Bled, Slovenia

We still love Slovenia! We went to Slovenia the first time about a year ago and we wanted to go back so we could explore the Lake Bled area and the national park in the Julian Alps. Slovenia is “mini-Europe”. It has beaches on the Adriatic, old castles, historic cities, beautiful churches, caves, and the Alps, all crammed into its tiny borders, and the bonus is that it is still relatively undiscovered and great value for money.

We arrived midday Friday the 9th, and while John had a meeting with the airport I got my weekly Economist reading out of the way and continued devouring The Wolf of the Plains (a great new book about Genghis Khan).

We got to our destination of Bled later in the afternoon. Lake Bled has an island with a church on it and a castle high up on a cliffs of its shore. John found us this great hotel, outside of the town and right on the lake. We had a view of the castle, the church and all the rowers skimming across the water. The hotel was really good – clean, neat atmosphere and delicious local food. Friday evening we bundled up and walked around the lake. That worked up our appetites for a dinner of local food and then we hit the sack very early.

We spent Saturday exploring different sights in the national park, which consumes the northwest corner of the country. My friend Barb was the one that originally recommended hiking in Slovenia. First we went to the famous gorge, but unfortunately, the trail was closed, so we weren’t able to see much of it. The trail was mostly made up of boardwalks along the gorge walls but they were damaged in a big storm.

We took on a tiny gravel road through the park (non stop beautiful scenery) to a waterfall, which we hiked up to, and then we picnicked at the base of some stunning mountains. By mid afternoon, we were at the north end of the park and we thought we would take the only road that went across the park. It looked like a quick cut through, but our map didn’t show elevation. We started to go up and up and then we came across a sign that told us about the road. It is called the “Russian Road” as it was built by Russian prisoners of war in 1916. It goes through a very high mountain pass and it is closed during the winter. The sign advised of the road’s 50 hairpin turns (switchbacks), 25 on either side of the pass. The road, the turns and the spectacular mountain scenery took our breath away. So did the cold air and snow when we got out of the car at the top of the pass. The route certainly exceeded our expectations!

By the time we got to the bottom of the pass, the sun was setting. We flipped a coin to decide our route back to Bled, either around the north end or south end of the park (going back over the Russian Road was not considered). We chose the north route which took us through Italy. The Italian border crossing was really cool. It was at the top of another pass, lower than the Russian Road one, and it had fortresses in ruins on either side. We eventually made it back to our cozy hotel in Bled, where we enjoyed another great dinner and early to bed.

On Sunday, we drove to Bohinj Lake, another beautiful sight. We had the urge to do a bit more physical activity than the day before so we walked around the lake which took about 2.5 hours. The sun was shining, the lake was like a mirror, the air was crisp and the ground was covered in autumn leaves to kick our way through. At the end of the walk, we had a coffee on a café patio over looking the lake.

Driving to the airport on Sunday afternoon, we were talking about how it was such a perfect weekend -- fresh air, amazing scenery, long sleeps, yummy food, good value, and decent flight times. Of course, we jinxed ourselves and our flight was four hours late leaving. Aside from that, it was such a lovely weekend getting back to nature. Slovenia is definitely worth a visit!

Normandy, France

Our latest long weekend away (Nov 2-4) was a patriotic remembrance trip to the Normandy and Picardie regions of France: we visited Canadian World War I and II Memorials. The weekend objective was to cram in as much war history and pastry as possible.

We switched things up a bit transport wise and, we took an overnight ferry over to France, departing from Portsmouth to Caen. After a drink at the bar, we settled into our little cabin. Everything was compact; the upper bunk where I slept pulled out of the ceiling, but we had a private bathroom and shower.

John is ever the good driver, and once in France, he easily transitioned to driving on the right side of the road but from the right side of our English car. We drove to Deauville, a summer beach town for Parisians where John had a business meeting with the airport. The town had some amazing castle like houses. With all those roof angles, we kept thinking that they made construction much more difficult than it needed to be.

We drove south along the coast to Courseulles Sur Mer, better known to Canadians as Juno Beach, where the Canadian troops landed on D-Day to start the battle of Normandy. In the new historic centre on the beach, we learned about the invasion: the preparation, the strategy, how they learned from mistakes at Dieppe, the luck, the successes, the casualties. We learned about how the troops advanced farther into Europe and we gained appreciation for how “all consuming” the war was back in Canada. The little details and the personal stories hit home and made history come to life.

After Juno, we drove further south to the American cemetery at Ohama Beach, where about half of the American troops landed. The cemetery is in a stunning location overlooking the cliffs and the beach, and the sight of 11,000 white crosses marking graves is powerful.

Saturday was our “non war” day. We grabbed some croissants and coffee and started our drive up to the town of Arras. We stopped midday in the city of Rouen, which was where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. We explored the town centre, which is home to several churches, a Cathedral and wall to wall half timbered buildings.

It was dark when we arrived in Arras and our first impressions that it was a bleak and industrial city. But, once we navigated our way to the centre of town, we were pleasantly surprised to find two large squares buzzing with activity and surrounded by well restored historical buildings. Our hotel was right on the main square.

The night before in Deauville, we got ripped off with a tourist meal for dinner. Feeling very upset about this rookie travel mistake, we bought a baguette, cheese, meat, tomatoes and olives and enjoyed a homemade dinner in our hotel room. We also bought four bottles of wine and beer because it was so cheap, and played a few games of crib.

Sunday we went to Vimy Ridge for the Canadian Remembrance Day ceremony. The formal ceremony took place in front of the impressive monument, with the bugle and bagpipes, veterans and dignitaries and laying of wreaths. Restoration of the monument was completed in the Spring of 2007, in time for the 90th year anniversary of the battle that took place on the ridge, when four Canadian divisions working together for the first time were successful in taking the ridge. Interesting fact - Hitler was at the inauguration of the Vimy Memorial in 1936. During WWII, he stationed guards at the site to protect it.

The Vimy memorial is 110 acres of land that the French gifted to Canada after WWI, and includes the memorial itself, two cemeteries, the trenches and tunnels, a museum and lots of forest. It is a beautiful plot of land with a great view and lots of maple tress. The ground is covered in bumps and craters from all the trenches and explosions. It looks like a mogul course on a ski hill. You can’t walk on most of it due to un-detonated explosives.

Canadian University students work at the site and run tours/provide info. We started talking to a student from Steinbach and he gave us a personal tour of the trenches – amazing that the Canadian and German front lines were only 25 metres apart. Trench warfare sounded grim but the tactics used were very interesting. We were able to tour the ten kms of tunnels run that under the Canadian trenches, which were used to bring troops to the front for the battle of Vimy.

After Vimy, we drove up to Calais and then took the quick ferry back over to England. My brief descriptions of the history of the events don’t do them justice. To visit these sites and learn more about what happened in the Wars was a very powerful experience. We really recommend it.