Yesterday was a rain day. It was only the fourth soaker on the trip so far. It feels like something magic when the rain stops. Suddenly an overcast day is fantastic and a small square of blue, or a ray of sunshine makes me feel jubilant. Today we had a number of these moments after being chased across the landscape by occasional thunder storms. It ...
Before we departed for this Camino I had a casual look at our route across Italy on our mapping app. Zooming into one of the many undulations on the track, I was surprised to see a perfectly symmetrical nine pointed star. This is the town of Palmanova, which we passed through this morning.Palmanova has an interesting history. It is a city fortress founded by Venice ...
Gordon: Have you ever heard of the city of Aquileia? Neither had I, but in the second century AD it was the second largest city in Roman Italy. Attila the Hun gave it pride of place in his depredations in Italy, almost completely destroying the city in the middle of the fifth century. It never recovered as more than a small city thereafter. What has ...
Today we left Slovenia and walked across the border into Italy. We made our way across Slovenia on the Jacobova Pot between the Hungarian and Italian borders in 13 days and 323 kms. We have now come 751 kms from Budapest. The Camino in Slovenia is well signposted for walkers and cyclists and is enthusiastically supported in person and on line by the Jacobova Pot ...
Tomorrow we climb out of the village of Podraga in the beautiful, deep Vipava Valley and say goodbye to Slovenia. It was our first time in the country and certainly won’t be our last.When we first crossed into Slovenia in stormy weather, one of the members of the Jacobova Pot pilgrim association warned me, through their Facebook page, that the ferry crossing of the Mura ...
Gordon: We met Maja, a Slovenian pilgrim, on the Camino Francés in 2011. In the intervening years I have accumulated wrinkles and Arctic blonde hair (to use Mary’s euphemism) but Maja has been considerably more busy. She has acquired a charming Spanish husband, José, and three energetic and affectionate sons. Ruth has maintained Facebook contact with Maja and when Maja learned that we would be ...
Gordon: We are spending a couple of nights in our second capital city of this pilgrimage: Ljubljana. It’s hard not to like, particularly as we are staying in a palace. No, really, it is an upper suite in a palace built for a count in 1755. Of course it’s not cheap, but as in all European capitals, nothing is. In fact, it was only about ...
Unlike other Camino routes we have done, this trip has no English guide. We have a gpx line on our phones, an accommodation list and, of course, a smart phone. Without a guide telling you what you will encounter along the way it has been a daily encounter with pleasant and beautiful surprises. As a result of the rains Gord has also been walking the ...
Trying to make a generalization about a country or its people is just dangerous - full stop. Trying to do it after only three nights in the country is ridiculous. I don’t care, Slovenians are so freaking friendly! You know there is something good in the water when teenagers say hi to you as you pass. Teenagers!! Here I am in a new country with ...
The locals we have met in Slovenia are invariably unhappy with their Spring. It is reputedly the wettest and coolest they have had in recent memory. Despite it’s proximity, it wasn’t as bad in Hungary, though we did stay two nights at our last (spa) hotel before entering Slovenia to avoid travel during an exceptionally wet, windy day. As I was walking the last few ...