Trento

30 June

A quiet day wandering around the town of Trento.  There is a long history of habitation here, but most of the old buildings visible in town date from the 12th-16th centuries.

The town was the venue for the Council of Trent in the 18th century (in response to Luther and the protestant movement)  which set the course of the Roman Catholic church for the next 400 years.

Trento is known as the painted city - there are still frescoes on many of the buildings - dating back to the 15th century - still visible and very lovely. This was a quiet day being a Monday - we admired the large castle, the Duomo and went into the cathedral. After  short time the mid day bells peeled out , people left and we moved quietly to some seats and listened to a short service in Latin. A huge sense of peace was present and to hear the Latin spoken was like music in my ears - in nomine; pater et filius et spiritus sanctum - lovely and for me evoked my years of   happily puddling around in the Latin language. So - Latin is still alive and well in some places in the world -my second encounter hearing it spoken - Zadar and now Trento.

Since we were here last in 2009 they have built a new block in the gardens.In the afternoon we got access to the hotels "spa" area in this complex where we have been relaxing in their super indoor swimming pool with views to the mighty Dolomites , in their 'relaxing room' with cream covered single warmed water beds where we lazed and snoozed  and outside we sun bathed on  deck chairs toasting in the blazing sun! Bliss - Stephen and I had the pool and relaxing room to our selves - only one other couple sun worshiping. Peaceful and beautiful.We decided not to partake of the sauna, turkish bath, massage or depilatory services.The heat in the 2 former was like a furnace blast and we need to hang on to all our 'bits' at our age - who knows what might disappear with all that 'depilatoring ' going on.

We were taken by a lovely young woman from reception across he luscious lawn to the venue - who provided us with a classically embossed woven carry bag complete with toweling dressing gown, towel and a pair of jandals wrapped on plastic for our use - black for men and white for women. They were ours to use for the day - just for us to return them to our room to be removed by the maid in due course!Of course we enjoyed them!

insert picture -pool 

Dinner at the hotel restaurant - a real experience with beautiful decor and perfect silver service.
The food was wonderful - no point in describing what we ate as we lack the vocabulary to do it.
However - as Stephen ordered and drank his coffee and cognac we watched as, discretely behind the bar the young waiter,  took  glasses steaming out of the dish washer and he put them onto a machine that moved at some speed to dry and polish them on a machine with 4 vertical bottle brush spindles. We were fascinated to watch the process.

Through out the evening we and our fellow guests were effortlessly and seamlessly waited on -as we observed it seemed like a well rehearsed scenario as the waiter  served and supported each other to provide the quality service we received.  Gillian was taken by a beautifully polished samovar on a side table.

Back to our favourate hotel

29 June

Today we drove from Cortina d;Ampezzo to Trento via the most direct route.  This initially took us over 2 passes at around 2200m altitude, but a much less rapid climb and descent to yesterday.  There was no snow near the road, but there were large areas both above and below us.  At the Pordoi Pass we stopped to investigate the local souvenirs and test the temperature which was decidedly cool.  Many of the cable cars and chairlifts on the skifields were operating which surprised me as there didn't seem to be much demand.

Once again we noted the remote villages high on the valley sides which must be isolated in the winter and only liveable by the fit at any time.

After the Pordoi Pass we descended to a river valley with thick woodlands giving way to cultivation and vineyards.

Arriving at Trento we booked into Hotel Villa Cardinal Madruzzo and managed to get the same room we had in 2009, despite efforts by the receptionist to upgrade us to a first floor room in the original villa.  The hotel has added a new block, but still retains its quiet and elegant feel and wonderful staff.  As the hotel restaurant is closed on Sundays we went down the road to a local pizzeria for dinner.

I am still fascinated and  charmed by Hotel Villa Cardinal Madruzzo.  It was originally built as the summer palace for the first Cardinal Maruzzo in the 1400s  - there were 4 and was in the Madruzzo family until recent times - now is a wonderful hotel. We have noticed that it is a couple of degrees cooler here than in Trento itself - still packs a pretty hot punch in the sun!   The rooms are elegant -they have a tangible sense of calm and understated gentility. They provide all room facilities as well as a trouser press! Immaculately clean and very quiet.

As last time we have noted that in norther Italy the people are more softly spoken, gestures are more contained than the wild gesticulations and shouting in the south!In the hotel itself, as you make your way to the dining rooms, bar etc via the hall way -lined with farmed ancient documents under glass, ancient paintings of family , paintings of local environment over time even a Jane Austen style print!!! As you amble along drinking all this in there appears  a shoe cleaning machine for brown/ grey and black shoes. In the reception area are long thing plastic bags with  umbrellas printed on them - anti drip devices!

The breakfast is buffet - served in a wonderful old reception style room  with antique furniture, groaning under the wait of a spread of savoury and sweet food - the most delicious scrambled eggs! We eat in the main dining room and are waited on by lovely Italian men sporting formal dress suits attire, softly spoken serving our coffee and inquiring in an unobtrusive manner whether we have all we need.

We marvel at the decor - so consistent across the hotel ( marble columns, light shades in the general shape of a cardinal's  mitre (? correct word for a cardinal's hat?!) and all reflecting the original purpose of the palace as a retreat for Trento's Cardinal - a very important person in a very important job in the catholic world - from 1400 until Napoleon appeared in the early 1800s who put a stop to all this luxury! .

Outside is the garden - a park better describes the wide tree studded lawn. Each tree is labeled with its name - a lovely touch.

The central feature is a lovely pool and fountain, tastefully surrounded with local flowers, shrubs and people from the mountains - including a beautiful specimen of standing Dolomite stone - glowing with the lustrous lines of pink that glow in the mountains themselves.

Back in Italy

28 June

Leaving Lake Bled we headed west avoiding the motorways.  I'm very glad we did as they seemed to dive into tunnels at all the most interesting places.  The drive across the top of Slovenia and the north east corner of Italy was stunning with high mountains towering over the lower wooded slopes. The river we followed for the first 40 km was a brilliant cobalt blue.  Annoyingly the roads do not offer pull off points at the places where good photos can be taken, so we have to rely on our memories for the scenes.

Once we were in Italy we left the main route and headed for a couple of roads our map marked as "scenic".  In fact all areas in the Dolomites are scenic!  We climbed up the side of one valley through woodland that was being felled, but not clear felled as in NZ.  The selected trees are cut, stripped and dragged to the side of the road where they are collected at a later date.  This left the bulk of the forest still standing which was beautiful, but frustrating as you could only catch glimpses of the mountains and streams through the trees.  At one point the solid yellow road on the map turned into an unsealed logging road, so we back tracked to a different route which lead up through a skifield and high alpine meadows with large patches of snow beside the road to a pass at 1800m altitude.  We then dropped 1000m on a series of hairpin bends down an almost vertical descent.  Again magical views, but nowhere to stop and enjoy them.  Of course the road quality deteriorated once we were in Italy, but the countryside and the road verges are much tidier and cleaner than we saw in southern Italy.

In the process of the drive we were north of the area where my father was transferred to as a POW from Campo 67 - Gravina. This was Campo 57 in Grupignano . It is a little north of Udine. The road we would have needed to take was south of where we were and it would have skirted the national Park and was long and torturous route - however it was within Northern Italy and I knew my father would have seen a similar landscape as we did. The camp sat on flat ground of a river plain surrounded in the distance by the Dolomites. These Dolomites are truly breath taking viewed thorough our eyes, safely tucked up in our brand new air conditioned car. I do wonder how he would have viewed them, in a POW compound surrounded by barbed wire.  I read the account of this camp. It was run by an Italian Colonel of the Italian cabarabinieri who was a stern disciplinarian , had dictatorial methods and carried out some brutal punishments. Despite being a better run camp than many other Italian camps it is clear there were no comforts.  It is very high and cold  - especially in winter with considerable snow fall.

We climbed again over another  pass at 1800m, but much less steep, and descended into Cortina d'Ampezzo to find our accommodation at an elevation of 1200m and a cool (for us) 19C and a light drizzle..

Dinner that night was at the hotel - an amazing venue - very chintzy with dressed chairs in white and large bows on the back of the seats Around what used to called the picture rail around the entire room were plates, evidently potted and painted by the same artist - depicting an almost caricature of various restaurants in Italy and surrounding countries - depicting some aspect of the restaurant or local area. Very clever. Throughout the entire hotel are local antique  artifacts - household goods mainly - electrolux etc including a set of very old and beautifully preserved skis that would be just right for Lucas!

We had breakfast there also - everything very sweet. I took and egg, thinking it had obviously been cooked some time ago as it felt cool to the touch .Just as I was about to crack it open a heavily accented male voice said 'It's raw'  so I hastily returned said egg to where I found it - lying in a dish with several oval molded depressions to take an egg each. There beside the dish sat the egg cooker! I gave a hoot of laughter and returned egg to its plate! 

Lake Bled

27 June

We headed off from Plitvice following the GPS "shortest" route.  This meant we got up close and personal with the North Croatian  and Slovenian countryside and villages.  To start with we skirted through the top of the national park in woods of spindly conifers, then descended into lush pasture, all cut for hay, and some horticulture.  No livestock was visible and few of the houses seemed to have barns nearby so we wondered where the animals were kept. Gillian developed a thing for the drying rack they use for the hay. We deduced that it must take too long for re hay to dry where it is cut so they hang it on these wooden rack ) with a simple V shaped roof over it - to dry it off before storing it. Storing is sometimes in the cylindrical  bales we see in NZ - some times wrapped in clear wrapping material - open at the end as we saw in Southern Italy - some times completely wrapped . I wish we had a photo of the constructions used for storing the fodder - hard to explain but basically it is a large X with a roof. the top half is used to store fodder and below the small tractors and other farming equipment is garaged.

In amongst the hay there is cropping. There are also often large tracts of pasture left to the wild flowers - wow! they are magnificent. they come in every hue - red, pink, lavender, blue ( corn flowers), yellow, white - lots of cow parsley. Vineyards appear everywhere until it gets to high for them to survive.

Crossing into Slovenia we found the quality of the roads was still great and the villages were little different from Croatia, which is logical as they were the same country until 1991.  As we moved north the houses became more "alpine" with Austrian style chalets high on the steep slopes.  At one point the GPS put us on an unsealed logging road over a range of hills, but after 15km we descended into the next valley and regained the tar seal.

Lake Bled is a nice small lake with an island, containing a church, and a castle high above the lake on a sheer rock.  There were boats to take visitors to the island propelled by the boatman standing on the rear of the boat rowing with long oars.  The water was clear, but the lake bottom around the town was unappealing with cutoff piles and tree branches overlaid with silt.

We drove around the lake and then explored an area where there was lots of seating. In the lake that Stephen mentioned there was evidently a prized tree stump which was situated in front of us and just below the surface of the water.  The ducks vied for possession thereof and moved each other off to gain a perch. Thereupon a frenzy of preening followed until the next usurper arrived. Very funny to watch.

It was a lovely warm sunny afternoon - our contemplation of the beauty of it was was disturbed by the realisation that one , or both, of the couple who lay recumbent on the grass behind us,where about to break the sound barrier with his/ her snoring! Also very funny

Plitvice

26 June

We had been advised not to arrive at Plitvice National Park when the tour groups descended in droves around 10:30, so we made a leisurely start. The drive up was interesting as the landscape changed moving from the coastal barren steep rocky hills to much greener, but not particularly fertile, high plains with more rounded hills.


The park service runs a shuttle "bus" service from end to end of the lakes consisting of a Unimog bus towing 2 trailers with steering designed to track the tractor.  The road is very tortuous and at times the front of the contraption was going in the opposite direction to the rear.

The lakes are set in an area that is in the natural state with spindly woodland and scattered undergrowth. This undergrowth is quite different to ours and very pretty - not dense and there is lots of leaf litter. Despite the nature of the deciduous leaves that make up this detritus  there is still not a lot of top soil.

The lakes are a series separated by wide waterfalls over travertine ledges that are constantly building up.  The lakes are in the region of 11-15 m deep and have a beautiful deep blue colour which is even more vivid when the sun is shining.  The walkways are made of trimmed branches laid across a frame a couple of feet above the water.  With no handrails we wondered how many visitors end up in the lake when the pressure of numbers builds up in the high season.  We opted to do a circular walk around the top lakes and then go down to the lower lake to view the highest waterfall. This park is surely a fairyland on earth - looking at the little waterfalls which are big ones in the making is amazing. Often water will disappear through a sink hole! To reappear further down as a waterfall all of its own.These waterfalls amaze us - they fall from a variety of heights, often around vegetation which is growing robustly despite the torrents of water that tumbles around them.


There are all sorts of fish swimming in the lake - they seem to have their own territory and their own markings.They are quite small - much smaller than those we saw in Krka.

We walked on board walks - as Stephen said ( above) I have renamed them as trunk and branch walks - few boards in sight and lots of views of the water / swamp / etc below your feet  between the so called boards! All very rustic but uneven. You really need to watch as there were step downs without warning and Stephen did a few 'whoops! Didn't see that one"

I was on the look out for 'wild life!" the brochures mentioned lynxes - I saw a cat!  They showed pictures of bears - i found several small reddish/brown mice who were scavenging for food. Really
cute but a poor substitute for a bear. however - one little mouse has the instincts of a survivor - he was collecting peanuts that had been dropped by a human ( they walk at 100 miles an hour and pause to take a photo or two and then  power on as they have to 'DO" the Plitvice lakes! which are several kms in distance and then they surge onto the shuttle to get back to where they started! I sound cynical but... walking slowly -as I have to these days -has meant we have seen lots of little details - e.g. trees that fall into the lakes over time are covered with fascinating calcification.
I hope the photos will fill in the gaps - this was a wonderful adventure and so unique. 


Around the top lakes the falls varied between cascades and streams of water falling through the vegetation over a width of over 100m.


After leaving the national park our GPS delivered us  perfectly to our accommodation. Stephen did it again. Built after the war (the 1991-5 civil war that is) it is a typical Alpine looking house. The ground floor is a beautifully appointed kitchen and a variety of chunky / Alpine styled  tables and chairs where our hostess cooks a wonderful breakfast from 7.00 - 10.00am. Thereafter she said she does the cleaning! The attention to detail and the quality of the construction is amazing - every surface sparkles and our hostess was on hand with helpful advice. We were right at the top of the building and I relished leaning out of the window - drinking up the view of the green well tended slopes, the fruit trees and the sheep (white and brown with horns) that Stephen told our hostess were goats!! Such peace and quiet - ignoring the sounds of traffic in the very distant distance.

We trundled off to dinner to a restaurant our hostess recommended - and after  huge and gorgeous last Croatian feast we heard "Hello Gillian, it is you!" A teacher from my PAI work was on holiday with hubby and friends. there followed a lovely catch up / isn't this amazing / where have you been/ where are you going etc!

We returned to our accommodation and fell into conversation with an amazing couple. they are Dutch authors and illustrators of children's books as well as composers. We exchanged email addresses and it would be nice to hear from them again - Stephen posted an email to them -so we might hear back.

Zadar

25 June

We had been advised by our host that we had to try the Croatian dish Peka, but it had to be ordered at least an hour in advance.  So we booked into a recommended restaurant for lunch.

After a lazy morning and swim we set out for lunch.  The restaurant had a cart wheel theme with many tables and benches having wheels at each end.  In the inner part the tables were on old treadle sewing machine frames. We were expected and the waiter pointed to our reserved table in the otherwise deserted restaurant.  The peka was brought out on an oval steel dish on which it had been cooked and consisted on slices of pork (belly we think) and segments of potato all heavily salted and swimming with oil and a mixed salad, also salted.  The flavour was rich, the pork was tender, but the 1kg of meat overwhelmed us and we took half of it away with us.  When we got back to the apartment we googled peka and found that it is normally cooked in a wood fired oven under a heavy lid covered with embers.  The meat can be anything (including octopus) and is sometimes mixed and the vegetables can include tomatoes, eggplant, and anything else you can roast.

After a digestive rest and another swim and laze in the sun, we headed into the old town of Zadar and wandered around to the "Salute to the Sun" and the "Sea Organ".  We were too early for the Salute which is a large circular area made up of solar powered lights that pulse in time with the sea organ during the hours of darkness and is particularly recommended at sunset.  We weren't up to going in again so we missed that spectacle, but we did enjoy the sea organ which is a series of steps that capture the wave energy and play mournful notes and harmonies depending on the wave action.  It is in no way melodic, but it has a fascination of randomness and continuity.

The surprise for us in the old town were the remains of the roman forum, which apparently was the largest on the eastern side of the Adriatic and was initiated by Emperor Augustus.  As the town was badly damaged during WWII the centre is a surprisingly modern shopping area with wide store fronts and modern marble paving.

Krka

24 June

Today we spent the day at Krka National Park.  This park extends up the Krka river with a series of waterfalls.  Our  visit didn't go entirely smoothly, which was unfortunate as the falls are spectacular.

There are several entrances to the park - we choose one with a shuttle boat that took us up to the base of the first series of falls.  There was a large crowd waiting for the boat and when boarding was announced it demonstrated that the Europeans don't have the English sense of queuing.  It was the most impressive display of mob mentality I've seen for some time.  However we got on the boat without injury and headed up the river.

We had heard of a boat trip up the top fall at Roski Slap and the tickets were only available at the information office at the top of the first falls, so we made our way up with a few stops to watch the water flow past.  The notable feature of these falls, apart from the width and volume of water, is that the water flows around the trunks of trees and through vegetation with side streams appearing from all directions.   The falls are in in cascade with around 8 separate major falls and a total drop of around 50m and a width of 100m.  They are attractive with crystal clear water and trees down to the water.

Arriving at the top information office we were met by a man ( shouting loudly, hoping we spoke German)who said that we could get on the boat that was supposed to have left a few minutes before.  When we queried this he said that it was OK as he was the captain.  Anyway a brisk 0.5km walk to the quay and we were shown onto a very old and small boat with 8 others and took off up the river.  It was difficult to talk over the diesel engine, but the captain and a group of Germans managed it ( in German)at 120dB - in other words very loudly.  The other boats we saw on the river were newer, larger and probably quieter.

There are a lot of reeds lining the river and at one point they form a complete wall across the river with a small gap for the boats.   We called into an island called Viscovac housing a Franciscan monastery ( very beautiful and tranquil. It was built by Franciscan Monks from a lump of rock. Apart for their exile during the Austro / Hungarian regime they have lived there continually - gardens, church, cloisters residences , peacocks, pea hens and chicks - brown peacocks! We have not seen those before. The church has a double high altar - it is a small but intimate feeling place of worship)
We resumed our trip with the captain shoouting at the Germains - "Wo ist meine beire?" and they responded in mega - decibels.

En route we took a wee detour to see a tress which had fallen down onto the edge of the lake - there basking in the sun were several turtles - 2 who were happily making babies . Not surprisingly our loud Deutsche fellow passengers got very excited at this sight and much Germanic shouting followed about 'SEX" over and over again.

Then we entered a limestone gorge leading up to the falls at Roski Slap.We saw more falls at the end
of the lake -  Again the falls run through the vegetation with a lot of the width hidden from view.
We landed there for a 2 hour break - our ears were very grateful. We have a lovely sandwich each of local ham and cheese in a beautiful spot with trees framing the lake - ducks, possibly grebes, white swans and their signets. There are also a series of flour mills here with one of the mills in operation to demonstrate the milling process (corn) using old style mill stones.

On the trip back down the river the Germans got even rowdier. There was a young female on board from Tokyo who was keen to jion in the antics. She and the loudest of the Deutsch Herr decided to flick handfuls of lake water on the captain. Said person was reclining forward of the wheel under the bow    on a mattress. He had surrendered the piloting to a young apprentice( who was anxious about docking...). During the ensuing horse play the young pilot moved the boat around so they lost their balance and  the very large Herr fell heavily onto Gillian's right knee which was excruciating painful -  he lurched off and then stood on both her feet.( Gillie here - I admit to a few tears at this point - knee swelled up more and was very painful on the long trek back to our car). The silly young thing landed in Stephen's lap. Nothing daunted the water fight continued - until the dumphkoph realized what he had done.

We reached the end of the trip - which was extraordinarily beautiful and different to our previous experiences - putting the behaviours of fellow human beings to one side!
There followed a trip via motor way to Zadar - arriving around 7pm

 Our accommodation tonight is an apartment in Zadar, which turned out to be bright, clean and attractive, but with fewer facilities than  we have been used to so far.   However the swimming pool is nice as was the lovely dinner we had at Delfin ( dolpin) restaurant  which as local venue. We watched a beautiful sunset from our seats - GB ate a lovely tomato soup and mozzarella bruchetta - and Stephen also ate the bruchetta and  a lamb dish. A lovely young man who was a waiter shared his home made cherry brandy with us at the end of the meal - wow!