In the Northern District of Venice, away from the selfie stick set but close enough to have gondolas passing by our windows.
Alexandra joined us for three days of fun. Murano and Burano got a visit each, as did the occasional eatery. Oh! Did a Gondola ride too. $80 for 35 minutes and our bloke failed to sing or eat a single Cornetto ice cream! Still managed however to deliver us back to our point of departure bang on time!!
Famous for being the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Juliet’s balcony (below)
A beautiful city, well worth visiting if you are on your way to Venice from La Spezia. We actually missed our train due to some confusion regarding platforms. Just as we realized our mistake and grabbed our rucksacks, we saw our train gently cruise off without us!!! Feeling slightly stupid and annoyed at ourselves we found ourselves a cafe and waited another few hours till our next train!!!
Verona is a beautiful city where we relaxed away from the tourist madness of Cinque Terre. We booked into a stunning Airbnb, walking distance to everything. We used this time to chill out, catch up with emails, FB and our blog. The first picture below was our front door!!
Next stop Venice, very excited to meet up with Alex for a fun filled 3 days.
From Pisa we hopped on a train to La Spezia. La Spezia itself is a pleasant place to visit but the real attraction for us was it was the doorway to Cinque Terre. By staying in La Spezia you save a fortune on food and accommodation and it’s only a minutes by train to Cinque Terre. We stayed in a fabulous apartment only a few hundred meters from the train station.
Cinque Terre (5 lands) and Portovenere.
These are five small fishing villages set amongst the rugged northern coastline of Italy. We did them all in a day trip by catching the train to the furthest one called Monterosso, then hopping on and off a ferry all the way back to La Spezia. From the water is a great way to see the magnitude of the villages and they become clearer as you come into dock, where you can get off and have a wander round for as long as you want. Don’t miss out on Portovenere, it’s not one of the five but the ferry stops there on the way back from the last village of Riomaggiore prior to mooring back at La Spezia, this infact was one of our favourite stops of the day.
Oh Pisa, you were such a fun loving surprise!!
We arrived from Siena by train and jumped on a short bus ride. Our accommodation was amazing, only a 3 minute walk to the actual tower. We really enjoyed our time here and would encourage anyone to visit. Where else in the world can you see, what was an absolute failure and embarrassment of a building, ending up being one of the most visited income producing tourist sites in Italy. We climbed the tower, played with poses and walked round the city walls getting another perspective of the City.
Tickets for climbing the Tower are strictly limited and timed. Turning up with limited time and expecting a happy day out unlikely to end well. Book at the official site https://www.opapisa.it/en/tickets/buy/
On a not so joyful note. Poor Bear had a potential mugging as he was leaving the ATM!!! The two muggers didn’t end up with what they expected!!! One got a punch in the face the other fled, pussies!! Bear had a sore paw for a few days (kids don’t try this at home)
Siena! Oh boy! We found ourselves a little unit about half an hour’s walk from Central Siena. Little unit turns out to be a fully furnished 1 bedroom townhouse overlooking the ancient City! If we must…
Climbed up the bell tower for unrivalled views of the City and timeless Tuscan countryside.
Toured the Cathedral and crypts including an unprecedented tour in the rafters and ceiling space of the cathedral.
Never in my life have I found a tortoise that moved anything past crawling pace, this little bugger was the Usain Bolt of the species! Him and a few more memories of this beautiful place…
This beautiful City has captured our hearts forever xxx
Pisa next….
The Frogs finally decided to do a day’s work so we took the train to Florence. A feast for the eyes on the way through the Alps and a train change in Turin. The Italian high speed train is nothing short of insane! 300kph of pure grins, Turin to Florence in under 3 hours. Florence was a first for me and this was Jackie’s first experience of Italy. A seamless transition from snacking on snails to scoffing piles of delicious pasta! Hours of walking through ancient cobbled streets and views to last a lifetime.
Love anchovy and nasturtium pizza.
Fooze still a champ!!!
Views of Siena, simply stunning City.
Here we were plied with free wine, cheese and procutio by the wonderful, warm Italian and in return we purchased a beautiful pepper grinder!
Free on the street!!
Foodie paradise and a perfect excuse to meet up with two of my dearest friends. The French whingers were on strike for a change so no option other than the 7 hour bus from Paris. Always unassuming and quiet, Helena has rented accommodation for 10 people that would not disgrace the Royal Family! Rapid fire wine and raucous behaviour ensues!
Day 2 found us threatened with expulsion from a river cruise and countless discussions with restaurant staff over the availability of vegetarian dishes. Clearly an alien concept to the French! Dinner at home for night 3 until someone decided to fire up one of the fire extinguishers. Small kitchens and powder fire extinguishers are not a good mix! Pablo Escobar at his best could not have given the place a better coating! See you in Thailand next year. Florence next …..
