From Sea and Sun to Mountains and Monuments

The past 3 weeks we have been on a 3,100-mile adventure as we made our way from home, through eastern Europe, and back.  It began with a week in Switzerland in the Interlaken area.  While our son experienced the fun of scout camp for a week, the rest of us spent the week in a 400-year-old house in the mountain.  We had some amazing views of the Swiss Alps, and we got to take a few nature hikes to a gorge and to a glacial lake in the mountains.

   

           

     

We also enjoyed some Swiss dining such as fondue, raclette, rosti and an interesting place where we grilled skewers at our place at the table.  And no meal would be complete without some meringue desserts.

Day 1

After our week in the Alps at a slow pace, it was time to pick things up.  We retrieved our son from camp and began our journey to eastern Europe with a long drive through Italy which included 2 rail car transports-an interesting experience sitting in your car being ferried through a dark tunnel in the mountain.

By the late afternoon, we arrived in Slovenia and were treated to scenic, winding roads through densely wooded mountains and small villages alongside rivers and streams.  It was very beautiful although the roads were a bit nerve-racking.

Upon arriving at our rental unit, we were greeted by the host with a glass of her homemade blueberry liquour (a specialty in Slovenia).

We headed off to our first taste of Slovenian food-cottage cheese strukjli (dough filled with cottage cheese), Loska (local beer), ajdovi krapi (buckwheat dumplings stuffed with cottage cheese) and kranjska klobasa (Slovenian sausage).

After a long day of driving, it was time to go to bed.

Day 2

Our second day began with an early morning stop at the local bakery to grab some sweet struklji, apple strudel and a small cake.

With something in our stomachs, we were ready to tackle the Vogar hiking path in Triglav National Park.  The path began in a meadow at the foot of the mountains but quickly became a steep, rocky path up the mountain.

It took us about an hour of straight uphill walking to get to the alpine meadow at the top of the mountain.

After 30 minutes through the meadow, we reached the viewpoint to the lake below.

After enjoying the view, we began to make our way back down the rocky path which was also exhausting.

Once we made it to the bottom, we rewarded our efforts with a lunch stop in a nearby town.  We tried jota (a stew with beans, potatoes and sauerkraut), struklji filled with cottage cheese and breadcrumbs, 2 flavors (plum and herb) of zjange (liquors) and some kremsnita cake for dessert.  Everything was very good.

 

After the enjoyable break from the hiking, we were ready to take on another hike in the afternoon at Vintar Gorge.  The hike was beautiful with really clear water.  Along the way, we saw a lot of fish and barn swallows in the water.  We walked the length of the gorge to the Sum Waterfall at the end.

      

We grabbed a quick snack of potica (poppy seed filled dough).

Then, it was back to hiking to return to the car.  The trail back was through the forested area above the gorge, which was nice, but it was more uphill.  There were some nice views, though.

After completing the hike, we drove around Lake Bled where there are some really lovely spots.

It was time to get some dinner.  We found a cute little place at a gorge area, but they didn’t have many Slovenian dishes.  We were able to try some Slovenian wine and premurska gibanica (layered cake) for dessert.  The layers were poppy seed, apple, dough, etc.  It was pretty nice.

Day 3

On our way out of the area, we stopped at the bakery where we bought a bread that tasted a lot like dirt.  We might have found some pogaca (bread that is cooked in ashes), but we aren’t sure.  But, it was good once you got over the initial surprise of the earthy taste.

While munching our bread, we made our way to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.  On the drive, we discovered that Slovenia does not have a huge population despite being a good-sized country.  Ljubljana only has about 300,000 people, so it really did not feel like a large, bustling capital.  Upon arriving, we made our way to Neboticnik skyscraper to enjoy the views of the city while having a barley coffee and some lemonade which turned out to be straight lemon juice.

   

After gagging down the lemon juice, we walked into the old town and saw several sites such as bridges (Dragon Bridge), old buildings, and the river.

It was all nice, but nothing was overwhelmingly exciting.  We decided to try a dumpling place for our final Slovenian meal.  We had some plum brandy, ajdovi zganci (buckwheat spoonbread with sour milk), and cottage cheese dumplings.  For dessert, we tried an orange and dark chocolate dumpling and a white chocolate coconut dumpling.  It was all very good, but it was so hot outside that we were ready to move on!

We got back in the car and drove for a few hours to get to Croatia.  Our first stop was Rovijn where it was even hotter!!  We walked along the harbor into the old town and were treated to really nice views along the way.

We walked up the cute, winding streets to a church overlooking the sea and through other narrow streets to a tiny art district that had a small gallery with insect paintings (perfect for one member of our group!) on our way to the port.

We saw some jellyfish and fish in the water around the boats, and everything was very cute, but when we could take the heat and blazing sun no longer, we found a spot for dinner on a shady street.  We tried medica (honey liquour) and biska (mistletoe liquour).  Both were good, but the honey was better as my husband liked to point out since he ordered that one!  We also tried Istrian pasta with shrimp, sea bass and truffle pasta with Istrian ham as well as a local wine.

 

Everything was very good, but the heat was unbearable as it felt like 102 degrees with no escape to air conditioning possible.  We left Rovijn and drove to our overnight apartment which was situated on a large farm property.  It was like an oasis in the middle of nowhere because it was impeccable inside and had air conditioning.  It even had a trampoline which was a big hit with our youngest!

Day 4  

Today, we made our way to the Croatian island of Mali Losinj.  We drove to the ferry and took that across to the start of the island chain.

We had nice views throughout the drive, and once we arrived in Mali and got checked in, we were ready to find some lunch.  We found a really nice place on a side street of the port area.

We started with some local cheese and bread along with a local beer and white wine called Malvazija.  Then for our main course, we had buzara mussels (a special broth that the mussels are cooked in), pasticada (marinated beef with gnocchi), and truffle pasta.  We decided to finish with a local dessert which was a sweet ravioli with a berry sauce.  It was really a nice meal.

                   

After lunch, we went to the island’s aromatic garden.  Due to the summer temperatures, most of the plants were not blooming, but you could still get a hint of the smell.  There were some sheep at the garden, and the kids enjoyed petting them.

After the heat of the garden, we were ready to jump into the sea to cool down.  We found a nice, shaded beach, but while it was beautiful, the water was still a bit chilly.  So, since we didn’t want to get all the way in and swim, we spent a lot of time looking at the sea life around the rocks near the shoreline.  The kids had a great time picking up tons of hermit crabs and letting them crawl all over them.  The water was clear enough to see them easily and to see other fish, urchins and flora on the rocks.

 

After cleaning up from the beach, we went to dinner at the port.  We had some pag skir (sheep cheese) and both medica (honey liquour) and loza (grape liquour).  The boys tried some seafood pasta and calamari while the girls went vegetarian.  The food was okay.

After dinner, we walked along the port and found a giant crab in the water near the boats as well as several smaller ones on the dock steps.  We got some ice cream which was pretty good and watched a show in the main area with baton twirlers and a concert band playing lots of recognizable classics.  It was a lot of fun as the weather was perfect and many of people of all ages were out having fun and dancing at the concert.  While no one really wanted to leave, we had an early day planned the next day in order to beat the heat, so we needed to get to sleep.

Day 5

We managed to make it out early to walk the Path of Vitality from Mali Losinj to Veli Losinj, the next island.  The path was a nice, albeit hot, walk along the shoreline and through some forest areas.  Veli was a cute little port area with some historic buildings.

From there, we walked a bit further to an even smaller fishing village called Rovenska.

By this point, it was time to walk back and try to cool off a little before going to lunch at the port.  We found a nice place serving local beer and Teran (local red wine), though it was so hot, I’m not sure how we managed to drink it!  For our meal, we had the sheep cheese followed by mussels buzara, fried calamari and a four-mushroom pasta.  Dessert was a really nice trifle of figs, prosecco, mascarpone cheese and cookies.

     

In the afternoon, we walked to a different beach.  Though we did find some crabs there, it wasn’t quite as fun as the one from the day before.  It was nice to have a chance to cool off though.

After cleaning up, we went to dinner at the port where we had white wine, Hugo Spritz (this is my new summer drink of choice!), medica and sheep cheese.  Our main meal was truffle suplice (pasta), pasta with scampi and caviar and some pizza.  We finished with a cherry brandy called Maraschino (really nice).

        

After dinner, we walked along the port and realized they were having a maritime festival.  So, we grabbed an ice cream and watched a few of the acts including some traditional dancers accompanied by a traditional bagpiper and some accapella singers.  We watched the sun set over the harbor before heading to bed.

Day 6

Today, it was time for us to leave the islands and head back to the mainland.  On our way back to the ferry dock, we saw a ton of Griffon vultures flying in the air.  They are endangered, and this is one of the last places that they can be found in Croatia, so it was really cool to see so many.

After making our way back to the mainland, we began our drive south toward Split.  On the way, we made a stop at Krka National Park.  We enjoyed a nice hike to view the Skradinski waterfall.  The area along the way was pretty with lots of little streams, falls and lakes filled with fish, ducks and dragonflies.  At the waterfall, we even saw a small snake in a little stream.

After the park, we drove the rest of the way into Split.  The city was much bigger and had more of a ritzy, party vibe.  We went to a ridiculously expensive restaurant by mistake, so we just ordered some appetizers and went to walk along the port past all the big yachts.

Day 7

Today began bright and early with an hour-long speed ferry to Bol on Brac Island.  After arriving, we walked along the port and the promenade to the dive shop that we would be using for the day’s activities.  We took a boat across the channel to a bay where our two divers went on a dive and the other two of us went snorkeling.  There were lots of sea cucumbers and small fish as well as some vegetation to be seen from the surface.  The divers saw an octopus.

After an hour or so in the water, we took the boat back to Bol where we enjoyed lunch on the beach.  Our youngest played in the water while we ate a cheese board appetizer.  For the main course, we had some really good scampi gyoza and scallops in cheese as well as some vegetable risotto.  To cap off the meal, we tried Rogac (carob liquour) and Orahovica (walnut liquour).

Then, it was back on the boat to go to a different bay for another snorkeling and dive session.  This time, the divers saw 3 octopi, scorpion fish, nudibranchs and fire worms.  Snorkeling revealed more interesting fish and really huge sea cucumbers as well as a glimpse of two nudibranchs.

After returning to Bol, we made our way back to Split via the ferry and to a late dinner where we had Hugo Spritz and wine, truffle pasta, clams buzara and sea bass.  For dessert, we tried a filled pancake and a Snicker ball.

Day 8

We decided to sleep in this morning and go to the beach for an hour and a half mid-morning.  It was so incredibly hot outside that it was just nice to stand in the water.

In the afternoon, we braved the heat to go to the old town of Split.  It was a bit interesting because from the outside you only see the wall of a city, so we didn’t expect there to be an entire city behind the walls.  It was quite large, and there were a lot of shops and restaurants hidden behind the walls.  We saw an old bell tower, palace, town hall, town squares and winding streets.

        

After wandering around for a while, we got some dinner which was okay.  We had scampi buzara, but we didn’t really enjoy having to shell everything, and there wasn’t actually much food there.  We did try some Dalmatian style Swiss chard and potato dish.

After dinner, we went to the other side of the harbor and walked past all the fancy yachts.  Some of them were unbelievable.

Day 9

We started early this morning in order to enter Plitvice National Park as all of the later time slots were already booked.  We walked Trail C through the upper and lower lakes of the park.  There were tons of waterfalls and clear turquoise water everywhere.  It was very pretty.  We even saw a little nature-lots of fish and a mouse.  We walked for an hour along the lower lakes before taking a boat on the large lake to the upper lakes.  Then, we walked for another hour or so before grabbing a quick lunch and taking the bus back to the entrance.

     

After the park, we drove into our destination for the day-Rastoke.  Rastoke is a city on a river with a bunch of waterfalls.  We decided to walk around Rastoke in the afternoon.  We started by walking along the river to see several of the falls.  The path was so hot, it felt like we were cooking.

         

We decided to go into the middle of the village to visit the museum.  We saw an old mill and an old washing machine.

   

We saw several falls viewpoints and a cotton/textile museum.

We walked through the little fairy garden, and the boys went to explore the cave/canyon, but it was just so miserably hot that we decided to go to dinner early just to get some drinks.

For dinner, we had some Croatian beer (Ozujsko) and wine from Slunj (the city we were staying in).  We tried a local cheese platter.  None of the food was too exciting, but one person did get bear meat goulash, and we tried potatoes from the dome (peka-a dish which is slow cooked under a clay dome).  For the dessert, we tried something called Miller’s cake (a polenta base and a cream top) and a cheese strudel.  We also tried a liqueur made from quince, but really, it was just too hot for anything.

   

Day 10

Today, we said goodbye to Croatia and made our way to Budapest, Hungary.  As we arrived in the city, we had a great view of the Parliament building coming across a bridge and past Margaret’s Island.  We found a spot for lunch-Gundel’s.  Apparently, the founder was quite a revolutionary on the food scene when he started it in the early 1900’s.  We started with a paprika, onion and cottage cheese spread with bread and had a nice, although hot, lunch of chicken paprikash and a paprika sausage dish along with a local IPA.  It was all good, but the dessert was really nice.  We had Gundel pancake (a pancake with ground nuts and orange filling) and Somloi galuska (a trifle cake).  We also tried apricot Palinka, a Hungarian spirit.

       

After lunch, we walked to Hero’s Square where we also saw a really cool castle in the distance.

From there, we drove down Andrassy Avenue to our apartment.  After getting settled and learning we did not have air conditioning (a major disappointment), we went out to see the Opera house, St. Stephen’s Basilica and a nice avenue heading toward the Chain Bridge over the Danube.

 

Along the Danube, we saw the shoes monument to those shot along the banks of the Danube during WWII.

From here, we walked to the Parliament building and the Justice building.  During the walk, my oldest taught me all about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 which she had researched for school during the past year.

After our walk around the city admiring the statues and architecture, we went to dinner in what seriously felt like an oven.  The meal was inside a slightly underground restaurant with no windows or anything for ventilation.  I really thought we were going to melt.  The food was good though.  We had some local beer and hortobagyi palascinta (a chicken stuffed pancake) to start.  Then, we tried stuffed cabage rolls, rantott sajt (fried cheese), mushroom paprika and schnitzel.  To finish, we had a sour cherry strudel and chestnut puree which was really nice.  We also tried Unicum which is another local spirit-interesting taste.

            

Day 11

We began the day with an early morning walk to Dohany Street Synagogue.  Along the way, we stopped and got some pogacsa from a bakery.  They were kind of like small biscuits.

After the history lesson the other day, our oldest asked if it would be possible to walk to the Magyar radio station, the site of the student protests and massacre in 1956 during the revolution.  As it’s always great when there is a chance to see something that the kids have learned about for school, we made our way there.  It is really just a marker on a building, but it was good to incorporate it into the itinerary.  Next, we went to the City Market, a large indoor market filled with various stalls.  We spent a little time looking at some souvenir items and then moved on.

We walked across the Danube using a cool looking bridge on our way to Buda Castle.

After taking the funicular up to the castle, we had some nice views of the city.

 

We walked around the area of the castle and went into a gallery.  We learned about the history of Budapest which was interesting.

From there, we walked to Fisherman’s Bastion.  There we saw Matthius Church which was very ornate and had a colorful, mosaic roof.

   

The Bastions were pretty and interesting looking.  It kind of looked like an area of Disneyland.

   

We went back down on the funicular and across the Danube to lunch.  We found a place with tables along the street and sat down to some local beer and cold raspberry soup (which was nice considering how hot it was).  Then, we had turos csusza (noodles with cottage cheese) and kaposztas testza (noodles with cabbage) which was really good.  We also tried mushroom paprikash and beef stew.  For dessert, we had Somloi galuska.

 

After lunch, we went to St. Stephen’s Basilica to see the inside.  It had a nice dome ceiling and lots of heavy marble.  Interestingly, we discovered that it also contains the mummified fist of Stephen, the first king of Hungary, in a glass case.

In the evening, we went to dinner where we had goulash soup and a garlic soup with langos (fried bread).  They were both good.  Then, the main dish came, and I can’t even begin to describe how awful it was-spaetzle with scrambled egg.  I do not recommend.  On the other hand, my husband liked his Hungarian stew and local Chardonnay.

 

Day 12

Today, we headed to Slovakia.  After all the heat in the other countries, we were ready to get to a country where the temperatures promised to not rise much above 80 degrees.  As we made our way out of Hungary, we enjoyed the fields of sunflowers that went on as far as the eye could see (hard to really capture in a picture).

Our initial impressions of Slovakia were a bit mixed.  We drove through a lot of little, shanty looking villages on our way to Brezno, where we were staying.

Our first stop was a restaurant recommended by our apartment host in the city.  The restaurant was up a hill in the mountains and had nice views.  We started the meal with a fruity Radler beer that almost everyone in the place was drinking and a Czech beer along with a cheese platter that was delicious.  It had smoked cheese knots, garlic cheese strips, paprika cheese strips and regular cheese pieces.  For our meal, we had bryndzova halusky (dumplings (almost spaetzle like) in a cheese sauce), nemiakovy placky (potato pancakes), polievka (garlic soup), vyprazany syr (fried cheese), and a porkloin stuffed with potato and wrapped in bacon.  To finish the meal, we tried a Slovakian digestif called Slivovica.

     

We also bought a box of Slovakian cookies at the restaurant shop.

After dropping everything at our apartment, we went to Bystrianska Cave.  It was a smallish cave, but it had a variety of interesting formations.

 

In the evening, we went to dinner at a restaurant with a nice hillside view.  We tried Kofola soda, potato pancake, sztrapacska (dumplings with cabbage) and bryndzove halusky (the cheese dumplings).  We also tried a tatratea digestif.  It is a tea based herbal liqueur.  It had an interesting taste.  For dessert, we had a pancake stuffed with ice cream.

          

Day 13

Today was an exhausting and physically demanding day.  We began at 8:45am on the Chopok trail in the Low Tatras National Park.

For one hour, we walked about 400 meters straight up the side of a mountain.  There were some nice wildflowers along the way, but the path was hard and a bit scary as it felt like you might fall backwards at times.

   

At the top of that mountain, we stopped for a snack and to rest.  We had some apple strudel and a dumpling filled with jam and sprinkled with chocolate.  It was nice, but we had to move on to the next phase.

For the next hour and a half, we gained another 500 meters or so.  It was hard and straight up but through a pretty wooded area.  The last 100 meters was pure rock going straight up which was hard.

 

At the top, we had lunch of cabbage soup and potato pancake, snitzel and fried cheese.  We had some beer and Kofola soda, too.  To reward ourselves (we thought the worst was over-laughing hysterically), we got another dumpling filled with jam, but this one was covered in vanilla sauce.

   

The next stage of the trail was a rocky path on the edge of the mountain.  It took us several hours, and, at times, it was pretty scary (it’s never great when hiking to wonder how many people may have died on the trail).  The views were nice, and there was hardly anyone else on the trail after a certain point.  Toward the end of this section, the path went upward which was exhausting after already hiking for several hours.

 

Finally, we reached the point of descent, but the path was awful.  It was a dried-up water flow bed with tons of rocks. The flowers around the area were nice, but we had to watch where we stepped, and by that point we were so tired, we barely noticed the plants.  It took us about 2 hours to get down the mountain.

          

The end of the hike was nice.  It passed through a forested area with little waterfalls and a stream.  At 7:30pm, we exited the forest, and we were so happy to finish!

 

We made it to a restaurant about an hour before closing, and we were thrilled to sit down and eat.  We had some Slovakian wine, the cheese sauce dumplings and a dumpling (like pierogi) filled with blueberries and topped with tons of poppy seeds and melted butter.  It was really good.

 

Day 14

We woke and weren’t crippled from our hike, so the day was off to a good start!  We got on the road early to visit Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.  We saw several points of interest there such as the old town hall and square, St. Michael’s Gate, the Blue Church and St. Martin’s Cathedral.

          

We had lunch in the city of sheep cheese dumplings, halusky and fried cheese.  We had a Slovakian beer and Borovika, a juniper spirit.

     

We stopped at a bakery in the city and got Bratislavsky Rozok (walnut and poppy seed filled pastries).  We also tried some little pastries filled with jam and cheese.

Then, we hit the road again to get to Dresden, Germany where we planned to spend the night.  Once in Dresden, we went dinner at a restaurant on the main square where we had some Weisen beer, pretzel, cheese spaetzle with fried onions and schnitzel.  The meal was really good, but as a glorious end to the trip, they had our favorite German dessert which we haven’t had in almost 5 years-shredded pancake.  For those that can remember back to our first trip post, we almost lost our minds over shredded pancake at a mountain top restaurant in the south of Germany.  We had hoped to drive through the town where we had eaten it during this trip in order to get some, but before we left home, we found out that the restaurant had closed.  So, you can imagine how excited we were to find it in Dresden.  And, despite the fact that it was raining as we huddled under our umbrellaed table to eat it, it was delicious!

Day 15

Before leaving the city, we took an hour to walk around and see the center of Dresden.  There are some really nice buildings in the city, although they were all apparently destroyed in a bombing toward the end of WWII that also killed 25,000 civilians.  We grabbed some pastry while enjoying the sites before getting back on the road to bring the trip to a close.

     

After 3 weeks away from home, we were kind of ready to get back.  The trip was a lot of fun, and we always love getting to experience new things together as a family but living out of a suitcase for 3 weeks gets tiring.  Nonetheless, we were really glad to get to experience eastern Europe, and we would definitely consider going back to some of the places we visited in the future (just maybe not during a heat wave)!