Maribor, Slovenia

We took an early morning bus out of Bled to Ljubljana and then a train to Maribor, the eastern part of Slovenia. What's nice about Slovenia is that the distances are not that great, so most train and bus rides last only one or two hours. Maribor is on the Drava River. There's nothing much special about Maribor. We came here to taste some of the wines they make in this region.

After touring the city, we opted for renting a car because there were no available winery tours. It's pretty much a do-it-on-your-own sort of a thing. In the morning we got our car and headed off to a place called Jeruzalem - these people are very religious about their wines. We drove about an hour in a pretty flat area. Then the terrain turned into lush green hills, Jeruzalem lies about 200 meters above sea level and has about 20 wineries.

After talking to a woman at a local "vinotek" (and tasting some of the area's white wines),she suggested the Puklavec guest house/farm/winery. It didn't take us long to find it. Puklavec sits on a knoll and has a 360 degree view of the valley. With fruit trees and a view of rows of grape vines, it's quite the place. Blusch, the wine maker, makes Chardonay, Muskat Otonel, Sauvignon (Blanc), Rose Modri Pinot (a wonderful rose from Pinot grapes) and a wine that is only produced here called Sipon. Sipon got its name from the days of Napoleon. As the legend goes, the wine and its grape had no name until Napoleon had a taste. After drinking it he repeatedly said "Se Bon!". So the wine makers began to call the wine Sipon (pronounced shi-pon). Another wine Blusch make is ice wine, but only if it freezes.

In the evening we had a farm-like dinner served family style. It was simple but tasted delicious. Even Diane could not resist eating some of the home-made sausage. Needless to say, the meal was acompanied by plenty of wine. After dinner, Blusch took us to his cellar where I got to taste some barrel samples. One of the wines he was aging was a Chardonay. It had a nicel crispyness to it with a touch of carmel and honey. Very tasty. He told me that he and hiis family grow about 60,000 vines on 15 hectares. From that he makes and produces about 5000 cases of wine. He figures that each vine he has produces one bottle of wine.

The following day, we got up and had a hearty breakfast and drove back to Maribor, where we got on a train to Zagreb.

Bled, Slovenia

It was about a two hour bus ride to Bled. One can't resist getting the camera out at first sight of the turquoise-colored lake. In the middle of the lake there is a small island with a very picturesque church on it and on one side, there is a dramatic view of a castle on a sheer cliff with a church by the lake. It's really a fairy tale setting. After a little search, we found our hotel - the Mayor Pension.

When we got to Bled, fortunately the weather began to clear a bit. The jagged peaks of the Julian Alps (named after Julius Cesaer) became more visible. We spent one day hiking around the lake, renting a row boat and rowing out to the island church in the lake, and hiking up to the castle that dates back a thousand years. The next day we took a bus to Bohinj and its lake. We then hiked to Savica waterfall, a splendid sight (the name for waterfall here is "slap"). It's a dramatic sight because the water rushes out of the middle part of the sheer granite cliff falling several hundred feet. On the way back, I noticed some interesting sail boats that looked like miniture versions of 12 meter racing boats. There looked about two meters.

At night after dinner at a more upscale "gostilna", we stopped at a vinoteka where were able to taste Slovenian wines. We met the owner and some really nice Slovenian wine affecianados and ended up spending far more time there than we had anticipated. It didn't make it easier to get up the following day when we were taking the bus to the eastern part of Slovenia.

With its fairy tale setting, Bled appears to be a popular spot for weddings. During our short stay, there was one wedding at the island church and another one at the casle. I believe both involved Americans.

Some comments about Slovenia - we find it to be a very clean country, with not much litter (not even cigarette butts in spite of a number of smokers). We drink the tap water right out the tap everywhere. It tastes great. Public transportation is efficiently run, well organized and not expensive. Slovenian people are very friendly and helpful. Most speak reasonably good English (thank goodness, because their language doesn't come easy to us). We are lucky in that there are not that many tourists here. From what we've been told, that's partly due to the cold and cloudy weather and due to the economy around the world. Of the wines we have tasted the white wines fare better then the reds. The only reds we have liked are from the western region near the Italian border.

We have now arrived in the eastern part of Slovenia, known for its excellent white wines. We are staying in the city of Maribore, will rent a car and tour some of the wineries. Ciao.

Bernau, Germany to Lubljana, Slovenia

We took an early morning train from the Prien station, near Bernau. Our first stop was Salzburg, Austria. The train then headed onward past idealic Alpine mountain villages in the Austrian Alps, along emerald green rivers and waterfalls, verdant meadows and other villages, some that were in the clouds. Truly quite spectacular. We both got a little sleepy but I tried to not shut my eyes not wanting to miss any of the grand scenery. At one point, a number of passengers got off. It was at Bad Hofgastein, which looked like a ski village (sans snow). We changed trains near the Slovenian border at Villach.

We arrived in Lubljana in the pouring rain. Diane waited at a bus stop with our baggage while I checked a few places for rooms. They were booked. We ended up finding a nice youth hostel (H2Ostel) right along the Lubljanica River, very near the old city center. Lubljana sits on a site that has been inhabited since the Celts and the Romans. There are beautiful bridges along the Ljubljanica River. One of the bridges is the Triple Bridge, or Tromostovje, that consists of a main bridge and two parallel bridges originally intended for pedestrians. There's also the Shoemakers' Bridge that once was a gathering place for the city's cobblers. Very noticible is all the construction that's going on and the beautification projects. You really get the feel that this city is on the upswing in trying to attract tourists and their money.

In the morning we took the funnicula up to the castle. It was a scenic ride up but the castle itself was not much since they mostly they are busy restoring it. There are lots of sidewalk cafes along the river, ice cream venodors, bars, restaurants and shops. We noticed that at 5-6pm, they are all pretty much empty. But by 8pm things start picking up. Here, people only start going out later in the evening, much like in Italy or Spain.

We booked a tour for Thursday to the Adriatic port town of Piran, which included a visit to a castle and a cave. Our tour guide was Sabina, a young Slovenian woman who spoke good English with an easy going personality. We were picked up with a large van - a total of five of us. Good group. Our first stop was the 700 year old Predjamski castle. It is a dramatic castle shoe-horned into a limestone cave. The story goes that the man who built, Erasmus Leuger, stabbed a relative of the emperor. He then fled and along the way started robbing many of the wealthy. At that point, the emperor (one of the Habsburg's) got the governor of Trieste to have him arrested. It took a year to capture him because the castle was pretty secure. But the job was finally done when they were able to cannonball Erasmus as he was sitting on the toilet. As always, a servent had betrayed the master.

Our next stop was the Skocjanske Jame (Caves). After we started going into the cave, it looked like some of the others we had seen with the typical limestone columns of stalegtities and stalegmites. But after we entered the second large chamber we started hearing the roar of water. It was an underground river. At first we saw a bit of the river from afar. But a few minutes later, the roaring river in this cavernous space was fully evident. It was a Lord of the Rings setting. We walked on a bridge and looked nearly 500 feet below to the roaring river. Our guide told us that the river entered the cave just up ahead and went underground all the way through Croatia and part of Italy to dump into the Adriatic Sea about 75 miles from where we stood.

After coming out of the cave, we had to walk quite a ways back up. But the views continued to be spectacular. It was an awesome experience, comparable to that of the Grand Canyon.

On our way to Piran, our tour guide told us that the road we were on was once known as the Amber Road. It was built by the Romans almost 2000 years ago. Before that, this area was occupied by the Celtic tribes.

Piran was a typical Italian or French quaint Mediteranean harbor town. Very charming. Diane and I walked all through the small cobble stone streets and ended up at the church of St. Georg, which had a panaromic view of the entire harbor area. After a bit more walking, we finished our tour at a local pub, sitting down with a glass of the local red wine, Refosk.

Earlier on we had tried Terano, which is the same grape that's used to make the Refosk, but is grown in a red clay soil about 30 miles north east. The Refosk tasted a little fruitier with more body and structure, which may be because of the warmer climate. I did enjoy the Refosk more. Undoubtedly this will require more research.

Tomorrow we're off to the town of Bled. It has a story book castle on an island in the middle of a lake. Stand-by.

Germany, Austria and Slovakia

Per plan, Erika was there to meet us for the drive to Bernau. After our traditional walk at the Chimsee Lake and a day of rest, the three of us were on our way to Vienna. Our first stop in Austria was Spitz, a smal town along the Danube River. We found a small winery and tasted nice white wines (Gruner Veltliner, Weissen Burgunder and Riesling). We also tasted a light red wine called Zweigeld. We stayed in a small Gast Hause (guest house) near the winery. After getting settled, we went for a walk to the ruins of a castle that dates back to the 1200 and overlooks the Danube. Quite spectacular.

The next day, we back-tracked a few miles to cross the Danube to the Melker Stift. It is a huge monastary built in the 12th century that rooted its teachings St. Benedict and was later turned into a monestary and a school (which is still is today). After the visit we continued on the Danube wine trail and spent the night at another guest house in Weissenkirchen in Wachau. Our room had a panoramic view of the area and of the Danube.

When you meet an Austrian, he or she will typically greet you with a "Gruss Gott", which means Greet God. I started saying it too but got some interesting looks when a couple of times I mixed up the main vowels and said "Gross Gut". I tried. Diane just said "hello."

Vienna is a cosmopolitan city with wide boulevards, beautiful parks and lots of coffee houses. It's the home of Mozart, Strauss, Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, Wagner, the Waltz and of course Apfel Strudel. The ubiquitous coffee houses are viewed as an extention of the Viennese living room. Vienna dates back to the Celtics and the Roman Empire. But most of today's beautiful architecture is due to the the Hapsburgs and others who ruled the area for latter centuries.

Some interesting facts we learned: Beethoven lived at eighty different addresses, mostly because he liked to play piano until late at night and he often didn't pay his rent. Napoleon occupied Vienna twice before being exiled to Elba. He married the daughter of the Austrian emperor and she bore him a son who the Viennese were very proud of. Unfortunately he died from a lung disease at twenty-one. The Danube is very important in this region because it was strategic in trade and transportation between the West and the East. It also marked the bounderies between countries. Vienna is the home of Freud and psycho-analysis. Freud's couch, however, now resides in London. Vienna is the only European capital that grows grapes and makes red and white wine. The Third Man, with Orson Wells was filmed here, part of the scenes being filmed at the ferris wheel.

One of the more impressive palaces we saw was the Schonbrunn Palace, the home of Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Maria Theresa. Both were interesting people in that he considered himself to be the people's public servant and worked tirelessly towards that goal. She in her independent approach to her position as a dutches. Together they had 16 children, in which the daughters were always married off to build strategic relationships between countries.

After Vienna, we went to Bratislava (Slovakia) for the day. Also on the Danube, Bratislavia is the capital. We only went to the old city - nice, compact with a lot of charm, but nothing out of the ordinary. After seeing so many charming towns, one can get dispassionate to the sight of yet another cute town square, a majectic castle, a beautiful cathedral or yet another ornate "rathause" (city hall).

Tomorrow we are taking the train to see some of the countryside of Slovania, ending up in its capital of Ljubljana.

The Netherlands

Diane and I flew to the Netherlands separately, she from California and I from South Carolina. We met at the Central Train Station in Den Haag. We each had a walkie-talkie, that we used to find each other.

Den Haag is a comfortable city. It's easy to get around and we know it well. We stayed at the Centrum B&B, a short walk from the train station - nothing fancy but very convenient. We toured the city center, took the tram to the Schevenigen boardwalk and enjoyed a fresh herring at the harbor (downing it with a Heineken). On our second day we met with my Dutch cousin, Anke, walked the Den Haag Woods to her apartment and had a traditional "rijsttafel" dinner together near Anke's home. Unfortunately, we didn't abide by the saying that you don't eat Indonesian food at a Chinese restaurant (and visa-versa). At best, I would say that dinner was mediocre and lacked Indonesian authenticity. Live and learn.

In Amsterdam we stayed with our friends Maria and Maarten. Together we went into Amsterdam to the Rembrandt Museum's exposition of Jan Lievens, a friend and colleague of Rembrandt. Afterwards, our friends' son, Geert, picked us up in his small steel-hulled skiff to cruise the Amsterdam canals. We stopped along the way and stocked up on Heinekens and chips. A perfect way to spend an afternoon in Amsterdam. After the canal cruise we had a fabulous and more traditional Indonesian "rijsttafel" at the Blau restaurant. There must have been twenty or so dishes, each with a unique flavor. We devoured the entire meal as if we hadn't eaten in a week. Afterwards we met up with Geert and Fanilla for an after-dinner drink at their home. All-in-all, a nice way to conclude our visit to Amsterdam.

The following day Maria and Maarten were kind enough to drop us off at Schiphol for our flight to Munich.

East Coast Sailing

After spending my first week of retirement at home, Diane and I left for San Francisco. She was attending a nursing conference and I was sightseeing. A perfect combination. I spent some of the time hanging out with Meredith and otherwise I hiked to such places as Coyt Towers and the Marina district. Hiking up to Coyt Towers was very cool. I treked up there from Levy Plaza, which meant going up about 450 steps on Telegraph Hill. On the way I saw some of the parrots on which the movie "The Parrots of Telegraph Hill" was based on. They were a noisy bunch!

One day, Meredith and I met up at the Metro and went to the Academy of Science Museum. It has a wonderful aquarium with a Philippine coral reef formation with fish life and another one in a California coastal setting with typical fish life.

Meredith had prepared a delici ousIndonesian styled lunch with brown rice, tofu, vegetables and a peanut sauce. For dessert we had some cut-up fruit. Very yummy.

On one of the evenings a software vendor at the conference treated customers to a home game of the San Francisco Giants. I wasn't really thrilled with the idea, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Elliot helped out a lot by explaining the nuances of the plays and what was really going on. The Giants won. It was a good night.

On the weekend, after the conference, we spent one more night at Meredith and Elliot's and went to Chez Panisse, a trendy but exceptionally good restaurant that is known for serving

only locally grown organic food with a French flair. We went to the cafe side of the house and shared a few meticulously prepared meals and dessert. A good choice.

The next day, I flew out to Philadelphia to go sailing on the Chesapeake Bay. Diane drove back home. My friend Wes was at the airport and we drove to his home in Port Deposit.

The following day, we got up and after picking up food supplies (and beer/wine), we boarded the Belle Helene (his CT-41 ketch) and soon we were off on our annual sojourn. Our ports of call this trip were Annapolis, Knapp's Narrows, Hooper Island, Smith Island, and Galesville. We ran aground once coming into Hooper Island and once trying to maneuver up the narrow channel of Smith Island. But both times, we got off relatively easy. We gave up trying to get into the Smith Island harbor because it was low tide and we had too much draft. Too bad, we had really looked forward to visiting the island and meeting the locals. Apparently the original families have been there since the 1600's and make their living as watermen, crabbing and fishing, and speak with an unusual accent.

One of the more unexpected things we saw was large schools of dolphins and a number of brown pelicans. What was also fun to see was osprays (the sea eagles) at many harbor entrances. They build large nests out of twigs on top of harbor pilons and markers. During this time of the year, their eggs are hatching and sometimes we'd catch sight of the baby birds squawking for food.

The weather was pretty much across the board. We had warm and sunny days, cooler and cloudy days, and one very wet and nasty day with lighting and thunder around us. For the most part, the wind was on the nose wherever we went. Hhmmm....strange.

The rest of the voyage was relatively uneventful, with the exception that the auto-pilot decided to quit working and the engine began to heat up a bit and losing water. That required Wes to feed it a few cups of water about every ten minutes. I steered. But hey, no voyage is complete unless something fails. But the food, beer, wine and crew all worked flawlessly.

After getting back to the house, we had a well deserved shower (our first in a week), and quite the dinner. With some legumes harvested from his garden Wes added shrimps, artichoke hearts, shallocks and tomatoes. For appertif we had snails in a butter and garlic sauce. Wow what a spectacular meal.

The next day, I jumped on the local Maryland train (MARC) to Washington, DC. There I spent a fabulous day walking around our nation's capital. I walked pass the Capitol building and thought about all those fat cats in there in charge of our future, went in to check out the Reading Room at the Library of Congress and a presentation they had on the Constitution. I also visited the American Indian Museum, the National Arboretum and a bit of the National Museum of Art. All in all, a pretty good day.

At 4pm I met up with my friend, Colleen, who works at the Dept of Energy. We hadn't seen each other in more than ten years, so it was fun to catch up on things. We ended up eating at a quaint little Thai restaurant just outside of the District. We had decided to sit outside, when the weather took a sudden turn for the worse. It proceeded to give us a lighting show, with thunder and lots of rain.

Next, I was off to see my friend Dave, in Charleston, SC. Dave picked me up sporting a new long pony tail and board shorts. He looked a little different from his days as school superintendent. In fact, he looked more like I remember him from college - just a little grayer! We drove to the Ashley Marina on the Ashley River where he kept his boat. His Whitby 42 is an 1980's boat but it's in real good shape. Nice layout below, with an aft cabin, a walkway in between to the main salon, nav station, two heads, V-berth and galley.

The following day we worked on reefing setups for the main and did some marine hardware shopping, as well as food supplies. We installed a newly insulated backstay and some other odds and ends. The following day we were on our way to take Lahaina Roads for her maiden sail - Dave had not sailed her yet! It turned out to be a fabulous sailing day. We headed out of the Charleston channel with little hope of finding descent wind conditions. But what we got was a steady southern breeze that yielded a close reach out and a beam reach back. The boat performed very well, at times, exceeding speeds of 8 knots.

On the way back instead of going back to the marina we went up the famed Inter Coastal Waterway. We got to our first bridge and radiod ahead that we would like passage through. The bridge operator radiod back to stand-by. Soon the bridge began to open. We were heading to the right side of the opening, when the bridge's Nazi lady snapped on the VHF "Left side - always the left side." We quickly oblidged and throteled through it on the left side and thanked her.

It was several miles to our anchorage near Dewee Island and some marshes. Fortunately the tide was coming in so we got an extra 1-2 knotts out of it. Along the way, there were some houses, small marinas, and more marshes. We arrived at the anchorage near sun down and anchored in about 25 feet of water. It was a very peaceful setting and we were ready for beer.

Dave and I were in agreement that we had had an excellent sail and the boat had performed well.

Rain, lightning and thunder made its daily rounds in Charleston, generally in the latter part of the afternoon. One evening we really had a nasty front come through. The horizon was a mixture of onorous looking colors of deep red to dark gray cummulus clouds. For a while it seemed like a tornado might develop. It did rain heavily as the wind piped up. But thankfully no tornado made its appearance.

On one of the days, we decided to go on a road trip north to Murrel's Inlet to visit a friend of his, Barry, who was anchored nearby. We first stopped at McClellanville, an old fishing village with shrimp boats and beautiful oaks and cypress trees. Then on to Georgetown, a town dating back to the late 1600's. There we had lunch at a small bar overlooking one of the waterways, where several yachts were anchored. Pleasant enough, but while we were there, we had a major downpour. Lunch was something they called "low country boil", a mixture of shrimp, sausage, potatoes, onions and bell peppers. Pretty tasty.

Dave has been adding lots of gear to the boat. He replaced the headsail with a brand new 135% heavy genoa with roller reefing, replaced the main and mizzen covers with a bag and lazzy jacks such that the sails simply fall into the bag, making it a lot easier to douse the sails.He's also installing a new GPS, new forward head, Monitor windvane.

On the last day, we turned the boat around in the slip facing the boat's stern into the dock. That way, later on he could more easily install the windvane. That was not an easy task. Typical of full keel boats, Lahaina Roads does not behave well when backing down. Together with the wind and a lack of room, we had to try several times before making it back into to the slip properly. But we finally got Lahaina Roads settled stern in.

On Thursday I boarded a plane to Charlotte and then Baltimore (BWI). On approaching Baltimore, though, we were diverted to Dulles Int'l due to bad weather. We sat on the tarmac for a while, took on some more fuel and eventually proceeded to BWI. Upon arriving, it was an easy shuttle to the MARC train, good connection time and off I was to Perryville where, again, Wes picked me up.

The last couple of days at Wes' have been used up by email, preparing for Europe and seeing a little bit more of the neighboring area. We went to Rehoboth Beach and Lewes, which are in Delaware. Wes wanted to show me a more typical beach setting on the East Coast. Rehoboth has a nice, long boardwalk of which some is almost European in looks. But much of it looks more like a carni setting, interspersed with bars and hot dog stands.

Next stop - Amsterdam.

Retired - Now What?

I've now been retired for an entire week! It still seems like I'm on vacation and that sometime I'll need to go back to work. Strange feeling. I know it will take time to adjust and I probably won't feel the affect until August when Diane goes back to work as I pack her lunch and wave good bye.  

For now, Diane and I are getting ready for a few new adventures. First is a trip to San Francisco for a nursing conference that Diane is attending. I'm tagging along for the fun of it. After the conference I leave for Philadelphia to meet up with Wes to go sailing - that is, if the diesel starts.

I'll be on the East Coast until June 22. I may have a chance to drive down to see my friends Bob in Richmond and Dave in Charleston. Dave has a Whitby 42 ketch that he's getting ready to take sailing to the Caribbean in the fall. 

On June 22 I fly out of Philadelphia for Amsterdam. Diane will be flying from LAX and will meet me there. Our next adventure starts there and will take us to Germany to see my cousin Erika, then off to Eastern Europe. 

So that's the setting. Stay tuned.