Diverging paths

AndNow that our time together has come to a close, Jim and I are off on our own separate adventures, but we are fortunate that we are both with good travel companions.

While Jim and Matt forge ahead to St Petersburg, Moscow and points in the back of beyond, the lovely Rita and I sat in the Zagreb airport for quite a few hours whiling away the time before our flight to Paris. It was quite the busy place, what with people flying to and fro and paying their parking tickets. Yes, that's right, they conveniently have a place to pay a $15 parking ticket, one of which we received while in downtown Zagreb. I have a sneaking suspicion that they target rental cars, sine the place to pay you fine is at the airport, but no worries, because we felt that with all the cars we drove, if all we got was a 15$ parking ticket, we were doing pretty well!

Our flight to Paris was on HOP air, a low cost(?) subsidiary of Air France that was very nice. I dropped one bag at left luggage and we puzzled our way out of the massive Charles de Gaulle airport into the arms of Paree. We felt pretty proud of ourselves when we emerged above ground only a few blocks from out hotel. Fortunately I know the neighborhood pretty well, having just been here last spring, at the exact same time, coincidentally. 

Our hotel was not quite up to the standards of the other places we have stayed recently for half the price, but hey, this is Paris! Our big irritation is that the wifi is the worst I have had on the entire trip, dropping us at random. I told Rita I would have never booked a hotel with bad wifi, knowing what I do now about how nice it is to be able to stay in touch and do a little research. We have not had a lot more success with wifi in cafés but if you are reading this you will know that I finally went to McDonalds or somewhere to use the free wifi...

We had a full day planned for our second day here, so didn't try to stay out too late ( past 9:30!) our first night. We found a great restaurant nearby, CRU, in St Paul Village which is sort of tucked away in the Marais and had a good dinner. Being an animal lover, Rita was amused to see the small dog nearby being fed from its' owners plate! Welcome to France.

Our server rattled off in French until she saw look of bewilderment in Rita's eyes. Oh, she thought she was French! Ok not a bad compliment...

Off at the crack 'o dawn on Sunday to the market near Bastille, one of my favorites. 

I was thrilled to see my first rhubarbe of the season, even if I couldn't buy it.

Gorgeous seafood.

Artful displays

I love seeing radishes, so cheerful! 

And plump white asparagus. I wish I had a kitchen! 

Can you smell these olives? So pungent and wonderful. Mmm. 

We decided to try a Breton sausage crepe, and Rita, ever the good sport, sampled it for the photo. Delicious! But enough for 3 or 4 people. We couldn't eat too much because we had another eating event to go to at 11:30. 

Rotisserie chicken, moist and tender, but too early in the morning for that. 

A big pan of tiny potatoes, whic would go nicely with the chicken.,

And the flowers, oh the flowers! They made me swoon. 

Tempted though I was, I did not buy any, since I knew we had a big day ahead of us. 

We set off from Bastille, and since it was such a nice day, decided to walk along the Seine taking in all the sights. A young German girl approached with her family, and asked us, in perfect French, if we could tell them the way to Notre Dame? I replied in English that I think they could just follow the river. We found it just fine, but they disappeared..

From here you can't tell that it was besieged by crowds at 10 am.

The "love locks "have seemingly taken over the bridges of Paris! This is not the only bridge covered solidly in these locks- one was on the verge of collapsing under the weight, and had to be shored up! Rita and I want to start this idea in Portland. Maybe rebrand the Vista Bridge the " love bridge". 

And we'll sell customized locks. Rita searched ( in vain) for a lock with the name Rita. I said in The Amazing Race you might be given 15 keys and told to find the locks they opened. I'm glad this is not the amazing race. 

By Notre Dame we saw an outdoor art exhibit

I liked this little assemblage by the artists young daughter best. 

This is some king of newfangled crepe machine. Who would eat a rectangular crepe? Certainly not me! Doesn't seem to work all that well...

This was an ecclectic guy on his crazy contraption ,who wanted money for a photo. 

We had places we needed to go, so we had to abandon our walk and hop on the metro to get to our destination.

Reunion!

After 4 months of not seeing family, we were very excited to meet up with Matt and Rita in a lovely setting outside of Plitvicka National Park. We were so happy to share travel stories that we decided to postpone going to the park until the next day, in spite of forecast of rain. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed being in each other's company, so what was the rush to move on?

We had a nice dinner at our apartments, though it was waaaay too much food.

Matt was amused  when our host said " you will eat it all". Was that a hope or a command? By the way, we had two platters this size! 

The next morning, we awoke to rain and fog...oops, I guess we made an error in judgement not to go to the park when the weather was good.

But we forged on, thinking maybe we could see a bit, and I was pretty determined. When we got to the ticket office, I ran to the gift shop for rain ponchos to replace the green garbage bags we had purchased.

Isn't Rita cute? Even in a green garbage bag she has style...jim informed me that the shortest route would have taken from 3-4 hours, and the longer route was 4-6 hours! And you had to take the park bus to the walking trail. Plus it would cost us rach $25+ for the fun of being out in the rain, soaking wet. when the woman at the ticket office said " Are you sure you really want to go?", we had to admit that, no, we really didn't want to spend that much time in the rain. So the ponchos were returned and we said we' d come back on another trip. If we had been there in nice weather, this is what we would have seen

Oh well. So up the road we went in the pouring rain, to Zagreb. 

We really made a good effort at seeing some of Zagreb, in spite of the constant rain. 

What we saw was beautiful, and we could only imagine how nice it would be when it was full of people in the sunshine. 

Many, many gorgeous old buildings, and yellow seemed to be a favorite color. Everyone was carry umbrellas.

In a fur store window I saw the cutest miniature menagerie imaginable! Is this what they make from the leftovers after making fur coats? 

Interesting street art.

Too many museums to see, but we were all interested in the Museum of Failed Relationships.we tried to find it, but the signs petered out. Another reason to return.

These were cheerful on a rainy day.

Now I know where to go for very stylish hats! 

I finally got a photo of the group, though it wasn't the best weather for taking pictures. 

As you see in so many places, the cathedral was covered in scaffolding.

I think we'd all like to return to see more of Zagreb.

A little more nature

When we first conceived of this trip, we imagined that we would spend some more time in Slovenia, in the Julian Alps. We had a reservation for an apartment near lake Bled, but as the time came, we were on the coast of Croatia and really didn't want to rush north. So we put it off until we really ran out of days. But we were so close that we at least wanted to see the area. 

I'm glad we pushed on, as it was all so beautiful. We passed through miles of wildflowers, and saw mountain views that made us think we might see Heidi run down from the hills. 

The lake at Bohinj was also beautiful, and less developed than lake Bled. It was very quiet in the off season, but im sure it is busy in the summer as it's a rock climbing destination and school. I'd go rowing in one of these little wooden boats.

It was time to head back south,stopping again briefly in Ljubljana for lunch.

This was a new kind of street performance. 

It was another gorgeous day in Ljubljana.

Darn it,we didn't see the rental bikes soon enough to go for a ride. My goal is to ride these bikes in every city where they are offered. So far we've done Paris, NYC and Chicago. In comparison to those places, riding in Ljubljana would be a cakewalk. 

I discovered the market in the center of town and I found some of my very favorite flowers. I know some people wouldn't buy flowers when they are on the road traveling, but they cheer me. Plus, I can't find these at home for 1.50€! 

We had not made a reservation for a place to stay, so didn't want to linger too long before hittin the road. We passed through a town we imagined we might stay in, but it seemed too soulless, plus it was kind of strange to see buildings riddled with bullet holes. Apparently the war reached this area, too. 

We stopped and checked a booking site and found a decent looking place overlooking the river. We didn't book it, but decided to drive there. We almost went past it, but drove down the road and liked what we saw. 

It was lovely. 

We didn't expect to have a view, but this was what we saw from our balcony. The next morning, we were the ones in a canoe. It was hard to leave, but we had important people to meet! 

There were a couple of short stops along the way.

No, I didn't buy any plants.

But we did get the first carving from this guy. We just had to try it. 

Some beautiful waterfalls along the way. I think this would be a fun place to stay. 

It was so hot I finally wore shorts for the first time. Happy in the sunshine.