The Five Towns

Manorola, Cinqu Terre

Friday, 22 June, 2012

Hi again!  We have wi-fi so I can type directly into my blog and caption my photos.  Before, I had to create a word processing document and line up the photos for Randy to go into town to the wi-fi spot to upload them.   This is way better!  If you have not, please create a google account (super easy) and comment--I love to read the comments--especially when we have wi-fi access!  : )  The comments get sent to my email.

Well, today was a lot of time in the car--traveling from the Dolomites to the Cinque Terre.  We are in the town just north of the five towns (cinque=five).  The towns are all located on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.  They are very cute!  Orange and pink buildings, cute little streets, and kind people.  Also, not too crowded--though I'm sure it can be at times.

We took a train to the town furthest south--Riomaggiore.  It was a quick trip, and our plan was to walk back along a walking path above the sea called the Via del Amore--the pathway of love.  The walk is very flat and only about 15 minutes from one town to the next.  The towns themselves are spread out, going up the steep hillside.  Above the town are the fields!  Olive trees and wine grapes are their primary crops.

Then we walked to Manorola, the next town.  The weather here today is warm (upper 80s) and extremely humid!  So it seemed hotter than it actually was and there was no strong breeze to cool us off.  And we just felt drained.  After Manorola, the plan was to walk to the next town, but there were landslides from torrential rains less than a year ago and the path is still closed (actually, we saw it and it doesn't exist--it stops at a bunch of dirt).  It was getting late--around 7:30, so we ate some yummy pizza made with foccacia bread and went to the train station.  Due to a train strike that ended earlier in the day, the train was due to be almost and hour late.

A young (Italian?) woman on the symbol of the pathway of love

The walking path along the sea

There were some other trails leading around the landslide that may have been open, but we (all of us but Randy) were tired and drained and not in the mood for a lot of walking uphill in the humid heat.   We instead took the train back to Levanto and our B&B.  Our place is quite quirky.  We are not staying in the Cinque Terre because they all required at least a two day stay and we only had one day.  Our B&B is like a small farm or menagerie.  We counted at least 5 cats, 4 sheep, 2 horses,  2 dogs, cockatoos in a cage, and bunnies!  I'm hoping to not encounter any animals that aren't part of the "family" (such as lizards or other bugs).

Randy hard at work on his blog in the breakfast room

The house is a bit run-down, with greenery growing everywhere.  The air outside smells of flowers, but the inside smells a bit of cat litter box.  Our room with the shutters and windows open is beginning to smell more of flowers.  We have three bedrooms--each with a huge bed and we share a bathroom down the hall.  The other room--another couple is staying there, they have their own ensuite bathroom.  The bathroom is clean but could use a makeover--quite a step down from our last place!  But we have wi-fi!  (Although we don't think we will at our next place in Tuscany).

The Hills Are Alive.....

Thursday, June 21 (Happy Solstice!)

Today we drove through the mountains to, Canazei, a town a few towns away to hike in the mountains again.  We took two cable cars up to the top and began to climb.  It is not completely flat, but the hills and valleys aren’t horrible.  I wore thicker pants to protect against more scrapes and to keep the scrapes I have already from opening up again.  We all put on a ton of sunscreen, and then I covered my blister on the ball of my right foot with a bandaid and also engaged in a bad fashion choice, wearing socks with sandals.  My athletic shoes that I wore yesterday were horrible (I didn’t have a chance to replace them or purchase hiking boots before we left).  So today I wore my Teva sandals which are listed as a hiking sandal.  With the extra cushioning of socks, they were very comfortable; not bothering my blister and protecting and supporting against the pain in my heel I normally get after a lot of walking.  

Today the trails had less people than the trails above Ortisei.  We were up above the tree line.  There were also fewer wildflowers.  It was also a bit chillier, being up further.  Once we started hiking, we warmed up though.  However, when we stopped for lunch (again, another great view) it was quite windy and cold.  There were several restaurants along the trail, one even had a separate place to store bikes.  A few times we had to jump aside as trail bikes bore down the hill behind us.  At least yesterday they used bells to warn us.  It was very pretty though, very green and peaceful, though having restaurants and hotels along the way kind of took away from the “back to nature” feeling.   Lots of great views and good exercise.  We even walked in snow.

Every few days we stop for gelato--yummy.  Fresher tasting than ice cream (less cream) and so many great flavors!  The raspberry is still my favorite of them though, even though I continued to find seeds in my teeth for the rest of the afternoon.  

On our way back after hiking, we got behind a tour bus, how annoying!  A huge line of cars behind him and it never pulled over to let all of the rest of the traffic go on!  We had to keep stopping and our car doesn’t like to start on an incline.  Finally after the pass we were able to pass it.  Then we got behind a line of cars stopped for a double-trailer trying to make it through--really???  The car in the lead was not moving over, so a man in one of the cars went up and directed them to move over so that they could go ahead.  There was a line of vehicles behind the trailer as well.  One guy on a motorcycle started gesturing to him to pull over further as well.  The big trailer guy needed all of us to move so that he could make the curve.  After the lead car finally made it around, the guy that walked up there got back in his car.  I applauded and he could see me through our windshield and took a bow.   Don’t they have any regulations about what types of vehicles can go on which roads?  I understand that they have to be able to get to where they need to get to, but be realistic!  

Well, we are back in the car going back for a rest and Randy is going to the internet place he found in town by stopping in at an internet service place and asking if they knew of somewhere.  He will upload my three blogs, even though the speed is really slow.  It took him half an hour to upload his last two blogs and 5 photos.  You pay by the half hour.  Now he’ll have my three and his from today.  Yikes!    

The Dolomites

We are staying in the town of St. Ulrich/Ortisei.  Many of the towns here have two names because it was originally part of Austria, so the towns had German names.  But after WWI, in redrawing the borders, it went to Italy.  So Italy renamed the towns, but some of them didn’t want to give up their original names, so two names.  We are staying  in an apartment up on the hill of town.  Getting around the tiny town with a car when we arrived was a nightmare.  None of the streets in the middle of town have names posted, and the center of town is for walking--no cars.  The roads just end at the pedestrian area.  Finally we parked and Randy went to find the owner (who is to be found in that pedestrian area).  Her English is quite limited, so by the time she went to get all of the cushions for the porch furniture (we have a big balcony) and linens for the extra bed for Joshua, and got our passports back to us, and I pantomimed (seriously) buying groceries, it was too late--the one grocery store in town had closed.  So we walked down to find it, then found a place to eat.  Our apartment building looks quite small, but we figured that there must be 10 apartments in it.  There are two levels of garages tucked under ground.  Then the front of the building has three terraced areas of grass/garden.  We are above the top area of garden, so we have a balcony--full of petunia window boxes (which we’ve been asked to water each day).  We have two bedrooms--one with a double bed and a couch to be used as a bed (with the back and arm cushions removed).  The other room has two double beds.  There is a nice bathroom and a powder room (1/2 bath); the bathroom has a washing machine.  There is a dated kitchen; to use the stovetop, you need to reach under the stove to the bottle of gas and turn it, then use a match or click lighter to light the burners.  But there is also a dishwasher.  (The owner also had to refill the lighters).  However, we do not have wi-fi.  Randy is trying to find a place in town to purchase time.  Because of some anti-terrorism legislation, the hotels here can only provide wi-fi for their guests (in many countries, hotels can sell time to non-guests).       

Today was hiking.  In the mountains.  We walked to the gondola ski lift and bought round trip tickets to the top.  The top is a plateau, but not completely flat, and full of hiking trails.  So we put sunscreen on our Minnesota skin and hiked (in hindsight, we should have used more sunscreen!).  We hiked for a few hours then stopped for lunch.  In the photo, we ate on the front porch of that cabin (no one was home) with the Dolomites as our view.  Oh-Dolomites are the craggy rocks--they look kind of like giant termite hills.  They are made of Dolomite rock.  Anyway, we dragged our tired bodies for a few more hours, then went down again.  We are now examining our blisters and putting aloe vera gel on our sunburns!  

It was a very pretty area to hike in--it would be even better with more sunscreen and hiking boots and socks!  More mountain hiking tomorrow!   

The Road Less Traveled

Yes, the road diverged in a wood, and we took the road less traveled by (Frost).  But more of that later.  First a short summary of the day then the anecdotes.  We traveled from Slovenia through twisty roads, got lost in Cortina, found our way, and arrived in St. Ulrich/Ortisei in the Val Gardena of the Dolomites area of the Alps in the north of Italy.  That’s probably the shortest summary I have ever given.  I’m not known for being brief.

But the more fun part--the stories.  First the less interesting:  we drove right by snow as we entered the valley we are in (the Val Gardena) and saw beautiful wildflowers yesterday and today (there is a photo in yesterdays blog of the pretty wildflowers everywhere in the mountains).  

When we got to Cortina, we didn’t have a very detailed map of the city--where to turn, etc.  So, we did what I find usually works better, we followed the signs.  Well, that didn’t work either.  None of the signs had the road or towns that we needed to travel to--non even in the right direction!  After many turn-arounds and bad words, we found ourselves traveling out of town on the road that we had come in on.  So, we decided to push away the map and ignore the signs.  Instead, we knew that the road we wanted to leave on left out of the west of town.  So we took the first promising left hand turn that we could in town, always taking the left when given a choice--and you know what?  That gave us our road!  

Then, there are the shrines.  There are shrines everywhere.  Some are rather subtle.  For moviegoers that have seen Under the Tuscan Sun, there is an old man that she tries to connect with, every day he goes to put flowers in a vase at a shrine.  Some shrines are little niches in stone walls, others look like bird houses or rural mailboxes (except open in the front).  Others, however, are small buildings.  They have a painting or statue of the saint, with fake flowers or other mementoes behind glass, then candles and fresh flowers outside the glass.  They are bigger than phone booths (for those of us that remember what those looked like!), are maybe the size of a powder room (1/2 bathroom) in a house.  They are very impressive looking.

At one point on a twisty mountain road, we saw a sign for a Russian Chapel (in the middle of nowhere!).  The story is that during WWI, they used Russian prisoners of war to build a road through the mountains--a very strategic military point, evidently.  So they did, but there was an avalanche in which over 100 Russian POWs died.  So a Russian chapel was built in their memory up in the mountains along they road that they built.  Workers were working on replacing the wooden shingle siding when we were there, so we couldn’t go inside; they didn’t seem to like me walking around the outside either but they didn’t stop me.  

But, the best story is in the road less traveled.  Using Google Maps, Randy found some scenic roads for us to take through Slovenia--those were just twisty roads through the mountains.  But then came the road in Italy.  It started out two lanes, then went down to one lane, then went down to what was closer to a bike trail.  Twisting through the mountains.  We began beeping as we went around each corner, horrified that we would meet another car.  It being in the mountains, the side of the road was a retaining wall on one side and a sheer drop down on the other.  There were a few “thickenings” of the road that we found cars parked on, so we carefully went around them.  Well, just when we thought we might be safe, two bicycles.  One went way over so that his handlebars must have been scraping the retaining wall, the other seemed less comfortable biking up a mountain and was further out.  After a nearly hitting her, a logging truck came around the corner heading straight for us!  Randy started beating on the horn and he stopped short of us.  We looked at each other for a few moments, but we couldn’t really back up, we had the bicyclists just behind us, riding ever closer, so the truck backed up to a slight thickening that we could probably squeak through, then the bicyclists went around us, going slowly since it was uphill.  After waiting for them, we could go (with our toy car engine) making us race the engine so that it wouldn’t quit (like it often does).  We did just squeak by.  Then the motorcycles going around us.  Then--you’ll never believe it, so I’ve got a photo--goats!! The road was filled with goats!  (I think that may have also happened in Under the Tuscan Sun.)  We had to wait for all of them to squeeze by the car so that we could move forward!  It was so funny--we were laughing for so long afterward!  First the bicycles and the truck, then the goats!  

Down in the Valley

Mental Meandering:  Yesterday, I was thinking about the fact that 100 years ago, one would travel to a foreign country and the people of an ethnic group would look similar, have similar physical characteristics (which is some of what led to prejudice).  That is how stereotypes of certain ethnic groups emerged:  Hungarians, Spaniards, Italians, Swedes, Turks, Japanese, different tribes of Africa, Russians, etc.  But, after many years of inter-marriage and migration, people mainly tend to look the same everywhere.  Granted, there are more people with darker-colored skin in Africa, and more dark-haired people in Hungary, but the edges have softened and we are only left with the stereotypes.  If we drop those and actually look at the people of different countries, they look exactly the same as if you were walking down the street where you live.  Even much fashion is the same.  It is sad in that many ethnic groups are losing their culture and heritage, but good in that there will hopefully be fewer wars, hatred, and prejudice.  That, of course, leads me to the forms on which you need to mark ethnic group.  Many people do not even know their ethnic origins unless they have thoroughly researched their family tree.  But even then...you just never know.  There needs to be a box which says multi-ethnic, and I bet that would have a lot of check marks.  And how do you know which box to mark if you are from several different ethnic groups?  Does the blond child with blue eyes whose mother was half African-American and whose father was caucasian mark African-American or caucasian?  And, more importantly, does it matter?  Then, of course, is the tracking of test scores, graduation rates, job quotas, etc. based on ethnic group, and how true is that?  Well, anyway, back to Slovenia.

Today we went to a valley in the mountains--Logarska Dolina.  It is a type of national park.  There are many places to stay once you enter the park, but no “towns” of any type.  To get there, we were even in Austria for a short period of time and passed right through the pre-EU border control areas without a soul in sight.  We drove by way of scenic by-roads to get there.  Some had room for two cars to pass, some did not.  Also, most were switchbacks--heading up and down the mountains with tight turns.  And our rental car--an Opel with a toy engine.  It did not go up the mountains easily (we need a running start to get out of our driveway at our apartment).  We turned off the air conditioning and stayed in the lower gears and went faster than we normally may have to get up the mountains.  We had a few near misses.  Another weird thing here--kamikaze motorcyclists.  They pass everyone (even in no passing zones) and take chances that could be dangerous.  I have noticed that they usually wear helmets, however.  There are signs all over warning motorcyclists of falling off their motorcycles on the curves.  

Back to today.  The road was harrowing at times, but lovely.  Even the time we had to wait for a digger truck to move out of the way for us to pass and try to find our way back to the main road up ahead (he had that section torn up in piles of dirt).  And he didn’t speak English when we asked him.  Several times we had to guess which way, because they don’t always label the roads very well and the maps Randy had downloaded before we left were small on his iPod and details such as “turn by the cute stream and the house with the blue shutters” aren’t on there.  At the park, we drove to the end through the cool, shaded roads through the woods.  At the end, we got out and hiked (up again) to see the waterfall.  At the waterfall, you can walk right up to the bottom of it.  It is very windy and cold and wet there.  My sunglasses were continually covered in drops of water and I had trouble catching my breath if I opened my mouth.  Annie and I crossed a rickety bridge to see it from further away and got some nice photos as well.  At one point, the wind blew so hard, that it blew the stream of the waterfall sideways, so that the water curved, caught between wind and gravity.  Annie found a snake, and Randy and the children climbed up high above the path to see the waterfall from a rocky ledge above (I was done climbing up).  Then we left the park and wanted to find an area to have a picnic lunch that was shady and had a view.  We found a place with one of the criteria--a meadow with a killer view of the mountains.  After lunch, we continued on even more rustic roads, even stopping once to fill our water bottles at a water place with water from the mountains, channeled through a wooden pipe flowing and falling down into a wooden trough.  Good, cold water.   

Most of the houses in this area of Slovenia appear very Austrian or Swiss.  Since we are so close to Austria, maybe that is the reason.  They are built of red, hollow, clay bricks which are then stuccoed. The air provides a small amount of insulation.  We saw so many piles of firewood cut up and stacked (very evenly) by the houses in the mountains--the small amount of insulation from the bricks must need some help up here in the mountains during the winter--every one was getting a good supply in.  And cutting and baling hay--a lot of that as well.  Most of them were raking the hay (smaller fields than we see in Minnesota) into a line, then using a baler.  Some of the farmers use drying racks to dry their hay first.  All of the churches have the same type of bell tower as the one in the church in “The Sound of Music.”  

We came back to the apartment then on the motorway for a rest before dinner.      

Very Many Steps

Yesterday, as we drove through Croatia, we noticed many abandoned houses and new structures being built.  We weren’t sure whether the abandoned buildings were due to neglect/poverty or war.  The area we were driving through was near to the Serbian war in the 90s.  Sure enough, in one town we drove by a burnt out building with old military vehicles near it, then looked at the houses and saw little pockmarks in them--most likely bullet holes.  It was hard to balance that view with the area we were driving through:  people out working in their fields and gardens, walking along the roads and talking to other people.  

Last night, while we were waiting to get into our apartment (we were early), we went to a nearby shopping area.  First, the market was closed, then we found 80 euro shoes for Joshua (his have literally fallen apart)--but we did not buy them, then we found there was internet in the courtyard from one of the clubs, and bought ice cream cones.  Randy had to Skype the owner because no one showed up in the first half an hour after the time we were supposed to meet.  In our apartment, the grocery store was already closed, so we went to the restaurant literally at the bottom of the steps to our apartment--the Balkan Grill.  Good food and inexpensive, even though you have to pay for each packet of ketchup! 

Our apartment has a bedroom, bathroom, and common room.  The common room has two couches that fold out (we have to make them each day because they do not fold in--they kind of flatten out).  There is also a table with 5 chairs and kitchenette in the common room.  The bathroom is unremarkable.  At least our towels (one each) are normal sized bath towels.  

After our dinner, the children and I watched the EuroCup while Randy worked on his blog (I did mine in the car).  Still no wi-fi, so Randy went to the shopping center to use the wi-fi and uploaded both of our blog posts.  That will probably be the plan tonight as well.  We do not have a washing machine or dishwasher (we had both in Venice), so Randy is washing out a few shirts at a time in the kitchen sink and hanging them out on the balcony to dry (I fold) and we’re taking turns washing the dishes.  

Today, Randy went to the local (tiny) grocery store to get food for the day (it was only open until noon because it is Sunday).  After breakfast, we walked around Lake Bled to the other side to rent a rowboat to row out to the Church of Mary the Queen on Bled Island.  It is the photo that is always shown to represent Slovenia.  There are 99 steps from the main dock up to the church and the wedding tradition is for the groom to carry the bride up the steps to show that he is strong enough for marriage.  In the church is the “wishing well.”  Our entrance fee also included ringing the wishing well to get your wish.  There is a legend of a young widow that melted all of her gold and silver to make a bell for the church.  It sank on it’s way to the island so, even more devastated, she went to Rome and entered a convent.  After her death, the Pope donated a bell for the church and those who ring the bell to honor the Virgin Mary and make a wish, will see their wish come true.  A very old church with a lot of history, and takes up the entire island!

After we rowed back, we walked up the mountain to the castle--a very modest castle.  It was a long walk up very many steps.  The stories about the church, the castle, and the area were interesting, but the rest was uninspiring.  

Then we walked back to our apartment for a late lunch and a short rest.  Then off in the car to a nearby lake with a waterfall near it.  Slovenian language lesson:  slap is waterfall and grad is castle.  Anyway,  we then paid to walk up very many steps again to see the waterfall.  It was pretty in the middle of woods, but exhausting to walk to.  The air was slightly cooler there too (until we started sweating from climbing up the steps!).

More EuroCup tonight--the Netherlands!   Then maybe a game of cards before bed.        

Beauty And The Headaches

Saturday, June 16

Wow, two days of beauty and headaches!  We didn’t have wi-fi at Plitvice, Croatia, where we stayed last night, so you get two days in one.  Hope it’s not too long!  On Thursday night we went on another Vaporetto down the Grand Canal to see Venice at night.  Beautiful! 

On Friday, we took the train from Venice to the next town and where we had rented a car.  We picked up the car and Randy knew that we needed some paperwork (an invitation) to enter Croatia, so he mentioned to the Hertz agent that we were going to Slovenia and Croatia and they gave us the paperwork.  There was highway construction going on (some things are the same everywhere) and they either canceled our exit or changed the name and we did not find it.  We ended up in Trieste where I asked for directions (of course), and we were directed to another town to get the motorway (the exit we needed to go back the other way was closed in Trieste).   So we did, and eventually found the right exit.  Even though we were running an hour late, we stopped at the Skokjam Caves (in Slovenia).  There was the beauty.  Wow--stalactites and stalagmites everywhere.  There was a silent cave and the water murmuring cave (where a river ran).  They were both beautiful.  There was an Asian tour group added on to our group.  Their interpreter told them some of the features and the tour guide did each spiel twice--once for the group of people we were in and once for the Asian group.  It was a spectacular tale of discoveries and floods dating from the late 1800s.  I don’t know if it is a cultural thing (it may be), but, in my experience, Asian tourists are just rude.  They push ahead, pushing you out of the way and don’t follow the rules.  The tour guide had the interpreter remind them several times that they are not allowed to take pictures in the cave (especially with flash!).  When we were at the Lascaux (?) caves in France, they had closed the original cave and created a duplicate for tourists because our breath was degrading the cave and the cave paintings.  I asked if tourists were degrading this cave and she said yes, but that is the price of tourism.  It made me feel badly.  So since the rules is no photos, I have no photos of the inside, just a few as we left the cave.  

Then we left the caves and got right onto the highway.  We were stopped at the border (though we had already been in Slovenia) and pulled over.  We showed our passports and our invitation to Croatia, but evidently we were supposed to have a vignette--a sticker that goes in the window.  Randy said that he remembered reading something about it, but it was lost in the planning and there are no signs in English telling us that we needed to get one at the gas station (to be honest, we hadn’t passed a gas station either).  Randy asked if we could buy one there, but the men said no, there was a fine and made Randy go with them (including men with guns)!  I was quite worried about what they were doing to him.   I told the man that we hadn’t passed any gas stations, but he said that yes we had--at least three when I told him we were at the caves.  They have a newer entrance to the caves which goes right to the highway, there are no gas stations, but he must not know about that.  I wondered if I should go help him, but decided to stay and protect my children (you never know!).  The whole thing was very third world.  Eventually Randy came back, they only charged us half the cost of the fine (150 euros instead of the 300) and told us to go get our sticker.  So we did.  That was the second headache (the first was trouble finding our exit and ending up in Trieste--Randy’s google maps he had downloaded were not any help).  

Then we headed to Croatia.  At the border, one person checked our passports and stamped them, then sent us to the next booth where the woman just looked at us.  Randy asked what documents she needed.  She was a smart aleck and just said, well, you’re entering a country, what documents do you think you need?  She could have just asked for our passports!  So she checked and stamped them and checked our invitation and sent us on our way.  We came to a few toll booths that (thank goodness) took Euros in addition to kuna (Croatian currency)--because we didn’t have any.  Then, we drove down small, twisty roads to find our place--zimmer (rooms).  It was a very large house (one of many in that area that cater to tourists).   There was no one at the desk, but we saw our reservation listed next to rooms 4 and 5, so we searched in the basket on the desk for our keys.  Then someone came to show us to our rooms.  We had an area with two bedrooms--4 and 5, and a bathroom.  Each of us had two small hand towels on our beds--color coordinated and rolled up.  I guess I was spoiled in Venice, where we had a new, shiny bathroom with a great shower head and piles of different-sized towels--everything from hand towels to bath sheets.  But, it’s only one night!  We said that we wanted the breakfast and found that there was a small restaurant across the street, so we ate a late dinner, then went back to our room to get ready for bed.  The restaurant would not take our credit cards, but could tell us the price in Euros and gave us change in kunas.  We left 10 kunas as a tip (that’s about a dollar fifty).    

In the morning, we headed to the Plitvicka Jezera national park.  Sorry, I don’t have the correct software to put all of the correct markings on the letters--deal with it (and I’m assuming that most people that read this can’t read Croatian anyway!).  We packed up and drove there, got the parking ticket, checked with the parking person to find when to pay (when we left).  Then, here’s the next headache, we stood in line, then just before we reached the window saw a sign that said that they only took Croatian money!  Well, we only had a few kuna left from the night before, not almost 400!  So we asked a worker if they had a cash machine--no, of course not.  Well, we only had a few hours to see the park.  He directed us down the road to a restaurant.  So we went there--it and the post office attached to it were both closed.  So with Randy continuing to swear, we went back to our lodgings to ask where we might find a cash machine.  After looking around, I found the cleaning woman, who directed me back to the restaurant.  When I told her that it was closed, she found the owner and using the cleaning woman as a sort-of interpreter (her English wasn’t much better than the owner’s), they changed my Euros for me.  Then, we I got out to the car after that painful transaction, Randy said that I probably needed more--so in I went again!  After another painful conversation and transaction, we were on our way.  We went to the other park gate (#2) and paid for our tickets, then noticed that they had a money exchange desk!  Aaaargh!!  

But after the headache, came the beauty.  The guide book said that the area was caused by a geologic accident.  There is a lake, that started to eat away at the calcium carbonate (limestone) and fell down to the next level of ground (causing a waterfall).  This continued to happen down the hillside.  What resulted were lakes with waterfalls everywhere!  Paths surround the area, buses to take you to the top area and boats to take you across the biggest lake are included in the park pass.  So, since we were short on time, we took the bus to the top and walked most of the way down.  Then we took the boat across the lake to another path with pretty views, then walked the rest of the way down.  The children loved it--especially Joshua and Shelby.  it was beautiful--the total opposite of Venice!!  The water was completely clear--you could see the fish and the plant life underneath--no cloudiness!  Amazing!  And the waterfalls were magnificent!  We then walked back up (way up--lots of stairs) to the parking area to pay for our parking and used our last kuna to buy three big sandwiches that are supposed to be a very common Croatian snack.  One was filled with cherry, one with chocolate, and one with cheese.  Those, combined with our leftover fruit and crackers, was lunch.  

We are now on our way through Slovenia to Bled.  Anneliese is hoping for a TV to watch the EuroCup tonight.