Sunday, February 27, 2022

bled castle + lake bled, SLO

the beautiful bled area (veldes / feldes in german) with its impressive bled castle and the beautiful lake bled (bledsko jezero) in upper carniola (gorenjska ~ krain, oberkrain) in slovenia were our lunch and sightseeing break on our way back to munich from istria / croatia. well, we have been twice to slovenia's capital ljubljana in 2021, but did not seen much outside the city. that changed today, my dears and i'm soooo happy about it. you know what? after spending a day in the slovenian alps, i do even more wish to visit the triglav NP + its beautiful lake jasna + lake bohinjsko jezero soon.

enjoy few more pictures from the bled castle (blejski grad), castle's museum, snowy mountains, the lake bled and from the slovenia's only island in the western part of the small lake:

 on the road in slovenia
bled (veldes)
 
arnold rikli, the healer
castle's museum
slovenia's only island with a pilgrimage chapel from 15th century
 
good-bye, bled. good-bye, slovenia

more pictures here.

Monday, February 14, 2022

adria + istria, HR - 02/2022

we have been to istria twice last summer + spent almost 6 weeks in croatia, you remember?

the harbor in the city of rovinj (rovigno), adriatic sea, HR

let's try mobile work for 1 or 2 weeks from istria / croatia and visit few of the many many sightseeing sites in the evenings + on the weekend. croatia is a land where (corona) unvaccinated are not discriminated, you know? we can sleep in hotels and even go to restaurants and eat there outside & inside like in pre-corona-times, you know? on top i can go swim naked every day in the ice cold february water for some 1-2 minutes during my lunch break or after work, nice 🏊🌞⛄. our audio book adventure this journey? the principles of alfred adler's individual psychology, part 2.

our airbnb home & my mobile office in premantura, istria, croatia, CRO

our sightseeing targets in istria (istra, istrien). this time chronologically sorted. as istria was italian till 1945 + there are still many italians living here + italian language is an official language in the area, i will provide both, croatian & italian names, okay? in cases of small villages there are often the italian names only ...

  • village of premantura (promontore) + nature park cape kamenjak (rt kamenjak, capo promontore) with forests & cliffs & sea. the word kamen means stone in slovak, so probably it means the same in croatian language as the pictures from the area below prove 😃
  • city of rovinj (rovigno) at the western istria coast
  • city + camping site of medulin (medolino) at the southern istria coast
  • ghost city abandoned 1631 aka ruines of castle dvigrad (duecastelli) in the highlands of central istria
  • city of porec (parenzo) at the western istria coast
  • village of banjole (bagnole) at the western istria coast could not really win our sympathy except its fish restaurant. okay, the stone church tower and the nice bar in the harbor were fine too, but could not compete with the beauty of rovinj / porec / dvigrad / etc.
  • small city of sv. lovrec (San Lorenzo del Pasenatico)
  • city of novigrad (cittanova) at an antique archeological site used to be an island some 200 or 300 hundred years ago, but the folks connected it to the mainland. well, the water was probably shallow enough and the distance to the coast short, wasn't it?
  • the 3,000+ years old city of pula (pola) at the western istria coast. this time especially the market + the castle (fort) above the city + the forum (romanum?), which we all somehow missed in 2021, when we were sooo fascinated by pula's colosseum
  • we enjoyed a looong coast walk + 3x dinner in the sea side restaurant stara konoba (old pub) in the village of fazana (fasana) at the western istria coast, we liked that much last year
  • waterfall zarecki krov up to the edge full of water due to the winter rainy season in the highlands of central istria
  • city, cave and castle of pazin (pisino, mitterburg) in the highlands of central istria
  • the truffles city and castle of motovun (montona) in the highlands of central istria is the birth place of the italo-american formula 1 world champion 1978 mario andretti. he also won the u.s. indy-car series in 1984 and 500 miles of indianapolis in 1969. istria was italian many hundred years and there is still a huge italian minority today, you know? and yes, here is his spectacular crash which he luckily survived while testing at indianapolis at age of 63 after a 9 years break and at speed of 220 mph:
  • city of vrsar (orsera) at the western istria coast
  • fort forno at the western istria coast was built by the austrian marine in 1904 in order to protect its istrian harbours pula (pola) and trst (trieste, IT)
  • city of bale (valle) some 5 km away from the western istria coast
  • village of pomer (saragossa) at the south istria cost had not a single restaurant / pub open (during the week) outside the sommer season. due to the shallow waters in its lagunes it was important for its mussel cultivation before and has an old roman history. therefore you could find remainings of a thermal bath and a roman villa. today live the people here mostly from tourism ...
  • city of labin (albona) at east istria coast
  • city and harbor of rabac (portalbona) at east istria coast
  • the istrian fjord lim bay (limsky zaljev, limsky canal) at west istria coast
  • village and marina of valbandon (close to fazana) at west istria coast
  • the lake bled + bled castle, SI in slovenia at our way home to munich

 enjoy few pictures:

on the road in austria
on the road in slovenia
 
adria at the nature reserve kamenjak south to our stay in premantura
our EARTH is FLAT, you see? 😃
city of rovinj (rovigno)

rovinj + istria used to be venetian as the st. marco lion at the gate shows ya

[text written in the open book? PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEUS => from wikipedia (EN): Venetian tradition states that when (evangelist) Mark was traveling through Europe, he arrived at a lagoon in Venice, whereby an angel appeared to him and said, "Pax tibi Marce, evangelista meus. Hic requiescet corpus tuum." ("Peace be with thee, O Mark, my evangelist. Here thy body will rest.")]

premantura
premantura (promontore)
a new an an old 'bakery' in premantura
shepherd refuges in the pasturages
rovinj (rovigno)
rovinj
medulin (medolino)
motovun (montona)
 
 venice's st. marco lion
motovun from the south
the cave, castle and city of pazin
sv. lovrec
waterfall zarecki slap close to pazin
ruines of castle dvigrad
pula (pola)
market hall, pula
fort above pula
fazana
motovun (montona)
vrsar (orsera)
fort forno
bale (valle)
fjord limsky canal
good-bye, dear istria from both of us, good-bye 💗

many, many more pictures here.