{"id":2543,"date":"2019-06-29T15:28:51","date_gmt":"2019-06-29T19:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=2543"},"modified":"2019-06-29T15:30:35","modified_gmt":"2019-06-29T19:30:35","slug":"eastern-europe-day-15-wednesday-may-29-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=2543","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Europe, Day 15 – Wednesday, May 29, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rovinj, Croatia, to Ljubljana, Slovenia, to Bled, Slovenia<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were leaving our island paradise and heading for\u00a0 Slovenia, the final one of the seven countries on our trip. We breakfasted lightly. As I did yesterday, I enjoyed polenta with chocolate sauce, while Nick ate cake.\u00a0\u00a0 We were both wide awake for the bus ride. This was one of the few times on the trip that our passports were stamped.\u00a0\u00a0 And it was raining again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We were to have what was billed as a \u201ctour of\u00a0 Ljubljana with snacks.\u201d We met our local guide, Mattea, who indicated the locations of places of interest as well as places to shop for specific items. Ljubljana is a city of bridges. It begins with the Triple Bridge at which three bridges connect and intersect.\u00a0 In previous centuries, the town’s cobblers supported the construction of the Cobblers’ Bridge, and the town’s butchers, the Butchers’ Bridge. The most iconic of the bridges is the Dragon Bridge.\u00a0 Built in 1888, there is a statue of a dragon on each of its four corners.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Our first snack was\u00a0\u00a0 smoked sausage with mustard and horseradish that we ate at\u00a0 one of the many outdoor cafes. Then we went on to what Mattea called “a cow,”\u00a0 actually a machine from which milk could be bought 24\/7. Mattea intended to take us into the church, but there was no entry except for those attending mass. The door was relatively new, because it had a likeness of John Paul II on it.<\/p>\n

We tasted the next snack and were asked to guess what it was. It was covered with breadcrumbs, fried, and tasted like chicken. \u201cFrog’s legs!\u201d I shouted. I was right.<\/p>\n

We walked on to the daily fruit and vegetable market. Our next snack was a kind of cake that featured\u00a0 layers of cottage cheese, apples, and poppy seeds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We had some free time to explore on our own, but the rain kept us from wanting to stray too far. We ducked into a recommended pastry shop and found that many of our group were there as well. We saw a friend eating something spectacular: Black Forest Gateau with cherries and chocolate.\u00a0 We said, “We’ll have what she’s having.” It was fabulous!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Back\u00a0on the bus, we left Ljubljana and proceeded toward Bled, but first, we made a stop in a village called Zabreznica to visit beekeepers. We saw the entire beekeeping operation, which included a magnificent replica of a historic beehive that had a hand-thatched roof. We tasted five kinds of honey, from very light to strong, and one mixed with chocolate. We learned that bread with honey and chocolate was a typical breakfast in the area.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the bus once again, we continued on\u00a0 to Hotel Lovec in Bled. We decided to go to the restaurant next door for dinner where we\u00a0 joined another couple from our group. One of the specialties of the area was\u00a0 prosciutto\u00a0 served with melon. While it wasn’t prosciutto di Parma, which which we are very familiar,\u00a0 it was still quite good. For our main courses, Nick ordered tagliatelli with truffles, and he was amazed at the quantity of delicious fungi on his plate.\u00a0 I ordered a spinach pancake with cheese, which looked\u00a0 more like a bowl of spinach covered with cheese that had been put under the broiler. This may sound weird, but I loved it. One good thing about having dinner next door to our hotel is that it was just a few steps back to our room.<\/p>\n

9500 steps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rovinj, Croatia, to Ljubljana, Slovenia, to Bled, Slovenia We were leaving our island paradise and heading for\u00a0 Slovenia, the final one of the seven countries on our trip. We breakfasted lightly. As I did yesterday, I enjoyed polenta with chocolate sauce, while Nick ate cake.\u00a0\u00a0 We were both wide awake for the bus ride. This … Continue reading Eastern Europe, Day 15 – Wednesday, May 29, 2019<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[14,13,15],"class_list":["post-2543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-europe-2019","tag-europe","tag-rick-steves-tours","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2543"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2574,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions\/2574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}