SLOVENIA'S LITTLE SECRET: PIRAN ON THE ADRIATIC

OUR ROOM OVERLOOKED THE SEA; ELYSEE WATCHING THE SUN SET



ELYSEE IS BECKONING YOU TO JOIN HER; IN THE BACKGROUND IS THE ENTRANCE TO PIRAN'S HARBOR

Excerpted from my book OUR SUMMER IN SLOVENIA. Click the cover to purchase.

Piran is a miniature Venice, has a population of only about 5,000, and is situated at the end of a peninsula protruding into the Adriatic and the Gulf of Trieste. Ruled by Venice for more 500 years, and a source of salt for the Venetian appetite, it became less important under Hapsburg-Austrian rule and even later Italian control. Piran was in every sense bypassed, and as a result is now a well-preserved mini-Venice having to manage with its status of the entire town being a protected monument. Because it is situated at the end of a peninsula, there are no through roads, and because of its medieval character it is impossible to navigate a car. Only Piranians are allowed to have a car in the city. Tourists who drive into the city must take a time-stamped ticket at the control booth, with the first hour being free. That’s so you can check into your accommodations and unload your luggage. If you stay beyond that the rate per hour climbs steeply, and if you don’t get your car out of the city by the end of the day it is booted. There is parking just outside the control booth and a free bus takes you to the city center. A necessary inconvenience as there is little reason to have a car in tiny Piran.

We dutifully did the car drill, drove to our hotel (what else but the Piran Hotel) and unloaded the luggage. I then drove out of the city within the allotted hour, parked in the free municipal lot, took the bus back to the center, Tartini Square, and walked the very short distance to the hotel. Meanwhile Elysee had unpacked and dressed into her swimsuit. She loves swimming and we were situated right on the sea wall, with ladders to get down into the water, and all the trimmings of Mediterranean life. Amazing little Slovenia has this small thirty-five mile strip on the Adriatic and all one has to do is dip in for delightful experience without all the hub-bub, crowds and exorbitant prices of Venice just on the opposite shore.

SLOVENIA TO VENICE- EASY, SHORT DRIVE

GREAT VIEW OF PIAZZA SAN MARCO FROM THE MUSEUM WINDOW



THE LOVES LEAVING FOR THE TRAIN STATION FROM THE HOTEL METROPOLE




ONE WAY BOAT TO MURANO. WHO CARES I'M WITH MY ELYSEE



CHAR LOVE AND ELYSEE EN MASQUE IN VENATO TRADITION.



Our second day in Venice with our friends the Loves once again confronted us with the worst of summer tourism; crowds, jostling for transportation, waiting on lines to be paraded through antiquities, and price gouging. Once more our hotel, the Metropole, helped by arranging a private water taxi to the world-renowned glass works of Murano. Interesting to see, but wildly overpriced; glassworks that only a dowager Venetian Aunt could take pleasure in. But the boat trip was OK, about thirty minutes with several interesting villas along the route. Unfortunately, the private cost-free boat that takes you right to the dock of the sponsoring glassmaker, does not pick you up for the return. I suppose if you bought enough glass they would be delighted to bring you back. Otherwise you are on public water taxi, Buddy.

With the Palace completely overcrowded we opted for the public museum on the opposite side of San Marco square. The museum turned out to be no more than a pleasant time passer, containing much of the same collected work as in the Doge Palace; but lacking the same level of explanation or guidance. I did find several windows open to great views of the square and the lagoon, affording some excellent vantage points for taking photographs.

With the Loves gone, the next morning, after a lingering breakfast, we opted to leave Venice and return to the peace and tranquility of Slovenia. Our drive, being almost all by Autoroute (read interstate), returned us in just over two hours to our little “Love Nest” in Bled. It was such an easy short drive. So if you are in Slovenia and wanting to visit Venice you have the option to pick your date and time of year, its an easy trip. We were both delighted to be back in Bled and vowed to stay put amid the relative peace and quiet of Slovenia, with a round of golf here and there and a countryside day trip now and then during the remainder of August.

SLOVENIA SIDE TRIPS- VENICE

VIEW OF THE LAGOON AND SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE FROM OUR ROOM AT THE METROPOLE




TWO SIGHING LADIES, CHAR (L) ELYSEE (R) IN FRONT OF THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS.

Excerpted from my book, OUR SUMMER IN SLOVENIA, available at Amazon.com

Our friends, Char and Al Love, who we linked up with in Budapest, stayed a few days at our apartment in Bled, and we promised to take them to Venice, Italy where they were to board a train. Sounds complicated? Not really, and that is one of the surprises about Slovenia. How well Slovenia is situated for side trips to some of Europe's most desirable stopovers.

To get from our apartment in Bled to the Venice parking garage was just a short 2 1/ 2 hour drive, and we took a longer route than necessary passing through more of Slovenia’s pastoral countryside.

Our hotel in Venice was the Metropole, situated directly on the lagoon and constructed in the 1890’s as a private residence, has been a well- known Venice hotel for almost 100 years. It was for us a sanctuary of peace and civility after the mobs of people in the city. The hotel lobby looks across the lagoon to the commanding church Santa Maria della Salute, built in the mid-1600s to honor Mary for delivering the city from the plague. The décor is an eclectic collection of furnishings gathered during those past hundred years, giving the place a cluttered bygone elegance that is a delight. No room is furnished the same. For example, the room Elysee and I occupied was furnished with a stylish deco bedroom suite made of matching marble and inlaid veneers, an ultra-modern bath, with the window overlooking the canal on which the hotel had its private dock. The bar and lounge were equally inviting, encouraging one to enjoy a lingering morning coffee or afternoon drink rather than venturing forth to do battle with the hordes that invaded the Old Lady of the Lagoon.

After settling in, it being only 3 p.m., we did something very smart for which I credit Al’s enthusiasm and get-up-and-go. Immediately we set forth to St. Marks Square and bought tickets for the Doge Palace. This in hindsight was a very good move, because even on Monday, the next day, the lines to get into the Palace and St. Marks Basilica looked like a queue to view a deceased head of state. We could only surmise that it being late on Sunday most tourists had already visited the Palace or were too worn-out and back at their hotels. In any event we strode right in, picked up our individual headsets and proceeded with about a 2 to 3 hour tour. The experience of touring the palace today is vastly improved by the availability of headset guided tours. On a long-ago visit I had made you either bought a scanty guidebook and figured it out for yourself, or hired one of the available guides lounging outside the Palace-- persons of dubious qualifications except that they likely were born in Venice. Except for the tape frequently malfunctioning (they really can do better than several-generation-old Casio recorders), it was a very pleasant, informative, self-pacing experience and I’m sooo glad we went straight to the Palace as the next day the lines were intolerable.

After the Palace tour, how about a drink at St. Mark’s square--a time honored tradition? Well the Venetians have figured out how to capitalize on that experience. Each outdoor café had its own five-or-six piece ensemble playing pleasant ditties for patrons’ enjoyment. The catch: five Euros apiece to sit down. Effectively a $25 cover charge for a cup of coffee! We passed on principle and returned to our lovely hotel, which had atmosphere to spare.

On the way we stopped for a picture of two sighing ladies back- dropped by the Bridge of Sighs. This is not historically correct, however, for the sighs associated with the bridge are not from the love sighs of longing maidens, but from prisoners being brought across the bridge from their dungeons to the justice being meted out in the connecting Doge Palace.

Having been traveling all day we decided to dine at the hotel as is has a very nice, and for Venice unusual, garden restaurant in the back where there is live entertainment, as well as an elegant indoor dinning room overlooking the canal. We thankfully chose the latter for by dinner time it had begun to rain. Seated at a prime table by the window we had an excellent meal, cocktails and wine, unhurried and attentively served. The bartender at the Metropole was excellent.

Coffee and dessert were taken in the lounge and there too we enjoyed live music until time to retire. Before doing so Elysee and I stepped outside and sat looking across the lagoon. The city was now quiet and could be enjoyed for her storied past. Elysee, inspired by the moment, danced across the pavers where so many had trod over centuries. The day overall was pleasant, thanks to the Metropole.

SLOVENIA SIDE TRIPS- BUDAPEST

TOM RUBBING THE PEN OF ANONYMOUS...too late tom!



THE MAGNIFICENT BUDAPEST SYNAGOGUE-1859



HUGE SZECHENYI BATHS SUNDAY MORNING IN JULY

Sunday morning and Budapest sleeps. Mostly. Elysee and I are up and on our way for a guided four-hour walking tour of the city. Across one bridge and then another, up one hill and down again. But what better time to see a city than early on a Sunday morning, when all the nighttime revelers are still asleep and even the gypsies are too tired to bother you. I highly recommend these walking tours found in most major cities as an alternative to the standard commercial “City Tours”; on and off the bus, seven languages and please buy my cousin’s postcards.

BUDAPEST A CITY OF BATHS. Many European cities boast about their famous baths and spas, popular as a health treatment especially during the later stages of the Belle Epoch; but none have taken it to the limits of Budapest since ancient Roman times. Budapest is blessed with over a hundred thermal springs that are very hot, and over 400 mineral springs. Thus the baths are supplied from natural resources. Besides the well-known Gellert baths, situated inside the turn-of-the-century Gellert Hotel, there are public baths throughout the city, none more representative than Szechenyi Bath, which is the largest mineral bath in Europe. We entered these baths through the “needy” gate, which was queued up with people who had publicly paid prescriptions from their doctor ordering the “cure” as vital for their continued survival.

FREDOM SQUARE. We made the essential visit to Freedom Square, extolling ancient and modern Hungarian heroes, (of which there are a great number because Hungary was occupied by almost everyone, Mongols, Turks, Austrians, Russians, and fighting for their freedom for a thousand years or more resulted in a lot of Hungarian heroes).

BUDAPEST SYNAGOGUE. Also important was viewing the “Great Synagogue,” which is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world outside of New York City’s. It is a stunning building completed after five years in 1859, combining Moorish and Romantic period elements. During the holocaust more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime.

CHAINE BRIDGE.Another highlight of the tour was a walk across the Chain Bridge that was designed by a Scotsman, Clark Adam and also opened in 1859. It was a marvel of its age, combining steel cabling and concrete and resembling and serving as precedent for the much larger Brooklyn Bridge about 40 years later. The bridge created the first link of Buda and Pest, yet another generation passed before the cities were united. Politics got in the way, with the nobility on the Buda side refusing to be associated (and taxed) with the peasantry on the Pest side.

ANONYMOUS. A final highlight of the tour was discovering the actual location of that most famous person every college student gets to quote over and over again in their term papers, Anonymous; Ey-noni-moose. Hey! He (She?) really existed! In the City Park is a hooded statue (of course you can’t see the face of Anonymous) of an unknown scribe who, during the reign of King Bela III wrote a history of the early Maygars. The scribes pen is a touchstone for all Hungarian students before they take their college examinations, as well as aspiring writers seeking inspiration.


Arriving back at our hotel we found that our friends and neighbors the Love's had arrived. Together we saw more of Budapest before leaving for Bled where they were tp spend several more days at our "love nest."

SLOVENIA SIDE TRIPS-HUNGARY-PART FIVE

AMERICAN STYLE BUFFET. UNLIMITED CONSUMPTION?

WE HAD BREAKFAST OVERLOOKING LAKE BALATON.

ENTERING BUDAPEST

OLD AND NEW. ABBEY CHURCH 1754 AND MODERN SCHULPTURE OF CHRIST

Saturday morning brought another mild summer day. Clear sky and breezes so light the hundred-plus sail regatta on Lake Balaton is merely languishing in place. Our plans call for a drive to Budapest, stopping at Tihany, a peninsula that juts almost four miles into Lake Balaton, nearly touching the opposite shore. Tihany is one of the more significant places on the lake, with traces going back to Roman times and King Andrew founding a Benedictine monastery in the 11th century. A twin spired church was built in 1754 on the ruins of King Andrew’s earlier church, commanding a magnificent view over the lake. The remains of King Andrew (ruled 1046-1055) rest in a limestone sarcophagus under the crypt, and the former Benedictine abbey is now a museum of contemporary Hungarian art. Being in Tihany, it was here that I found the wine we had the night before, securing three bottles to take back to Slovenia. First things first, right! There are lots of old churches in Europe, but some wine can be difficult to find. Carpe Vino I say; not carpe diem.

Later that afternoon, entering Budapest by automobile, an unfamiliar large city, and finding our hotel could have been a daunting task. A few years ago a group of college students in Prague started a service of picking up arriving tourists at checkpoints outside of town and driving them to their destinations, Prague being a particularly old city with many winding, narrow and one way streets and lanes. I suppose that service kept them in beer money, but it does not seem to have survived beyond graduation.

With Elysee navigating, we entered Budapest in due course and found our hotel straightaway. As is our practice we lodged on the executive floor this time at the Marriott, affording us a grand view of the Chain Bridge and Castle Hill, and immediately availed ourselves of the hospitality lounge, doing our best to amortize the extra cost. An inquiry at the concierge led us to buy tickets for that night’s Danube Symphony Orchestra performance, a fine program of mostly Hungarian composers, Kalman, Bartok, Liszt with a little Strauss and Brahms thrown in for added measure.

Budapest, like Vienna, is a city of music and musicians. Within many of the cafes lining the Danube there are small groups playing lilting sonatas and gypsy dances, so on a summer’s evening you are never far from the sounds of a violin.

Our seats at the concert hall, being ordered only hours before the performance, were in the front row, giving a whole different perspective on the soprano’s dental work. But considering that we arrived only that afternoon with no plans made, we had a great Saturday night out, the performance was very entertaining, and we lingered at the bar until after 1 A.M. As many of you can testify who have been there, night life in Budapest is lively unto the wee hours. Hungarians know how to have a good time.

SLOVENIA SIDE TRIPS-HUNGARY-PART FOUR

HOTEL VOLAN OVERLOOKING LAKE BALATON


WE PASSED ON THE LAKE CRUISE---UP THE LAKE,DOWN THE LAKE. BORING!

(Excerpt from my book: OUR SUMMER IN SLOVENIA, AMAZON.COM)

After a day-and-a-half to travel few hundered miles, we finally left Maribor and Slovenia about noon, our destination for the night, Lake Balaton in Hungary. I know, were still not in Budapest, but hang in there, we'll get there. To get to Lake Balaton from Maribor, one drives for about a half-hour through Croatia, so I expect Elysee and I can claim having also visited that recently ill-fated country.
Lake Balaton is, outside of Scandinavia, the largest freshwater lake in Europe. A long finger-like lake of a little more than 50 miles, but a narrow 10 miles at its widest, it is also shallow, averaging a mere nine feet in depth. Nevertheless, it has long been Hungary’s summer vacation destination and has that mixture of tackiness and refinement often associated with lake and beachside resorts. In Balaton’s case, it takes some searching to find the latter. Because we were starting from the end of the lake furthest from Budapest, one decision we had to make was which shore to drive on, north or south. The south has the advantage of better roads, an autoroute, but that also brings more summer vacationers and the inevitable carnival resort atmosphere. From our reading, it appeared that the north shore was nicer and less hectic, and this proved to be the case.

Another feature of the Balaton locale is its reputation as a major Hungarian wine- producing region, and the north side is sprinkled with hillside vineyards that add a pleasant view all along the lakeside drive. As the day was getting on and the weather rainy off and on, we stopped for the night at Hotel Volan in Badacsony; really more a restored upscale villa than a hotel. Once more the value was astonishing. For about $58 we received a very nice room overlooking the lake, with breakfast. That evening, after a stroll along the lakefront, looking at the ferries going from one side of the lake to the other as well as the local marina with many sailboats, we hade a fine dinner at an outdoor restaurant with a very tasty bottle of Hungarian wine. It was a 1999 Szeremley from the Tihany region further along the lake’s north shore and cost an amazing $7. The next day we found a wine store and managed to purchase three bottles, about all we could carry to Budapest considering the other baggage space needed. Hungary is a country of very good and inexpensive wine.

A word about the Hungarian (magyarorszag) language: I usually, even if in a country for a small time, try to learn a few courteous phrases to get me through the day. Especially how to order a beer, find the men’s room and find a place for the night, all the while returning greetings and thanks in the local language. I gave up on Hungarian right away. I simply concluded that having arrived at the age of 70 years I was entitled to pass on without ever attempting to speak Hungarian. It is correctly said that Hungarian ranks up there with Japanese and Arabic as the most difficult language to learn. Personally, I would add Irish to that, a language that has been described as a cross between Norwegian and Hebrew. Hungarian is right up there. The language has no widespread European antecedents such as Latin or Slav, and evolved from an obscure Finish tribal tongue so long ago that the Hungarians and the Finns cannot understand each other. Many words have the same sound but different meanings and consonants are strung together sometimes five in a row without a vowel and, all sorts of accenting symbols that make reading road signs while traveling at normal speed very difficult. For example, Elysee was navigating and kept me bearing towards the town of Nagykanizsa a city on our route and on all the road signs, when she finally said “ just keep on the road to Nagasaki.” The name for a police station is, Rendorkapitanysag. In an emergency, by the time you get that word out you will no longer need help. My real favorite though is Sajtburger, which is pronounced shiteburger. It means cheese.
In my opinion, if you happen to be in Hungary for only for a long weekend or perhaps even a few days more, there are more interesting places to see and things to do, than going to Lake Balaton.
BUT BUY THE WINE.

SLOVENIA SIDE TRIPS- HUNGARY-PART THREE

TITO'S UNIFORM BEING WORN BY THE INVISIBLE MAN


TOWN SQUARE WITH 14TH CENTURY MARIBOR CASTLE AND STATUE OF ST. FLORIAN

TOMBSTONE OF RABBI ABRAHAM 1376

( Excerpt from my book: OUR SUMMER IN SLOVENIA, AMAZON.COM)

Leaving our comfortable guest house nearby Celje after a satisfying breakfast, except for the instant coffee, we set off for Maribor, Slovenia’s second largest city (about 110,000.) The morning coffee, very important to starting Elysee’s day, as it is for many Americans including myself, was the nasty European Nescafe type. This loathsome brew, common throughout Europe, thankfully is becoming less popular. It is a sour-tasting imitation of coffee, sure to start your day with a frown and an acidic stomach. We promised ourselves that the first thing we would do in Maribor would be to search out a civilized cup of coffee.

Arriving in the old quarter of the city situated alongside the Drava River, we parked quickly and strode towards the old square. The square features a statue of St. Florian and also is the site of Maribor castle, begun in the 14th century and for once not built on a hilltop. Maribor, like many towns at the time, financed its growth and development from a large Jewish community and grew wealthy on timber, wine and the port developed on the Drava river. As happened throughout Europe in the later part of the 15th century, exemplified mostly by Spain with the Jewish expulsion in the 1490s, the Jewish community was also expelled from Maribor during the same period. The town thereafter competed with similar river locales for the commercial lead in Eastern Slovenia, but gained a leap ahead with the arrival of the railroad in 1846. Maribor became the first town in Slovenia to have a direct rail link to the imperial capital in Vienna, and developed as a major stopover on the line between Budapest, Vienna and Trieste. In the age of railroads, gaining this important position on the main line was critical, and Maribor increased in importance as other competing cities declined.

Aside from the fact that Maribor is home to Slovenia’s second university, the city offers only two particularly interesting features for a half-day stopover. First, as the region is a major Slovenian wine-producing region there are many opportunities to taste and purchase the vintages. There is a nest of underground wine cellars covering a vast area that can store seven million liters of wine. The 160-year-old cellars are filled with oak barrels, that are kept at a constant naturally arrived at 15c. Secondly, and where we spent most of the day, is the Maribor museum housed in the former castle, just opposite the iconic statue of St. Florian that dominates the center square. The museum, establish in 1903, contains some of the richest collections of “Sloveniana,” organized into historical, commercial, cultural and ethnographic displays. It has a collection of military uniforms from the 18th century onwards, culminating with a display of Marshal Tito’s uniform. Accompanying this are displays of period dress, mostly of the Austrian bourgeoisies. Also, an extensive collection of Romantic, Baroque and Rococo art, routinely religious and church carvings (you really have to like this stuff, which I do not), and a loggia that contains tombstones from the Jewish era in the 14th century. Altogether a very nicely displayed collection and well worth a visit if you just happen to be in Northeastern Slovenia. As an aside, it is interesting to note that our visit occurred on a Friday and the beginning of the European “I quit work for the month of August”, and yet we were the only people in the museum. I was left with the impression that the Maribors don’t really care much for all this. After all it was mostly Austrian history and culture, not Slovenian.

A final note: Maribor, being an important manufacturing city for Germany in WWII, was extensively bomb-damaged from allied air-raids. Almost two thirds of the city was lost. After the war the city was a center for Yugoslavian industry, and it now has many “SocialRealistic” housing developments of a singularly unappealing appearance. You can sense the socialist past today in the quietness of the people and the remaining vestiges of run-down infrastructure; but, times are changing.