Salona

We kicked things off in The Adriatic by gleefully tucking our thermals, beanies, gloves and fleeces away in the depths of the van.

Breakfast consisted of dusting off the camping chairs and enjoying our bowl of cornflakes by the water in the radiant morning sun.

Feeling alive, we set of to see the ruins of the ancient city Salona. Once a thriving city, it was destroyed by the Romans in 614AD. Now, the ruins sit in amongst the suburbs of Split. It was bizarre yet wonderful to watch local families out on a Sunday afternoon kicking a soccer ball around the ruins of a 1500-year-old amphitheatre.  

A day of two extremes Part 2 – The Adriatic

As we continued south towards Split from the Plitvice Lakes it was remarkable how quickly the landscape changed. The area surrounding the Plitvice Lakes was quite lush, green and forested, but it wasn’t long before the terrain changed to being dry, harsh and arid. For the South Africans out there, Monique described it as being quite ‘Pilanesberg-esque’.

As we kept heading south we made our way over a mountain range and as we came over the top we soon saw the magnificent sparkling blue waters of the Adriatic. It was a magnificent sight. Equally as magnificent was watching the thermometer on the car. It wasn’t long before we saw it hit a very balmy 17 degrees.

We stopped off at the coastal town of Sibenik to watch the sunset (which is now happening at about 4:30pm each day) before continuing on to Split. We were right in the middle of a classically Dalmatian town – stone houses with terracotta roofs situated on a hillside in a bay overlooking the ocean.

We had to pinch ourselves. It is almost hard to image such a diverse day.

A day of two extremes Part 1 –the Plitvice Lakes

We kicked things off in Croatia by visiting the UNESCO protected Plitvice Lakes. There were no campsites open in the area so we booked a guesthouse. It was a good thing that we did because it was a particularly cold night.

We arrived at the Lakes at 9am and the car was telling us that it was 0.5 degrees, but we think it was exaggerating. It was proper cold. We employed our full warmth strategy of thermals, fleece, jackets, beanies, scarves and gloves and we were still freezing.

Not to be deterred, we set off to see the lakes. The best way of describing them is to imagine a massive champagne waterfall. Essentially, the area is a series of 16 lakes, each creating a plateau that creates a waterfall down to the next lake which then plateaus before creating a waterfall down to the next lake, and so on and so on. There were literally thousands of waterfalls ranging in size and intensity from small little trickles dropping over stones, to a raging 100-meter torrents. It was an amazing sensory experience with birds chirping, schools of fish swimming in the crystal clear water and the constant noise of the water skipping over rocks. The place felt alive.

It was one of the most incredible natural wonders that we have ever seen. It’s magnificence is hard to describe, and it’s scale hard to capture in photos.

Almost frozen, we finished up at about 1pm and began our drive south to our next stop, Split. We hadn’t gone far when we saw that the trees in the forest had started to freeze which created a beautiful white canopy over the forest.

Driving through a war zone

We arrived in Croatia and as we drove east through the northern part of the country we were shocked to see an enormous amount of abandoned villages and houses. We’re not talking about the amazing ancient stone ruins that we saw in Ireland, rather entire towns lying abandoned, dilapidated and in ruin.

As we drove on, we soon realized that this was not an isolated pocket, but a trend that spanned literally hundreds of kilometers. Even where there were signs of life, occupied houses were still dotted amongst the ruins.

As we looked closer, we soon saw that many of the abandoned houses had bullet holes sprayed on their decaying walls, often focused around the windows.

It soon occurred to us that these once rural farming villages that we were driving through had in fact been the frontline of the Croatian War during the early-1990s. It was chilling to get a glimpse into the tragic reality that civilians are usually the first and worst impacted by war, and an insight into the long term impact that this has on local communities. 

We sLOVEnia – Ljubljana and the Mines of Moria

We spent some time in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana (a gold star for anyone who can pronounce it correctly). We were fairly tired by the time we arrived so didn’t hit it with the same intensity as we have other cities, preferring instead to have a long morning tea, shortly followed by a long lunch. Nevertheless, Ljubljana was buzzing with a young student population and very few tourists.

We finished up our time in Slovenia by visiting the Škocjan Caves – described as ‘ranking among the most important caves in the world’. It was amazing walking through massive chambers of stalagmites and stalactites and then over a bridge spanning a 100 meter deep underground canyon and raging underground river. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures, so click here for some examples.

As a side point, for anyone out there who is a Lord of the Rings fan, the caves were very much like what we imagine the Mines of Moria to be like. You could picture Gandalf and the Belrog falling into the abyss from the tiny bridge that we had to cross. Very cool…in a nerdy kind of way :)

As a very brief closing comment on Slovenia, we absolutely loved it. We didn’t know much about it before going, and really only decided to go because it was on our route, but it was thoroughly worthwhile. It is an amazingly green and beautiful country.  

Vintgar Gorge

After our stroll around Lake Bled, we drove 15 minutes up the road and walked through the Vintgar Gorge. It was quite stunning. 

The two faces of Lake Bled - Part 2

It says in the bible that we can put anything before God in prayer and he will listen. Does that mean that you can pray for a car park when you’re in a hurry? What about praying for nice weather? What happens if you pray for no rain, but there is a farmer up the road who desperately needs rain? Does God listen to such trivial prayers? Doesn’t he have more important prayers to listen to?

Anyway, after spending the previous day in horribly drab and overcast weather, we prayed for some sunshine.

We woke up and to our disappointment, nothing much had changed. We packed up the van and started driving to the lake, still determined to enjoy it for what it was.

We made it half way along the road to Bled and on the horizon we saw the faintest hint of blue sky just beginning to poke out from behind the cloud. We kept driving and by the time we reached the lake all the cloud and mist had cleared and it was sitting under a perfectly blue and radiant sky.

We parked the car and enjoyed the 6km stroll around the lake, very grateful for the opportunity to see the beautiful Lake Bled in all its resplendent glory.

Who says God doesn’t listen to small and trivial prayers?

The two faces of Lake Bled - Part 1

We arrived in Slovenia and our first stop was Lake Bled. Variously described as ‘impossibly beautiful’ and ‘postcard perfect’, Lake Bled is a perfectly still lake sitting at the foot of Slovenia’s highest mountain peaks with a castle perched up on a hill and an island in the middle with a gorgeous Baroque church. Needless to say, we were quite excited. The only issue was that the dense and heavy cloud that had been following us for the past week or so seemed as thick and heavy as ever.

We had a very lazy morning before seeing the castle in the afternoon, hoping against hope that the cloud would clear the next day. 

Melk Abbey and Graz

From Prague we drove south again and finished our time in Austria by visiting the towns of Melk and Graz.

Melk is renowned for it’s Abbey – founded in 1089 and described as one of the world’s most famous and significant monastic sites. We had a guided tour which was lead by a devout Catholic – he was incredibly passionate about the Abbey. Also fascinating was the Abbey’s library which had an amazing collection of medieval books and manuscripts.

From there we continued further south and spent a day in the town of Graz. It was a Sunday and the place was almost totally empty and closed, but it was still gorgeous. It also had a really cool and trippy double-spiral staircase.  

Prague

We spent three days in Prague. While we were a tad disappointed with only seeing dense heavy cloud the whole time that we were there, it was thoroughly worthwhile making the detour.

Firstly, the architecture was most impressive. There was baroque, art nouveau, art deco, and even some cubism thrown into the mix (we’ve been learning some new words!). Prague only lost one building from bombing in World War 2, so it is all very original.

Secondly, learning about the history of the city was fascinating. We took a ‘free’ walking tour of the city which was very interesting. Our guide’s grandmother has lived in Prague her whole life, yet has lived in eight different countries. As an Australian, that is unfathomable.

The cool thing about Prague, in a similar way to Berlin, is how recent all the history is. Standing in the square where the protesting happened to bring an end to the Communist regime in November 1989 was surreal. We visited the Communist museum (located between a McDonalds and Casino – Prague black humor) and saw footage of the protests the led to the ‘Velvet Revolution’ and learnt about the extreme lengths the Communist party went to in their attempts hold on to power.

Thirdly, the Goulash! Need we say more?

A bumpy drive into Prague

We ummed and ahhed a fair bit about whether or not we would go to Prague. Firstly, it was a fair detour (refer to ‘Where in the world…’), and secondly it would mean prolonging the cold weather. In the end, the allure of Prague’s beauty and history won out.

As we crossed the border from Austria into the Czech Republic it was quite remarkable how sudden and obvious the change was. The remnants of the former Communist regime were still quite evident in the square housing blocks – ‘Stalin Flats’ - and very tired looking infrastructure. The main road into Prague was like permanently driving on a ribbed warning strip.

We also bade farewell to our dear friend, TomTom. Unfortunately when we downloaded the EU maps, the Czech Republic wasn’t included. We pulled into the first petrol station that we came across and bought a big piece of paper with lots of coloured lines – apparently people used to call them maps? Monique did a sterling job of navigating us through the nonsensical web of Prague roads and directly to our campsite.

Looking forward to seeing Prague…let’s hope the cloud cover clears.

We couldn't help ourselves... :)

The Original Sacher Torte

Our food tourism continued as we enjoyed a slice of Viennese Sacher Torte. Not just any Sacher Torte, but the Original Sacher Torte made from the patented original recipe in the Sacher Cafe.

For those that aren’t across the historical significance of the Sacher Torte (like us until we read all about it on the menus), basically a young apprentice pastry chef, Franz Sacher, had to fill in for his boss who had fallen ill before having to cook desert for a bunch of royals. Franz stepped in and created the original 32-step recipe, everyone loved it, and 179 years later it’s still being shipped all over the world. 

We enjoyed it, but if we were going picky, it was a tad dry for our liking. Three and half stars. 

Next stop, Prague. 

Vienna

From Salzburg we continued east and arrived in Vienna.

Vienna is quite Parisian with wide boulevards and similar architecture. We also visited the Schonbrunn Palace which was very Versailles-esque with lavish manicured gardens.

 A whole lot of the centre of the city was blocked off because the Chinese President was in town. It would have been a good time to rob a bank, because every police officer in Vienna was congregated around patrolling the empty streets. 

Rolled in glitter

We decided to enjoy a truly cultural experience while in Salzburg and go to a Mozart dinner and concert. The dinner was a formal three-course affair held in the oldest restaurant in central Europe (803AD) where they claim that Mozart’s family dined. The night featured a six-piece orchestra that performed three of Mozart’s famous operas.

It was a sensational evening. The food – based on 18^th century recipes – was divine, the music inspiring, and the venue truly spectacular.

The only issue was the dress code. Unfortunately ‘semi-formal’ was a stretch too great for our extremely limited wardrobes. We couldn’t quite squeeze a ball gown and suit into our backpacks.    

We weren’t deterred. Daniel dressed up his jeans and filthy Chuck Taylors with a (un-ironed) collared t-shirt, while Monique donned some earrings and a scarf.

As the old (somewhat crude) saying goes…’you can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter’.

We did our best to roll ourselves in glitter.

Cream coloured ponies and schnitzel with noodles

For fellow movie-musical lovers it may interest you that The Sound of Music was filmed in and around Salzburg.

Monique, who has loved the movie for literally 20 years, was giddy with excitement.

Salzburg offers a variety of kitsch Sound of Music tours that didn’t quite fit our budget, so Monique painstakingly researched where all the scenes from the film were shot.

Over a two-day period she enthusiastically marched around Salzburg and it’s surrounds pointing out buildings, fountains and streets, while spontaneously breaking out into song at every opportunity. Daniel was somewhat less enthusiastic, but unfortunately for everyone involved, he got all the songs stuck in his head and could also be heard in full voice.

Sights visited include Maria’s abbey, the fountain that she drinks from and the Von Trapp villa in which she sings ‘I Have Confidence’, the gardens from ‘Do-Re Mi’, the church where The Kaptain and Maria were married, the back view of the house, the pavilion from ’Sixteen Going On Seventeen’ and of course, the lively musical hills on which we did some obligatory twirling.

It was a major highlight for Monique, while Daniel will be happy if he doesn’t have to hear the soundtrack again for at least 3 years :)

Sophisticated Salzburg

We arrived in Salzburg, Austria – the land of apple strudel, Mozart, marionettes, and of course, The Sound of Music.

While we have been extremely lucky with very little rain so far on our trip, our first day in Salzburg was a very damp and dreary. Not for the first time, we arrived on a public holiday. We spent the morning in the warmth of a café enjoying apple strudel and buying Mozart chocolates (which, for the chocolate connoisseurs out there, are super cheap!).

On exploring Salzburg over the next few days, we found it to be classy, stylish and sophisticated, with a particularly well-preserved old town. While we have noticed that in a lot of old cities, the quaint buildings and shop fronts are somewhat distracted with the overbearing signage of modern chain stores, Salzburg has done a great job of sticking with tradition. Even McDonalds has had to tone down it’s ubiquitous golden arches in keeping with tradition.

A day in Munich

We had a short stay in Munich and did three cool things…

1. Went to the Hofbrauhouse for dinner. We enjoyed some sensational German sausage, beer, sauerkraut and potatoes.

2. Strolled through the markets that we already starting to sell beautiful Christmas decorations

3. Daniel found a music shop and got to play guitar! 

Dachau Concentration Camp

The most intense and moving thing that we have done on our trip so far was visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial site.

Some quick background….Dachau was the very first concentration camp opened by the Nazis in 1933.  Known as the ‘Academy of Terror’, it was the model that all subsequent camps were based upon. Originally built to house 6000 prisoners, it held around 30,000 at it’s peak. It is estimated that over 30,000 people died there. 

It is hard to capture the full extent of emotions that we felt in a short blog post. We simultaneously felt shocked, sickened, sad, empty, confused, angry and hollow.

Intellectually we understood that the ground we were standing on was of immense significance, but it is hard to fully grasp, comprehend and process that reality. 

We found ourselves asking the age-old question ‘how can one human being do this to another?’

After learning about the torture, the murders, the sub-human living conditions, the human experiments and the indefinite incarceration without trial or hope of release, it was hard not to feel hollow when standing in front of the memorial plaque that read ‘Never Again’.

Liechtenstein

We drove through Liechtenstein on the way to Munich. We stopped, ate a biscuit, took a photo, and are thus claiming it as a country visited.  

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