Speaking of Karawanken…!

I get to say it again! Ha!

 

Apparently it was shut down on Saturday.  Just as well we didn’t have to go that way!  We were tooling along on the A2,  and I decided to put on the radio in the naive hope that I could decipher any traffic issues,  and I heard something about the tunnel being closed.  I do recall this one time when we went through that the air quality was less than ideal,  partly due to the fact that there is only one tunnel,  so the fumes do sort of just hang around.  

The announcer was saying something about a 15 kilometre long “Stau” (traffic jam) and that the tunnel was closed.   We found out later from the cousin in Sava,  that if the fumes get out of hand,  the tunnel closes automatically.  Then I guess they wait for more fresh air to be pumped in?  I hope I never find out.  So I suppose you just show up and hope for the best.  Or listen to the radio and hope you’re not too late to go another way.

 

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OK so,  just a couple more snippets about Žužemberk,  and then I promise I’m done.  Besides,  I don’t feel too terribly “yakky” today.  So this will be mercifully short.  Or not.  We’ll see.

 

You’ll notice that  Žužemberk sits on the banks of the Krka river,  which provides many opportunities to harness it’s power.   If you take a gander here,  you’ll see where the river has been diverted.  It just so happens that there was a mill there,  which was previously a saw mill.   Since our resident tour guide (the cousin) has no difficulty what so ever approaching anyone she meets to ask questions,  we ended up getting the whole story from the lady who lives there.  They’re now using the power from the penstock to generate electricity for themselves,   as well as selling the excess back to the utility. 

It’s a little hard to make out,  and equally hard to photograph,  but behind the wire mesh that appears in the doorway there,  are two hydro-electric generators.   Like an idiot I didn’t have the right lens with me to get a pic from inside,  so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

 

You can see here how high the diversion is compared to the ground just off to the right there.  It’s a fairly powerful and constant river,   so there’s no worries about running out of power.

 

 

Looking from the other side,  you can see the wire mesh I mentioned in through the window on the left,  giving you an idea as to the amount of drop.

 

 

So,  what’s the significance of this collection of buildings?  Well,  just a little ways upstream,  and you can catch a glimpse of the building here,

 

I think it was the white one,  but I might have missed part of the conversation (hey,  it’s all in Slovenian,  cut me some slack!)  here…

 

…is the house (mill)  where Travelling Companion’s oldest sister spent her childhood.  Unfortunately,  the people who bought THAT place,  have decided that they didn’t really want anyone wandering through the tunnel under their house,  and in spite of the cousin’s willingness to bang on their door to gain access,  we didn’t think we wanted to be that intrusive.  Possibly some sort of Canadian thing.   In typical fashion,  I managed to NOT get a picture of the front of the place.  Idiot.

 

So then,  you might wonder,  why wouldn’t you just stay in such a cool place?  Well,  basically what happened was, that war we mentioned yesterday came along,  and she and her Mom had to make tracks.   That’s a whole other story,  involving covering many, many kilometres on foot,  if you consider that they ultimately ended up in Spittal,  way up in Austria. 

I’m not kidding. 

They didn’t go there directly,  since they were on a train headed for a concentration camp when,  once again there was some Allied intervention and the train came under aircraft fire,  and she and her Mom were able to lie low (literally)  and make an escape.  

If you just stop and think for a moment how everything could have been so different had that event not happened?

It boggles the mind.

 

I’m sure there’s way more to the story,  and I’m only paraphrasing from snippets that I’ve managed to piece together.  As is the case with most anyone who has survived a war,  it’s not really something that gets brought up very often. 

To think,  the biggest annoyance I had in my childhood on the farm was having to do my chores.

 

What blissful ignorance.

 

If there’s room,  I’ll put the remainder of the photos on Picasa.

 

 

Enjoy your day.

 

 

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On to Žužemberk

 I know the crazy letters confuse a lot of folks,   but they’re easy.  Really.  The little upside down roof over the “Z” just means it’s vocalised is all.  Pretend there’s a bee in your mouth trying to get out as you say the letter.  I think that should work.   Not that you care.


There’s more where that came from, (č, š) but even those confuse me some times.  Best to not go there.


I don’t really want this to turn into a travel log,  since we all know just how boring that can be,  but I do want to put up a few pics and mention a couple things  for those “Slovenian Connections” back home.  I think you know who you are.


The first stop of the day on the Sunday,  was to visit an Aunt in Ljubljana.  We’ve visited this Aunt three times since moving to Vienna,  with the first time being at her apartment,  along with Travelling Companion’s oldest sister.   The second and now this third time have been in a “care facility”,  since she had a bit of a tumble at her place,  and has needed some help along the way.  She really doesn’t want to be there,  and it’s been very hard for her to give up her independence.


She’s quite sharp,  and we certainly enjoyed the visit.  I have to say,  she speaks not a word of English,  but in spite of that,  she told a little story about her and her friend Wilma and one of their trips to Toronto many years ago.   I only got about 50%,  but she still had us all in stitches describing how Wilma slept the whole time,  only to woken up as they were circling Toronto.   Turns out,  they were circling due to the fog.
Suffice to say,  for a non English speaking person,  you can easily get mixed up between a word like “fog” and another “F” word,  that we don’t want to put here in print, shall we say?

We were howling!


After our visit she came down to the first floor with us to then head off into the cafeteria for some “juha”  (soup) and we said our good-byes. 

Ljubljana to Žužemberk

(I can never quite get these “print screen” thingies to come out just the way I’d like….)  It should get larger if you click.  Or at least that's the hope.




I missed the first exit that would have taken us by way of the 216,  which didn’t really matter.  Either way there’s always some “up and over” driving any time you get off the four lane highways in Slovenia.   For some crazy reason,  the older back roads tend to remind me of Puerto Rico.  Can’t quite put my finger on it.  Something to do with the way everyone seems to drive with a certain fearlessness,  and the twists and turns of the mountain roads.    I’d probably push it just a little harder with the BMW if it weren’t for the fact that I had two additional bodies in the car with me.  (There was the cousin too,  our resident tour guide).  Just the same,  over the many years that Travelling Companion and I have been driving together,  she’s calmed down considerably.   There was a time when just driving in Toronto would almost send her off to the nut house. 

Now she’s as calm as a cucumber.   Well,  mostly.

AND,  I should also add that,  there was this one “Caravan”  (we’d call it a travel trailer,  i.e.  a big box on wheels)  being towed behind some German guy,  who was a wee bit too far over on our side of the road,   (‘cause he was a pussy and didn’t know how close he could get to HIS side,  so he was on MY side!)  and all she said was,  “Weren’t you worried about him?”.


I just replied,  “Nah”. 

I mean, there was enough road,  I just had to use every last inch of it.  No biggie.

The first place we ended up at when we got to Žužemberk,  after going to the yet another cemetery to put some flowers on a grave site, was a restaurant,  since by this point we were getting a tad peckish. 
This was a good thing,  since we needed all our energy to then walk around town.  
Bit of a hilly place.
I began to realise just why most of the relations who lived there had long lives.  You needed to be in shape to live there!  See the church on the hill?  Not too much of Žužemberk  is up on that hill.     Everything else is down below.

Here it is from way over on the other side.  And we’re on the main drag,  and the rest of the town is down behind me.

Looking back towards “down town” in the truest sense,  this is the house that another one of the aunt’s lived in,  up until just a little while ago.  Now get this,  she would walk from her place up to that Church!  Quite likely more than once a week.      She’s 90!

This is the view from out in front of her house.  So,  to get anywhere,  she was either going uphill or down.  Keeps a person fit I suppose.  Speaking for myself,  I was starting to sweat a little.




You’ll also notice the corner of what looks like a castle? 
You can see it here from down by the river.

For a fortification that’s been around since BEFORE 1295,  doesn’t some of it looks a little too “new”? 
That’s because it sort of got a little banged up during the war,  since the Italians were using it as a hangout,  and the Allies came through and knocked them out of there.  Along with most of the castle. 
To think it stood there for almost 700 years!  

Not going to get off on a "war" rant here.



 

I see that I’m once again starting to get a tad long winded,  so I’ll leave the saw mill story for tomorrow.
Plus I’ll put a bunch more pictures up on Picasa then as well.


Y’all come back.




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Another driving weekend.

If I hadn’t let the cat out of the bag with Saturday’s revelation as to where we were going,  I could have posted this picture and tossed out a challenge for anyone with enough beer knowledge to guess where we were on the weekend.  It’s a no-brainer really,  for anyone who has been around these parts.  The thing that got my attention,  is the writing down at the bottom of the can: “Traditionally brewed with love since 1825”.


Made me chuckle.


Cooking “with love” can be whatever you want it to be I suppose,  but we tend to use it to mean doing those little extra things to make the meal more enjoyable,   like making sure there are no surprises like unwanted gristle on the chicken breasts.  That kind of thing.
Not quite sure what’s involved when making beer “with love”,  but it’s good beer,  so I guess they’re going something right.




We got everything sorted out and got underway some time after eleven on Saturday morning,  which also meant getting a phone call from the cousin before we were out of the parking garage,  since Travelling Companion has this slight issue with making follow up phone calls to say if in fact we are going to arrive and when.  It adds to the mystery of the whole experience I’m sure,  but some folks actually need to know when to expect you.  Thankfully there are cell phones,  so that issue was dealt with in short order.  That meant we got into Sava some time around four p.m.,  partly due to wanting to stop first for some flowers here in Vienna for the grave site,  and then stopping on the way for some Slovenian wine.  We’re never sure which stores will be open on a Sunday,  so there was no way I wanted to miss that chance.  Not sure what it is about Slovenian wine,  but I’ve not yet had one I didn’t like.  Can’t say that about the Italian varieties.  Some of the stuff they were the most proud of was utter plonk,  but we won’t get off on that whole Italian vrs. Slovenian wine topic. 
This of course,  is where the beer came in,  since we were staying over night,  that meant that Bob could actually have one,  or more….
I’m forever being offered something to drink when I’m in Slovenia,  and I’m sure the folks there must think I’m some sort of tee-totaler,  since I choose not to have any alcohol and then get behind the wheel.

Hey,  call me crazy.

I’m pretty sure we’ve seen evidence of this behaviour on the roads there,  and the whole idea is a little bit scary,  since I’ve seen plenty of people think nothing of stopping at a road side restaurant for a beer or three and then jumping in their vehicle and heading off.    Plus, if you saw some of the back roads there,  you’d be even more amazed that anyone would want to tackle any of them in any other state other than being stone cold sober.  I know I sure had to have my wits about me at all times.



Before relaxing too much though after getting there,  I made sure I tackled a little job that I had been eyeing from one of our previous visits.   I just had to make sure to take along a caulking gun,  along with some caulking,  to deal with a loose threshold.   Simple enough really,  even though I’m never overly keen on being on my hands and knees.  Never occurred to me to take a picture of course.    This was also something that is best accomplished without the consumption of too much alcohol.   I find the results seem to be a little more predictable that way?

A little later on,  after dinner,  we thought we’d take our flowers up to the grave site where the brother of our hostess had been laid to rest.  Well,  the urn containing his ashes I suppose, since he had been cremated.   It was raining a little,  but we figured we had better get this sorted out before it got too late, and decided to go anyway.   Ever tried lighting a candle under an umbrella in the pounding rain?   Man,  that was fun!     Unlike North American culture,  Europeans,  and Slovenians in particular,  take great pain to look after the grave sites of their loved ones.   This means a pretty much continuous stream of flowers,  along with candles that seem to always be burning. 



If you look carefully at this cemetery photo,  you can see the red candles.   They’re in these little weatherproof containers and will burn for days and days.

You can also see a couple here (below).  The thing is though,  they don’t go on top of the site itself,  since there’s a chance of them getting a little messy.  The one you see at the top of the picture in the middle there,  is electric,  and isn’t going to leak any oil or wax or what have you.
Best to keep the granite as clean as possible.

Those last two pictures were taken in Žužemberk,   which was the place we went to visit on Sunday. 

That’s going to be for tomorrow’s missive I’m afraid,  so you’ll just have to surf on back.

For our Canadian friends,  I hope you enjoy the holiday.



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