Jeremy & Joanna Tour Europe!: The best of the West of the East... think about it!

Hey again!

Just going to write a few brief updates about some of the places we've been before we see too many places and forget all the details.

After our last post we spent a few more days in Croatia, checking the islands and the local cuisine, they even have the vanilla slice here!! Then I headed north from Croatia to Slovenia, while Jo made a brief detour through Venice and met me in Ljubljana... it was a shopping thing.

Sunset in Split

The Island of Vis

The Amphitheater in Pula

Rovinj on the Istrian Peninsula

All up we spent about a week in Slovenia and saw the capital, Ljubljana, and the towns of Bled and Bohinj. Lake Bled was amazingly picturesque and the best thing about it is you can actually hire a row boat and row out to the old monastery that is on an island in the middle of the lake! Very amusing as neither of us have really ever done any rowing before, serious or otherwise! We spent another day hiring bikes and cycling up to a huge natural gorge which was fun though Jo did seem to have trouble sitting the next day thanks to her re-acquaintance with bike seats. The town of Bohinj was an odd little town made even odder by what had drawn us there in the first place... The Alpine Dairy Museum! Maybe it's just because I've had my fill of history and art museums that my mind literally buzzes with excitement at the prospect of going to something as obscure as a museum related to the dairy practices of the Julian Alps... unfortunately it was closed. Though my need to see something different and unique was thankfully satisfied when we came across a small country fair where they were roasting an entire cow on a rotisserie... that's it I have now seen everything! Slovenia was fantastic! Honestly out of all the countries I've been to so far this would be my perfect choice of country to live in! It's small, It has great food, it has great wine, it has Alpine mountains and plenty of hiking and it is about 85% covered in forest, the country also has a thing for dragons, what more could you want?

Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana

Skateboard shop in Ljubljana

Rowing out on Lake Bled

The Island in Lake Bled

Slovenian festival at Lake Bohinj

Lake Bohinj

Bike riding to Vintgar Gorge, Bled

Vintgar Gorge

From Slovenia we caught a train into Austria, to a little place in the Alps called Bad Gastein, Funny name, I agree. Thankfully the town didn't smell, though it did rain for the entire first day so we had a rest-day with our books, which we really needed. We attempted some hiking but then abandoned that in light of a chair lift (it was going there anyway) for some cloudy views of the Austrian Alps, but made up for it later by relaxing in the towns thermal spas (I better clarify that we were making up for the cloudy views not our laziness). Next it was on to Salzberg which was nice, but nothing special, and have now spent the last few days here in Vienna. We've spent a lot of time here just walking around trying to soak in all the grandeur of the buildings and the city. Last night we went to the State Opera theater and saw the famous opera "The barber of Seville" you know the one "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro... etc" rather funny actually. The tickets were only 3.5 EUROS, which is good. But you have to stand for the entire performance, which is bad. but you get subtitles for the opera so you know what is being said, which is good. but you have to stand for the entire performance, which is bad. funnily enough these weren't even the cheapest tickets you could buy, but they were the cheapest tickets if you actually wanted to see what was happening on stage. And although you do have to stand for the entire performance, which is bad, at least when it is over and you start clapping you are already giving a standing ovation!