Berlin

Berlin - where to begin!

When we arrived in Berlin, Erika's friends, Gabi and Gert, were there to meet us at the train station. The station is composed of a glass canopy and is many levels deep with a huge shopping center running through it. From the start you get the feeling that Berlin is big.

After we got settled into our hotel, the Metropolitan, the five of us took a walk to the Kurfurstendamm, a broad and elegant boulevard and one of the main arteries running through Berlin. We took a quick peek at the bombed remains of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church and the adjoining new church designed by architect Egon Eiermann. From the outside, the new church looks simple and boxy with a myriad of glass panels. But on the inside, you notice a very impressive array of dark blue glass panels back-lit from the outside sun light. To make it even more interesting, the cross that hangs inside, is from the Coventry Cathedral, an English city that was destroyed by the Germans in WWII.

After our quick neighborhood tour, we had dinner at a local restaurant. Gert went on to divulge that he planned a tour for us the following day. Incredibly, he had mapped it out, timed it by driving it and taken pictures of each of the sights we were going to see. Of course, in the plan, he also had worked in appropriate eating and drinking breaks.

The tour started promptly at noon. It was a dizzying day as Gert drove us criss-cross from one end of Berlin to the other. At each eating and drinking stop, Gert reviewed what we had seen (photos included) and on a map, showed us where we had been and where we were going. Gert's intent was to give us a glimpse of all the main sights and then in the following days we could go back to visit the specific ones we found most interesting.

We saw nearly all the main sights, including the complex that hosted the 1936 Olympics, the Bundes Parliament, the German Chancellor's residence, the Jewish Memorial Park, the Brandenburg Gate, the museum island (Bode Museum and many others), the East Berlin Radio Tower, the Old Synagogue, the Stumble Stones (a memorial to the Jewish families taken from their homes), the Rathause (city hall of Berlin), the Jewish Museum (each Jewish building in the city has two police officers on duty 24x7), Turkish neighborhood and lots more. We also drove along a boulevard in the eastern area showing how they've engineered new facades on the old gloomy Iron Curtain buildings to spruce them up. What a difference it had made!

Berlin was a city in the midst of East Germany (DDR). Furthermore, the city was divided into two main sections - the Russian and the Western section. The Western Section was further divided into the American, British and French sector. When we got to Check Point Charlie, that point really became clear with all the historic signage related to the fact that you "leaving the American Sector" when you crossed that line.

We drove by what used to be a building that housed the SS and their torture chambers. What was sad to hear was how Gert described it "the building that was a big version of Guantanamo." Gert is a very pro-western, pro-American individual. Hi comment simply reflected the reality of how the world views Guantanamo and what the US has done there. Very unfortunate.

As you walk around Berlin, on some roads you can spot a line of cobble stones. The stones represent where the wall once stood. In some areas they left the wall in tact and have allowed artists to paint murals on it. It's a very unique and somewhat haunting sight, knowing how many people died trying to jump the wall to the west. Interestingly enough, at the time the wall was being built, the DDR said it was to keep out the West Germans. How funny!

One of the observations I made of Germans is how tolerant and civil they are to each other. For example, in the train we were on there was a woman who sat next to me. Her two small kids were across the aisle. In trying to keep them amused, she was often stooped over in the aile, which also was being blocked by someone's huge suitcase. In the US, the train conductor would have told them all to find their seats, and that for safety reasons the luggage would need to be stowed away. Not here. Everyone, including the conductors would laboreously weave around all the obsticles, not saying a word. Another example was when Gert was chaufering us around Berlin. He often would slow down and sometimes even stop to show us a sight and talk about it. No one ever honked their horn or flipped him off, which for sure would have happened in the US. They just drove around him.

On one of the days, we took a walk through one of the neighborhoods that Erika had lived in and ended up in a large nature reserve. We were actually on the lookout for a place to have a drink, when we ran into a small lake and many people sunbathing, mostly all in their birthday suits. It was a sight to see because it was a field of high grasses. It looked more like the African Serengetti with naked human animals instead of lions and tigers lounging around. I resisted taking a photo, respecting people's privacy - but it was hard.

The concept of the Wall (Maur in German) is ever present in the minds and hearts of the Germans. People still think in terms of Oesie and Wesie (Eastener and Westener). Billions of Euros have poured into East Berlin and the rest of the east. West Germany had to absorb the huge cost during this time of change. This remains a source of frustration. To make matters worse, there are a number of East Germans who now insist that things were better back in the old Iron Curtain days. Part of that is due to the thousands of jobs that were lost in the reunification. But also I think that some of those who lost their jobs were people who liked the old, less competitive society, one in which you had a job for life no matter how well you performed.

Another interesting point was the number of building that were duplicated. When the wall was put up around Berlin, the western part of the city lost several important buildings such as the opera hall, some important museums as well as radio towers and other structures. So the West proceeded to build new ones. Now after reunification, they have two of those structures.

Yet with all that, the eastern part of Berlin is today the "happening" place. A lot of the younger people prefer the new stores, restaurants, buildings and night clubs in the east.

On our last full day in Berlin Gabi drove us to a place where we boarded a boat to Potsdam. It took about an hour, going through narrow channels and lakes. past castles and sailboats. It was a warm day, so it was perfect to be out on the water with a little wind in our face. When we got to Potsdam we found our way to what it's best known for - the Sanssouci Palace. It was the summer residence of Frederick II, the Great. It's an average looking palace, as far as palaces go and that was intentional. Freddy wanted a place to relax without worries - that's why it's called "sans souci".

It was a great opportunity to get a tour of Berlin from Berliners. We got great insights into German life as well as life in Berlin. Some of the things that surprised us was how the level of social support systems have decreased in scope and real terms. For example, although everyone has health insurance, the ones who can afford it, buy extra private insurance for a number of things that are not covered. Welfare programs as well as pension systems have been scaled back while some programs have been partly privatized. Seeing beggars on the street is now relatively common.

On Monday morning, we finished packing, had breakfast and checked out. Gert was his normal, punctual self and showed up at 9:50am to take us to the train station. It was Amsterdam for Diane and I while Erika was heading home to Bernau.

Bernau to Prague

We were in Bernau with my cousin Erika for three days, mostly catching up on some R&R - traveling is not a restful activity. Did I mention that German pastry is delicious? We particularly like it because it often is not sweet. When we went into town, we always bought a pastry - we managed to have some every day. The apple strudel is great.

On one of the days, the three of us made one trip to an Austrian Alpine lake of Wahlsee. The lake is tucked in between rugged and craggy mountain peaks, some peaks with lingering snow. Since the lake wasn't too large, we walked around it and at the finish, rewarded ourselves with a tasty locally-caught grilled fish.

Early on the fourth morning, the three of us took off for Prague. We had a quick change of trains in Munich. One of the things you have to watch out for when getting on a train is that not all cars of a train necessarily go the same city. For Prague, only the last four cars were set to go. It's good to pay attention to these small details.

We had heard that in Prague, you have to watch for pickpockets, street money changers and unscrupulous taxi drivers. After arriving in Prague, we quickly encountered the first of those - a taxi driver. He asked us what hotel we were going to and after telling him, he said it would cost fifty Euros! Yet it was less than a mile away. But it turned out to be a mistake to walk to our hotel near the Charles Bridge, instead of figuring out the tram system. What seemed to be so near took us nearly an hour to walk because of all the narrow, winding cobble stoned streets, some with dead ends and some curving a half-circle back in the wrong direction. The streets were crowded with tourists.

But we finally found Hotel Certovka and were pleasantly surprised - it was a very nice, centrally located hotel on the west side of the Vltava River (German's called it the Moldau) near the end of the Charles Bridge. After getting settled in, most definitely the first order of the day was to find a half liter of some good Czech beer.

Prague (or Praha) is divided into different sections mostly by the Vltava River. There's Old Town, New Town, Lesser Town and the Prague Castle area. Prague was settled by Slavs and Germans back in the 7th to 8th centuries. But the city didn't really start evolving until the 12th century. Our hotel, being that it's on the northwest side of the river, is in the Castle area. It's surrounded by historic, narrow, winding cobble stoned streets with lots of cafes, bars and small shops.

We saw most of the major sights including the Prague Castle complex and Wenceslas Square, where in 1989 there were rallies held there that made it the epicenter of what became to be known as the Velvet Revolution. We also visited the St. Nicholas cathedral, and of course the Charles Bridge which we looked out on from our hotel room. Although we didn't go into the Old Jewish Quarter museum, we did walk around the area and saw the old and the new synagogues and the macabre-looking cemetery, with the headstones all askew. From what we read, it described the cemetery having as many as 12 layers of buried bodies. This was mostly due because over time, the Jews were confined to a smaller and smaller area. The cemetery was quite a sight to see.

The astronomical clock is a well known sight in the city's square. Although it attracts lots of visitors each timer it rings, we were not that impressed. But the legend is intriguing. Supposedly, after the clock maker finished his masterpiece, he was made blind by the city's elders so that he could not replicate the design elsewhere. As a means to revenge that act, he later threw himself into the giant clock's mechanism, killing him and breaking the clock. It took over hundred years before someone came along who figured out how to fix the clock.

The Prague Castle is an exceedingly huge complex built (and re-built) over time dating back to the 12th century. It sits majestically on a hill overlooking the Vltava River. It dominates the entire city of Prague. In essence, the castle is a city within a city of which its most impressive building is the Gothic cathedral, which for centuries was the spiritual center of the country. The shear size, height, beauty and scope of the cathedral is comparable to (or may exceed) the Notredame Cathedral in Paris. The other highlight in the Castle area complex is a small street named Golden Lane. It's made up of a row of tiny houses where the king's 24 marksmen lived. Today, the houses are souvenir shops - but you get the idea.

Prague has numerous narrow streets. We tried to take different routes each time, partly to avoid the crowds and partly to discover different sections. You'd get a completely different perspective just a few streets away from the main thoroughfare. Plus, we'd continually run into new and unusual sights, tucked in behind an alleyway.

We did a little bit of wine tasting, but unfortunately, the best place I found to taste wine, was the one we happened upon on our last evening in Prague. We tasted some excellent whites, including a Muller Thurgau, a Chardonnay and an Pinot Blanc. With the reds, I was really impressed with a Pinot Noir from the Morava region with hints of red cherry and a spicy white pepper. It was a big pinot with 14% alcohol. I also tasted their house red, that was inexpensive but was very tasty. An interesting comment that the winebar owner made, as I was tasting, was that Czech wine makers need luck with the weather to make their wines. The impact of the weather is such that it's difficult for them to make a consistently good wine each year.

Other memorable sightseeing was a walk to one of the islands on the Vltava River, a ride on the funicular up to hill overlooking Prague, and hunting up what's called the John Lennon Wall. Apparently, he was not liked by the authorities back in the Communist era, and thus the music of the Beatles was prohibited. The wall is not really that impressive but it is colorful and has lots of lyrics of Lennon songs.

We spent four nights in Prague. It gave us a good feel for the city but it also gave us the impression that we needed much more time to see it all. It was now time to board a train to Berlin.

Budapest - Part II

On one of the days in Budapest, we took a boat ride to one of the small towns on the Danube "Bend" called Szentendre. It lies up-current from Budapest and takes 1 1/2 hours to get there by boat. On the way up, there are excellent views of Budapest and we got a good look at Margaret Island as well. But once outside of Budapest, it got pretty rural with trees, mangroves and other green foliage coming right down to the water and an occasional house.

Szentendre is a small town that didn't take us long to see. It dates back to medieval times (like so many places around here). It has small cobblestoned streets with a number of old churches. I mentioned to Diane that parts of it looked like Greece or Italy on the Med. Some of it is a bit touristy. But as we wandered from one side of town to the other you do get the distinct feeling that this is the real thing. In fact this is where early Budapest settlers fled to, while escaping the Turks. We ended up at the top of the hill at an ancient Catholic church, overlooking the town. We stayed for a few hours having a beer and a Croque Monsieur at a local pub. We then took the boat back, which only took an hour since, this time, we were going with the current.

The places we've visited on this trip are all steeped in ancient history. A number of places date back to Celtic and Roman days. Empires seemingly came and went. Even today, the Hungarians talk about before and after the "regime change" of 1989. Also of interest is the Hungarian language. Usually, we try to learn a few words and phrases before arriving in a new country. But it was really difficult for us to do that in Hungary. The language is called Magyar. It originated on the eastern side of the Ural mountains. Along with Finnish and Estonian, it's one of Europe's few representatives of the Finno-Ugric family of languages. This makes it really difficult for the average traveler like us. For example, the word "Hello" is Jonapot (pronounced yohnapoht). What the heck do you relate that to when trying to remember it? Or how about the word for "cheers"? It's "agha-she-gadra". After a couple of beers that sure doesn't roll off your tongue!

On our last day in Budapest, our schedule was an easy one: in the morning visit the central market, in the afternoon go to one of the Turkish baths that BP is so well known for and in the evening go wine tasting. How can you beat that kind of a day? The central market is indoor and very large. The lower level has a huge variety of foods while the second level has clothing, souvenirs and restaurants. I was tempted to buy some hand-made knives from a family who had been making knives for generations. Diane looked over the numerous leather purses. We walked around and shopped for a couple of hours, buying a few trinkets. Later we lunched on a cabbage roll (very Hungarian), salad and a beer. All the food looked delicious. It's too bad we weren't feeling more hungry.

After the market we headed for the baths. The Szechenyi Bath is a public bath. But since it was further away for us we opted for the private, more opulent baths at the Gellert Hotel. From the market, we just had to cross the Danube to get to the Gellert Hotel. At first it was a bit confusing figuring out how to order your ticket because of all the different combination of things to do (baths, pools, saunas, thermal pools, mud baths, massages). We just ordered the basic plan (about $16) so we could use the various pools and thermal pools. Once inside, we found our way to the coed locker room and got a cabin (basically a large locker that we both can stand in to change). For the locker room help we had envisioned a surly man or woman hold-out from the Iron Curtain days. But instead we got a very accommodating, surly-looking woman who, actually, was quite friendly and helpful.

The coed pools were great. Very ornate tile and ceramic work (i.e. lion figures spitting out water into the pools). We enjoyed going from one pool to another and eventually had to split up to enter the thermal pools because they were unisex. Apparently some folks choose to go in the buff. The men I saw, mostly wore a bathing suit. Some wore a small apron around the waist to hide their manly hood. Very modest, indeed. Diane said that she saw a couple of older women sans suits who should have worn full body suits.

A few hours of jumping around from pool to pool and we were ready to split and go back to the hotel. We were mush.

In the evening we went to a small wine bar on the Pest side that we had heard offered wine tasting on Tuesday evenings featuring a wine maker. It was a warm and cozy looking bar with lots of wine bottles displayed on oak-walled shelves. Surprisingly, the wine maker was a good looking brunette from the Villanyi area, in the very south of Hungary, 30 km. from the Croatian border. We were served two wonderful dry and subtle Roses, a Pinot Noir, a Kadorke (Hungarian red varietal), a Merlot and three Bordeaux blends. All the wines were well crafted wines, some that were 14% alcohol. The Pinot didn't have much aroma but it was a well balanced wine with a good finish. None of the wines was cheap, with prices ranging from $8 to over $40.

While walking the streets of Budapest, I noticed lots of interesting billboards advertising upcoming international talent such as BB King, Tom Jones, Leonard Cohen and others.

The following day we got off to an early star, checked out of our hotel and were at the hydrofoil boat dock by 7:30am. We hadn't seen all of Budapest, but we'd made a dent in it.

The hydrofoil boat ride to Vienna was okay, but nothing exceptional. Next time, we'll definitely take the train or fly. There are a few towns of interest, a couple of locks that we had to go through that were fun, but mostly it was a hot and uneventful boat ride. When we got to Vienna, we hustled to the underground Metro and found our way to the main train station (actually one of three main train stations - but we had done our homework and knew where to go).

Shortly, we were on our way back to Bernau, Germany. It was a pretty new and fast train that had a GPS screen in each car displaying our position and speed (200kph on straight parts).

Budapest - Part I

We got to Budapest after a long and hot train ride from Zagreb, arriving about 4:30pm. The scenery from the train was mostly rural. A significant part of it went along a huge Hungarian lake - Lake Balaton. Apparently, this is the place where Hungarians go to relax in the summer. It is also an important wine region that produces good reds and whites as well.

We got to our hotel (Charles Hotel) by bus from the train station. We kept our eye out for pick-pockets having heard that they hang around the train station. But it seemed okay. Apparently, the government has improved security around the railway station.

After checking into our hotel, we decided to try out their restaurant. Per recommendations of our waiter, we had two Hungarian dishes - a Goulash and a paprika stewed veal with gnocchi. Quite tasty but a bit salty.

The following day we put our hiking shoes on and walked all around. We started out on the Buda side of the city by seeing the Buda Castle and its caves. These are a labyrinth of caves about 1200 meters long, in limestone, dating back a half million years when they were naturally created through water flows. The caves were used in medieval times to as current as in the days of the Cold War. Very cool and at times eerie, but it was nice to get cooled off from the heat outside.

That night we went to a concert by the Danube Symphony Orchestra at a beautiful Duna Concert hall. The orchestra played lively Hungarian and Romanian folk dance music and works by Haydn, Liszt, Berlioz, Brams and Strauss. One of the orchestra members played a cimbalom, a traditional Hungarian instrument that's played like a zylophone and sounds a bit like a piano. It was a really good show with some of the music definitely having that vibrant Gypsy feel to it.

Budapest has lots of bridges. One morning we started off rather late, but again we managed to do quite a bit of walking on both sides of Buda and Pest. We criss-crossed the Chain Bridge and one other one and saw the St. Stephen's Basilica, the Opera House, the Fisherrman's Bastion (a Romanesque looking castle with a great panoramic view of Pest, and other sights.

We went to a very nice wine cellar and bought two wines that are distinctly Hungarian: a white Vorcsoki Furmint and a red Egri Bikaver. We opened them that night. Both were very good. Another day we got a chance to just taste some Hungarian wines. We found a small restaurant on the Pest side, Klassz, that was willing to give us small tastes of some of Hungarian's better reds. Unfortunately, there aren't many opportunities to just sample wines of the region - usually you need to get the entire glass or bottle. But this place helped us out. At the end, the manager didn't even charge us for the tasting. We told him that he needed to develop this type venue for wine lovers.

Overall, we're really enjoying Budapest. We find the Hungarians to be very friendly and helpful. Many speak excellent English.

I'll post this as Part I - since we're staying in Budapest for five days.

Zagreb, Croatia

We arrived in Zagreb in the early evening. After finding a couple of hostels with no vacancies, we decided to check into a 3-star hotel for $110 a night - not usually our style, but it was getting late and we were tired of looking.

After getting settled in, we walked along a beautiful series of parks and buildings about one kilometer long towards the main square in town (Trg Jelacica). Past that there are dozens of outside bars and restaurants. It seems that people here really enjoy sitting at an outside cafe/bar with a beer, a coffee or what ever - often it is a couple of young women. There seem to be many more women around than men.

The following day we called a youth hostel run by an Austrian lady. It was a tram ride away from the central city, but was quiet and inexpensive.

Zagreb is full of squares, parks, historic buildings, monuments, museums and churches. Architectually, it is a beautiful city that wreaks of history. The old part of the city has a cathedral with two tall splindly spires that looks very similar to St. Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna. One of the more interesting places we ran into on a covered street corner had a distinct religious feel to it, with candles burning and people praying at a small prayer area - it turned out that it was a site that the Virgin Mary had been spotted. We actually met an Israely couple who are touring the world with the primary goal of visiting and documenting the sites where the Virgin Mary has been seen.

We found a wine shop that turned out to be the area's oldest wine cellar. The man running it was friendly and gave us a taste (more like two glasses) of some Malvacia produced on the Istra peninsula. Very nice, dry, good balance, with a hint of grapefruit. We ended up buying a bottle of it and a bottle of Palvec, a zinfandel clone, that we didn't get to taste. But he assured us that it was a good, full-bodied red.

The Dolac market is right in the center of town and is very colorful, with a myriad of bright red umbrellas, many varieties of fruits and cheeses and souvenier shops. One floor beneath the market contains all the meats, more cheeses and fish.

On of the more unusual places we visited was the Mirogoj Cemetary. It sort of reminded us of the Pere Lachaise Cemetary in Paris, where the likes of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison are burried. The entrance to the cemetary is quite grandeouse, looking more like a castle than anything else. The main mausoleum has some very ornate graves. Most of the headstones have the word Obitelj on it followed by the family name. It seemed that the word was related to "obituary". But we later found out that it is the word for "family".

This is our second time in Croatia and we have yet to make it to Dubrovnik and to Plitvice Lakes National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site. From the photos I've seen, it is full of waterfalls and turquoise lakes, many that are interconnected. I suppose we'll be saving this for the next time.

A couple of things we noticed in Zagreb is that graffiti artists have tagged every available wall in the city with the exception of some government buildings. It just seems to be an accepted form of expression. The other thing we've noticed (and not just in Croatia) is that half the people smoke. The evil tobacco companies have really done their marketing job extremely well here.

In the morning we got a tram to the train station and found our way to the train to our next stop - Budapest.

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.