Category Archives: trip planning

trip planning

Chasing lakes and waterfalls in Aus-cro-slo-aus… part one

So much natural beauty… almost all to ourselves…

I may live to regret titling this particular trip series as I have. At the moment, I’m having trouble coming up with a snappy name for my latest vacation blog series. It might be because my brain is still scrambled by the whirlwind of four countries Bill and I have traversed since October 26th. It could also be because the time has changed. Additionally, I’m still a bit peeved about today’s lunch, which I’ll probably bitch about on my other blog, since I like to keep the travel blog somewhat “PG-rated”.

People who regularly follow this blog may know that Bill and I finally took our 2021 vacation. It was not a small undertaking to plan this trip, or even decide where to go. Gone are the days when we could just choose a destination on a whim. These days, we have to pay attention to COVID-19 rules and regulations, which seem to change daily, as well as infection trends. I feel like I’m back at South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control, working for the Bureau of Epidemiology, where it was once my job to translate the results of chronic disease trend statistics into laymen’s terms. Thanks to my current career as an “overeducated housewife”, those days are long behind me… or, at least I don’t get paid to do them anymore.

As of about an hour ago, our vacation ended, as we walked into our house and I caught a whiff of the rotting avocado and mozzarella cheese in the refrigerator. At first, I was afraid someone forgot to flush the toilet before we left town! The dogs will be picked up in a couple of hours; hopefully, they are both fine. I sure have missed them… I really mean that, even though taking them with us on trips isn’t exactly easy to do, especially now that we have big Noyzi, and Arran has become a cranky old codger.

So how did I choose a trip to Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia, then back to Austria? At first, it wasn’t in the plans. Originally, I had been looking at going to The Netherlands. I kept getting enticing ads on Facebook, particularly for a very upscale looking property in Zeeland. I must admit that the prospect of enjoying some legal weed was also somewhat appealing. But then I started thinking about how much I’d like to go to France and Belgium, too. I started trying to design an itinerary that would allow us to get the most bang for our bucks and the time Bill got off from work. I kept getting bogged down in and frustrated by minutiae, as I realized that the places I wanted to go weren’t all that convenient to each other. Accommodations were also kind of pricey. And then, I had a sudden flashback to 2015, when our return to Europe was still new and exciting…

Several years ago, when COVID-19 was a mere nightmarish fantasy in the back of a mad scientist’s or Hollywood screenplay writer’s most warped mind, I saw an enticing video on YouTube made by a user who called herself heyannalise. She made entertaining clips about traveling in Europe. Back in May 2015, she made one about her visit to the Krka National Park in Croatia. I was enchanted by the scenery in her video, which I am sharing below…

No… this is not where we went. I tried to get us tickets to the Krka National Park, but was unsuccessful. You have to buy them at least a day in advance, and all of the tickets were sold out for when we were in Croatia and had time to go… We will try to come back for an experience like Annalise had.

Somehow, even though I was enthralled by Annalise’s video, Bill and I never got around to visiting Croatia, even though we’ve now been in Europe for ages… I kept meaning to go, and we did once take a “joyride” to Pula, Croatia while we were visiting Trieste, Italy in May 2016. But we never managed to actually book a real trip there that involved staying overnight. Time moved on from 2015, and I pushed thoughts of Croatia to the back burner, even though my Croatian friend, Boris, who organizes trips to Croatia, kept wanting me to go and blog about the experience. The timing just never seemed to work out for us, or there was somewhere else I wanted to see that was more pressing or convenient.

As I was planning our most recent trip, thinking about France, Belgium, and The Netherlands, I couldn’t help noticing a nagging thought in the back of my head, reminding me how much I had been wanting to visit Croatia to see waterfalls and lakes. Since I managed to nag Bill into taking a lot of days off work, I realized that we finally had enough time to really enjoy ourselves and see a lot, and that meant it made sense to finally take the plunge and go to Croatia. I also knew I could break up the trip into manageable and affordable blocks, and that was a real plus. My days of wanting to drive eight hours straight to cram in life experiences are long done, and I don’t need much encouragement to overspend on fancy hotels. I also have no desire to fly during the age of COVID-19 unless it’s absolutely unavoidable.

By the time I was ready to go to Croatia, I had forgotten where Annalise had actually gone. I went on Google and started searching… and somehow, instead of Krka National Park, I wound up finding the Plitvice Lakes. Now… there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with going to Croatia just to see the Plitvice Lakes. They are stunning and mesmerizing, and you will definitely get plenty of exercise and fill your camera with exquisite photos of magical scenery. But we were down there for four nights, and Krka National Park is only about a 90 minute drive from where we stayed. It would have been nice to combine the two experiences, although now we have a good reason to visit Croatia again and do a LOT more exploring. It really is a beautiful and easy to travel country, especially for English speakers. And… we haven’t been to the coast yet, to see all the towns that tourists flock to during the summer months. We have a good reason to go back to Croatia, now.

Anyway, once I’d decided on Croatia, it was time to plan for a visit somewhere else within proximity. I recalled that while we were visiting Trieste in 2016, we also visited Lake Bled in Slovenia. I remember being totally enchanted by beautiful Lake Bled and the other areas in Slovenia we visited on that trip. I also specifically remembered Slovenians telling Bill and me that we should visit Lake Bohinj, as it was even better than Bled is, and less touristy. Realizing that Bohinj was maybe 4 or 5 hours from the Plitvice Lakes area, I determined that it would be a great second stop on our trip. We could spend another four nights there.

The cities where we chose our visits in Austria were mostly down to being practical. We decided to stop in Wels, Austria on the way down to Croatia because it was about halfway to where our final destination would be, and Bill and I didn’t want to stay in Linz or Passau, which are cities we’ve both already visited. Ditto to our stop in Salzburg. Every time we’ve gone to Slovenia– we also went to Kranjska Gora, Slovenia last year to pick up Noyzi— we’ve stopped in Salzburg, because it’s convenient. It’s also a great town to visit, although on our other two trips, we’ve only spent a night there and neglected to properly enjoy the city.

  • This is the very delicious ham and asparagus meal that I ate in Salzburg in May 2012…

We did take a day trip to Salzburg in May 2012, when we did our very first military hop, and we got to see the city on that trip. But we visited Salzburg from Munich instead of staying there overnight, and that sharply limited our ability to see a lot. I also remember getting caught in a sudden late spring thunderstorm that day, so we ended up ducking back into the restaurant where we had lunch (ham and asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce), and drinking lots of beer and Schnapps! I remember the proprietor was quite pleased with us giving him more business. I think that restaurant has since closed down, which is a pity. We sure enjoyed going there.

Ever since that day trip in 2012, I had been wanting to go back to Salzburg. Russian buskers had made me cry there, and I saw some beautiful Friesian horses… But every time we’ve stayed in Salzburg overnight, we’ve been rushing to or from somewhere else, so this time, I decided we’d spend two nights.

With all of the cities chosen, I went looking for places to stay. Wels, Austria, it turns out, is a very pleasant and attractive city, but it’s not particularly exciting or noteworthy. I noticed they had catfish there. There are museums to see, and the downtown area is nice. But I didn’t find any cute places to rent. Consequently, we ended up booking Hotel Ploberger for two nights, which is supposedly the best hotel in town. I was amused by their very aggressive sales tactics, right on their own Web site. For the other three stops, I booked homes privately managed by hosts I found on Booking.com. Not only was that safer in terms of COVID-19, it was also more convenient. Lake Bohinj and the Plitvice Lakes areas are both chock full of apartments and homes to rent. I would say there are more private residences for renting than hotel rooms, although they do exist. And in Salzburg, I chose to rent a place owned by a musician/music producer. That was mainly because I am myself a musician. I will write a lot more about all of the properties as the series gets underway… and as we were gone for twelve nights, it’s bound to be a long one.

We had a fantastic time on our trip, and I look forward to detailing the blow by blow, even if Bill and I are the only ones who read it. So, now that the introduction is done, on with my blog series on the trip down to Aus-Cro-Slo-Aus. Hope you enjoy the ride.

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blog news, trip planning

Ready, set…

It’s early Sunday morning. We are still in Salzburg, Austria, but we’re already packed up and will probably be on the road to Germany in an hour or so. We have had a marvelous trip, and I am ready to write all about it. I don’t know what time we’ll get home today, since Germany has experienced a large surge in COVID-19 infections since we’ve been gone. I expect we could experience a delay at the border, even though Bill uploaded our vaccine documents to the Robert Bosch Institute (or whatever), proving that we’ve had the shots.

I look forward to having clean laundry and seeing my dogs. I’ve been worried about them while we’ve been gone, but I also know that we would have heard something if they weren’t okay. I look forward to taking a nap with Arran and being goosed in the butt by Noyzi. I do like to take trips, but I also like being at home, where everything is familiar. I suppose my car battery is probably dead, since the Mini hasn’t been started in ages. And hopefully, no one broke in during our absence, but our landlord lives next door and is always home, so I doubt that happened.

So this blog will be waking up very soon…. I look forward to sharing the many photos and stories, hopefully starting today, but definitely starting tomorrow… unless we get wiped out on the Autobahn, or I get arrested for punching out bikers who flip me off (more on that in an upcoming blog post).

Stay tuned!

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money, trip planning

Trip planning and “lunner” at La Fonte…

Well, it’s finally all settled. Bill and I are going on vacation in about ten days. I wasted most of today planning our upcoming adventure to Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. But it wasn’t without significant ass pain. Sorry, I know this is a first world problem. It’s just that sometimes it’s a pain in the butt to have American credit cards when you live in Europe.

The ass pain started when Bill let me know that the dogs are confirmed at the dog pension. In the past, we have taken our dogs with us on longer trips, but that was when we had Zane, who was a beagle. Noyzi is a big guy and needs a lot of room. Also, it’s just a lot easier traveling with one species. So, once we got the boys’ lodging confirmed, I went to work.

I knew I wanted to go to Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. That’s about eleven hours’ drive from Wiesbaden. I’ve been wanting to go there for ages, and it’s about the end of the vacation season. After November 1, things kind of go to sleep. I knew it would be a stretch to try to go to Plitvice without breaking up the trip. Bill had noticed Austria’s fair city of Graz, which does look really appealing. But that’s at least eight hours away without any traffic or stops, and we have to drop off the dogs before we set off, which we can’t do until about 9:00am. I knew we would get in super late, and Bill would be weird and tired if we tried to make Graz in one day.

So, I ended up booking up at a hotel in Wels, Austria. Or, at least I tried. I found a well regarded and highly rated place in Wels. I tried to book directly from the hotel’s Web site. It had a rather aggressive pop up system. But, as I was booking, I got sent to a site called Saferpay, which was supposed to make my card transaction “safer” somehow. It timed out or something. My reservation didn’t go through properly, and Bill had to book with his card.

Then, I went on Booking.com and booked a beautiful house in a village near Plitvice Lakes. I tried to use my USAA card for that booking and was immediately declined. PenFed let me book that place, and the next place, near Lake Bohinj in Slovenia. But when I tried to book our last place, in Salzburg, Austria, PenFed declined my charges, too.

In fairness, I don’t use my credit cards much. I once had a lot of credit card debt and paid it all off. I don’t want to get back into credit card debt again, so I usually use my debit card for everything. I use my credit cards mostly for big purchases and trips. Consequently, I often get these problems when I actually use credit, but USAA usually sends an alert to my phone, which allows me to accept or decline charges. This time, I got an email letting me know I had to call USAA… and it came about an hour after everything was settled. Bill and I were having a very late lunch, which I badly needed, because I was hungry and in a FOUL mood.

La Fonte is our neighborhood Italian restaurant, affiliated with the Sportsplatz. We’ve only eaten there a few times, mainly due to COVID. Today, we dined in, and we had to prove we were vaccinated. I still got a dirty look from another patron. He probably wondered why Americans were there, even though there are a number of Americans living in Breckenheim.

I ordered Montepulciano and Tortellini al Forno, which is with cream sauce, ham, and cheese. Bill ordered fettuccini with cream sauce and shrimp. The dish brought out to me was baked rigatoni with Bolognese sauce. We told the waitress, who apologized and brought out my correct order after about twenty minutes. I did taste Bill’s dish. Next time, I’m having what he had… not because mine wasn’t good, but because I liked what he had better.

  • Safety first.
  • This was so good. Next time, I’m having the fettuccini with shrimp.
  • Tortellini with ham and cream sauce… and lots of stretchy cheese.

I might have enjoyed dessert, but we were sitting in the outdoor area, which is next to the smoking section. They left the door to the smoking section open, so the smoke wafted into where we were sitting and clogged up my nose. Plus, as we were eating, I got that email from USAA, which really annoyed me. We paid about 43 euros for lunch, and I think we should come back to La Fonte more often. It really is a nice place, and they were doing a brisk business today. They don’t take a pause, either. We need to enjoy lunch there when I’m not preoccupied with my credit cards. Next time, we’ll sit inside the restaurant, away from the smokers.

When we got home, I took a quick shower and then Skyped USAA. I spent 40 worthless minutes waiting until the representative said I needed to call back on my cell phone. The whole time, I kept hearing the same insanity inducing hold “song”, which if you’re a musical person, like I am, is MADDENING.

After the woman told me she couldn’t help, I hung up with her and called on my cell phone. Supposedly, you can call collect if you’re overseas, but only if you’re on a landline. We don’t have a landline.

So I called… and this time, after about 8 minutes of waiting, I got someone much more competent. I explained what happened, and she removed the block. We don’t know why USAA reacted the way it did, and why they didn’t send me a text to allow me to confirm or deny the charges. But now that card, at least, is unblocked. As for PenFed, I’m not sure if that card is blocked. But it did allow me to book the bulk of our stay in the Balkans, so I’m happy enough with that.

I’m not calling them today, though. Now, I need a drink and some good music… And it’s time to plan all of the things we’re going to do, because I have a feeling we’re going to have a blast.

Lake Bohinj was suggested to us in May 2016 by several Slovenians, when we visited Lake Bled. I was overwhelmed by how many vacation homes there are there. It took forever to choose one, but I think I chose one that will make us happy for four nights.

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trip planning

A whirlwind trip to Austria, Italy, and probably Switzerland, part 11

I talked Bill into taking the train to Gruyeres, mainly because I knew he was tired of driving.  I figured it would be easier to relax on the train and he wouldn’t have to worry about parking.  Having now been to Gruyeres, I can say that it seems to be an easy drive there and there’s plenty of what looked like free parking.  However, the train is also a treat.  You go through some absolutely gorgeous, remote, Alpine villages.

The surreal blue lit bathroom at the Vevey train station.  It cost 1 franc to use it.  It was the handicapped stall, which I used because the other stalls appeared to take 50 cents and I didn’t have the right coin for them.  

Note the sign, written in four languages…  I guess if you’re Spanish or Dutch, you’re out of luck.  (kidding!)

Originally, Bill got us second class seats.  He said it was because the lady who helped him didn’t speak English very well. I talked him into upgrading when we got to Montreux.  It was no problem, especially since that time, he got a lady whose English was perfect.  I’m not sure we had better seating per se; that’s just how we’ve gotten used to traveling on trains.  We took a six minute train to Montreux, then a GoldenPass panoramic train for the 45 minute trip to Montbovin.  Our car was full of guys who appeared to be from India.  They took pictures the whole way.  I drank prosecco (9,90 francs) and Bill had a large Boxer beer (6,50 francs).  They also had other beverages, including my favorite bubbly, Taittinger, and snacks for sale.  I almost splurged on Taittinger, but even I have my limits on what I’ll spend money on.

Bill takes his seat and checks the menu.  I was a little worried we’d miss the train, since he went to upgrade the tickets.  He made it with plenty of time to spare.

The view… pardon my reflection.

Prosecco for me… in a real glass!

 

Beer for Bill.

The views alone are worth the train ride.


Most of these little towns were stopped in only by request.  I got a kick out of the English version of the announcements on the train.  The woman had an obvious American accent.  I would have expected a British accent.

From Montbovin, there was another 18 minute ride on a very new train with second class seating to Gruyeres.  Then we took a bus to the village.  You don’t have to take the bus, though if you have mobility problems, it may be advisable.  Walking there from the train station involves hiking up a hill with some steps.  Hours later, we walked back down when we’d had enough of Gruyeres.

The first thing we did in Gruyeres was stop into a fondue restaurant for lunch.  In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t the best idea for me to go there because there were people eating raclette, which is made with very strong, pungent cheese.  I walked into the place and was almost knocked over by the smell of ripe cheese.  Bill didn’t notice it nearly as quickly as I did and he thought it smelled great.  I guess the next time I want to turn him on, I’ll just dab a little stinky cheese behind my ears.

First glimpse of Gruyeres.  There’s a lot to do here, but we were set on the H.R. Giger Museum.

Bill checks things out.

We had lunch at Auberge De La Halle…  

A half liter of Swiss wine went nicely with our lunch.  It also distracted me from the raunchy smell of ripe cheese.  Bill thought it smelled great, of course.

A salad came with my zander filet.

Zander (pike perch) with sauteed leeks in a white wine sauce and boiled potatoes.  The sauce was very buttery and sinful.

Bill had a salad with cured meats and local cheeses.  He said it was excellent.  I tried a little of the ham and I will agree that it was very good.  Maybe we should have had fondue.  It’s made with cheese that isn’t quite so strong.

Outside of the restaurant.

A Christmas tree.

 

Once we finished lunch, we headed to the museum.  For those who don’t know who H.R. Giger was (I didn’t until I met Bill), he was a surrealist artist whose creations appeared in the films, Alien and Dune, among many other works.  Giger died last year, but was very prolific while he was alive.  His museum is full of his very disturbing and brilliant works, along with some from some other artists.  He acquired the Chateau St. Germain in 1998 and his museum has been operational there ever since.

The front door.

Bill checks out the ground… the inside of the museum has the same type of very intricate etchings.  Bill was fascinated by it.

 

It cost us 25 francs (12,50 each) to see the museum.  Photos are not allowed inside.  Some people were bringing their kids to this museum.  I don’t think that’s necessarily the best idea, especially for young children. Many of Giger’s works are very sexual and violent.  Some kids may be frightened by what they see.  Moreover, there is a part of the museum where kids are specifically not allowed.  Inside, there are graphic artistic renditions of human genitalia, as well as some disturbing themes that may be hard to explain to youngsters.  Bill loved the museum.  I was less interested in part because I never saw Giger’s works and partly because the water and wine kicked in as we were looking.

After our museum trip, we had a drink in the bar…

A mojito and a vodka royale…  The bathrooms, by the way, are across the way rather than in the bar itself.

A little kid came into the bar with his dad and promptly ran out screaming.  His dad brought him back in and he screamed and ran out again.  While we did see a few kids in the bar who were totally unfazed, it’s probably best if the kids sit out the Giger museum and just check out the chateau instead.

This little guy is the tip of the iceberg as to what you’ll see in the museum.  Some of it is really weird stuff.

View from the village.

We stopped by a gift shop and bought a couple of things for the house, then got some Gruyeres cheese and chocolate.

Bill had a GREAT day.  The Giger museum was a bucket list activity for him; he’s been wanting to go for years.  I’m glad I got to be with him when he finally did it.

The trains only come on the hour, so we were stuck waiting for a bit.  I entertained myself with photography.  Later, I entertained myself by trying to avoid cigarette smoke.

Our ride back to Montreux was on an older train.  We probably should have checked out more of the cars because they had a couple that seemed nicer than the car we were in.  Ours was full of rambunctious kids and their annoyed parents.  Nevertheless, it was a speedy trip back.  After being around people and their kids all day, I was ready for some quiet time.  We thought we’d have dinner at the hotel.  More on that in the next post.

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adventure, trip planning

A month on a train in Europe… Planning the trip

August 1997 was a big month for me.  On August 21 of that year, I completed my Peace Corps service in the Republic of Armenia and was finally free to live a life in the first world again.  For so many reasons, I was really looking forward to being done with my service, even as I realized that it would mean I’d be unemployed and probably still stuck living with my parents (which sadly eventually came to pass).  But in the weeks leading up to leaving Armenia, I was also looking forward to a one month trip through Europe.

My mom actually told me to take this trip, even though it would eat up some precious funds and time spent looking for work.  She said I’d never again have such a golden opportunity to see the world.  She was right, of course.  Someone in the Peace Corps office had left a copy of Rick Steves’ newsletter,  Europe Through The Back Door.  Rick Steves puts out books of the same title, but back in the 90s, he sent out little news magazines that included the current Eurail pass fares.  I was 25 years old in 1997, which made me still young enough to purchase a second class youth pass.  That was a blessing, given the fact that first class rail passes are a lot more expensive!

Anyway, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.  Europe loomed like a big playground just waiting to be explored.  I purchased a 30 day second class pass that was good for all 17 of the countries affiliated with Eurail back then.  I remember it cost about $600, which was a lot of money for me at the time (and still is now).  I had a Northern Irish friend who was doing an internship in Slovakia and would be finishing up around the time I planned my trip.  I met him and his girlfriend in 1994, when we both worked at a church camp.  Today, those two are married and have four kids.  They live in the UK.

I remember really sweating up until the last minute, trying to get my pass.  Although we had been allowed use of the diplomatic pouch for most of my service, we recently had to give up our privileges and depend on the local mail system.  Armenian mail was pretty messed up back then, so I used an alternative method.  Eurail passes can only be sent to US addresses, so my mom had to send it to France, where it would then be sent on to Yerevan on a charity plane.  It turned out there was a videocassette in the package Rick Steves sent, which held up my pass in Paris.  I waited weeks to get it and when it hadn’t shown up, I enlisted my sisters for help.  Thankfully, one of them is fluent in French and she called Paris and found out what the issue was.  She had them remove the offending videocassette and I got my Eurail pass with about a week to spare… whew!

I also remember purchasing travel insurance, since we had been told by Peace Corps authorities that if something happened to us after we left service, we would be on our own.  I wanted to make sure I could be airlifted if I ended up in an accident or deathly ill.

I had about a week to kill before I was to meet with my friends.  Flying Armenian Airlines was my only way out of Yerevan unless I wanted to use Aeroflot and deal with a layover in Moscow, Russia.  Having heard all the horror stories, I searched Armenian Airlines’ schedule for a suitable flight.  Unfortunately, a lot of Armenian Airlines’ flights took off and landed at obscene times of day.  I remember the most reasonable choices were Sofia, Bulgaria, Athens, Greece, and Frankfurt, Germany; all three left at around 11:00am.  They were all fairly new routes for the airline, which is now mercifully defunct.  Everything else– flights to Amsterdam or Paris, for instance– left at about 3:00am.

I had already gone to Sofia the year prior and knew it was still a bit rustic in Bulgaria.  I gave some thought to going to Athens, but that seemed too inconvenient.  I settled on Frankfurt and bought my one way ticket.  I remember paying about $18 extra for business class, mainly because I wanted the extra 10 kilos of luggage allowed for that class.  My flight to Armenia had been a nightmare because Armenian Airlines was using ancient Soviet era planes that were scary.  As it turned out, they’d leased a new airbus recently and the Frankfurt flight was on that aircraft.  I ended up enjoying a really nice flight out of Armenia at the very front of the plane.  I had my own row and even the food was good.  Had I wanted to, I could have even used the special business class airport lounge.

Rick Steves had talked up a town called Bacharach, which is on the Rhine.  I realized it wasn’t too far from Frankfurt, either.  So when we landed in Frankfurt, I went to the very helpful lady working the Deustche Bahn desk and asked her how to get to the Rhine.  Pretty soon, I was diving into train travel in Europe.  Come to think of it, it was a lucky thing that I started in relatively user friendly Germany, where a lot of people speak English and people are generally pretty sensible.  After a couple of false starts, I finally managed to board the right train to Bacharach, where I would spend my first couple of days out of the Peace Corps.

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