smartno and kobarid

smartno and kobarid

9 Oct 2023

When working on the itinerary for my trip I wanted to visit a wine region. I decided to visit the Brda region because it looked so beautiful and because of it's proximity to both Croatia and the Soča Valley.

As I was going to be staying in Šmartno itself, I booked a room at the Hisa Marica located in the middle of the small walled village. 

Šmartno (St Martin) is named after the church located in the village and the whole village has been declared a cultural heritage monument. It's a very popular destination for hikers and cyclists, so I saw a lot of active wear during my stay.

It was also the start of a few days of rainy weather and with not much else to do other than eat, the in house restaurant at Hisa Marica had no availability for dinner. I put on my puppy dog pleading eyes and asked if they could squeeze me in for an early dinner and I promised to eat quickly. They relented.

As it had been a long drive from Rovinj, I was glad to park the car and walk around the small village, visit the church and take some photos before dinner time. 

It's such a pretty village with stunning vistas.

Slovenia is known for it's cheese (they sneak it into everything!) so at dinner I had goats cheese with figs for my entrée and beef tagliata with mashed potatoes and salad for my main course. The tagliata was the dish of the night and I saw plate after plate of the beef tagliata leave the pass. 

I finished dinner early enough to photograph the sunset.

The next morning I briefly visited the nearby village of Kozana before making my way to Kobarid.

The leaves had started to turn autumnal.

The weather started to turn and by the time I arrived in Kobarid, the rain had set in and it rained all day. 

Kobarid is styled as an adventure activity town with rafting and kayaking on the Soča River and nearby gorges and waterfalls you can visit. It also has narrow streets lined with century old buildings.

Its also an area of historic significance because it was here that the Battle of Caporetto, Italy's largest military defeat, took place in World War I. Slovenia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy was its enemy. There is an historic walking trail, which I'd planned to walk, but the foul weather and much of the trail inaccessible due to road maintenance. 

I visited the Parish Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary in the centre of the town as refuge from the rain. I was the only person there and I found the church in darkness, so it was hard to take any interior photos. 

I decided to visit the ossuary of Saint Anthony, which I could see from my room. The ossuary is a monument to the thousands of soldiers who died on the Italian front and it's located next to the church of St Anthony on a hilltop above Kobarid. 

It's kind of anachronistic as it was built during the time of Mussolini and it's design reflects this era. It dwarfs the tiny centuries old church. I found the simple graves located in the foothills of the memorial very moving.

The heavens opened while I was there and I was drenched. With limited wet weather options available, I visited the Kobarid Museum so I could brush up on my non-existent knowledge of the Battle of Caporetto and to fill in some time before dinner.

I planned to have dinner at Hisa Polonka, a no reservations inn in the middle of Kobarid, across the road from the Museum. I was there when the restaurant opened and had no trouble getting a table. I ordered a salad which was delicious and came topped with home made cottage cheese made from a combination of goats and sheep's milk. It was served with warm homemade sourdough bread and accompanied my bowl of delicious home made potato gnocchi served with a veal ragu. Everything was perfectly simple and simply perfect.

You'll notice the absence of food photos - the room was too dark and it would have done the food no justice. During my trip I watched many other people taking photos of their every meal and I thought it was ridiculous. When I'm hungry I just want to eat, not style and photograph my plate of food.

The next day the weather was much better so I took a little road trip to the charming village of Drežnica.

I pulled over by the roadside and parked the car.

It was a misty old morning and I waited for the fog to lift and the Sacred Heart Church to appear.

I drove into the village before returning to Kobarid.

I then risked my life to take a photo of the historic Napoleon Bridge.The original stone bridge was blown up by Austrian soldiers during WWI, so this bridge is a replacement. The wet weather had churned up the river so it wasn't the spectacular green for which the river is famous.

Once done I returned to the car for the hair raising drive to Lake Bohinj for my next adventure.

See you all again next week with the continuing story.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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rovinj via skocjan caves

rovinj via skocjan caves

3 Oct 2023

Hi every-one. I know this post is a day late, but I flew home yesterday and by the time I sorted myself out a bit, it was already my bedtime. As I've been awake since midnight, I've had plenty of time to prepare these images.

I thought I'd like to spend some time by the sea on my holiday and Slovenia doesn't have much of a coastline. Rovinj seemed to offer a bit more, but to get to Croatia I either had to hire a car or take a very long bus ride from Ljubljana. 4 hours sitting on a bus didn't sound like much fun, so I hired a car. 

I drove from Ljubljana to Rovinj via the Skocjan Caves. You can't take photos inside the caves, so I left my camera in the car but I snapped a few photos of the walk out on my phone. I think the climb involved tackling 500+ stairs.

I was surprised to see cyclamens in the wild.

I drove from the caves to Rovinj in Croatia. Rovinj is a walled city and my accommodation was in the old town. 

You can't park in the old town, so my car was garaged a few kilometres away and you're ferried to your accommodation via golf buggies, whcih zip around town. As soon as I could, I walked around the old town to get my bearings before hunting down some pizza.

I stayed in a top floor apartment in the old town and Balbi's Arch was just around the corner.

Rooftops, photographed from my terrace.

The local cat.

The centre of the town is located around Maršal Tito Square.

Rovinj is a very popular summer tourist destination for European families and all the menus are written in Italian, German, English and Croatian. Australian accents were a rarity. The water is crystal clear and most activities are water based so either swimming, dolphin cruises or sailing. Otherwise every one is outside eating at one of the many eateries all offering the same tourist menu of pasta, grills, seafood and pizza or drinking Aperol spritz.

The Italian influence is pretty clear both in architecture and cuisine. This is my bowl of the classic Croatian dish of mixed shells from the Hotel Adriatic.

Rovinj's skyline is dominated by the bell tower of St. Euphemia located in the old town.  

The cobble stoned streets look so Italian.

It's a steep uphill walk through the old town.

St. Euphemia

Once inside, you're rewarded with frescoed ceilings.

You can return by the coastal route via the popular Baluota Beach - no annoying sand to get between your toes though.

There were lots of glamorous looking seaside bars.

It was a bit too early in the day for a spritz though.

One day I decided to catch the ferry to the nearby Santa Katerina Island.

It's just a 5 minutes ferry ride across to the isalnd. Is it possible to catch the wrong ferry across? Well I did and arrived at St. Anthony island instead, necessitating another ferry ride back to Rovinj then back out again.

St Katerina Island features a hotel surrounded by gardens and you can use all the facilities on the Island including the swimming pool, beaches (rocky coves)  and restaurant. It has a great view of Rovinj and it's cooler there as it catches the breeze.

One last swing by Baluota Beach before I left, as its the only beach in walking distance from the old town. 

Despite the terrifying car ride from Slovenia, I think Rovinj was worth the effort.

See you all again soon with some more photos of Slovenia.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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ljubljana

ljubljana

25 Sept 2023

 

I flew into Ljubljana last week and spent a few days there before driving to Croatia. I'm heading back there today for my final day in Slovenia.

I really didn't know what to expect from Ljubljana, other than it was going to be pretty and pretty it was. Ljubljana is known for it's many bridges such as the Triple Bridge, the Butcher's Bridge and the Dragon Bridge which features 4 dragons. Why dragons? The patron saint of Ljubljana is St George and we all know about his dragon slaying reputation. Even in Slovenia I can't get away from the place!

Jože Plečnik is known as the architect of modern Ljubljana and he's responsible for the Covered Market building and the Triple Bridge.

You know how much I love a good market, so I snapped quite a few images before going on my walking tour.

Everything was so lovely, fresh and local.

Ljubljana has a number of distinct architectural styles in the main due to the earthquake of 1895. The old town was largely unscathed and has Baroque architecture, whilst the new town was rebuilt in the art nouveau style of Austria as Sloveno=ia was then pasrt of the Austro-Hungarian empire. You can tell someone was paying very close attention to the tour guide! Anyway I managed to catch both architectural styles in this image.

The architecture on the other side of the river.

Some of the shops

The eateries were busy on a sunny Saturday.

The ceiling of St. Nicholas Cathedral.

On a hot Sunday with most of the shops closed, I visited the famous Tivoli Park. You can see autumn is on its way.

Looking through my photos, there seem to be a few gaps, so I might run around with my camera this afternoon. 

See you all again next week with some more travel photos. 

Bye for now, 

Jillian

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