Return To Plitvice Lakes, 1

It hadn't been a year since we did the Plitvice Lakes (and waterfalls), way back in early July of 2018, but, as I explained earlier, being as close to them as Venice, we had to do them again. They're that great. The previous blog posts are: http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2018/07/plitvice-lakes-and-waterfalls-1.html and http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2018/07/plitvice-lakes-and-waterfalls-2.html.

It was Easter Sunday, April 21, and we figured that all the Croats, Slovenes, Serbs, Montenegrans, Bosnians, et al., would be in their respective churches, worshiping and celebrating. Well, maybe not the Bosnians. We thought we'd have the Lakes pretty much to ourselves. Our first clue that something was amiss was noticing that all the churches we passed driving to the Lakes were empty; closed. The second clue was the long traffic line to get into the parking lot. The third was that we had to drive half a kilometer to find parking. Then, when we finally got to the ticket office, we were told everything was sold out until the 1PM entry time. The place was crawling with people, unlike our previous experience, which was a weekday. This now was on a four-day European weekend, and there were license plates from Switzerland, Netherlands, France, wherever.

We got in at 1PM, still plenty of time to do the walk. For this edition, we wanted to start at the bottom and hike up to the highest lakes and falls. The angle of ascent is pretty mild, and this approach seemed better for Vicki's knee. The other difference from our 2018 experience was the season. It was high summer when we were at Plitvice before. Now it was early spring, prima vera, and the green, tiny leaves were just beginning to give the place a special glow. The day was relatively clear and cool but the light was a little brighter than before, even harsh in the early afternoon.

So much for the differences. It was still a great hike in a great place, and still among our best such experiences.

We're doing C

Starting with the biggest of the falls

An interesting shot of what it's all about...water cascading from limestone
plateaus over a 9 kilometer run; here you can see, in the distance, 4 different
little lakes and falls; there are scores at Plitvice

The color of the pools is incredible

Tiny green leaves...

A bigger lake

And more waterfalls

You can walk the largest of the lakes, but it's common to take a ferry; here, the
line is getting pretty long; I think the park service was surprised by the crowds,
but they adjusted and we never had to wait very long

Prima vera

Croatian Porky

After driving 20 miles or so of Slovenia, heading generally south, one enters Croatia, which got some of the choicest bits of the former Yugoslavia. Like its northern neighbor, Croatia, at least in these precincts, is really into grilling, barbequing, smoking, rotisserieing, and other burnt offerings. Seemingly every restoran of any size has a rotisserie going with some unfortunate animal impaled on it. See illustrations.

We were stopped for a circulation alternee', and upon seeing this I immediately
pulled over for a closer look

Whereupon the chef de rotisserie appeared carrying another freshly impaled
carcass

The chef does not have a lean and hungry look, although, come to think of it, you
would not want your barbeque chef to look lean and hungry, would you? The
rotisserants do look lean and hungry, leading us to speculate, very briefly, on what
they might be...pigs on a keto diet? 

See: restoran is a word, and so is rotisserieing; look it up

Eventually, the head chef comes out to inspect and offer a few tips (the red apron
is always a give-away)

A little more heat

A little more smoke

Janjetina, from the back of the truck, means lamb; odojak means suckers, but
these are too small to be suckling pigs (we know suckling pigs); so we are going
with rotisserie lamb; yum; and thank you, Google Translate; we proceeded on

On To The Balkans; And Porky's Of Kozina

Penelope spent the 19th at the Camping Venezia playground and pool (indoor and heated, thankfully); an administrative day for the grand-parents. We reunited her with her parents the next morning, April 20th, and then we got on the road to Slovenia and Croatia. When we were in the Balkans last summer, we saw two surpassingly great natural sights: the Plitvice Lakes (and waterfalls) in Croatia and the Skocjan Cave in Slovenia. Having gotten as far north and east as Venice, we decided to do another half day's drive to see these wonders again. They're that good. Plus, on the way in to Slovenia last year, we had noticed Porky's barbeque and smokehouse, in Kozina, Slovenia, just 250m beyond the border with Italy. We resolved then that, should we ever come back, we'd eat at Porky's. We were back, and indeed ate at Porky's both coming and going. Great American-style BBQ. Don't miss it!

On the other hand, don't be discouraged; you walk in, get a
table (it's popular), and begin excitedly to peruse the menu:
only it's 10 pages of antipastos, dulces, pizzas, calzones,
primi piattis, bevandes...only on the back cover do they get to
the BBQ, and it's really only the all-you-can-eat or the ribs
plate; we went with the latter; it was wonderful, the sauce like
KC Masterpiece or similar, the pork supple and fall off the
bone tender...

Table decor

Ceiling art; making America great again

Manichaean notions of good and evil...

Well, Porky's is a hoot and the food is good, even if the place
it satirizes is not so funny anymore 

A Day In Venice, 2

Our day of Venice reconnaissance continued...

We had a memorable lunch at this place, enjoying the passing boat show

Another street scene

In a mask store; P knew that her birthday would occur while in Venice so evidently
studied up considerably on the stuff they do here, especially the masks and Murano
glass and gondolas; I'm sure her mom's blog will cover all this (SherouseHouse.com)

Dough art

St. Mark's cathedral had been closed in the morning but we finally got in in
the afternoon, skipping the line by using the acclaimed Rickie Stevie method

This time there was enough light to actually snap a few clandestine pix

Not my favorite church, but the mosaics are truly impressive

"A vast warty bug taking a meditative walk," as Mark Twain said

One of Europe's great squares; P was impressed

Heading back to spend some time wandering the Rialto Bridge district

Byron lived here; usually I can spot the Palazzo Vendramin, where Wagner
died (Death in Venice), but this time I think was on the wrong side of the boat
both coming and going

Grand Canal congestion

The three of us, there