Croatia and our drive back to Munich

Croatia was one of the countries we had talked about visiting while we were in Europe and Tuesday we finally did it.  Sunday and Monday, we had sick kids we were hoping would recover and improve and thankfully they did so we spent a couple of hours driving to Opatija, Croatia, a few meandering down the Promenade, an hour at the playground and then a couple more driving back.  It was fun to check that off our list, the drive was gorgeous though I missed some of it.  The gorgeous views were obstructed by road barriers so I didn't get those pictures but I love the mountains.  I also loved looking at the Adriatic Sea. The view of mountains and sea all together, it doesn't get much better.

Maiden with Seagull, silhouette.

Maiden with Seagull--I couldn't decide which one i liked best.

Opatija is a resort town with magnificent hotels along the Promenade.

This morning we said goodbye to our hostess and new friend.  She was so great and patient with us.  She was a good friend to Charlotte and Spencer.  We are so thankful that she was willing to open her home to us for the past week.

We have a Slovenian grandma, now!

We were glad to make it safely back to Munich.  We spent nearly 6 hours driving from Ljubljana to Munich with a stop in Bled.  We went to the castle in Bled and admired the views there.  We continued on our way and eventually hit snow.  We spent about 3 hours driving through snow (when I say we, I mean Hyrum.  He does the driving, I do the sleeping).  It was pretty but we were glad to be done with it.

View of the Bled lake looking from the castle.

A view from the castle.

View of the first courtyard at Bled Castle from the rampart.

Part of our Alpine drive.

On Monday we took a drive.  This is sunset at Stari Grad outside Ljubljana.

More sunset and castle ruins from Monday.

Predjama Castle and Postojnska Cave

Our first stop today was the police station.  We had to register as visitors to Slovenia.  This happens all the time when traveling internationally but generally your hotel takes care of it, but since we are staying with a friend, we all went to the station today to register.  It was really easy and we were in and out in about 30 minutes.  We handed over ids and passports, the officer recorded it in his book and off we went.

We were going to spend the day in Ljubljana but we decided to change our plans and out of city since the registration process hadn't taken too long.  Ben woke me up at 5:30 so I ended up sleeping through the drive, but we ended up at Predjama Castle.  It is a castle built into a cave.  It had several levels and was built right into the side of the mountain and into the cave behind it.  We felt first hand how miserable it would have been to live there.  It was cold while we were there and most of the kids were not impressed.  It was really a neat building though.  A nice Robin Hood-style story always makes things more interesting too.

Cave and Castle as one!

After the castle we went to Postojnska Cave.  I like caves but wasn't expecting much above and beyond what we've seen in the states.  There is a train ride involved so I have been talking this up to the kids to get them excited.  Well, this was quite the experience.  To start us off, we ate our squished pb & j sandwiches in the cafeteria.  It was nice to be warm.  Then we walked up to the cave entrance and found a little bit of Christmas still hanging about.  There were market stalls selling handcrafted wares, various musical groups sharing their talents and best of all, a large fire in the middle of it all.

The fire is in front of the kids.  So toasty warm!

We had wait a bit before our tickets were called and the kids admired some sheep penned just outside the cave entrance.  We boarded our train and started our journey into the bowels of the cave.  5 kilometers are open for touring.  3.5 kilometers are viewed by train and the remaining 1.5 are walked.  The train isn't the kid train at the amusement park.  It's basically benches secured to a moving flatbed and moving at about 12 mph through the cave.  The cave was well lit so we were able to see a lot.  Hyrum was able to get some awesome cave pictures.

This week there is also a Live Nativity going on for a couple hours everyday.  We decided to do that tour and I am so glad we did.  They did an excellent job, demonstrating scenes like Zacharias being told of John's birth, the Angel visiting Joseph and telling him to marry Mary.   There was music and light throughout the cave.  The last scene was of the birth of Christ.  It was beautiful.  There was a women dressed as an angel who sang Silent Night in Slovenian as well as English.  It was a special event and I am glad we were able to make it work.  All of our kids really enjoyed it as well, even the ones who aren't into caves.  

We decided to head to Italy for some dinner.  I asked the kids what kind of dinner we should have and it was unanimous "Pizza".  So off we went.  Thankfully Italy was only about 45 minutes away.  That brings our country count up to 10.  We also started playing the license plate game with European countries.  We're up to 23.  It's been a couple of good days.  The kids were almost begging for bed tonight.  Tomorrow we are going to check out Ljubljana.

Conwy Castle

View inside the Keep from a tower.

Conwy (pronounced Conway) Castle is a magnificent castle built on the northern Welsh coast by Edward I.  It is am imposing sight as we drove into the city.  It was part of a system of castles meant to impose English rule on the Welsh.  It never fell to enemy fire but once found itself ruled by a few Welsh rebels that snuck in dressed as carpenters.

This is a classical example of a fortified town with a central keep.  The entire city is fenced by a massive wall.  Then the castle itself has another wall and towers there.  It was a massive structure.  We were all in awe.  The castle sits on the bedrock below it making it quite strong.  There was a series of clues and placards for the kids to ind and learn from.  They gave details about the Welsh who took the castle in 1401.  The kids had a good time finding the clues and coloring their pictures.  They ended up with Welsh dragons and English lions on their cards which they presented for a badge.  It was a great way to keep them busy and engaged.

Jonathan liked looking for the murder holes and arrow slits.  Hannah wanted to find all the answers. Charlotte just wanted to sit, Spencer tried his best to keep up with the older kids without really understanding what they were doing and Ben just enjoyed being out of a harness for most of the time we were there. It was a great day a neat place to stop.