World Cup: France 4, Croatia 2

From Udine we drove on past Padua to Terme Abano, at whose sosta we had stayed just before our Balkan adventure. The plan was to stop early, in a known place, a town, where I could watch the World Cup final game, pitting my adopted favorite, Croatia, versus what would have been my favorite team otherwise, France. It was Sunday afternoon and, surprisingly, several of the main bars and sports bars were closed. Closed. Good grief. (Italy did not get into the World Cup this quadrennium--first time in thousands of years you'd think--and many Italians are still in denial). But I found one open, nice enough, with a big screen and a bar-tender who knew how to make a Negroni, all the Italians there rooting for Croatia, and watched nearly the whole game (except for an over-long half-time break for Vicki's spaghetti). Sadly, Croatia lost. I have not watched as many as half a dozen futbol games in my life, but I strongly felt the Croats suffered from a couple of bad calls, early on, and were fighting up-hill all the way. They seemed to me the better team, attacking all the way, never benefiting from the referee's calls. Had Croatia not been in it, I would have been cheering for France, so I didn't feel too bad. And the Croat team did their little nation very proud. Oh, and yes, I am fully aware of the immigrant nature of the French team. More power to them! Vive la France!

[Reserved For Balkans Summary)

Slovenian Out-Takes

[To be added to and commented upon...]

Julian Alps, 2

Flip side of the Vrsic Pass road, on to Bovec, and then back to Italy.

An interesting road we were following, with turn-offs to Austria and to Italy and
back to Slovenia

On this side of the pass, more beautiful limestone gorges

Stopped at one of the gorges for lunch, a bus of trekking ladies from Austria
arrived and debarked

Sculpture-selfie, tribute to the local logging industry;
Slovenia likes being known as being 55% covered by
forest, which is much in evidence; we saw plenty of
logging trucks and other logging implements; but nary a
clear-cut  

At a parish church renown for its anti-Fascist art; may come in handy again soon

Hitler pulling up the Cross; not pictured: Mussolini as Pontius Pilate

Church spare parts

One of the best cared-for cemeteries we've seen; every candle burning

From the campaigns in Soca and environs two names come
to me: Hemingway, an ambulance driver, who was injured
here; and Rommel, an infantryman, who learned here of the
terror that tanks could induce...

Remains of the military cemetery

Hard to imagine war in such beautiful terrain

Limestone pie-slice; from road contruction, presumably

The day's surprise: a crash landing which we missed by a couple minutes

Can't imagine flying a glider in these mountains, this weather

Evidently he couldn't get over the power lines and so fell short of the intended
landing field

Thus

By the time we got there, the pilot was talking to the police and to his faithful
ground crew; I saw no damage to the craft, which was impressive; I'll take
powered flight anytime, thank you

En route to Italy, Boko Falls, a last view of the great Balkan waterfalls

And a last view of the Julians; on to Italy!

Julian Alps, 1

Our last day in Slovenia, Juillet 14, we drove a bit of the Julian Alps, from Lake Bled up and over the Vrsic pass, down the Soca valley, and then back into Italy, spending the night at a huge sosta in Udine. The Julian Alps are at the intersection of Italy, Austria, and Slovenia--Alpine country indeed--
the Julians are not quite as spectacular as the nearby Dolomites, but definitely in that league.

Slovenian hay drying racks, one of the country's icons; sometimes used as bill-
boards, too

Could be anywhere in Alpine country...Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, Austria...

At a turn-out featuring Slovenia's big mountain, Mount Triglav; another helpful
bronze model

Local parish priest, incensed that Mount Triglav was owned
by Germans, purchased the summit so that Slovenia's
tallest mountain, 9,300+ would be, at the top, Slovenian;
details below

Mount Triglav, there in the center, further away

More drying racks, actually drying hay

And now we're on our way up the pass; each of the 50 hairpin turns is numbered

The Russian Church, so-called because it was built by Russian POWs , who
also built the road and much other WWI infrastructure; a POW cemetery is
nearby; as we'll see in the next post, the Italian/Austrian theater, so to speak,
was next only to the French/Belgian/German theater in terms of casualties

Huge alpine window

Near the top of the pass, another huge cairn city; the Slovenians certainly rival
the Norwegians in the building of these things

Vrsic Pass was a bit of a trial for Le Duc with its 1.9 liter turdo-diesel engine; we
only stopped a couple times to let the engine cool; the climb to Andorra in the
Pyrenees was worse, but that was in 90 degree weather; the climb to San Marino,
in another couple days, would be a still greater test, 18% and 20% inclines

View from the pass, looking down to the Soca valley