Summer Roadtrip!!

Summer holidays are here!! Yayay!! By the last day of school, we are all exhausted ... finally the school year as come to an end and there are many emotional farewells as we say 'goodbye' to our friends - some friends we will see again when school resumes at the end of August and others we might not ever see again as they leave Munich for the next ex-pat move to far away places. It is an unusual dynamic in this regard and can be difficult for the kids especially, as they farewell some of their good friends. So we try and avoid all the tears and emotion and head straight to the pool in our little town of Gauting to swim away the afternoon with our friends from school who are not rushing off to start their summer vacation. We love our local outdoor pool, where you can buy a beer and enjoy your take away spring rolls and fried rice from the pool snack bar attached to the Chinese restaurant. After we are all totally exhausted, we head home to pack for our own summer holiday. This year we are doing a two week driving holiday through Slovenia, Croatia and Italy.

The surprisingly warm, glacial Lake Bled in the Julian Alps in northeastern Slovenia was our first stop. My good friend in California, Gail, visited Lake Bled last year and said it was a 'must see' ... and she was right!! We arrive at our little bed and breakfast right on the lake and are blown away by the beauty of this gorgeous lake with a little island in the middle - which is in fact, the only natural island in Slovenia. We very quickly unpack the car and walk the 5 meters to the lake and dive in. Ahhhhhh!! We are all smiling from ear to ear. We were all so happy to be out of the car, out of school, out of work and to be enjoying spending time together in this sensational part of the world!! WE LOVE LAKE BLED!! Breakfasts were served in our rooms so we could enjoy a leisurely breakfast on our balcony overlooking the picturesque lake surrounded by forests and mountains. On our first full day here, we walked along the aquamarine lake while the kids stopped to swim amongst the lily pads of white, yellow and pink in the crystal clear water. We did a small hike in the humid weather, that allowed us fabulous views of Lake Bled -  absolutely breathtaking.

View from our hotel in Lake Bled

 We couldn't wait to hike down so we could dive in the crystal clear water. We all swam out to the little island which was further than it looked!! Henry did amazingly well considering it is the beginning of summer here and we haven't done a lot of swimming yet...poor kid, I don't think he understood that he needed to swim back to shore too ... but he made it!! We also rented a row boat after sunset the next day and headed out to the island again; the kids jumped in the water from the boat and then we all explored the island (again!!) while Nick and I swam around the island and enjoyed looking at the many fish close to the shore. On the island is a small cafe where we enjoyed champagne in the cooler evening temperatures and treated ourselves to a traditional Slovenian cake called a Potica (like a walnut roll). Yum!! 

Next stop - Plitvice National Park in Croatia, the oldest national park in South East Europe. It was a long but pretty drive. We drove through many gorgeous little Slovenian and Croatian villages. Our bed and breakfast bungalow was an ideal location to explore Croatia's largest park, well known for it's stunning sixteen interconnecting aquamarine lakes and waterfalls separated into upper and lower levels. The colors of the water are stunning and constantly changing depending on the angle of the sunlight and the quantity of minerals and organisms in the water. We had a fabulous day walking around the lakes and waterfalls and admiring the hundreds of elegant butterflies; and while we understood it is a national park, with the extremely hot weather, it was torture for us walking by these lakes and not jumping in!! We had our swim suits in the car though, so on the way home we found a perfect, natural waterhole for us all to cool off .... a little slice of heaven!!

I am a bit reluctant to share too much about our next adventure on 'our' island because we all loved it so much and after all my ranting and raving here, you will want to go there yourself but the reason we loved it so much was because there not many tourists there at all and that alone really made our time there truly amazing...with that said ... you know I can't help myself so here's the scoop - just don't tell anybody, ok?! ;-) We spent 7 nights in a gorgeous little town called Kut on the island of Vis, the most outer lying island in the Adriatic Sea, off the Croatian coast.

 





Our little town is full of narrow lane ways with huge sandstone buildings either side; houses with old gates and broken doors with peeling paint that you couldn't imagine anybody living in and then they pop out to go grocery shopping and inside they have their washing hanging on slack lines blowing in the warm breeze and the smells from their kitchen are making us wish we were invited for dinner. There are many restaurants tucked away in all the nooks and crannies and lane ways selling fresh fish, bakeries with Croatian pastries as well as a small supermarket.  Outside our door is the mooring spot for the many million dollar yachts choosing to share our slice of heaven which made for fabulous people watching from the balcony while the church bells chimed in the background.

 One night a huge 'pirate ship' looking boat was moored outside our doorstep and Henry asked one of the staff if he could 'walk the plank' up to the boat - wow - what a treat for him - he was all smiles although it was a quick trip for him, I think he thought they'd sail off with him on board!! Listening to the lapping of the ocean on the boats was so soothing - even though our house had two balconies, my favourite spot was the white bench seat outside our house where I watched the world go by ... it made me feel like I was a local; I loved watching the wealthy boat people sitting out on their boat decks sun slurping on their fresh watermelon and beers while their boats gently rock in the crystal clear, aquamarine water .... ahhhh - this is the life!!!
 

Life slowed down for us here and we all enjoyed swimming in the crystal clear, aquamarine, fish filled water while we searched for sea urchin shells and then enjoyed walking around our village with our afternoon ice cream ... it was a hard life this week!!

Our days quickly fell into a wonderful routine of breakfast, swimming, home for lunch and resting in the heat of the day then back out for more swimming in the late afternoon then home for dinner. Once the kids were in bed, I loved going out to my bench or balcony and watch the night lights from the main port town across the bay as they twinkle in the reflection of the rippling water. My new favourite sight is watching the gorgeous pattern of the reflection of the water on the sea floor - ahhhhh - I am definitely in my happy place here! We swam until we all struggled with a bit of sea sickness on one day!! Haha!! I think we all drank a bit too much water as well as floated on the surface watching the fish ... we needed a little rest after that morning!! Polly was the official 'sea urchin collector' because she could hold her breath longer than any of us to swim down and collect all the skeletons from the ocean floor, so she, in particular, had one really bad day suffering from motion sickness - oops!! But we do have a lovely sea urchin collection now!! ;-)

"Swum out"

 













On our second last day in Vis, as we were about to jump off the rocks for a swim, I asked Polly if she was coming swimming with us and I couldn't believe my ears .... my little fish, who I was convinced was part mermaid, looked up at me with her big brown eyes and said "Mum, I think I'm a bit swum out" :( I couldn't believe it!!! Haha!! Polly spent that whole day laying on her towel in the shade reading her book. We broke her the next day though as she joined us for a quick swim before catching the ferry back to the mainland ;-) We have found our retirement spot here in Kut.

View from our balcony

We were all sad to leave Vis. We arrived back on the mainland only to discover that our next, overnight ferry to Italy was cancelled due to mechanical issues so we had a little change of plans. We ended up on a faster ferry which was great - it would have us in Italy in 5 hrs instead of the overnight 12hrs which was awesome ... the only problem being we didn't have any accommodation booked for that night because we thought we'd be on the ferry .... so we scrambled around and found a really nice place (very 'castle' like) on the beach...sweet!! The boat trip was great ... and so fast - it had great little restaurant on the board with a wood fired oven for pizzas, they had fish, salads, a bar with drinks and snacks - plus it was full of Italians and I love that! It was a long day though and we were looking forward to getting some sleep in our hotel then waking up in our new, Italian location on the beach in Portonovo. We enjoyed a fabulous breakfast under the shade of the trees in already hot sun. We headed out for a swim in the ocean and while the water was blue, it was not the crystal clear, aquamarine water I was spoiled with on Vis, so I chose not to swim here. We had a lazy morning by the beach then headed north to Bologna - the home of spaghetti bolognese!!

Ice cream tour!!

I had an image in my mind of Bologna. I thought it would be a quaint, college town, that was pretty to look at and wander through and enjoy the culture of yet another gorgeous Italian town. WRONG!! Bologna is a HUGE city and I'm learning quickly that a lot of cities are kinda alike - big, lots of graffiti, smelly, trashy, homeless people, traffic - you get the idea ... I was so sad and disappointed :( Take me back to Vis!! I do have to say though, that our bed and breakfast in Bologna was delightful. It was set amongst gorgeous gardens full of shady trees - which was a relief to return to at the end of big city filled days. Once we got our bearings and expectations in check, we decided to explore Bologna one ice cream shop at a time. It was fun for all of us and it took us to new little fun streets in Bologna that made me like this city a bit better but I was l still be pleased to leave it. Bologna is known as the culinary capital but with that said, you still need to know where to go and it was all a bit of a challenge I'm afraid. We did, however, enjoy some fabulous meals and sampled some wonderful local wine during our time here in Bologna.

Fun masks in the market in Verona

My good Australian friend here, Tania, told us that Verona was gorgeous so we decided to do a quick stop here on our way home to Munich. Tania was right!! Verona is a gorgeous town, full of quaint buildings, lane ways full of restaurants and boutiques - it was all so beautiful!! We only had about an hour to have a quick walk around the main square and grab a quick bite to eat but I would love to go back and spend some time in beautiful Verona one day. What a pretty city!! Exactly what I thought Bologna would be like!!

Finally, we made it home to Munich ... exhausted but happy with our fun holiday. Vis was definitely the highlight for me .... even writing about it here makes me sad - I must book another trip there soon!!! We are back in Munich for a couple of weeks of much needed rest and relaxation ... oh ... and apparently, rain :( boooo!!!