Day 27--Final thoughts and post

Four weeks and four countries.  The countries and history vary, but, really the people do not.  All have been warm and friendly.  Would we recommend you visit?  Definitely, yes!  Much to see, learn and taste.  A few odds and ends photos:

We loved these signs on the streets by the school.

Don't you wish we had signs like this in the US?

Big decision one morning when doing the dishes.  Which dish soap
do I use?  I went with the "Arf Cream", of course.

A nice variation on 'men's room and women's room'

Finally, over the years I have been collecting keepsakes from the many countries we have visited.  Many people collect t-shirts, coffee cups, refrigerator magnets, etc.  I collect cigarette packages.  They are really quite unique all over the world where smoking is quite prevalent, unlike the US.  What is unique are the graphic pictures on the packages.

I call the one on the left, the "dead tooth" package, the one on the right

is the "dead dad" package.  Like I said, smoking is huge overseas.  Hmm.....

Day 26--Horse Stud Farm and a World Class Cave System

The final day of our adventure finds us close to Ljubljana as we fly back home tomorrow.  Two highlights: The Lipica Stud Farm is the first and original stud farm for the Lippizaner horses.  A bloodline from the 16th century.  They actually perform all over the world from Vienna under chandeliers to Las Vegas under slot machines.  Beautiful horses that are born black, turn grey then white as adults.  Smart animals, they are 'natural born' dancers.

They are allowed to herd for 4 years, then it's off to horse school

Part of our tour was a training session.  It must have been for beginners, they walked in a line, two lines, a circle and cantered a bit.  No bouncing up and down on their hind legs as we were hoping.  Much more history here, if you want to learn more, check the web.

These are the highlights of the training!   Plus, music and a very impassioned German MC.

Speaking of the web, the pictures below are all from the web.  No pictures allowed in the Scocjan Caves.  This world-class cave system was discovered in the 1800's.  Beautifully curated and maintained.  I believe the main reason no photographs are allowed is that you would never get through it, you would be busy taking photos every step of the way.  A real highlight of our trip to the Baltic States.

Day 25--A cow village in a ski resort??

An interesting destination today.  Velika Planina. This is a very traditional, seasonal village at the top of a modern ski resort!  The only way to visit the village is to take the gondola from the valley to the base of the ski resort, then the chair from the base to the top of the mountain.  Then, a moderate walk downhill to the village itself.  Vestiges of an old ski lift remain on the village side, now just snowshoeing and X-country skiing.

This is seasonal living.  The herders live in the valleys around the mountain but bring some 400 cattle up each summer for their grazing.  Not a lot of 'locals', just us tourists walking around trying to get the best photo including cows, buildings, flowers and the amazing mountain vistas in the background.

These ladies were collecting flowers for tea!

Day 24--Taking Slovenia's White Roads to a Farm-stay

We have learned a new word for gravel roads, 'white roads'.  Kinda softens it, doesn't it?  Below is a road work we stumbled on.   We should never complain about what our job is again.  This looks like tough work.  First, that is chain link fencing on the slope, the workers are attaching it to the side of the road cut. At the 'red light' we watched them lurch along, hanging on to the fencing as they walked about.  The crane holds their tools.  The red light is an automatic one-way-controller.  No flagmen!  It's automatic yet senses both cars and bikes, we have seen them frequently in our travels in the Baltic.

Also, what we have seen and can't believe is the farming of these same steep hillsides.  Tom, our farmer, feels they are primarily planting and harvesting timothy grass.  It is great for livestock and when harvested, baled and wrapped, makes good sillage, (fermented high-moisture feed).  Back to the steep hillsides.....we are amazed the farmers can even run their tractors, win-rowers and balers in the hills!  But they do.  The saying in Slovenia is the hay fields are so steep when the dogs are on them they have to hold on to the grass by their teeth and they bark out their ass.  Actually, I believe it!

We start our day by walking to 'Slap Rinka'.  This is the second highest waterfall in Slovenia at 105 meters.  What is unique here is the limestone cone at its base.  This has formed over the eons by the dissolved minerals in the water, very interesting.

Onward to the Solcav Panoramic Road.  One of the best scenic roads we had ever been on.  We have included a few pictures though almost impossible to capture on film.

Our lodging tonight is in a 'farm'stay'.  You stay at a 'farmhouse'.  It is similar to the traditional bed and breakfast, but it is really isolated with lots of pasture and cows around.  We had a great time.  Ate a traditional Slovenian dinner, which means lots of milk products and meats.  And a traditional Slovenian breakfast, which means lots of milk products and meats, with eggs thrown in.  The view from our room.....

Finally, we visited Austria!  Sorta.  With the EU, borders are a little lax, we took a wrong term and ended up in another country!  No border control, we took a picture, stepped over the border and returned to Slovenia.

Day 23b--Car train in Adrenalin Valley

After the museum visit, we moved on to more waterfall hikes and something new, a car train ride.

A short hike to this beauty.  Unique was the boardwalk that extended out
the side of the canyon to get here.  Ice cold water from a karst spring.

Example of the typical roads we are on.  Narrow, no shoulders
blind corners, speedy, local drivers and great views!

I had to include this.....We found this wasp having a meal on a poor unnamed bug
on our car door.  The circle of life.

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They call this Adrenalin Valley because of all of the sports enthusiasts that descend here. 
Hang gliding, rafting and kayaking, backpacking, gliders, etc, etc.  Plus all the winter sports.

We have driven on board a car train.  Through a series of tunnels, this cuts our drive
time from 2.5 hours to 30 minutes.

Bumpy, smelly ride, but quite an experience.
And, yes, you do have to stay in your car!

Day 23a--Farewell to Arms

The day started with a visit to the Kobarid/Caporetto/Karfreit Museum.  (Hungarian, Italian and German name).  It commemorates the high mountain warfare waged by the Austro-Hungarians (and eventually the Germans) against the Italians during WW I in 1915-1917.  (Ernest Hemingway's Farewell to Arms chronicles this time in history.  It was his breakthrough novel and started his writing career).

A collection of Italian headstone crosses

For two years, until October of 2017, the  Italians had fought and beat the Austro-Hungarians in 10 battles in the treacherous Julian Alps.  Then Austro-Hungarians with German help, in a decisive 11th battle, the Italians were defeated at an enormous cost to both sides.  In total for the two years of battle was 300,000 killed, 700,000 wounded and 100,000 Missing in Action.

Of the 300,000 killed, 60,000 were from avalanches alone.  Also, poison gas was used against the Italians, killing 10's of thousands. These numbers do not reflect the estimated 100,000 civilians casualties in this part of Slovenia  For the final, decisive battle, the Austro-Hungarians mustered 600,000 soldiers in the Kobarid Valley where we are now staying.

"Bear Traps" were used throughout the front to trap soldiers

The museum takes no side.  It chronicles the battles with a framework of actual letters written home by soldiers from all 22 countries involved.  Also on display were numerous artifacts and maps supporting the narrative.  The irony to this slice of history is within a year after the Italian defeat, the Austro-Hungarian/German Alliance collapsed, the Italians came back into the Kobarid Valley and recaptured all the land they lost at such a horrific cost.  WW I ended soon thereafter.

Personal narratives on display

We are just 55 miles from the Adriatic, but the distance is dominated by 75 cemeteries and 'charnel houses' for the war dead.  One of the most dramatic is the Italian Mausoleum (Caporetto Ossuary) overlooking Kobarid.  This octagonal pyramid holds the remains of 7, 014 Italians.  Names are listed alphabetically along with the mass grave holding 1,700 unknown soldiers.

View from the Italian Mausoleum of the Kobarid Valley.  Imagine 600,000 troops
equipment mustered here for the final assault in the Julian Alps in 1917.

Today, in response to such a horrific time in history The Slovenes have created "The Walk of Peace from the Alps to the Adriatic".  It is a series of interconnected hiking trails that lace the land from the Isonzo Front to the Adriatic Sea.  It is a 'warning against wars which should never happen again'.

Day 22b--Touring the Julian Alps.......Named after who??

Your choices......Julius Ceasar in the Roman Era, or Julie Andrews in the "Sound of Music" Era.  -----The hills are alive with the sound of music-------  The answer at the end of this posting.



The Julian Alps, in a sense, is like Yosemite National Park. Three differences:  It's limestone, not granite, it is both uplifted and glacier-carved, and over 300,000 soldiers were killed here in World War I.

Most of it is now protected in the Triglav National Park.  The premier drive is Vrsic Pass.  Similiar to the Tioga Pass through Yosemite.  Today, we will focus on the views, tomorrow's post on the war history.

To give you the immensity that can't be portrayed in these photos, to follow are three pictures of a mountain range, wide angle to telephoto.  In the first photo, note the small hole in the mountain range right of center.  The triangle gap in the last photo is larger than the Statue of Liberty.

Oh, Julius Ceasar.  The Romans were everywhere, naming everything 2000 years ago.

Day 22a--June snow skiing in Slovenia

We kinda stumbled on this gem.  The Planica Nordic Centre.  With seven ski jumping hills and a ski flying' hill(!)  Ski flying isn't an Olympic sport so I haven't heard of it before.  It is basically ski jumping taken to obscene lengths and heights.

These are 5 of the 7 year-round ski jumping hills.

Here are the 7 ski jumping hills.  People were practicing on, from left to right
#5 and #6.  The hills on the far left were short for the bunny skiers.

Here is the sky-flying hill on the left.  Winter use only, no plastic to land on.

A close up of the plastic landing surface

They are skiing on what looks like large ball bearings or marbles.  Fast!

They finish on grass, like a putting green!  We watch kids who
were probably 5 or 6 years old!!

Further, they have an underground cross-country ski training track, which Tom realized is actually their winter underground parking garage!

A video grab of a horizontal wind tunnel they use for ski jump training

And, a guy training on the roads around Lake Bled!