A Few Towns Later

It is really hard to keep up. So, after Ljubjlana, we spent a couple of nights at Lake Bled in northern Slovenia. It was incredibly beautiful. We had a two hour lunch at the castle overlooking the lake and environs. You can all look forward the the slide show. There is a small island in the middle of the lake. There is a small church on the island and many folks go there to get married. We witnessed several weddings - all really beautiful and fairy tale like.

Then we went to Salzburg. What do you know - another beautiful and quaint old town area with an imposing castle. Mozart, Sound of Music, museums and the time passed very quickly. We are told by people we meet that tourism is down quite a bit but there are still plenty of people and large crowds in the well-known areas. The tell tale sign is that there are many empty tables in the cafes and we have had no trouble finding rooms or restaurants - even ones written up in Lonely Planet or Tripadvisor. We did take the "Sound of Music Tour" in honor of the Rummell family. Don't tell Kathryn but we are planning a "Sound of Music" screening with Carol singing all of the original songs in the places where they were sung in the movie. Book your tickets early because it is sure to be a sellout.

We are now finishing our time in Cesky Krumlov in Southern Czech Republic. Damned if it isn't yet another quaint little town with an imposing castle. We had a wonderful time walking around, seeing a remarkable revolving theater (the audience rotates to look at various staging areas), gardens, and lots of people rafting down the river that almost circles the town. We found this incredible place to stay called Zahradka 8 Privat Hotel. It is in a converted farm house a few miles out of town. The apartments are huge, very tastefully decorated and complete with breakfast served in our room. A cart with coffee is magically outside of our door at 7:30 and then at 8:30 another cart appears with enough food for 6 hungry people. After the first morning, the owner asked if something was wrong with breakfast since we did not eat much. She asked this as we sat around an enormous conference table sipping some excellent ice cold champagne she brought in. They called a taxi for us so I could sample the beer while eating smoked ribs in town for dinner. Carol (the wine snob) went gaga over this dark beer that she has ordered many times just in the few days we have been in the Czech Republic.

That's all for now - I'll try to get some pictures up when we get to Prague. Tonight is on to another quaint little town (Telc) after seeing another imposing castle on the way.