We
took one last photo of a bridge spanning the Lika River, before we left Croatia.
We
took one last photo of a bridge spanning the Lika River, before we left Croatia.
We
spent the night in Maribor, Slovenia at a splendid hotel. The food at their
restaurant was delicious, plentiful and reasonably priced. The hotel certainly
was not handicapped-accessible but we have strong kids who lugged luggage up
three flights of stairs to our rooms. Our room had a rug made of cow's hide.
A
vineyard in Maribor, Slovenia provides the background for this photo.
Before
leaving town, we stopped at a small shopping center. Reed and I browsed a store
reminiscent of a Hardware Hank's store. There must be a large number of vintners
in the area as this wine-making apparatus attests. Pam recently attended a
presentation by a local wine-maker and I'm going to see if Reed is interested in
starting a batch while he is home for Christmas.
I
noted, too, these devotional candles which were so prevalent in the Kosinj
cemeteries. You won't find these items for sale, in this volume, at our
large retail outlets in the U.S.
In
mid-morning, we headed northwest through Austria, toward Salzburg. At a
gas station in Slovenia, Reed peruses the gas pump prices. Our tab for a
tank of gas looked pretty expensive. The exchange rate is one dollar = 186
Slovenian tolar.
I
liked the road signs telling you how long you would be in a highway construction
area.
And
couldn't have agreed with their sentiment more. At one point, near
Salzburg, we spent at least 30 minutes waiting inside a long tunnel while
emergency crews separated and removed two vehicles which had collided. I
lost track of the number of tunnels we drove through on our trip, there were so
many.
Every
small town in Europe seemed to have a church spire dominating the landscape.
Near
sundown, we arrived at
Edelweiss, a new military recreation facility in the mountain resort of
Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It is in Germany but just a couple of klicks north of
Austria. The hotel opened a few weeks before our arrival. It serves
exclusively military members and families. We enjoyed a great meal, some local
wine, and later visited a pub inside the hotel where a local band was struggling
to perform bluegrass music.
But, as luck would have it, Reed and I learned that a paragliding outfit operated in the area and reservations could be made through the hotel. Yippee!