Lake Bled, Slovenia

Well, here was a dilemma I've never had before ... it's my birthday weekend and I'm in Europe, so what to do? My practical options were A) hop on a train down to Venice, and B) drive to another country to see the sights. Well, option B won out because Venice was going to be super crowded and beastly hot, and with option B we could spend the day with good friends. We went to Lake Bled in Slovenia (about a 3 hour drive), and had to drive through a bit of Austria to get there. Unfortunately, as often happens with travel, our day had several lengthy setbacks and pitfalls, but none of them serious enough to ruin the day. We just didn't get as much done as we had wanted. Slovenia was interesting because it seemed to have a touch of several cultures there, the Slavic, Austrian/German, and Italian. Most people spoke English, which was nice. Here are pictures from our visit to the medieval castle that overlooks the lake from a cliff. The castle is dated to about 1004!





Here's a church on an island in the middle of the lake. Tradition holds, that in order to have a happy marriage here, a man must row his wife-to-be to the island and carry her up the 99 steps to the church! Better hope she didn't eat too much strudel!


We also had wanted to go to a high ropes course, but didn't end up with enough time, so we did enjoy the alpine tobbogan ride. We rode the ski lift to the top and it was a long way down. Lucky for us chickens, we could use the brake on our car to slow down on the curves! The view from the top of the mountain was amazing, but I can't show it to you because I didn't take my camera to the top! Won't make that mistake again! Bryan and the kids went down twice.




Here's us, the DeGruchys and the James' at dinner (Sara seems to be hiding). It was a long drive home late that night, after a very full day, but we were so glad we went!

Shopping in Nove

Ok, this was a fun day -- again, thanks to Tiffeani! Five of us headed over to Nove (pronounced no-vay), which is about a 2 hour drive from Aviano. Nove is the town where artists produce the ceramic pottery that Lenox, Tiffany & Co., Williams-Sonoma, etc. sell in their stores -- pottery that is very pricey in the U.S. In Nove, we can buy these items for about 1/3 or less of the U.S. price. We visited 5 ceramic production factories there. The car was FULL for the drive home! Here's a picture of us...Cyndi, Wendy, me, Tiffeani, and Kika, at the largest one we visited.


Here's me and Cyndi showing off our shopping prowess...


Here's my loot....


AND I had THE BEST chocolate brioche and cappucino there in a cafe in Nove. Since I can't get my sweet tea here, I am replacing it with cappucino, of course! You know ... when in Rome!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

THE GOOD: We got all of our household goods and I have been unpacking. There doesn't seem to be any significant damage to our stuff, so that is ALWAYS good news! There is plenty of room, and the house is really great. It is solid as a rock and the materials used are first rate -- lots of marble and granite. There's not a creak in the floor or stairs anywhere in the house. The neighborhood is quiet and clean. The pizzaria up the street in the town square is in easy walking distance and is truly awesome. Here's pics of a dinner party we went to there last week. All the kids enjoyed playing in the square.



THE BAD: There's really not anything truly bad. Getting used to all the differences in electrical outlets and appliances has been a challenge. There are 2 kinds of outlets in the house and we can't find any logic to it. One wall outlet will have holes for 3 skinny prongs, and another wall outlet will have holes for 3 fat prongs, but all the appliances have 2 fat prongs, so you have to use a little plastic adapter to make it fit. Everything is in 220V and our US stuff is 110V, so if we want to use any of our things, we have to use a voltage converter which is a very heavy box you plug into, then plug that into the wall.
Here's a picture of what it takes to run the laptop (which, by the way, is dual voltage, so doesn't need a converter)... for some things like this you need several adapters to get it to work (ie, put a US plug into a 2-fat-prong into a 3-skinny-prong). Confusing? You betcha! We are figuring it out, but it sure slows things down with setting up a house

Also, the base provides us with a washer and dryer to use. They delivered it the other day, and I was very happy to be lucky enough to get new ones. The only thing is, my washer speaks Spanish and my dryer speaks German! Who knows what the settings mean, when they say "Schrankentracken" and "Bugeltracken"! Schrankentracken sounds like it would shrink my pants and I sure don't need that with all the pasta and gelato I'm eating!

THE UGLY: The upstairs bathroom has a bidet! For those of you who haven't seen Croccodile Dundee ;o), a bidet is a sort of toilet that has faucet for "washing your back side", as Mick Dundee so eloquently put it. It sits next to the regular toilet and it is pretty much a waste of space ... and it is definitely ugly. I could post a picture for you to see it, but really, why?

La Nostra Casa (our house)

Here's our house in Dardago, Italy! We love it!


The porch is wonderful!

Here's the view we have to our north ... taken from our upstairs window.

The yard has some beautiful flowers and fruit (roses, sunflowers, pomegranites, olives, lavender and peppermint). Can't wait to plant a garden!




I'll post pics of the inside once I have it decorated! We'll soon be ready for company!

Barcis

Sunday morning we checked out the monthly antique market in the Aviano square. We didn't buy anything, but we were amazed at what was for sale. Anything you didn't know you even needed!

Then we picked up some Subway sandwiches on base and drove to Lago Barcis for a picnic. It's only about a 1/2 hour away. We drove through 4 mountain tunnels to get there, and one that was over 2 miles long. It was the longest tunnel I had been in, that's for sure. The lake water was a very unusual teal color, but very pretty. The water was way too cold for swimming, but the kids enjoyed dangling their feet in....

Prosecco Road

On Saturday, Tiffeani took me and 3 other gals over to "Prosecco Road". Prosecco is basically Italian champagne, and real Prosecco is only produced in this region. This works much like how real champagne only comes from the Champagne area of France. It was a wonderful scenic drive and here is the breathtaking view that awaited us at our first Prosecco vineyard stop in Valdobbiadene.


Here's all 5 of us...Joni, Amanda, Kika, me, and Tiffeani.


Here's an old house that worked as a sort of hiker's rest stop. No one was there, but you could go in and get cheese, proscuitto, bread, water, wine, etc. and just leave money on an honor system. Amazing concept, and an amazingly beautiful little cottage. Who knows how old it is...


It was a great day with the girls, and now I have to take Bryan and the kids there sometime.