North Georgia

I made another trip recently to northern Georgia. It is early fall but I do start to see some leaves changing. It is a nice time of year to enjoy all that part of Georgia has to offer.

I visit Gibbs Gardens, the large botanical garden north of Georgia. Luckily it is zinnia season. I see the large display of flowers they have for the season. I love their Japanese garden as well where you can see fall peaking through.

I also do a wine tasting at Ott Vineyards.

We also do a short little hike to Amicalola Falls State Park. The hike is pretty easy until you get to the stairs of Amicalola Falls in order to view the falls at all the different heights. It is a bit of a workout.

Top of Amicalola, we drove to the very top

We also visit a mushroom farm. It is interesting to see how mushrooms are actually farmed. I spend way too much money at this farm store.

I also pick up some cut flowers. They are pretty but get beaten up on the long drive home.

Finally I visit an orchard store and had a nice dinner in the town of Blue Ridge. It is a nice ending to my visit. I always enjoy a getaway to North Georgia.

Alaska Cruise: Ketchikan

We’ve arrived at Ketchikan and booked a private tour. We didn’t love the excursion choices and wanted to dictate our own agenda for the day.

We disembark early and have some time before we meet our guide so we walk up and down the port while we wait.

We meet up with our tour guide – a younger active guy who has some suggestions for us. It is during our tour that I start compiling a list of all the things that are trying to kill you in Alaska:

Lack of vitamin D
Landslides 
Devils club
False azalea 
Cows parsnip
Skunk cabbage

Our first stop is at a beautiful beach park with lots of interesting looking formations at the shore. It is at this park I see my first bald eagle of the day.

We head to wildlife observation spot where another tour guide is using food to attract birds to the area. We are collectively not fans of this so we decided to try again later.

Our guide then takes us to an off-the-beaten path waterfall with and more off-the-beaten path trail. The trail is not well marked or heavily used. I am sure typical cruise passengers would not be up for taking this rustic trail to get a better waterfall view but we are wearing the right kind of shoes so we are game.

We then stop at a small totem park where we learn more about totems and the stories behind them. We also meet a local artisan who makes knives and other metal items. Unfortunately the totem carver was gone the whole time we were there but we did see a bear wandering around by the nearby river.

After our tour we wander around the town of Ketchikan. I stop at some stores and try some salmon samples. I only wish we were here during spawning season. I think it would be cool to watch the fish, or even bears catching fish.

It’s time now to return to the ship. We head up to the bar at the back of the boat to get a nice view of the boat leaving the port.

Dinner and then rest up for another port day tomorrow.

Norway: Geirangerfjorden

The next couple days are essentially spent in the car. I have planned a couple stops in the middle of the fjords in central Norway and everything is a long drive to get there.

I fly from Stavanger to Oslo then I am suppposed to catch a flight to Alesund. There are two alesund flights at the same time but I don’t realize it and see the gate number for the first one that catches my eye; the gate is across the airport a couple terminals over from where I land. The flight in question starts boarding and I realize it must be the wrong flight because the flight number doesn’t match ; but really what alerts me is the star alliance announcement because I didn’t think I was on a star alliance flight. I am waiting at the wrong flight. I have to run back across the airport and I’m sure I’ve missed my flight. While I am running my metal water bottle crashes on the tile floor and it seems like the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. Luckily the previous flight is still exiting the plane. I feel like in most cases the gate would already be closed and I’d have to book another flight. Sure got my cardio in this morning. Way to elevate that heart rate.

I fly into Alesund. My flight is very empty so I move to the window seat in my row to get the great view.

The airport is small and it takes no time at all to get my bag and get out the door. I pick up my rental car which of course is another brand new vehicle I am going to worry about hurting. It is bigger than I like but hopefully it takes the mountain pass roads well. As far as driving I am finding Norwegian drivers (or tourists here) to be polite and conscientious drivers. Despite the tight roads it seems safe enough. I do see one camper van take out part of another camper van’s mirror in a tight spot.

There are lots of tunnels at the beginning of my drive and one ferry before I reach the ferry I have planned in advance, the Geirangerfjord ferry ride – a must do if you are in the region.

My ticket is for the 3:30 PM Geirangerford ferry in Hellyst which is a good thing because I arrive just as the 12:30 PM ferry is leaving. I want to make sure my ticket is accurate and I can leave my car to get lunch but the one younger man working the car line seems flustered and overwhelmed. It seems there is confusion over tickets and quite a few ended up missing their 12:30 PM ferry so he is bombarded with those people as well as those who have arrived for the next ferry without tickets yet. I patiently wait and finally get his attention to find out my ticket is accurate and where to place my car to wait. I head off to look for food. It seems like there is only one open restaurant in this town and seems to be pizza only. I visit the local supermarket instead and get some berries and ingredients for a do it yourself sandwich. Picnic tables along the water are perfect to watch boats and birds while I eat my lunch. I take a short walk around the town to visit the water fall and a historic bathing house. There is still more time to wait so I go back to my car to read and try to nap.

Eventually the ferry arrives and we drive onboard. This ride is over an hour so after you park below it is essential to go upstairs and get a view of the fjords. It is supposed to be one of the most scenic ferry rides and it is. Some sights are pointed out on the way and one of them is the seven sisters waterfall.

I drive off the ferry in Geiranger and there is a cute tourist town by the water. My only concern at this point is checking into my hotel though so I drive up the hill in that direction. There are many steep switchbacks to get to the hotel and with each one it is becoming more apparent that my plan of heading into town for dinner is not going to happen because I will not have the energy to walk back up tonight. You need to be in fantastic shape to even be a tourist in Norway it seems. Luckily the hotel has a restaurant. The menu is limited but I decide to treat myself to a steak. Before dinner I admire the views of the town from above.

I wish I had planned two nights in Geiranger so I could have had a day to relax in town. I am too tired tonight to make the trip down to town and I have too much driving to do tomorrow to add on a visit to town in the morning, Maybe I will return sometime in the future.

Caves of Slovenia

In the region of caves I booked a ticket to see the Postojna Cave and the nearby Predjama castle. From what I researched Postojna seemed like the lesser of the big caves in the region so I did not prioritize it, instead booking the Skocjan Cave ahead of time (scheduled tomorrow). After driving an hour away to the Postojna cave I am now thinking I have that reversed. Getting there early to not miss my start time I stop in for coffee and a strudel since I left before breakfast this morning.

I line up for my cave entrance time and they start scanning tickets about 15 minutes before start. All those that have requested audio guides go off into a separate room to pick up the guide. We also all enter the train together. Train? Yes there is a train to take us 3.5 km to the walking portion of the tour. This cave is the second longest cave system in the country made famous by its karst or limestone landscape. Formed by an underground river, the stalagmites and stalactites are quite impressive to look at. As I walk through the cave drops of water fall periodically from above proving the cave is still a work in progress. We walk 1.5 miles through the cave, get a look at a “dragon”-like cave creature and then we take the train back out.

During the tour of Postonja we end up in a cavern like area where there is good acoustics. It is common to have Christmas concerts here. Toward the end is a river running along the cave.

After my visit to the cave I hop in the car and drive about 10 km to Predjama Castle, a castle built into the rocks and around another cave system. It is pretty impressive how it is built, security being its top priority. Apparently it is too damp to be a permanent residence but it provided great protection to attackers for it being high up and its vast cave system that could be used for escape routes. I was able to visit a bit of the upper cave but I am too early in season to visit the caves below because bats use it for hibernation during many months of the year. The audio guide there talked about a couple of the past residents and uses but the most interesting is the Robin Hood like character that lived there for a while. He had quite the reputation for robbing the rich.

Tomorrow I go see another cave so we will see how it stands up to the one today.

I head back to Piran for some food and drink. I am craving some ćevapi and luckily they have a Bosnian restaurant in town. It is very good but some rude guy next to me felt the need to interrupt my meal and tell me I am eating my ćevapi wrong. I tell him I’ve been to Bosnia and know how they eat cevapi and can eat it how I please. He seems very proud of him self for “correcting” me. I basically tell him to mind his own business since he isn’t even Bosnian.

After eating I find a place at a cafe and have myself a happy hour and do some reading. It is a nice and relaxing way to end my day.

Škocjan Cave

In the morning they are setting up for a market. I hope it will still be active when I return to town later.

My tour for the caves starts at 10 am. I am early and I wait for the guide to gather us to walk us the kilometer or so down to the cave entrance. A group of men arrive as what seems like a stag party. There is a bar at the cave entrance. They start doing rounds of shots and cheering “OPA!”. It seems to be a lively group. They separate all of us by what language we understand for the tour. Each group enters a few minutes after the other.

I am visiting Skocjan caves and the first thing that comes into mind touring this cave is that this is some goonies sh*t. What I mean by that is that the high cave paths and views down below make me think of the movie Goonies, a favorite from my childhood. The cave was first discovered BC but was majorly explored in the 1900’s. It is culturally significant and added to the UNESCO list in 1986 (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/390/). We explore via a modern made path but as we walk along thee cave you can see the old path the explorers made, a pretty impressive feat. Unfortunately they have a very strict no photo policy inside (though ignored by the woman in front of me who made me stop constantly so she could take her illicit photos). I have borrowed a photo from the unesco site so you can get an idea of how impressive it is inside.

Photo of inside Škocjan Cave (credit to Borut Lozej from unesco site)

After our inside tour there are a couple different exit options. Don’t take exit 2 unless you just like stairs. Take elevator or long cave exit. Nothing to gain by exit 2 which I took. I felt I’d be too lazy to take the elevator and I didn’t have it in me to take the longer cave exit; although I regret it later. I do catch a little waterfall on my way out.

Afternoon in Piran

I return to Piran for the afternoon. There is a band playing with an accordion and tuba and I’m eating pizza at an outdoor cafe. I’m confused if I am in Slovenia, Italy or Germany right now, there seems to be a mix of cultures here. There is a flea market going on. People are selling various things like antiques, light fixtures, baskets, and jarred foods. Along with the band people are singing in the courtyard.

I take some time to do my laundry since I’ve been sweating through everything here near the sea. While I wait for my laundry I watch the singing groups perform at the square outside. It must be some sort of informal music festival, or do they do this every week.

I finally eat at the recommended restaurant in that very same courtyard. There is very strange way of getting a table compared to the rest of town. I wait in the unmarked line like I am told and watch at least two couples “steal” tables anyway, even after learning the rules. Once you have a table you can go order from the window. There is a waiter but that is for drinks only. You must pay attention for your number to be called. I eat one of the best plates of fried calamari I think I’ve ever had. If I had more time I’d come back and order the grilled ones.

I take it easy the rest of the evening. Tomorrow I am heading back to Ljubljana to return the rental car and explore some more

Zadar and Parks

We arrive in Split and are walking to the car rental location. We have chosen this location at the ferry port because of convenience and also it had the least crappy reviews of all the local rental shops. We spurge for the full coverage even though technically the credit card covers this because the last thing I want to do is fight over car scratches at the end. We discover that along with our stress free rental we are given a car that’s seen better days. We aren’t picky so other than the GPS we rented being completed useless the car is fine. We laugh that it is the owner’s cousin’s car that he rents out on the side to make some money.

I start driving and all we want to do is get our butts out of the city. We head toward Zadar, our next overnight location. It is a little stressful dealing with traffic in a new country but we make it out of the city relatively easy.

We stop on the way at a small town named Trogir. We walk around the medieval town for a couple hours.

We get to Zadar, find car parking and check into our apartment just in time to run down and catch the sunset at the artwork called “Greeting to the Sun” which during the day looks like just a glass floor but at night lights up beautifully. We catch the show better a couple hours later. There is a sax guy playing while we admire the sunset.

We share a late dinner then head to bed as we are heading to Plitvice Lakes national Park tomorrow.

As we head to Plitvice we aren’t without drama on the way since it is a long drive with absolutely no bathrooms along the way.

It is a rainy day so I am sure it keeps the crowds down a bit but it still pretty busy in the park known for its numerous waterfalls. This UNESCO protected park is very beautiful. We follow one of the most popular paths around that is estimated to take about a half day. Part of the route includes taking a ferry inside the park to another set of falls. We at some point lose the route we are supposed to be on but luckily we find our way back to the car park.

Despite the rain the park is very enjoyable.

On our way back we stop to buy some local cheese at one of the road side cheese stands. It is a weird texture and has very little flavor but what it does have is weird and disappointing. We try to eat it but it isn’t that great. We even try to feed it to street cats later and they wont eat it. I can’t believe there are cheeses out there I don’t like.

We get back into town wander to find a place to eat dinner. I decide tonight I need all the vegetables since my diet has been poor lately. I order a carpaccio salad and side of grilled vegetables.

The next day we head to the town of Nin, Croatia known for it’s salt harvest. Nin is also known for its beaches and its royal history in the 7th to 13th centuries. We visit the salt museum in this sleepy town and buy lots of salt including the flower of salt, a special salt that is harvested.

Back to town where we sit and listen to sea organ, an amazing art installation that sounds like an organ making music when the waves come in. We also shop, buy ice cream, eat dinner and make bad drink decisions. Afterwards we have Eurovision night in since it is on the next two nights.

Watching Eurovision

The next morning we visit the market in town because I love a good market.

We start driving toward Split but first we want to stop at Krka National Park, another waterfall park. Google gives us directions but we ignore them to follow the signs. For a while it seems like a dumb decision that has us driving out of the way but it ends up being the smart one. We find the park entrance and we park conveniently close to the free bathroom because of course we both have to go. On the way we stop by this cool looking abandoned building.

We buy our ticket and wait for the bus to take us down to the park. When we get off the bus there is a commotion. Someone may have died at the entrance to the park. Someone is giving CPR to a man on the ground while they wait for emergency medical help. Not wanting to contribute to the chaos we leave and start our waterfall visit, wondering if he is ok.

Today it is raining again. We see lots of water between the rain and waterfalls. Some parts around the trail become flooded. Thank goodness again for my poncho.