By fall, we were ready for new experiences. I had heard of the beauty of Slovenia and Croatia. I looked for a small group tour and and liked the Rick Steves Tour itinerary. I prefer small group trips, but decided to give his tour a try even though the group size could be as much as 26 people.  The size was not a problem because his tours attract people who are real travelers and conform to his rules.  This was a great trip.

Slovenia: 

Ljubljana

I like to be sure that I arrive in plenty of time for a tour, therefore, we arrived in Ljubljana a day early.  I pre-arranged with the hotel for a driver to pick us up and drive us to the hotel.  It makes all the difference to me not to worry about getting to the hotel when I am tired from flights and in a new country.   

We had a morning free before our tour, therefore, we booked a tour to the Skocjan caves and Lipizzan horse farm.  

 There are about 6,000 of these horses worldwide and 360 are in Ljubljana. Did you know that the horses are born black and lighten as they mature? 10% of them stay black.

Ljubljana was originally a Roman military and trading post.  Its location between Italy and Croatia and the fact that it had a navigable river made it ideal for trading. It was part of the Austria/Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, and then was part of Yugoslavia. In 1991 Slovenia became independent.  

The dinner and view from the castle was spectacular.

Ljubljana to Lake Bled and on to Kobarid

It was an overcast rainy day; not the best to see beautiful Lake Bled.  We did however walk around the lake and stopped at the castle.  

The drive from Lake Bled to Kobarid through the Julianne Alps was magnificent.

The mountains are rugged and because of the rain, we had extra waterfalls.  The drive to the pass included 24 switchbacks and 26 on the way down.  It was impressive.  There had been a lot of fighting in these mountains during WWI and I can only imagine how miserable conditions were in the winter. 

Croatia  

Our stops in Croatia were all wonderful but I will only mention to best of the best.  

Pula

Pula has incredible Roman ruins. The original settlers were farmers and pirates.  Their mistake was to prey on the Romans, who conquered them in 177 BCE and eventually used their port for commerce.  

The Romans built a complete town with a forum and amphitheater.  The amphitheater, though smaller than the one in Rome, is much better preserved for a couple of reasons: a) its exterior was of stone rather than marble, so it was less likely to be re-used and b) the church forbade the locals from stealing stones from it, only the Church could take the stones and they did not take many.  During the Venetian occupation of Pula, from 13th to 18th centuries, the Venetians wanted to move the structure to Venice, but luckily it was too expensive and difficult to do so.

The amphitheater, built in 50 CE, sat 23,000 people. The arena center was covered with sand. The seats had canvas coverings, in different colors to add to the drama.  At the bottom was the royal box where the emperor sat when visiting, then came the nobles, higher up were the military personnel and finally the peasants.  There were also standing room space at the top. 

 Rovinj

The church has a wonderful bell tower, which requires climbing 182 little wood steps to the top. Going down, I went sideways because the steps were so narrow.

Plitvice Falls 

 I have been to Niagara, Victoria and Iguazu Falls, but this was a totally different experience. With all the rain that summer and early fall, the falls were flowing like crazy. That’s the good news. 

Not knowing what sights we missed, I can honestly say that what we saw was stupendous, beautiful, and impressive.  We saw large powerful falls and smaller falls that went circularly around the lake.  Often there were too many of them to capture in one picture. The hike was partially on boardwalks and partially on gravel.

Split

Split’s main attraction is Diocletian’s Palace, built in year 305 CE. The city walls were added around 1660 to protect the inhabitants from the Ottomans.  The Ottomans got to within about 20 miles from Split before they were stopped.  

 To the left, facing the palace is the smallest cathedral in the world.  To the right of the palace is the Temple of Jupiter, now the church of John the Baptist. The square in front of the palace was the meeting place for visitors to the palace.  Diocletian would come out to the balcony to celebrate the summer and winter solstice, and the subjects would all bow down to him.  

Our visit to the palace grounds was curtailed somewhat, area wise, because parts were closed for the filming of “Game of Thrones”.  The Palace grounds have been lived in for 1700 years and they are still vibrant with both locals and tourists. It is amazing how the grounds of the palace have been reconfigured over the centuries.

There is a tiny Jewish population in Split, 100 people, down from 300 before WWII.

There is one tiny synagogue, from the 1500s, which is on the second floor of a normal house right at the end of the western wall of the palace.  They don’t have their own Rabbi, but share the Zagreb Rabbi.  The synagogue has been open continuously for 500 years with the exception of 1 year during the Nazi occupation. 

Korchula

Korchula is a small island town.   It’s old town streets are laid out like a fish skeleton.  The main north/south road is the main bone and the side streets are perpendicular to it.  There are shops and restaurants on most streets. Along the water, on both the east and west sides are restaurants with views of the Adriatic.

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik was built in the Middle Ages and was an independent country.  It was an important trading town, in competition with the Venetians.  When the Ottoman Empire conquered the area, it left the Independent Republic of Dubrovnik alone, so long as they paid their large monthly tribute to the Sultan.   The town’s people tried to look poor, so that the tribute would not be raised, therefore, they never decorated their churches or the outside of their houses.  Today Dubrovnik is part of Croatia.

The Dubrovnik area has about 50,000 people but the walled city is down to 1,500 from about 5,000 in the Middle Ages.  It is expensive to live in the walled city: no cars are allowed; therefore, everything has to be walked or carted in.  It is almost completely a tourist town.  It has one post office, two grocery stores, over 100 restaurants and some 80-tourist shops. About 100 cruise ships dock there a year.

Dubrovnik is circled by two walls.  The inner wall was built first and was built very high for protection from enemies who would try to scale the walls.  The second wall was built later with holes for artillery. These walls are lower because by then, the danger was having artillery breach the walls from the outside rather than scaling them.

The aqueduct was built in 1437 and saved going 8 miles for water.  It brought the water to 2 fountains: one for the Christians and one for the Jews.  The sewage system from that time is still working, just with more filtering.  

Our guide showed us some graffiti from 1597, in which one of the residents wrote that he was tired of having his windows broken by the youth playing some kind of football on the streets. He also showed us the old orphanage.  Since it was shameful to have a child out of wedlock, there was a window with a Lazy Susan kind of contraption, where a woman could place a newborn and turn the wheel and walk away without the people in the orphanage knowing her identity.  If she thought she might want to claim the child later, she would break a coin in 2 and leave one half with the baby.  The kids lived in the orphanage for 6 years, and then they went to work for an upper-class family or in the fields.

Just outside the walls were some low houses – these were quarantine houses.  The city suffered greatly from the plague.  Quarantine comes from the Italian word for 40, which is the number of days you were required to stay in quarantine to be sure that you were healthy if you had been traveling.

But in 1546, Zudioska street, where they Jews lived, was walled off with a gate that was locked at night.  The ghetto was abolished in the early 1800s.   The synagogue was small but beautiful.  The ceilings are painted blue with Star of David on them.  The lamps are Oriental style and were obviously influenced by the Turkish Ottomans.   There are only 40 Jews in town now. 

Mostar, Bosnia

We took an overnight trip to Mostar in Bosnia i Herzegovina.  The “i” in their language means ‘and’ therefore I will shorten the name to BiH.

BiH suffered much during the war in the 1990s.  Half of the country is Muslims, the Bosniaks, 1/3 are Serbs (Christian Orthodox) and the last 15% are Croatian Catholics.  The Bosniaks converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule. The three groups do not get along. 

In the 1990s, Mostar was the unhappy middle between Serbia and Croatia, and therefore was shelled by both.  

The old bridge was destroyed in the fighting and has been reconstructed.  The war is still raw.

Final Comments:

1. Arriving a day early and being picked up at the airport is wonderful.
2. Rick Steves company uses awesome guides.
3. We saw some beautiful towns and countryside and learned a great deal of history. 
4.  The size of the group was not a hinderance to flexibility and we enjoyed meeting the fellow travelers.